Download Asian Odyssey

Asian Odyssey
Dr. Lonnie Lowery
I have never been to Asia. Anywhere. Science-related travel is like a pair of comfortable
shoes to me, though, so I was intrigued when I heard the International Congress on
Nutrition event was in Bangkok this Fall. I had some data I was sitting on and that
conference flyer kept staring at me from the edge of my desk. So I did what I usually do,
what has to be done if this kind of trip is to take place: I just committed to it one day in a
decisive move.
Now, in my experience one never has extra time or extra money for this kind of thing. If
it is to be done, it requires an element of aggressiveness (which I’m good at) and a
reasonable amount of paper work (which I’m less good at). I did, however, make the
necessary arrangements with some colleagues, managed to acquire a little funding and
basically escaped out of my office window, despite students clamoring outside. It was
like a scene from the movies. Given the destination, I couldn’t escape the parallels with a
certain other, fictitious adventuring professor of which we’re all aware.
And thus my travels in Southeast Asia began. They would put the “odd” in odyssey for
me and they would bring - at risk of sounding cliché - a certain philosophical illumination
that I didn’t expect.
Oddities
I’m not sure where to begin. Whether it was cleaning
ladies in the washroom watching me pee, or me
watching people have dead skin nibbled off of their feet
by ravenous fish, I was frequently presented with (what
I consider) weirdness. Gold leaf offerings stuck lovingly
onto elephant dung, [see picture, right], unidentifiable
food items, obscene toys, cheap fruit punch offerings at
micro-shrines in odd places,[see picture below] and all
manner of strange customs confronted me. Coupled
with a general lack of sleep (2-5 hours nightly… or was it daily?) and an ever-present
“punch in the gut” feeling, presumably from some low grade food-borne illness, things
definitely were a bit odd.
But whenever I was in Bangkok’s BITEC arena, the site
for the 2009 International Congress of Nutrition, I was
more at home. I just had to get there every day and try not
to starve once I was on-site.
Commodities [see picture]
The exchange of cash and the flow of goods are everything to enterprising Thais. Travel
and food are good examples. Getting to the BITEC arena was cheap by cab, when said
cab had a driver who wasn’t a piece of gold-adorned elephant dung. I’ll bet many readers
can identify with the odd cabby who drives all over God’s green earth (in my case,
Bangkok’s damp, dark earth) to try to jack the fare, or the driver who is either A.)
Clueless or B.) Hiding behind the language barrier, either way wasting time and money.
Needless to say some fun exchanges took place because neither I nor my student coadventurer were about put up with this sort of crap. Ultimately, getting across a town of
11 million people in 25 minutes can be done for three bucks.
Food was another expense and fortunately it was usually not pricey, which I was glad for,
considering I had spent some money in Tokyo on the way into Bangkok. (How could I
resist 15 forms of green tea, dry-packaged protein tidbits from the sea and mementos the
land of the samurai in general?) Food had to be purchased despite free, sponsored
conference lunches from various multinational food companies in attendance. The
conference center’s boxed lunches ranged from unidentifiable and slimy to undercooked
and partly inedible to simply not of my liking. So, I had to drop some coin there as well often by converting US dollars to Thai baht, usually at a dubious exchange rate.
Policies and Methodologies
But I had traveled far to see what the shakers and movers of nutrition science were doing
in their labs. After some opening fanfare (ICN takes place every four years and runs not
unlike the Olympics) [see picture], scientific and world-policy sessions opened-up.
Although some of the policy sessions had to be seen (imagine high-ranking scientists and
politicians, even royalty, deciding on earth’s nutritional future), I gravitated toward the
science. Below is brief commentary on a small sample of the talks I saw but I’m guessing
the volumes of information I crammed onto my cerebral “hard drive” will appear in
future articles on specific topics. [Note: Readers can also surf to the archives at
www.nutritionradio.org and click the “Experiments vs. Experience” link to listen to
scientific commentary, or check out Chris Shugart’s blog on T-Muscle for reports on
certain talks as they happened.]
Coffee Talk



