ReportWire

Category: Nutrition

Nutrition | ReportWire publishes the latest breaking U.S. and world news, trending topics and developing stories from around globe.

  • The Link Between Milk and Parkinson’s Disease | NutritionFacts.org

    [ad_1]

    Is the brain damage associated with milk consumption due to the banned pesticide heptachlor or the milk sugar galactose?

    Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative brain disorder that affects millions of people. What causes it? Well, if you look at lifestyle factors associated with Parkinson’s disease, dairy consumption is the strongest dietary factor associated with an increased risk of Parkinson’s disease. In fact, dairy products are the only food group consistently linked with a high risk of developing Parkinson’s. Five large prospective studies have confirmed the link. This includes the two Harvard cohorts, the Nurses’ Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, which followed more than 100,000 people combined for decades in “the largest analysis of dairy and PD [Parkinson’s disease] to date,” analyzing more than 1,000 newly diagnosed cases. All the studies found a link between dairy and Parkinson’s, with most finding a significant link—about a 50% increase in risk overall in those drinking the most milk compared to those drinking the least, at a p-value below 0.00001, meaning there’s less than a 1 in 100,000 chance you’d randomly get a finding that extreme. You can see this in the chart below and at 1:13 in my video, The Role Milk May Play in Triggering Parkinson’s Disease.

    Okay, but why is there a link at all? “Despite clear-cut associations between milk intake and” incidence of Parkinson’s, “there is no rational explanation,” concluded one review. A year later, though, we got a clue: “Midlife milk consumption and substantia nigra neuron density at death.” What does that mean? Parkinson’s is caused primarily by the loss of a certain type of nerve cells in a critical part of the brain, with symptoms first appearing once most of these neurons have died. So one study looked at how much milk people drank when they were in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and then examined their brains at autopsy and counted how many of those critical neurons they had left. In every single quadrant, neuron density was highest “in those who consumed no milk and lowest in those who consumed the most milk.” Even after removing the Parkinson’s cases, those drinking two cups (473 mL) of milk a day had up to 40% fewer nerve cells in most quadrants of that critical brain region. What’s in milk that could be wiping out brain cells? Among the people who drank the most milk, residues of the pesticide “heptachlor epoxide were found in 9 out of 10 brains.” So, maybe the finding of pesticide residues more commonly in the brains of those who drank the most milk could explain how milk could be cause-and-effect related to Parkinson’s disease risk.

    Now, that’s not the only potential explanation. In one of my videos, I talked about how meat contains that clumpy neurotoxic protein alpha-synuclein. Well, dairy products may contain trace amounts as well, but we don’t have confirmation of that. Could the milk sugar “galactose be the missing link?” Galactose is what the lactose in milk breaks down into once it’s in the body. It’s also what’s used to induce aging—to experimentally cause aging—in the brain. When you drink it, the galactose is picked up by your brain within a few hours, and for doses above 100 mg/kg, it appears that galactose can cause pathological alterations in brain cells, similar to those observed in Parkinson’s disease. This amount “can be reached and surpassed” by simply drinking two glasses (473 mL) of milk (the main dietary source of galactose) each day. And of all your brain cells, those dopaminergic neurons—the ones that you need to retain to prevent Parkinson’s—may be more vulnerable to galactose-induced damage because they are more vulnerable to oxidative stress.

    Galactose may also explain the findings linking milk drinking with higher death rates. You may be thinking, “Well, duh—the saturated butterfat is just cutting people’s lives short,” but higher mortality with high milk consumption has been observed regardless of the milk fat content. Skim milk might be fat-free, but it’s not lactose-free.

    Can’t you just drink lactose-free milk, like Lactaid? That has the lactase enzyme added to make lactose-free milk. But it just breaks down lactose into galactose in the carton rather than in your gut, so you’re still ingesting the same amount of galactose. Perhaps it’s no wonder that more milk intake at midlife may be linked to a greater rate of cognitive decline. Remember, researchers use galactose to create brain aging in the laboratory. D-galactose, a metabolic derivative of lactose, has been extensively used in animal models “to mimic cognitive aging” through oxidative stress. Compared to those who said they “almost never” drink milk, those drinking more than one glass (237 mL) a day appear more likely to suffer a decline in global cognitive function.

    Doctor’s Note

    Here’s the meat video I mentioned: The Role Meat May Play in Triggering Parkinson’s Disease.

    You may remember that I’ve explored this before in Could Lactose Explain the Milk and Parkinson’s Disease Link?. Uric acid may also be a contender—see Parkinson’s Disease and the Uric Acid Sweet Spot.

    For more on Parkinson’s disease, check out related posts below.

    [ad_2]

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

    Source link

  • The Top 10 Earth Diet Recipes of All Time

    [ad_1]

    I created The Earth Diet during one of the most challenging seasons of my life. I was rock bottom sick, inflamed, exhausted, and searching for answers. An answer to prayer, I made a decision to go back to what felt the most simple and true, foods that come from the Earth. In 2009 I started this blog and created a challenge to eat only foods that came straight from nature for 365 days. 

    One of the biggest obstacles I faced in my life was that I was severely addicted to refined sugar, ultra processed foods and fast foods, so every time I had a craving for something like burgers, fries, chocolate, cookies, cheesecake, chicken nuggets and more I came up with recipes made with natural ingredients. And this is how all of these recipes that you are about to see today, were born. 

    No chemicals. No artificial ingredients. No extremes. Just real, whole foods.

    These recipes became my foundation. They were the meals I made while healing. The desserts made with honey, maple syrup, dates and coconut sugar helped me stay on track and not even think about refined sugar. The juices that gave me energy when I had none. Over time, they became the recipes thousands of people around the world have made in their own kitchens.

    These are the originals. The OG Earth Diet recipes that built everything.

    They are simple, healing and earth grown. I am so excited for you to try them, and share them with your family and hang them down for generations to come.

    MAINS


    Liana’s OG Chicken Bone Broth Noodle Soup 

    Noodles optional

    Serves 7-9 bowls

    Great for freezing and meal prepping. I usually cook a batch and eat it once daily for 3 days and then freeze the other 4 servings in glass containers. Reheat in a covered pot on the stove to keep in the moisture. Do not use a microwave as you will kill all the nutrients.

    Total Time: 3 hours

    Ingredients:

    You will need a 10 QT pot

    For the Broth:

    • 1 whole organic pasture raised chicken (take out the giblets from inside the chicken)

    • 1.5 gallon water (clean, filtered) (about 4 liters)

    • 7 garlic cloves

    • 3 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, diced

    • 1 thumb-sized piece of turmeric (or 1 teaspoon ground turmeric), diced

    • 1 whole onion, sliced

    • 3 celery stalks, chopped

    • 1 tablespoon Redmond salt

    • 1 teaspoon black pepper

    • 1 tablespoon thyme

    • 1 tablespoon oregano

    • 1 lemon, peeled and seeded (make sure the seeds are out or your soup will be bitter!)

    For the Soup:

    • Chicken meat (from the boiled chicken)

    • 4 carrots, sliced

    • 1 cup green beans, trimmed

    • 1 head broccoli, chopped into big bite sized pieces

    • 3 celery stalked, chopped

    • Noodles of your choice, rice, chickpea or red lentil etc

    Actions:

    1. Prepare the Broth:

    • In a large pot add the chicken and water.

    • Add garlic, ginger, turmeric, onion, celery, salt, thyme, oregano, and peeled lemon.

    • Bring to a boil, then reduce to a high simmer, place a lid on top and cook for 2 hours. Check occasionally and add more water as needed.

    2. Separate Chicken Meat:

    • After 2 hours turn off the heat and allow soup to cool with lid on, about 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the pot. Carefully separate the meat from the bones.

    • Return the chicken meat to the pot and discard the bones (or save for other uses).

    3. Add Vegetables:

    • Add sliced carrots, green beans, broccoli, and additional celery to the pot. You can either simmer for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are tender, or just keep the vegetables raw and start putting them in Tupperware and when you reheat them the vegetables will cook then.

    4. Add Noodles:

    • Stir in cooked noodles just before serving to heat through.

    5. Serve:

    • Ladle into bowls and enjoy the comforting warmth of this nutrient-packed chicken noodle soup.

    Tip: For added flavor, sprinkle with fresh parsley or a squeeze of lemon juice before serving.

     

    Walnut Crusted Chicken Tenders

    Makes 4 servings

    Ingredients:

    1/3 cup walnut meal

    1/2 cup almond flour

    1 1/2 tablespoons turmeric powder

    1/4 teaspoon redmond salt

    1/4 teaspoon black pepper

    2 eggs

    1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts

    3/4 cup 1 tablespoon extra-virgin coconut oil

    1 handful of broccoli sprouts, for garnish

    Action:

    1. Preheat the oven to 450°F.

    2. Add the walnut meal, almond flour, turmeric, salt, and pepper to a bowl and mix until well Combined.

    3. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Cut the chicken into tenders. Dip the tenders into the egg and then into the breading, turning until they’re coated well on all sides.

    4. Oil a baking tray and then place the chicken on it. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

    5. Serve garnished with a sprinkle of broccoli sprouts and a side salad.

     

    Grass-Fed Beef Tacos 

    Makes 4 servings

    Ingredients:

    2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

    1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder, divided

    1/4 teaspoon black pepper

    1 pound ground organic grass-fed ground beef

    1 small yellow onion, chopped

    2 large garlic cloves, diced

    1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

    1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

    1/2 teaspoon paprika

    1/4 teaspoon redmond salt

    1/4 teaspoon pepper

    1 teaspoon chili powder or 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, optional (if you want it a little spicy)

    4 tortillas, 4 lettuce wraps, or 8 taco shells

    Fillings (your choice):

    3/4 cup organic sour cream or vegan sour cream

    1 cup nutritional yeast

    1/2 cup grated carrot

    1 cup diced lettuce

    1 avocado, cubed

    1 pepper, diced

    Fresh chopped cilantro

    1 handful of broccoli sprouts

    16 ounces black beans (soaked, cooked, soft)

    Actions:

    1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the 1/2 teaspoon turmeric and black pepper. Sauté for 1 minute or until sizzling. Add the beef and cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until it turns brown, stirring frequently.

    2. Add the onion, garlic, cumin, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, paprika, salt, pepper, and chili powder, if using, to the meat and stir. Cook for 7 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender and the flavors are well combined.

    3. Place 1/4 cup of meat into each tortilla, or 2 tablespoons into a taco shell, and then add your fillings of choice.

    Redmond have the best taco seasoning you have ever tried I promise you! And way better than store bought taco seasoning! You can find it here. 

     

    Snacks 


    Chocolate Balls

    Makes 12 balls

    Ingredients:

    1 cup almond flour/nut meal (finely ground almonds or other nuts)

    1/4 cup cacao powder

    3 tablespoons maple syrup or raw honey

    Actions:

    1. Mix the nut meal, cacao powder, and maple syrupin a bowl.

    2. Roll the mixture into 12 balls.

    Tips:

    • Add 1/4 teaspoon sea salt and 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract for enhanced flavor.

    • Add essential oils (therapeutic-grade only): cinnamon, orange, peppermint, tangerine—start with 1 drop and then increase to 2 to 3 drops according to your preference.

    • You can use this mixture to make brownies (just form the mixture into squares) or a dessert pie (simply press into a pie plate with your fingertips).

    • Roll them in superfoods including shredded coconut, goji berries, hemp seeds, or cacao nibs.

