The Case Against Processed Vegetable Oils

Dr. Paul Saladino is the author of “The Carnivore Code.” I’ve previously interviewed him about the carnivore diet and the impact of metabolic health on COVID-19 outcomes. The video¹ above features Saladino on a recent episode of the Joe Rogan podcast.

It’s a three-hour conversation, but my focus here is on Saladino’s viewpoints on omega-6 seed oils, and the surprising fact that conventional chicken and pork are significant stealth sources of oxidized omega-6 fats that can contribute to ill health by impairing vital mitochondrial signaling.

Vegetable Oils Are Responsible for Epidemic of Ill Health

In recent years, it’s become increasingly clear that one of the most damaging components in our modern diet is processed vegetable oils, as they contain excessive amounts of oxidized omega-6 linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fat (PUFA). The biological damage they cause is even worse than that caused by refined sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

According to ophthalmologist Dr. Chris Knobbe, who has researched the matter extensively, virtually all chronic metabolic and degenerative diseases, including age-related macular degeneration, are primarily caused by a preponderance of industrial vegetable oils in the diet.

Replacing dangerous oils with healthy fats can go a long way toward boosting your health and reducing your risk of chronic disease.

The reason for this is because these oils trigger mitochondrial dysfunction that then drives the disease process, and several studies^{2,3,4,5,6,7,8} have demonstrated the truth of this. The good news is that simply replacing dangerous oils with healthy saturated fats can go a long way toward boosting your health and reducing your risk of chronic disease.

Unfortunately, many health authorities have insisted — and still insist — omega-6-rich oils like soybean, corn and canola oil are healthier than saturated animal fats such as butter and lard, and this myth has been a tough one to dismantle, despite the evidence against it.

How Processed Vegetable Oils Harm Your Health

There are many reasons to avoid or eliminate industrially processed seed oils from your diet. As mentioned, vegetable oils are a concentrated source of omega-6 linoleic acid, which can lead to a severe imbalance between the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio in your diet.

In fact, I’ve found it is extremely difficult to correct this imbalance simply by taking more omega-3. In fact, excess omega-3 can also contribute to ill health. Your first and most important step is to cut down on the omega-6s, or else you’re always going to be nutritionally lopsided.

Even organic, biodynamic olive oil can shift your ratio in the wrong direction, as olive oil is also a source of omega-6 linoleic acid. If, like me, you’re in the habit of eating olive oil, you may want to limit your intake to 1 tablespoon per day or less. The problem, really, is twofold:

1. Most people get far too much omega-6 and too little omega-3, thus ending up with a lopsided ratio, and this ratio is what impacts health. Ideally, this ratio would be close to 1-to-1
2. Most of the omega-6 people eat has been damaged and oxidized through processing

Then there’s the issue of direct toxicity from pesticides and herbicides. Most of the vegetable oils produced today — especially canola, corn and soy — are made from genetically engineered (GE) crops, and are therefore a significant source of toxic glyphosate exposure.

Thirdly, vegetable oils degrade to extremely toxic oxidation products when heated, including 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE) cyclic aldehydes,⁹ which are what cause oxidized low-density lipoprotein (LDL) associated with heart disease. Aldehydes also crosslink tau protein and create neurofibrillary tangles, thereby contributing to the development of neurodegenerative diseases. Processed vegetable oils also harm health by:

Increasing inflammation.10

Damaging the endothelium (the cells lining your blood vessels) and causing an increase in penetration of LDL and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) particles into the subendothelium. In other words, these oils get integrated in your cell and mitochondrial membranes, and once these membranes are impaired, it sets the stage for all sorts of health problems. As discussed in my July 2020 interview with Knobbe, the PUFAs from vegetable oils, seed oils and trans fats are primarily stored in your fat cells, opposed to being used for fuel, and have a half-life of 600 to 680 days.11 They also get incorporated into tissues, including your heart and brain. One result of this could be memory impairment and increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, which is exactly what they found with canola oil.12 As reported in one 2017 study:13 “Our findings do not support a beneficial effect of chronic canola oil consumption on two important aspects of AD pathophysiology which includes memory impairments as well as synaptic integrity. While more studies are needed, our data do not justify the current trend aimed at replacing olive oil with canola oil.”

Damaging your mitochondria and DNA by making your cell membranes more permeable, allowing things to enter that shouldn’t.

Making the cell membrane less fluid, which impacts hormone transporters in the cell membrane and slows your metabolic rate.

