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Sunday 1 March 2020
Death to Jackfruit and Other Revelations
I turned vegan aged as soon as I could as a teen- seventeen years old- before plant based proteins hit supermarket shelves and before I was an athlete. Because of that I learnt to choose any plant based protein, no matter what, to ensure I got enough of my third macronutrient. That was fine because there was only Quorn or beans and pulses. Now there's a lot more and they aren't all as protein heavy as you might wish.
I'm a vegetarian now and eight years later and there's a wealth of options. However, when it comes to "fake-meat" products, quantity does not equal quality. One of my frequent nemeses is jackfruit. Sometimes restaurants try and sneak it is as the veggie option. It's often marketed as a pulled-pork or fish substitute and therefore and as a protein but it's not. It's a very feeble energy source in and of itself lacking in all of the basic macronutrients. Jackfruit has less protein than broccoli, in fact it's more like celery. One egg has 12x the protein of jackfruit. If you're having a jackfruit burger you might as well have a chip butty and get more pleasure and cycling miles out of the double carb hit. I'm not in the business of dieting but I do want to take a greater interest in fuelling myself.
Still, while I was denigrating jackfruit I actually realised that my favourite plant-based choices don't have much protein in either. I've never actually looked at the macronutrient content of meat as I've never wanted to eat it but it's wildly different to plant-based protein substitutes. Sometimes meats are lean and sometimes not but they always have huge amounts of protein (obviously). But plant-based stuff doesn't have to. Fake mean options "chicken-style", "like a burger", one should note, are almost always complete proteins with all the amino acids in (soya or microprotein based) unlike beans and pulses. One should also note that beans are more carbohydrate than they are protein, just like oats and oddly, Quorn sausages.
I looked at chicken breast fillets fresh from the battery farm. 30g per 100g of fillet. I gulped- I usually get excited if a vegetarian option made it to 10g per 100. What was different though was the ratio to fat. Chicken fillets are very lean so for every 30g of protein you also have 2g fat but even quorn mince, marketed by Mo Farah as the lean option, has more than double the fat to protein ratio. There was also minimal carbohydrate in chicken and there can be lots in plant-based protein options.
Heinz baked beans are very low fat but you'd have to eat just over 6x times as much to get to the protein content in 100g of fillet (more than one can!) and you'd have even less fat as well. When you did that though you'd get 12x the carbohydrate.
I'm an endurance cyclist with a smaller muscle mass than my sprinter friends which means carbohydrates come before proteins and so a vegetarian diet is arguably more beneficial. The aim to avoid grinding to a halt in the middle of nowhere and for that you need carbs and then fat. Sports scientists have tested how important protein intake is in relation to muscle mass and more is not always more. However, there's still an emphasis if you want to avoid illness and promote lean muscle building.
I looked at chicken breast fillets fresh from the battery farm. 30g per 100g of fillet. I gulped- I usually get excited if a vegetarian option made it to 10g per 100. What was different though was the ratio to fat. Chicken fillets are very lean so for every 30g of protein you also have 2g fat but even quorn mince, marketed by Mo Farah as the lean option, has more than double the fat to protein ratio. There was also minimal carbohydrate in chicken and there can be lots in plant-based protein options.
Heinz baked beans are very low fat but you'd have to eat just over 6x times as much to get to the protein content in 100g of fillet (more than one can!) and you'd have even less fat as well. When you did that though you'd get 12x the carbohydrate.
I'm an endurance cyclist with a smaller muscle mass than my sprinter friends which means carbohydrates come before proteins and so a vegetarian diet is arguably more beneficial. The aim to avoid grinding to a halt in the middle of nowhere and for that you need carbs and then fat. Sports scientists have tested how important protein intake is in relation to muscle mass and more is not always more. However, there's still an emphasis if you want to avoid illness and promote lean muscle building.
My local is an Aldi and I swear I bought plant-based burgers and sausages off of them that weren't Quorn. Their website isn't forthcoming so I used the Tesco and Sainsbury's ones to compare some plant-based protein options vs. reference foods. I ranked them not on carbohydrate content but on protein alone from most protein on the left to least on the right (death to jackfruit?). I also don't care that this is off the screen- scroll along and be happy (graph skill > IT skill).
