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Should you eat avocados? Are they a healthy choice?(Photo: Adobe. Do not use without permission)

A scenario like this happens several times a week in my preventive cardiology clinic: A 43-year old man has his second heart event and adopts a whole food, plant-based diet with no added oils.

He thrives on the control it gives him over future cardiac disease. He knows of Drs. Ornish and Esselstyn.

When he sees me in my office, he turns to me and asks: "Doc, I love all of this and am devoted. But, can I have half of an avocado a few times a week because I read it is off my menu?"

Where did the concept enter the nutrition field, or specifically, the heart disease reversal field, that avocados might not be healthy?

Why do the programs that demonstrate the amazing power of plant-based diets to halt and reverse heart disease generally restrict avocados?

In a prior article I wrote about the pioneers of plant-based cardiac nutrition and highlighted Lester Morrison, MD as an early adopter of diets naturally low in fat.

His work, beginning in the late 1940s, excluded avocados and many other foods as listed below. He was able to demonstrate a dramatic survival advantage for cardiac patients in Los Angeles who followed his dietary protocol that included an Avoca-NO menu.

Later, the dramatic breakthrough by Dean Ornish, MD and Caldwell Esselstyn, MD in using lifestyle program of whole food, plant diets without avocado sealed the concept that avocados may carry a risk for cardiac patients.

Lester Morrison, MD believed avocados should be avoided

In early 2017 I was intrigued about the science of avocados and wrote an article about the available data regarding their impact on cholesterol values, metabolic measurements relating to blood sugar and inflammation, and satiety. Overall, that search raised questions whether avocados carry a risk or benefit to measurements of cardiovascular function.

One medium avocado has the following nutritional profile:

Calories: 227

Fat: 21g

Sodium: 11mg

Carbohydrates: 12g

Fiber: 9.2g

Sugars: 0.4g

Protein: 2.7g

Most of the calories in avocado come from fat. A whole avocado contains about 21 grams of fat, but mostly in the form of healthier monounsaturated fat.

A larger fruit (201 grams) provides up to 30 grams of fat, 4.2 grams of saturated fat, almost 20 grams of monounsaturated fat, and 3.6 grams of polyunsaturated fat.

Avocados are a good source of healthy fats(Photo: Adobe. Do not use without permission)

1. The highest quality nutrition science is usually considered to be the randomized clinical trial. In a study of 31 obese or overweight middle-aged adults, participants consumed energy-matched breakfast meals containing 0 g (Control), 68 g (Half-A) or 136 g (Whole-A) of fresh Hass avocado on three separate occasions.

Replacing carbohydrate components of their meals with avocados in a meal improved flow mediated dilatation, a measure of endothelial function of arteries. The avocado enriched meals also improved glycemic and lipoprotein profiles in overweight/obese adults.

The authors concluded that: "Incorporating fresh Hass avocados in meals can help people achieve dietary recommendations to eat more fruits and vegetables and simple substitution strategies with avocados for carbohydrates can add to the nutrient diversity of the diet and potentially have important cardio-metabolic benefits worthy of investigating further."

2. A second RCT this year also examined the impact of one avocado a day on a form of cholesterol that is capable of accelerating atherosclerosis called oxidized LDL (oxLDL). In this study, 45 men and women who were overweight or obese and had an elevated LDL cholesterol were enrolled. Three cholesterol-lowering diets were provided for 5 weeks each in random sequences: a lower-fat (LF) diet (24% calories from fat) and 2 moderate-fat (MF) diets (34 percent calories from fat). One MF meal plan included 1 Hass avocado (136 g) per day and the other MF diet used high oleic acid oils to match the fatty acid profile of 1 avocado.

Compared with baseline, the diet with one avocado a day significantly decreased circulating oxLDL which would be anticipated to of benefit for the vascular system. These changes differed significantly from the other diets. The drop in oxLDL caused by the avocado diet was correlated with beneficial reductions in the number of small and dense LDL particles, also anticipated to be an important advantage for cardiovascular health. The researchers concluded that one avocado a day in a heart-healthy diet decreased oxLDL in adults with overweight and obesity, and the effect was associated with the reduction in small and dense LDL.

The data I reviewed in the past and the current two studies lead to the following conclusions:

1. For the general public, a half or whole avocado a day, particularly if replacing refined carbohydrates or animal fats, is a healthy choice.

2. For many cardiac patients in a stable state, enjoying avocados is a reasonable choice.

3. For the most advanced cardiac patients reversing serious blocked arteries, particularly if associated with symptoms of anginal chest discomfort and abnormal stress test examinations, sticking to the original dietary protocols of Drs. Morrison, Ornish, and Essesltyn is advised, an avoca-NO group.

More:
Should You Eat Avocados - Or Are They Too High In Fat? - Plant Based News

If you follow fighting sports, you're probably already aware of George Lockhart's work. He's the nutritionist and chef who controls weight cuts for UFC stars like Conor McGregor and Daniel Cormier, and has managed the nutritional needs of boxers, such as two-weight world champion, Badou Jack. For the past few months though, Lockhart has been working with a new client: 6ft9, self-styled "fat man", Tyson "The Gypsy King" Fury.

Tyson is like a Lamborghini and if you owned a Lamborghini you wouldnt put shit fuel in it

Using only the freshest produce, for the past seven weeks Lockhart has been making five trips a day to a local farmers market in order to fetch enough food to satisfy Fury's 4,500 calories a day need. He has, of course, also been on washing up duties after each of Fury's five daily meals.

With all that food, Lockhart predicts Fury will come into his rematch with Wilder "a lot heavier than he usually is", according to Lockhart, but he will also be "a lot leaner too".

