Tag: article roundup

I missed my regular update last week, but It’s been such a busy couple of weeks that I just haven’t had time to read. We had a baby shower last weekend which required finally painting the house the way my wife has wanted it to look for years, cleaning EVERYTHING (the carpet, bathrooms, etc.), decorating the house for the baby shower, and preparing food. I’m so happy the baby shower is over with. Hopefully I can get back to a more relaxed schedule again. I guess this hectic lifestyle is something I should get used to though, with a baby coming in just a couple more months.

On to the update. Here’s what I’ve been reading lately.

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Best Vegan Cookbooks for Athletes

Another post from No Meat Athlete this week. This one is awesome because it has a whole bunch of books that are both vegan and really healthy. There are lots of vegan cookbooks out there, but a lot of them require using junk like seitan and other processed foods. There are at least four books here that I want.

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Harmful or Harmless: Magnesium Stearate

I’ve noticed that magnesium stearate is in a ton of supplements. I’ve always avoided it just because I didn’t know what it was and I would never remember to look it up. Chris Kresser did all the hard work for me and explained it all!

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Pills made from poop cure serious gut infections

The fecal transplant procedure is becoming so popular that someone has already created a way to give a “fecal transplant” simply by swallowing a pill. Dr. Thomas Louie devised a method to extract bacteria and remove waste from donor stool and pack it into gel capsules. The patient needs to take 24-34 capsules in one sitting, but they have no taste and don’t result in nasty burps since they don’t dissolve until they are past the stomach.

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The Healthy (But Practical) Plant-Based Diet — A Typical Day

It’s cool to see what other vegans eat in a typical day, especially fit vegans who have different dietary needs to support an active lifestyle.

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Gotu kola | University of Maryland Medical Center

I found out about gotu kola while reading an article about how to get better sleep (my wife is having trouble sleeping during her pregnancy, which is common). It sounds like an interesting plant with a lot of different uses – speeds up wound healing, treatment for stretch marks, reducing anxiety, decreasing joint pain and treating insomnia – but it also sounds like there’s not enough research to show that it’s completely safe.

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The “Promised” 18 Week Protocol

I’m a huge fan of minimalist training. There was a time when I felt like I was doing myself a disservice if I wasn’t working out 5 days a week but after starting Stronglifts 5×5 a couple years ago, I’ve completely change my line of thinking, especially after seeing more progress with minimal training than I ever did with 5+ days per week training. And now with a baby on the way, minimalist training is going to be even more important.

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Recipe: Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Topping

This sounds awesome! I’m definitely making this soon.

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Simple Hacks to Fix Your Sleep

We already turn our phones and tablets to Airplane Mode every night but we still keep things plugged in near our beds. I can’t say for sure if it has helped me sleep better but I feel better a out doing it just because I know of the potential harmful issues. I might have to try moving the clock next.

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Expert Tips on How to Beat Running Boredom

I rarely run because it’s just too boring for me. The two tips I like most in this article are listening to podcasts while running, which I love to do on bike rides, and doing a destination run and having someone pick you up. Something that really helped me was to buy the Zombie Run app for the iPhone, which turns running into a fun game of trying to outrun zombies.

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How to Prevent Kidney Stones Naturally

The author’s research shows that kidney stones can be prevented by drinking lemon water, getting appropriate amounts of vitamins A, D & K2, supplementing with magnesium, moderating salt intake, stopping carb restriction, and reducing fructose. Easy! I’ve never had kidney stones, but I’ve known people who have and they all tell me that it’s the most painful thing they’ve ever experienced. I knew a kid in high school who already had kidney stones three times before 10th grade. I bet he wishes he could have read this post.

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Powerbuilding: You Don’t Grow In The Gym

This article was written by Stan Efferding, a professional powerlifter and bodybuilder. This quote pretty much sums it up. “Lift heavy weights three times a week for an hour. Eat lots of food and sleep as much as you can.” He goes into more detail, but he keeps it simple. Eat a lot of protein and complex carbs, sleep as much as you can and workout 3 days per week w/ heavy weight – bench and dips (push), T-bar rows and chins (pull) and squats for legs. That’s it.