In conclusion- your best bets for a "lean meat" substitute are the Quorn originals: mince and chicken style pieces with 2g and 2.6g of fat per 100g of product which also have 4.5g/100 and 1.7g/100 of carbs respectively and ~14g protein. Linda McCartney is packing a punch with the highest protein content in her sausages (18.6g) over twice that of Quorn sausages but she does not sacrifice fat. Also Tivall (which is a Kosher company with factories in Israel and the Czech Republic) are close favourites of mine. They taste very, very good probably due to having the most fat apart from the Linda McCartney sausage roll which has the most fat and double the carbohydrate to its protein content. Quorn sausages rolls have less fat and only 0.8g less protein but grams less fat so there you go...I wonder what the Greggs one is (I don't look at the macronutrients in a Greggs. Treats are treats and oh so sacred).
Oats are low fat option but have over 5x the carbohydrate content compared to protein. Also, you might as well buy low fat/zero fat yoghurt instead of faffing around eating egg whites.
This was written for myself but I thought it might be helpful...
In conclusion- your best bets for a "lean meat" substitute are the Quorn originals: mince and chicken style pieces with 2g and 2.6g of fat per 100g of product which also have 4.5g/100 and 1.7g/100 of carbs respectively and ~14g protein. Linda McCartney is packing a punch with the highest protein content in her sausages (18.6g) over twice that of Quorn sausages but she does not sacrifice fat. Also Tivall (which is a Kosher company with factories in Israel and the Czech Republic) are close favourites of mine. They taste very, very good probably due to having the most fat apart from the Linda McCartney sausage roll which has the most fat and double the carbohydrate to its protein content. Quorn sausages rolls have less fat and only 0.8g less protein but grams less fat so there you go...I wonder what the Greggs one is (I don't look at the macronutrients in a Greggs. Treats are treats and oh so sacred).
Oats are low fat option but have over 5x the carbohydrate content compared to protein. Also, you might as well buy low fat/zero fat yoghurt instead of faffing around eating egg whites.
This was written for myself but I thought it might be helpful...
Sunday 19 May 2019
Belgium World Cup **RESULTS RESULTS** (3 of 3)- World Cup Round 2 2019
Day 3 and 4 road racee are going to be merged into this blog. In fact this is a mammoth task so I'm going to update this blog after the boys' races this evening...
PART 1
Day 3 was all the three wheelerz road racing (including myself hence the delay!)
I got dropped early and finished 5th boo- nice time trial trying to make up an ever growing gap. Got wayyy more strength to show after having to take so much time out to heal from my surgery three months ago.
Karen Darke doubled up on her TT silver with a road race silver too, so proud of her. True consistency.
MH3 boys Luke Jonesssss was 9s from Gold! In the hugest MH3 race (53 entrants) that equalled 9th overall but wow that's an incredible result. Dan Hopwood was caught at the front of a chasing bunch 4 mins down in 17th.
MH4 boys Alex BT was 12th and 2mins down. I know myself once you're out of that leading bunch the long windy straights just push you right back. Tokyo will be hilly like Corridonia (world cup 1) so I hope the handcycle boys keep pushing. Mark Allen 12th and 12 mins down- I hope there wasn't a crash but I suspect there might have been.
MH5 Matt Faucher found himself a lap down after missing an acceleration but the Welsh dragon is far from done; his instagram updates (@matthew_faucher) and positivity have been by far the best for result hungry team mates. Thankyou!
Day 4- 2 wheeled road races.
The C1-3 girl's kicked things off- separate podiums for each class but they all raced together.
Britain's Katie Toft got gold again and was, for the first time, able to hang onto the C2 girls which was a big victory for her. It was incredibly, incredibly wet so when I asked her how her race went she just sent me a picture of her huddling in her zebra blanket with hand and foot pockets for extra warmth. It was v cute.
The C4-5s followed with Britain's Crystal Lane-Wright claiming gold- the first for the GBCT riders. Yes Crystal.
Lora and Corrine took silver in their WB road race in the chasing bunch sprint, Ireland clear for gold but I'm not sure how our Scottish Lauras did votrecourse is bare...
*update* they didn't finish- wish them all the best and hope it was a mechanical without a crash xxx.