     

    3-Ingredient Chocolate Avocado Mousse

    Serves 1

    Ingredients:

    2 Tbsp. cacao powder

    2 Tbsp. maple syrup or raw honey

    1 avocado

    Directions:

    In a food processor, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. (Note: Mash avocado with fork and add cacao/maple syrup if food processor isn’t available.)

    Taste mousse. For richer chocolate flavor, add more raw cacao powder. For sweeter taste, add more maple syrup or honey.

    Tip:

    Add 1/8 tsp. of vanilla to mousse to enhance flavor.

    Top mousse with fresh strawberries or raspberries.

    Use mousse as a topping for cupcakes or ice cream.

     

    Desserts


    Cookie Dough

    Total time: 10 minutes

    Makes 8 large cookies

    Ingredients:

    1 cup tigernut flour

    3/4 cup almond flour

    1/4 cup tapioca flour

    1/4 cup walnuts, chopped

    2 tablespoons Hu Chocolate Gems or organic dark chocolate chips

    5 teaspoons honey or 5 dates, seeded and diced

    1 tablespoon butter-flavored Nutiva Coconut Oil or extra-virgin coconut oil

    1 tablespoon MCT oil

    1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

    1 tablespoon organic SunButter or other sunflower seed butter

    1/4 teaspoon redmond salt

    1/4 teaspoon baking soda

    Actions:

    1. If you are baking these, preheat the oven to 325°F.

    2. Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl until well combined. This should produce a moist dough. Add a dash of water if needed to reach desired consistency. Roll into balls; they are ready to eat!

    3. If you are baking the cookies, place the dough balls on a baking tray lined with baking paper. You can also flatten the balls into cookie shapes, if desired.

    4. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until just golden brown.

    Tips:

    • If you want to eat the dough raw, roll the balls in cacao powder! It gives a delicious flavor when biting into them.

    • For a softer cookie, use blanched almond flour. If you use almond flour that was made with almonds with skins on, you will need to add a little more water.


    Mini Cashew Cheesecakes

    Total time: 10 minutes to prepare, 40 minutes to set

    Makes 20 mini cheesecakes

    Ingredients:

    3 cups cashew nuts, soaked for 4 hours

    3/4 cup maple syrup

    3/4 cup coconut oil

    1/2 cup lemon juice

    1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

    Pinch of salt

    Actions:

    1. Soak the cashews in water for 4 hours, then discard the soaking liquid.

    2. Put all ingredients in a high-speed blender and whip until completely smooth. Line a cupcake tray with 20 paper cups.

    3. Spoon 1 heaping tablespoon of the cheesecake mixture into each cupcake cup. Set in the refrigerator for 40 minutes and they are ready to enjoy!

     

    Ice Cream Bites with Chocolate Sauce

    Total time: 10 minutes

    Makes 15

    Ingredients:

    1½ cups cashews

    Juice of 1 small lemon

    ½ cup maple syrup

    ¼ cup coconut oil

    1 tablespoon vanilla extract

    Dash of Redmond salt

    2 teaspoons maca powder or lucuma powder (optional)

    1 batch Chocolate Sauce

    Actions:

    In a blender, blend cashews, lemon juice, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla, salt, and maca powder, if desired, on high speed until smooth. There should be absolutely no lumps.

    Scoop the ice cream mixture into a mini cupcake tin, and place in the freezer for 5 minutes.

    Add a spoonful of Chocolate Sauce to each ice cream bite. They are ready to eat! Keep them in the freezer longer, and they will set even harder.

    Tip: Soak the cashews for 4 hours to get a creamy, easier-to-whip ice cream.

    For the chocolate sauce

    Total time: 5 minutes

    Makes 1½ cups, serves 6

    Ingredients:

    2/3 cup cacao powder

    ½ cup maple syrup

    ¼ cup extra-virgin coconut oil

    Actions:

    In a blender, blend all ingredients on high speed until they become a smooth sauce.

    Tips:

    For a more intense chocolate flavor, add more cacao powder. For a sweeter flavor, add more maple syrup. For a raw dish, substitute raw honey for maple syrup. If you don’t have a blender, beat well in a bowl with a spoon.

     

    Juices

     
    My Go-To Green Juice Recipe

    (Makes approximately 4 juices)

    • 3 bunches of celery

    • 3 cucumbers

    • 4 lemons

    • 4 thumb-sized pieces of ginger

    • Optional: Broccoli sprouts (if you have them)

    • Optional: Add an apple or orange if you’d like it sweeter

    Beet juice

    Total time: 10 minutes

    Serves 1

    Ingredients:

    1 small beet

    3 celery stalks 

    3 carrots

    1 small red apple (optional) 

    Actions:

    1. Put all the ingredients in your juice machine.

    2. Juice and drink.

    Suggestions:

    Juice the entire beet, including the stalk and leaves, if it comes with those.

    ⸻

    This post is sponsored by Redmond Real Salt. Redmond Real Salt has over 60 trace minerals that comes from Utah, USA. The Earth Diet is about focusing on local salt, so use salt from your country. Redmond Real Salt also has incredible seasonings and spices to make any dish delicious! You would have seen Real Salt used in a lot of the recipes above. 

    You can get a discount on the Redmond Real Salt here for 15% off: Always support businesses websites directly when you can instead of the giant machine. 

    Use code: LIANA for 15% off

    But I understand Amazon is more convenient for some so here is a discount on Amazon: Use code EARTHDIET10 for 10% off 

    Thank you for using my affiliate links and codes whenever possible, as it helps my business immensely. It keeps me going and being able to do what I do and share content like this. I am grateful! 

    Love Liana 

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Eating Dinner at This Time Improves Heart Health, According to New Study

    [ad_1]

    Published February 24, 2026 02:28PM

    Late-night snacking on juicy, carby food—preferably while standing barefoot in the refrigerator light—is one of those universally blissful life moments. You finish your meal, belly full, and hazily shuffle to bed.

    But eating too close to bedtime can negatively impact your health, according to a study published in early February. Here, Outside dives into the research and interviews doctors to nail down the best time to eat before bed to minimize health issues.

    When Should You Eat Your Last Meal of the Day?

    The study published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, examined how eating close to bedtime affects overall health. It suggested that having your last meal three hours before bedtime can result in decreased blood pressure, a lowered heart rate, and better-controlled blood glucose levels.

    The researchers from Northwestern University focused their study on adults between 36 and 75 who were considered to be overweight or obese. These participants were considered to be at risk for cardiometabolic disease—such as heart disease or type 2 diabetes—but were otherwise generally healthy. The participants, 39 in total, were randomly assigned to groups that either adhered to their normal nighttime eating schedules or followed a fasting routine for at least 6 weeks. Most people continued through 7.5 weeks to accommodate their daily schedules.

    Those assigned to the control (non-fasting) group fasted for 11 to 13 hours between dinner and breakfast the next day. The people assigned to the experimental (the fasting) group did not eat for 13 to 16 hours, from dinner until breakfast the next day. In other words, those who fasted had their last meal three hours earlier than the control group.

    Though both groups dimmed their lights three hours before bed, no other sleep or eating adjustments were required. The participants also weren’t instructed on what to eat, just when. Researchers monitored both groups’ heart rate and blood pressure every 30 minutes from the afternoon until they woke up the next morning.

    Limiting Food Right Before Bed Maintains Heart Health

    Those in the fasting group showed better blood pressure and heart rate levels, as well as glucose regulation, aka stable blood sugar levels.

    “Seeing that a relatively simple change in meal timing could simultaneously improve nighttime autonomic balance (which refers to your autonomic nervous system and regulates physiological processes like breathing and digestion), blood pressure, heart rate regulation, and morning glucose metabolism, all without calorie restriction or weight loss, was remarkable,” says Dr. Daniela Grimaldi, one of the researchers involved in the study and a research associate professor of neurology in the division of sleep medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

    “The two to three hours before sleep are a critical transition period,” adds Dr. Kumar Sarkar, a cardiologist at Northwell Health who was not involved in the study. “Melatonin, sympathetic activity declines, and metabolic rate drops. Eating during this window forces the body to digest while trying to initiate sleep.”

    In other words, if your body is working hard to break down a meal before bed, Sarkar points out that food and subsequent digestion can lead to gut motility (food moving through the GI tract) and insulin secretion—both of which can mess with your sleep.

    What This Means for You

    As study author Grimaldi explains, the aging population is growing—and so too are concerns about cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and diabetes. “Time-restricted eating has generated enormous public interest, but we wanted to provide scientific evidence on how to optimize it—specifically by anchoring it to sleep, which is something everyone does and has profound effects on cardiometabolic health,” she says.

    She adds that there was a 90 percent adherence rate in the fasting groups, suggesting that the intervention is “something people can actually sustain.”

    For example, if you typically get to bed around 10 P.M., try to wrap up dinner by 7 P.M. Stick to this routine as best you can and see how you feel.

    There are some important limitations of the study to note: the majority of participants were female, which can affect how we interpret these results for men, Grimaldi says. This is because there are differences between the sexes in terms of autonomic function, metabolism, and circadian rhythm.

    Plus, Sarkar points out, the sample size is relatively small, and the focus on overweight and obese individuals is a bit limiting. Still, he says the improvements in nighttime heart rate, cortisol levels, and blood pressure were compelling.

    The researchers also didn’t focus on what participants ate before sleep, only when they ate it. But what you eat is important for sleep and overall health, too. Grimaldi says that “the interaction between meal composition, timing, and individual digestion rates is definitely worth investigating.” In that vein, Sarkar notes that avoiding large, high-fat, high-glycemic foods (such as white bread, donuts, and bagels)—which can cause glucose fluctuations throughout the night that impact restfulness and sleep quality—is important, too.

    Want more Outside health stories? Sign up for the Bodywork newsletter. If you’re ready to push yourself, sign up for the You vs. The Year 2026 Challenge here. 

    [ad_2]

    aunderwood

    Source link

  • Quieting Inflammation Through Food

    [ad_1]

    Quieting Inflammation Through Food: Summary

    In Quieting Inflammation Through Food, host Evan Transue (Detective Ev) interviews Dr. Wanda Parks, I-MD, PhD, BSN, FDN-P, an integrative and functional health practitioner, certified aromatherapist, yoga instructor/coach, and retired military veteran who helps women over 40 with metabolic and autoimmune conditions improve health naturally and sustainably.

    Dr. Parks shares her personal health journey beginning while she was active duty as a flight nurse, when she woke up with a “frozen finger” she could not move. After extensive imaging and rheumatology workups, she was told she would need medication “forever,” later learning she had been prescribed a chemotherapy drug despite not having cancer, and eventually being moved to weekly injectable medication. Despite escalating treatment, she continued to struggle with severe pain, difficulty walking, heel/Achilles pain, and fluctuating daily function, along with depression and additional prescriptions. She notes heavy steroid use affected her bones and contributed to a wrist injury requiring screws and pins.

    Seeking a better way, she first explored aromatherapy and pursued advanced training, including a doctorate in integrative medicine focus, adding modalities such as face yoga after stroke-like symptoms and a suspected Bell’s palsy episode. She describes Functional Diagnostic Nutrition (FDN) training as “the icing on the cake,” because it filled gaps left by prior lab work and approaches.

    A key turning point was MRT food sensitivity testing, which revealed inflammatory triggers in foods she believed were healthy, such as cauliflower. She also cites leaky gut findings from foundational testing. Removing reactive foods led to meaningful symptom improvement, yet her physician only maintained medication dosage without asking what changed.

