Is the Earth Flat?

BY DANIEL LOXTON

Recent news stories,¹ celebrity endorsements, and Google search trends² have highlighted an apparently growing conspiracy theory belief that the Earth is not a globe, but instead a flat disc. According to believers, government forces promote a completely fictitious model of the cosmos in order to conceal the true nature of the Earth. Are these claims true?

No. The Earth is Round

The evidence for a spherical Earth is overwhelming.³ Most obviously, there are many thousands of images and videos of the Earth from space, including a continually changing live stream view of the globe from the International Space Station—not to mention all the astronauts who have personally seen the Earth from orbit. Flat Earthers claim that all images of the globe are fraudulent inventions, and all testimony from astronauts is false. It is unreasonable to dismiss all of the evidence from the entire history of space exploration, especially when there is zero evidence for a decades-long “globularist” conspiracy. However, we do not need to rely on evidence from modern space agencies to confirm the roundness of the Earth for ourselves.

The globe has been clearly understood for thousands of years. Indeed, this was one of the first cosmic facts to be worked out correctly by ancient people because evidence of a spherical Earth is visible to the naked eye.

By the time of the philosopher Socrates and his student Plato, many Greeks understood that the Earth could only be a sphere. Sailors would have noticed that the sails of approaching ships appeared before the hulls of the ships became visible because the surface of the sea is slightly curved, like the surface of an enormous ball.⁴ When you sail toward a ship, island, or lighthouse, their tallest points are the first thing to peek up over the curve of the horizon.

Plato’s student Aristotle offered further “evidence of the senses” to support his own conclusion that the Earth “must necessarily be spherical.” First, there was the evidence of lunar eclipses. When the Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth, that shadow is always the circular shadow of a sphere. Also, Aristotle argued, “our observations of the stars” make it clear “not only that the earth is circular, but also that it is a circle of no great size.” He pointed out that “quite a small change of position to south or north” significantly changes “the stars which are overhead, and the stars seen are different, as one moves northward or southward.” Just as ships can be hidden from view by the curvature of the horizon, so too can the stars.⁵

The debate about the shape of the Earth has been settled for over two thousand years. An ancient scholar named Eratosthenes—the head of the famous library of Alexandria in Egypt—even correctly approximated the circumference of the Earth using experimental measurements of shadows in two cities and some geometry.⁶

Despite modern legends about Medieval backwardness, there never was a time when educated people went back to thinking the Earth was flat. Once discovered, the true shape of the globe was too simple and useful a fact to be forgotten. Sailors were reminded of the planet’s roundness every time they climbed a mast to see further over the horizon or looked to the stars to determine their position. By the time of Columbus, his crew and even his critics understood that our world is a globe.⁷ It had been an established fact for centuries. For example, here’s a passage from the popular astronomy textbook On the Sphere of the World, published over 250 years before Columbus sailed: […]

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Do You Know Your Carb Tolerance?

A Simple Guide To This Crucial Dietary Element

Carbs don't exactly have a great reputation these days. You've probably heard something about how carbs spike your insulin levels, and if insulin is the "fat storage hormone," then carbs must make you fat…right?
That topic is a whole article in itself, but the main thing you need to know is that carbs in and of themselves do not make you fat. Only overeating (taking in more calories than you need) does. But, that's not to say carbs are beneficial in the same amount for everyone.

Some people thrive on loads of carbs and feel great when eating them, while others feel sick by just looking at a potato. How can that be? The reason carbs affect people differently is due to something called carb tolerance. Carb tolerance is the reason there's so much conflicting research on low-carb dieting.

What is carb tolerance? Certain studies found that low-carb groups came out on top when it came to fat loss, yet others found high-carb groups fared well.

A 2016 study found that women who were carb intolerant lost more weight on a low-carb diet and were also more adherent to a low-carb diet as compared to a high-carb diet. Now, this doesn't mean carb intolerant individuals can't lose weight on a high-carb diet. They certainly can, and over the long-term. How can this be? Simple: it's how well your body tolerates carbs.

As I previously mentioned, people have varying responses when it comes to consuming carbs. This mostly comes down to two factors: their genetics and their insulin sensitivity.

I'm not going to get fancy here and spout biology jargon at you, but let's just say some people don't produce enough of a certain enzyme that's responsible for carbohydrate digestion. In fact, a 2014 study found that people with less of this enzyme are generally predisposed to obesity due to the high-carb diets typical of average Americans. However, those who have higher-than-usual amounts of the enzyme have lower body fat levels and may feel that carbs taste "sweeter" or "richer" than your average person.

When carb intolerant people consume carbs, they typically experience symptoms such as: bloating, fatigue, brain fog, and increased hunger Another aspect of carb tolerance is your insulin sensitivity.

Insulin sensitivity refers to how your body responds to insulin, an important hormone. When you eat a meal, insulin is released to shuttle nutrients from your meal to different cells in your body. If your cells are resistant to insulin, then you need to produce a lot of it for it to be able to do its job. This can slow down your rate of fat loss, but it doesn't directly stop it. Studies have shown that even insulin resistant people can still lose fat on a high-carb diet, provided they're in a caloric deficit.

And that's the main point I want to hammer home: low-carb diets are not necessary for fat loss, but they can definitely help in the case of carb intolerance.

As I've mentioned, insulin resistant people were more adherent to a low-carb diet than a high-carb one, and adherence is the single most important aspect of any nutrition plan.