PART 2
There's been a press release from British Cycling so this is great if you want to see who medalled, yay. The UCI have also put out the first small selection of photos here. If you're interested in how *everyone* did results are below (and above):
Actually missed out the trike boys in PART 1- rude- David Stone claimed a bronze in his road race, his team mate Craig had 2 mechanicals after busting his wheel to bits- classic trike wheel clash, unlucky 13th.
So I was right my detective work paid off even though I got no media confirmation- Crystal beat her long time competitor Samantha to the line for gold in the WC5 road race.
The C men's races went down a treat. Ben Watson won gold in the MC3 race with a solo effort at the end, his teammates Jaco and Fin setting up the move. It may well have been a 1, 2, 3- Jaco came in for silver but Fin punctured and just missed out in 4th. Incredible racing. That's my dream.... when British Cycling fund any trike women at all...- a trike 3 person race takeover ooft.
Bergie took 4th in the MC5 race but stayed upright, missing out on what looked to be a significant crash with 4 riders not finishing. There's a fun strava segment named after Bergie because he broke his collarbone at his first ever Para World Cup here in Belgium. Aww. Glad he missed the bollard this time. Unsure if independent C5 David Murphy was so lucky. A worrying DNF beside his name! Maybe a C5 roadie right of passage?
TT specialist MC4 George was having none of the road race and wasn't in his. An update from his triathlete teamie is that he *did* do a run the morning of his TT, ooft probably too broken 😉.
Simon and Manny finished 8th and 10th respectively in their MC2 race, Simon getting two places on his younger team mate. It wasn't enough this time. Our independent Ryan Taylor finished safely in 15th, kudos to you.
And that's a wrap. 👐. Apologies for any typos- I prefer slow writing and hope that a real comms team will share the paracycling love properly.
PART 1
Day 3 was all the three wheelerz road racing (including myself hence the delay!)
I got dropped early and finished 5th boo- nice time trial trying to make up an ever growing gap. Got wayyy more strength to show after having to take so much time out to heal from my surgery three months ago.
Karen Darke doubled up on her TT silver with a road race silver too, so proud of her. True consistency.
MH3 boys Luke Jonesssss was 9s from Gold! In the hugest MH3 race (53 entrants) that equalled 9th overall but wow that's an incredible result. Dan Hopwood was caught at the front of a chasing bunch 4 mins down in 17th.
MH4 boys Alex BT was 12th and 2mins down. I know myself once you're out of that leading bunch the long windy straights just push you right back. Tokyo will be hilly like Corridonia (world cup 1) so I hope the handcycle boys keep pushing. Mark Allen 12th and 12 mins down- I hope there wasn't a crash but I suspect there might have been.
MH5 Matt Faucher found himself a lap down after missing an acceleration but the Welsh dragon is far from done; his instagram updates (@matthew_faucher) and positivity have been by far the best for result hungry team mates. Thankyou!
Day 4- 2 wheeled road races.
The C1-3 girl's kicked things off- separate podiums for each class but they all raced together.
Britain's Katie Toft got gold again and was, for the first time, able to hang onto the C2 girls which was a big victory for her. It was incredibly, incredibly wet so when I asked her how her race went she just sent me a picture of her huddling in her zebra blanket with hand and foot pockets for extra warmth. It was v cute.
The C4-5s followed with Britain's Crystal Lane-Wright claiming gold- the first for the GBCT riders. Yes Crystal.
Lora and Corrine took silver in their WB road race in the chasing bunch sprint, Ireland clear for gold but I'm not sure how our Scottish Lauras did votrecourse is bare...
*update* they didn't finish- wish them all the best and hope it was a mechanical without a crash xxx.
PART 2
There's been a press release from British Cycling so this is great if you want to see who medalled, yay. The UCI have also put out the first small selection of photos here. If you're interested in how *everyone* did results are below (and above):
Actually missed out the trike boys in PART 1- rude- David Stone claimed a bronze in his road race, his team mate Craig had 2 mechanicals after busting his wheel to bits- classic trike wheel clash, unlucky 13th.
So I was right my detective work paid off even though I got no media confirmation- Crystal beat her long time competitor Samantha to the line for gold in the WC5 road race.
