Eating is a biological habit which ensures survival. Without eating, you simply won’t exist for long. Things taste yummy because they provide energy and nutrients, allowing you to live your magical life. This pleasurable aspect of eating, however, has transformed food from a mere survival mechanism, to a form of entertainment. While this is all fine and dandy in […]
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The bubblelicious dental days are over. I began questioning the sinister stigma of “the dentist” circa the age of 5. Viewed through uco y elementary eyes, a trip to the dentist seemed… well … quite pleasant. The reception room featured Disney movies and Highlights magazines, while the actual visit (typically a benign “cleaning”) involved comforting baby words and […]
Continue reading > While we may believe we’re in control of what we do each day, an estimated 40-45% of our actions are actually habits. Yep, a large portion of our day runs on an intensely dedicated autopilot, resistant to change. As discussed in Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit, habits function in a cue-routine-reward loop. We experience a trigger for our habit (the […]
Continue reading > I used to hear stuff about light and color influencing sleep (“Don’t look at TVs before bed!”) and thought yeah…doubt it. After all, why would light exposure PRIOR to sleep affect actual asleep? If the lights were off when I finally got to bed, wouldn’t that suffice? Unfortunately….no. Ya see, light exposure is the key factor influencing […]
Continue reading > A year or so ago I read Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival, which escorted my laissez-faire attitude of nonchalance towards sleep out the back door. Long gone are the days of college all nighters fueled by Coke Zero and show tunes, adequately overcome via power naps and stances of “I got this.” Today, I place sleep on a pedestal, understanding how […]
Continue reading > In a previous post, I discussed the precarious support behind a high fiber diet. To briefly recap, a vast and unsupported assumption crediting fiber with colon cancer prevention fueled the “EAT MORE FIBER ALL THE TIME” mantra. However, I would like to add a caveat. Fiber may actually bear an extremely important relation to health, but […]
Continue reading > Oh food labels! These days, you can’t just simply go to the grocery store and pick up a slab of meat. (Don’t let’s be silly!) That would be waaayyy too easy. Instead, you must navigate a labely jungle of never-ending promises (Natural! Cage-free!), significantly varying price points, and questionable levels of quality. Indeed, the many labels in […]
Continue reading > Now that we’ve got fat out of the way, it’s sugars turn! Unlike fat, sugar is nasty stuff, promoting inflammation, oxidative stress, glycation, free radicals, and the “bad” type of cholesterol. Sugar is also strongly correlated to many forms of cancer. Perhaps most significantly, sugar instigates an insulin response, encouraging fat storage, obesity, and diabetes. While […]
Continue reading >Fat is confusing stuff. We hate it on our body, yet love it in our mouth. In general we don’t think it’s healthy, but now we’re not so sure? We’re told some kinds of fat are “super foods” which save you from every ill known to mankind, while others kill you. (Don’t even THINK about […]
Continue reading > Before I cleaned up my diet, I viewed cardio and calories like a quota. But now I have this crazy idea in my head that maybe just living life can be more effective than such madness, if you set things up correctly. These days I’m in much better shape, with no gym in sight! Instead, I […]
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