What to do if you’re carb intolerant: although the simplest way to know if you're carb intolerant is if you experience the aforementioned symptoms after consuming carbs, a doctor can also run some tests (such as an oral glucose tolerance test and a fasting blood insulin test) to help you know for sure.

If you have reason to believe you're carb intolerant, here are some tips on how to make the most of it.
    1). Decrease your carbs. You don't necessarily have to go full no-carb, but slowly decreasing your carb intake until you find a sweet spot with few symptoms is a great idea.

    2). Get down to a low body fat. Studies have shown that higher body fats are typically associated with a lower insulin sensitivity, so if you want to optimize it, getting lean should be one of your priorities.

    3). Make sure you train with resistance frequently. Something that most of you are probably doing already, but for those who aren't, now's the time. Resistance training has been consistently shown to improve insulin sensitivity in people with or without diabetes.

    4). Get a good night's sleep. Sleep is so underrated for muscle growth and fat-loss purposes, and its effects on insulin sensitivity are well documented. For example, in one study reducing sleep to 4 hours resulted in immediate decrease in insulin sensitivity and other health markers.

    5). Reduce your stress. Along with sleep improvement, stress reduction is a very underrated method of improving your results, including insulin sensitivity. High levels of mental stress cause high levels of "stress hormones" to stay active in your system, which ultimately leads to insulin resistance. 

Assessing someone's carb tolerance is one of those little diet tweaks that could have a huge difference on their performance and daily life. While carb intolerant people can lose weight on a high-carb diet, dietary adherence and progress is typically much greater on a low-carb diet. Find what works best for you and stick to it.

3 Myths About High Protein Diets Debunked!

By Dr. Jose Antonio

Protein plays an important part in everyone’s diet, even more so if you do strength training or are a body builder. But, is going heavier on the protein too much of a good thing? Here’s some research-based answers.

Anyone who pursues bodybuilding or other strength sports quickly learns that the U.S. government guidelines skimp on protein. While there's near-unanimity that Uncle Sam undervalues the muscle-building macronutrient, debates rage about the proper amount. There are also rumblings, verging on fear-mongering, that too much protein can wreck your kidneys and do all sorts of other harm to your body.
Spoiler alert! It doesn't. Let's look at some of the common myths—as well as some facts—about high-protein diets.

Myth 1: High-Protein Diets Cause Fat Gain: Not true. The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight per day. Several years ago, in my capacity as a researcher at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, I performed a study in which my team had subjects consume 4.4 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day, more than 5x the RDA.

These subjects neither gained fat mass, nor did they gain lean-body mass. However, when we increased the amount of training the subjects performed, we saw a drop in fat mass and an increase in lean-body mass.
 
Myth 2: High-Protein Diets Wreak Havoc on Your Kidneys: Here at the university, we have data showing that if you are a trained male bodybuilder and consume a high-protein diet for at least two years, you will experience no harmful effects to your kidneys, liver, or blood lipids. 

Myth 3: High-Protein Diets Leach Calcium from Women's Bones: According to this myth, eating too much protein can make a woman's bones brittle and weak. We have done studies up to six months in length that looked at the effect on the bones of women who consumed 2.5-3.0 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day—about 3x the RDA. Once again, we found no decrease in bone health. In fact, the data suggested that if women eat a high-protein diet, their lumbar bone-mineral density may actually increase!

The Truth: To experience the most benefit from their workouts, bodybuilders and other athletes should consume around 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Not only will this extra protein help you build more lean muscle mass, but it will also diminish your appetite, making you less apt to cave in to cravings.
Protein can help you lose weight because of its ability to act as a potent thermogenic agent. That means your body burns more calories digesting protein than it takes to digest an identical amount of carbohydrate and fat. Protein can also burn fat by increasing the number of calories you use during "non-exercise activity thermogenesis," aka NEAT. NEAT refers to the energy you use to do everything outside of sleeping, eating, and sports-like exercise. NEAT activities include walking to and from work, typing, doing house work or yard work, climbing stairs, even fidgeting where you sit.

First pizza!!!

A woman (Jody) posted this image on Twitter yesterday. "My daughter just tried pizza for the first time."
The photo cracked me up. I have to say that I don't remember it being such a praiseworthy event, but looking at her, I think I can totally identify with it. Some pizzas are THAT good. 

 

This Specific Gym Equipment Is Dirtier Than a Toilet Seat

To minimize risks in any publicly used area (grocery carts, bank ATMs, rental cars, keyboards, retail door handles, etc), wipe those areas down and use gloves where applicable. But above all, keep your hands away from your face, and wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands. There is no substitute for good old soap and water. Using sanitized is good, but using it too much has it's own risks.
http://www.thehealthsite.com/…/hand-sanitizers-9-reasons-y…/

This Specific Gym Equipment Is Dirtier Than a Toilet Seat

Screen Time Syndrome

This article validates what I already suspected and I think when you look at our society and the people around you, you can see how this behavior flows into teenage and then adult life. It's something to ponder. I think there is much more to this story than we want to acknowledge. You can see plenty of your own examples. Just look around.

SCREEN TIME SYNDROME: BRAIN IMAGES EXPLAIN WHY KIDS ARE MOODY, IMPULSIVE & CAN’T PAY ATTENTION

What would the world be without religion?

The following is borrowed for the author and not my work. He has done an excellent job of putting it all together.

