How Vince Gironda did Nutrition

[Ironguru]

Okay, so I'm going to assume that quite a few people who frequent this forum know that I know a fair bit about Vince and his teachings. Well, if there's one thing Vince got right and was renowned for, it was nutrition.
Generally, Vince was one of the first people who were advising people to use fats as an energy source rather than carbohydrates. He stated that fats were a much better source of energy as it lasted for 6 hours. The other prominent individual who recommended this as well as Vince was Rheo H. Blair. There might be some confusion as to how Vince and Rheo came up with the same type of conclusions but each found out their own way. Just for those folks who don’t know who Rheo H. Blair is, his real name is Irvin Johnson (he changed his name after his “advisor” told him to do so) and he was famous in the 1960s for creating his infamous milk and egg protein powder, among other supplements such as his amino acids. Arnold, Frank Zane and other Weider athletes who could have gotten as many Weider products as they wanted for free supposedly bought Blair’s products as they found it much more superior. Frank, in particular, used quite a bit of Blair’s supplements for his dietary and supplement regiments.
The old saying goes that there’s nothing new under the sun but there is a lot of thing we don’t know about. Funny how this saying can be applied to perfectly to bodybuilding; there are so many misconceptions in this sport than there seem to be in any other. Many people think that the whey protein that is so popular today is a modern creation but in reality, it has been around for about 50 years.
Vince also recommended something that many bodybuilders today neglect and that is digestive enzymes. In particular, he was very interested in digestion and how to maximize absorption of the foods you eat. Personally, it makes sense to me as if you eat 10lbs. of meat everyday but find that you’re feeling horrible and have to use the toilet 10 times, than that is 10lbs. of meat wasted. And in this fragile economy, you must save and use everything you have as economically as possible and maximize it as much as possible.
Here are some articles and quotations Vince stated regarding nutrition. Most, if not all of these posts were found in Ironguru.com

EATING FOR FOOD VALUE
"Eat for nutrition and food value. Emphasize natural foods, avoid processed foods and eliminate junk entirely."
- Vince Gironda

IN DEFENSE OF CHOLESTEROL
An excerpt from the March, 1975 Issue of Science Digest
John Yudkin, professor emeritus of nutrition at the University of London and an egg fancier, recently defended cholesterol against the charge that it's the main culprit behind heart disease.
Speaking before the annual conference of the International Egg Commission, Yudkin attacked what we called "the Reader's Digest view" of coronary thrombosis - namely, that eating too much cholesterol, or animal fat, leads to a high concentration of cholesterol in the blood, which in turn leads to deposits in the coronary arteries and ultimately a clot that cuts off the blood supply to the heart. In short, eating such high-cholesterol foods as eggs eventually dumps you on the floor with a heart attack.
"Ridiculously oversimplified," says Yudkin. Recent studies that indicate high blood cholesterol as the most distinctive characteristic of coronary victims, he points out, ignore several of their other salient traits. Looking at countries with a high rate of heart disease, says Yudkin, we do find a tendency to eat fatty foods, but we also find a larger proportion of people with diabetes and with a high blood level of triglyceride, or ordinary neutral fat. Yudkin claims scientists have homed in on cholesterol as the villain partly "because it happens to be easier to measure."
In defense of cholesterol, Yudkin points out that not everyone who eats a diet high in animal fat ends up with a high cholesterol level in his blood, and even those with high cholesterol counts don't always get coronary thrombosis. he cites a study of Eskimos, who eat a lot of fat, that shows they have just as much cholesterol in their blood as Americans, yet suffer far fewer heart attacks.
"So there is a limit," he continues, "to what you can do with epidemiology, and you can show that in general terms there is an association between consumption of fat in a population and a high risk of getting heart attacks. You can do the same with a whole lot of other factors. You can get just as good as or better association with sugar consumption."
Yudkin emphasizes that as yet no sure link has been established between diet and coronary thrombosis, but states that triglyceride level in the blood is a much better indicator of coronary risk than cholesterol. And blood triglyceride, he says, is determined by how much sugar, not how many eggs, you eat.
(IronMan Magazine July 1976 Vol. 35 No. 5)

VINCE GIRONDA MAXIMUM DEFINITION DIET
There has always been considerable mystery and misconception concerning a definition diet. Let’s hope this article will help to straighten out a few of these.
To begin with, all carbohydrates must be removed from a maximum definition diet. This means – all fruit, all vegetables, all salad greens and all milk products (cheeses, yogurt, ice cream, milk and buttermilk). The only milk products that can be used are butter and cream.
Any kind of meat, fish or fowl and eggs are the only foods permissible. You must, however, eat some carbohydrate every four or five days because you will find that you will smooth out and veins and cuts will disappear. You will find also that you are not getting the pump you should and your strength will decrease. This is because a zero carbohydrate diet drains all the stored glycogen from the liver, and only carbohydrate will replenish it. But don’t try to eat a small amount of carbohydrate each day.
You will only find you are smoothing out.
This high protein diet will tend to make you nervous because of the phosphorus in the meat. That is why I suggest you keep your calcium (tablets) intake high.

VINCE GIRONDA TELLS YOU HOW – A MUSCLE BUILDING DIET
The following diet as recommended by Vince Gironda and used on some of his people in his gym, is not to be used as a permanent type diet, but only for a short period of time for special purposes of stimulating added muscle growth.
When I am approached in my gym by anyone who asks about gaining weight, I usually ask this question: "Do you want increased bodyweight, or is it size that you are after?" Invariably the answer is "Size"!
So let's not confuse bodyweight with muscle growth. (How much do you think an extra inch on your arm will affect the scale?)
This diet is designed to step up muscle tissue growth - not out on bodyweight. Remember, muscle size is desirable - not bodyweight - which will only smooth out your definition and increase the size of your hips and waist and cause a loss of symmetry.
Breakfast -
12 oz. Half and Half
2 eggs
1 Tablespoon Milk & Egg Protein
1 oz. Amino Acids (mixed in a blender)
Supplements to be used with this drink:
3-4 Hydrochloric Acid tablets
3-4 Enzyme tablets
1 R.N.A. tablet
1 Organic Iron tablet
3 Tri-Germ Oil Capsules
Lunch -
Hamburger patty and Cottage Cheese
Supplements:
Same as Breakfast except for Iron and R.N.A.
3 o'clock snack -
Natural (Not processed cheese)
1 oz. Amino Acids
Dinner -
Steak or Hamburger (up to 1 lb.)
Cottage Cheese
Supplements: Same as other two meals except iron.
Before retiring -
Protein drink
Between Meals -
(Every three hours) 6 Liver Tablets

NEW DISCOVERIES WITH DESSICATED LIVER
Only within the last few years have the important values of desiccated liver been proven and new light shed on this outstanding food.
One of the most important facts about desiccated liver is its ability to help the body detoxify many chemicals that are dangerous but extremely hard to escape from. When eating meat it is almost impossible to escape from the intake of Desdiethylstilbesterol, a synthetic female hormone in the meat. Hopefully, this hormone will be taken out of all beef shortly. With enough regular daily intake of desiccated liver the body can detoxify DES. It can also detoxify cortisone, many pharmaceutical drugs, nicotine, alcohol and marijuana.
Only within the last few years has the most important factor in desiccated liver been uncovered. It took 20 years before it was discovered. It was made by Dr. Minor J. Coon, Univ. of Michigan. He succeeded in isolating and testing a red protein pigment which was given the name of P-450. This pigment tested and retested in the laboratory proved it was able to perform all the functions of liver that had been previously tested on the vitamins but not found attributable to them.
P-450 is not water soluble, and that the drying process in concentration of desiccated liver from whole liver does not remove this newly discovered liver factor, but rather concentrates it.
P-450 is a catalyst which speeds up oxidation of chemicals important to human life and detoxifies poisonous substances that we breathe in and digest in food. Production of energy is a process of oxidation of glucose within the cell. This in turn produces fatigue toxins that gradually slow down energy. P-450 can improve the energy production process and also improve the ability of the body to detoxify the fatigue toxins. That is why the rats were able to continue on for so long.
Later tests on human children were made. The results were confirmed. The unidentified factor in liver is as important to human growth and endurance as it is to that of laboratory animals.
(Musclemag Vol2 issue 1)

VINCE GIRONDA EUROPEAN WEIGHT GAINING TRICK
Vince claimed this mix was a proven and tested way to gain weight and he stated he had students that gained as much as 40 pounds following it.

Simply mix equal parts of half & half mixed in ginger ale. Drink this mix three times a day between meals. That’s it!