Tyson is like a Lamborghini and if you owned a Lamborghini you wouldnt put shit fuel in it," says Lockhart. "Its about recovery. Tyson can burn 1,500 calories in 45 minutes so we are constantly replenishing. That means its not just the quantity of the workouts that has increased but the quality too.

Fury's meals are delivered with military precision, and you'd expect nothing less from a nutritionist who began his working life as a US Marine who did a tour of duty in Iraq where his four-man team helped apprehend 200 suspected insurgents. That was, of course, prior to Lockhart turning his hand to becoming a MMA fighter himself, before he eventually became nutritionist and chef to some of the world's most dangerous fighters.

Speaking to The Athletic, Lockhart revealed the type of daily diet he serves to Fury and his three brothers.

8am, breakfast: [Fury's day] starts off with fruit and Greek yogurt. He loves that. And he feels strong with that. He has that every morning. Obviously, we switch it up, but we have tons of berries so you get a lot of antioxidants.

Pre-workout shake: The pre-workout will basically, depending what time of the day it is, be beta alanine. Hell get 4,000 milligrams of beta-alanine. Well give them like 200 milligrams of caffeine and those are gonna be the basics. The base for pre-workout.

During-workout shake: Hell have BCAAs with a little bit of creatine and sugar.

Post-workout shake: Hell get dextrose in a supplement form, a type of fruit for fructose. Then well add a whey protein isolate for his post. An hour after that shake, he eats his meal.

11am, lunch: Tyson likes spicy food, which blows my freaking mind because being an Englishman, its usually not the case. I cooked him up some shit because Im half Mexican that put my tongue on fire and hes cool with it. He gets a curry almost every single day for inflammation. There are a million different curries out there, so Im constantly coming up with new curries.

2pm, second lunch: He has to have at least one serving of seafood every single day. And then I try and do one red meat or chicken. So every meal he gets different meats, youll get a huge variety of foods. I try to get different meats every single meal. A chicken, a fish or last night he had sirloin steak.

Furys works out again in the afternoon and will be fuelled by more pre, during and post-workout shakes.

6pm, dinner: Fury will have something like chicken vindaloo with turmeric for its anti-inflammatory properties, but this meal will be crafted around whatever meat Fury hasn't had earlier in the day.

9pm, second dinner: Hell have his power balls, his energy balls. Its basically almond butter, oatmeal, coconut, honey, pecans and dark chocolate chips all rolled into balls. A couple of those before he goes to bed.

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Tyson Fury's Nutritionist Has Revealed the Fighter's Daily Diet Ahead of Fury Wilder 2 - Men's health UK

Older adults may have better success at losing weight if they do it with the help of intensive behavioral therapy from dietitians, a new study suggests.

Intensive behavioral therapy for obesity, or IBTO, is a customized treatment that helps people change their eating and exercise behaviors through a series of one-on-one counseling sessions.

Its also a treatment that can be difficult for primary care doctors to do on top of other responsibilities, so a research team from East Carolina University set out to discover IBTOs effectiveness if a dietitian is added to the team.

RDNs, or registered dietitian nutritionists, are trained for both weight loss and nutrition therapy, and can help support physicians in addressing underlying diet and lifestyle risk factors for chronic diseases, said Dr. Lauren Sastre, an author of the study and assistant nutrition science professor at East Carolina University.

And, the study notes, IBTO is already provided and reimbursed for Medicare B recipients, who would be age 65 or older. As the prevalence of obesity in the US has increased to include nearly 40% of the adult population, Sastre and her team found that IBTO with a dietitian is an effective method to addressing not only obesity in older adults but its associated conditions, such as type 2 diabetes.

Their results showed that the patients who received the treatment lost nearly three pounds on average and improved other health outcomes in comparison to those who did not receive IBTO.

Coupled with the fact that nutrition is not required content in medical school curricula, medical professionals may not have the time or the skills to develop and implement nutrition interventions for patients, said Dr. Emily Wilcox Gier, Dietetics Program Leader for the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, who wasnt part of the study. Referring patients to [dietitians] is an easy, cost-effective and necessary step to ensure that patients receive the treatment they need to meet weight loss goals.

The study involved 2,097 women age 65 and older who received Medicare insurance. They all had a body mass index above 30, which classified them as obese, according to the CDC. The women were then divided into a treatment group and a non-treatment group, with nearly 700 of the participants receiving IBTO.

At the first visit, dietitians helped patients establish their calorie limit and food-tracking method based on their personal habits and preferences. Subsequent sessions were check-ins in which patients focused on improving their exercise habits and diet.

The researchers also measured the patients weight, BMI, A1C and medication use. A1C is a blood test that helps doctors make a diagnosis for pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes by measuring your average blood sugar level over the past three months. It also can show how well a person has been managing their diabetes.

After three years of treatment, from 2016 to 2019, patients who received IBTO experienced greater BMI decreases, larger A1C declines and stopped taking their prescription medication sooner, the study found.

Patients in the treatment group lost nearly three pounds on average, compared with patients in the control group who gained an average of a half a pound. They also had an average A1C decline of nearly 0.2, which previous research has associated with an up to 10% reduction in death risk.

[Dietitians] have the knowledge and skills to work with patients [or] clients on an individual basis to develop interventions that work, said Dr. Emily Wilcox Gier, dietetics program leader for the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University, who wasnt part of the study. [Dietitians] know how to tailor nutrition recommendations to fit ones needs, including medical conditions, living situations and preferences. This evidence helps support the fact that our training helps patients meet their weight loss goals.

Demographic differences did affect the patients results, however, as the study notes that minorities and older respondents experienced smaller results.

Yet given the overall results found for lowering A1C, the researchers think the intensive therapy model advised by a dietitian could be helpful for people who arent obese but do have diabetes although current requirements for Medicare IBTO include having a BMI of more than 30.