    Dr. Parks emphasizes foundational labs, shares client improvements, and advises generally avoiding artificial sweeteners. In the closing, she recommends MRT food sensitivity screening as the single most impactful step for health insight and improvement.

    Quieting Inflammation Through Food: Topics

    00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro

    02:00 Frozen Finger Diagnosis

    05:22 Defining Frozen Finger

    06:22 Seeking Alternatives

    09:26 FDN Starting Point

    12:29 Key Lab Breakthroughs

    15:51 MRT as Foundation

    18:14 Client Success Story

    22:23 Practice and Ideal Clients

    24:04 Ideal Client Reality Check

    25:13 Getting Clients Without Social

    26:43 Many Paths to Grow

    27:59 Food Advice Without Testing

    31:42 Integrity Over Fads

    34:58 Client Wins and Breakthroughs

    38:34 Why Foundational Labs Work

    39:53 Integrative Not Dogmatic

    41:50 Where to Find Dr Wanda

    42:30 Support the Practitioner Community

    44:40 Signature Question and Final Takeaway

    Where to Find Dr. Wanda Parks

    Go to our Health Detective Podcasts for more informational and functional health-oriented podcasts like this one.

    LEARN MORE ABOUT US

    Try FDN for FREE! 

    COURSE OVERVIEW

    DRESS WORKSHOP

    STRESS & HORMONE WORKSHOP

    5in5 WORKSHOP

    MEDICAL DIRECTOR PROGRAM

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED (UPCOMING LIVES)

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED – FREE EXPERT LED TRAINING SESSIONS

    FDN METHODOLOGY

    FDN ADVANCED COURSES

    [ad_2]

    Functional Diagnostic Nutrition

    Source link

  • Can Onions Help with Weight Loss, Cholesterol, and PCOS? | NutritionFacts.org

    [ad_1]

    Let’s talk about treating weight loss, cholesterol, and PCOS with diet. What can an eighth of a teaspoon a day of onion powder do for body fat, and what can raw red onion do for cholesterol?

    In one of my previous videos about onions, I talked about the data supporting—or not supporting—the role of onions in boosting testosterone in men, protecting bone health, controlling allergies, and dealing with the side effects of chemotherapy. What about weight loss? Enter the “Effect of Steamed Onion (ONIRO) Consumption on Body Fat and Metabolic Profiles in Overweight Subjects.” Researchers used steamed onions, which aren’t as spicy and have a weaker smell, so they could better disguise them as a placebo. They dried them into onion powder and gave people a minuscule amount—about an eighth of a teaspoon (300 mg) a day. Surely, a little daily dusting of onion powder wouldn’t affect people’s weight. But check out the results reported in the abstract: Measurements using a DEXA scan showed a significant reduction in body fat mass, and a CT scan revealed a significant decrease in whole, visceral, and subcutaneous fat areas.

    Hold on. If a little onion powder is so effective for weight loss, why wasn’t it featured in my book How Not to Diet? Because, as so often happens in studies, the spin in the abstract doesn’t accurately represent the actual data. The DEXA scan results measured no significant change of fat in the group that got the placebo capsules. They only appeared to lose about a spoonful (7 g) of fat, whereas the group unknowingly taking an eighth of a teaspoon of onion powder stuffed into capsules lost nearly one and a half pounds (0.64 kg) of body fat—a significant drop from baseline, but not a statistically significant drop compared to the placebo group, meaning the loss could have just been due to chance. Same thing with the CT scan results: 5 times more loss of overall fat and over 30 times more loss of the dangerous visceral fat, but the results did not reach statistical significance compared to placebo.

    A more recent study tried four teaspoons (9 g) of onion powder a day and similarly failed to accelerate the loss of visceral, total, or subcutaneous fat compared to placebo—but the placebo was also four teaspoons (9 g) of onion powder a day. They used yellow onions versus white onions, and it seems they both may have caused a loss of abdominal body fat, without a significant difference between them. Either way, you might look at these two studies and think, sure, but what are the downsides? It’s only an eighth of a teaspoon of onion powder a day, so why not give it a try? It can’t hurt, but we just don’t have enough evidence to be confident it will actually help.

    Let’s talk about polycystic ovary syndrome, also known as PCOS. It’s one of the most common hormone disorders, affecting 5% to 10% of reproductive-aged women. In addition to causing symptoms like irregular periods, “PCOS is a pre-diabetic state, with decreased insulin sensitivity.” PCOS treatment is challenging due to medication side effects. So, are there dietary options? How about a randomized controlled clinical trial of raw red onion intake?

    Why onions? Well, onion extracts can evidently improve blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in rats with diabetes and, more importantly, were found to reduce blood sugar levels in humans with diabetes, but evidently not in non-diabetic humans. People with PCOS are kind of pre-diabetic, so would it work for them? First, let’s look at those other two studies. To study the “Metabolic Effects of Onion and Green Beans,” people with diabetes spent a week eating either a small onion (60 g) each day or the same diet with about six cups (600 g) of green beans instead—and both approaches worked. The onion lowered people’s blood sugar levels by about 10% compared to a non-onion control diet, while the green beans lowered them by roughly 15% compared to the control.

    Here’s the study that supposedly shows no blood sugar benefits for people without diabetes. It’s true—onions don’t seem to lower normal blood sugar levels, which is a good thing, but check out what happens when you feed people sugar. Have people consume about two and a half tablespoons (50 g) of corn syrup, and their blood sugar levels shoot up over the next two hours before their body can tamp it back down. But give people the exact same amount of sugar along with more and more onion extract, and the blood sugar spike is significantly dampened, almost as much as if you had instead given them an antidiabetic drug, as you can see below and at 4:00 in my video Onions Put to the Test for Weight Loss, Cholesterol, and PCOS Treatment.

    We see the same blunting effect on blood sugar when people get a shot of adrenaline and eat onion extract, compared to receiving adrenaline without the onion extract, as you can see below and at 4:11 in my video.

    So, are there blood sugar benefits for both people with and without diabetes? No difference was found in blood sugar levels or other markers of insulin resistance between the high-onion and low-onion groups of PCOS patients, nor were there any differences in a marker of inflammation between the two groups. But women with PCOS aren’t just at higher risk for diabetes and inflammation—they are also at higher risk for high cholesterol.

    Women with PCOS are over seven times more likely to have a heart attack and develop heart disease, the number one killer of women. But consuming raw red onion appears to be effective in lowering cholesterol, though the group that ate more onions only dropped their LDL cholesterol about 5 points (5 mg/dL), which was not significantly different than the group that ate fewer onions.

    I did find this study from 50 years ago where researchers fed people nearly an entire stick (100 g) of butter, and their cholesterol shot up about 30 points within hours of consumption but by only 9 points or 3 points when combined with about a third of a cup (50 g) of raw or boiled onion. The moral of the story: Don’t eat a stick of butter.

    Doctor’s Note

    Check out the previous video I mentioned: Friday Favorites: Are Onions Beneficial for Testosterone, Osteoporosis, Allergies, and Cancer?.

    [ad_2]

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

    Source link

  • How to read a paper (Part 3) – How to approach a paper – Diet and Health Today

    [ad_1]

    Introduction

    We’re on the third part of four notes documenting “How to read a paper.” The first note reviewed levels of evidence. That’s the starting point to understand what we are reading and how robust it might be. Part 2 looked at the component parts of a paper and some terms that we need to know to be able to dissect papers. This note uses the other two as building blocks and it covers how to approach a paper.

    I’ll let you into a secret up front. I hardly ever read a paper. I can’t remember the last time I read a paper from start to finish. The narrative of a paper will tell me what the researchers want me to know. That will bias me if I read this first. The numbers tell me the truth (if they have included enough numbers and most papers do). Definitions are also a source of truth. Discovering that the red meat definition includes sandwiches and lasagne destroys any findings immediately (Ref 1). You could stop there. Definitions will often require you to review previous papers and numbers will often require you to scrutinise any supplementary material. If researchers know that something should be shared but that it would undermine findings, they can stick it in the supplementary material.

    I am struggling to think of a ‘trick’ that I found in a paper that wasn’t in the numbers, definitions and/or supplementary material. Researchers are not going to tell you any stunts in the narrative.

    [ad_2]

    Zoe

    Source link

  • Purified vs. Restructured Water – Which is Best?

    [ad_1]

    Purified vs. Restructured Water: Summary

    This episode, Purified vs. Restructured Water, features guest Tim, founder of ChemicalFreeBody.com, who has previously taught multiple classes to FDN coaches. Tim recounts declining health beginning in his late 20s after years of processed foods: weight gain, eczema and other skin issues, chronic acid reflux, anxiety, and rectal bleeding. He suffered a severe appendicitis attack and surgery, which Tim credits as a life-saving crisis care while criticizing Western medicine’s chronic-disease approach.

    Tim says fear of worsening illness grew after witnessing friends and loved ones die, including his younger brother who died in a mountain bike accident. A turning point came when he accompanied his friend Charles—diagnosed with cancer at 43—to the Hippocrates Health Institute, where they learned about living foods, green juices, wheatgrass, detoxification, and reducing “acid” inputs. Tim describes an initial detox reaction followed by feeling rejuvenated, losing 42 pounds in 60 days, and resolving most skin issues. He states Charles healed in about 2.5 years without chemo, radiation, or surgery.

    Tim began teaching detox/nutrition classes to thousands and later left financial advising to coach full time, eventually creating “doctor formulated chemical free” products due to dissatisfaction with store-bought quality.

    A major discussion centers on water: Tim argues most people are under-hydrated and consuming polluted water affected by microplastics and other contaminants. He explains “structured water” as the “fourth phase” (exclusion-zone/gel water), and claims structured water improves cellular hydration and circulation. He suggests inexpensive options like chia or flax “gel” water.

    Tim also discusses oral health (root canals/cavitations), recommending biological dentists and sharing his own experience removing cavitations. He promotes “Water Hero” structuring devices sold via ChemicalFreeBody.com (often sold out), and mentions agricultural results from using the technology.

    Purified vs. Restructured Water: Topics

    00:00 Welcome to the Health Detective Podcast

    00:51 Meet Tim James: Chemical Free Body Origin Story

    03:45 When Health Started Slipping: Processed Foods, Weight Gain & Early Symptoms

    05:43 Appendicitis Crisis in Peru: Emergency Flight & Life-Saving Surgery

    09:46 The Turning Point: Cancer Losses, Hippocrates Institute & Detox Breakthrough

    11:49 From Green Juice Classes to Quitting Finance: Building a Quality-First Brand

    15:34 Oral Health Rabbit Hole: Root Canals, Cavitations & Biological Dentistry

    21:54 Structured Water Begins: Why “Purified” Isn’t the Whole Story

    24:11 Plastic Pollution & the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

    24:33 Great Lakes Die-Off: Fix the Water, Not the Fish

    25:44 Your ‘Fishbowl’ Environment: Light, Air, and Modern Toxins

    27:54 Water as a Core Input: Purify + The Idea of ‘Structured Water’

    28:32 Exclusion Zone (EZ) Water Explained: The 4th Phase & Why It Matters

    33:01 Blood Flow, Saunas, Hydrogen: Boosting EZ Water for Better Circulation

    34:17 Hydration, Minerals, and Why Modern Soil Forces Supplementation

    35:46 Water Hero Device Pitch: Energizing Water, Scaling, and Sweet Strawberries

    38:03 DIY Structured Water Q&A: Chia/Flax Tips and Budget Options

    40:39 Buying Options & Backorders: Handheld vs Whole-House vs Garden Units

    42:11 Regenerative Ag Vision + Orchard Case Study Results

    45:27 Where to Find Tim + The One Habit He’d Give Everyone

    Where to Find Tim James

    Go to our Health Detective Podcasts for more informational and functional health-oriented podcasts like this one.