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A BALANCED DIET
According to Vilhjalmur Stefansson (who wrote "Not By Bread Alone" 25 years ago), after spending 18 years living with the Eskimos on a diet of meat and fat, claims there is no such thing as a balanced diet such as the 'basic 7 foods' which government charts attest to. Here is a book that should be read by everyone who eats meat - and everyone who does not eat meat. The evidence as incontrovertible.
(IronMan Magazine Nov 1973 Vol. 33 No. 1)

HOW TO USE AND PREPARE PROTEIN FOR MUSCLE SIZE
Never use a blender to mix protein. Blenders emulsify the fat in milk to a suspension too small for digestion. (Homogenized Milk.) Never use milk for a protein mix. Milk has too much carbohydrate. Protein and carbohydrate digest in different mediums. Protein (acid medium), Carbohydrates (alkaline medium). You may mix powdered protein and eggs in heavy whipping cream. Whipping cream is zero carbohydrate. Mix with a spoon to a consistency of pudding and eat with a spoon. Cow's milk or cream has five times the lysine found in human milk. Calves double body weight every 30 days. Human babies double bodyweight every six months. Before bodybuilders discovered supplements, milk was the principal growth food. Cow's milk, or cream, also contain the anterior pituitary hormone which is secreted by the cow when lactating to accelerate growth of the calf. Bodybuilders consuming cow's milk (or cream) can also benefit from this growth hormone. This food mixture should be eaten with two or three H.C.L. (hydrochloric acid) tablets for metabolic, digestive support. All units of protein are measured with eggs as No. 1 protein, milk is 2nd, and meat is 3rd. Enough for the No. 1 growth protein mix.
The next protein to discuss is: Steak and Eggs - the strong man's favorite meal. The amount of meat and the number of eggs used are a matter of body weight, height and severity of training. This meal is the favorite of bodybuilders interested in keeping up their size and burning all possible fat from their bodies. Both of these meals are excellent blood sugar elevators and both sustain blood sugar levels for a 6-hour period. Training on steak and eggs, you will find, does not require more than two meals a day (morning and night). I am not listing grams of protein in these meals because I do not think it is necessary. Force feeding of excessive amounts of protein can and will put you in Negative Nitrogen Balance - and can cause uric acid retention and kidney, bladder and liver problems. If you are not working out hard enough you will find you lose your taste for protein and you will naturally and normally cut back on quantity. When this happens a protein rest should be taken by eating steamed vegetables, raw vegetables and salads for 3-5 days, until you regain your taste for protein foods. You must remember that your individual needs are different from the next man's, so listen to your body rhythms and do not force food into a body that does not require it. Forget man's so-called logic and find your own metabolic needs.
A word to those who do not understand cholesterol: Exercise is the very best fat emulsifier known, because man still reacts to stress (which is the primary cause of cholesterol overproduction) as he did when in a primitive state. Cholesterol calls for action (Fight or Flight). Cholesterol prepares you in case of injury (stops bleeding if you are cut, or protects a rupture of veins). Also, a little known fact is that the body manufactures more cholesterol that you can possibly eat. The body reduces cholesterol output - or produces more - depending on how much of it you ingest. Fats and oils are fat emulsifiers themselves (lepotropics). So, who started the misconception that fats and oils cause unnatural cholesterol levels? As a matter of fact, if you study this problem you will find it is a substance known as tri-glyceride that is the culprit. Remember, nature is balance. Read Steffanson's book, "Not By Bread Alone." He lived with the Eskimos for 18 years on meat and fat only!
(IronMan Magazine March 1976 Vol. 35 No. 3)

What I am hoping to do is just share some of things I have learned with other people so that they may expand their own base of knowledge and become the best bodybuilder that they can be. There’s just too many misinformation out there about nutrition that people make it out to harder and more complex to understand than it should be. Just my small contribution; I will continue to update this post as much as I can.

[jsfitnessking]

nice read. most of it i already know from basic bodybuilding nutrition knowledge. but still very educational

[Steve56]

Great article...the man was way ahead of his time!!!

[Ironguru]

nice read. most of it i already know from basic bodybuilding nutrition knowledge. but still very educational

It's good if you know most of this stuff already. Thanks for the output; if you found it educational than that's great. It did what it was supposed to.

[mangoat]

Years after receiving it as a gift, I still read through my copy of "The Wild Physique" front to cover every 3-4 months, and I swear to god, every time I read it, that Man gets smarter and smarter and I learn something new. It is the perfect bodybuilding book for anyone looking to do it the right way.

[Ironguru]

Years after receiving it as a gift, I still read through my copy of "The Wild Physique" front to cover every 3-4 months, and I swear to god, every time I read it, that Man gets smarter and smarter and I learn something new. It is the perfect bodybuilding book for anyone looking to do it the right way.

You're absolutely right about that. I own a copy of the "Wild Physique" myself (it is still available to order - Ron Kosloff, owner of NSP Research Nutrition sells it for $28.00 - a little shameless plug :) ) and it is an absolute keepsake. Highly recommended read for any bodybuilder.

[Ironguru]

Here's some more, these are personal accounts about Vince's nutrition:

VINCE GIRONDA EGGS DIET
2-3 dozen eggs a day is a lot, especially if your current diet is moderate in protein and fat. Take it easy at first, and remember you will not be taking in any carbohydrates (assuming you are doing the fat loss diet) except once every 3-4 days in the form of a carb only meal.

Cooking and eating 2-3 dozen cooked eggs a day is difficult, but I found shakes to be the most convenient way of getting my fill.

One shake consists of:

Cream (half and half)
12 eggs (raw)
Water and Ice
Pure protein powder (quality whey/or milk and egg) - the powder is mainly for flavor.

Drink this throughout your morning as breakfast.

Adjust the volume to your preference (ie. taste and consistency).

And adjust the egg content to what you can handle (ex. 6 eggs x 3 x day = 1.5 doz. = half way to 3 doz.)

Repeat at noon and evening. Or make several shakes in the morning and bring them with you to work (so long as you have a fridge for storage).

If you want to eat, eat some eggs or meat. But you'll probably find your appetite calms down, and your cravings will subside.

Nick told me my diet was...

eggs: unlimited
meat: unlimited
..."thats it, any questions?"

remember to take digestive enzymes, an EFA blend, and a quality multi-vit (good b complex)
Vince liked liver tabs, and glandulars as well.

If you are not trying to lose bodyfat then just keep your carb intake moderate. By moderate I mean have some toast with your eggs, or enjoy a small veggie side dish with your steak. What I don't mean is inhaling worthless cereals, or other processed starchy foods with every meal. The kind of carbs you ingest doesn't matter...it all becomes a form a glucose (sugar) and will cause an insulin response (usually leading to bodyfat deposits). The exception would be fiberous food products, as your body cannot digest them.

VINCE GIRONDA NUTRITION
I did not last long on Vince's nutrition program. His son Guy, warned me it would not be fun. He was right. But that's just me.

I'll never forget shaking up heavy cream, raw eggs and a packet of equal (which Vince generously permitted me to add for "flavour") in the tiny motel room down the block from his gym. I suppose the best part was steak but at that time I lacked money for frequent "feedings" of steak.

No food combining. "Sandwiches" consisted of wrapping roast beef around slices of cheese. I settled on eating roast beef with mayo for lunch as my favorite. My friends made fun of me at restaurants as they snatched the traditional bread from me during Italian meals.

I was permitted two carb meals a week in which I could eat as many carbs as I liked. This was not necessary but was done more to balance the psyche and stress of training and eating as he demanded.

In retrospect, I think I may not have eaten enough to replace the carbs that were subtracted. I'll tell you what, though. In two weeks I was as defined as I ever was. But I just could not hack it long term. I got headaches and was walking into walls. I stopped after 3 months and returned to "normal" eating.

Water. Vince had rules about water. You could not have it right before, during, or right after a workout. You did not have it at meals or right after meals. Any other time you were to drink as much (water) as you like.

Finding raw milk in NYC was hard at that time. Or free ranging chickens. Or eggs laid from free ranging chickens.

Then there was the supplements. Raw Glandulars, Liver tabs, Aminos (original pharmaceutical, free form spooned into fluid back then) every three hours. Digestive Enzyme tabs with each meal remember when he gave me my first lot of supplements he said: "Arty, THIS is the REAL food!" I don't know how much they contributed to my physique but I do recall having some technicolor toilet trips!

