There’s only one thing that matters for weight loss, and insulin isn’t it.
Read through any article that embraces the validity of the Calories In, Calories Out (CICO) model for weight loss, and you’re bound to come across comments like: “Wrong. All you need to care about is insulin production. If you keep your insulin levels low, you’ll lose weight. Truth is, the total number of calories you eat doesn’t matter.” And then, right on cue, they’ll bring up the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity — which proposes that insulin drives nutrients to be stored as fat, thus leaving the rest of the body with low energy, causing individuals to overfeed.
Well. Truth is, while hormones do play a critical part in the regulation of body weight, it is incredibly simplistic and naive to single out insulin as the sole contributor. To understand why we need to take a deep-dive into the science behind insulin and the carbohydrate-insulin model of obesity. So, grab those nerd glasses (and possibly a cup of coffee!) and follow along. It’s going to be a wild, evidence-based ride. …
And the unhelpful all-or-nothing mindset it encourages
If I had a dollar — or even a cent — for every time someone commented something along the lines of “But diets don’t work!” (often in full caps, accompanied by multiple exclamation marks) …
I’d be stinking rich. Truly. I’d be bathing in money.
That’s not to say that these individuals are wrong, though. The statistics don’t lie. Just take a look at the large systematic review and meta-analysis recently published in the medical journal, The BMJ.
After analyzing nearly 22,000 overweight or obese adults who followed one of 14 popular diets, including the Atkins diet, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, DASH, and the Mediterranean diet, for an average of 6 months, researchers found that most of the participants regained the lost weight within one year. …
Your body type doesn’t tell you anything meaningful. Here’s why.
In a world where the concept of ‘nutrigenomics,’ or DNA-based diets, is steadily gaining popularity, it’d seem only natural that you should be adopting a training regimen that works best for your genes and, therefore, body type… right? If you look like this, your body type is this, and this is, thus, how you should eat and train. Unfortunately, no. …
An objective, evidence-based look at the purported health benefits of essential oils.
Essential oils are incredibly popular right now. By some online accounts, it seems like these oils are miracle workers in a bottle that can fight off all health conditions.
But wait, before you shell out $60 for a 10mL bottle of the currently trending essential oil, you might want to give this article a read. It’s an objective, evidence-based look at some of the purported health benefits of essential oils.
What are essential oils?
If you’ve ever taken in the enchanting smell of a fresh bouquet of roses or immersed yourself in the woody fragrance of fir trees in winter, then you’ve been exposed to essential oils. …
Every day, we find ourselves bombarded with swarms of health-related information from the media. I mean — take a look at the many health claims making their rounds on your social media feed. Essential oils as a cure-all? Please.
Shady health claims on the web
Health claims on the internet are frequently overblown, misleading, based on shoddy research, or completely false.
From headlines about how juice fasting is the cure to cancer (it’s not) to the alleged dangers of vaccinations, the onslaught of news can be downright overwhelming; not to mention potentially harmful.
Medical misinformation kills
How harmful? Well — to the extent that it kills.
According to a 2017 study, cancer patients who turn to alternative therapies — such as diets, herbs, and supplements — in place of conventional treatments are 2.5 times more likely to die within five years of diagnosis. …
A deep-dive into vitiligo
Vitiligo is a multifactorial skin disease in which a faulty immune reaction attacks and kills off pigment cells known as melanocytes. The aftermath of the massacre leaves behind patches of white skin.
Even though it has been known about for at least 5000 years, little has been done to understand its causes or to evaluate possible treatments as it is not a painful or immediately life-threatening condition.
As someone who currently has various depigmented patches of skin running across my elbows, back and ankles, I have firsthand experience of the profound psychological and social impact it has on people diagnosed with the skin disease. …
Six evidence-based ways you can increase your testosterone levels
You’re not the man your father was: testosterone levels in men are lower than ever and have been declining for decades. A study on a large sample of American men — published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism in 2007 — found that the average testosterone level has been dropping by as much as one percent per year.
A 65-year-old man in 1987 had about 17% more testosterone than a 65-year-old man in 2004.
While the exact cause behind the worrying drop isn’t clear, researchers believe that it is a multifaceted result of modern, industrialized life.
How does low testosterone affect me?
Testosterone is an androgen — a male sex hormone — which is also essential for women. Low libido and health issues, such as that of metabolic syndrome — a cluster of conditions that occur concurrently and lead to an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes — has been associated with low testosterone levels in men. There also seems to be a link between low testosterone levels and depression in both men and women. …
Popular as it is, its actual effects on health are lacking
Originating in the Far East around 2,000 years ago, Kombucha — also known as mushroom tea — is a fermented tea from the plant Camellia sinensis: the same plant from which black tea is produced. Kombucha’s brewing process involves a week-long fermentation of already-fermented black tea with sugar, fungi, and bacteria.
Yucks — why would anyone want to drink ‘doubly-fermented’ tea?
Well, it is believed that a variety of acidic compounds produced in the fermentation process benefit health through detoxification and anti-oxidation. It’s also often claimed to have stronger anti-cancer properties than other teas.
Can it prevent colon cancer, diabetes, and hyperglycemia?
D-saccharic acid 1,4 lactone (D-saccharolactone) is the main contributing factor to the hype surrounding kombucha. It is claimed to exert anti-cancer effects in the colon and is studied for its abilities to prevent diabetes and hyperglycemia (high blood glucose). …
Schedule your workouts according to your menstrual cycle for better strength and muscle gains
Us women face issues that men simply never will. Performance, strength, training motivation and coordination when training vary during our periods because of the (roughly) monthly cycle of hormonal variations that we undergo.
On the contrary, a man’s hormones are relatively stable across the month: the implication being they can train pretty much the same way, every day. Lucky bastards!
While I still wish that we didn’t need to bleed out every month, there seems to be a silver lining. Research suggests that we can exploit our rollercoaster hormones consisting of progesterone, estrogen and testosterone for better strength and muscle gains. …
Detox or cleansing programs are unnecessary and can kill you
There are no short-cuts to health: no quick-fixes, no magical potions consisting of kale juice with activated charcoal which will instantly strengthen your bones, shed the pounds and make you look as you did when you were a fresh-faced 19 year old. But that doesn’t stop plenty of misguided “gurus” and money-hungry marketers from pushing a series of juices, teas, or any other so-called ‘detox’ products in consumers’ faces.
These promoted detox diets and cleanses promise to ‘eliminate harmful toxins’ and basically cure whatever it is which ails you.
The prison sentence
Presumably, the goal of a detox is to cleanse the body of harmful substances — often termed as toxins — through some type of highly restrictive diet. If the marketers are especially desperate for a payday, they’d also advise you to enhance your diet with supplements which (surprise) they happen to carry and are able to sell at a discounted price. Some cleanses are targeted at specific organs, while others aim to purge you from head to toe. …
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