Mike Roussell: How to Build Abs Like a Fictional Warrior

// posted March 22, 2011 by Lou Schuler

In a recent post, I asked a simple question: “What do we know about nutrition, and how do we know it?” You provided a lot of inspired and thoughtful responses (20 so far). Now it’s time to put that question to someone whose living depends on him knowing the answer.

I first met Mike Roussell, Ph.D., back when he was merely Mike Roussell, doctoral candidate, at the 2007 Fitness Summit. We’ve been friends ever since. Mike, who’s a computer whiz as well as a nutrition expert, helps me understand the secret logic of social-media algorithms. In return … well, I’m not really sure what I do to help Mike.

But it works out for me, and really, what else matters?

I asked Mike to answer the following questions via email. To my surprise, he did.

What do we know about food, and how do we know it? Hit me with some bullet points.

Three big ones:

• We know that food can influence your hormones and gene expression.
• We know that food can have a chronic effect (what happens when you eat a certain way over a long period of time) and an immediate effect (what happens during the first 0-240 minutes after you eat).
• We know that when you eat food with respect to the time of day and your daily activity impacts what happens to that food, and what that food does to your body.

How do we know this stuff? Lots of research, but more importantly, we know these things based on different types of studies.

There are 4-5 main types of research, and we can make the best conclusions and make the best recommendations when information from all those kinds of studies is considered. This is why the “study of the day” type research is misleading. Just because one study shows something once, that doesn’t mean it happens most of the time. And it doesn’t mean we should ignore everything else we know that says differently.

Tell me something that most people believe about nutrition that isn’t actually true.

Fish oil helps control blood sugar. The research is very mixed in this area, and it leans toward the idea that fish oil makes you more insulin resistant if you have type II diabetes.

When you read research, what sets off your bullshit detector? Is there any kind of study design that you think gives researcher too much license to reach a preferred conclusion?

I’m not a big fan of observational studies.

These are the kind of studies that will have 20,000-100,000 people fill out food frequency questionnaires, asking questions like, “How many times in the last 7 days did you eat processed meat?” They’ll take a person’s answer to that question, wait 20 years, and then relate their answer to whether or not they died of a heart attack.

People — journalists, authors, and even scientists — will use these studies to support their views and talk about the results as if they establish cause and effect.

There’s a big difference between something that “causes” an outcome and something that’s “associated with” that outcome. But journalists often use them as if they’re synonyms.

What’s a question you get that makes you want to quit work and start drinking early? The kind of question where you say, “Darkness has descended over the human intellect, and I’m powerless to stop it”?

Perfect example:

I was getting driven to my rental car by the Enterprise guy this morning. I mentioned that I’m a nutritional consultant. His next question: “So what’s the best thing to eat to help lose belly fat? I heard antioxidant juice works.”

I was speechless.

You read a lot of fiction in your spare time. What’s the best and worst nutrition advice you’ve seen in your favorite novels?

I like to read epic fiction — stories like The Lord of the Rings. One of my favorite series is The Wheel of Time. [For the unitiated, it's a 13-book series so far, totaling more than 11,000 pages and 4 million words.]

There’s a group of people called the Aiel, who live in the desert. They’re the fiercest warriors, and can run for days at a time. They eat dried meat and the occasional unleavened biscuit, and drink whiskey. It doesn’t get much better than that.

In The Lord of the Rings, Samwise Gamgee kills rabbits and cooks them for him and Frodo with herbs he finds on the trail. That gets the thumbs up from me as well.

It’s usually the kings in those stories who have the bad refined-grain diets.

If you had to be me for a day, what would you do to improve my life?

Based on what I know:

• Since you sit at a computer all day, I’d have you schedule more time working on your feet.
• I’d trade out some Coke Zero for tea.

Other than that, you’re doing pretty well. You allow yourself the occasional bowl of ice cream, exercise regularly, and eat moderately portioned meals, which has allowed you to maintain your current weight for numerous years. That’s something most people can’t do. If you wanted to get leaner or change things up I’d have more suggestions. But for now you’re doing fine.

You have two young children, with a third on the way. What would you say if your wife came up to you and said she thinks breastfeeding is overrated, and wants to give your new baby formula instead?

We’re on the same page. We both think it’s important, and the literature supports it. Researchers are only beginning to understand the many ways breastfeeding impacts the baby — from GI development, to the immune system, to brain development. I recommend increasing omega-3 supplementation as well to ward off any potential postpartum depression and to provide the baby with optimal omega-3s.

What, if anything, gives you hope for the future of humankind?

The fact that big corporations are starting to see how having an overweight and unhealthy work force negatively impacts their bottom line.

As a result, lots of corporations are taking bold steps in the areas of nutrition, fitness, and preventative medicine. So capitalism gives me hope for humankind. Government-run public-health initiatives don’t.

Thanks Mike!

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Tags: Tags: breastfeeding, epic fiction, exercise, mike roussell, nutrition, omega-3 fats, the fitness summit, Weight Loss

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