Today is bike to work day here in Colorado.  For some reason it’s on a different day than the national bike to work day, which is held the 3rd Friday in May.  Perhaps this is simply to give us all two chances to get swept up in the excitement of riding our bikes, and that can’t be a bad thing.

In my opinion biking is one of the best cardiovascular exercises you can do, for more than a few reasons.  Not only can you burn lots of calories, but it’s easier on the joints than a lot of other aerobic exercises.  On the ‘green’ side of things you get a couple of benefits:  you reduce the pollution you’d be otherwise contributing to the air, and you line your pockets with a bit of extra ‘green’ on the gas you’ll be saving.

Here are a few fun facts to help get you motivated to spend a bit more time on your bike seat.

• Bikes were first introduced in the early 19th century in Europe.  Who would’ve thought they’re a mere 200 years old?
• There are an estimated 1 billion bikes in the world.  Half of them are in my garage so I can’t park in there.
• In some cities and countries the bike is used as readily as other forms of transportation, even for hauling large items.
• You can burn anywhere from 200 calories per hour to well over 1,000 calories per hour riding a bike, depending on your weight and how hard you’re pedaling.  Check out this list for more specific numbers.
• There are at least 38,000 miles of bike paths and trails in the U.S., because the Adventure Cycling Association has mapped that many.  An I imagine they’ve missed a few.

If you choose join in the fun, remember a few things:

• Always wear your helmet.  Even a seemingly minor accident could be fatal if you fall on your noggin just right.  It’s estimated that 98% of bikers that are killed riding were not wearing a helmet.
• Less than 5 miles to work is probably a quick, easy ride, taking 30 minutes or less.  5-10 miles could take a bit longer, but is possible to do on a regular basis.  10 or more miles and you probably want to combine forms of transportation like riding the bus part way and biking the rest of the way.
• Bless your co-workers with a shower when you get to work!

For me personally biking is one of my favorite cardiovascular exercises.  I can cover lots of ground faster than running which keeps it interesting for me.  I encourage you to try biking to work yourself one day, it may just become a healthy habit you’ll keep.

I have to admit that for many years I focused almost totally on weight training and neglected other types of exercise.  Sure, I was active and played in the occasional pick-up basketball or volleyball game, but cardiovascular exercises were not part of my regular workout routine.  For me they were just, well, boring.  I also liked seeing the changes to my body as I put on additional muscle, but with aerobics the benefit wasn’t quite as noticeable since I was already pretty thin.

Over the years, however, my tune has changed.  I’ve begun to realize that my health is dependant on much more than just how I look on the outside.  What my body looks like on the inside is what’s really going to help me live a longer, healthier life.  And recent research has driven this point home to me again.

The Journal of Applied Physiology published a study showing that endurance exercise caused an increase in the size of both sides of the heart, while strength training only increased the size of the left side of the heart.  This seems to indicate that relying on strength training alone can cause unhealthy imbalances inside the body, which is not something any of us should be aiming for.

Your best bet for getting a healthy body is to perform all of the various types of exercise.  These include weight training (also known as strength training), aerobic exercise, interval training (also known as HIIT), and flexibility training (stretching).  The fortunate side effect of a well rounded exercise routine is a body that looks good both on the inside AND outside.  And if you try your hand at different exercises you’ll probably discover one you don’t find boring.  I did.  Apparently I like biking and never realized it.

A recently released report by the ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) and the WellPoint/Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation has pegged the bay-side city of San Francisco as the fittest city in America, narrowly edging out its West Coast pal Seattle.  As interesting as this may be, what does it really mean?

When you pull back the covers of the report, things aren’t really all that rosy.  This ‘fittest city in America’ still has 20% of its population classified as obese, and only 31% eat 5 or more fruits and vegetables a day.  Only 59% of the population is considered to be in ‘very good health’.  Numbers like these would make me hesitant to label anything as being fit.