Vince was funny to eat with. We went out for breakfast once and they gave him a hash brown patty or something like it with his steak and eggs. He held it aloft and said he did not remember ordering this hogwash! I was told he behaved like that *all the time* eating out--always returning the unwanted extra stuff that came with meals—with disdain. Man was he funny!

[Ironguru]

Here's some of my personal accounting:

It was a bit hard at first to take up Vince's teachings about nutrition. First things first, the carbs were a no-no. I laugh whenever I hear how a bodybuilder is so miserable when they're dieting yet when I see their daily menu, it contains something like 300g of carbs each day. On one of Vince's diets, I was consuming about 5000 calories; plenty of beef, eggs and eggs blended in cream. The ONLY carbs I was eating were veggies. For a bit there, my preferred "cheat" meal was egg whites and rice. Seriously, it was crazy. I was actually craving these things rather than pizza or cake or something like that. The diet did work, the only exception is that I have a bad stomach. I can be sensitive to certain things and this can cause me to frequent the washroom quite a bit.

One thing I remember very prominently is drinking RAW EGGS IN CREAM. I still remember the first time I blended raw eggs with heavy cream and drank it. Now, with half and half, it's actually not so bad because the taste of the cream somewhat overpowered the eggs but with whipping cream, it BLENDED with the eggs so now, I was getting the FULL flavour of the raw eggs. Plus, it was thick so it took a bit to drink all down. Oh man, it sucked but it did work.

If you're at all familiar with Vince and his teachings was that he was, like the hardcore old school gurus, very STRICT with everything and had a neat little twist to everything that you had to do. Learning about Vince's nutrition and familiarizing yourself with it is more comparable to a course in University than just the simple "eat more and you'll grow more" take home message everyone gives. There's so much indepth that the man was and is still ahead of his time and for future generations to come. Ron Kosloff told me personally over the phone that Vince was 1000 years ahead of his time and he just might be right.

I will add more as time goes on. Share your thoughts if you have them.

[mangoat]

Good Stuff!

[cm]

please keep it coming: good thread

[Ironguru]

One topic I have to mention if I am talking about Vince’s nutrition is digestion and absorption. Vince was supposedly very interested in this area for the reason being that if you can’t digest anything you eat, your body won’t be able use anything from the foods you eat such as proteins from beef. I’m sure most of you are aware of this basic fact but one interesting fact some people may not know is that Vince at times recommended vegetarian-type diets. He felt that this was necessary at times as for the bodybuilder who takes in excess amounts of nutrients for prolonged periods of times, his or her body will stop responding due to the enormous amounts of food that has been taken in. One such diet that Vince wrote about was what he calls the vegetarian reducing diet he presented in one of his manuals, the “Blueprint for the Bodybuilder”.
The “Main Body” of the diet consisted of a salad including these vegetables, straight from the manual:
1. A bed of raw spinach leaves
2. Sliced Zucchini or squash
3. Raw Mushrooms
4. Carrot Sticks
5. Sliced Celery
6. Cucumbers (gas forming for some)
7. Water Chestnuts
8. Cherry Tomatoes
9. Cauliflower Heads
10. Sprouts (bean)
11. Avocado
12. Raw Beets
13. Green Peppers
14. Parsley
15. Watercress
The diet plan also consists of as many fertile eggs as you can comfortable digest, mixed in certified cream for breakfast. You must mix the eggs by using a fork as blending it in the blender or any type of machine will break down the fat to minute suspension and the body will be unable to digest it.
He states that this diet is “the most comfortable reducing diet” he has ever tried.
If you feel that you’re body needs a break from the high protein intake, try it. However, I suggest you take in some dessicated liver tablets so that you will spare the muscle mass you have.

[Ironguru]

Here's an article that you guys may find interesting. In it, Vince talks about RNA, or Ribonucleic acid.

Nucleic Acid RNA For Bodybuilding
Nucleic acids of the various kinds found within the nuclei of all living cells are the fundamental substances used in clinical investigation into aging and other aspects of human health. These nutrients are essential to life. They include the nucleoproteins ribonucleic acid (RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), discovered by science to contain the very blueprints by which all living matter knows how and when to reproduce itself. DNA contains the master blueprint; RNA is the messenger which carries the pattern to cells throughout the body. A vast amount of scientific research is now concentrated upon these fantastic elements which constitute the very basis of life itself. And it is through further knowledge of DNA and RNA discovered by microbiologists that the entire scientific world expects major breakthroughs in the understanding of nil life processes.

NATURAL - NOT SYNTHETIC

As stated, the nucleic acids DNA and ENA are the cellular components which control heredity and subsequent ability of the body to keep reproducing its inherited patterns. But more - these strands of acid within the cell nucleus also govern all life processes in health and disease. All organs and tissues of the body appear to undergo some form of aging. With the passage of time, many of the functional parts of the organs may be replaced by nonfunctional fibrous tissue. The cells or organs may degenerate through development of fat, accumulation of pigment, formation of vacuoles, or because of hyaline changes in the cell.

On the other hand, cells may proliferate, rather than degenerate, and produce a larger than normal organ, which may be either harmless or cancerous.

One of the most obvious effects of aging is the wrinkling of skin. In aging skin, there is a decrease in elasticity, and a thinning due to loss of fat and water. Lines and wrinkles in the face and hands become more prominent. The backs of the hands, highly visible indicators of age, become shiny, spotted with lentigus (brownish pigmented areas), and perhaps may develop senile keratoses (horny, wart-like growths).

Why do all these changes occur? Because the cells which contain the blueprints for the formation of the various organs are tired and worn and no longer able to maintain the pattern they inherited.

To maintain youthfulness one must find ways to help the body's DNA and ENA renew themselves so as to keep their patterns of genetic information etched clean and fresh. Work already done with DNA and ENA and related metabolites demonstrates the importance of these substances to the quality, as well as length, of life. They point not only to a longer life free of disease, but to the marvelous quality of being young as long as you live.

Aging involves decay of DNA which, in turn, leads to an improperly formed messenger, RNA. Since RNA is responsible for the formation of enzymes needed by the body, these enzymes are not formed properly, or perhaps they may not be formed at all. If they are not formed properly, obviously they cannot have normal metabolic function.

RNA, especially when combined with metabolically associated B Vitamins, Minerals, Amino Acids and Sugars, will enter the cell and aid in normal regeneration of the decayed metabolic organization of the cell, and in so doing will bring about normal enzyme synthesis and activation.

The results obtained by using an oral formula with a dietary regimen rich in nucleic acids have been highly important. Basic ingredients of the oral formula are RNA, Amino Acids, B-Complex Vitamins, Minerals, Sugars and Lipids. Dosages of between 30 milligrams and 300 milligrams daily, plus B-Complex factors in the form of Vitamin capsules were used.

There appears to be no absolute contraindications to the use of nucleic acid, particularly RNA, in therapy. Gout or high serum uric arid levels are relative contraindications, but even in these circumstances RNA-based therapy can be given as long as adequate management is employed. Lower RNA doses of ½ grains have been used in these cases.

The most immediate effect from using these substances even in dosages as low as 30 milligrams of RNA daily, was an increase in energy and well-being. Higher doses produced this effect as early as the second or third day.

The most striking effects are observed on the skin of the face. Again, within the limits tested, the higher the dosage, the more rapidly these effects were observed. The first results observed were a healthier, rosier appearance and a simultaneous apparent smoothing of the skin of the face, but without any actual change in wrinkles and lines. This occurred within the first or second week of treatment, usually within the first week.

When dosages as low as ½ grain to 1 grain of RNA were given daily, or five days each week, these early changes occurred in about two or three weeks. When doses of 5 grains daily, five days weekly were used, the changes occurred within the first week. After one or two months of treatment, sometimes earlier, there not only was an increase in smoothness and color of the skin, but lines and wrinkles began to diminish also.

Wrinkles in the forehead were often the first to decrease in depth. lines around the eyes took longer to decrease in depth, and though there was not a total disappearance of any wrinkles or lines, in the large majority of cases there was a distinctly noticeable decrease in their depth. Skin tightened, as well, and recovered moisture.

Skin on the back of the hand improved in smoothness in the vast majority of cases in three or four months. Roughness of skin of the elbows and other joints was lessened.

One standard test of aging of skin is the return to normal condition of pinched skin of the back of the hand. The treatment produced, after three or four months,m a quicker return to normal condition of the pinched skin in the majority of patients. In 15 patients, including nine women and six men, varying in ages from 40 to 71 years, the pinch-return time was improved by 30 per cent to 40 per cent. These patients were taking 5 grains of RNA daily, 5 days a week, for three months, along with a therapeutic B-complex capsule.