The C men's races went down a treat. Ben Watson won gold in the MC3 race with a solo effort at the end, his teammates Jaco and Fin setting up the move. It may well have been a 1, 2, 3- Jaco came in for silver but Fin punctured and just missed out in 4th. Incredible racing. That's my dream.... when British Cycling fund any trike women at all...- a trike 3 person race takeover ooft.
Bergie took 4th in the MC5 race but stayed upright, missing out on what looked to be a significant crash with 4 riders not finishing. There's a fun strava segment named after Bergie because he broke his collarbone at his first ever Para World Cup here in Belgium. Aww. Glad he missed the bollard this time. Unsure if independent C5 David Murphy was so lucky. A worrying DNF beside his name! Maybe a C5 roadie right of passage?
TT specialist MC4 George was having none of the road race and wasn't in his. An update from his triathlete teamie is that he *did* do a run the morning of his TT, ooft probably too broken 😉.
Simon and Manny finished 8th and 10th respectively in their MC2 race, Simon getting two places on his younger team mate. It wasn't enough this time. Our independent Ryan Taylor finished safely in 15th, kudos to you.
And that's a wrap. 👐. Apologies for any typos- I prefer slow writing and hope that a real comms team will share the paracycling love properly.
Belgium World Cup **RESULTS RESULTS** (2 of 3)- World Cup Round 2 2019
Day 2 dawned dull and grey with less of the trike toppling headwinds for all of the two wheeler action. That doesn't mean some exciting performances didn't go down; they may not be trikes but 2 wheelers are still quite cool ;)- I say 2 wheelers,not the official term of solos, because I'm including the tandemonium tandems.
I'm publishing this on day 3 having raced and travelled straight back to the UK...have seen Crystal has just won gold and will get on it ASAP watch out for the third and last instalment of this!
I did a neat wee tweet so here you go. Fav performance is George Peasgood who should be in Japan right now with Para-Tri but has taken inspiration from the Huub Wattbike cycling boys- Huub infamous triathlon sponsors too. George brings their aero prowess to the Paracycling scene whilst still fully committed to staying for Paratri for his Tokyo 2020 campaign (Twitter is my source here ha). He beat the whole MC4 field- more than 40s clear of silver. I have a feeling he didn't do a run in the morning but wouldn't put it past George to have taken a dip in the North Sea after...which was a mere 100m from the end of the time trial course.
Photos are few and far between my source is here.
Katie Toft is always my favourite really. She's one of those people whose smile takes up her whole face (perfect smile to face ratio imo, other people's smaller and inferior smiles now disappoint me) and now she has a bad-ass golden helmet for Kask. She's always had a badass interior but now her exterior matches. She won gold too, her Aussie competitor Kaitlyn, hot on her heels. Kaitlyn is supported fully by Cycling Australia. Unfun fact about Katie is that she is the only World Champion in the whole of Paracycling not on programme with their National Governing Body.
Our tandem endurance girls had quality competition from NZL and Ireland coming in Bronze and battered after a top effort of going incredibly, incredibly fast. Four legs is better than two every time.
MC3 Ben Watson smashed his two British competitors bringing home bronze and I'm so happy for the TT star who got onto the team through his efforts on this course a year ago.
Fin who is also an MC3 came 9th- vvv impressive. His team mate Matthew Robertson who has come up on the team with him matched his performance with 9th in the MC2 category. MC2 Simon Price, a road only MC2, was unlucky 13th this time but has an impressive history of medalling which bodes well for Sunday's road race. Jaco who used to be an MC4 is now a better fit for MC3 made a nice wee MC3 British sandwich, 6th in his race.
Shoutouts go to MC2 Ryan Taylor with 18th in his (first!?) World Cup race? And Scottish tandem who add yet two more tandem Lauras to the mix. Laura Cx2 hehe. Strong 10th along with MC5 David Murphy.
@BritishCycling
athletes:
@loraturnham @Corrinehall
@BennyWatson89
@WBjergfelt 5th
#mannyrobertson 9th
@FinGparacyclist 9th
@simonpricey 13th
Indies:
@KatieToft
@george_peasgood
@jacovangass 6th
#ryantaylor 18th
@pixielaurac & #lauraclode 10th
#davidmurphy 10th
I'm publishing this on day 3 having raced and travelled straight back to the UK...have seen Crystal has just won gold and will get on it ASAP watch out for the third and last instalment of this!
