Entries by Chet Zelasko

Nutritional Epidemiology: The Problem

The health headline shouts: “Fish oil increases your risk of heart disease.” The next week, “Fish oil beneficial for reducing risk of Alzheimer’s disease.” It makes one wonder what is going on in research. I’ve felt that way for a long time, and I know you have as well. I think I’ve found part of […]

How Did You Do in the Holiday Challenge?

Did you keep track of the fruits and veggies you ate over the holiday weekend (or July 4–7 for those of you outside the U.S.)? Remember to email me your results. Some people didn’t need reminding—I have already gotten replies. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked. Here are my lists: I […]

Start Your Lists!

A reminder that today is the beginning of the Holiday Fruit and Vegetable Challenge. There will be three prizes this time: Start keeping track this morning and keep going until bedtime Sunday. I’m keeping my list as well. Winners can choose between a free six-month Insider membership or the digital Optimal Performance program. What are […]

The Holiday Challenge, Part 2

I enjoyed the Memorial Day Challenge so much, I want to see if you can do better. I want more of you to respond this time, so I’m going to make it a little more enticing for you by handing out more prizes. This time, I’m going to reward the person who eats the most […]

A Closer Look at Ultra-Processed Food Risk

I think the results of the UK Biobank ultra-processed food (UPF) study were interesting, as I relayed on Tuesday, but the researchers went further. They estimated how substituting non-UPF plant-sourced foods for any of the other three sources of food resulted in a reduction of cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Further, and what got […]

Is Ultra-Processed Food Worthless?

Ultra-processed food (UPF) has been in the news again: researchers have found a relationship between plant-based UPF and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. Health news writers were brimming with opinions on what the study meant. The comment that got my attention was that UPF manufacturing destroyed good nutrients found in plant foods to the point […]

Free Men’s Health Webinar

June is National Men’s Health month. My first thought was to do a series of Memos on the key points of men’s health, but because I can talk faster than I can type (and you may not want to read that much), I decided to do a Men’s Health webinar next Wednesday night, June 26 […]

Memorial Weekend F&V Challenge

It’s time to reveal the consumer of the largest variety of fruit and vegetables over the Memorial Day weekend, but before I do, a couple of comments. If you would have typically eaten the vegetables and fruits anyway, good job. I know that readers who perceive themselves as eating enough servings were probably more likely […]

SIT to Get Fitter

Here are the results of the study on sprint interval training or SIT. There was an 11% increase in max VO2 after the first cycle, reduced down to 6.4% after the second cycle, and finished at an 8% increase. Were the subjects fitter? Max VO2 notwithstanding, they absolutely were fitter. The reason we know that […]

Sprint Interval Training

Keeping with the theme of using interesting training techniques from the last Memos on HIIT training, this next study took it one step further. The objective was to see how fast subjects could get fitter using a sprint interval training program. I think I need to define some terms here. When we talk about getting […]