By Cliff Harvey
In a previous article, I summarized the current state of scientific knowledge regarding individual carbohydrate tolerance. There is exciting, emerging research in this area, but from a clinician's point of view, it is already clear that differing amounts of the macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) affect individuals differently. While there are best practice guidelines for various desired outcomes, there is a large degree of individuality between the prescriptions for individuals. This variability is dictated by practitioners’ biochemical individuality, metabolic typing, or other circumstances. At this point in time, there is no accepted way to determine the macronutrient ‘tolerance’ of an individual, except in those cases where a specific diet is required due to a disease or disorder (such as a ketogenic diet for epilepsy). Post by Emily White
As we all know, too much of anything can be a bad thing. Your fitness and training regime is no exception. Over training or more specifically under recovering is common amongst athletes but is now also becoming more prevalent amongst us ‘average Joes’. By Cliff Harvey
For many thousands of years, humans survived as hunter-gatherers. Only in the past several thousand, an evolutionary blink of the eye, have we shifted to a diet in which grain-based, high-carbohydrate, and high-sugar content foods dominate our food supply. Even more recently we began to eat the vast amounts of highly processed and refined (highly glycemic loading) foods that now make up the bulk of the modern diet. Before anyone accuses me of being some crazy ‘Paleo guy,’ remember I started consulting in the nutrition field before Paleo was cool, back in the late 1990s. But as a rationalist and a scientist, it makes sense to look at remaining (or recently remaining) hunter-gatherer populations for some of the best evidence of not only how humans have eaten over the course of our progression as a species, but also how this affects health, and what we should be doing now. Post by Emily White
The old meat vs. no meat debate. One of the biggest topics of controversy in nutrition today. While some claim a plant based diet healed them from disease, others have to go against cultural or ethical views by reintroducing animal products, as they feel they can’t function as a normal human without them. I have seen this enormous variance in clinic a lot. For many this can be absolutely mind boggling. How can one person bounce off the walls when omitting animal products, however when you try, you’re a walking corpse?! Luckily for us all, science is starting to uncover the injustice of it all, and it appears that our genes are responsible. Post by Emily White
Ok, while the title may sound a little melodramatic many people really have no idea what they are putting on their skin. I see countless amounts of people that are so 'health conscious', worrying about every little thing that passes their lips, yet when they get out of the shower every morning are smothering themselves head to toe in skin products. Many people think of the skin as a protective barrier, because, it many ways that is exactly what it is. But in terms of the skin products that we lather ourselves in every day, our skin acts as a sponge absorbing a lot of those chemicals. You just have to think of how a nicotine patch works in order to understand just how easy it is for us to absorb chemicals via the skin. By Cliff Harvey
No matter where you look nowadays, someone is trying to sell a diet, pill, or potion that promises to help you detox. Counter to this, there are myriad science and evidence-based sites that will tell you detoxing is a bunch of hokum and that there is no benefit to any detox diet or supplement. So is there any evidence that detox diets or supplements help? Let’s take a look at a few claims people make about detox diets. Claim 1: Detoxing Helps You Lose WeightMany people do lose weight on detox diets. It’s often claimed that this is because ‘toxins’ encourage the storage of fat, but in all likelihood, it is because while following a restrictive detox diet the person simply eats less. As an example, a 2015 study demonstrated that the ‘Lemon Detox’ diet helped women lose weight.1 but that this was likely due to simple calorie restriction. Any time you drastically restrict calories you will lose weight, and this has nothing whatsoever to do with toxins. |
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