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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2498 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for June 30, 2024

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How do you evaluate health/diet/workout claims? For example just heard yesterday that a tea spoon of vinegar before meals and eating meals in order of greens-proteins-fat-carbs reduce the insulin spikes. Sounds plausible but if I try to search online then it is just bullshit popular science articles and reddit fanatics.

greens-proteins-fat-carbs sounds like it's trying to fill you up on greens and protein so you don't overdo it on the fat and carbs.

Apple cider vinegar seems to have some insulin benefits: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31451249/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8243436/

But I admit I don't understand where that's coming from. With white vinegar you'd be tossing a spoonful of dilute acetic acid into the hydrochloric acid in your stomach, which doesn't seem like it would do much. Looks like your stomach lowers pH when you've consumed a protein meal. So this could all be about lowering your stomach pH. With ACV there's probably some beneficial residue from the fermentation.

A lot of diet claims are like traditional medicine. A nonsense process that results in healthy behavior.

The big one to watch out for is vegans. There are a lot of people who are vegan/vegetarian for ideological reasons and consider it their moral duty to make health claims to promote veganism even if it isn't backed by any real science.

I assume they're mostly bullshit if they don't match what I already know about health, diet, and workout. I am rarely disappointed when I actually investigate. Even in examples that aren't quite bullshit, they're usually totally irrelevant even if they're directionally correct. In this case, there is simply no way that a teaspoon of vinegar before a meal is something that will have any meaningful impact on my health or physical performance.

There are studies on this that you can plug into google scholar and access via sci-hub. Roughage (fibers), fats, cinnnamon and some other things totally reduce insulin spikes or the “glycemic load” of the meal when eaten beforehand or within the meal. Walking for 15min directly after a meal does this as well. Not sure about vinegar or protein. I would type in: [term] glycemic load. Sort by 2020 to see new research.

fanatics

TBH this is wildly important information for how little awareness there is of it. We have inexpensive and effective ways of sizably reducing the problems caused by insulin spikes, which are myriad and severe.

Finding studies is easy but I don't trust myself to be able to scan the literature and ignore the garbage (which is most studies in nutrition and fitness).

TBH this is wildly important information for how little awareness there is of it

Yes but there are reddit fanatics for literally every single nutrition and fitness trend out there.

I think if there’s no profit or fame incentive you can trust them. Or if you trust someone like Rhonda Patrick / Hubermann I bet he’s talked about this.

Huberman used to seem a lot more grounded. He's had a lot of hacks on in the last year or so. His shilling for Athletic Greens also doesn't instill confidence.

What’s the deal with the Athletic Greens. Why am I marketed that stuff everywhere

I don't know. For a while I was getting penis enlargement ads in Instagram. Which is perhaps more worrying in terms of what algorithms we are triggering.

I do know AG1 is untested and unregulated and seems pretty pricey. The sheer amount of what's supposed to be in it raises enough warning bells for me. Reddit thread on the topic-- though of course you are free to ignore that as it is on reddit.

People are motivated by ideology in addition to fame and profit.

The reddit fanatics have no shot at profit or fame and you can find them for all sides of any question. Similarly, the influencers you mention have a shot at profit and fame and accordingly you can find them for all sides of any question.

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