My conclusions are that RNA is the super catalyst - and if combined with Niacin it should be even more effective. I feel that RNA should be included in all Vitamin, mineral, protein formulas.

(IronMan Magazine March 1977 Vol. 36 No. 3)

[pnohe]

vince was an interesting dude... LOTS of trial and error and he always based his notions on current science. I would love to see what he'd be doing now given the new technologies available to researchers.

[Ironguru]

vince was an interesting dude... LOTS of trial and error and he always based his notions on current science. I would love to see what he'd be doing now given the new technologies available to researchers.

He probably would stick to his guts and remain the same with his convictions. Before he passed away in 1997, he grew very bitter and dissatisfied with bodybuilding (he referred to them as "pharmaceutical conventions" rather than a physique show).

[Ironguru]

Here is an article that should outline very clearly what Vince thought of digestive enzymes. Vince was pretty complex with everything and came to his conclusions by testing them out first hand. If it didn't work, he would discard it, if it did work, he would keep it and recommend it to others who might have had the same problems. This is one of the reasons why he was so adamant about everything. He had REASONS for everything that he did. Anyway, here is the article:

Bile, Digestion, and Fatty Tumors
When the ingestion of fats and proteins occurs there are mainly two substances that the body secretes to administer digestion.

One is hydrochloric acid, for the protein, and two is bile, for the fat.

You must take into consideration the bad eating habits of our nation as we have become a society of carbohydrate eaters. The stomach recognizes only the carbohydrates and says "if you’re not going to eat fats and proteins, like the body was designed to do, then we just won’t manufacture the hydrochloric acid and bile needed."

The over abundance of carbohydrates cause our stomachs to become alkaline, and because we don’t utilize the bile in our gallbladder, the bile becomes very thick causing poor digestion, in affect resulting in stones in the gallbladder. Gall stones and the removal of the gallbladder occur in abundance in this country.

Ever since we have diminished our protein digestion and increased the amount of carbohydrates we eat gallbladder surgery has sky-rocketed over the last 50 years. The medical profession loves this jump in surgeries. They are totally unaware, or rather don’t want to know that stones of all kinds can be flushed or dissolved from the body using natural methods. The typical gallbladder operation averages approximately 20,000 dollars. The medical profession gets away with this because they believe and go on to tell you, that you don’t need your gallbladder anyway. Yeah, sure! It's just an expendable organ!

If your body doesn’t need a gallbladder then why is it there?

Throughout my childhood, and well into my late teens, I would get these little fatty tumors all over my body. In 1965-1968 I had about 8 of these tumors on my body. Being immature, and not knowing much, I went to my medical doctor for advisement. He said "we don’t know what causes them, but you can have them removed by a surgeon."

Note: if you really observe Medical doctors you will see that they have no idea what causes most so-called disorders.

I didn’t know what to do or think. I did know that I wasn’t comfortable with this "doctor", and didn’t like him. I did however go to a surgeon and had all of the tumors removed. Remember I was young!

The tumors were checked to make sure they were not cancerous. Happily all of the tumors were benign. Years later during my study of nutrition I found out what causes fatty tissue tumors. Fatty tumors are caused by the inability to digest fats. The bile in an individuals system is too thick and the function of the gallbladder is just sub par which creates stones when you eat poorly. I was born with a very, very sub par unhealthy gallbladder. Everybody is born deficient in something and it only gets worse as we age. I say "we all have crosses to bear."

Thanks to all of my nutritional teachers I started to take digestive enzymes. It has worked very well for me and countless others. There are people who say that you don’t need supplements. This might only be true if you eat a well balanced diet consisting of only good foods, and have no physical deficiencies, which is rare today.

A good diet is one that does not include any processed or refined foods. Everyone can benefit from supplements. There are a lot of people with crosses to bear or deficiencies to overcome and they need supplementation just as I do.

If I don't take my Digestive Enzymes I don’t digest fats, simple as that.

Not taking my Digestive Enzymes results in me belching and passing gas. I certainly want to stay healthy just like I hope you do.

The reason I have told you this story is because I have literally trained hundreds of people that couldn’t have made any gains what so ever until they overcame bad digestion.

Ever since I have been studying Vince Gironda’s teachings I have seen this truism. Vince has always stressed the importance of protein and fat digestion.

It is not what you eat, but what you digest that counts!

[Ironguru]

Sorry everyone and anyone who reads this thread but things have been pretty busy. However, in keeping with the current theme of the thread, I’ll tell you folks a little story. Today, I was visiting a doctor for my stomach was hurting was very badly the day before. It was like a massacre: I was frequenting the toilet so much that I swear in a 3-4 hour span, I went to the washroom for about 10 times. This, surprisingly, is not a normal story for me. This has been happening to me for about 4-5 years. Imagine, having to deal with a problem like this for that long. Well, after that, I figured it was high time for me to visit a doctor to try to find what is going wrong. What I primarily wanted to have done was blood work and maybe follow through with a complete physical, just to make sure I was alright. So, I set up the appointment for the next day and there I arrived.
I was telling to doctor about this problem and she asked me some question and she arrived to the conclusion that I may be lactose intolerant as I was, apparently, showing the “classic” signs of lactose intolerance. I was pretty surprised by this because I felt that the reason why I was feeling ill was because of the excessive carbs I was eating the day earlier (I missed a meal and decided, what the hell – Chinese food, it was actually pretty good). After that, she took my blood for some blood work and went out.

Now, I haven’t been taking any kind of supplementation for a while since I moved. So, after I arrived home, I decided to do a little research. I viewed an article entitled “Milk: Truths and Myths
written by Ron Kosloff, the owner of NSP Research Nutrition (the supplement company Vince started up) and a longtime friend of Vince’s before he passed away. Here is the link:
http://www.vincegironda-nsp.com/articles/milk.pdf
This began my little research. Unless some of you may not know, lactose intolerance is caused by a lack of an enzyme in your body called lactase. This enzyme is important as it helps convert the lactose found in milk through a reaction called hydrolysis when you’re digesting. I’m apparently lacking in this enzyme. This caused me to write down a few points for me to remember. I’ll list them here in order:
1. No excessive carbs.
2. No consumption of milk 30-45 minutes before or after a meal.
3. Do not use milk blend protein powder (a bit of a double edged sword really. Milk contains protein, carbs and fats altogether. Can make digestion fair bit difficult when you’re mixing it with about 50g of protein along with other things).
4. 1 glass of 2% a day restriction. 2 portions divided into ½ glass each.
5. No excessive dairy products.
6. No excessive liquids during or before meals.
This is based on another article Ron Kosloff wrote entitled “The Extremely Essential Seven for Proper Digestion and Elimination”:
http://www.vincegironda-nsp.com/articles/seven.pdf
As noted before, Vince stressed importance on digestion and using digestive enzymes and Hydrochloric Acid Tablets to aid in digestion. We bodybuilders take in more than the average person sometimes to the point we are consuming up to 4 times the amount of food a normal and average sedentary person takes in during a normal day. I feel it only makes sense that we ingest digestive enzymes to help aid in our digestion. Enzymes, with everything else, diminish in numbers as we age and it’s important to take care so that our enzyme levels don’t become so low that we can’t digest food properly.
For myself, I am going to take in a full spectrum (or the best I can get) digestive enzymes around 3-4 times a day, especially with shakes. Also, be sure to chew your food thoroughly and drink your shake slowly and steadily for if you gulp down your food and shakes, you might end up with a bloated feeling. Has anyone else noticed this? Whenever you feel the ominous stomach growing, it always begins with a bloated feeling. When you eat “properly” you shouldn’t be bloated but have a sense of well-being and feel “good”. Thanks a lot guys and until next time.

[Ironguru]

Wow, I can't believe how much attention this thread has gotten. Thanks a lot guys! It encourages me to try to be even more creative and keep updating this thing. Anyway, it’s that time of the year again (Mr. Olympia) and it will be the best one yet. With so many Olympians coming into the show, probably in the best shape of their lives, anyway and anyone could end up anywhere within the top 10. And let’s not forget about the 202 Olympia showdown. This is great for bodybuilding! I hope they keep it going. Anyway, since I am on the subject of a contest, I figure I will bring up one of the topics that Vince was renowned for and that is his pre-contest diet that he named the “Maximum Definition Diet”. Some of you may know something about this, it’s also known popularly as the “steak and eggs” diet. The premise of this diet is quite simple but innovative even to this day. It’s actually quite similar to the Dave Palumbo diet so it won’t be such a stretch for most of you. Anyway, the diet consists of consuming endless amounts – literally – meats and eggs throughout your day. This is the core of your diet; meats and eggs. You could eat any kind of meat that you want but Vince seemed to have a preference for steak. He called steak and eggs the “strongman’s favourite meal” and I believe for a good reason: it sustains your blood sugar levels for a long time. Vince stated that fats are a 6 hour energy source and even claimed that eating the way you would on this diet, you wouldn’t need any more than 2 meals a day.