    LEARN MORE ABOUT US

    Try FDN for FREE! 

    COURSE OVERVIEW

    DRESS WORKSHOP

    STRESS & HORMONE WORKSHOP

    5in5 WORKSHOP

    MEDICAL DIRECTOR PROGRAM

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED (UPCOMING LIVES)

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED – FREE EXPERT LED TRAINING SESSIONS

    FDN METHODOLOGY

    FDN ADVANCED COURSES

    [ad_2]

    Functional Diagnostic Nutrition

    Source link

  • The 5-Minute Breakfast This Four-Time Olympian Skier Swears By

    [ad_1]

    (Photo: L to R: Ashley Caldwell: Tim Clayton/Getty; Burrito and salsa: Ayana Underwood/Canva )

    Published February 19, 2026 09:05AM

    When my sister gave birth to my beloved nephew, I eagerly signed up to cook all her meals for the first few months postpartum. Over the course of a few weeks, I stepped into an entirely new world, one that taught me how vital it is for mothers to nourish properly as they heal from pregnancy and birth.

    So when I heard about 4X Olympic freestyle skier Ashley Caldwell, a new mom, I was immediately impressed. With a resume that includes taking home a gold medal in the 2022 Winter Olympics and being the only woman to land a quadruple-twisting triple backflip, a move called “The Daddy,” she’s quite an inspiration. She also holds a world record for the hardest acrobatic trick ever completed by a female.

    While she decided not to pursue the 2026 Games to focus on being a parent, I felt compelled to reach out to find out what she’s eating to fuel her body through postpartum recovery.

    How Ashley Caldwell Maintains Energy After Having a Baby

    I interviewed Caldwell just as she was starting her day. In the background, her baby cooed. From experience with my nephew, I knew time was limited; new parents only get a few quiet minutes at a time.

    Caldwell shared that most mornings begin with training, and to fuel those workouts while supporting milk production, she relies on a breakfast burrito. Her favorite kind is stuffed with cheese and healthy fats. “Avocado is my jam,” she says. Depending on how she feels (and whether her stomach cooperates), she’ll sometimes add salsa for extra flavor.

    “Breakfast burritos are a solid way to start the day, especially postpartum,” Caldwell says. “My body needs so much just to train and compete. And with nursing, I need extra calcium too. Plus, it’s easy to eat. I can nurse with my baby in one hand and eat the burrito with the other.”

    In her world of gravity sports, calcium matters a lot. “I’m breastfeeding, and he’s taking all my nutrients, which is fine,” she said. “But I have to stay aware. If I don’t get enough calcium, I could risk breaking bones.”

    With a sister only a few months postpartum, I sent her Caldwell’s recipe to try. I also made it myself. For her, I wanted to see whether it could support milk production and steady her energy. For me, I was curious whether it would satisfy me through a busy morning.

    To better understand the nutrition behind it—and how to elevate it further—I also spoke with a registered dietitian specializing in postpartum care. Read on for her recommendations—plus my (and my sister’s) final thoughts on this hearty breakfast.

    How to Make Ashley Caldwell’s Breakfast Burrito

    The supplies for this one are easy. All you need is a bowl, a whisk, a pan or skillet, and a spatula.

    ashley caldwell breakfast burrito
    (Photo: Ashia Aubourg)

    Ingredients

    • 3 large eggs
    • ¼ cup shredded cheddar cheese
    • 1 ripe avocado (pitted and sliced)
    • 1 large whole-wheat tortilla (burrito size)
    • Tomato salsa, to use as a topping
    • Olive oil, for cooking
    • Salt and black pepper, to taste

    Recipe

    1. Crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk until smooth.
    2. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium, then add a drizzle of olive oil.
    3. Pour in the eggs and immediately lower the heat to low. Stir gently with a spatula as they begin to set.
    4. Once the eggs start to firm up, sprinkle in the cheese, plus a pinch of salt and pepper.
    5. Turn off the heat and let the residual warmth finish melting the cheese.
    6. Warm the tortilla, either in the microwave (30 seconds) or in a hot skillet (about ten seconds per side).
    7. To assemble the burrito, layer the eggs, sliced avocado, and a spoonful of salsa in the center of the tortilla. Fold the sides of the tortilla in, then roll it tightly from the bottom up to form a burrito.
    8. Optional: Toast the burrito in a skillet or put it in a toaster oven for extra crunch. You can also add extra salsa on the side.

    The Verdict: Simple, Savory, and Filling

    I’ve eaten plenty of breakfast burritos, but I never realized how quickly one can be made without the extra step of cooking bacon or sausage. This vegetarian version came together in just five minutes, start to finish. For anyone new to wrapping burritos, I recommend watching a quick tutorial—it helps.

    My sister, who’s currently breastfeeding, tried the recipe after I shared it with her. She said it fit easily into her busy mornings, supported milk production, and kept her full.

    I couldn’t agree more with how satisfying it was. I added hot sauce for some heat and salsa macha (a spicy sauce made with dried chiles, peanuts, and sesame seeds), for extra crunch. That burrito kept me satiated and full until lunchtime.

    How to Get the Most Out of This Burrito, According to Nutritionists

    “This breakfast burrito offers a balanced mix of macronutrients and micronutrients,” says Pamela Mitri, a registered dietitian specializing in pre- and post-natal care based in Ontario, Canada. For an athlete like Caldwell, Mitri recommends eating it about three hours before training to maximize its benefits.

    Eggs supply protein to support muscle repair and growth. Cheese offers calcium for bone health. Avocado provides healthy fats, and tomato salsa contains the antioxidant lycopene, which has been found to lower your risk of stroke and cancer. The burrito is also a good source of energy-boosting carbohydrates—just one of the tortillas I purchased contains 30 grams of carbs per shell.

    The benefits extend beyond providing energy for training. For new mothers, “Eggs and cheese contribute essential protein and calcium for lactation and milk production,” says Mitri. Extra vegetables can upgrade this burrito even more, she says. Toss some spinach or kale into your burrito to boost your iron, which plays a key role in postpartum recovery, as depleted iron stores can lead to fatigue and low mood.

    Overall, this easy and delicious meal supports both Caldwell’s training goals and postpartum needs as she takes on two major journeys at once: preparing for future Winter Olympic Games and motherhood.

    Want more Outside health stories? Sign up for the Bodywork newsletter. If you’re ready to push yourself, sign up for the You vs. The Year 2026 Challenge here. 

    [ad_2]

    aunderwood

    Source link

  • Weight-Loss Devices to the Extreme | NutritionFacts.org

    [ad_1]

    Let’s discuss the safety and efficacy of various weight-loss methods, ranging from Botox and corsets to siphons and tapeworms.

    A moderately obese person doing moderately intense physical activity, like biking or brisk walking, would burn off approximately 350 calories an hour, but most drinks, snacks, and other processed junk are consumed at a rate of about 70 calories (293 kJ) per minute. Therefore, it only takes five minutes to wipe out a whole hour of exercise.

    Enter the AspireAssist siphon assembly.

    It’s a percutaneous gastrostomy device, meaning surgeons cut a hole in a person’s stomach and tunnel a fistula out through the abdominal wall. So, after each meal, the person can attach a suction gadget to the hole and directly drain out their stomach contents, as you can see below and at 0:47 in my video Extreme Weight-Loss Devices.

    This means you could gorge on donuts, spew them out through the hole in your stomach, then gorge on more donuts. Have your cake, and eat it, too…and two, three, and four times!

    It seems to be the quintessential American invention, straight from the land that brought us Jell-O salads, spray cheese, and deep-fried Snickers bars. Patients do lose weight, perhaps in part because the fistula may interfere with the relaxation of the stomach wall during a meal. The process also requires drinking lots of water and thoroughly chewing food, both of which may help with weight loss by increasing hydration and slowing the eating rate. Patients also started making healthier choices to avoid the unpleasant sight of gastric aspirate from unhealthy foods. (The tubing is clear, and, evidently, fried foods look particularly gross as they are pumped out.)

    All patients need to take supplemental potassium, since it’s sucked out in stomach juices. Otherwise, they risk becoming potassium-deficient (a common complication in bulimia), but most side effects are just minor wound complications. Serious adverse effects, like abdominal abscesses, are rare. The big selling point is that the siphon device doesn’t change the gastrointestinal tract’s anatomy. That seems like a low bar, but in today’s Wild West world of weight-loss procedures, you can’t take anything for granted. Take the duodenal-jejunal bypass liner, for example.

    Gastric bypass surgery works in part by cutting out a portion of the small intestine so it’s no longer in the flow of food, thereby helping to prevent the absorption of calories. Instead of major surgery, how about just dropping down a couple of feet of plastic tubing to line the intestinal walls? The problem with the EndoBarrier is that it has to be anchored in the digestive tract. This is accomplished with 10 barbed hooks that cause lacerations, accounting for the majority of the 891 adverse effects reported in 1,056 patients—nearly 9 out of 10 people. Severe penetrating trauma, resulting in esophageal perforation or liver abscesses, is rarer (occurring in only about 1 in 27 patients).

    Concern has been raised about the “palatability” of the AspireAssist stomach pump, but the most cringeworthy endoscopic procedure I discovered in my research was intestinal “resurfacing.” Why cover the inside of your intestines with plastic to prevent absorption when you can just “thermally ablate the superficial duodenal mucosa”? In other words, have your intestinal lining burned off—or rather, “resurfaced.”

    Surgeons have tried injecting Botox into the stomach walls of obese individuals, hoping it would partially paralyze their gastric muscles, slow stomach emptying, make people feel fuller longer, and lose weight. It didn’t work.

    Researchers in Sweden tried randomizing people to wear corsets for 12 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for nine months. And it didn’t work. The study participants just didn’t wear the corsets—they were “perceived as uncomfortable.” Duh.

    “Sanitized tapeworms” have evidently been widely advertised as a weight-loss remedy since back in the early 1900s. The fact that living tapeworms have been discovered during bariatric surgery operations suggests that infesting yourself with parasites may not be particularly effective either.

    Speaking of disgusting strategies, how about disgust itself? A study entitled “Harnessing the Power of Disgust: A Randomized Trial to Reduce High-Calorie Food Appeal Through Implicit Priming” tried using subliminal messages to ruin people’s appetite. Just before showing images of healthy foods, researchers briefly flashed happy images—such as a group of kittens—for 20 milliseconds. That’s too quick to consciously register, but the hope was to plant a positive imprint on the brain. Before showing images of high-calorie foods like ice cream, they flashed negative scenes, like a cockroach on a pizza slice, vomit in a dirty bathroom, and a burn wound. Apparently, it worked! Subjects subsequently reported a reduced desire to eat high-calorie foods, though this wasn’t tested directly. The researchers concluded that subliminal revulsion might be “a successful tactic to combat the onslaught of food cues that promote unhealthy eating….”

    The rest of the world looks on, bemused by American machinations, penning commentaries like “Don’t Let Them Eat Cake! A View from Across the Pond.” A paper in the journal Obesity Surgery entitled “What Are the Yanks Doing?” reviewed “The U.S. Experience with Implantable Gastric Stimulation,” inserting electrodes into the muscular layer of the stomach wall. When that didn’t work, colon electrical stimulation was tried.