Casualties
- 1.5 million people during Crusades
- 7,000,000 during the Saracen slaughters in Spain.
- 2,000,000 Saxons and Scandinavians lost their lives opposing the introduction of Christianity.
- 1,000,000 in the Holy Wars
- 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 Deaths during the French religious wars
- 8,000,000 during the thirty years war
These figures are from between around 1090 to 1650 and I have only included the major religious conflicts, there are millions more in smaller but still significant occurrences. So within around 600 years 23 million people died between 6 conflicts and mass murders.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Have you ever stopped to think about what our world would be like without religion? Well, I have. And it would be incredibly different. Religion has disadvantaged the human race in more ways than one and it is time to change and rid the human race of its many unrealistic superstitions. True that there are many disadvantages because of religion however, I do not deny that there are many advantages because of religion. My problem with this is that there is much good without religion and I will not give credit to religion for all the good in the world any more that I blame religion for all the ills of the world. The optimum word here is ALL, but definitley some on both sides.

What would the world be like without religion? "Religion without science is blind." This quote is from one of the most intelligent men that has ever lived, Albert Einstein. People like Einstein were prevented by the churches from spreading their knowledge throughout the world. For example Galileo, through his studies, discovered that the earth revolved around the sun. But the churches of the time opposed his solid evidence, saying that - because of what they had read in books written around 1100 years before-hand by a few old men; who had not even come in contact with ‘Jesus’ – the earth was the centre of the whole universe. It is estimated that if religion never existed, the human race would be three times more advanced than we are now, this is equivalent to man having a colony on Mars. Religious principles have been proved wrong by science over and over again. I have a bit of a problem with saying religious principles are proven wrong...which principles? and wrong how?


What would the world be like without religion? “Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity“. This is a quote from another historical figure, Thomas Jefferson. If it were not for religion, and in this case, Christianity, millions upon millions of people of different religions would not have been murdered throughout the crusades, witch-hunts and other cases where religion was the cause or excuse for the murder and execution of people, mainly in the dark ages. It is also possible that the dark ages themselves would have not existed if religion didn’t. During these times many people were brainwashed and believed that witches and other supernatural beings were everywhere, causing them to hunt down so called witches and werewolves. Enough said here. No amount of denial by the religious community can refute this.

There have always been tensions between different religions and in many instances, conflict. There have been many injuries and deaths as a result of these conflicts and many of these casualties are not even from the fighting in the conflicts, they are the elderly, or women and children brutally murdered, raped or bludgeoned because they believed in a different ‘outlandish’ religion and ‘bogus’ god. More often than not, the conflicts were a result of a play for power by a dominant leader, wanting more, using religion to justify their acts of inhumanity.

Even in today’s world there is great tension between different religions, for example the terrorist attacks where; once again, innocent people were needlessly killed. Muslim extremists who believed that Christians are evil and must be destroyed, decided to ram two planes into a couple of buildings killing thousands of mothers, fathers, daughters and brothers, affecting a whole nation, and even the whole world, and They justify the slaughter by saying its an act of God. For example, the mass murders and the ‘holocausts’ that have happened in recent centuries, over 200,000,000 people of different faiths have been murdered because they do not fit in, or they clash with the beliefs of a more powerful religion. This is a comparatively small amount however when compared to the amount of people who have died as martyrs which come to a total of over 290,000,000.

There have been many people who have died because of this blind stupidity. When people believe that there is somehow a better, more peaceful life beyond this life, it undervalues this life. Consider the following for example, Heavens Gate cult or more commonly known, religious establishment at ‘Jonestown’ in 1978 was led by Jim Jones who was a great leader. However, he believed that the world was coming to an end and believed that the Bible said that the only way to get to the ‘kingdom of heaven’ was to have a ceremony and commit suicide. He did this, along with 909 other weak minded people that he tricked using his religion. Without the power of religion this would have been unlikely to happen.
Even more recent, is the ‘Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God’ in 2000. The leaders of this group claimed that they had seen visions of the Virgin Mary and also believed that the world was going to come to an end. They told their many followers these outlandish claims, and conned 778 people into killing themselves and others in a series of fires, poisonings and murders. This is yet another example of the power of religion and its destructive properties.

What would the world be like without religion? Many people die every year from diseases and sickness, some of which could be treated and saved from a certain death but who reject transplants and transfusions due to their religious beliefs one such religion is Jehovah’s Witness. These people do not accept or give blood because they believe that blood is sacred to God. They also do not allow organ transplants. There are a number of other religions that do not accept organ transplants and blood transfusions; these people die long and painful deaths which can be prevented.

It’s not just the physical impacts that religion has on humans, but the mental. People who are deeply involved and taken up by religion believe in religion itself and nothing else. Christians for example, believe that the earth and everything in it was created 6000 years ago. They also believe other similarly unrealistic fables written down by senile men, who were probably experimenting with mind expanding substances, around 2000 years ago. These indulged people do not allow anything scientific to interrupt their religious beliefs and therefore leads to them being ignorant and intolerant about what’s really happening around them.

If you, the person reading this are totally indulged in your religion, this whole essay would have gone over your head, and you have just wasted 5 minutes of your life. But these 5 minutes can’t compare to a whole life time that you have already wasted, following some thing that isn’t real, chasing something that doesn’t exist.

Factiness: Are we living in a post-truth world?