I did a neat wee tweet so here you go. Fav performance is George Peasgood who should be in Japan right now with Para-Tri but has taken inspiration from the Huub Wattbike cycling boys- Huub infamous triathlon sponsors too. George brings their aero prowess to the Paracycling scene whilst still fully committed to staying for Paratri for his Tokyo 2020 campaign (Twitter is my source here ha). He beat the whole MC4 field- more than 40s clear of silver. I have a feeling he didn't do a run in the morning but wouldn't put it past George to have taken a dip in the North Sea after...which was a mere 100m from the end of the time trial course.
Photos are few and far between my source is here.
Katie Toft is always my favourite really. She's one of those people whose smile takes up her whole face (perfect smile to face ratio imo, other people's smaller and inferior smiles now disappoint me) and now she has a bad-ass golden helmet for Kask. She's always had a badass interior but now her exterior matches. She won gold too, her Aussie competitor Kaitlyn, hot on her heels. Kaitlyn is supported fully by Cycling Australia. Unfun fact about Katie is that she is the only World Champion in the whole of Paracycling not on programme with their National Governing Body.
Our tandem endurance girls had quality competition from NZL and Ireland coming in Bronze and battered after a top effort of going incredibly, incredibly fast. Four legs is better than two every time.
MC3 Ben Watson smashed his two British competitors bringing home bronze and I'm so happy for the TT star who got onto the team through his efforts on this course a year ago.
Fin who is also an MC3 came 9th- vvv impressive. His team mate Matthew Robertson who has come up on the team with him matched his performance with 9th in the MC2 category. MC2 Simon Price, a road only MC2, was unlucky 13th this time but has an impressive history of medalling which bodes well for Sunday's road race. Jaco who used to be an MC4 is now a better fit for MC3 made a nice wee MC3 British sandwich, 6th in his race.
Shoutouts go to MC2 Ryan Taylor with 18th in his (first!?) World Cup race? And Scottish tandem who add yet two more tandem Lauras to the mix. Laura Cx2 hehe. Strong 10th along with MC5 David Murphy.
@BritishCycling
athletes:
@loraturnham @Corrinehall@BennyWatson89
@WBjergfelt 5th
#mannyrobertson 9th
@FinGparacyclist 9th
@simonpricey 13th
Indies:
@KatieToft@george_peasgood
@jacovangass 6th
#ryantaylor 18th
@pixielaurac & #lauraclode 10th
#davidmurphy 10thFriday 17 May 2019
Belgium World Cup **RESULTS RESULTS** (1 of 3)- World Cup Round 2 2019
There's a Belgium World Cup going on but the British Cycling twitter was dead all yesterday and it's Paralympic qualification year. Stop ittttt. Here's where you get the results (blog published 11:52 CEST with the results available on):
Yesterday was the start of the time trials for all three-wheeled riders. The organising committee was panicking because there were 53 MH3 entrants. That's the male, chest-level, spinal cord injury classification who race on recumbent handcycles. In comparison, the most able-bodied male category, MC5 had only 17 entrants! It pushed all the handcycle TTs deep into the evening! Shout out to Ireland's MH3 Declan who was 4th of 53 WOW. Best performance of the comp for me? Maybe.
Today it's the Cs.
Road race for me and all three wheelerz and then the Cs road race the day after!
The trikes raced first and there was a block headwind of 30kmh. Most exciting things that happened was that in the men's trike TT a trike (Aussie, Stuart Jones) spontaneously flipped (no cause- was just the instability of the trike at high speeds)- he had deep dish wheels on and he was going the fastest out of the all the trikes and set to win. He flipped, broke his collarbone, was lifted back on and was so far ahead he finished in 3rd place (in a field of 21).
The men's podium was like a war zone, Joan Figuerola (silver) had crashed in the last World Cup and his face was black and blue and then Stuart (third) had his arm and knee in a bandage. Ryan Boyle World Champ stayed upright for gold. If you see him race you'll be in disbelief. Hehe trikes.