    Even more shocking were studies like “Repetitive electric brain stimulation reduces food intake in humans.” Though placing deep-brain electrodes is considered a complication-prone operation, scientists have long pondered whether “placing an electrode somewhere in the brain could make people eat less.” Holes were drilled through the skulls of five obese individuals, and wires were pushed into their brains for “electrostimulatory exploration.” Once the researchers poked around and found spots where they were able to elicit convincing hunger responses, they sent in enough juice to fry out electro-coagulatory lesions. It seemed to work in cats and monkeys, but the researchers found that burning holes in people’s brains did not result in weight loss in obese humans. Thankfully, as I explained in my book How Not to Diet, healthy, sustainable weight loss isn’t brain surgery.

    Doctor’s Note

    Check out Is Gastric Balloon Surgery Safe and Effective for Weight Loss?.

    What about drugs? See Are Weight Loss Pills Safe? and Are Weight Loss Pills Effective?.

    So, what’s the best way to lose weight? I wrote a whole book about it! How Not to Diet is focused exclusively on sustainable weight loss. Borrow it from your local library or pick up a copy from your favorite bookseller. (All proceeds from my books are donated to charity.) To whet your appetite, take a peek: Trailer for How Not to Diet: Dr. Greger’s Guide to Weight Loss.

    For more on this topic, check out related posts below.

    [ad_2]

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

    Source link

  • Elana Meyers Taylor Just Won Gold. Here’s What the Olympic Bobsledder Ate to Train.

    [ad_1]

    Published February 17, 2026 09:46AM

    The daughter of an athlete, Elana Meyers Taylor, seemed destined for sports. At 11, she held a torch at the Atlanta Games. Decades later, she’s claimed six Olympic medals. Most recently, she took home her first gold medal in the women’s monobobsled event on Monday, February 16, at the 2026 Milano-Cortina Olympics—her fifth Games.

    Not only is she the most decorated female bobsledder in history, but she’s also the most decorated Black winter sports Olympian.

    Days before the Winter Olympics, I had to ask: What fuels an athlete competing at this level? Taylor’s answer was refreshingly practical. As the mom of Nico (five) and Noah (three), she gravitates toward a meal the whole family enjoys—something she can make anywhere in the world.

    What Does the Most Decorated Female Bobsledder Indulge in to Fuel? Pasta.

    Taylor, along with her entire family, travels when she competes, so, in addition to getting her body ready for the games, she’s also taking care of her two boys. “During the training season, we’re in a different location almost every week,” says Taylor. At the time of this interview, they’re all settled in Milan, Italy, as she gets ready to compete in her fifth Olympics.

    She consistently turns to one particular dish to power her journey: Bolognese pasta. “I can find the ingredients anywhere in the world, and it’s got everything I need in it.”

    Bolognese sauce is an Italian staple, which Taylor loves; she’s the daughter of parents with Jamaican, Panamanian, and Italian American roots. She follows a classic Bolognese recipe, ground beef stewed in an aromatic tomato sauce, but she adds spinach so she can “sneak veggies in.”

    She is also gluten-free, so while she loves this Bolognese dish, she always makes sure to grab her favorite Barilla chickpea pasta as the base. “Since I’m in a speed and power sport, I need a good carbohydrate to complete my meals,” she adds.

    Plus, her two boys love it. “If mom’s got a bowl of spaghetti for them at the end of the day, they’re going to be happy,” Taylor says.

    I share those same sentiments. At least once a week, I make a Bolognese. But I’ve never tried it with chickpea pasta. I decided to give Taylor’s Olympian-approved meal a try to see if it could fuel my workouts just by making a tiny swap in the main ingredients. I also connected with a few nutrition experts to get their take on whether this meal can power high-intensity workouts. Read on for their take, and my thoughts on this dish.

    How to Make Elana Meyers Taylor’s Bolognese Pasta

    (Photo: Ashia Aubourg)

    Serving: 6

    Ingredients

    • 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
    • 1 medium onion, diced
    • 2 garlic cloves, minced
    • 1 carrot, grated
    • 1 pound ground beef
    • 1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
    • 2 tablespoons fresh oregano, minced
    • 1/4 cup fresh basil leaves, minced
    • 2 cups spinach
    • Salt, freshly ground black pepper, and red pepper flakes, to taste
    • 1 lb of chickpea pasta, such as penne, rotini, or spaghetti (I used this one by Barilla)
    • Optional: Parmesan cheese for garnishing

    Recipe

    1. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, cooking until the onions are translucent, about six minutes.
    2. Add the carrot and ground beef, stirring often, until the meat is no longer pink, about ten minutes.
    3. Stir in the tomatoes, oregano, and basil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes.
    4. Season with salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste. Add the spinach and cook until wilted, about two minutes.
    5. While the sauce simmers, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the chickpea pasta according to package directions.
    6. Top the cooked chickpea pasta with the Bolognese sauce and a generous grating of Parmesan.

    The Verdict: Taylor’s Pasta Dish Hits Different

    I’m married to an Italian-American, so pasta is a weekly tradition in our household—and we’ve definitely side-eyed legume-based pastas in the grocery store. Going into this recipe, I was skeptical: Would chickpea pasta taste good, or would it derail the whole meal?

    I was pleasantly wrong. The chickpea pasta was so mild that it essentially disappeared under the Bolognese sauce.

    The real test came the next morning. I’d eaten the Bolognese pasta for dinner the night before, and when I woke up for my barre class, I had sustained energy throughout the entire workout—no crashes. That’s when I realized this pasta might actually be a game-changer for my fitness routine.

    How to Get the Most Out of This Meal, According to Nutritionists

    Olympic athletes need a well-balanced meal to stay fueled: lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and vegetables, says Yvette Hill, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in Boulder, Colorado. This pasta delivers all three.

    The chickpea pasta serves as an excellent carbohydrate base, says Claire Rifkin, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in New York City. “The chickpea pasta will give her a good carbohydrate base to fill up muscle glycogen stores overnight, which can be especially helpful for a sport that requires really explosive movements, like bobsledding.” Each 3.5-ounce serving of Barilla chickpea pasta packs 15 grams of fiber and 21 grams of protein, which is more than many traditional pastas.

    The ground beef adds even more protein, which is essential for muscle growth and repair. The beef and spinach also deliver iron and B vitamins critical for energy production. This matters especially for female athletes: iron directly affects oxygen delivery to working muscles, and many women athletes need to be vigilant about their iron status, says Rifkin.

    For even more performance benefits, Hill suggests adding hydrating ingredients like zucchini to the sauce. “Even mild dehydration can cause lowered energy, which can impact performance,” she explains.

    At the same time, Rifkin emphasizes: “The other thing that stands out to me is that this is clearly a meal she enjoys and knows her body handles well. Sometimes we get so focused on optimizing every little thing that we forget the most important factor is actually eating enough foods that digest well and that an athlete will consistently eat.”

    As for me, I’ll continue making this Bolognese pasta and be reminded of Taylor’s feats every time I take a bite.

    Want more Outside health stories? Sign up for the Bodywork newsletter. If you’re ready to push yourself, sign up for the You vs. The Year 2026 Challenge here. 

    [ad_2]

    aunderwood

    Source link

  • From Gastric Balloons to Fake Knee Surgeries: When the Fix Is an Illusion | NutritionFacts.org

    [ad_1]

    Sham surgery trials have shown that some of our most popular surgeries are themselves shams.

    Intragastric balloons “arrived with much fanfare in the 1980s,” since they could be implanted into the stomach and inflated with air or water to fill much of the space. Unfortunately, surgical devices are often brought to the market before there is adequate evidence of effectiveness and safety, and the balloons were no exception.

    The “gastric bubble” had its bubble burst when a study at the Mayo Clinic found that 8 out of 10 balloons “spontaneously deflated,” which is potentially dangerous because they could pass into the intestines and cause an obstruction, as you can see below and at 0:40 in my video Is Gastric Balloon Surgery Safe and Effective for Weight Loss?.

    Before balloons deflated, however, they apparently caused gastric erosions in half the patients, damaging their stomach lining. The kicker is that, in terms of inducing weight loss, they didn’t even work when compared to diet and other behavior modification strategies. Eventually, intragastric balloons were pulled from the market. But now, balloons are back.

    After a 33-year hiatus, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration started approving a new slew of intragastric balloons in 2015, which immediately resulted in the placement of more than 5,000 devices. By then, the Sunshine Act had passed. It forced drug companies and the surgical and medical device industry to disclose any payments made to physicians, shining a disinfecting light on industry enticements. By now, most people know about the overly cozy financial relationships doctors can have with Big Pharma, but fewer may realize that surgeons can also get payments from the companies for the devices they use. The 100 top physician recipients of industry payments received an unbelievable $12 million from device companies in a single year. Yet outrageously, when they published papers, only a minority disclosed the blatant conflict of interest.

    The benefit of balloons over most types of bariatric surgery is that they’re reversible, but that doesn’t mean they’re benign. The FDA has released a series of advisories about the risks, which include death. But how could someone suffer a stomach perforation with a smooth, rounded object? By that smooth, rounded object causing the patient to vomit so much that they rupture their stomach and die. Nausea and vomiting are unsurprisingly “very common side effects,” affecting the majority of those who have balloons placed inside of them. Persistent vomiting likely also explains cases of life-threatening nutrient deficiencies after balloon implantation.

    Some complications, such as bowel obstruction, are due to the balloons deflating, but others, oddly enough, are due to the balloons suddenly overinflating, causing pain, vomiting, and abdominal distention, as you can see below and at 2:45 in my video.

    This issue was first noticed in breast implants, as documented in reports such as “The Phenomenon of the Spontaneously Autoinflating Breast Implant.” Out of nowhere, the implants can just start growing, increasing breast volume by an average of more than 50%. “It remains an underreported and poorly understood phenomenon,” one review noted. (Interestingly, breast implants were actually used as some of the first failed experimental intragastric balloons.)

    As with any medical decision, though, it’s all about risks versus benefits. Industry-funded trials display “notable weight loss,” but it’s hard to tease out the effect of the balloon on its own from the accompanying “supervised diet and lifestyle changes” prescribed in the studies. In drug trials, you can randomize study participants to sugar pills, but how do you eliminate the placebo effect of undergoing a procedure? Perform sham surgery.

    In 2002, a courageous study was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The most common orthopedic surgery—arthroscopic surgery of the knee—was put to the test. Billions of dollars are spent on sticking scopes into knee joints and cutting away damaged tissue in osteoarthritis and knee injuries, but does that actually work? People suffering from knee pain were randomized to get the actual surgery versus a sham surgery, in which surgeons sliced into people’s knees and pretended to perform the procedure—even splashing saline—without actually treating the joint.

    The trial caused an uproar. How could anyone randomize people to get cut open for fake surgery? Professional medical associations questioned the ethics of the surgeons as well as “the sanity” of the patients who agreed to be part of the trial. Guess what happened? The surgical patients got better, but so did the placebo patients, as you can see below and at 4:42 in my video.

    The surgeries had no actual effect. Currently, rotator cuff shoulder surgery is facing the same crisis of confidence.