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN “SKEPTIC” COLUMN FOR MARCH 2018

In 2005 the American Dialect Society’s word of the year was “truthiness,” popularized by Stephen Colbert on his news show satire The Colbert Report, meaning “the truth we want to exist.” In 2016 the Oxford Dictionaries nominated as its word of the year “post-truth,” which it characterized as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” In 2017 “fake news” increased in usage by 365 percent, earning the top spot on the “word of the year shortlist” of the Collins English Dictionary, which defined it as “false, often sensational, information disseminated under the guise of news reporting.”

Are we living in a post-truth world of truthiness, fake news and alternative facts? Has all the progress we have made since the scientific revolution in understanding the world and ourselves been obliterated by a fusillade of social media postings and tweets? No. As Harvard University psychologist Steven Pinker observes in his resplendent new book Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress (Viking, 2018), “mendacity, truth-shading, conspiracy theories, extraordinary popular delusions, and the madness of crowds are as old as our species, but so is the conviction that some ideas are right and others are wrong.”

Even as pundits pronounced the end of veracity and politicians played loose with the truth, the competitive marketplace of ideas stepped up with a new tool of the Internet age: real-time fact-checking. As politicos spin-doctored reality in speeches, factcheckers at Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and OpenSecrets.org rated them on their verisimilitude, with PolitiFact.com waggishly ranking statements as True, Mostly True, Half True, Mostly False, False, and Pants on Fire. Political fact-checking has even become clickbait (runner-up for the Oxford Dictionaries’ 2014 word of the year), as PolitiFact’s editor Angie Drobnic Holan explained in a 2015 article: “Journalists regularly tell me their media organizations have started highlighting fact-checking in their reporting because so many people click on fact-checking stories after a debate or high-profile news event.” 

Far from lurching backward, Pinker notes, today’s fact-checking ethic “would have served us well in earlier decades when false rumors regularly set off pogroms, riots, lynchings, and wars (including the Spanish-American War in 1898, the escalation of the Vietnam War in 1964, the Iraq invasion of 2003, and many others).” And contrary to our medieval ancestors, he says, “few influential people today believe in werewolves, unicorns, witches, alchemy, astrology, bloodletting, miasmas, animal sacrifice, the divine right of kings, or supernatural omens in rainbows and eclipses.” […]

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7 Foods You Should Never Eat When You’re Constipated

Plugged Up? Read This!
by Claire Lampen for Women’s Health

We've already told you what foods will help you avoid constipation, but sometimes, sh*t happens. Or rather, doesn'thappen. According to the National Institutes of Health, constipation qualifies as fewer than three bowel movements per week, and/or, small, hard bits of stool that are painful to pass. And it's a common problem: The NIH estimates that some 42 million people nationwide deal with constipation, and women are apparently more prone than men. Go figure.

The most important thing you should do to avoid constipation is eat a balanced and varied diet, says Leslie Bonci, a registered dietician and the owner of Active Eating Advice. "We've got to think about being good to our bowels because if our gut doesn't feel good, we don't feel good," Bonci says.

Fiber is a reliable way to keep things moving, but it's important to also incorporate carbohydrates, which draw in water and can soften stool, says Bonci. But above all, stay hydrated. "If somebody eats a lot of high-fiber foods but consumes little or no fluids," Bonci warns, "it tends to worsen the situation."

When disaster strikes, along with increasing your water intake, Bonci says you should definitely avoid these seven foods:

1). Dairy: People whose bodies can't process the sugar in milk products might end up constipated or with diarrhea after dairy consumption. Still, about 65 percent of people have difficulty digesting lactose after infancy, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and some dieticians will caution constipated patients against dairy consumption, due to its ability to make you feel bloated.

2). Fried Foods: Bonci says that high-fat diets tend to yield blockages. "A lot of times things that are really high in fat aren’t really high in fiber," she says, and all those fats "take longer to mobilize from the stomach." Fat takes a long time to digest, whereas fruits and vegetables typically vacate the body in under 24 hours. If you're feeling backed up, avoid foods that have been fried in oils or butter.

3). White Flour: Fried foods may also be battered in white flour, and while carbohydrates tend to get a bad reputation when it comes to constipation, Bonci says they're good for the gut. However, she explains, "White flour doesn’t have as much fiber in it, so if somebody’s doing white flour all the time in the absence of adequate fruits or vegetables, they might become irregular.” Bonci suggests people make a gradual switch to "whole grain, high fiber" foods.

4). Tea: This one may surprise readers, but Bonci cautions against tea consumption when constipated. While herbal teas are unlikely to have a negative effect, generic, bagged black teas contain tannins, which bind stool together. Tea will often contain caffeine as well, and while a little bit of that can get the digestive system moving, too much can dehydrate the body for the opposite effect.

 5). Bananas: Bonci recommends avoiding them because "they can make the body hold instead of moving things through." That's especially true if they're not quite ripe yet.

6). Apricots: Fruits typically offer a solid source of fiber, but Bonci says apricots should be off-limits if you've got irregular bowel movements. "Dried apricots can be more binding," she adds. It's also easier to over-indulge on dried fruits than it is on larger fresh fruits, meaning you might overload on fiber (with no accompanying fluid) and end up messing with your GI tract.

7). Rice: Rice is another food item that sits in your digestive system rather than passing quickly through, Bonci says. While carbohydrates are good in moderation, white rice lacks the fibrous elements that brown rice retains. Given the option, pick brown rice for a healthier gut. (However, if you have diarrhea, white rice is your best friend).

Nightshade Vegetables and Inflammation: Can They Help with Arthritis Symptoms?