GBCT boys Craig and David came 5th and 7th respectively.
The other exciting thing is that I got a bronze medal for the first time in a field of Aussies and Americans WITHOUT breaking my collarbone #proud! We don't win any prize money but we do win Belgian Beer (8.8%). I was a bit tired and wobbly (CP not beer) after my effort and whilst chatting away to gold medallist Carol I fell sideways by mistake. I managed not to break the bottle and I think people were more impressed at that than my medal (I agree tbf).
The other week I did a spreadsheet to see just how many WT2 trikes there could be if they all turned up- most stop because of financial reasons or that the classification is unfavourable. Today there are only around 8 active female WT2s. If I had the power to give all the girls funding to turn up there could be 33! Aka only 15% of women who make it to international level stick around after the first 3 years. For those who don't podium in the first year of trying and have to race independent of support from their national governing body, 90% give up. Frustratingly there are high enough numbers within the drop outs for a potential additional classification of which I could be trike queen of course, ha.
Anyway, I'm f%$*king proud of myself; I had super invasive surgery 3 months prior to racing this race and it's more than a 30kmh headwind pushing me backwards from the podium but sooo many people have been helping me push back. 4mins 21 off gold and 2mins 30 off silver who was 1min 48 off gold herself. That's how it goes with trikes and the verrry wide classification margin. That medal is mine and it is glorious and it's all of ours. For all we know that could be my field in Tokyo...just sayinnnnn let's keep pushing.
Karen Darke raced after me and she got silver- only 10s off gold! She had a field of six all brand new riders. All of her usual competitors only raced in World Cup in Italy 4 days ago, not World cup round 2. Dangerously strong and powerful that one.
Then it was the boys with the huge classifications: Alex B-T had shown incredible skills in World Cup round 1 in Italy 4 days ago coming 7th out of a hugggggeee field.
Unfortunately a pedestrian walked in to him in this World Cup round 2 costing another top 10 position (both pedestrian and wheeled strong-man are unscathed). 18th for him behind British triathlon's Joe Townsend a place above Mark Allen.
Of the MH3s Luke Jones was top 20, Dan Hopwood top 30 (out of 54!!!).
Today the Cs are racing and here's where they've placed so far (see bold)...Crystal matches Karen's silver and Katie Toft might be the only British female gold of the competition! Awks as she's not even a funded athlete for the 5th year running. Cmonnn.
There's only one more woman (well 2 for 1 technically) to ride out of the GBCT team- Lora and Corrine. Bon chance xx
Independent
MC2 Ryan Taylor 18th
MC3 Jaco Van Gass
MC4 George Peasgood
MC5 David Murphy
(54) MH3 Luke Jones 29th
MH3 Dan Hopwood 18th
(31) MH4 Joe Townsend 16th
MH4 Alex BT 17th
MH4 Mark Allen 19th
MH5 Matt Faucher 13th
WT2 Hannah Dines bronze
WC1 Katie Toft GOLDD
WB Laura Cluxton piloted by Laura Clode
GBCT
MC2 Matt Robertson 9th
MC2 Simon Price 13th
MC3 Ben Watson
MC3 Fin Graham
MC5 William Bjergfelt
MT2 Craig Collis-McCann 5th
MT2 David Stone 7th
WB Lora Fachie piloted by Corrine
Hall
WC5 Crystal Lane-Wright silver
WH3 Karen Darke silver
Friday 3 May 2019
Choose your Own Sex- Confused about the Caster Semenya Ruling? This is For You!
Choose your Own Sex
Male is XY, female is
XX-> yes or no
Male is penis, female
is vagina-> yes or no
Male is testosterone,
female is oestrogen -> yes or no
*count your yeses and/or your nos*
1 or more yeses? I KNOW YOU WANT TO LOOK AT WHAT'S UNDERNEATH, have a cheeky wee read. This article is your business even if Caster Semenya's medical documents are not...
3 nos? Read for shits
and giggles but you already understand basic science, congrats.
If you don't like reading here's a podcast/radio thing with my uni lecturer, Alun (listened for the science, stayed for the soothing Welsh accent).
If you’ve watched the best romcom and cult films of all time you’ll have seen consequences of testosterone abuse in male bodybuilders.