    When intragastric balloons were put to the test, sham-controlled trials showed that both older and newer devices sometimes fail to offer any weight-loss benefit. Even when they do work, the weight loss may be temporary because balloons are only allowed to stay in for six months (at which point the deflation risk gets too great). Why can’t you keep putting new ones in? That’s been tried; it failed to improve long-term weight outcomes. A sham-controlled trial showed that any effects of the balloon on appetite and satiety may vanish with time, perhaps as your body gets used to the new normal.

    What sham surgery trials have shown us is that some of our most popular surgeries are themselves shams. Doctors like to pride themselves on being men and women of science. For example, we rightly rail against the anti-vaccination movement. Many of us in medicine have been troubled by the political trend in which people “choose their own facts.” But when I read that some of these still-popular surgeries are not only useless but may actually make matters worse (for example, increasing the risk of progression to a total knee replacement), I can’t help but think we are hardly immune to our own versions of fake news and alternative facts.

    Doctor’s Note

    Next in this two-part series is Extreme Weight-Loss Devices.

    For more on bariatric surgery, check out related posts below.

    My book How Not to Diet is focused exclusively on sustainable weight loss. Borrow it from your local library or pick up a copy from your favorite bookseller. (All proceeds from my books are donated to charity.)

    [ad_2]

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

    Source link

  • The CTT statin adverse effects paper – Diet and Health Today

    [ad_1]

    In summary

    * A paper was published on 5th February 2026 which generated headlines such as “Statins don’t cause most side effects blamed on them.”

    * The Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) is an academic research unit at the University of Oxford. The Cholesterol Treatment Trialist (CTT) group is a collaboration led by researchers from the CTSU and other institutions.

    * The paper was the seventh major meta-analysis from the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ (CTT) Collaboration. I have reviewed their previous publications and highlighted examples of disingenuity.

    * The CTT Collaboration has been criticised by an independent panel for refusing to share data with other researchers. The latest paper reiterated that data won’t be shared.

    * There are many conflicts of interest with Oxford University, the CTSU and individual authors named on the paper and pharmaceutical companies that stand to benefit from this paper.

    * There were many issues with the process undertaken in this paper.

    – The trials upon which the research was based were presided over by pharmaceutical companies.

    – Most of these trials had run-in periods, enabling people who raise adverse effects to be dropped before the trials started.

    – Adverse effects were requested from the trial teams, outside the peer-review process.

    – Adverse effects were broken down into tiny categories (making findings less likely).

    – A statistical process was undertaken (making findings less likely).

    – The major harms from statins (diabetes and muscle damage) were omitted from the four findings in this paper – because they had been reported previously.

    * Despite the conflicts and issues, demands have been made for “rapid revision” of patient leaflets. The idea that academic-pharmaceutical collaborations can try to buck the regulatory process is deeply troubling.

    Introduction

    I’ve paused the “How to read a paper” series to cover a paper that has just been published. This was one of those papers that led to my email inbox filling up. On 6th February 2026, we woke to headlines such as this one from Reuters “Statins don’t cause most side effects blamed on them” (Ref 1). I received emails from Australia to Arizona about the media coverage, which emanated from a paper in The Lancet called “Assessment of adverse effects attributed to statin therapy in product labels: a meta-analysis of double-blind randomised controlled trials” (Ref 2).

    The authors were listed as the Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ (CTT) Collaboration. The Clinical Trial Service Unit (CTSU) is an academic research unit at the University of Oxford. The Cholesterol Treatment Trialist (CTT) group is a collaboration led by researchers from the CTSU and other institutions. Professor Sir Rory Collins was one of the original co-directors of the CTSU. His bio is on the Oxford University CTSU page (Ref 3). The Cholesterol Treatment Trialists’ Collaboration is listed on that page as one of his research groups. Collins is reported in the latest paper as a member of the writing committee and a member of the CTT secretariat. The relevance of those connections will become clearer (although not entirely clear).

    This note needs to start with some background to the CTT Collaboration, their work, the CTSU funding, data sharing and more, which fortunately I thoroughly reviewed in December 2025.

    [ad_2]

    Zoe

    Source link

  • The Inflammation Code

    [ad_1]

    The Inflammation Code: Summary

    In this episode, The Inflammation Code, Host Evan Transue welcomes back Dr. Shivani Gupta, an Ayurvedic practitioner with a master’s in Ayurvedic sciences and a PhD focused on turmeric, founder of Fusion Formulas, and new author of The Inflammation Code (Hay House). Gupta explains how growing up between American fast-food culture in Houston and annual trips to India exposed her to two medical “toolkits”: Western antibiotics versus her grandmother’s spice-based remedies. After years of recurring illness and frequent antibiotics, she sought Ayurveda in India, visiting detox centers across the country, and became committed to translating a 5,000-year-old system into practical, Western-friendly guidance.

    Gupta outlines her book’s focus on “winning at inflammation” through an integrative Ayurvedic lens, emphasizing gut health (“digestive fire”), individualized “elemental design” (air, fire, earth), circadian rhythm concepts, “super-spices” (especially turmeric), daily detoxing self-care rituals, and a chapter she calls “mental inflammation” linking stress and mental health to physical inflammation. She positions Ayurveda as a complement to functional medicine: lab testing can identify issues, but lifestyle is required for long-term maintenance. Both she and Evan discuss how “functional medicine” varies widely in practice and how health coaching and lifestyle support are often missing.

    Gupta shares her view that Ayurvedic knowledge originated as “downloaded” wisdom passed down and later written into Sanskrit texts, with modern science now validating many principles (e.g., circadian rhythm, gut-brain axis, and research on turmeric). Audience questions cover children’s nutrition (focusing on how and when to eat, freshness, seasonality, and tailoring to elemental type), recipes in the book (including teas and meals by elemental design), and cooking for families with different constitutions (using universal meals with small customizations). Her “magic wand” health habit is using a copper tongue scraper each morning.

    The Inflammation Code: Topics

    00:00 Welcome to the Health Detective Podcast 

    00:33 Meet Dr. Shivani

    02:09 Her Origin Story 

    03:03 Antibiotics Burnout & Ayurveda Quest Across India

    05:41 Introducing the Book

    07:23 Ayurveda’s Personalized Lens on Modern Health

    10:01 Functional Medicine vs Lifestyle, Where FDN & Ayurveda Fit Together

    14:35 Who the Book Is For – Consumers First, Practitioners Too

    17:42 Ancient Wisdom Goes Viral

    19:09 How Ayurveda Discovered It All

    22:43 Tracing Ayurveda’s Origins

    23:55 Ayurveda as a Modern “Mindful Medicine Chest” 

    24:45 Lost Food Intuition & Why Ancient Wisdom Still Matters

    27:04 Making Ayurveda Accessible

    28:16 Realistic Results: The Inflammation Code

    32:35 Audience Q&A

    35:12 What’s Inside the Book

    36:38 Where to Get the Book  

    38:53 Cooking for a Family with Different Elements 

    41:06 Signature Health Habit + Final Wrap-Up 

    Where to Find Dr. Shivani Gupta

    Go to our Health Detective Podcasts for more informational and functional health-oriented podcasts like this one.

    LEARN MORE ABOUT US

    Try FDN for FREE! 

    COURSE OVERVIEW

    DRESS WORKSHOP

    STRESS & HORMONE WORKSHOP

    5in5 WORKSHOP

    MEDICAL DIRECTOR PROGRAM

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED (UPCOMING LIVES)

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED – FREE EXPERT LED TRAINING SESSIONS

    FDN METHODOLOGY

    FDN ADVANCED COURSES

    [ad_2]

    Functional Diagnostic Nutrition

    Source link

  • Mold Illness is Why My Health Fell Apart

    [ad_1]

    Mold Illness is Why My Health Fell Apart: Summary

    In this episode, Mold Illness is Why My Health Fell Apart, host Evan Transue, aka Detective Ev, interviews Katie, a former bespoke master jeweler who turned to functional wellness after facing severe health issues. She shares her journey from discovering the devastating impacts of mold exposure in her workspace and home to her path of healing through functional medicine. 

    Katie details her initial struggles with traditional medicine, which offered little help, leading her to invest in learning and obtaining certifications in functional medicine. She discusses the critical role that proper testing, such as urine mycotoxin analysis and HTMA, played in her health recovery. She highlights the importance of addressing foundational health issues in the right order and listening to your body’s intuition. 

    Now, as a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, Katie works primarily with women and entrepreneurs, helping them uncover and address the root causes of their health issues. She emphasizes the significance of persistence in seeking answers for unexplained health problems and the value of comprehensive approaches provided by FDNs. For more insights and resources on mold and functional health, she recommends the Change the Air Foundation and JASPR air purifiers.

    Mold Illness is Why My Health Fell Apart: Topics

    00:00 Introduction to the Health Detective Podcast

    00:49 Meet Katie: From Jeweler to Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner

    01:18 Katie’s Health Struggles Begin

    03:17 Discovering Mold and Its Impact

    06:13 The Journey to Healing and Becoming an FDN

    11:07 Navigating Legal and Business Challenges

    14:44 The Importance of Following Your Gut

    16:23 Healing and Transitioning to a New Career

    21:11 The FDN System: A Guaranteed Path to Better Health

    21:50 Addressing Foundational Health Issues

    22:48 The Importance of Order in Health Interventions

    24:34 Entrepreneurial Journey and FDN

    26:11 Balancing Multiple Ventures

    27:12 Lessons Learned from Mold Exposure

    27:42 Effective Mold Testing and Legal Advice

    31:09 Using Air Purifiers for Mold Mitigation

    33:15 Incorporating HTMA in Health Practices

    34:15 Visual Contrast Sensitivity Test for Mold

    36:27 Encouraging Persistence in Health Journeys

    40:40 Connecting with Katie and Final Advice

    Where to Find Katie Poterala

    Go to our Health Detective Podcasts for more informational and functional health-oriented podcasts like this one.

    LEARN MORE ABOUT US

    Try FDN for FREE! 

    COURSE OVERVIEW

    DRESS WORKSHOP

    STRESS & HORMONE WORKSHOP

    5in5 WORKSHOP

    MEDICAL DIRECTOR PROGRAM

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED (UPCOMING LIVES)

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED – FREE EXPERT LED TRAINING SESSIONS

    FDN METHODOLOGY

    FDN ADVANCED COURSES

    [ad_2]

    Functional Diagnostic Nutrition

    Source link

  • Nuts, Sperm, and Sex: The Surprising Connection | NutritionFacts.org

    [ad_1]

    Walnuts, almonds, and hazelnuts are put to the test for erectile and sexual function, sperm count, and semen quality.

    In 2013, I posted a video based on a study that found that men with erectile dysfunction who ate 100 grams of pistachios (a little more than three handsful) a day for three weeks had “a significant improvement in erectile function.” It’s always nice to see a whole-food intervention have clinical effects, and I was curious to revisit the topic and see what’s been published since.

    Even if you ignore all the lab animal studies on hazelnuts improving the function of rat testicles—really, there’s a study titled “Hazelnut Consumption Improves Testicular Antioxidant Function and Semen Quality in Young and Old Male Rats”—you still never know what you’ll find searching the medical literature for nuts and sexual function. I found “a case of penile strangulation with a metal hex nut” in which someone put one on his penis “for sexual pleasure” but couldn’t remove it. (I guess some kinds of nuts can sometimes make things worse.) They tried the Dundee technique, which involves creating 20 puncture holes to relieve the pressure, but that didn’t work, so then they tried a diamond disk cutter. It slipped a few times, but the hex nut was successfully removed. All’s well that ends well.