Not all nightshade plants are safe to eat

Nightshade vegetables are members of the Solanaceae family of flowering plants. Most nightshade plants aren’t edible such as tobacco and the deadly herb, belladonna. 

A handful of nightshade vegetables, however, are edible and well-known staples in our diets, including: 

• tomatoes
• eggplant
• potatoes
• peppers

All nightshade plants contain compounds called alkaloids. One alkaloid found in nightshade vegetables, solanine, may be toxic in large quantities or in a green potato. There’s no evidence solanine is harmful in typical food amounts. And solanine isn’t only found in nightshades—blueberries, huckleberries, and artichokes contain it, too. 

Thanks to anecdotal evidence, nightshade vegetables have earned a bad reputation for causing inflammation in the body. But not everyone with painful joints who eliminates nightshades from their diet experiences pain relief and some evidence suggests that the nutrition content of nightshades may help with arthritis symptoms. 

Keep reading to learn how these vegetables may affect inflammation within the body, their potential health benefits, and more.

Juicing for Health or Torture

BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.

We are ingenious at finding new ways to complicate our lives and torture ourselves. One of those ways is adopting fad diets in the quest for health. Juicing is a big fad today. I find that hard to comprehend. I recently endured two interminable months on a liquid/pureed diet while my fractured jaw healed. It was miserable. If I were a prisoner being interrogated, the promise of solid food might have tempted me to tell all. It was hard to maintain a nutritious diet and find foods that could survive being blenderized and still tempt the appetite. The only “health benefit” was the loss of a few pounds that I really didn’t need to lose; it brought me down to a BMI of 18.8, close to the “underweight” range of 18.5 or less. Since that experience, I cherish the pleasures of being able to chew. We have teeth for a reason. The idea of systematically taking delicious solid fruits and vegetables and reducing them to liquid strikes me as a truly revolting idea. I don’t object to the occasional fruit juice, but celery without the crunch? No thank you.

Health Claims for Juicing: Detoxification

People juice for various reasons. One is “detoxification,” a buzzword that is a red flag for pseudoscience. My liver and kidneys do an excellent job of removing toxins from my body, thank you very much. They don’t need any help, except in the case of acute poisoning with lead or other heavy metals. And juices are useless in acute poisoning. Several companies will sell you juices for detoxification. Some examples:

Juice Served Here tells us “everyday life contributes to the congestion and buildup of harmful toxins in the body from processed foods, pollutants and stress.” They offer a Soft Cleanse, a Semi Cleanse, and a Hard Cleanse: 25% off; originally $55 a day! When a customer asked Juice Served Here to specify the toxins he’d be flushing from his system, the company answered with this lame copout: “Unfortunately, due to regulations by the FDA we are unable to specify exact health claims for our products.” Naturally.

Paleta offers a PURIFY Cleanse that will “cleanse the toxins right out of your system so you can experience a more joyful and healthful life.” Benefits? Lose weight, kick the caffeine habit, reduce or stop smoking, detoxify your liver, boost your metabolism, refresh your mind and body, curb sugar cravings, increase energy and stamina, improve skin, hair and nails, sharpen cognition and focus, reduce sensitivity to allergens, and improve moods. The full 10-day program costs $645. Gee, if it really could do all that, it might be worth that much.

Moon Juice offers “plant-sourced alchemy to nourish and elevate body, beauty and consciousness… Juice cleansing enables the body to naturally go into detox mode while flooding it with live nutrients and enzymes… Some signs that it is time to cleanse are: a weakened immune system, troubled skin, allergies, low moods or anger, sleeplessness, poor digestion, weight gain, low energy, feeling and looking blah.” (I can relate to feeling blah, but I’m not sure I understand “troubled” skin.) They offer Rainbow, Indigo, and Green cleanses that they claim will “flood your system over the course of the day with over 20 pounds of certified organic, raw produce and nuts or seeds. The only thing missing is the fiber.”

Pure Pressed offers Green Cleanse, Detox Cleanse, and Energizer Cleanse.

That’s enough examples. You get the idea. […]

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The Voice of Consistency: the Angel vs. the Devil

Consistency Reigns Supreme from Brian Johnson’s Optimizer

Tony Horton created P90X. If you’ve ever done P90X you’ll never forget his high-energy approach to getting your workout on. In addition to helping shape the fitness industry, Tony wrote a fun little book called The Big Picture where he shares “11 Laws That Will Change Your Life.”

The first law is based on his motto “Do Your Best and Forget the Rest.” He got that from Don Miguel Ruiz’s 4 Agreements which is kinda interesting but today I want to chat about Law #5: “Consistency Reigns Supreme.” First, Tony makes the point that there are simply no “cons” to consistency. Therefore, it should really be called prosistency. (Hah.)

But that’s not what I want to talk about either. Today, I want to talk about the voices in his head. So, again, context, for those who may not know: Tony Horton is Mr. Jumbo Super Fitness. Do a Google Image search on him. The guy is jacked and has the energy of an energizer bunny.

Now, I have a question: Do you think he’s always motivated to work out? Answer: Not at all. In fact, he tells us: “Here’s a dirty little secret: I don’t get all that fired up about exercise most of the time.”

What? Really? Mr. Health & Fitness Supercrusher isn’t all that fired up about exercise most of the time? You mean he’s just like you and me?! Yep. Well, then… Hmmm…. How in the world does he get himself to get at it?