Now, here’s the kicker.

He also stated that on this diet, you must eat a carbohydrate meal once every 3-4 days. The reason why was that your glycogen levels would be depleted and that you must replenish them. Here is a small article that he wrote, outlining his diet.

VINCE GIRONDA MAXIMUM DEFINITION DIET
There has always been considerable mystery and misconception concerning a definition diet. Let’s hope this article will help to straighten out a few of these.
To begin with, all carbohydrates must be removed from a maximum definition diet. This means – all fruit, all vegetables, all salad greens and all milk products (cheeses, yogurt, ice cream, milk and buttermilk). The only milk products that can be used are butter and cream.
Any kind of meat, fish or fowl and eggs are the only foods permissible. You must, however, eat some carbohydrate every four or five days because you will find that you will smooth out and veins and cuts will disappear. You will find also that you are not getting the pump you should and your strength will decrease. This is because a zero carbohydrate diet drains all the stored glycogen from the liver, and only carbohydrate will replenish it. But don’t try to eat a small amount of carbohydrate each day.
You will only find you are smoothing out.
This high protein diet will tend to make you nervous because of the phosphorus in the meat. That is why I suggest you keep your calcium (tablets) intake high.

Vince wrote a nutrition manual containing various procedures for the bodybuilder back in the 60s entitled the “Blueprint for the Bodybuilder”. Here is an excerpt from that manual regarding the Maximum Definition Diet:

Carbohydrate withdrawal, or converting your energy needs over to fats, protein and calcium will prove to be the most difficult part of establishing a new dietary regimen. This is followed by shrinking the stomach and not relying on false and injurious blood sugar level pickups, such as starches or sweets in any form, fruits and vegetables included; also milk and protein drinks with fruits. Carbohydrate and sugars build fat, never muscle tissue. Muscle is built and repaired on protein energy derived from fats. Fats also step up metabolic rate and aid in protein assimilation.

Man that was a lot of writing! The manual is only 20 pages long but it has about much information as an encyclopaedia. I absolutely love it. This is only the main body of the diet. The supplement intake is the other half of the equation. One supplement that Vince recommended to his students that many builders don’t know about is kelp.
What is kelp? Basically, it is seaweed and what makes it so special is that kelp contains a high level of iodine. Vince stated that iodine would nourish the thyroid gland and help you in becoming more effective in burning fat as the thyroid help stimulate your metabolism. Here are some other benefits of kelp, according to Vince:

KELP HAS AMAZING EFFECTS ON THE BODY
Kelp tablets are perhaps the best source of the rare trace mineral elements so often lacking in the average bodybuilder's diet. In addition to preventing iodine and other mineral deficiencies, kelp aids in fat metabolism and appears to have a beneficial effect on hair growth. Kelp has been found to contain over forty-four different mineral elements.
(IronMan Magazine Nov 1973 Vol. 33 No. 1 and Musclemag Vol 2 issue 1)

Well, that’s about it for now. Thanks a lot and enjoy the Olympia weekend!

[Ironguru]

For this update, I would like to address one aspect of nutrition that most people seem to be most confused about; what I’m referring to are carbohydrates. People have got opinions on both sides for those who are for carbs and those who are against it. This has raged on for a long time. Whether who’s right or wrong will not be the sole purpose of this update but rather to educate and give a foundation so that people will better understand just how it might play a role in your diet and how it might not. I am not a bio-chemist so I won’t be able to give you all the little details but I will present here the things that I know from Vince’s teachings and the statements that he’s made as well. First off, however, I would like to address something and that is:

CARBS ARE NOT NESCESSARY FOR BUILDING MUSCLE.

At least, not in the traditional sense anyway. As a matter of fact, from the Rheo H. Blair, a famous nutritionist from the 50s with the same nutritional guidelines as Vince stated, the only carbohydrate necessary for growth is lactose. In an excerpt from the Blair Report compiled by Alan Palmieri states:

Blair’s protein contained 7 grams of carbohydrates per ¼ serving – and that carb was lactose, or natural milk sugar. While Blair generally frowned on carbohydrates, only rarely eating fruits and vegetables, he believed lactose was essential to muscular growth.
As an animal carbohydrate, lactose is chemically different from other carbohydrates. It digests much more slowly than carbs from fruit, grains, vegetable and other plant sources.
Blair believed milk sugar was vital as it allowed the body to produce a host of B-Vitamins in the lower digestive tract and helped favourable intestinal bacteria to flourish. He also believed calcium was best absorbed in the presence of lactose. But lactose’s most important role, according to Blair, was as a protein sparer. In the absence of plant-source carbs, the body converts protein into carbohydrate to meet energy needs. Blair believed lactose met many of those energy needs and helped to keep the body from converting protein into carbohydrate, thereby allowing protein to do what it was meant to do –build lean muscle tissue. The lactose content made Blair’s protein hard to digest. Blair’s students took special digestive capsules of hydrochloric acid and peptain (five or six capsules with each meal) to aid in digestion. The digestibility factor is why virtually all protein powders available today have almost no lactose. Lactose may be one of the most important ingredients that made Blair’s program so successful.

Vince stated pretty much the same guidelines as Rheo, although both arrived to their conclusions differently. From his manual, the Blueprint for the Bodybuilder states:

Carbohydrates build fat – never muscle! Protein builds muscle tissue and can also be used for energy, so why use carbohydrates?

As a matter of fact, in an article entitled “The Optimum Muscle Growth Environment”, he states the variables needed for building muscle are:

Muscle growth is dependent on 2 things:

1. Utilization of Amino Acids by a muscle cell for cellular growth (bigger myofibrils).

2. Entry of Amino Acids (final breakdown product of protein into cell).

For this to occur the Amino Acids must be in the serum (blood) and they must have the mechanism to get into the cell.

Working out LOWERS blood sugar.

The body shuts or slows down the insulin production. The body produces glycogen to raise blood sugar. Insulin is the primary driver of Amino Acids into the cell.

Workout too hard and:

- burn all your energy reserves

- shut down insulin production

- increase glycogen production

- you start working out on your "neuro transmitters" (norepinephrine), you shake

– "over tonus" / overtraining

- blood sugar falls

- Amino Acids don't get into cells

- muscle growth can't occur

- muscle growth can only occur AFTER the workout when over tonus subsides (eat)

Lessons Learned

1. Keep Amino Acids high in the blood

2. Keep insulin going (production)

3. Don't burn-off all energy reserves during aworkout, so you don't shut off all of the insulin

Most of the world now consists and lives off of carbohydrate food sources. If you consider the fact as to how the people living in a primitive environment ate, you most likely would come to the conclusion they never ate any starches as it is called today and consumed mostly meat with natural fats. Yet, you would never hear of these people having a single case of a major health problem now rampant in the developed world. Most people frown on fats as they feel as the cause of heart disease. This view is incorrect as it was developed under erroneous conclusions. Carbohydrates just aren’t essential for building muscle but it is protein and fats that are needed in one’s diet to grow muscle. Most case studies I hear of in which low carbs are used make one big mistake as they never cite how much fats they used in the diet. And when the so-called “Scientists” jump on the bandwagon and state that this type of diet is not healthy and so on and so forth, it is most likely due to the fact that the presence of fats are needed in order make these diets work effectively. However, carbs DO have their place in a person’s diet. As noted in the earlier posted, Vince used carbs in his definition diet. As a matter of fact, Vince wrote an article that might be a confusing about not making carbs the villain:

CARBOHYDRATES – NO VILLAIN
Very often "facts" which are true today become fallacies tomorrow. Once an idea is established, people are reluctant to change in spite of concrete evidence to the contrary. Columbus had a bad time convincing his peers that the world wasn't flat. It has been my habit throughout the years to risk contradiction for the sake of the science and art of bodybuilding. This brings me to the point of this article - the age old villain, CARBOHYDRATES.

Of the three food components, carbohydrates have received the most abuse. The two remaining, fats and proteins, have been the panaceas of bodybuilders. Well, I've got news for those of you who think this way. Carbohydrates may very well be the bodybuilder's best friend, and proteins their enemy! Let me explain in detail for you.

It is currently "fashionable" to limit carbohydrates to a minimum and in some cases allow them into the diet just one day a week, while the remainder of the week taking just proteins and some fats. Over long periods of time this can be dangerous, leading to serious side effects as well as decreasing life span. Dr. Ralph A. Nelson, associate professor of nutrition at the Mayo Medical School states: "Animals fed high protein diets have increased activity of enzymes associated with protein and amino acid metabolism and have increased urea production."

"Kidney hypertrophy occurs in animals on long-term protein diets; more strikingly, if one kidney is removed, the degree of hypertrophy of the remaining kidney is directly related to the amount of protein digested. High protein diets increase albumin and casts in animal urine. Rabbits on high protein diets develop nephritis, as do rats if the diet is continued long enough. Trout fed a low protein diet live twice as long as trout given a high protein diet; the microscopic water animal, the ratifer, has a similar inverse relationship of protein to longevity."

The high protein intake increases enzymatic activity, urea and albumin production thereby in effect causing our metabolic engine to "idle" at a faster rate. the majority of bodybuilders I come into contact with seem to feel that if they ingest only proteins they won't put on body fat. This is untrue! When the body receives more protein than is necessary for its normal maintenance, it has no way of excreting it, so it stores it in the body as adipose tissue or in plain language, F-A-T!

I advocate a relatively "low" protein intake, about 45 grams per day. Too much protein creates a negative nitrogen balance which in turn leads to gout, sluggishness, and liver and kidney problems. The body can't digest more than 20 grams per meal, anything beyond that leads to problems. At least one meal per day should be carbohydrates in the form of vegetables or grains, thereby giving the body a protein break.

Furthermore, it has been demonstrated repeatedly that protein combustion is not higher during heavy exercise than under resting conditions, while on the other hand the body uses carbohydrate stores first before it turns to other sources. Even after depleting the carbohydrate deposits, continued exercise does not hike protein needs significantly.

According to my research, athletes performing strenuous endurance tasks such as bodybuilding, and burning up 9,000 calories per day, show no noticeable increase in protein needs.

If this all isn't enough to turn your heads, Dr. Per-Olaf Astrand, a famous exercise physiologist in Sweden, performed a study which concluded that endurance tends to decrease as protein intake is elevated! He discovered that a high protein diet lowered endurance as well as reduced buildups in muscle carbohydrate, more than a high carbohydrate diet.

During my investigation I cam upon a classical experiment by Christensen and Hansen, who observed the participation of fats and carbohydrates in energy metabolism during physical work of different intensities. I won't bore you with cold statistical facts, but in conclusion they found that in heavy work such as powerlifting or bodybuilding the major participant towards endurance was, once again, carbohydrates. Also, the subjects were able to perform three times longer on a carbohydrate diet that a protein or fat diet.

I am strongly convinced that bodybuilders get too little carbohydrate. Recently a team of Russian researchers found that a high carbohydrate diet is superior for athletes in training, while protein should be increased only during periods of inactivity.

I can almost hear some of you shouting disapproval of these ideas. Probably the most asked question now is, "If bodybuilding essentially is the tearing down and building up again of muscle tissue, then isn't increased protein necessary for that process?" The answer is NO! A high protein intake even after a sustained injury, doesn't prevent a transient rise in nitrogen losses.

Dr. Doris Calloway and a team of researchers found that animals fed three times as much protein as normal recovered no better than those on normal amounts of protein.

Power lifters and power event-type athletes are under the delusion that excess protein supplementation will be useful in bulking up. But according to David L. Costill, Ph.D., Director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Ball State University, this is untrue. Essential amino acids that are utilized are provided by the normal diet and any excess converts into, once again, F-A-T!

Now let's get one thing straight before we go any further. There is a quality difference between carbohydrates. Don't go out and load yourself up with candy and that type of "junk" carbohydrates. Carbohydrate loading with sugar is a mistake. Carbohydrates replace glycogen which the body stores and uses for energy. Sugar in any form leaches the stored glycogen from the liver and produces nervousness, irritability, fears, doubts, and various psychic changes in the personality. The major sources of carbohydrates should be from, as I stated earlier, grains and vegetables.

I hope that this discussion has convinced some of you that my point is well taken. So don't be afraid of carbohydrates - they are the bodybuilder's best friend.

(IronMan Magazine Sept 1978 Vol. 37 No. 6)

I can hear some of you cussing already about the contradiction implicated by this article. It is true, Vince did make some statements that could be contradict some of the statements he made prior but I feel that most people took this the wrong way. Vince always gave advice and found his methods on a particular “situation” at hand. So for instance, many people misunderstood him when he was saying that a person when gaining, can take up to 300 grams of protein a day as this is the amount he recommended for all the time when really, this was the amount he recommended for certain periods of time. He made his conclusions for the problems at hand. So, as for carbohydrates, use them but use them sparingly. It is not such a bad thing to have oats with your eggs in the breakfast (that as a matter of fact, is my breakfast of the day :)) but do NOT overdo it on the carbs. Carbs, in the end are just like proteins and fats but ONLY if you use in its natural state but that is another topic for another day. I hope you guys found this helpful. Until next time.

[Ironguru]

Hey folks, just a little update I wanted to share:

Raw Food - And Man
(IronMan Magazine May 1974 Vol. 33 No. 4)

Compiled by Stephen A. Downs for Vince Gironda

PART I: Processed Food and Physical Deterioration.

If there is one thing that we could speculate as being highly probable concerning the life style of primitive man, it is that he obtained his food primarily from the vegetable kingdom and ate it raw. Historically it appears that complexities in food preparation and processing have come with the more complex and technical societies. Corresponding to the rise in production and consumption of refined and processed food has been the rise in physical deterioration, and the birth of heretofore unknown degenerative diseases.

In his landmark publication, Nutrition And Physical Degeneration, Dr. Weston A. Price draws a most profound corollary between the consumption of refined and processed foods among primitive peoples of the world, and the corresponding rise in physical deterioration. Dr. Price's investigations took him completely around the world, studying cultures on every major continent. As Dr. Price was a dentist, he took most interest in individual jaw formation, tooth structure, and general oral hygiene. He studied the live subjects that he encountered, and compared them with past generations that he uncovered for study at burial sites. He found that where past generations had subsisted on raw, unprocessed food, the jaw formations were near perfect, dental arches were well formed, tooth structure was a work of art, carries were nonexistent, and all thirty-two teeth were intact. In studying generations following the introduction of refined and processed foods into the dietary, certain degenerative changes in the mouth were noted: 1) jaw formations were malformed, 2) dental arches were misshapen, 3) tooth structure was uneven, faulty, and badly decayed, and 4) many teeth in the mouth were missing. In Africa, Asia, the South Seas, and Australia, the story was the same; with the introduction of refined and processed foods into the dietary of primitive peoples through the influx of so-called civilization came the corresponding rise in degenerative processes. In the final analysis, Price's studies proved conclusively that human physical health and well being is dependent upon a raw, unprocessed dietary; and, that processed food seemed to pave the way for disease and degeneration.

Another monumental work in this area was done over fifty years ago by Dr. Robert McCarrison. In 1927, Dr. McCarrison was appointed Director of Nutrition Research in India under the Research Fund Association. His travels had taken him through the remote section of the Himalayas where the people of Hunza had lived since the time of Alexander the Great. In his Studies in Deficiency Diseases, McCarrison states concerning the health of the Hunzas:

"During the period of my association with these people, I never saw a case of asthenic dyspepsia, of gastric or duodenal ulcer, or appendicitis, of mucous colitis, or cancer . . . among these people the "abdomen over-sensitive" to nerve impressions, to fatigue, anxiety or cold was unknown. The consciousness of the existence of this part of their anatomy was, as a rule, related solely to the feeling of hunger. Indeed, their buoyant abdominal health has, since my return to the West, provided abdominal contrast with the dyspeptic and colonic lamentation's of our highly civilized communities."

Dr. McCarrison decided to perform some experiments to find if diet had a role to play in the superior health possessed by the Hunzas, and their virtual freedom from the variety of degenerative diseases that plagued Western Civilization. For his work he chose albino rats because of their love for human food, and also because their short life span would enable observation of a complete life history. The first phase of his experiments entailed taking at random healthy rats, and placing them in ideal conditions; fresh air, sunshine, and clean surroundings. Their diet consisted of foods liberally consumed by the Hunzas: whole grains, raw milk and butter, sprouted pulse, and a variety of fresh raw vegetables. On rare occasions he would include a small portion of meat with some bones (the Hunzas were basically vegetarians, eating meat only on festive occasions), and always provided abundant fresh water. After twenty-seven months on the Hunza diet, the nearly 1,200 rats were killed and carefully examined. McCarrison reported:

"During the past two and a quarter years there has been no case of illness in the "universe" of albino rats, no death from natural causes in the adult stock, and, but for a few accidental deaths, no infantile mortality. Both clinically and at postmortem, examination of this stock has been shown to be remarkably free from disease. It may be that some of them have cryptic disease of one kind or another, but if so, I have failed to find either clinical or microscopic evidence of it."

After finding in later experiments that diseased rats were returned to health on the Hunza diet, McCarrison took batches of rats and placed them on a diet typical to that of the people of India; rice, pulses, and vegetables cooked with a variety of condiments. It wasn't long before the over two thousand rats fed the deficient Indian diet developed a variety of disease conditions: heart, kidney and glandular weaknesses, gastrointestinal disorders, ulcers, anemia, crooked spines, bad teeth, eye ailments, various skin disorders, and loss of hair. These results led him to take still another batch of rats and place them on a diet typical to that taken by the poorer classes of England: canned meat. boiled vegetables, white bread, margarine, jarns and jellies, and sweetened tea. Mc-Garrison reported that not only were a variety of disease conditions produced on the faulty diet, but also the rats became hypertensive. They fought among themselves, and by the sixteenth day of the experiment the stronger rats were killing and eating the weaker ones.

The frightening conclusions to be drawn from Dr. McCarrison's research findings are the unfortunate realities of today's world. More than sixty years after one of the most massive experiments ever performed on mankind viz., food technology, refining and processing, the results are most evident. Hospitals are filled with masses of humanity plagued with a variety of disease conditions virtually unknown prior to the turn of the century.

In his "Briefe aus dem Lam-barenespital" (Letters from the Lambarene Hospital) in Africa, 1954, Professor Albert Schweitzer, world renowned doctor to the peoples of Africa, relates findings similar to those of both Price and McCarrison. He states:

"I have to point out a happening in the modern civilization of the Hospital, something which happened this year. We had to perform the first appendicitis operation on a native of this region. How it turned out that this so frequent sickness of white people did not occur in the colored of this country cannot be convincingly explained. Probably its still exceptional occurrence is traceable to a change in the nutrition. Many natives, especially those who are living in larger communities do not now live the same way as formerly - they lived almost exclusively on fruits and vegetables, bananas, cassava, ignam, taro, sweet potatoes and other fruits. They now live on condensed milk, canned butter meat and fish preserves, and bread.

The date of the appearance of cancer, another disease of civilization, cannot be traced in our region with the same certainty as that of appendicitis. We cannot state decisively that formerly there was no cancer at all, because the microscopic examinations of all tested tumors revealing their real nature, has only been in existence here for a few years. Based upon my own experience, going back to 1913, I can say, if cancer occurred at all it was very rare, but that it became more frequent since. However, it is not spread as much as it has among the white race in Europe and America."

Research from every corner of the globe has shown a definite correlation between the consumption of refined and processed food, and the incidence of physical degeneration. If this seems like a strong indictment against the food processing industry, it is meant to be; the evidence against them is just too voluminous and conclusive. Refining and processing foods to preserve their keeping qualities almost completely destroys their life giving potentials. Vitamins and minerals are lost, enzymes are completely destroyed, proteins are coagulated, fats are rendered unutilizable, and the list goes on and on.

In our next instalment we shall investigate one of the refiner's most insidious masterpieces, sugar - the 99.9 per cent pure product.

[Ironguru]

For this next update, I would like to address one key food item in Vince Gironda’s nutrition that he advocated and praised time and time again. The food item I am referring to are eggs. Whole chicken eggs the way Mother Nature intended. If you know anything about Vince Gironda, you would know no nutritional section on Vince’s nutrition would be complete without some sort of mention on eggs. For starters, Vince felt that they were the best source of protein, other than milk, which he stated contained “every nutrient known to man”, were eggs and recommended up to 36 whole eggs for periods of times for muscle growth. One such diet that illustrates this is Vince Gironda’s Hormone Pre-cursor diet. Excerpted from his book, “Unleashing the Wild Physique”:

The Hormone Precursor Diet
Nutrition for the bodybuilder is actually very simple. The bottom line is to get your system in positive nitrogen balance. This is achieved by ingesting 30-50 grams of grade-A protein every three hours to keep your blood-sugar level with a constant supply of protein to the muscles. Since raw fertile eggs are the number-one source of grade-A protein (and the least expensive) and are quickly and easily digested in a mixture of half &half, it is the best food source for growth and strength.
This diet will provide a satisfied feeling in the hard gainer because of the steady blood-sugar levels. It is superior to a meat, egg, and water diet because you will never experience actual hunger or weariness. Since it puts you in a positive nitrogen balance (anabolic state) by pre-cursing hormones, it is the best nutrition program for the hard-gainer. It is also known as the ultimate muscle building diet!
Breakfast
Vince’s Special Protein Drink
12 oz. Half and Half
12 Raw Eggs
1/3 cup milk-and-egg protein powder
1 banana
(Make 1-3 mixtures of the above formula in a blender and drink it throughout the day, between meals, and before retiring.)

Supplements
1 Multi-vitamin
3 Vitamin A and D tablets or 3 Halibut Oil Capsules
1 Vitamin B Complex
1 Vitamin B15 Complex
1 Vitamin C Complex (300 mg)
2 Vitamin E Capsules (800 IU)
1 Zinc Tablet
5 Alfafa Tablets
10 Kelp Tablets
3 Tri-Germ and Wheat Germ Oil Capsules
1 RNA-DNA Tablet
1 Hydrochloric Acid (HCL) Tablet (Before Meal)
3 Digestive Enzymes (After Meal)
3 Lysine Tablets (400 mg)
3 Multi-Glandular Tablets (Nucleo Glan Male or Female)

Lunch
1 lbs. Hamburger or Other Meat
Mixed Green Salad or Raw Vegetables

Supplements
1 Iron Tablet
4 Calcium Tablets
(Same as breakfast with the omission of Vitamin E, Tri-Germ, Wheat Germ, and Halibut Oil capsules.)

Dinner
1-2 lbs. Steak or Roast Meat
Raw or Steamed Vegetables or Salad and Cottage Cheese

Supplements
Same as lunch

Special Supplements
10 Amino-Acid and Dessicated-Liver Tablets (every 3 hours)
5 Yeast Tablets with the Protein Drink
4 Raw Orchic-Tissue Tablets (before and after workouts)
6 (each) of the following (before retiring): Arginine, Ornithine, Trypotphan, Calcium Tablets

Follow the Hormone Precursor Diet for 6-8 weeks. Then either adopt a more balanced diet with no half & half mixture and lots o vegetables to give your system a chance to detoxify, or follow a fasting program before returning to a heavy protein diet when trying for maximum weight gains.

As you can tell from the above statement, Vince DID NOT intend for such amount of food for a prolonged period of time. He had different diets for different purposes.

Most of you could be thinking that consuming 36 eggs a day is a lot and that you could risk getting a heart disease from such a procedure with all the cholesterol contained within the eggs and the meat. This is where a lot of the misunderstandings start, as the “cholesterol hypocrisy” rampages on to the point that there has been an entire industry created to satisfy this misconception. First off, you might all be thinking that this has been the truth as we know it but where did this so-called truth come from? How did it develop? The answer to that question can be illustrated from an excerpt from the Vince Gironda File Volume 2:

Cholesterol

I’m sick and tired of answering the same old questions about cholesterol. I’ve been in North Hollywood for 31 years and have been relentless on my stand concerning it. Hopefully this article will lead most of you out of the dark on this subject.

To begin with let’s see just how important cholesterol is to the body. Cholesterol belongs to a group of fats referred to as sterols. Chemically it is not a fat although it is found in all fats and oils, especially animal fats. The chief sources of cholesterol are egg yolks, kidney, liver, brains, fish roe, and oysters. It’s found also to a lesser degree in the fat of meats, whole milk, cream, cheese and butter.