Link:
Want to lose more weight? Intensive therapy from dietitians can help older adults, study finds - KRDO

Fitness

Roger Schwab, the co-owner and operator of X-Force Philadelphia, isn't slowing down anytime soon.

Roger Schwab, co-owner and operator of X-Force Philadelphia. / Photograph courtesy of X-Force Philadelphia.

For over 50 years, Roger Schwab, co-owner and operator of X-Force Philadelphia, has been a force to be reckoned with in the fitness world. He and his wife, Elanna Schwab, formerly ran a Bryn Mawr gym, Main Line Health& Fitness. In 2015, the pair decided to retire and sold the gym. By 2018, they were out of retirement and had opened X-Force.

Retirement didnt work for us, Roger Schwab told us.

Thats no surprise for either of them. Elanna Schwab is a talented personal trainer and champion dragon boat paddler who formerly operated a health club in Tel Aviv. And Roger Schwab has quite a resume: he was Penn States first strength and conditioning coach, introduced Nautilus training equipment to Philly in in the 70s, trained U.S. womens Olympic swimming and field hockey teams, served as head judge of the International Federation of Bodybuilders, and conducted extensive research for preventative and rehabilitative spinal exercise.

But its not just his accolades that give him street cred. Its also the fact that, at 75, Schwab is in the best shape of anyone weve ever met. His secret? Eccentric strength training. Also called negative accentuated training, this type of workout involves you slowly bringing down the weight, rather than quickly finishing the rep. At X-Force, 40-percent heavier resistance is added as you lower, making the workout super tough, but you super strong. Dont believe us? Just ask Brent Celek, Todd Herremans, or us we tried it when X-Force first opened in Philly (and multiple times since *insert bicep and fire emojis*).

In between reps, we chatted with Schwab about eccentric training, his long history of personal and strength training, and what his typical health and wellness routine is like.

BWP: How did you discover eccentric training?Schwab: When I was a young adult, my goal was to be skinny, but have some muscles. At the time, the thing in fitness was fast weight training, like how many curls or squats you could do in 30 seconds. Because I was misusing barbells and other weight equipment, I ended up with major skeletal degeneration at an early age. Basically, quick, explosive training only exploded my body.

My injury catalyzed my interest in correct, medically-sound exercise, and after doing tons of research, I found eccentric training. I believe its the smartest, safest way to build strength and get results, which is why Ive been doing it for so long. Its also why I was so interested in bringing X-Force to the U.S. [The Swedish company] had found a way to make eccentric training easier with their technology. In 2010, I actually went to Sweden and met with the orthopedic surgeon who helped develop their machines to make sure X-Force was the real deal. And it is. Ive found it strengthens my muscles, bones, and joints, and reduces any further orthopedic trauma.

Schwab has been strength training for over 50 years. / Photograph courtesy of X-Force Philadelphia.

Strength training is currently one of the most popular workouts in America. That seems like a good thing, right?Well, Im glad more people are strength training, but that doesnt necessarily mean they are doing it correctly. Right now, a lot of boutique gyms incorporate weights in between rounds of cardio; however, the weight portion is focused on how many reps you can do in a short time, which as I mentioned can lead to injury or long-term musculoskeletal issues. I think more people need to incorporate meaningful resistance training that actually stimulates and strengthens your muscles so that their quality of life is one in which they feel empowered with real results.

What does your personal fitness and nutrition regimen look like?At my age, I workout once per week at X-Force, which is actually the number of times per week anyone should be training at X-Force. You get an intense, safe total-body workout in 30 minutes. As for food, I dont believe in a high-protein diet, but a sensible diet that includes well-portioned protein, fats, and carbs. Some of my staple food items include oatmeal, a boiled egg on whole wheat toast paired with a cup of fruit, fish, and a good amount of vegetables.

Is eccentric training only for people who are already pretty fit?People are stronger than they think, and eccentric training isnt reserved for an exclusive group or skill level. Sometimes it shocks people when I say that men and women should be training exactly the same the only thing thatll vary is the intensity theyre putting in. One of my clients is 77 years old, but shes one of the strongest people I know because shes working and fatiguing her muscles properly and efficiently. Any person in good health should train the whole body hard, but briefly (once or twice per week), keep reps slow and smooth, and tailor the time between workouts according to progress.

What about us cardio lovers?Ive got nothing against spinning, yoga, or other calorie-burning workouts, but those kinds of exercise become detrimental when theyre not supplemented with strength training. For instance, sitting on a bike for an hour is going to grind the muscles in your hips and knees over time. Without strengthening those muscles, youll be more prone to joint pain and injury as you get older. What Im saying is youve got to be orthopedically sound or youre not going to be able to do cardio. Remember: muscles move your body and you have to keep your muscles strong.

What else can people do to improve their longevity and overall health?Ive always worked out to stimulate a response, but recognize some people exercise for the social or community aspect. To me, short-term, feel good exercises often overshadow the exercises that actually benefit you in the long run. Plus, everyone is always looking for the easiest way to get results, when they should be seeking over-time results as opposed to overnight.

You can improve your heart health the same way you improve muscle strength: do a circuit of exercises that work and fatigue your muscles with slow reps, and move from machine to machine at a brisk pace to keep your heart rate up. For example, exercise your hamstrings until you fail muscularly, then move onto a quad exercise, then a leg press. This will increase your heart rate, as well as stimulate your lungs.

Make sure you let your body recover after intense workouts or else youll exhaust yourself. Im 75 and I still workout like this because I believe medically-sound weight training is vital to longevity. To me, its about living longer, stronger.