In addition, San Francisco is #1 out of a grand total of 16 competing cities, as the report only looked at the very largest cities in the country.  My initial thought was ‘wow, #1 is pretty good considering how many cities there are in the U.S.’  But it’s really a very limited comparison.  Saying that S.F. is the fittest city in this small group is kind of like calling your nephew Jimmy the thinnest person at fat camp this summer.  To me, there’s not really all that much meaning in comparing one overweight, overcongested, polluted mega city to another.

But it’s not all bad.  At least the report is yet another way of highlighting what we all should be doing.  Being active, keeping our weight down, and eating fresh foods including lots of fruits and vegetables.  In the end, it really is an individual battle that we all have to fight, not one that our city or town can fight for us.

You are what you eat, as the saying goes.  So if you put junk into your body, don’t expect too much out of your body.  With that in mind, let’s talk about common ingredients in foods that line our supermarket shelves.  After all, the more informed you are, the better choices you can make for your overall health.

Let’s start with a biggie - Partially hydrogenated oil.  It’s in many, many processed foods, and you may have heard all the uproar related to it the last few years with the trans fat scare.

And scared you should be.  Partially hydrogenated oils are formed when an oil (doesn’t matter what oil you start with) is bombarded with hydrogen.  This hydrogen fills in the spaces in an unsaturated oil to make it more saturated.  Making an oil more saturated can be useful because it becomes more solid, allowing for it to be used to make things like light, fluffy cakes and crackers.

However this process of unnatural saturation has a side effect… it bends the fat molecule in a new way.  This is known as a ‘trans’ molecule, which is different from the natural ‘cis’ molecule.  Wikipedia has some good descriptions and diagrams if you’d like to learn the chemical aspect in more depth.

The bottom line is that our bodies can’t handle this trans fat molecule well, and accumulation of it over time contributes to heart disease, and probably other health ills that have yet to be discovered.  Obviously, you’re better off to avoid this unholy creation altogether.

Therein lies the problem.  Many foods contain trans fat because manufacturers still use partially hydrogenated oils.  The government tried to help by mandating that trans fats be labeled in the ‘Nutrition Facts’ label of processed foods.  However, they allowed a loophole.  Any food that contains less than .5 grams of trans fat can round down and label it as 0 grams.  Even half a gram isn’t a trivial amount, especially if you eat more than a single serving.  Sometimes serving sizes are intentionally left smaller than they should be so that the manufacturer doesn’t have to list that 1 gram of trans fat.  So you can easily continue to unknowingly consume this fake fat, even if you’re a good label watcher.

In order to avoid this fat you need to read the list of ingredients on the packaged foods you buy.  If it says partially hydrogenated anything, run for the hills.  Better yet, avoid processed foods as much as you can.  There are plenty of other dangers lurking in there, but that’s for another post on another day.

As our society continues to spiral ever downward (or should that be ever OUTward?) into being fatter and fatter, the latest news is that it is becoming increasingly necessary for boys to have, quite bluntly, breast reduction surgery.  According to the UK news site Times Online, doctors have seen a recent rise in cases of young boys who are so obese that surgical treatment for having ‘breast tissue’ is necessary.  

This is sad, and disturbing, but true.  If nothing else up to this point has jolted us out of our chairs and forced us into doing something, this should.  It should be a wake-up call that things aren’t as they should be.

So why do we have this problem?  The obvious reasons are that we eat too much and are too inactive.  These are huge and can’t be overlooked.  However we need to look deeper… what about all the chemicals in our food supply?  Additives, flavor enhancers, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers all can have unknown effects on our bodies.  GMO foods (genetically modified) are becoming more and more prevalent even without our consent and knowledge.  Can one or more of these things contribute to the obesity epidemic?  Time will likely tell.

So what can you, as an individual do?  Eat the right number of calories, and get enough exercise, for starters.  Eat as many fresh, unprocessed, organically grown foods as you can afford and have access to.  Make your eating about quality instead of quantity.  If we and our families can live this way we can show our kids this isn’t the way they have to grow up.