Heart health and aerobic exercise performance enhancing super-foods

Building on the work of the previous two nights (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/06/jogging-is-bad-for-you-cause-it.html), (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/06/jogging-is-bad-for-you-new-theory-of-dr.html), I decided to take a stab at estimating what would be a good pre-game meal or snack for someone about to run 26 miles in a marathon or say 7 miles in a soccer game.

My theory was that the body should prior to the prolonged act of aerobic exertion, be loaded with the precursors to the substances that are at normal levels in the blood of marathoners prior to the start of the marathon, but end up at a high level in their blood during and after the marathon.

My idea was not that marathoners are an example of disease, but rather that they are an example of health. Most people: lack the energy to run a marathon; or, develop pains and injuries that interfere with the ability to run the marathon.

In support of my contradiction of the theory that elevated levels of creatine found in the blood of marathoners during and after a race indicate that running a marathon is an unhealthy activity,I discovered a dramatic and poetic example in nature:

"(1847) a German scientist named Justus von Liebig proposed that creatine is necessary to support muscular activity when he observed that wild (active) foxes contain more intramuscular creatine than foxes kept in captivity" (http://www.creatinemonohydrate.net/creatine_background.html).

Humans synthesize creatine within the body by using three ingredients: arginine, glycine, and methionine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatine).

I finally found an online database that ranks various foods by how much of a particular type of protein they contain, at http://www.nutrientfinder.com/nfsearch.php.

Based on a cursory examination of the results from this database, I concluded that the best snack for providing the body with what it needs in order to produce creatines such as ck-mb, would contain the following:

Pumpkin seeds (excellent source of methionine and arginine); dried egg white (excellent source of methionine and arginine); dry gelatin powder (excellent source of glycine); milk (good source of glycine); tangerine juice (facilitates body's absorption of methionine and glycine,(see http://www.springerlink.com/content/j74444375w410380/).

Personally I'd mix these all up in a blender combined with some ingredients added for the sake of flavor and palatibility.

Another substance that increases in the blood level of marathoners when they are running the marathon, is myoglobin.

Along the lines that the events during the marathon in the bodies of the marathoners illustrate processes in bodies that are unusually healthy to the point of being able to run a marathon at a fast pace, my idea was that before engaging in some form of prolonged aerobic exercise, one should consume substances that provide the body with what it needs in order to produce myoglobin.

Yet again, I found poetic slash dramatic confirmation of my idea in nature:

"The richest source of myoglobin is the muscle of aquatic diving mammals, such as seals or whales, since these tissues need a very rich store of oxygen to see them through long anoxic periods during a dive" (http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/MolecVisual/bio13/bio13hemo.html).

"The role of myoglobin as an oxygen storage protein in the muscles of diving birds and mammals is well-established"(http://ajpregu.physiology.org/cgi/content/full/287/6/R1304).

"Mammals such as whales and seals are capable of diving to incredible ocean depths...The sperm whale is able to dive down 3,000 meters (9,900 feet). That's *eight times* the height of the Empire State Building! Other deep-diving mammals include the bottlenose whale (2,000 m), the killer whale (1,000 m) and the elephant seal (700 m)" (http://www.patronsaintpr.com/samples/RIPLEY/guide5.htm).

I estimate as of now that superior sources of myoglobin to be (in approximate order of quality as a source of myoglobin):

(the pinker when eaten the better for these foods so long as the pinkness does not introduce risks of infection)

whale sushi; tuna sushi; steak cooked to rare; heart meat; cooked whale; cooked tuna; poultry dark meat; chicken legs; chicken thighs.

I base my estimate that such are the best sources of myoglobin on the following sources:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/turkeymeat.html

http://www.ag.ohio-state.edu/~news/story.php?id=2065

http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4489

"Myoglobin: The pigment in muscle that carries oxygen" -- http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=4489

www.informaworld.com/index/756845127.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=BJt610KOK8AC&pg=PA361&lpg=PA361&dq=%22sources+of+myoglobin%22+sources+myoglobin&source=bl&ots=v1uoiT1rHw&sig=EJIgNHA0_WWee7WHhE2uSzfBxjw&hl=en&ei=SBgySqStAaTyMoaj2IkK

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1T4GGLL_enUS300&num=100&q=%22sources+of+myoglobin%22+sources+myoglobin&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

As of now my opinion is that these foods that contain the precursors to creatine and myoglobin combined with prolonged aerobic exercise will improve heart health.

My estimate is that the foods will promote the body's ability to exert itself during prolonged aerobic exercise, which in turn will lead to improvement in cardiovascular health.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs