Health

The central premise of the keto diet is simple: limit your carbohydrate intake to the point that your body prefers to use fat (and the ketones produced by metabolizing fat) as a primary source of energy. For the average person, this usually means 30 grams or less net carbs per day. Yes, people bat an eye when I tell them to eat 30 g or less net carbs per day. But the key word is net. You see, not all carbs need to be limited. Specifically, you don’t need to limit fiber and sugar alcohols because these carbs don’t significantly...

Most people are confused about electrolyte testing. If a blood test comes back within normal ranges, they think that everything is peachy. But that’s not how it works. Electrolyte panels measure electrolytes in the blood, but they don’t tell you if you’re getting enough of a given electrolyte through diet and supplementation. This is so important that it bears repeating. Electrolyte blood tests DO NOT assess your nutritional status for a given electrolyte. When an electrolyte test is out of range, it means something funky is going on. I’m talking about situations like kidney failure, heart failure, medications, and illnesses...

If you have kids, supporting their health is priority number one. And a key element of that support is keeping them hydrated. But it’s not always easy to keep kids hydrated the healthy way. They go to a friend’s house and suck down 3 or 4 juice boxes. They beg for sugary soda at the store. They want blue Gatorade during their soccer match. Who can blame them? These beverages appeal to a love of sugar rooted deeply in our biology. This love has permeated the human race since prehistoric times when sweet foods were scarce and valuable. On top...

What do neurons firing, the heart pumping, your blood circulating, and a bicep flexing have in common? They all depend on a short list of charged minerals. Without these minerals, the perpetual flow of biochemistry inside your body couldn’t dance. It wouldn’t even know how to dance. You can probably guess which minerals I’m talking about. I’m talking about electrolytes. Most people think of electrolytes as hydration support. And that’s not wrong. To feel and perform your best, it’s crucial to consume electrolytes along with fluids. Yet hydration is just a sliver of the electrolyte story. It gets a lot...

About 45 million Americans start a weight loss diet every year. The vast majority of these diets fail. Would drinking more water turn these failures around? Is H2O the secret to losing weight? I seriously doubt it. The mechanisms by which drinking water promotes weight loss—and I’ll cover them shortly—pale in comparison to the obesogenic forces of modern society. These are the forces of sleep deprivation, hyperpalatable foods, constant stress, and insufficient social connection. This modern environment is NOT the environment we evolved to thrive in. We evolved to eat whole, unprocessed foods that changed with the seasons. We evolved...