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This 75-Year-Old Philly Trainer Is Fit As Hell. Heres How He Does It. - phillymag.com

Scarsdale diet

TheScarsdale dietis a very stricteatingplan that allows for just 1,000 calories per day, regardless of your body size, gender, or activity level. No substitutions of any kind are allowed and each meal is specifically defined for each of the 14-days of thediet. On the plan, you eat three meals per day.

The Scarsdale diet is a high-protein, low-calorie, and low carbohydrate weight loss program developed by Herman Tarnower, a cardiologist from New York state. The programme gained widespread media attention in the 1970s as the go-to quick weight loss programme for society women and fashion elites. It gained additional notoriety after Tarnower was murdered just a year after his best-selling book was published.

The diet is no longer as popular as it once was, as health experts have been critical of the very low-calorie requirements and the inflated weight loss claims.

The banana and milk diet involves eating only bananas and drinking milk for 4 days. The programme was developed in 1934 by Dr. George Harrop. The main logic behind the diet was to consume fewer calories than usual, but still stay healthy. Both the milk and bananas have many health benefits which help with staying fit during the diet. Followers of the diet consume less than 1000 calories per day, making them lose weight easily.

Although bananas and milk do have health benefits, following such a restrictive diet isnt typically a good idea. While you may lose weight, its unlikely that youll sustain it once you return to normal eating habits.

Whether the famous combination of milk and banana is good or bad for health has always been in debate.

Thegrapefruit diet is a protein-rich meal plan that focuses on consuming grapefruit or grapefruit juice at every meal. The diets goal is quick weight loss, and its a 12-day plan. While several versions of the diet exist, the majority of them include a daily caloric intake of less than 1 000 calories which means weight loss should be rapid.

The grape diet proposed by famous South African seer, Johanna Brandt, recommended fasting for two or three days, consuming only cold water, followed by a diet of only grapes and water for one to two weeks, with seven meals a day. Fresh fruits, tomatoes, and sour milk or cottage cheese are then introduced into the diet followed by raw vegetables.

Brandt, a spy during the Boer War, prophet and writer on controversial health subjects, popularized the grape diet as a treatment for cancer from 1925. She published about twenty pamphlets on the subject of natural remedies for health problems with her best-known publication being The Grape Cure. This publication is said to have been written after Brandt had cured herself of stomach cancer by following the diet.The book was republished in 1989 asHow to Conquer Cancer, Naturally, including an endorsement of Brandts work by Benedict Lust who is commonly referred to as the father of naturopathy. The book may have been inspired by Arnold Ehret, a contemporary, who taught a Grape Cure course.

It is believed the grape detox diet can help relieve ailments and reduce weight by cleansing the body and flushing out toxic waste. The grape detox is an eating plan typically used by those who wish to lose weight, become healthier and sometimes as an attempt to eliminate serious illness such as cancer and lung disease.

Image by Shutterbug75 from Pixabay

The Atkins diet, the most famous low-carb weight loss diet in the world, was created by cardiologist Robert Atkins in the early 1970s. It claims to produce rapid weight loss without hunger.

The Atkins diet is a high-protein, high-fat diet that restricts carbs and gradually adds them back in, based on personal tolerance. Studies have shown it is one of the most effective ways to lose weight.

Discuss any diet you plan on embarking on with your doctor.

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The ups and downs of 5 fad diets of the past - Lowvelder

By Jonny Lupsha, News Writer

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the JAMA Network website determined that the most effective diets can rarely, if ever, be determined by our DNA. Some studies have reported that genotype variation could predispose individuals to differential weight loss that varies by diet type, the study said. However, the diet-genotype interaction for weight loss was not statistically significant. The finding of no significant difference in weight loss in genotype-matched vs. mismatched groups in the current study highlights the importance of conducting large, appropriately powered trials such as DIETFITS for validating early exploratory analyses.

In other words, statistically speaking, matching a diet to your DNA rarely works and shouldnt be considered a winning method for weight loss. The relationship between your unique body physiology and the foods you eat determine your level of nutrition: Certain types of foods affect our cells on a molecular level, regardless of our genetic make-up.

What you eat will ultimately make up portions of your cells, skin, hair, blood transportation systems, muscle, fat, and more, said Dr. Michael Ormsbee, Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Assistant Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University.

The nutrients you eat are not just being transported around throughout our digestive systems and in the blood; they are also an ingrained part of every cell tissue that makes us who we are and what we do. Our bodies are, to a significant extent, composed of the foods that we eat.

Dr. Ormsbee said that our cells bond together to make tissues, which make up our organs, which combine to make our entire bodies function properly. If your cells are not healthy, they will not work properly; and if the cells dont work properly, then the tissues wont work properly; and if tissues arent working, then the systems begin to fail, he said.

The best way to prevent this detrimental snowball effect is to keep our cells healthy by feeding them the right nutrients.

The structures of your cells are made up of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals, Dr. Ormsbee said. The foods we eat every single day are made up of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The foods you eat have a major influence on your cellular function because they ultimately become your cells.

If this idea seems a bit coincidental, there are several examples to shed light on the relationship between your diet and your cells. Dr. Ormsbee said that unsaturated fats are one such example. Cell membranes are semi-permeable, and this is due to the fluid structure of the fats, as he called it. Trans fats and saturated fats are more rigid than unsaturated fats.

They dont function the same way as the unsaturated fats, and they cause membranes to be much more rigid than is optimal, potentially limiting the functionality of the cells, Dr. Ormsbee said. Diets that are too high in one type of fatfor example, trans fatsmight lead to a rigid, brittle cell membrane that cannot communicate as well as if they were comprised of a better mix of fat types.

This is one reason why many nutritionists recommend eating all types of fats so that one type doesnt predominate in the diet and end up altering the optimal functioning of those cells.

So, even though our diets help determine who we are, that doesnt mean that our genotypes should determine our diets.