Answer: He listens to the Voice of Consistency and ignores the other voices in his head. Tony tells us that, on any given day, he’ll hear from one of three voices in his head chiming in on whether or not he should work out: Devil Tony, Angel Tony and Consistent Tony. He even gives us a ratio of how often each shows up. It goes something like this.

Angel Tony is all about working out. “YAH!!! Let’s *crush* this!!” That voice, apparently, is present about 21.35% of the time. Then there’s Devil Tony. Devil Tony says, “Are you kidding me? Can’t believe we have to do this right now.” He’s yelling in Tony’s ear 35.4% of the time. (Hah!)

Finally, there’s Consistent Tony. This guy is, as Tony says, “about as exciting as a wet dish rag.” But he gets the job done. He’s all matter-of-fact about it and says stuff like, “All right, here we go, time to train.” Nothing flashy. Just helping him do what needs to get done. He’s talking 43.25% of the time.

Put Mr. Angel + Mr. Consistent together and you have 64.7% on the side of the Good Guys — enough to outmuscle Mr. Devil and get the job done.

Today’s idea, in 3 parts.

#1. Let’s recognize the fact that we’re not alone in not wanting to exercise consistently (or do all the other Optimizing stuff consistently). (Enter: Common Humanity.) Even the best among us don’t always want to do what’s best for them. The difference, of course, is that they do it anyway.

#2. Take a little inventory of the voices in YOUR head today.
#3. Make sure the Good Guys are winning the battle.

Smart Ways to Progress Your Training When You Can’t Add More Weight

Excerpt from The Stack e-zine

If you've been training for a while, you'll reach a point when adding more resistance to certain movements just isn't going to happen.

You might just be dealing with the natural challenge of plateaus, or your body may be telling you that adding more weight simply isn't a good idea at that time. It's important to listen to your body during these periods, and you can respond in one of two ways. You can be stubborn and try to add resistance anyway, which many times will lead to burnout and/or injury. Or you can be smart and utilize progressions that still increase the challenge of your training but do not increase the weight load.

When adding more weight is your only method and measurement of progression, your progression will inevitably come to a screeching halt at some point. You will also miss out on equally (or even greater) strength and hypertrophy adaptations that come when implementing other methods of progression to an exercise. Below are strategies that smart trainees can utilize to progress their training when adding more weight just isn't an option. After using them, you'll likely find you're bigger, stronger and in less pain than before.

1). Pump Up the Volume: To grow stronger and build more muscle, the body (including the muscles, tendons and nervous system) must experience an overall greater workload over time. Although adding more weight is the most simple and common way to do this, you can also adjust the volume, or the amount of your training in some way. Here we are talking about increasing your reps and/or sets to drive adaptation. Simple, right? Yes, it is.
You can simply perform more reps per set at the same resistance (10 reps of 25 pounds versus 8 reps of 25 pounds), or you can tack on an extra set or two of the same movement at the same resistance (4 sets of squats for 10 reps at 75 versus 3 sets of 10 at 75). But an even more powerful way to increase your volume is to utilize intensity-boosting methods that result in more volume. These methods include rest pauses, drop sets and partial range of motion reps.

   a). Rest/Pause: You can utilize the Rest Pause technique following the last scheduled set of an exercise. When you reach that final set, perform the target number of reps as you would with a normal set (let's say it was 6 reps in this case). After completing your 6th rep, rack the weight and rest for 15-20 seconds. Immediately following that brief rest, perform as many clean reps as possible using the same resistance. For most people, this is usually 2-5 reps. After those additional reps, you can even take another 15- to 20-second break and see if you can then squeeze out a few more reps. This is known as a double rest pause. Rest pauses allow you to increase your volume and workload without a big additional time commitment.

   b). Drop Sets: Drop sets are a variation of rest pause sets. During the final scheduled set of an exercise, complete the target number of reps and rack the weight. Now you are going to reduce the resistance used by 10-20% before completing another set of as many good reps as possible. Again, you can do this twice for a double drop set. An example might look like this: Last set of front squats = 75 pounds for 6 reps Drop set 1 = 65 pounds for as many good reps as possible Drop set 2 = 55 pounds for as many good reps as possible.

   c). Partial Range of Motion Reps: When you can no longer move a resistance through a full range of motion, you can still add to your workload by completing partial range of motion reps (also known as "partials.")
No, this isn't "cheating"—it's simply performing more work than you otherwise would have.
There are two ways you can use partials. The first is to complete the target number of reps with a certain load and then immediately complete as many good partial reps as possible. The other method is a form of a rest pause where you would complete the target number of reps and then rack the weight, rest for 15-20 seconds, and then complete as many good partials as possible.

Unless you have a spotter to help keep you safe, you want to perform your partial reps in the strongest range of movement during a given exercise. Let's use the front squat as an example again. You would complete the target number of reps through a full range of motion. When it's time for your partials, you would complete as many reps as possible through just the top half segment of the squat (so you'd only get about half as deep as you would on a normal rep). You could do the same for the bench press, using the top half of the range of motion for the partials.

2). Alter Your Tempo for More Time Under Tension: Going Slower or Faster Provide Different Challenges

   a). Slow Down for More Time Under Tension: Intentionally slowing the eccentric (muscle lengthening) and/or concentric (muscle shortening) component of a movement creates an overall greater time under tension (muscular contraction).

