Sisquoc
For some reason, the organizers decided that ALL the women should start together.  That's right:  Cat I - IV.  The course was a moderately hilly 10.3 mile loop, with one notable corner and one hill of any significance.  There was a lot of somewhat aggressive riding in the front of the pack.  All of the big SoCal teams were there: Southbay, Bicycle John's, Proman, etc.  We really need to get some more women on the team.  I did a bit too much work chasing down wet attacks and tried to sit in as much as possible.  Barring a few bits of drama, the race was uneventful (aka: boring) and came down to an uphill bunch sprint where I took fourth.  First place went to America's Dairyland (Betsy Galenti), although I'm still not convinced that milk does a body good. On the way home, we stopped in at Mary's Secret Garden Organic Vegan Bistro in Ventura.  It was fantastic.  I highly recommend.

Piru (CBR)
What can you say about a time trial? I just got a TT bike last weekend and decided that I was ready to test it out.  The course was a roll-y out and back with a moderate cross-head wind on the way out.  I won the women's division (again, all lumped together) by 7 seconds with a not so stellar time of 31:32.

Report by Cara Gillis.

Protein intake and mortality

You’ve heard it. I’ve heard it. We’ve all heard it. How do we get enough dietary protein? Well, we know it is easy to get enough protein from a plant-based diet. What about the health of people consuming high amounts of protein from animal foods? Almost 23,000 participants from Greece were studied. The results showed that individuals with habitual diets low in carbohydrates and high in protein seemed to have higher overall mortality, compared to individuals with habitual diets high in carbohydrates and low in protein.

Trichopoulou A., et al. Low-carbohydrate high-protein diet and long-term survival in a general population cohort. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 61;575-581:2007.

Does exercise improve health if it doesn’t change body composition?

Endurance exercise improves plasma lipoprotein and lipid profiles and assists in prevention of cardiovascular diseases. Nonetheless, there is still debate relative to whether these exercise-induced changes in plasma lipoprotein and lipid profiles are independent of initial levels of body fat and their changes with training. These investigators studied the effects of 24 weeks endurance exercise on lipoproteins. The results demonstrated positive effects of endurance exercise on plasma lipoproteins and lipids, independent of diet, baseline body composition, and changes in body composition with exercise.

Halverstadt A., et al. Endurance exercise training raises high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and lowers small low-density lipoprotein and very low-density lipoprotein independent of body fat phenotypes in older men and women. Metabolism Clinical and Experimental. 56;444– 450:2007.

Western diet vs. exercise and veganism

Have you ever wanted to compare the metabolic risk factors for heart disease among those eating a vegan diet, doing endurance exercise, or living the typical western lifestyle? So did the researchers leading this study! They studied a cross-section of the population (21 subjects) meeting the aforementioned criteria. Body mass index and percent body fat were significantly lower in the vegan diet and endurance runners groups than in the Western diet group. LDL (bad cholesterol), blood pressure and triglycerides were lower in the vegan diet and endurance runner groups than the Western diet group. HDL (good cholesterol) was higher in the endurance runner group than in the Western diet and the vegan diet groups.

Fontana L., et al. Long-term low-calorie low-protein vegan diet and endurance exercise are associated with low cardio metabolic risk. Rejuvenation Research. 10;225-234:2007.

Thanks to OA's health editor, Ryan Andrews, for this month's news.

 

When asked if a a vegan diet is difficult, inline skater Erica O'Connor responded: "Most other athletes are first surprised and then cautiously curious about my diet. Commonly they assume I must expend extra energy to ensure I get enough protein or other nutrients to train hard. In actuality, I find it much easier to eat well under a vegan diet. Many also assume veganism takes a great amount of willpower to sustain—when in fact, for me, it requires none at all. I enjoy and appreciate good food now more than ever."

Click here to read her complete profile.

Sometimes even the SAG wagon breaks down.  It's hard to believe the OA van made it to New York and back this summer (almost) without a hitch.

Local food, organic farms, people on bikes, a few snaffoos, and in all a good day.

Check out photos from the Tour d'Organics Santa Cruz at OrganicAthlete's flickr page.  If you have photos from the event, please share them at our flickr group page!

Posted by Bradley.