Dr. Michael Ormsbee contributed to this article. Dr. Ormsbee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Assistant Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University. He received his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics from East Carolina University.

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Fad of Matching Diet to DNA Ineffective, New Study Shows - The Great Courses Daily News

There's a switch inside every cell in your body. Flip it on and you're in growth mode. Your cells start dividing but in the process, they make a lot of junk like mis-folded proteins, which help create the conditions for our biggest diseases (including cardiovascular, Alzheimer's and the big C). Flip the switch off, though, and your cells literally take out the trash leaving them clean, renewed, effectively young.

We know how to flip the switch. The trick is figuring out when. Because leaving your body in cleanup mode for too long can also be extremely bad for your health, in the much shorter term. Doing so has been the cause of anxiety, misery and disorder, for decades. It's also known as starvation.

The delicate dance of food consumption is at the heart of The Switch, a new book about new body-energy science and how it can help us live longer. Author and research scientist James Clement studies people who reach the age of 110; Harvard's David Sinclair, who recently wrote a groundbreaking book on the end of aging, is his mentor. As Clement's book hit shelves, an unrelated study in Nature confirmed its premise: mTOR (your genetic "on" switch) cannot coexist with autophagy (trash removal), and that is "implicated in metabolic disorders, neuro-degeneration, cancer and aging," the study said.

In other words: We age faster, get sicker and harm our brains when we fill the hours we're awake with food, day in and day out. Organic beings need more of a break than just a good night's rest in order to properly take out the trash. We're the opposite of automobiles. We break down eventually unless we run out of fuel. (Glycogen, which is what the body converts food into, is our gas.)

These revelations shed a new spotlight on fasting, the main way to induce autophagy (you can also kickstart it with intense exercise on a mostly empty stomach). But this is where we run into problems, and not just because autophagy literally translates to "eating yourself." (It can be hard for scientists to explain that this is actually a good thing and that all living things do it, from simple yeast all the way up to primates; we were designed to work this way by millennia of feast and famine.)

The problem isn't the science, it's the culture. For most of history, fasting was locked into human lives at a steady, healthy pace in some form of ritual, religious or otherwise. But in the modern world, we make our own rituals, and they easily shade into obsessions. This happens a lot with new diets: We get the zeal of the convert. We bore our friends to death with the particulars. And we take it too far, which in the case of fasting can be dangerous.

In a column published this week, the New York Times' veteran health columnist Jane Brody came around to the value of intermittent fasting. But she sounded a personal note of caution: "For people with a known or hidden tendency to develop an eating disorder, fasting can be the perfect trigger, which I discovered in my early 20s. In trying to control my weight, I consumed little or nothing all day, but once I ate in the evening, I couldnt stop and ended up with a binge eating disorder."

Something similar, at least to the first part of that story, seems to have happened to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Last year Dorsey boasted about fasting for 22 hours, eating just one meal at dinnertime, and skipping food for the whole damn weekend. "I felt like I was hallucinating," he enthused, boasting of his increased focus and euphoria.

But as many withering articles pointed out, Dorsey's words would have triggered concern if they came from the mouth of a teenage girl since focus and euphoria can also be early signs of anorexia and bulimia. Clearly there is a tangled set of gendered assumptions at play here. "Its both remarkable and depressing to watch Jack Dorsey blithely describe a diet that would put any woman or any non-wealthy man into the penalty box of public opinion," wrote Washington Post columnist Monica Hesse.

That's not what The Switch is about. Clement doesn't endorse Dorsey's extreme approach, since the research shows benefits diminish after 16 hours of fasting. "I have friends who are bulimic, I know how serious a problem it is," he said when I raised the issue. "The kind of fasting that I'm talking about is just making sure your mTOR and autophagy are in balance."

Indeed, The Switch is a very balanced book, with plenty of nuanced suggestions for how you can make your food situation just a little bit better without making too many radical changes. (That probably explains why it hasn't taken off on the diet book media circuit, which tends to favor rules that are extreme, unusual, and headline-friendly.)

Here's a breakdown of Clement's advice.

Like most medicine, the mTOR switch is good for you if used at the correct dose, and poison at high doses. There's a reason it exists: It's your body's way of saying "times are good, let's grow muscle and fat!" Fat isn't inherently bad for you, either on your body or in your diet. Indeed, the good fats are what Clement suggests we consume the most fish, avocados, plant-based oils and nuts, macadamias especially alongside regular greens, most legumes and a little fruit.

If you're cutting down the amount of time you eat, then the content of your meals matters more. Clement himself gets good results from a meatless version of the ketogenic diet, which he says makes him less hungry but he doesn't rule out other diets that focus on good fat and fiber.

At the very least, be sure to avoid the stuff that spikes blood sugar. It will make you too hungry too soon, which will make autophagy impossible. You didn't think this whole Switch thing was going to give you permission to snarf on soda and hot dogs, did you?

Well, it does, actually just very occasionally.

Clement brings a lot of science on protein to the table, and the bad news is you're probably eating way more of it than you think you need. Animal protein flips the mTOR switch into high gear (which is why Clement is into mostly vegan keto). Sadly, so does regular dairy, and as a milk fan I found the new studies on this particularly hard reading.

But it makes evolutionary sense. Cow milk is designed to make calves grow many sizes in a short space of time, and the way you do that is by activating the mTOR pathway. So it's hard to switch into autophagy if you're chugging milk all the time. (Non-cow milks and cheeses seem to be fine, mTOR-wise.)

Which isn't to say you can't have meat and milk at all. This isn't one of those fundamentally restrictive diets we always break. Clement suggests dividing the week or month or year into growth and fasting phases. You might decide to eat as much as you want for three months of the year (which takes care of the holidays problem), say, or try doing the fasting thing for five days a month.