The decision whether to attend the session on coffee was
a no-brainer for me. My love-hate relationship with the
stuff drew me there, seeking data that might tip the
balance for me. The talks, supported by various coffee
industry groups, were unsurprisingly supportive of the
benefits of java…
 Americans consume just a moderate amount of coffee
when considering a long list of countries.
 We Americans get more than double our total
antioxidant intake from coffee as compared to fruits and veg. (Sad in a way but
protective of our health on some level.)
Despite its lower phenol content, coffee is a better antioxidant (depending on how this
is measured) than tea.
Coffee intake improves both acute and chronic cognition across many studies.
Coffee’s beneficial impact on poor glucose tolerance and diabetes was confirmed yet
again, this time in “sneak peak” data on middle aged guys with poor “carb handling”,
who drank five cups of instant joe for a few months. Decaf had no effect. (My recent
interest in Starbucks Via was further piqued.)
Protein Speculation from (Real) Biochemists
Much of this session was less than revelatory but there was a real golden nugget near the
end. A French biochemist was lecturing on the mechanisms behind why high protein diets
induce leanness. These were animal data but were largely applicable to humans.
I’ll reiterate what I stated in Shugart’s Hammer: Many of the energy-related metabolic
pathways that you learned about in school (glycolysis, Kreb's Cycle, lipolysis, betaoxidation, lipogenesis, gluconeogenesis, etc.) adjust rapidly - within as little as one day to the introduction of high-protein (20-50% of kcal) diets in rodents. Some adjustments
include:



Glycolysis gets down-regulated (glucokinase, liver pyruvate kinase)
A reduction in fatty acid synthesis enzymes like acetyl coA carboxylase and the fatty
acid synthase (FAS) complex
No increase in fatty acid (beta) oxidation, that is “fat burning”, apparently occurs


Gluconeogenesis gets upregulated (PEPCK, G-6-Pase subunit), making most (former)
amino acids into new glucose
A carbohydrate "draining" effect, whereby the carbons necessary for ridding the body
of surplus nitrogen (in the urea cycle) are ultimately drawn from glucose
This final point is something I've only peripherally contemplated. It's cool to think that
high-protein diets not only induce satiety and thus a lower carb intake, but they doubly
create a "negative carbohydrate balance" due to carbon draining.
Amino Acids and Related Metabolites: Nutraceutical Goodness?
This session ranged across a random assortment of topics, from creatine to protein
anabolism…









The need for creatine synthesis arguably creates a “burden” or “demand” on wholebody amino acid metabolism (10% of our glycine, 22% of our arginine and 42% of
our methionine - debatably).
We lose 1.7% (1-2g daily) of our creatine pool, on average
Genetic defects in creatine synthesis and transport create pronounced symptoms in
brain more so than muscle.
Two types of arginases (mitochondrial and cytosolic) break down excess arginine in
the body
Defects in arginine metabolism can lead to excess collagen and fibrosis, pulmonary
hypertension (as in red cell destruction diseases) and even cardiovascular disease.
Oral citrulline as opposed to arginine was speculated to be superior due to intestinal
arginine breakdown by said arginases.
Boosting dietary intake of citrulline via watermelon and high-protein diets was
discussed in passing.
The now famous mTOR protein synthetic pathway is maximally activated by both
amino acid availability and insulin - in different molecular ways (Rheb vs. RAGG).
One or the other just isn’t maximal. To me, this is molecular evidence that
strategized, big eating equals massive size, not just single-minded boat-loading of
protein or amino acids. (How many insulinogenic carbs that may be necessary are still
up for debate and may be individual - 50g? 100g?)
“Glucagon is dominant” over amino acids and insulin in affecting mTOR activity
(suggesting that fasting is suppressive but also that the co-stimulation of glucagon
with insulin after eating protein may be a failsafe against uncontrolled protein
anabolism).
Lipid Talks - Novel and Otherwise
Not to be a tease but this odyssey is becoming an opus, so stay tuned for future articles.
I’ve literally got volumes on this.
Vitamin D: Were We Wrong? [see picture]
Vitamin D - also a hormone that’s easily bought
in the U.S., continues to be a hot topic with
nutrition scientists. Here are some tidbits…