This greater time under tension creates a metabolic environment that is conducive to muscle growth and adaptation. When a movement is taken from roughly 3-5 seconds of total contraction time to 6-10-plus seconds of total contraction time, there is a blood flow exclusion effect that creates a hormonal cascade. This helps trigger greater hypertrophic adaptations. Translation: bigger and better gains.

Throw in strategic isometric pauses during the most challenging segment of the movement and you are now enhancing your strength endurance as well as explosive strength at that specific point in the movement. Gaining strength and confidence in the hardest part of the movement will invariably allow you to move more weight throughout the entire movement when you go back to regular tempo / non-pause reps.

Along with this, the fact that you will be utilizing the same (or less) resistance when compared to regular tempo reps means the joints and working musculature experience less overall force and stress. Less stress allows the tissues to recover and stay healthy for the long term.

Utilize slower tempo and isometric work with your primary compound movements for a four- to six-week block to see significant improvement. Perform a movement with a 3- to 5-second eccentric phase (lengthening) and a 3- to 5-second concentric (shortening) phase. Or you can perform a movement with a 2- to 5-second pause at the most difficult point of the movement (think the bottom of a squat or bench press, or at the top of a chin-up or row).

If you really want to up the intensity, perform a slower tempo movement and an isometric pause at the toughest part of said movement. You will really hate life when training with this method, but the strength and size it can bring about will more than make up for it.

   b). Work Faster to Boost Density: The opposite strategy. decreasing your rest time or challenging yourself to complete more work in less time is another method of smart progression. Known as EDT (escalated density training), this technique simply means you are doing more work in a given period of time than you were before.
This can happen in two ways. First, you can either complete the same amount of work in a shorter duration (4 sets in 6 minutes versus 4 sets in 7 minutes, for example). Second, you can increase the work completed in the same duration of time (5 sets in 7 minutes versus 4 sets in 7 minutes, for example).

Less recovery time per given amount of work creates greater systemic stress on the body. This stimulus creates an environment for the body to respond by releasing hormones conducive to growth and adaptation, namely growth hormone.

Life in North Korea a horror

The truth is out there.

Why are we so hesitant to tell the massive Olympic audience about this reality?

6 Reasons You’ve Hit A Fat Loss Plateau

by Alisa Hrustic for Men’s Health

Losing weight is a battle: And like any good fight, you don’t always come out on top. At first, you were dominating, dropping weight every time you stepped on the scale. Then, the numbers began to slow, and now they’re completely stagnant. You’ve hit the dreaded weight loss plateau. It’s a bummer when your fat loss slows, but hitting a weight loss plateau is completely normal. “The leaner you get, the harder it gets to lose those last few pounds,” says Tony Gentilcore, C.S.C.S., owner of CORE in Brookline, Massachusetts.
As you continue losing weight, your metabolism starts to slow down, so you either need to eat fewer calories or burn more calories to see continued weight loss. But still, your current weight doesn’t have to be your ending weight. You just need to start approaching your fat loss plan a bit differently if you want to see results. Here, six reasons you’ve stopped losing weight—and what you can do to get back on track.

Weight Loss Plateau Cause #1: You Don’t Portion Out Your Food  
A lot of people devalue the importance of portion sizes, says Gentilcore. You might think eyeballing the amount of food you eat isn’t doing much harm, but it can make a big difference when you’re trying to shed those last few pounds.

If you’ve stopped seeing results, you need to pay attention to portion control. First, familiarize yourself with what you should actually be eating. For instance, a serving of beef is 3 ounces (about the size of a deck of cards) and a serving of potato salad is half a cup (about the size of half a tennis ball). Then, measure it out, Gentilcore says. After you get used to what that amount looks like, you can go back to eyeballing your portions. Here are 12 easy ways to estimate servings sizes if you need a place to start.

Weight Loss Plateau Cause #2: You Treat Yourself Too Often
What’s the harm of one brownie after a hard workout, right? Well, that kind of mindset can stunt your weight loss, says John Raglin, Ph.D. an exercise researcher at Indiana University Bloomington’s School of Public Health. “You could run an extra five miles, but it’s really easy to reward yourself with more than 500 calories,” he says. “The reward usually far exceeds the extra calories you expended.”

These excess calories stack up: If you eat a 500-calorie treat several times a week, that could be an extra day’s worth of calories each week, or more than 6,000 calories per month. And that can make a big difference if you can’t seem to move the scale, says Raglin.

Instead of binging on a sundae because you “earned it,” choose smaller portions of treats you really love, suggests Raglin, like a really decadent piece of dark chocolate or a small portion of a high-quality brownie.
Here’s one rule to go by: Only 10 percent (or less) of your daily calories should come from junk food, says Men’s Health nutrition advisor, Alan Aragon. If you feel like you’re not seeing results, try to stick to a lower percent in this range if a craving hits—so if you’re an active person eating 1,800 calories a day, that treat should only be around 180 calories.

Weight Loss Plateau Cause #3: You Think You’re More Active Than You Really Are 
When you start working out more, you might experience something called “compensatory inactivity,” says Raglin. That means you might be exercising more, but moving less throughout your day.

Many people fall into this habit of “keeping score.” You bust your butt during your morning sweat session. Then when you get home, you plop down on the couch for the rest of the day to binge watch your favorite Netflix show because you feel like you’ve already done enough for the day.

That’s a mistake: If you’re serious about keeping up with your weight loss, falling into this habit of not moving after exercising can really hold you back, says Raglin. “Don’t miss out on opportunities to walk or be active or take the stairs,” he says. “It’s a small difference, but you’re keeping your metabolism up.”