Whichever way you do it, the sweet spot seems to put you in growth mode around 20 percent of the time. But that's not a hard and fast number, because again, this isn't one-size-fits-all. (It certainly doesn't apply to kids, who need to grow more like calves.) I told Clement that after reading the book I was thinking of only allowing myself meat or milk on the weekends; he enthusiastically endorsed the idea.

Ready to turn on autophagy for its disease-fighting benefits? Ready to avoid doing it too much? Ready to eat more nutritious food when you break your fast? Then it's time to figure out how long you want to fast for and you'll be surprised about how little time it takes to see the effects.

The math varies from human to human, but "you only have about six to 10 hours worth of glycogen stored in your body at any given time," says Clement. "So you can actually burn through those overnight if you didn't load up with carbs in your evening meal or 11 o'clock snacks."

That provides one particularly effortless way to fast for those of us who don't wake up hungry (and if you're eating the right stuff, you generally won't). Let's say you ate your last bite at 9 p.m. and wake up at 7 a.m. Congratulations, you're already out of glycogen and in autophagy! Now the question is: How long is it comfortable for you to stay foodless, bearing in mind you don't want to go past a total of 16 hours? (In this example, that would be 1 p.m.)

You'll definitely want to hydrate immediately, of course: Sleep literally shrivels your brain. You might want to drink some coffee, which enhances autophagy (the all-time Guinness World Record oldest human, Jeanne Calment of France, took no breakfast but coffee, and died at 122). If you can stand to do so, this would be a great time to work out. Exercise seems to act like an autophagy power up; one study suggests working up a sweat might boost our cells' trash-cleaning effectiveness all the way up to the 80-minute mark.

So if you went from 9 p.m. to 1 p.m., or whatever 16-hour period suits your schedule (7 p.m. to 11 a.m. seems to be a popular one for fasters who don't make late dinner reservations, and it is easily remembered as "7-11"), then congratulations. You just did the maximally beneficial fast. Take that, Jack Dorsey.

But if you didn't? No sweat. If you only made it until 10 a.m., or 8 a.m. before needing food, your entire body still got a boost of cleanup time. And if you needed an immediate breakfast, that's fine too. Fasting doesn't have to happen every day; in fact it's imperative that it doesn't. Every morning is an opportunity to listen to your body and see if it's ready for a quick restorative food break.

Everyone who's ever tried to diet knows the terrible guilt that comes after grabbing obviously bad food. Don't stress over it, says Clement. Don't be maniacal. The whole point is to be in balance. We all need mTOR-boosting feasts from time to time. "It's fine to have one pepperoni pizza on a Sunday, or whatever," he says. So long as you're eating well most of the time and fasting every now and again, you'll see positive effects.

And if you can't fast at all and can't stop snacking? No worries, just change what you're eating. "If you switch over to snacking on either very low glycemic veggies like broccoli tops or carrots, or nuts, then you're not going to be replenishing your glycogen stores," Clement says. Stick a small bowl of almonds and blueberries in the kitchen and you'll be surprised, over time, at how little it takes to satisfy supposedly giant cravings.

That was what I learned, not from Clement's book, but from David Sinclair's. The Harvard geneticist and Clement mentor doesn't focus so much on lengthy fasts, although he takes a number of fast-mimicking supplements. His dieting approach is to simply eat less, to "flip a switch in your head that allows you to be OK with being a little hungry." For some of us, such small moves may be more effective than going all-out on a new diet.

If youd like to talk to someone about your eating behaviors, call the National Eating Disorder Associations helpline at 800-931-2237. You can also text NEDA to 741-741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at the Crisis Text Line or visit NEDA's website for more information.

See the article here:
Not fasting is killing us, but fasting can hurt us too. Here's what to do. - Mashable

Does the thought of eating bugs make you cringe?Youre not alone,especially in further north areas likeMichigan.

We have these harsh winters, [so] insects arent available, says Julie Lesnik, an anthropology professor at Wayne State University who specializes in the evolution of the human diet and using insects as a food source. Its not a part of a lot of traditional diets in higherlatitudes.

This isnt just something that primitivepeople eat, this is a food resource that has been smartly used for millions of years and in a lot of ways we are silly for ignoring it. - Julie Lesnik,professor

But Lesnik makes the argument that eating and farming insects may make sense for a growing population where our food system leads to growing inequity, hunger and obesity.Bugs are also an environmentally-friendly food source and rich in nutrients, and a culture built around it with recipes and even a business in metroDetroit.

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Still not ready to join the ranks of the entovegans,individuals who only eat insects and plant-based foods? WDETs Anna Sysling spoke to Lesnik on the colonialist history of our bug aversion, the case for an insect-based farming systemand how you can start dabbling in thisdiet.

Otherwise, how did you get here? 101.9 WDET wants to connect with metro Detroiters who are concerned about climate change and want to take action. Sign-up to be contacted by our editorial team to learnmore.

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Lesnick says the problem with our current food system is wastedresources.

Its about how much resources we put into cows versus what we get back out of them, saysLesnik.

Lesnik says according to estimates, it takes about 22,000 liters of water to cultivate a kilogram of edible mass for cows, which is a little over twopounds, and it takes a couple hundred liters of water to produce that same kilogram of edible mass forcrickets.

Soreally fresh water is one of the things we should be thinking about as a very precious resource and so adjusting how we farm our animals is an important part, shesays.

Insects are something we have been eating for millions of years, but fallen off here in the U.S.

Lesnick points to a conflicted history of colonialism as one reason why, as evidenced by correspondence and letters shes uncovered through herresearch.

By eating the whole insect youre actually getting a greater variation of nutrients than if you were just eatingmeat.

