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Fitness and diet myths that just won't go away
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"You shouldn't eat butter. Because it's from an animal source. You should eat margarine instead. Because it's plant-based."
I remember this growing up in the '70s. I always said, "Eat the butter, just don't eat the whole stick." You shouldn't eat the whole stick of margarine either.
"You shouldn't eat lard. Because it's from an animal source. You should eat shortening instead. Because it's plant-based."
I even believed this for a while. Then we found out about trans-fats.
Nutrition science is still very young. If I were young and thinking about what I wanted to study and to make into a career, it might be nutrition science. I think it's fascinating. I would probably have contributed to many of the mistakes we made and are in the process of understanding better. I also wouldn't have been doing all the biology and hillslope hydrology I loved so much nor had a chance to help my community learn how to conserve water.
Please pass the butter.
And the salt.....
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"You shouldn't eat eggs. Cholesterol."
"Eggs are the best thing ever. Eat as many as you want."
"You shouldn't eat egg YOLKS. Only egg whites. Cholesterol."
"Eggs are the best things ever. Put a raw egg in your milkshake for more nutrition."
"Don't eat raw eggs. Salmonella."
"You shouldn't eat eggs. They'll kill ya."
"Eat eggs from hens that have been fortified so the eggs have more omega-3."
"Only eat eggs once or twice a week."
"You shouldn't scramble eggs before cooking because it exposes air to the yolks and makes them unhealthy."
"Scrambled eggs have more healthy fat than hard-cooked eggs."
"Eat eggs in moderation; they're little packets of protein and other nutrients."
Another example of nutrition science still working on getting the answers. I think we're getting closer.
My personal favorite lately has been braised eggs. Super easy. Super tasty. Heat a skillet to medium as you would for an over-easy egg. Add your butter or oil. When it's hot, add an egg or two, then add an ounce of water and put the lid on and wait two to three minutes, longer if you like the yolks cooked a little more. The steam cooks the top so you don't have to flip 'em, they don't stick to the pan, and they are just really tasty.
Second favorite is to start cooking a pot of hominy grits. When the grits are about halfway cooked, crack an egg or two on top, turn the heat down, and put the lid on for a few minutes. As the eggs begin to firm up, stir them into the grits. Oh my.5 -
Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
Geez, in metric please?
(long live Google)
I don't care if it's Harvard or not, a single number as a recommendation is ridiculous: a lot of exercise or not, hot weather or not, etc.
And their high end number includes all fluids (also from foods), they're not saying people need to drink 11.5/15.5 cups of water.3 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
Geez, in metric please?
(long live Google)
I don't care if it's Harvard or not, a single number as a recommendation is ridiculous: a lot of exercise or not, hot weather or not, etc.
And their high end number includes all fluids (also from foods), they're not saying people need to drink 11.5/15.5 cups of water.
Several years ago, the US EPA changed its standards for the amount of fluoride added to water for water utilities who fluoridate water. Yes, I know fluoridating water is a very controversial topic. Fluorine is extremely toxic. It's also been seen as one of the most important improvements in public health along with chlorination. Before 2011, the guidance was to add fluoride to a level between .07 and 1.2 milligrams per liter (yep - metric!). One milligram per liter is about one part per million. That would be like putting one drop of vermouth in ten gallons of gin. I'd hardly call that a martini.
The EPA did some analysis. They realized that people get fluoride in other ways. Fluoride occurs naturally in tea, for example. People also sometimes get fluoride from beverages other than tap water. If the company that bottles your apple juice makes it from concentrate with fluoridated water, there's a dose there too.
The EPA also recognized that some people actually consumed considerably more water than others. People who do hard physical work drink more water than people who run a keyboard. People who work outdoors in a hot climate, even less physical work, drink more water than people who do equivalent work in air condition or in cooler climates. They reduced the recommendation to no more than 0.7 milligrams per liter to account for these differences. They also don't allow tap water to have more than 4.0 parts per million, but that's not important here.
When planning a raft trip down Grand Canyon, the guidance actually IS to drink a gallon of water each day. It's a good starting point for planning how much to bring or have the capacity to treat. I have never been in the summer, and I suspect you could easily drink much MORE. Of course you also have to make sure to keep electrolytes up. My trips have been in fall or spring, and we ended up drinking about half that much. Yes we had other beverages that had their own electrolytes, and we ate fruit and vegetables and food that also had water.
But no - the need to drink a gallon of water per day is indeed bro-science as @ninerbuff suggests.
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
Geez, in metric please?
(long live Google)
I don't care if it's Harvard or not, a single number as a recommendation is ridiculous: a lot of exercise or not, hot weather or not, etc.
And their high end number includes all fluids (also from foods), they're not saying people need to drink 11.5/15.5 cups of water.
If you read the screen shot, it said an average (which means some will be higher and some lower) and yes it includes other sources of water. If you notice, I said if all they were drinking was water, the gallon was about right based on the average provided by Harvard.2 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
Geez, in metric please?
(long live Google)
I don't care if it's Harvard or not, a single number as a recommendation is ridiculous: a lot of exercise or not, hot weather or not, etc.
And their high end number includes all fluids (also from foods), they're not saying people need to drink 11.5/15.5 cups of water.
If you read the screen shot, it said an average (which means some will be higher and some lower) and yes it includes other sources of water. If you notice, I said if all they were drinking was water, the gallon was about right based on the average provided by Harvard.
I did read the screenshot. It says 4 to 6 cups, depending on intake of other drinks and food. It implies 11.5/15.5 cups for people not ingesting fluids in any other way, whether it be drinks or food.
I can't imagine many people only drinking water AND only consuming foods that don't contain any moisture/water.
(PS would have been more useful in my opinion to state a range instead of an average. An average doesn't tell you how wide the spread is)2 -
(PS would have been more useful in my opinion to state a range instead of an average. An average doesn't tell you how wide the spread is)
If you put one hand in a bucket of ice and a little water (32F, 0C) and the other hand in a pot of near-boiling water (200F, 93C), on average you're pretty comfortable (116F, 50C - a little warmer than a n ice shower).
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
There are lots of teens that do cable flyes in the gym, not realizing it's NOT a mass building movement, but do them anyway because they see all the buffed dudes doing them.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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Chicken or the egg...which came first, mass or exercises?1
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Potatoes make you fàt.2
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Corina1143 wrote: »Potatoes make you fàt.
Fats make you fat.1 -
springlering62 wrote: »Corina1143 wrote: »Potatoes make you fàt.
Fats make you fat.
Sugar makes you fat.2 -
Corina1143 wrote: »Potatoes make you fàt.
7 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
There are lots of teens that do cable flyes in the gym, not realizing it's NOT a mass building movement, but do them anyway because they see all the buffed dudes doing them.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yep and water needs to replace about 3/4 of the items you listed. Way too many calories in those items, one of the major reason our children are fat. I remember kids bringing 32 oz of regular Gatorade to youth baseball games to "refuel" when the actual movement in those games was a total of 5 minutes per player. The picture below is from when Gatorade was first being tested. Maybe 8oz for a 230 pound or so player.
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Theoldguy1 wrote: »Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
There are lots of teens that do cable flyes in the gym, not realizing it's NOT a mass building movement, but do them anyway because they see all the buffed dudes doing them.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yep and water needs to replace about 3/4 of the items you listed. Way too many calories in those items, one of the major reason our children are fat. I remember kids bringing 32 oz of regular Gatorade to youth baseball games to "refuel" when the actual movement in those games was a total of 5 minutes per player. The picture below is from when Gatorade was first being tested. Maybe 8oz for a 230 pound or so player.
1/3rd. Both soda and the gatorades/powerades/vitamin waters of the world have 0 calorie options.0 -
Theoldguy1 wrote: »Theoldguy1 wrote: »Broscience of drinking a gallon of water a day. While drinking ENOUGH water is essential for good health, drinking a gallon of water a day isn't necessary but is a staple for most bros in the gym.
I see 15 year olds carry around a gallon jug with them and boney as hell asking why they aren't gaining weight.
Also, if you're not balancing your electrolytes with all that water, you can get cramps, nausea, etc.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
If they're only drinking water, a gallon is about right.
There are lots of teens that do cable flyes in the gym, not realizing it's NOT a mass building movement, but do them anyway because they see all the buffed dudes doing them.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
Yep and water needs to replace about 3/4 of the items you listed. Way too many calories in those items, one of the major reason our children are fat. I remember kids bringing 32 oz of regular Gatorade to youth baseball games to "refuel" when the actual movement in those games was a total of 5 minutes per player. The picture below is from when Gatorade was first being tested. Maybe 8oz for a 230 pound or so player.
1/3rd. Both soda and the gatorades/powerades/vitamin waters of the world have 0 calorie options.
Depends. If one is drinking 0 calorie versions of the drinks mentioned, carry on. If full sugar replace 3/4 (or more) with water or 0 calorie versions.2 -
TABATA PROTOCOL
There are so many "influencers" now and classes that tout TABATA workout when the truth is all they are doing are intervals.
Tabata protocol is a specific protocol use to force the body to reach and improve VO2max. The protocol requires 100% effort on EVERY INTERVAL and of course each interval will reduce in power and speed.
Today, the majority of people think that doing a 20 sec work and 10 second rest for 8 cycles is Tababta.
It's a disservice to the man that created the program who created it to help Olympic racers improve.
If it ain't 100% effort for just 4 minutes..................................it's NOT Tabata. They are just intervals.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
3 -
During some of the pandemic lockdown, a neighbor who wasn't able to work (art teacher) held "gym class" out in the street. I was working from home. She had loud music that was already kind of annoying, and then she started using one of those Tabata timers, and it was even more obnoxious.
I had to ask several times to please turn it down a bit. Not that they're really even supposed to be using the street for that.... There were times some of them brought out equipment and set up stations. It was a great community building idea, but for people who were nearby and didn't want to have to listen to it, it was pretty annoying. A couple other neighbors and I would shake our heads and talk about it later.
Just say no to annoying your neighbor with a loud timer that goes BLWEEEEP multiple times per minute.
Please.3
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