In ‘50 Fifty First Dates’ the brother is a comic character because he so poorly
covers up his doping behaviour and gives it away with that squeaky voice.
Anyone remember Robert Paulson in ‘Fight Club’?
More testosterone doesn’t necessarily mean ‘more male’
because of the way we all have both oestrogen and testosterone and they can
actually interact with each other and change each other’s production rates and
things.
Pop-culture has been trying to tell you that for ages, even
if you aren’t sciencey.
But are they a man or a woman? WE NEED TO KNOW. If you go
through any kind of Biology education you’ll be presented with the two sex
chromosomes- XX for woman and XY for man. These sometimes come with stereotypically
male and female traits. What you really need to know is, whispers, there are
more than two, woohoo!
Sometimes, if you’ve got a good teacher, they’ll tell you
about the others- a singular X or XXY, Turner’s and Klinefelter’s and Double Y Syndrome
and XXX+ Triple X Syndrome that challenge the binary. These are very rare but you
know what’s rarer? A human that can break the 100m World Record…
If your personal definition of male and female is through
external sexual reproductive organs
You might be confused when you learn that some XY individuals- if they have a very slight genetic mutation can
be insensitive to testosterone and be born with what quacks like your
average looking vulva (external bits) but be genetically ‘male’ and not have a
full-on vagina (the passage to the womb because no womb). You know what occupation
is perfect for T resistant individuals? Modelling! Some incredibly successful
models are intersex with perfect boobs, minuscule fat mass and that to-die-for,
no-hip pelvis (actually due to caesarean sections women with narrow pelvises are surviving through childbirth so
that particular ‘wide hip’ female trait is disappearing). If that’s your
definition, genetics and external genitalia will sometimes be at odds and you
might want to check your Western Beauty standards too…
If your definition is ‘sex hormones’ oestrogen and testosterone
Then you’ll also run into trouble because you women who go
through the menopause (or very old men) have a drastic decrease in both
oestrogen and testosterone to such low levels that they may be neither male nor
female. Same with people with eating disorders/relative energy disorder whose
bodies stop producing hormones as a last-ditch to save calories.
Even with no genetic mutation the levels of ‘male’ and ‘female’
hormones can differ widely amongst individuals and at different times of the
day and the month that there is no ‘one or other’. There are general ‘ranges’ like
there are for wingspan and leg length but Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps got
applauded for being genetic outliers. Applauded for being supermen.
(I read another article which said the Phelps Usain argument was invalid because sport classifies on sex, not arm or leg length.This is a valid point worth considering. So sport classifies on sex. Yet, there is not ONE thing that makes you male or female. It's a continuum or a spectrum like colour. A very, very complex continuum.
NOT THIS
MORE LIKE THIS
There's not a point where you can make a clean cut. So the IAAF have made a messy cut, a bloody and damaging cut and it's my female performance category you're cutting into, MINE. I have issue with who is doing the cutting because it isn't scientists. It's like your operating surgeon being switched out for a butcher who is ignoring the medical textbook and shutting his eyes.
Scientists know there are huge numbers of little variables that go into what we know as sex. Chromosomes are one tiny variable, hormone sensitivity, if you menstruate or not, if you use the pill and historic discrimination of access to sport.
Men and women share portions of all these little variables and at some point along the spectrum the 'androgenic effect of the 'male' variables' club together to make men around 10% faster in the elite running discipline over all distances.
At the same time, all the 'estrogenic effects of the 'female' variables' club together to make women around 10% weaker. Where the estrogenic effects are concerned though it's just a hunch. Science has not done nearly enough investigation into 'female' variables, so we basically have no idea how these variables impact performance. Caster has many of these estrogenic effects to make her performance well below your male sports category.
She also has an unknown group of variables which currently make her women's 800m world champion. What I'm saying is the biggest variable might be her leg length difference just like it was for Usain- maybe Usain had much less testosterone than his competitors? That fact might have blown this debate out the water. But his hormone levels weren't available to the public. Because men are allowed to be supermen without investigation into exactly what makes them men.)
