David Zabriskie, Brendan Brazier, and Tour de France

"In all affairs, it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted."– Bertrand Russell

Well said by the brilliant Bertrand Russell. What this means is that it is a good thing to question one’s motives and one’s behavior. It is easy to fall into the trap of continuing to do things in the same manner over and over. This holds true and at the moment, I cannot think of any exceptions. How many of you have heard of David Zabriskie? How many of you know about the Tour de France? If you know about the Tour de France, then you know about him. What you may or may not know is that he has changed his diet in the direction of becoming a vegan. Why would he do that? Well earlier this year, he claimed he was feeling low energy and wasn’t sure of the reason. He thought it might have to do with having a bug or his diet.

Mr. Zabriskie contacted Brendan Brazier, a triathlete and author of “The Thrive Diet” which is a guide to vegan diets in sports. Zabriskie has been on a vegan diet for at least 9 to 10 months and claims that he is feeling better than ever. He adds that he feels more focused, and that he sees food in terms of how it’s going to make him think and how it will give him clarity. So far he has won more time trials this year than he has in his career. For his diet he is incorporating things such as a vegan protein shake made from hemp seeds, flax seeds and brown rice protein invented by Brazier.

An example of a breakfast that  Zabriskie plans to employ on the tour include: oatmeal with black strap molasses, whole food optimizer, cacao nibs, nuts, cinnamon, 2 tablespoons of coconut butter, an apple, and hemp seeds .That  vegan diet  might be something to consider. This article was in the June 29, 2011 Wall Street Journal.  I will comment more about becoming a vegan later.

What about the male and female brain? Because of the better left hemisphere language abilities, women tend to dominate a highly language dominated environment i.e. school. The great majority of the academic curriculum from elementary school through college is language oriented and overall women do better. Females get better grades throughout the academic years which include college. Overall women excel more in the higher language demands of reading and writing that form the basis of much of university level course work. College is now a woman’s world. Prior to the 1980s, more men attended college than women. Since 1982 women have outnumbered men in colleges and universities. The increasing proportion of women to men in higher education shows no signs of abating. So many colleges and universities are actively recruiting men. Think about this statistic for a moment, I’ll comment on it later.