NUTRITION

The world's best-selling drug adds just three to ten days to your life on average, yet pharmaceutical companies have turned statins into a $150+ billion blockbuster by manipulating statistics and using study designs that systematically exclude people who experience side effects. For low-risk patients, you're more likely to develop diabetes from taking a statin than you are to avoid a heart attack, but your doctor probably isn't telling you that, because the numbers they're shown don't reflect what happens in the real world.

Cholesterol isn't the villain the media Big Pharma would like you to believe. It's actually an essential molecule that keeps your cells intact, your brain functioning, and even helps fight infections. The real story of heart disease risk lies not in your "bad" cholesterol levels, but in markers your doctor probably isn't checking, and the reason why might have more to do with what can be sold than what actually predicts your risk.

Heart disease didn't exist as a medical diagnosis until 1912, yet within 40 years it became the world's #1 killer — claiming more lives than all cancers, accidents, and natural disasters combined. What changed in the modern era to spark this epidemic, and why did scientists spend decades blaming the wrong culprit while sugar industry executives quietly celebrated their success? This article spells it out.

In a $200+ billion weight-loss industry drowning in noise and dogma, nuanced conversations about what actually works are being drowned out by tribal warfare and absolutism. CrossFit explores why experts like Dr. Jason Fung face fierce resistance for challenging conventional wisdom — and why maintaining a "white belt mindset" might be the key to cutting through the chaos and finding what truly works for sustainable health.

The best way to understand CrossFit and its value as a fitness program is to experience it yourself by walking into a CrossFit gym and trying it. But we understand you may want to know what you’re getting yourself into before you take that step, so here’s a primer on the basics of CrossFit.

Despite months of consistent training and clean eating, your expensive DEXA scan shows your body fat percentage has actually increased, leaving you confused and discouraged. The truth is, we're obsessing over numbers that fluctuate based on hydration, timing, and other variables, while ignoring metrics that actually matter for health and fitness. Here's what really matters when it comes to body fat.

When Mark Bell started promoting the "Sugar Diet" – a plan that involves eating only fruit, honey, and even candy – my first instinct was to dismiss it as nutritional lunacy. Sound familiar? It's the same knee-jerk reaction people have to CrossFit before they actually step into a gym. This isn't about whether the Sugar Diet works (I honestly don't know yet), but about something more important: how we evaluate ideas that challenge our beliefs. If CrossFit has taught us anything, it's that the loudest critics are often wrong, and the most unconventional approaches sometimes produce the most surprising results.

Fats, composed of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen like carbohydrates but with different structures, provide 9 calories per gram, making them an efficient energy storage system that powers the body during rest and between meals while fulfilling critical functions beyond energy production. Unlike carbohydrates, certain fats are essential nutrients (linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid) that the body cannot produce itself, while others contribute to hormone production, cell membrane integrity, and vitamin absorption.

Carbohydrates are molecules made of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms that serve as the body's primary and preferred source of energy. They're classified by their structure into simple carbohydrates (sugars like glucose and fructose) and complex carbohydrates (starches and fibers), with all digestible carbs ultimately broken down into simple sugars in the body. While they provide quick energy at 4 calories per gram, unlike proteins and fats, there are no "essential" carbohydrates that must be obtained from diet, as your body can produce glucose when needed through other metabolic pathways.

Protein stands as the fundamental building block of the human body, forming everything from muscles and bones to enzymes and neurotransmitters through its component amino acids—nine of which are essential and must come from our diet.