Addition made 2 days after original publish date on 5/5/19
(I read another article which said the Phelps Usain argument was invalid because sport classifies on sex, not arm or leg length.This is a valid point worth considering. So sport classifies on sex. Yet, there is not ONE thing that makes you male or female. It's a continuum or a spectrum like colour. A very, very complex continuum.
NOT THIS
MORE LIKE THIS
There's not a point where you can make a clean cut. So the IAAF have made a messy cut, a bloody and damaging cut and it's my female performance category you're cutting into, MINE. I have issue with who is doing the cutting because it isn't scientists. It's like your operating surgeon being switched out for a butcher who is ignoring the medical textbook and shutting his eyes.
Scientists know there are huge numbers of little variables that go into what we know as sex. Chromosomes are one tiny variable, hormone sensitivity, if you menstruate or not, if you use the pill and historic discrimination of access to sport.
Men and women share portions of all these little variables and at some point along the spectrum the 'androgenic effect of the 'male' variables' club together to make men around 10% faster in the elite running discipline over all distances.
At the same time, all the 'estrogenic effects of the 'female' variables' club together to make women around 10% weaker. Where the estrogenic effects are concerned though it's just a hunch. Science has not done nearly enough investigation into 'female' variables, so we basically have no idea how these variables impact performance. Caster has many of these estrogenic effects to make her performance well below your male sports category.
She also has an unknown group of variables which currently make her women's 800m world champion. What I'm saying is the biggest variable might be her leg length difference just like it was for Usain- maybe Usain had much less testosterone than his competitors? That fact might have blown this debate out the water. But his hormone levels weren't available to the public. Because men are allowed to be supermen without investigation into exactly what makes them men.)
Addition made 2 days after original publish date on 5/5/19
I think the obsession over testosterone in females is so typical
of a male dominated sports governance- it’s not all about dicks or rather
gonads (the site of testosterone production in men, women produce testosterone too though WHOAH). But men are allowed to be
super-strong and women are not. The site of this almighty and coveted masculine
power…Who runs the world? Old, white men who are, SO IRONICALLY,
dependent on Viagra, sorry Beyonce. Wait is that a man on your logo IAAF? By your definition I think it is...
When women show the same type of genetic abnormality- this
time in testosterone production and/or sensitivity (you can have really high
testosterone levels and no sensitivity remember) they are held-back. Similarly,
my team mates still stress out about how muscly they look. Men don’t own the
right to muscles and that sleek lean look. At the same time, I’m your classic
big-hipped, fat-conserving female phenotype and I constantly feel pressure from
the media to lose weight and look a bit more athletic. Stop policing our bodies, everyone!!!
Men don’t own the right to be strong. But this is what the
IAAF are saying- you can be strong but not too strong if you want to be in within
our definition. We must have all our female athletes look good in crop tops
otherwise it won’t be good to watch, duh!
It’s probably not
even the testosterone difference that makes Caster stronger but if she gets
breast cancer or an increased heart attack and stroke risk from oestrogen use
it might make her weaker or…dead. The
International Medical Association have strongly advised that no doctor carry
out the tests the IAAF are asking because they breach the Helsinki human rights agreement.
Caster isn’t the aberration here. The IAAF is.
The one, poorly conducted study that the IAAF have based
this decision on is wrong in almost every way. How do we know? Because science has distanced itself
from it in almost every way. Their study was akin to the cigarette companies
doing inhouse studies to say their products were entirely safe. They want
Caster out and so they’ve made it so.
This is what women look like IAAF, get used to it but you don’t
know because you don’t give us the scientific studies we need!
You do one substandard study that is fatally flawed and say
that it’s enough because who wants to give women the time and access to real
data that they need to be true performance athletes? Not you IAAF. I love science
and what it can achieve. I’d fully support scientific studies to identify just what female variables were performance enhancing or not! You are teaching
society scientific studies don’t matter. Oh yes they do. Women are so
underrepresented in sports science data it is ridiculous. More please.
I wrote this after alllll my athlete friends asked for my Scientist-athlete opinion. Trying to write up my MSc project and start my racing season. This I assure myself will be quicker than having 11 different chats! Just a quick messy one. Someone help me with my screen layout...how awful is it.
If you like reading and want more:
Here are three more good reads---
-this personal account
and
-this more sciencey one
and
-this fully sciencey one
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