Inhibiting cardiolipin, an important component of the inner membrane of your mitochondria that needs to be saturated in the omega-3 fat DHA to function properly. Cardiolipin can be likened to a cellular alarm system that triggers apoptosis (cell death) by signaling caspase-3 when something goes wrong with the cell. If the cardiolipin is not saturated with DHA, it cannot signal caspase-3, and hence apoptosis does not occur. As a result, dysfunctional cells are allowed to continue to grow, which can turn into a cancerous cell.

Inhibiting the removal of senescent cells, i.e., aged, damaged or crippled cells that have lost the ability to reproduce and produce inflammatory cytokines that rapidly accelerate disease and aging.

Stripping your liver of glutathione (which produces antioxidant enzymes), thereby lowering your antioxidant defenses.14

Inhibiting delta-6 desaturase (delta-6), an enzyme involved in the conversion of short-chained omega-3s to longer chained omega-3s in your liver.15

Exposing you to toxic 4-hydroxynonenal (4HNE), which forms during the processing of most vegetable oils, even if the oil is obtained from organic crops — 4HNE is highly toxic, especially to your gut bacteria, and consumption of 4HNE has been correlated with having an obesogenic balance of gut flora. It also causes DNA damage and instigates free radical cascades that damage your mitochondrial membranes.16

The Molecular Biology of PUFAs

If you want to go deep and geek out on the molecular biology of what is going on with excessive linoleic acid (LA) intake, then I strongly advise watching the video above.

Saladino interviews veterinarian Peter Dobromylskyj, who maintains the Hyperlipid Blog.¹⁷ In it, they describe in great detail how eating these seed oils and other foods high in LA, like chicken and pork, destroy mitochondrial signaling in the adipocyte and disrupt your metabolic functioning.

One key point from this Dobromylskyj interview is the explanation of how PUFAs break your metabolic mechanism and contribute to obesity. As explained by Saladino, as he reviews a study on this topic:

“Let’s look at what happens when you give humans a bunch of polyunsaturated fats … You are supposed to be insulin resistant in ketosis. That’s how your body partitions glucose to the cells that need it.

And here you have a ketogenic diet based on … canola oil, safflower oil or soybean oil, and you see people remain insulin sensitive when they’re in ketosis. This is clear evidence that polyunsaturated fats are breaking your metabolism. Glucose is lower because it’s going into your cells; it’s making bigger cells. You’re getting fat.”

For clarity, does this mean a ketogenic diet, meaning a diet high in healthy fats and low in non-vegetable carbs, is fattening? No. The take-home message here is that a proper ketogenic diet must be based on healthy saturated fats, not destructive vegetable seed oils that are loaded with LA.

Eating a high-fat diet, when the fats are primarily LA from processed vegetable and seed oils, is far worse than eating a chronic high-carb diet. The type of fat is of crucial importance, as it impacts your mitochondrial, cellular and metabolic functioning.

Fats like LA can persist in your cell membranes for months to years, continuing to wreak havoc with your metabolism the entire time, while the sugar is quickly metabolized.

Aside from that, this also helps explain why processed foods are so fattening. It’s not just that they’re loaded with added sugars. They’re also loaded with LA that breaks your metabolic machinery and promotes fat accumulation and inflammation.

Choose Your Fats Carefully

Examples of healthy fats that belong in your diet include but are not limited to organic coconut oil, ghee, grass fed butter, lard, tallow, black seed oil (Nigella sativa), avocados, raw dairy products, olives, organic pastured eggs and raw nuts.

To learn more about the ins and outs of dietary fats, pick up a copy of my book “Superfuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets of Good Fats, Bad Fats, and Great Health,” cowritten with James DiNicolantonio, Pharm.D., which gives more in-depth specifics on how to discriminate between healthy and harmful dietary fats. Dr. Catherine Shanahan’s list of good and bad cooking oils and fats is also useful.

Stealth Sources of Harmful PUFAs: Chicken and Pork

As explained by Saladino in the featured Rogan interview, aside from processed foods (which are loaded with vegetable oils) and vegetable cooking oils, there are also two common stealth sources of harmful PUFAs in the modern diet, namely conventionally farmed chicken and pork.

He shows a graph illustrating meat consumption, which has significantly risen over the decades. But it’s not the total consumption that is causing the problem, he notes. Specifically, the problem is not related to red meat consumption, which has actually gone down. Rather, it’s “lean white” meats, particularly chicken but also pork, that help drive the chronic disease trend. 

Long thought of as a healthier type of meat, primarily because it’s leaner than red meat, the problem with conventional chicken (and pork) is that the animals are fed corn — typically GE varieties that are farmed with glyphosate.

