For many, the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced just how important mental health is for overall wellness. Rather than some intangible aside, it’s a critical element of physical health. You might even call it fitness. Referring to mental-health care as mental fitness creates a powerful mindset shift. It puts us in a proactive state and gives us the autonomy to improve it. And just as we build and preserve muscle with physical training, we can develop and sustain mental fitness by regularly training our brains. Start with these 12 steps.
Read More12 Ways to Train Your Mental FitnessSCIENCE
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.
When it comes to diet, most people’s concerns involve weight loss, fitness, cardiac health, and longevity. But what we eat affects more than our bodies; it also affects our brains. Recent studies have shown that diet can have a profound impact on mental health conditions ranging from ADHD to depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, OCD, dementia, and beyond. In This Is Your Brain on Food, Dr. Uma Naidoo draws on cutting-edge research to explain the many ways in which food contributes to our mental health and shows how a sound diet can help treat and prevent a wide range of psychological and cognitive health issues.
Read MoreThe Gut-Brain Romance: This Is Your Brain on FoodOver his more than 40-year career, pediatric neuroendocrinologist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Robert Lustig has been dedicated to treating and preventing childhood obesity and diabetes. In his new book, Dr. Lustig exposes the truth, both scientifically and politically, underlying the current global pandemic of diet-related diseases. In this excerpt from chapter 8, he describes the two pathways that fuel energy metabolism and explains how different food sources affect the body at the cellular level.
Read MoreMetabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine — Excerpt 2Over his more than 40-year career, pediatric neuroendocrinologist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Robert Lustig has been dedicated to treating and preventing childhood obesity and diabetes. In his new book, Dr. Lustig exposes the truth, both scientifically and politically, underlying the current global pandemic of diet-related diseases. In this excerpt, he explains how the precepts of cell biology discussed earlier in chapter 8 (excerpts 1 and 2) present a new way to think about the role of diet and nutrition in the development of non-communicable diseases.
Read MoreMetabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine — Excerpt 3Over his more than 40-year career, pediatric neuroendocrinologist and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Robert Lustig has been dedicated to treating and preventing childhood obesity and diabetes. In his new book, Dr. Lustig exposes the truth, both scientifically and politically, underlying the current global pandemic of diet-related diseases.
Read MoreMetabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine — Excerpt 1A superager, Barrett explains, is someone older than 60 who “has a memory that functions indistinguishably from (that of) a 25-year-old.”
Watch Exercise: The Key to “Superaging”A 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 NaturallyThis 2007 study found increased pancreatic fat is strongly associated with diabetes, independent of overall BMI or waist circumference. These results support the hypothesis that organ-specific fat accumulation, due to its effect on insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance, directly predicts and may play a causal role in the development of metabolic distress.
Read MorePancreatic Fat Content and β-Cell Function in Men With and Without Type 2 DiabetesA 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?A brief summary of Frederick Allen’s work to treat diabetes through fasting
Read MoreAn Effective Dietary Therapy for Diabetes Before the Discovery of InsulinLack of an Association or an Inverse Association Between Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Mortality in the Elderly
This 2016 review finds that low LDL cholesterol levels either have no association with mortality or predict increased mortality in the elderly.
Read MoreLack of an Association or an Inverse Association Between Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol and Mortality in the ElderlyChronic 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 SignalingIs Statin-Modified Reduction in Lipids the Most Important Preventive Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease?
This 2016 debate features arguments for and against the use of statins in primary prevention.
Read MoreIs Statin-Modified Reduction in Lipids the Most Important Preventive Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease?This 2011 review surveys biological markers of depression and its comorbidities. Directly addressing these biomarkers — which often can be done through changes to diet, exercise, and lifestyle alone — may be an effective means to manage depression and reduce its associated disease burden.
Read MoreOf Sound Mind and Body: Depression, Disease and Accelerated AgingEffect of Dietary Carbohydrate Content on Circulating Metabolic Fuel Availability in the Postprandial State
1A 2020 study by the team at Boston Children’s Hospital found a low-carbohydrate diet increases post-meal circulating energy levels and may support reduced calorie intake over time.
Read MoreEffect of Dietary Carbohydrate Content on Circulating Metabolic Fuel Availability in the Postprandial StateThis 2019 review summarizes the mechanisms that regulate ketogenesis and analyzes the impact of ketones on specific disease states.
Read MoreKetogenic Diet: Shining a Light on Old But Gold BiochemistryA 2017 review summarizes mechanisms by which obesity may contribute to age-related diseases, including arthritis and dementia.
Read MoreAging, Obesity and Inflammatory Age-Related DiseasesA 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 Care