    That got me curious. Evidently, penile entrapment is so common that there is an entire grading system that emergency room doctors can use, as you can see here and at 1:21 in my video Mixed Nuts Put to the Test for Erectile Dysfunction. If a drill isn’t available, the surgeons advised, “a hammer and chisel may be used to remove nuts.”

    A drill? Oh, they mean a dental drill. Doctors describing one case bragged about the “precisely cut edges,” but it looks pretty jagged to me. You can see for yourself below and at 1:38 in my video.

    To “preserve the penis from fatal outcomes” (that’s a strange way to put it), urologists should be aware of all the available tools and approaches, and if you don’t know how to operate the saw, you can always call in the local blacksmith—but only if “special consent [is] taken from the patient”!

    But how are you going to remove an iron barbell or steel sledgehammer head? “With a heavy-duty air grinder provided by the fire department,” requiring six hours of cutting and fire coats to protect the patient from the sparks. Use whatever it takes—hack saw, “cement eater.” You can even use the silk winding method pioneered by Dong et al.

    Back to the task at hand! Consuming “at least one serving of vegetables a day and more than two servings of nuts a week was associated with a more than 50% decrease in the probability of ED” [erectile dysfunction] in a snapshot-in-time cross-sectional study. But such observational studies can’t prove cause and effect. It’s like finding that men who eat healthier have better sperm motility. Maybe men who eat nuts are just health nuts, and the improvement is due to some other factor, like exercise. What we need is an interventional trial.

    And there is one: a randomized controlled trial studied the “effect of nut consumption on semen quality and functionality.” Healthy men were fed the standard American diet with or without a mixture of nuts—a handful (30 grams) of walnuts and half a handful (15 grams) each of almonds and hazelnuts. Individuals in the nut group experienced significant improvements in their total sperm count, vitality, motility, and shape, perhaps because those “in the nut group showed a significant reduction in SDF”—sperm DNA fragmentation. The nuts appeared to protect their sperm DNA. It’s too bad that the researchers didn’t measure the men’s erectile and sexual dysfunction while they were at it. Oh, but they did!

    What is the effect of nut consumption on erectile and sexual function from that same study? The researchers report that those in the nut group saw a significant increase in orgasmic function and sexual desire, but what about erectile function? Any time you see this kind of selective glass-half-full reporting, you suspect some kind of industry funding, and, indeed, that was the case here; the study was partially funded by the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council. Yes, there was a marginal increase in orgasmic function and sexual desire of questionable clinical significance, but there was no improvement in erectile function, intercourse satisfaction, or overall satisfaction. As with so many comparisons, even the so-called significant findings may not even be statistically significant.

    But why did the pistachios I talked about back in 2013 work, while these other nuts didn’t? Well, the original study was done on men mostly in their 40s and 50s who already had chronic erectile dysfunction for at least one year, whereas the average age of participants in the newer study was 24. So, the individuals in the later study may have started out with near-maximum circulation, not leaving much room for the nuts to work any magic.

    Doctor’s Note

    Sorry for that crazy tangent! I just wanted to give people a taste of what it can be like when you dive deep into the medical literature.

    The 2013 video I mentioned is Pistachio Nuts for Erectile Dysfunction.

    What about walnuts for arterial blood flow? See Walnuts and Artery Function.

    More on fertility and sexual function in the related posts below.

    [ad_2]

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

    Source link

  • Which Foods Help a Leaky Gut? | NutritionFacts.org

    [ad_1]

    What is the recommended diet for treating leaky gut? Which foods and food components can boost the integrity of our intestinal barrier?

    Our intestinal tract is the largest barrier between us and the environment. More than what we touch or breathe, what we eat is our largest exposure to the outside world. Normally, our entire gastrointestinal tract is impermeable to what’s inside of it, allowing our body to pick and choose what goes in or out. But there are things that may make our gut leaky, and the chief among them is our diet.

    The standard American or Western diet can cause gut dysbiosis, meaning a disruption in our gut microbiome, which can lead to intestinal inflammation and a leaky intestinal barrier. Then, tiny bits of undigested food, microbes, and toxins can slip uninvited through our gut lining into our bloodstream and trigger chronic systemic inflammation.

    “To avoid this dysbiosis and intestinal inflammation, a predominantly vegetarian diet”—in other words, eating plants—“should be preferred.” The gut bacteria of people eating a vegetarian diet are associated with intestinal microbiome balance, high bacterial biodiversity, and integrity of the intestinal barrier. Vegetarians tend to have markedly less uremic toxins, like indole and p-cresol, and because fiber is the primary food for our gut microbiome, the gut bacteria of those eating plant-based diets have been found to produce more of the good stuff—namely short-chain fatty acids that play “a protective and nourishing role” for the cells lining our gut, “ensuring the preservation” of our intestinal barrier. Plant fiber is of “prime importance” to preserving the integrity of our intestinal barrier, but you can’t know for sure until you put it to the test.

    When people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease were given whole grains, beans, lentils, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds for six months, they had a significant reduction in zonulin levels.

    Zonulin is a protein responsible for the disassembly of the tight junctions between gut-lining cells and is “considered to be the only measurable biomarker that reflects an impairment of the intestinal barrier.” In other words, zonulin is a useful marker of a leaky gut. But since adding all those plants seemed to lower levels, that may “imply that appropriate fiber intake helps to maintain the proper structure and function of the intestinal barrier.” But whole healthy plant foods have a lot more than fiber. How do we know it’s the fiber? And the study didn’t even have a control group. That’s why the researchers said “gut permeability might be improved by dietary fiber” [emphasis added]. To prove cause and effect, it’d be nice to have a randomized, double-blind, crossover study where you compare the effect of the same food with or without fiber.

    Such a study does, in fact, exist! A group of healthy young men was randomized to eat pasta with or without added fiber, and there was a significant drop in zonulin levels in the added-fiber group compared to both pre-intervention levels and those of the control group, as you can see below and at 2:51 in my video How to Heal a Leaky Gut with Diet.

    So, fiber does indeed appear to improve gut leakiness.

    Are there any plant foods in particular that may help? Curcumin, the yellow pigment in the spice turmeric, can help prevent the intestinal damage caused by ibuprofen-type drugs in rats. Similar protection was noted for the broccoli compound sulforaphane in mice. There are no human studies on broccoli yet, but there was a study on three days of the equivalent of about 2 to 3 teaspoons a day of turmeric, which did reduce markers of gastrointestinal barrier damage and inflammation caused by exercise compared to a placebo. Less turmeric may work, too, but no smaller doses have been put to the test.

    If you ask alternative medicine practitioners what treatments they use for a leaky gut, number one on the list—after reducing alcohol consumption—is zinc. You can see the list below and at 3:42 in my video.

    Zinc doesn’t just protect against aspirin-like drug-induced intestinal damage in rats; when put to the test in a randomized trial of healthy adults, the same thing was found. Five days of 250 mg of indomethacin, an NSAID drug, “caused a threefold rise in gut permeability,” as one would expect from that class of drugs. But this rise in permeability did not occur when participants also took zinc, “strongly suggesting a small-intestinal protective effect.” The dose they used was massive, though—75 mg a day, which is nearly twice the tolerable upper daily limit for zinc. What about getting zinc just at regular doses from food?

    A significant improvement in gut leakiness was found even with a dose of just 3 mg of zinc, suggesting that even relatively low zinc supplementation may work. You can get an extra 3 mg of zinc in your daily diet by eating a cup (200g) of cooked lentils.

    Doctor’s Note

    For more on preventing gut dysbiosis and leaky gut, check out Flashback Friday: Gut Dysbiosis: Starving Our Microbial Self and Avoid These Foods to Prevent a Leaky Gut.

    [ad_2]

    Michael Greger M.D. FACLM

    Source link

  • Jessie Diggins Recovers From Olympic Training with This Protein-Packed Meal

    [ad_1]

    Published February 10, 2026 03:00AM

    Jessie Diggins started skiing at age three. Her early interest in the sport paid off as she’s now considered the best cross-country skier in the world. Her talents have earned her three Olympic and seven World Championship medals.

    She came in eighth place in the women’s 20-kilometer skiathlon event this past Saturday, February 7, at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics—her final Games before she retires.

    However, her work is not done yet. She’ll be back at it again on Tuesday, February 10, for the women’s cross-country skiing event.

    Considering just how much time and effort it takes to be the best, I was curious about what she eats to stay energized and ready. I learned that, after intense workouts, she prioritizes recovery and typically returns to a single dinner.

    How Jessie Diggins Refuels and Recovers

    Her training schedule has been intense.

    “I’m training twice a day, six days a week. It’s super fun, but it’s also really demanding,” Diggins told Outside. “And for cross-country skiing, the name of the game is getting enough fuel and nutrients in your body.”

    Several times a week, Diggins heats up her oven to make what she calls miso salmon. She gravitates toward this dish because she’s a self-proclaimed “big seafood person” and says the omega-3 oils in the salmon help her feel good.

    The recipe is simple and fast. She makes a glaze—made of honey, Dijon mustard, white miso paste, and butter—to brush over the fish. The oven broiler handles the rest, caramelizing the sauce while the salmon cooks.

    To build her bowl, Diggins adds whichever vegetables happen to be in her kitchen. During our interview, her garden was still producing plenty of broccoli and kale, so she tossed those in. She also adds farro, her favorite grain, and whisks up a vinaigrette with olive oil and maple syrup. Anything else lingering in the fridge or pantry, like pumpkin seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, and goat cheese, might get added too.

    “I try to see food as not just fuel, but also as fun,” says Diggins.

    And I couldn’t agree more. Miso ranks high on my own list of fun ingredients. The fermented Japanese paste appears regularly in my cooking, whether stirred into a cacio e pepe sauce or melted into chicken soup. So I couldn’t wait to try Diggins’ salmon grain bowl. More importantly, I wanted to see if this recovery meal could help fuel my own efforts to spend more time outdoors and move with more energy.

    I also reached out to a few nutrition experts to weigh in on the meal’s recovery potential. Read on for their thoughts, and my honest take on the taste of this dish.

    How to Make Jessie Diggins’ Miso Salmon Grain Bowl

    I turned my oven to broil and gave the recipe a go.

    Serving: 1

    Salmon and Glaze Ingredients

    • 1 (6-ounce) skin-on or skinless salmon fillet, patted dry
    • 1 tablespoon white miso paste
    • 1 tablespoon honey
    • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
    • 1 tablespoon butter, softened

    Maple Vinaigrette Ingredients

    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
    • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
    • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
    • Salt and pepper, to taste

    Salad Mix-ins

    • Pre-cooked farro
    • Crunchy salad greens
    • Seasonal vegetables (optional)
    • Nuts or seeds (optional)

    Recipe

    1. Preheat your oven to the broil setting.
    2. Pat the salmon filet dry with a paper towel. This will help the glaze stick.
    3. Make the glaze: In a small bowl, mix together the white miso paste, honey, Dijon mustard, and softened butter until smooth.
    4. Spread the glaze evenly over the top of the salmon using your hands or a silicone brush. Place the filet skin-side down on a parchment-lined sheet pan.
    5. Broil the salmon and, depending on the filet’s thickness, check it at the five-minute mark. (You’re aiming for an internal temperature of 125 degrees Fahrenheit for medium-rare, and to be on the safe side, the USDA recommends an internal temperature of 145 degrees Fahenheit for fish.)
    6. Remove the cooked salmon from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes.
    7. Make the vinaigrette: In a mason jar, combine the olive oil, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Shake well.
    8. Assemble your bowl: In a serving bowl, layer one cup of salad greens, one cup of cooked farro, and an optional topping of seasonal veggies or seeds and nuts. Top the grain bowl with the salmon filet, either whole or flaked into pieces. Then drizzle the salad with the vinaigrette and enjoy.