U.S. (Institute of Medicine)
recommendations (400 IU dialy) fail to
correct vitamin D deficiency.
Vitamin D deficiency is common among
cancer patients (74% of breast cancer
patients). And cancer is now neck-and-neck with heart disease as our number one
killer.
Literature suggests between 2000-4000 IU for a few months may be necessary to
correct baseline deficiencies (ask a physician for a blood test).
Vitamin D status does not necessarily affect calcium absorption. I find this
fascinating, as this is the primary reason I was always taught for taking the stuff!
Black and Asian persons exhibit different vitamin D status and calcium absorption
efficiency, and these relate differently to their bone mineral density. Looks like racial
modifications to existing guidelines may need more consideration - soon.
Itineraries
For a “down” portion of one day of the Congress, there was a chance to really live up to
my imagined whip and fedora. We managed to find an excellent guide and before we
knew it, were exploring the mind-blowingly ancient ruins of Ayutthaya, [see picture, top
left] which was the seat of the Thai empire before Bangkok, and traveling to necessary
sites and temples via river (long boat) and land (elephant) as well as van. [see pictures]
Okay, so it’s not like this was being done in the remote corners of the country, but just
getting an hour outside of the immense, polyglot city brought an element of authenticity
and even philosophical illumination. (Our guide was a devout Theravada Buddhist who
was university trained in the politics and history of the region as well. What a wealth of
knowledge in this humble guy.)
This excursion also brought me into contact with dishes like star fruit “soup” with
extruded green “pasta” noodles [see picture, left] and some tasty little egg-based desserts.
[see picture, right] As someone who tries to log some small new life experience
whenever possible, the foods I ate just added to the list.
Actually, to me, the entire trip had to include a photographed food log for multiple
reasons: I’m a nutrition professor (duh), Asia’s food supply is radically different from
Western countries’ staples (which helps define the region and cultures), it was my
birthday on the trip, and hey, I love to eat. So here are a few photos. There was eel (I
think), green tea desserts, local river fish, a gelato-like birthday cake, plenty of pickled
seafood and bean milk, among other offerings. [see following pics]
Scenery
Sights were comprised of the academic / commercial type
at the meeting itself, and the decidedly less academic (but
equally commercial) type seen along the streets of town.
[see picture] To me, the juxtaposition of high-level
science and policy making with the abject poverty I saw
just outside was an exercise in stretching moods and
emotions. It’s just not the type of thing one sees in such
rapid succession back in the ’States.
The academic / expo booths were not unlike others I’ve
seen. You know the score: make the rounds, gather the
freebies, listen to a few
spiels and learn a little.
Maybe some networking takes place if one is lucky.
There was only about four or five thousand people in the
expo hall at any given time, I think, so anyone who’s
been to the Arnold Classic could take this in stride.
(Except these are real science people and professionals,
not dye-o-dermed gym bunnies in lab coats, so a different
level of couth is called for.)
On the street side of things, the scenery was not unlike the
exposure some readers have seen before from Chris
Shugart and company. The transgressions against food
safety would send the sanitation professionals I work with
into an immediate cerebrovascular accident. The concept
is simple. Step One: fire up a vat of hot grease that you
bought last year sometime and fry the bejeezus out of the
spoiling meat or insects or chicken feet on your vending
cart. Step Two: Skewer and kabob everything; the tourists seem to like that. My only
regret is not finding any bugs to try at least once; the shock value would have been there
but honestly (barring poison barbs or whatnot) such hard dry little tidbits of fried protein
are probably safer than the other stuff I saw.
Summary
It’s not really possible to summarize such an odyssey in a singular way. I’ve really come
to think about this trip to Asia in two major aspects: 1.) Life experience and 2.)
Educational / professional worth. I’m just a Midwest American boy, and this felt like a
pretty big deal so please indulge me. Here’s a summary for each.
Having never been to Asia like Chris Shugart or some of my other friends, the trip was
more like traveling to another planet or immersing myself in an adventure film than other
scientific trips I’ve taken. The cultures were so different and extremely foreign to me, yet
simultaneously parts of the trip struck a chord. Maybe I was a Buddhist monk or samurai
in a previous life. Maybe I simply had some gaps in my amateur study of Asian
philosophy filled in. Whatever the case, somehow now the world feels simultaneously
bigger and smaller.
From an educational and professional standpoint, I had some epiphanies regarding the
linkages between the pathways of metabolism, I learned some new “insider” data on
coffee and other stuff that has yet to see print and I even built some journalistic skills
logging the whole thing with picture, film and sound recordings. [Look for an audio and a
video presentation at some point.] I just feel this type of reasonably intellectual reporting
enriches the experience of being a nutrition and strength-minded person - one who wants
both physical and mental growth. I’m sure there are a lot of warrior nerds out there like
me. As we all know, big brains and big biceps are clearly not inversely related.
Thanks to everyone who followed along when I blogged this trip on Shugart’s Hammer
here on the T-Muscle site. Those check-ins were sort of a necessary link to my usual life,
as I struggled to find Internet availability, stay up late (or was it early?) enough to access
it, and pull myself together enough to make sense of what I was experiencing. However
strange, this trip was as maturational, far-reaching and illuminating as it was difficult.
Sometimes odd is good.