And what happens when animals are fed corn? The meat becomes high in omega-6 linoleic acid, as corn is high in this type of fat.¹⁸ So, as Saladino points out, high chicken consumption actually adds to your vegetable oil consumption, and can therefore contribute to systemic inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction and metabolic ill health.

“PUFAs act differently in our body,” Saladino says in the Rogan interview. “At the level of our mitochondria, it looks like this polyunsaturated fat, this linoleic acid-rich vegetable oil, is signaling things differently.

There’s a lot of compelling evidence to suggest linoleic acid is driving adipocyte hypertrophy — the fat cells are getting bigger. Fat cells can do two things. They can get bigger or they can divide. When fat cells get big, and don’t divide, they eventually start leaking inflammatory mediators.”

This doesn’t mean you cannot eat chicken or pork. However, unlike cows, buffalo and lambs, these animals have only one stomach and as such any omega-6 fats they eat are not metabolized and stored in their tissues. Since these animals, even healthy organically grown animals, are typically fed grains, they are loaded with omega-6 fats and may have 10 TIMES the LA content that beef, lamb or buffalo do.

That is why I think it is really a good strategy to avoid eating these meats and replace them with animals which have far lower LA content. If you want to know how much LA you are eating simply go to cronometer.com and carefully enter your food that is accurately weighed out and you can see precisely how much LA you are eating. It would be great to get your daily intake under 10 grams per day.

Safeguard Your Health by Ditching Vegetable Oils

To recap, if you want to avoid dangerous fats of all kinds, your best bet is to significantly reduce or eliminate the following from your diet:

• Processed foods of all kinds
• Industrially processed cooking oils such as corn oil, canola oil, soy and cottonseed oils
• Conventionally farmed chicken
• Conventionally farmed pork

My comprehensive nutrition plan offers helpful guidance for this process. When cooking, coconut oil, butter, lard and ghee are healthy options. Also be sure to swap out margarines and vegetable oil spreads for organic butter, preferably made from raw grass fed milk. Butter is a healthy whole food that has received an unwarranted bad rap.

To further balance your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio you may also need a high-quality source of animal-based omega-3 fat, such as krill oil, if you’re not in the habit of eating small, fatty fish such as sardines, anchovies and mackerel, and/or wild caught Alaskan salmon.

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What Are Long-Term Health Effects of Daylight Saving Time?

Twice each year, every U.S. state except Hawaii and Arizona transition from daylight saving time (DST) to standard time and back again.¹ Yet, the research is quite clear that meddling with time, and therefore sleep, has negative effects on your health.

DST was first introduced in 1918 when it was called "fast time."² The law was signed by the president to support the war effort. It followed a similar initiative in Germany that went into effect in 1916.³ After the war ended, the law was repealed and then reinstated during World War II.⁴ Three weeks after World War II ended, the law was again repealed.

By 1963, Time magazine called the resulting state of confusion a "chaos of clocks."⁵ Nearly 20 years after the end of World War II, DST was restored under the Uniform Time Act.⁶ This standardized when DST would begin and end, and gave states the option to stay on standard time year-round.

In 1973, Congress determined DST should be observed all year, but this was again changed in 1974 when the clocks were moved forward in the spring and fell back an hour in the fall.⁷ In 1986 the time officially changed at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in April and the last Sunday in October.

The date in the fall changed in 2005 to the first Sunday in November in response to lobbying from the golf, barbecue and candy companies, which wanted more daylight during the evening hours to accommodate Halloween night and the traditional passing of sugar treats.⁸ The current dates and times have remained unchanged since 2007.

Long-Term Health Effects of Daylight Saving Time

Part of the risk posed by DST is that it can shrink the average amount of sleep an adult gets by up to 20 minutes during transitions.⁹ Chronic sleep disruption contributes to a rising number of people who are obese.¹⁰ Dr. Chris Winter, author of "The Sleep Solution: Why Your Sleep Is Broken and How to Fix It," explains how sleep is an integral part of your eating patterns by affecting the hormones ghrelin and leptin:¹¹

"Appetite in general is often not the body requesting food; it's the body anticipating food. When your body knows you eat lunch around 12:30 p.m. or so every day, it anticipates and prepares for the meal.

These two hormones are intimately associated with sleep, which is part of why when we're not sleeping well, we tend to overeat. It's a tight hormonal balance and daylight-saving shifts can absolutely throw it off."

A lack of sleep may also raise the risk you can experience a fatal accident. Dr. Beth Ann Malow from Vanderbilt University Medical Center and colleagues published a commentary reviewing large epidemiological studies that document these negative health effects.¹² Malow commented on their findings:¹³

"People think the one-hour transition is no big deal, that they can get over this in a day, but what they don't realize is their biological clock is out of sync. It's not one hour twice a year. It's a misalignment of our biologic clocks for eight months of the year.

When we talk about DST and the relationship to light, we are talking about profound impacts on the biological clock, which is a structure rooted in the brain. It impacts brain functions such as energy levels and alertness."

Another team of researchers published an analysis of the effect daylight saving time has on a spectrum of diseases.¹⁴ They gathered data using a population-based, cross-sectional analysis from an insurance claim data set of over 129 million patients in the U.S. and Sweden.

They evaluated the effect shifting time by one hour twice each year had on hundreds of age- and sex-specific health conditions. Their data confirmed past research results that heart attacks,¹⁵ accidents,¹⁶ mental health concerns¹⁷ and immune-related diseases¹⁸ increase during the time shift.

The analysis also revealed several surprises. For instance, it showed an increase in substance abuse in men ages 41 to 60 near DST.¹⁹ They also found immune-related disorders that had not been associated in the past with daylight saving time occur more often in the first week following the spring DST shift.

The analyses revealed a higher number of complications during pregnancy and childbirth, and increases in renal failure.²⁰

"To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to report the DST-related RRs [relative risk] of disorders involving the digestive system (such as noninfective enteritis and colitis), which rose three percent after the spring DST shift in females over 60 and six percent in males under ten."

Your Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Is Involved

Your body runs on an internal clock known as your circadian rhythm. When you mess up this internal clock, your cells are exposed to an unusual amount of stress. Many of the health conditions attributed to the biannual time change are because these internal clocks are not easily reprogrammed and are synchronized to a 24-hour cycle of light and dark.²¹

Another system in the body responsible for regulating your internal clock is located in the hypothalamus and called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).²² It functions through hormonal and chemical signals to synchronize your internal clock, which in turn regulates your sleep-wake cycle and has an effect on the regulation of other physiological activities.

These activities include your core body temperature, neuroendocrine function, memory and psychomotor activity.²³ The SCN is made up of multiple circadian oscillator neurons that function a little like a pacemaker.

Although your body uses several environmental cues to regulate your circadian rhythm, the most important is your exposure to light. Your SCN produces an electrical output using a specific rhythm in response to light.²⁴ Aging and sleep deprivation will have a negative effect on the electrical amplitude of your SCN, which is essential for optimal behavioral and physiological mechanisms.

There's growing evidence suggesting your SCN contributes to cognitive performance and overall health. When there's a negative impact on this 24-hour rhythm it increases your risk for depression, sleep disorders, neurodegenerative disease and cancer.²⁵

Since your SCN responds to light, disruption in light exposure can trigger negative health effects. As the Earth rotates, your body clock adjusts to light changes, including seasonal change.²⁶

However, the sudden adjustments that come with time changes in the spring and fall are what researchers believe triggers the increased incidence of heart attack, stroke, traffic accidents and a higher number of injuries.

Fred Turek from Northwestern University directs the Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology and says this about a one-hour time change twice a year: "You might not think that a one-hour change is a lot. But it turns out that the master clock in our brain is pretty hard-wired."²⁷

Data Don't Support Daylight Saving Time

One of the reasons given for keeping DST, despite strong evidence it has negative health effects, is the potential it may help save energy. However, as this short video demonstrates, while it may have originally reduced energy use in the early 1900s, the cost difference for a single-family in modern times is just $4 each year.

A second argument is that it offers people more sunlight after work to enjoy recreational activities. Theoretically, this may lead to more physical activity and better health. However, a study published in 2014,²⁸ which gathered data from people living in Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona, found it did not make a difference in the amount of time outdoors, but had an effect on the types of activities.

They concluded, "… the potential for DST to serve as a broad-based intervention that encourages greater sports/recreation participation is not supported by this analysis."

Financial losses are also felt in the stock market. An analysis published in the American Economic Review revealed each time the clocks changed there was an impact on the function of the financial markets.²⁹ The scientists believe desynchronized sleep reasonably explained the effect on the market that was different from other Mondays on the two weekends when the time changes.

When a potential $4 savings in energy is compared against the loss of finances, productivity and rising health care costs from injuries and illness, it's apparent moving the clocks in the spring and the fall is not an effective way of managing human and environmental resources.

Experts also disagree about how long it takes your body to recover from the time change. Till Roenneberg is a German chronobiologist who says his studies demonstrate your body's circadian clock never adjusts during DST. In an interview with a reporter from National Geographic, he said:³⁰

"The consequence of that is that the majority of the population has drastically decreased productivity, decreased quality of life, increasing susceptibility to illness, and is just plain tired. Light doesn't do the same things to the body in the morning and the evening. More light in the morning would advance the body clock, and that would be good. But more light in the evening would even further delay the body clock."

Europe Is Ditching DST in 2021

Many Europeans will soon not have to struggle with a biannual time change. March 26, 2019, the European Parliament voted to end DST in 2021.³¹ The Guardian reported that member states will be allowed to "choose whether to remain on 'permanent summer' or 'permanent winter' time under the draft directive."³²

Europeans call DST "summertime" and standard time is "wintertime." This means countries that opted to remain permanently on summertime will make their final adjustments in March 2021. Countries that decide to remain on permanent wintertime will change their clocks for the last time in October 2021.

As more published data establish the negative effects on health, finances and productivity, the tide is beginning to turn in the U.S. with state bills introduced each year that propose changes to DST.³³

Tips to Transition When the Clock 'Falls Back'

Until DST is either repealed or remains in place year-round, you'll have to make changes to your sleep schedule twice a year. In this short video I share several strategies to help you fall asleep and to improve the quality of your sleep.

Small shifts in your circadian timing are happening all year since many ignore their body's internal clock, either by necessity to accommodate their work schedule or by choice.

Pushing the limit of your body clock by getting up early and staying up late may not be worth it when it comes to your long-term health. University of Alabama associate professor Martin Young has suggested several natural strategies to help resync your body after a time change, including:³⁴

• Wake up 30 minutes earlier on Saturday and Sunday, to minimize the impact of getting up earlier on Monday morning
• Go outside in the sunlight in the early morning
• Exercise in the mornings over the weekend, in keeping with your overall level of health and fitness
• Consider setting your clock ahead on Friday evening, allowing an extra day to adjust over the weekend

I would also add to these recommendations the suggestions from the video above and the following:

• Practice good sleep hygiene, including sleeping in complete darkness, checking your bedroom for electromagnetic fields and keeping your bedroom temperature cool enough for optimal sleep. For a full report about how to maximize the quality of your sleep, see "Sleep — Why You Need It and 50 Ways to Improve It."
• Optimize your vitamin D level to support your immune function, which is especially important during cold and flu season.
• Manage your stress with whatever stress-busting techniques work for you. Consider using yoga, exercise, meditation or Emotional Freedom Techniques.
• Eat dinner earlier and pay attention to your diet, making sure you are consuming plenty of fresh, whole foods, preferably organic, and minimal amounts of processed foods and fast foods; keep your sugar consumption low, especially fructose. I invite you to review our optimized nutrition plan to help you develop an eating plan that supports your overall health.
• Consider encouraging your legislature to change DST by signing a petition to your congresspersons or getting involved in your state to pass a resolution.

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Making the Most of the 2020 Tele-Tailgate

While you may not be able to enjoy game day with thousands of your closest friends, that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy tailgate-worthy fun at home with a smaller group of friends.

If You Are A Die-Hard Fan

The Pre-game musts: Make sure you have a good internet connection, agree on a platform and a meeting time and most importantly, make sure your cable or streaming service actually offers the channel the game is on.

If You Are In It For The Nachos

Serve up a Nacho Bar with all the fixings. Ground beef or turkey, you make the call, then double up on the toppings: salsa, guacamole, veggies and more.

If You Are In It For The Fun

The new fan favorite of the tailgate tribe is without a doubt 100 Coconuts + Tequila. Made with wholesome, quality ingredients that taste great, this perfection in a can is made of infused 100% agave tequila with 100% pure coconut water.

• 100% agave tequila is one of the cleanest liquors out there, and when consumed in moderation, can improve your overall health.

• Naturally hydrates through the 100% natural ingredients and electrolytes.

• Zero added sugar, or cholesterol or fat, no preservatives.

Learn more about your new obsession at www.100coconuts.com

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MTB Rider's Mission to Build (And Shred) a Network of Trails in Remote B.C.

This article originally appeared on Bike.com and was republished with permission.

Not everyone has an extensive network of trails in their hometown. In fact, some people don’t have any trails at all. And while traveling to find trails is what most riders resort to, others decide to grab a shovel and get to work.

A prime of example is Corbin Selfe. Growing up in the small town of Sicamous, British Columbia––located about halfway between Calgary and Vancouver––Selfe soon realized that if he wanted to ride, he needed to build.

So that’s exactly what he did, building a network of trails and jumps over the course of several years. The result is a picturesque riding area that is primed for shredding, and as you can see, that’s exactly what Selfe does.

Watch: Drone’s Eye View of a Blistering MTB Run

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Why Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Are on the Ballot This Year

How we protect and intend to use the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is on the ballot this election, as is the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Idaho’s South Fork Salmon River, Bristol Bay, Bears Ears National Monument, and countless other public lands.

Ely, Minnesota was once a thriving iron mining capital, whose modern identity is now synonymous with the largest wilderness area east of the Rocky Mountains: the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. That wilderness (the most heavily used in the U.S., attracting a quarter million visitors a year) now finds itself at odds with a foreign-owned copper/nickel mine—one that had been suspended, pending further research under the previous administration, and is now being fast-tracked by the current one.

Travis J. Camp / Shutterstock

The massive underground project underway just a couple miles (or a long portage) away from the wilderness boundary, promises to bring jobs back to the economically depressed Iron Range, but simultaneously threatens to permanently taint this 1.1 million-acre network of intact boreal forest and pristine lakes, bogs, and streams for generations to come. The risk of toxic sulfide runoff from the tailings and waste rock entering the intricate and interconnected hydrology of this region is seen by many experts as inevitable; the heavy metal- and acid-laced consequences remaining in the water and land for centuries.

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These two competing histories, resource extraction and wilderness conservation, have overlapped since the early 1900s and have reached a new level of tension. On one hand, this region sorely needs a boost in its economy to sustain communities like Ely, which one could argue will contribute to furthering its wilderness adventure industry. But on the other hand, a future Superfund site, where the Boundary Waters once was, is hardly the job generator anyone wants. The long-term environmental damage risks dashing all manner of future economic hopes against the copper-rich rocks below. And so, the fate of Ely and the Boundary Waters doesn’t need to be at the whim of a Chilean-Canadian multinational mining conglomerate; choice lies in the hands of American voters at local, state, and national levels.

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Dan Thornberg / Shutterstock

These tough choices between economic gains and environmental stability are playing out in small rural towns all across the country.

And accordingly, conservation of our ever-shrinking wild and scenic lands tends to create polarizing stances: locals against visitors; industry against ecosystems; environmentalists against capitalists. But many Americans believe in the value of public lands and wild spaces. Most support sustaining these places for future generations. After all, the miners from the Iron Range hunt, fish, and paddle the same waterways as the lawyers from Minneapolis. Of course, we humans will continue to need to extract natural resources from the earth. How we balance these two needs is what’s actually up for debate (and on the ballot), which unfortunately, through blind partisanship, often muddies the waters of what’s actually at stake: rare public, wild lands.

We need to work together, listen to all stakeholders, and seek to truly understand the real consequences of our decisions that will affect our fellow citizens and our collectively owned landscapes for generations. Protecting wilderness for all people to use is one of the great American traditions. And while we may disagree on how to preserve, use, and live among these singular and limited wild places, let’s not pretend for a moment that the importance of these wild public places is up for debate. Luckily, we have another great American tradition coming up on Tuesday: a free election where your VOTE counts!

Read up more on Twin Metals plan and its resulting environmental impact.

 

 

 

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Every 1 point increase in the effort to discredit vaccines is linked to an average 2% drop in annual vaccine coverage around the world, and a 15% increase in negative tweets about vaccination, researchers found.

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This Animal Flow Workout Will Get You Stronger Without Any Weights

Don’t let the odd name deter you: Animal flow offers unique benefits you won’t get from traditional strength training. “It fundamentally brings you back to the basics,” says Nike Master Trainer Patrick Frost. “These are ground-based movements, where you create resistance by pushing and pulling your body around a fixed platform.” The trick to mastering this discipline is generating constant tension throughout your body. “There are some parts that require grace and some that require grit,” Frost says.

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“You could do this same workout multiple times and have a completely different experience depending on how you attack it.” While mimicking the movement patterns of a crab or an ape can seem a little goofy, animal flow workouts will challenge your strength, endurance, balance, and mobility all at once. Over time, you’ll develop better proprioception and move with greater intention, which will make your workouts more efficient and effective, and leave you feeling like an apex predator.

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The Workout

Warm up, then perform 3 rounds of each exercise, following the prescribed work and rest periods. These moves require a lot of wrist extension and endurance to sustain proper form, so take a break as needed when starting out. Add this workout to your program 1-2 times a week and slowly build up to 3-4 times. You can also use some of these sequences as warmups or even finishers to your program.

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Expert Tip: Tense Up

While these exercises should be fluid, create constant resistance by drilling palms into the ground and exaggerating movements, radiating tension through your limbs.

The Warmup

Dedicate 5 minutes to wrist mobilization: Get on all fours and flip your wrists around,
then lean or rock back and forth. After, work through these exercises for 40 seconds
each. They’ll prep your joints for the main animal flow. Perform 2 rounds.

Alternating crab reach (A) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Warmup 1. Alternating Crab Reach

Start in crab position, feet hip-distance apart, hips hovering 1 inch off ground, and arms behind back, fingers pointing away from body. Bend right arm to midline so hand is 6 to 8 inches from face (A).

Transition phase of alternating crab reach (B) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Drive through heels and extend hips up into a three-point stance bridge (B).

Final stage of alternating crab reach (C) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Reach your arm up and over toward opposite hand, keeping a soft bend in elbow, eyes gazing at static hand (C). Lower, switching sides with each rep.

Beginning phase of Beast Wave Unload (A) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Warmup 2. Beast Wave Unload

Start in loaded beast position on all fours, pushing hips back toward heels as you reach arms forward (A).

Beast Wave Unload transition phase James Woodley for Men's Journal

Hike hips toward ceiling. Once knees are fully extended (B), tuck chin into chest and slowly roll your spine, emphasizing the curve in your back (C). When shoulders pass wrists, come into an upward-facing dog.

Beast Wave Unload transition phase (D) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Open your chest, pull chin to ceiling, and squeeze glutes (D). Reverse the wave and repeat.

Beginning phase of Alternating Scorpion Reach (A) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Warmup 3. Alternating Scorpion Reach

Start in loaded beast position (A).

Transition phase of Alternating Scorpion Reach (B) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Drive through balls of feet to bring left knee across body toward right wrist, keeping a slight bend in right knee (B).

Final phase of Alternating Scorpion Reach (C) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Extend arms as you drive left leg back, bending the knee and opening your hip, pressing shin toward ceiling (C). Bring left knee across body again before returning to start position, then repeat on opposite side.

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Deep Ape position (A) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Workout 1: Deep Ape to Side Kick Through

Start in a deep squat, with feet hip-width apart or wider for comfort, feet slightly turned out, and arms between knees, keeping a flat back and proud chest (A).

Deep Ape to Side Kick Through transition (B) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Shift weight forward as you plant right hand to the ground (B) and kick right leg through, pointing toe and pulling left elbow back, palm facing away (C).

Side Kick Through (C) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Return to deep ape position, then switch sides. Work 40 seconds on, 20 off.

Crab position (A) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Workout 2. Crab to Underswitch Taps

Start in crab position (A), then drive through your right toe and left hand to pivot your body (B) onto all fours.

Crab to Underswitch Taps transition (B and C) James Woodley for Men's Journal

As soon as your limbs tap the ground (C), immediately redirect your momentum to the starting position (D).

Final position of Crab to Underswitch Taps (D) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Switch sides on each rep. Work 30 seconds on, 15 off.

Start position of Traveling Beast (A) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Workout 3. Traveling Beast

Start in beast position, with hands directly below shoulders, and knees stacked over hips, hovering 1 inch off the ground. Engage your core, keep your trunk level and low, then take a small step forward, moving right hand and left foot, resisting rotation through your hips (A).

Traveling Beast (B) James Woodley for Men's Journal

On the next rep, move left hand and right foot, making sure they pick up and land simultaneously (B). Work 30 seconds on, 15 off.

Loaded Beast start position (A) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Workout 4. Loaded Beast to Front Step Through

Start in loaded beast position (A), then explode through the balls of your feet
(B) and jump forward with control.

Loaded Beast to Front Step Through transition (B) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Forcefully drive your left leg into full extension, toes pointed, as your right arm assumes a “guard” position at your midline, elbow bent with hand in front of face (C).

Final position Loaded Beast to Front Step Through (C) James Woodley for Men's Journal

Reverse the motion to return to start, switching sides with each rep. Work 20 seconds on, 10 off.

Finisher Flow

Beast to left-leg underswitch to right-arm crab reach to jumping left-leg underswitch to right-leg side kick through to right-leg full scorpion to left-leg underswitch to beast. Repeat opposite side. Work 60 seconds on, 30 off. Repeat 3 times.

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Intermittent fasting: Does a new study show downsides — or not?

Intermittent fasting (IF) is an approach to eating based on timing. The idea is that fasting for long enough allows insulin levels to fall low enough that our body will use fat for fuel. Growing evidence in animals and humans shows that this approach leads to significant weight loss. When combined with a nutritious, plant-based diet and regular physical activity, IF can be part of a healthy weight loss or maintenance plan, as I described in an earlier blog post.