In a journal entry from [Christopher]Columbusscompanion on his second voyage, they highly scorn the use of insects as food, Lesnik explains.As Europeans,their only association with insects and food might be maggots with rottenmeat.

Lesnik says that Columbus and other colonizers uses indigenous peoples diets as one way to dehumanize and eventually enslave them to work on sugarplantations.

But she notes that right now there is a lot of excitement about farming crickets andmealworms.

She adds that both of these insects are great alternatives when thinking about different options forfood.

Lesnik says one thing about eating meat in our diet is that its a really easy way to get all the complete proteins that weneed.

That means you can easily getall the essential amino acids from one place, explains Lesnik, whereas if youre a vegetarian you need to be very smart about pairing all your foodsources.

By having strong disgust reactions at the idea of eating insects we are eliminating that asa possible resource for these futuregenerations.

She says insects offer that same animal protein, so they have that same benefit. But unlike eating the flesh of a cow or a pig, we are eating the entire insect so even if you are eating it powdered we get iron, dietary fiber. By eating the whole insect youre actually getting a greater variation of nutrients than if you were just eatingmeat.

Insects also offera unique ethical alternative for vegetarians, saysLesnik.

Cows are roaming animals and we put them into these small areas, but crickets naturally live in dark and cramped spaces, so to farm them in these containers for food is not far removed from their natural habitat, Lesnik continues.They are not nearly as stressed as other animals that wefarm.

Even with these facts, Lesnik says you may run into opposition among theuninitiated.

They might have a real honest disgust reaction, she says, complete with a churning stomach and gag reflex. Its hard to tell that person that their reaction iscultural.

She says that the disgust reaction is developed when we areyoung.

Think of a two-year-old, they put anything in their mouth and it requires the adults around them to say oh no dont put that in your mouth, and she says that our learned reactionhelps form the pathways in our brains as toddlersas to what is disgusting. So by having strong disgust reactions at the idea of eating insects we are eliminating that asa possible resource for these futuregenerations.

She says ultimately we need to change the narrative around bugs andinsects.

This isnt just something that primitivepeople eat, this is a food resource that has been smartly used for millions of years and in a lot of ways we are silly for ignoringit.

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Bug Burgers? Crickets Replace Cows in the Future of Sustainable Food - WDET

click to enlarge

Young Kwak photo

Cole's Bakery offers many keto-friendly baked goods like these cupcakes.

Anyone who pays attention to diet fads knows that sometimes fat's out, and whole grains are in. Eggs are good, then bad, then good again. Now, for those adopting the increasingly popular keto diet, fat is king bacon is totally OK but carbs and sugars are almost completely out.

Originally formulated to prevent seizures in people with epilepsy, ketogenic diets have actually been around for about a century, gathering and losing steam over the decades with different versions of the low-carb, high-fat diet (think Atkins, the Oprah-promoted Last Chance Diet and others). Once again, it's undeniable that keto is getting another heyday.

Many have found incredible success on the diet, which kicks the body into a survival state where fat is burned for energy in the near absence of carbohydrates. It's not uncommon to find people who've lost 50, 80, 150 pounds on the diet in months to a year.

Spokane-based physician Kyle Varner says he was initially suspicious of the diet, but after reading the research behind it, he says it made sense based on everything he'd learned about the human body in medical school.

After his own bariatric surgery, Varner says he'd lost about 70 pounds and was doing everything he'd been told by his doctors, including eating six small meals a day. But he still had about 50 pounds left to reachhis goal. So he switched to keto, a change that's given him those results and personal insight as he helps patients deal with obesity and metabolic syndrome.

"I'm a big keto and intermittent fasting evangelist. I think it's a very healthy diet," Varner says. "Keto is a more doable diet for the lifestyle we've come to lead as busy professionals in the United States, and a major improvement on what almost everybody is eating today."

Fats are very satiating, which can help prevent that urge to go check the fridge every few hours, he explains. The diet relies on people eating only about 35-40 grams of net carbs per day, he says, but it's important to note that fiber doesn't count.

"A lot of people don't realize you can eat a lot of things like broccoli and asparagus and mushrooms and peppers. The number one mistake is people aren't eating enough vegetables," Varner says. "It's really not necessary for most people to count them. If it's broccoli or cauliflower, I don't even count it, that's a food I'm allowed to have."

Cooking keto at home can be more expensive than other diets, and it can be a challenge to make substitutes for baked goods. Luckily, some Inland Northwest eateries are providing more keto-friendly options.

COLE'S BAKERY

Cole's Gluten Free Bakery and Cafe, located in North Spokane at 521 E. Holland Ave., has an entire menu designed for people with special dietary restrictions. The store also stocks several cases with tasty baked goods, breads and rolls for gluten-free and keto dietary needs.

Owner Jeanine Smith, who opened Cole's about six years ago, says she decided to bring on keto-friendly options after learning how helpful the diet is for children with epilepsy, as well as people with diabetes or autoimmune diseases.

"We have a whole keto section on our menu, with burgers, mozzarella sticks, chicken strips and breakfast sandwiches, and we have two full cases of keto products," Smith says.

Desserts made with a keto-friendly monk fruit sweetener include "fat bombs" in flavors like chocolate chip and lemon raspberry.

Smith's interest in gluten-free baking started with her own gluten issues and dissatisfaction with store-bought options. Many hours of baking experiments have ensued to create alternative breads.

Because baking substitutes can be difficult to craft, Cole's also offers mixes.

"What I hear a lot of is that people try to bake at home and then it just fails miserably," she says. "My advice is don't give up. If you love baking, you will find a way. But if you need a little help to get started, we've got options to help on the shelf, including bread mix, pancake mix, brownie mix and cookie mix."