    The Verdict: Earthy and Energizing

    (Photo: Ashia Aubourg)

    Let’s start with the flavor. The miso hits a sweet, salty, and earthy balance that complements the rich, buttery salmon. The texture was hearty, and the variety of flavors kept each bite interesting. I tossed in some romaine I had sitting in the fridge, which added a crisp, refreshing crunch. For the grains, I played around (and saved time) with microwaveable farro and found a beet-and-spinach farro at my grocery store.

    After eating this miso salmon grain bowl, I woke up feeling energized and ready to take on my daily walks by the beach.

    How to Get the Most Out of This Meal, According to Nutritionists

    “I often encourage the active clients I work with to view dinner as part of their recovery, especially after an intense training session,” Leisan Echols, a registered dietitian and exercise physiologist based in New York City, New York, told Outside. A grain bowl like this provides the right balance of nutrients to support muscle repair and replenish glycogen after exercise, says Echols.

    Starting with the farro, this grain is a powerhouse, says Echols. This ancient grain is rich in protein, fiber, and vitamins (such as magnesium), which can aid digestion and support heart health.

    “The salad greens add phytonutrients and antioxidants, while the olive oil vinaigrette adds heart-healthy fats,” Claire Rifkin, a registered dietitian based in New York City, said to Outside.

    And the salmon? In just one filet, you’ll get around 40 grams of protein, a nutrient crucial for muscle growth and repair. The omega-3 oil it contains offers anti-inflammatory benefits, which may help reduce post-exercise soreness and keep you moving, day after day, says Echols.

    The meal already strikes a balance, but for athletes focused on maximizing recovery, adding a source of calcium and vitamin D (like a yogurt-based sauce or a fortified beverage such as soy or oat milk) can offer extra benefits, says Rifkin. “Vitamin D in particular supports muscle strength and contraction speed, and deficiency is pretty common in the U.S., so it’s especially important for athletes to make sure they’re getting enough through food or supplementation,” she says.

    For endurance athletes, these details can significantly affect how well the body recovers and performs in back-to-back sessions, says Echols. “The best recovery meals are the ones that match the effort and evolve with your training, not apart from it.

    Are you planning to watch the cross-country ski event? If so, let us know in the comments and tell us what you think of this recipe. 

    [ad_2]

    aunderwood

    Source link

  • How to read a paper (Part 2) – Terms & component parts – Diet and Health Today

    [ad_1]

    Introduction

    We’re on the second of a four part note documenting “How to read a paper.” Last week we looked at the levels of evidence. That’s the starting point to understand what we are reading and how robust it might be. This week we are looking at the component parts of a paper and some terms that you will need to know to read papers. We’ll start with some basic terms.

    These are in the order of what we need to know before we know about something else. I’ll use the butter and plant oils Monday note and paper from March 2025 as an illustration for some of the terms (Ref 1). (That paper didn’t withstand scrutiny, of course, but we’re using it for examples).

    [ad_2]

    Zoe

    Source link

  • The Truth About Melasma: A Metabolic Condition in Disguise

    [ad_1]

    The Truth About Melasma: Summary

    In this episode, The Truth About Melasma, of the Health Detective Podcast by Functional Diagnostic Nutrition, host Evan Transue (AKA Detective Ev) interviews Ariana Juarez, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and founder of Alura Wellness. Ariana specializes in melasma reversal and metabolic skin health using functional lab testing. 

    She shares her personal journey with melasma, which began in 2008, and discusses how lifestyle changes, hormonal imbalances, stress, and functional medicine played roles in her healing process. Ariana delves into how stress and estrogen dominance contribute to melasma, the importance of diet, and the need for comprehensive functional lab tests like the DUTCH test and GI MAP. She emphasizes the multifactorial nature of melasma and the need for a holistic approach to treatment, which includes stress management, diet, and tailored skincare. 

    Ariana asserts that with the right guidance, most cases of melasma can be effectively managed or reversed, significantly faster than her own 12-year journey. The discussion also touches on how pregnancy can amplify melasma due to heightened estrogen levels, and the critical role of sleep in overall health. Ariana concludes by highlighting the importance of individualized treatment plans for effective melasma management.

    The Truth About Melasma: Topics

    00:00 Introduction to the Health Detective Podcast

    00:45 Meet Ariana Juarez: A Journey with Melasma

    01:46 The Struggle with Conventional Treatments

    04:59 Discovering Functional Medicine

    07:55 Challenges and Breakthroughs in Healing

    18:12 The Role of Diet and Functional Testing

    23:51 Exploring Lab Patterns in Niche Clientele

    24:28 Estrogen Dominance and Melasma

    26:17 The Role of Stress in Pigmentation

    27:47 Stress Reduction Techniques

    30:06 Audience Questions and Product Recommendations

    34:31 Pregnancy and Melasma

    36:58 Reversing Melasma: Is It Possible?

    40:00 Accelerating the Healing Journey

    42:07 Final Thoughts and Farewell

    Where to Find Ariana Juarez

    Go to our Health Detective Podcasts for more informational and functional health-oriented podcasts like this one.

    LEARN MORE ABOUT US

    Try FDN for FREE! 

    COURSE OVERVIEW

    DRESS WORKSHOP

    STRESS & HORMONE WORKSHOP

    5in5 WORKSHOP

    MEDICAL DIRECTOR PROGRAM

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED (UPCOMING LIVES)

    HEALTH SPACE UNMASKED – FREE EXPERT LED TRAINING SESSIONS

    FDN METHODOLOGY

    FDN ADVANCED COURSES

    [ad_2]

    Functional Diagnostic Nutrition

    Source link

  • What This Olympic Bobsledder Eats Every Morning Before Training

    [ad_1]

    Published February 8, 2026 03:00AM

    Sylvia Hoffman doesn’t just dabble in sports. She dominates across the board. Her resume includes weightlifting, track and field, basketball, volleyball, and bobsledding. While she did not qualify for the 2026 Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, she did take home a bronze medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.

    When she’s training, Hoffman leans on one non-negotiable: breakfast. She never misses it. She fuels up with the same five-ingredient meal every single morning.

    The One Thing Sylvia Hoffman Eats Every Morning

    Curious about what fuels her drive to train consistently and fiercely, I caught up with her one afternoon to discuss her breakfast routine.

    Turns out, it’s surprisingly simple. Her daily go-to? An “egg scramble.” “I’m always hungry in the morning, so I always have eggs,” she says.

    High-protein breakfasts anchor her morning. Sometimes she adds sides like protein waffles, oatmeal, or pancakes. But egg scrambles are a must-have. “I feel like breakfast is where I can start every morning with satisfying food,” she adds.

    The ability to choose what goes on her plate matters to Hoffman. As a competitive weightlifter, sometimes, she follows a “strict diet” during cutting phases.

    When she’s in bobsled training, she appreciates the flexibility to eat what she wants. In most cases, that still means scrambled eggs paired with whatever mix-ins she has on hand. Her usual combo includes onions, garlic, bell peppers, and a mixed blend of cheese.

    (Photo: Viesturs Lacis, Instagram: @rekords)

    There’s no complicated science behind her breakfast. She sticks with it because she says it gives her sustained energy and keeps her full through long, demanding training days.

    I’ve made plenty of egg scrambles and written more than enough stories about the benefits of high-protein meals. But I wanted to know why this one daily staple works so well for Hoffman. While I won’t be lining up at the top of a bobsled track anytime soon, I wondered whether her breakfast could power me through my long walking treks. So, I decided to try it out for myself for an entire week.

    To find out if Hoffman’s egg scramble actually stacks up nutritionally, I also interviewed a few registered dietitians. Here’s what they said, plus my honest review.

    How to Make Sylvia Hoffman’s Garlic Egg Scramble

    Supply-wise, all you need is a frying pan, a whisk, a spatula, and a mixing bowl.

    Ingredients

    • 3 eggs
    • ¼ cup yellow onion, diced
    • ¼ cup bell pepper, diced
    • 1 teaspoon of garlic, minced
    • ¼ cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Monterey Jack, or mozzarella)
    • Olive oil
    • Salt and black pepper, to taste

    Recipe

    • Dice the yellow onion and bell pepper. Mince the garlic.
    • Crack three eggs into a bowl and whisk until fully combined.
    • Place a nonstick pan over medium heat.
    • When the pan is hot, add a drizzle of olive oil.
    • Add the diced onion, bell pepper, and minced garlic. Sauté for three to four minutes, or until softened.
    • Pour the egg mixture into the pan and reduce the heat to low. Stir gently with a spatula.
    • Once the eggs begin to firm up, add the cheese. Turn off the heat and let the residual warmth melt the cheese into the eggs.
    • Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

    The Verdict: Savory and Energizing 

    Each morning, I aim for around 8,000 steps, and my current route includes plenty of steep inclines. For seven days, I made Hoffman’s scramble and ate it before heading out on my walks.

    sylvia hoffman breakfast eggs
    (Photo: Ashia Aubourg)

    Right away, the flavor won me over. This egg scramble packs a delicious savoriness thanks to the garlic; the sautéed onions and bell peppers add a subtle caramelized sweetness. After eating, I felt full and powered through the entire two-hour walk without losing steam.

    The dish’s simplicity also stood out. As the week progressed, I used whatever vegetables were nearing their expiration date in my fridge. More than anything, I loved how this breakfast helped me cut back on food waste.

    How to Get the Most Out of This Meal, According to Nutritionists

    Hoffman is off to a great start with this breakfast, says Cara Harbstreet, a registered dietitian based in Kansas City, Missouri. “Sylvia makes a smart choice by sticking to non-starchy vegetables and protein-rich foods instead.” As a nutrition expert, Harbstreet almost always recommends loading up on fiber-rich foods, but for athletes, she makes an exception before training because it’s “slow to digest and may cause GI issues.”

    “Hoffman’s breakfast contains a mix of protein, fats, and color—three things I look for at any meal to help ensure a good balance of macros, as well as satiety and nutrient diversity, according to Maddie Pasquariello, a registered dietitian based in New York City, New York.

    This combination doesn’t just taste good. It also supports recovery. “For high-intensity workouts like the ones Hoffman’s doing, protein and carbs before a workout are generally recommended to support your muscles,” says Pasquariello. Timing matters less than total intake, she adds. “The amount of protein you eat is way more important than when you eat it.”

    Carbohydrates play an equally important role, says Paul Jaeckel, a registered dietitian nutritionist also based in New York City. “Carbs are essential for energy, and energy is something you need during a workout.”

    Hoffman knows this well. She mentioned that during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, she would load up on carbs like “waffles, pancakes, and oatmeal” before competing. For even more carb-friendly pairing ideas, Pasquariello suggests whole-grain toast, sautéed potatoes, grits, or even a piece of fruit.

    Hoffman’s high-protein breakfast, paired with energizing carbs, proves that even the simplest meals can fuel elite athletes through the toughest training blocks.

    In the meantime, I’ll think of her every time I fire up the pan to make garlicky scrambled eggs.

    Is this a recipe you’d like to try? Let us know in the comments, or tell us your favorite go-to breakfast. 

    [ad_2]

    aunderwood

    Source link