Now, a randomized controlled trial published in JAMA claims that IF has no significant weight loss benefit and a substantial negative effect on muscle mass. News outlets picked up the story and ran headlines like A Potential Downside of Intermittent Fasting and An Unintended Side Effect of Intermittent Fasting.

But what did this study actually look at and find?

In the study, 141 patients were randomly assigned to 12 weeks of either a time-restricted eating plan (TRE) that involved fasting for 16 hours and eating only during an eight-hour window of the day, or a consistent meal timing (CMT) eating plan, with three structured meals a day plus snacks.

Neither group received any nutrition education or behavioral counseling, nor was physical activity recommended. There was no true control group (meaning a group that did not receive any instructions about meal timing).

Interestingly, both groups lost weight. Given the headlines, I had to read and reread the results several times, because they show that the IF group lost a statistically significant amount of weight from beginning to end — which wasn’t true in the CMT group. The researchers reported: “There was a significant decrease in weight in the TRE group (−0.94 kg; 95% CI, −1.68 kg to −0.20 kg; P = .01) and a nonsignificant decrease in weight in the CMT group (−0.68 kg; 95% CI, −1.41 kg to 0.05 kg; P = .07).”

Translated into plain English, the IF group lost more weight than could be due to chance: between half a pound and 4 pounds, or an average of 2 pounds. The structured meals group also lost some weight, although the amounts lost could have been due to chance: between 0.1 and 3 pounds, or an average of 1.5 pounds. The upshot was that there wasn’t a significant difference in weight change between the two groups. And the researchers saw a loss of muscle mass in the IF group that didn’t occur in the CMT group.

Diving deeper into the study

By the way, all of these folks may have been eating fried or fast foods, and sugary sodas and candy — we don’t know. The study doesn’t mention quality of diet or physical activity. This isn’t how IF is supposed to be done! And yet the IF folks still lost between half a pound and 4 pounds.

Importantly, the structured meals group also lost weight. While not significant enough to prove it was due to this intervention, for some participants it was enough to make structured meal weight loss differ little from IF weight loss. But think about it: structured meals are an intervention. After all, some people eat more than three times a day, consuming multiple small meals throughout the day. Telling people to limit their eating to three mealtimes plus snacks may actually be helping some to eat less.

The authors very well could have concluded that IF was indeed successful. They might also call for a follow-up study with a true no-intervention control group, as well as behavioral counseling, guidance on a healthy diet, and recommended activity levels for IF and CMT groups.

Does additional support make a difference?

Prior studies of IF that have provided behavioral counseling, and guidance on nutrition and activity, have definitely shown positive results. For example, in a previous blog post I described a 2020 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study in which 250 overweight or obese adults followed one of three diets for 12 months:

• IF on the 5:2 protocol, which means drastically reducing food intake for any two of five days of the week (down to 500 calories for women and 700 calories for men)
• Mediterranean, which emphasized fruits and vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds, whole grains, and olive oil with moderate fish, chicken, eggs, and dairy, and with an allowance of one glass of wine per day for women and two per day for men
• Paleo, which emphasized fruits and vegetables, animal proteins, coconut products, butter, and olive oil, along with some nuts, seeds, and legumes.
• And this is key: all participants were provided education on behavioral strategies for weight loss, stress management, sleep, and exercise.

Everyone lost weight. The IF group lost more than anyone with an average of 8.8 pounds, Mediterranean next at 6.2 pounds, and Paleo last at 4 pounds. Adherence was better with the Mediterranean diet (57%) and IF (54%) than with the Paleo diet (35%), and better adherence resulted in one to three pounds more weight loss. The Mediterranean and IF groups also saw significant drops in blood pressure, another good result.

What about the loss in muscle mass that occurred in the IF group in the JAMA study? While this needs to be studied further, it’s important to note that other research on IF that included guidance on physical activity did not show any loss of muscle mass.

The bottom line

What’s the takeaway here? A high-quality diet and plenty of physical activity — including resistance training — are critical for our good health, and nothing replaces these recommendations. IF is merely a tool, an approach that can be quite effective for weight loss for some folks. While this one negative study adds to the body of literature on IF, it doesn’t reverse it. We simply need more high-quality studies in order to have a better understanding of how to most effectively incorporate IF into a healthy lifestyle.

The post Intermittent fasting: Does a new study show downsides — or not? appeared first on Harvard Health Blog.

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