FIRST AVENUE COFFEE

At First Avenue Coffee in downtown Spokane, at 1011 W. First, customers can also find a menu filled with gluten-free, paleo, vegan and keto-friendly options made at the in-store bakery.

But you won't necessarily find them labeled that way.

"For the first year, we advertised we have keto, we have vegan, we have gluten-free, and people would not try any of those items because they were afraid they were going to taste funky," explains owner Deborah Di Bernardo.

"So we took all the labels off our products and just featured them visually," she continues. "Once [people] told us they liked it, we'd say, 'Well that is vegan,' or 'that is keto,' and now just in the last few months, people actually come in asking for keto."

Keto options include donuts, grab-and-go snack packs with hard-boiled eggs and cheese, a roast beef wrap made with cheese, microgreens, mustard and salt rolled up in the meat, and a similar turkey wrap made with cranberry sauce, cream cheese and greens.

But cheddar biscuits are the most popular.

"People just go nuts over this one," Di Bernardo says. "I do an almond flour, cheddar cheese, green onion biscuit, with egg as the binder. This is how I got through my first year of changing my diet."

Di Bernardo started her own grain-free diet after being diagnosed with breast cancer and having a double mastectomy.

"I eat organic, which is why I only feature organic coffees here, and almost everything we use here is organic," she says.

Di Bernardo also confirms that keto items everywhere can be more expensive.

"Almond flour is literally 400 percent more expensive than white flour, so you know, our items are more expensive than the average donut," she says.

OTHER CHOICES

While there are still relatively few restaurants advertising that they cater to keto diets, low-carb options have made their way onto most menus in recent decades.

Doctor Varner suggests tweaks such as ordering a burger without the bun, or getting a Chinese vegetable and meat dish, with a flavorful sauce thats not sugar-based. Tacos can be made with lettuce wraps instead of tortillas, and many restaurants offer steak with vegetables on the side.

For cooking at home, cauliflower is a powerful substitute.

I love to make a taco casserole where I take the hamburger and mix it with cauliflower rice, cheese, vegetables and bacon, Varner says. Ill also make cauliflower rice paella or fried rice. Anything that has rice, you can swap out for cauliflower rice and you wont notice a big difference in flavor.

Keto adherents should ensure theyre getting necessary vitamins and minerals. Its a good idea with any major dietary change to work with your doctor. And the best success is seen in lifelong dietary changes, Varner says.

There is no diet that can be successful if it is a short term endeavor, Varner says. You have to decide every day for a long time what youre having for breakfast, lunch and dinner to see those results, and thats when you have long-term success.

More here:
As more people try a keto diet, restaurants in the Inland Northwest begin catering to the high-fat, low-carb trend - Pacific Northwest Inlander

DEAR DR. ROACH: Does eating strictly organic food and drinking only bottled water help in a meaningful way to prevent diseases and contribute to a long and healthy life? -- M.T.

ANSWER: There is no consistent high-quality evidence that consuming organic foods lead to improvement in health outcomes, including longer life. Some but not all studies have found slightly higher amounts of nutrients in organically grown produce. Organic foods are made without synthetic pesticides, but may use pesticides found in nature. There is not convincing evidence that natural pesticides are any safer, nor that the small amount of residual pesticides left in conventional produce leads to significant health risks. However, there is preliminary evidence that consumption of mostly organic food led to a decrease in the risk of one type of cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but not an overall decrease in cancer. Based on current available evidence, I don't recommend organic food consumption for health benefits.

The quality of tap water varies greatly across North America, but most locations have high-quality water available at extremely low cost with minimal environmental impact compared with bottled water. Even if tap water is unpalatable in a person's location, I recommend a filter system rather than resorting to bottled water, again for environmental concerns as well as cost. Bottled water is rarely the only option, and if so it is usually due to contamination of tap water with microbes or heavy metals, which should be known to the community. My own municipality mails me a water quality report yearly, and it is outstanding quality.

Two additional points are worth considering. The first is that organically prepared foods have been the cause of foodborne illness due to contamination at a much higher level than expected. The second is that organic farming prohibits nontherapeutic antibiotics, a practice with which I strongly agree as a means of reducing the potential for antibiotic resistance.

Until further evidence is available, my opinion is that most people would do better eating more produce, whether conventionally or organically grown. Locally grown fresh produce may have more benefits than organically produced due to freshness.

DEAR DR. ROACH: All of the latest information states that an adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep a night. Is this "unbroken" sleep? For example, I sleep for four hours, wake up for one to two hours, and then sleep three to four more hours almost every night. If the sleep is to be continuous, is it better to take a sleeping aid or continue with the current pattern? Nothing I read indicates if sleeping seven to nine hours with a sleeping aid provides the same benefit as not sleeping continuously for that time period. -- P.M.

ANSWER: While it is true that people who sleep seven to nine hours per night tend to live longer than those who sleep less (or more), it is likely that there are some people who need more or less sleep than the average. Further, it isn't clear whether the apparent improvement in longevity is due to better sleeping, or whether people who don't sleep well have an underlying medical condition that is really responsible for the harm seen.

As far as whether continuous sleep is better than interrupted sleep, there isn't good evidence to compare the two. There is strong historical evidence that prior to artificial lighting, two distinct sleep periods separated by an hour or so was considered normal.

Most sleeping aids adversely affect sleep quality, and increase risk of falls and accidents the next day. If interrupted sleep is working for you, I'd recommend continuing versus using a sleeping pill.

Dr. Roach regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but will incorporate them in the column whenever possible. Readers may email questions to ToYourGoodHealth@med.cornell.edu or send mail to 628 Virginia Dr., Orlando, FL 32803.

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HEALTH: Risks and rewards of a strictly organic diet - Rockdale Newton Citizen

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