Commonly it is thought of as a poison, something to be avoided at all costs....NONSENSE!!! Cholesterol is the substance that composes most of the dry weight of the brain; it serves as a conductor for the transmission of nerve impulses throughout the body; it is an essential part of all cells and fluids in the body; it is of paramount importance as a precursor in the manufacture of sex hormones; and furthermore it is manufactured by the body. If a person ingests too little cholesterol the body will produce less to compensate. There is much documented evidence to bear this out. For example, an article in “Money worth” titled “Hi-Fat Diet Found O.K.” (6/9/75) states...” Children fed low cholesterol diets from birth, as some doctors have recommended, run the risk of stunted brain growth, according to Dr. Peter Kwiterovick of the John Hopkins School of Medicine. Without cholesterol your body could make no adrenal hormones, no bile salts. Simply, life is not possible without cholesterol. “The Cholesterol Controversy”, He claims that “experiments show that animals deprived of cholesterol in their food consistently manufacture more cholesterol than their bodies require, whereas animals which are fed cholesterol seem to manufacture only that amount needed to supply their requirements.”

Furthermore, in a study of sever burn patients who were fed 35 eggs a day for a month or more, it was found that their cholesterol levels were within normal limitations, and no side effects were noted.

A test conducted in England, groups on a low cholesterol hi-polyunsaturated fat diet managed to lower the cholesterol levels in their blood by an average of 10% but within a year, the levels had begun to climb. Ultimately their cholesterol levels matched a control group on a diet high in saturated fats. Dr. Pinckney points out, “At the end of the test period, 27 men on a high-polyunsaturated fat diet died from the same condition.”!!!

Why is everyone so spooked about cholesterol? Why have Americans become preoccupied with poly-unsaturated foods? Originally cholesterol began to get bad-mouthed at the beginning of this century after experiments by a Russian scientist. He fed enormous amounts of cholesterol to rabbits (amounts equivalent to 4 qts. of lard a day for six weeks) thereby producing in them arterial lesion similar to arteriosclerotic lesions in humans. In spite of the experimenters warnings the he was feeding far greater amounts of cholesterol to his rabbits than humans could possibly ingest, his experiment dropped a bomb on the medical world and everyone jumped on the idea that high dietary intake of cholesterol leads to atherosclerosis and related conditions. To compound this near-hysteria, in 1960 the results from a 14 year study of a suburban population in Farmingham, Mass., concluded that cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, and high serum cholesterol were the essential causes of all heart disease. The American Heart Association on the basis of the Farmingham report, recommended that “The public should be encouraged to avoid egg yolk consumption....the food industry should be persuaded to minimize the egg yolk content on commercially prepared foods.”

Of course, in light of all these findings, the dollar sign began to ring in the eyes of the processed food industry, and all of the anti-cholesterol propaganda became a tool to push low cholesterol products which ballooned into a situation far beyond reality.

In spite of the anti-cholesterol campaign, each day more and more researchers are finding out what I’ve been preaching for years! CHOLESTEROL WATCHING IS FUTILE AND CAN ACTUALLY PROVE DANGEROUS TO THE WELL BEING OF THE INDIVIDUAL. The fact is that cholesterol in the blood has not been proven to be a cause of heart disease, and no study has conclusively proven that the kind of fat you eat can control your blood serum cholesterol. In addition it has been shown that a diet high in poly-unsaturates may cause cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, gall stones, premature senility, and premature aging!

There is also experimental evidences showing that rats fed a diet rich in poly-unsaturates have increased requirements for vitamin B12, Biotin, and Vitamin A. There is current research from the Mayo Clinic, and the Veterans Hospital here in L.A. which illustrates that those on high-poly-unsaturated diets have “had 60% more cancers than those who ate a regular balanced diet”.

I won’t bore you with chemical details but basically because of the incomplete chemical structure of the poly-unsaturated molecule it combines easily with other chemicals around it - - including cancer cells. The saturated fat molecule is already complete and thereby less susceptible to combination with other compounds.

If all of this isn’t enough it has been demonstrated that the heating of poly-unsaturates increases their toxicity by causing them to form polymers - - the chemical compound that produces varnish, shellac, and plastics! Also, the extraction process of the oil from peanuts, corn, soy beans, and safflower seeds has been found by the FDA to retain the insecticide residues in the oils themselves. Finally, evidence has shown that the preservatives BHT and BHA have been responsible for increasing serum cholesterol.

The fact is that high cholesterol in the bloodstream is controlled by strenuous exercise, anxiety, and anger - - - in a word STRESS, or the environmental and cultural factors one lives in. Even the worry about the results of a cholesterol test can increase the cholesterol level. On the other hand low-cholesterol can be caused by liver disease, infection, malnutrition, and the use of certain drugs.

The proper approach to controlling one’s cholesterol is to: stay away from sugar and refined carbohydrates; eliminate smoking, obesity, sloth, and stress; increase the amounts of vitamin E, which prevents the formation of arterial sites for cholesterol build-up, improves blood circulation so the body can rid itself of excess cholesterol, and reduces scar formation in the heart due to infarcts; increase vitamin B6 which is used by the body to make lecithin which in turn keep cholesterol soluble and thereby helps to excrete it; increase lecithin, and finally, increase Folic Acid which aids in preventing atherosclerotic lesions.

In the final analysis eggs still remain the number one food to my way thinking. It is as close to a perfect food as we know of. It is the only item of food, according to experimentation, that will sustain life with perfect health and longevity. (Tests were on animals that manufacture their own vitamin C). Eggs are so well balanced they approach the theoretical ideal protein that is indispensible for humans. It is agreed upon by leading nutritionists that eggs rank right after human breast milk in good value protein, and above cow’s milk, meat and fish in their biological value to humans.

Any combination of food which excludes eggs and other animal protein won’t keep a person in perfect nutritional balance. I so firmly believe this that I have body-builders on 36 eggs per day which accomplishes the same results as synthetic steroids without their attendant bad side effects. So rejoice everyone, eat eggs, eggs, eggs!!!

I apologize for the length of this article but I felt that I needed to write down the WHOLE article down RATHER THAN just excerpts from it. The “cholesterol hypocrisy” is such that I really should probably dedicate an entire page to it but this should be substantial enough. I hope that most of you who will read this will realize just how much fallacies exist in the field of nutrition, especially among the medical profession. So, in a nutshell, go ahead and eat those whole eggs and hell, fry them in butter made the way nature intended and you should be FINE.

Vince felt that eggs were so potent as a source of protein and as a muscle builder that he even dared that eggs were even better than steroids! Yeah, yeah, I can see a lot of you rolling your eyes to the back of your head but with how much anabolic potential is within the eggs, it CAN be hard to argue.

Eggs and Steroids

Steroids were initially devised to create positive nitrogen balance for burn cases, malnutrition in the aged and prison camp victims. These patients were not kept on these drugs for any length of time because of the side effects. I am sure all bodybuilders are aware of this. They were used only long enough to create new tissue (burns) and put weight back on malnutrition victims (water retention and protoid tissue).
But what about eggs? Hospital tests show that high egg diets produce remarkable healing results in severe burn cases. Patients suffering burns from 30-60 per cent of their bodies show remarkable results when fed a high egg diet. Also, skin graft acceptance with little infection has been reported by Modern Medicine Magazine from results obtained in an Israeli Hospital. The patients tested were served up to 35 eggs per day cooked and raw. And the huge quantity of eggs used caused no rise in serum cholesterol levels. The point I am trying to make here is that positive Nitrogen balance may be
achieved with No Dangerous Side Effects by using natural methods. They could have used steroids in these tests!
Why didn't they? Eggs are your number one quallty protein and the cheapest protein available! Milk is second, but high in carbohydrate and fattening - and meat is third. I, personally, have trained very hard using eggs, butter and beef and achieved the best results of my life. My feeling is that steroids are a "copout" for not knowing how to train, and I also feel that since the advent of synthetic hormones all exercise experimentation and research along this line has come to a standstill except for Art Jones and Dennis DuBreull experiments. Aside from liver, kidney and prostate damage which are a few of the side effects of synthetic hormones, another one which I do not wish to suffer from is loss of hair on the head No, thanks!
(IronMan Magazine May 1977 Vol. 36 No. 4)

Oh, and last but not least, a little recipe from the Iron Guru himself ;)

Vince Gironda Power Breakfast
This is a simple but highly potent combination, and is a tasty change. Scramble eggs in butter and add sauted mushrooms.
(Bodybuilding Monthly Volume 4 July Issue 10)

Thank you guys!

[TheTransformator]

Very interesting...Thank You...!

[Ironguru]

Very interesting...Thank You...!

You're welcome!

[ClassicPhysique]

Vince Gironda and Rheo Blair were cut from the same cloth when it comes to nutrition, high protein and low carb diets and milk and egg protein powder miked with cream, my favorite is the protein pudding that Blair recommended see http://www.rheoblair.com/rheo-blair-pudding.html