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Lemon Juice, Resistant Starch, Coffee, Blueberries, Chili, Ginseng, Ginger, Mate, Gymnema Sylvestre, Bitter Melon. Supplements to Improve & Restore Insulin Sensitivity #4

I just stumbled onto this excellent installment of a series of articles discussing supplements to improve insulin sensitivity. Tons of useful, and heavily researched info here. I can’t wait to see the last article in this series, featuring a finalized list of recommended supplements.

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Cutting CrossFit a Break

Tony Gentilcore has written many times about his dislike for Crossfit, but this time he set out to discuss some of the things he believes Crossfit does right.

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Leg Drive for Bench Press

I don’t think I have a problem with leg drive myself, but after watching this video, I want to try to keep it at the front of my mind the next time I’m doing bench press, just to make sure I’m doing everything right.

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Form Analysis Episode 1

In this post, Bret Contreras reviews reader-submitted videos and provides form advice. He goes over the single leg romanian deadlift, deficit reverse lunges, hip thrusts, single leg hip thrusts and the sumo deadlift.

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Bench Press More Weight with This Simple Warm-up

There are a lot of warm-up advice articles online, but they usually try to be all-encompassing instead of focusing on how they can benefit specific movements and exercises. This one is designed only for bench press, which I think makes it very useful.

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October Research Roundup: The Recovery Edition

Researchers found that using contrast baths and cold-water immersion are good for reducing muscle soreness and decreasing creatine kinase levels, but that contrast baths are most effective. Their contrast baths consisted of immersing the body up to the top of the pelvis in one container at 8-10 degrees celsius (45-50 fahrenheit) for 1 min. then jumping into a second container at 40-42 degrees celsius (104-107 fahrenheit). The other study reviewed here shows that compression garments and/or humidification therapy both help improve short-term recovery between bouts of exercise.

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Study on 90-year-olds reveals the benefits of strength training

This study shows that it’s never too late to start working out and no matter the age, there will always be benefits.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Making the Case for Eating Fruit – NYTimes.com

I’ve been seeing a lot of articles lately claiming that too much fruit is bad because of its sugar content but nothing that I’ve read has been convincing enough in my eyes. I pretty much agree with what this article says. Sugar in fruits are much different than processed sugars, especially in how they work in the body.

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10 Benefits of Essential Oils

I don’t know much at all about essential oils, but I hear about their benefits all the time. I’d really like to start using them more often. I actually bought some tea tree oil for some mold I found under one of my dumbbells in the basement. I’ve been too lazy to use it though. I really need to get on that.

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Gil Hedley: Fascia and stretching: The Fuzz Speech – YouTube

You’ve gotta move around and stretch to break apart the “fuzz.” 😉 Warning: Don’t watch this video while eating.

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The Feet of People Who Never Wear Shoes

Very interesting studies! And from this post I’ve also discovered a new product that I want – a cobblestone mat. I’ll probably never get one though, because $50-60 is a little too much for something like that. I just need to do more barefoot walking.

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Fitness is Not Religion or Politics, and there are Many Ways to Construct a Good Training Program

Bret Contreras makes many great points in this article – you need to eat right, train consistently and you should to exercises that you enjoy. He also included a ton of exercise variations that you can use in place of an exercise that you don’t like.

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The 21 Best Kitchen Tools, Grocery Shopping Guides, Cookbooks, Websites and Local Resources To Fuel Your Active Lifestyle

I’m quite familiar with most of things listed in this post although I did learn some new stuff. The Nourishing Traditions cookbook and the Eating On The Wild Side.book both sound really interesting. I also think I should start buying things directly from Nutiva and I think I need to set up an Amazon Prime account.

I took some time off last week for the 4th of July holiday weekend and I didn’t do much reading at all. It was also a really busy week after announcing to my friends and family that we were having a baby, which then gave me the freedom to finally launch my new vegan parenting website. It’s all set up now and hopefully I can back to my normal reading schedule 🙂

I did manage to read a little bit over the past couple of weeks and here are the few articles that I really found interesting.

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Simple Recipe: Super Soft Mochi

I read about mochi in The Better Baby Book and looked it up. I’ve actually had this once before from World Market, but I didn’t remember what it was called. I saw it at the store and since I’ve never had it before, I just randomly decided to buy a package of the green tea flavored mochi. It was pretty good. Now I can make my own and I’ll know exactly what’s going in it. You can cheat and make it in the microwave too. That’s what I did. 😉 I used the ingredients from the recipe at Frock Files but used the microwave instructions for mochi here. It’s super easy! I would recommend letting it cool for about 20 minutes so that it’s easier to cut.

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Possibility Of First Head Transplant Fraught With Ethical And Medical Dilemmas

This would be amazing and absolutely terrifying at the same time. I really don’t know how I feel about this. The mention of acquiring healthy bodies on the black market sounds straight out of a horror film. But imagine the lives a procedure like this could benefit for people who have muscular dystrophy or some other sort of disorder. Could you picture yourself waking up one day with your head on a different body?

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How to Read and Understand Scientific Research

I learned a lot about reading and understanding scientific research when I attended the health and fitness bloggers conference last year and it has helped me a ton when making changes to my own health. If you like to do your own research or if you like to write about health and nutrition, you should definitely read this article.

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Make Your Own Non Toxic Cleaning Kit!

Removing and replacing the toxic chemicals we use in and around our home is important to us (me and my partner), and is something we’ve been really been working on doing lately, especially now that we’re having a baby 🙂

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Comparing Vinegar Weed Killer Recipes

I had a sprayer that I bought from Home Depot last summer that I had planned to use to fertilize my garden, but I never researched a fertilizer recipe because my garden has always done well enough without it. So when I saw this, I decided to try recipe #3 because I have a huge problem with weeds but I can’t bring myself to use Roundup anymore because not only is it toxic, but it’s also a Monsanto product. On Monday I used the weed whacker to chop everything down and then I sprayed it. Let’s hope it works!

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23andMe – Genetic Testing for Health, Disease & Ancestry

One of my coworkers is a health geek just like me and he brought this site to my attention. I’ve really been wanting to do something like this, but all the tests I’ve found are just a little too pricey, but 23andMe costs only $99. That’s definitely affordable. These tests can find your risks for health conditions, conditions you may pass on to your children, and drugs sensitivities you may have – all based on your genes! They will also keep you updated on new science discoveries that pertain to your DNA.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Spicy Taco Flavored Kale Chips

A coworker sent this to me but I haven’t tried it yet. I love plain ol’ homemade kale chips using olive oil, salt and sometimes cayenne, so I’m sure I’ll love these. Very gourmet!

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My Unexpected Journey into PubMed

If you love doing research and if you’ve ever thought about trying to get a study published, there are some helpful tips for first-timers here. Some researcher I am though, I didn’t even know about jissn. It’s open-access and all articles are freely available to everyone and without registration. Cool!

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This DIY Treadmill Desk Helps You Stay Fit While You Work

I would have never thought about buying a simple adjustable workbench to use as a standing desk. It’s not likely that I’ll set up a treadmill desk, but a simple standing desk would be awesome.

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Increase Metabolism on a Vegan Diet

I never thought much about my body temperature being regulated by the food I eat but I get it checked regularly as part of my blood donation routine and I’m normal (usually around 98.4). I’m interested in seeing how some of my other vegan friends test.

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Spybike and Spylamp bicycle GPS trackers

My local news station ran an investigative story about how bike thieves will steal pretty much any bike and they used the SpyLamp from this company to track down the thieves. I want one! It’s a GPS built right into a working taillight which will notify you by text messages if your bike moves.

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Can’t Fall Back Asleep? “Sleepy Dust”—An Unconventional Nutritional Remedy for Insomnia

I don’t wake up in the middle of the night very often but it does happen occasionally. It happened just last weekend actually, but I don’t mind too much when I don’t have to work the next day. I wish I would’ve known about this a long time ago. Al you need is 5 tbsp organic cane sugar, 1 tbsp sucanat/rapadura, and 2 tsp. real sea salt. Easy! When you need it just take a pinch of your mixture.

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16 Foods That’ll Re-Grow from Kitchen Scraps

We’ve grown only green onions from their scraps here at our house. We love it! I can’t wait to try these other ideas.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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In search of non-GMO corn tortillas

I’ve been doing my best to avoid GMOs and non-organic foods in addition to gluten, so in those regards, I’ve stopped eating flour tortillas. I’ve been buying organic tortillas from my local health food store, but I don’t believe they are non-GMO, which led me to search the web for a brand that is and in my search I came across this recipe. It sounds really easy and Bob’s Red Mill Masa Harina is really cheap too.

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Whistle Activity Monitor for Dogs

Whistle is a technology company dedicated to creating products that benefit the health of pets. Their first product, The Whistle Activity Monitor, is like a FitBit but for dogs. The Whistle attaches to your pet’s collar, collects data on activity and provides a report for you or your veterinarian so that you can make informed healthcare decisions. The Whistle will cost 99.95 and can be preordered right now. I don’t know when it will officially launch.

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BPA, the plastic food packaging, may be partially responsible for obesity

Yet another study showing the negative health effects of consuming foods that have come into contact with BPA. I don’t know if all of my Tupperware is BPA-free but after reading this I’m finally going to go through all of my containers and make sure.

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Sun protection and safe sunscreen tips

I’m one of those people who never use sunscreen even though I know I should. It’s not because I want a tan or anything like that. I’m just lazy. There’s a handy list of safe sunscreens at the end of this article if you want to jump right to it. I like the Kiss My Face brand because they don’t test on animals so I’ll probably pick up a bottle of that.

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One set, not three, is enough for strength gains over a 10-week session, says new research

If three sets of an exercise resulted in the same outcome as one set, which option would you rather do? I’m guessing you’d do one set and get the hell out of the gym. Well this study shows that one set actually could be better than three. I think this is basically what Doug McGuff, MD has been teaching for a while now.

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Anti-smoking medication shows promise for treating alcohol dependence

I love seeing studies like this. It’s so cool that a drug that was created for one purpose also works to treat other illnesses. Science! I have two family members who struggle with alcoholism so hopefully this study results in something bigger.

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Chipotle Starts Labeling GMO Ingredients On Website Menu

I’m a big fan of Chipotle, but now that I know that most of their menu consists of GMO ingredients, I probably won’t be eating there much anymore. If I avoid GMO’s at Chipotle, I can eat black beans, guacamole, lettuce, and any of their salsas. I can’t eat their tortillas, tacos, chips or rice. Also, I really hate when people call Chipotle, Chipoltay, like the guy in this video does. I hate it almost as much as GMOs.

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Toxic Tampons: Feminine Hygiene Alternatives

Not being a woman myself, I would have never thought about this, but I’m sending this to my significant other for sure. I care about her health as much as I do mine.

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Danish Students Attract International Attention with Cress and Wifi Experiment

Whoa, I’m not sleeping with my phone next to my bed anymore. Or I’ll at least put my phone in airplane mode from now on. I’ve been using airplane mode all week so far. I was thinking about unplugging my router before bed, but I wonder if it would be better to put it on a plug-in timer. I’ll just have to set it late enough so that it doesn’t mess with our internet use on the weekends.

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Five Best Exercise Headphones

I’ve never had luck with earphones when exercising until I found these Sennheiser MX85 Sport Series II Twist to Fit Earbuds on Amazon. I’ve put those things through some strenuous workouts and I’ve never had a problem. They have made my ears a little sore though on some of my longer bike rides. They also don’t have a mic or in-line controls.

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Master the Squat

Another fantastic article to help you work on your squat technique. There are a lot of technical tips here, warm-up info and even some notes on additional exercises to help supplement the squat exercise. I love the section on modifying squat stances based on leg and back length.

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Growing glutes without growing the legs

I’m sure many women worry about their legs getting too muscular when they start doing exercises like squats and deadlifts. This article explains how to prevent that from happening while still being able to workout the glutes. Personally, I love women with strong muscular legs. 😉

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The Health Benefits of Smoking

If there is an article that requires being as open-minded as possible, this would have to be it. Could you imagine smoking tobacco for the health benefits? In addition to what the author discusses, if you click some of the links near the end of the article, you can see that nicotine may help in treatment for schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and people with autoimmune diseases. It can prevent cartilage deterioration and can stimulate cognitive function and creativity. I don’t plan on ever smoking again, but to all of my smoking friends, I will definitely recommend that they switch to roll-your-own, organic, additive free, pure tobacco. And if they can afford it, to smoke it in a vaporizer.

Here’s a recap of the best health and fitness articles I’ve read over the past week.

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Cinnamon compounds have the potential ability to prevent Alzheimer’s

Cinnamon is no cure, but it shows promise in preventing Alzheimer’s. There aren’t any recommended dosages yet, but the researchers of this study suggest not using more than what you would typically use when cooking. If you’re not already using cinnamon in your food, it’s time to start!

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Squat Like A Boss: How To Fix The 3 Most Common Squat Mistakes

Tony Gentilcore is now a contributing author on bodybuilding.com and his first article on the site is awesome. It’s packed full of squat tips. He also followed up on his own site on head position, which commenters on bodybuilding.com kept asking about.

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Sadistic Strength Methods: Sadiv Sets

This sounds like a brutal routine. I think I’m too afraid to try it. If I ever need a shock to my system, for example if I plateau, maybe I’ll come back to this one and give it a try.

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Teaching your kids about food will not cause eating disorders

There are good ways and bad ways to teach kids about food. You don’t want to deprive your kids of certain food groups, but you should educate them. And when you give your kids sweets and snacks, make it a healthier version of that food. Instead of giving them a bag of highly processed BBQ Lays potato chips, find some organic non-GMO chips with an ingredient list you can read. Or you can even make your own chips. With kids being diagnosed with high cholesterol and type 2 diabetes at earlier ages and more frequently then ever before, education is becoming very important.

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“Natural” Glute Ham Raise (GHR) Alternatives – YouTube

I just started a new routine and one of the exercises is the glute ham raise and since I work out from home, I don’t have a glute ham raise machine just laying around so I had to look for some alternatives. This video shows a whole bunch of different ways to do the exercise. I used a barbell in my power rack to hold my feet and an ab roller to assist me.

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The Risks of Sitting and 5 Things You Can Do To Counteract Them

This is an awesome PDF article. By now, most of you should be familiar with the negative health effects of sitting, and this article goes into a few of those details, but most of what this article discusses are the things you can do to counteract those negative health effects. There’s some great stuff here and lots of links to additional info. The friend who sent this article to me also sent me a link to this sweet standing desk. How awesome would it be to have that?! Too expensive for me though.

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Sitting Is the Smoking of Our Generation

And while were on the topic of the risks of sitting, here’s an interesting post from the Harvard Business Review. Walking-meetings are a great idea! I rarely do meetings, but the next time I have a meeting I’m going to suggest taking a walk instead of booking the conference room.

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What You Need to Know About Rhabdomyolysis: Insights from the University of Iowa Incident

I’ve never had Rhabdomyolysis caused by over-exertion during exercise, but I wouldn’t doubt if I’ve been really close. One time I actually had to call in to work because my legs hurt so bad I couldn’t walk. If you’re a trainer or even if you’re not a trainer but helping to train a friend or partner, heed the tips at the end of this article to prevent exertional rhabdo.

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The Kale Shake is Awesome – So Upgrade It

I keep hearing about Joe Rogan’s awesome famous Kale Shake, but I also hear that it tastes pretty bad. If it doesn’t taste good, there’s no way I’ll be able to stick to it, but Dave Asprey has made some upgrades to it and he claims that it tastes great. I’ll see about that! Ben Greenfield took Dave Asprey’s idea and made some modifications of his own to the kale shake, namely the addition of cinnamon and protein powder and swapping kale out with spinach.

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Bug and weed killers may up Parkinson’s risk

Exposure to pesticides, and bug and weed killers increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease by 33 to 80 percent. That’s a lot! More reason to buy organic foods, or use a veggie wash when not buying organic, and to not use poisons on your lawn or around the house.

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A Love Affair with Pulp

Anyone who has ever juiced has thought about ways they can re-use the pulp leftover from their juices. Here’s a great recipe on using pulp to make wraps, or if you dehydrate longer, chips. I’m doing this!

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The Vitamin Deficiency That is Written All Over Your Face

If you’re deficient in Vitamin K2, you may have extensive wrinkles or skin sagging. That’s a visible symptom. Vitamin K2 is also needed for bone and kidney health, protecting against heart disease, preventing cancer and promoting brain function. Since I’m vegan, the best source for me to get K2 is in natto, or fermented soybeans, which I’ve tried before and didn’t really enjoy. Maybe I just need to suck it up and keep trying. I did eat it plain though, so perhaps I should mix it in with something tastier.

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As Seen On Twitter: Diet Sodas Make You Fat

You might have seen all the news all over Facebook and Twitter this past week about the dangers of diet sodas. I saw it myself several times. Well here’s an interesting point of view from Keifer who disagrees with some of the points the media are making in regards to the study.