In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. Here Taubes argues, “The existing evidence says that if you have metabolic syndrome, if you’re getting fatter or are already obese, if you’re prediabetic or already diabetic, avoiding carbohydrate-rich foods and replacing them with fat may be the single healthiest thing you can do for yourself." He adds: "No one can guarantee what happens in the long run. … Anyone who makes an ironclad guarantee for any way of eating—that one diet will assuredly make you live longer than others ... is probably selling something."
Read MoreThe Case for Keto — Exclusive Preview #4NUTRITION
The CrossFit stimulus—constantly varied high-intensity functional movement coupled with meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar—prepares you for the demands of a healthy, functional, independent life and provides a hedge against chronic disease and incapacity. This stimulus is elegant in the mathematical sense of being marked by simplicity and efficacy. The proven elements of this broad, general, and inclusive fitness, in terms of both movement and nutrition, are what we term our CrossFit Essentials.
In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. In 2002, Taubes discussed recent research findings on the relative benefits of a low-carb, high-fat diet in an article in New York Times Magazine. Since then, he writes, “close to one hundred, if not more, clinical trials have published results, and they confirm these observations with remarkable consistency. The trials are still incapable of telling us whether embracing LCHF/ketogenic eating will extend our lives (compared to other patterns of eating the authorities might recommend), but they continue to challenge, relentlessly, the conventional thinking on the dangers of high-fat diets, and they tell us that in the short term, this way of eating is safe and beneficial.”
Read MoreThe Case for Keto — Exclusive Preview #3In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. “‘Is it safe?’ is always one of two ultimate questions when considering a change of diet or lifestyle, particularly with the goal of preventing chronic disease,” Taubes writes. Is a ketogenic diet safe? Is a plant-based diet safe? Is saturated fat dangerous? Here Taubes evaluates the various methods we have for answering these questions, from personal experience and anecdotal evidence to clinical trials.
Read MoreThe Case for Keto — Exclusive Preview #2In this exclusive preview of Gary Taubes’ new book, Taubes explains why most of us have a fraught relationship with food and a flawed understanding of what makes a healthy diet. “Despite all my reporting and my journalistic skepticism, my thoughts on the nature of a healthy diet were a product of the nutritional belief system” rather than scientific evidence, Taubes writes. In this excerpt, he describes how he has come to think about health and diet trends in more recent years and shares his recommendations for navigating continually evolving nutrition advice.
Read MoreThe Case for Keto — Exclusive Preview #1Whole, unprocessed carbohydrate sources have significant health and performance benefits that might go unnoticed with macronutrient counting. For example, a doughnut and an orange can both provide the carbohydrate grams one needs, but other constituents should be considered. Even honey has more health value compared to table sugar due to the vitamins and minerals it contains.
Read More Carbohydrate Selections: The Right Carb for the Right JobTraining and nutrition are the two most powerful mechanisms for improving human health, but they exert their influence from opposite directions. Diet supplies energy and is the source of the body’s structural components. Exercise consumes energy and actually breaks down the body in various ways. Here, Tyler Hass explores how to optimize both mechanisms by dialing the body’s activity and nutrition patterns up or down.
Read MoreMake Every Calorie Count: Dialing in Nutrition and ExerciseEating for wellness relates to the quality of food. Eating for performance relies on a combination of food quality and quantity.
Watch Nutrition: Eating for PerformanceEat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch, and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat.
Watch Nutrition: Eating for WellnessA survey of economic data across 42 European countries found no relationship between heart disease risk and eating animal protein and animal fat.
Read MoreFood Consumption and the Actual Statistics of Cardiovascular DiseasesFrederick Allen, Elliott Joslin, Louis “Harry” Newburgh, and Phil Marsh were pioneers in the treatment of diabetes before the discovery of insulin. This 2006 review of their methods and outcomes found that all four successfully treated diabetic patients with a diet that closely resembles modern high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets.
Read MoreDietary Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus in the Pre-Insulin Era"Today, most doctors, dietitians, and even diabetes specialists consider type 2 diabetes to be a chronic and progressive disease — a life sentence with no possibility of parole. But the truth, as Dr. Fung reveals in this paradigm-shifting book, is that type 2 diabetes is reversible."
Read MoreThe Diabetes Code: Prevent and Reverse Type 2 Diabetes NaturallyA 2011 article takes a historical look at the use of extremely low-calorie diets in diabetic patients prior to the discovery of insulin.
Read MoreWhy Were “Starvation Diets” Promoted for Diabetes in the Pre-Insulin Period?In this 2012 commentary, Robert Lustig and colleagues claim sugar is similar to tobacco and alcohol in that it is unavoidable, toxic, abuse-forming, and societally harmful. They argue anti-sugar measures are warranted.
Read MoreThe Toxic Truth About SugarChronic Fructose Renders Pancreatic β-Cells Hyper-Responsive to Glucose-Stimulated Insulin Secretion Through Extracellular ATP Signaling
A 2019 in vitro study found chronic fructose exposure increases insulin release by pancreatic β-cells, which may contribute to obesity and insulin resistance over time.
Read MoreChronic Fructose Renders Pancreatic β-Cells Hyper-Responsive to Glucose-Stimulated Insulin Secretion Through Extracellular ATP SignalingMany dieters believe a calorie is a calorie and operating at a calorie deficit is the key to weight loss. However, counting calories is an ineffective and often unhealthy diet method. The body processes calories from different sources in different ways, and assuming all calories are equal often leads to overconsumption of refined carbohydrates. Tyler Hass explains why eating high-quality foods and exercising with high intensity is the most effective way to drive favorable changes in body composition.
Read MoreWeighing the Evidence for Calorie CountingA low-carbohydrate, low-calorie diet significantly improved HbA1c in diabetics over 12 weeks.
Read MoreA Food-Based, Low-Energy, Low-Carbohydrate Diet for People With Type 2 Diabetes in Primary CareWhat we eat (quality), how much we eat (quantity), and when we eat (chrononutrition) all affect our health and performance. However, compared to the other two factors, chrononutrition is arguably the weakest of the three. In this installment of his series on meal timing, Tyler Hass explains why clever timing schemes are not a silver bullet and should be understood as a means to squeeze that last 5-10% of optimization out of a good diet and exercise program.
Read MoreMeal Timing: When Should We Eat?“Nutrition plays a critical role in your fitness. Proper nutrition can amplify or diminish the effect of your training efforts. Effective nutrition is moderate in protein, carbohydrate, and fat.”
Watch Nutrition: The Base of the Hierarchy of DevelopmentIs breakfast the most important meal of the day? Do late-night snacks lead to weight gain? Tyler Hass examines common myths about meal timing and explains which are supported by the scientific literature and which have been debunked. He also describes the relationship between circadian rhythm and metabolism.
Read MoreMeal Timing: ChrononutritionA Randomised Controlled Trial of Dietary Improvement for Adults With Major Depression (The ‘SMILES’ Trial)
Twelve weeks on a higher-quality diet led to significant improvements in measures of major depression in this small randomized controlled trial.
Read MoreA Randomised Controlled Trial of Dietary Improvement for Adults With Major Depression (The ‘SMILES’ Trial)