What’s more, incorporating more movement throughout your day can keep you motivated, says Raglin. Make an effort to be active whenever you can—take your dog for a walk, kick around a soccer ball with your kids, or give yourself a daily step count target. The pounds will keep coming off, he says.

Weight Loss Plateau Cause #4: You Don’t Fuel Up Right 
Sticking to a higher intensity routine boosts your appetite, says Raglin. You might end up feeling ravenous post-workout, causing you to overeat and gain all of those calories back instantly.

Play the preventive game: If you’re hungry going into your workout, chances are good you’ll be starving afterward. In that case, consider having a pre-workout snack to manage your hunger, says Raglin. You don’t want something too heavy or rich, which can make you feel uncomfortably full. Instead, shoot for an apple for quicker energy, a portion of lean meat such as turkey or chicken, and/or a handful of almonds to hold your hunger over. Or, you always can use protein bars.

If you work out before work or after leaving the office, you will need to eat afterwards. Just make sure you’re doing it right: If you have some time to kill before your usual dinner time, make yourself a protein shake or have a small snack so you’re not tempted to overeat at dinner, says Raglin.

Weight Loss Plateau Cause #5: You’re Not Consistent In YOUR WORKOUTS 
Consistency matters when you’re trying to lose that last bit of weight, says Gentilcore. In fact, skipping just one workout can increase your odds of missing another one by 61 percent, according to British research.
Also, consistency matters in your routine, too. Despite what you may hear, novelty doesn’t necessarily equal progress, says Gentilcore. For a fat loss program to work, you have to stick to a routine long enough so you can really master it.

“The squat, deadlift, and bench press are staples for a reason,” he says. “People don’t give themselves enough time to learn and master these moves.”

The sooner you become proficient at an exercise, the better you get at it. That means you can add more weight to it, helping you gain and retain muscle—which helps you burn more calories throughout the day and fend off fat. But if boring really bothers you, add new stuff to the last 10 minutes of your usual routine as a finisher, suggests Gentilcore.

Then, usually after about 4 to 6 weeks, you can think about switching your exercises up, says Gentilcore. Once you’ve mastered your staples, you can seek out some more challenging variations, like switching up the classic flat bench press with the incline or close-grip bench press.

Weight Loss Plateau Cause #6: You Don’t Recover Properly 
You’re not going to maintain or continue your weight loss if you’re too sore to keep up with your workout plan out for the rest of the week. Not taking your recovery period seriously can cause you to plateau, says Gentilcore. When you pump iron, you’re literally breaking down your body by causing micro tears in your muscle tissues, so you need give it time to rebuild that muscle before you get back into it.
“People don’t understand that going home and eating well, going to sleep, and drinking enough water is going to allow your body to recover so you can go back to the gym so you can do it again,” he says.

When you’re first starting out, training three days a week seems to be a happy medium for most people, says Gentilcore. But if you really want results, Gentilcore says it doesn’t hurt to work out 6 days a week, just make sure you’re alternating muscle groups, he says. If Monday is your chest day, work your legs Tuesday to give your upper body time to recover.

How to Find Your Motivation

by GREG PRESTO

I regularly post assorted articles on fitness and related subjects. Part of this is to inform others about these subjects, because they are good education, but often because they are also what I need to keep myself going. I'm just an average guy and I sometimes need a push in the right direction just like everyone else. This is one of those kind of articles.
Enjoy.

How to Find Your Motivation

Virtual Violence

A REVIEW BY TERENCE HINES

Video games, especially so-called “violent” games, are the latest in a long string of new entertainment media to be accused of “ruining the youth of America.” Video games as the cause of all sorts of societal ills have been preceded by dime novels, comic books, violent TV shows, and movies and songs with sexy or racy lyrics. In 2002, Gerard Jones published Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence (Basic Books), the first book, as far as I know, to critically examine the hysteria over alleged effects of make-believe violence in the media on children. It focused on all media, not just video games, and concluded that such media posed no threat.

Since Jones’ 2002 book, video games, especially violent video games (hereinafter VVGs), have been the focus of worry that VVGs lead to adolescent violence, even school shootings (think Columbine), and are as addictive and dangerous as drugs. Markey and Ferguson show in their new book Moral Combat that not only are video games, even the violent first-person shooter games, innocent of the charges made against them, video games can and do have positive influences on their players. The authors begin with a brief history of video games and other supposedly harmful media. For example, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, a crusader against comic books, believed that comics caused juvenile delinquency and that Batman and Robin encouraged homosexuality. His 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent (Rinehart) was an important part of the crusade against comics. It turns out that Wertham “overstated and potentially even fabricated much of his data” (p. 32) that he used to castigate comics.

Markey and Ferguson argue, correctly in my view, that the crusade against video games is a moral panic akin to that seen in the panic over ritual satanic child abuse. Throughout the book they make the interesting point that the crusade is led by those who have little familiarity with the video games they attack, the gamers involved, or the gaming culture that has grown up around the games. They note that the researchers who do research aimed at showing the games’ deleterious effects are largely older individuals who have little knowledge of the gamers or contact with the gamers. […]

Read entire review

4 Truths Your Feet Can Reveal About Your Squat Form

by Sebastian Gonzales, DC, NSCA-CSCS

For being the part of the body that makes it possible to do just about anything, feet don't get a lot of respect—especially in the gym. They can be full of foot fungus, they're smelly, and sometimes they're downright ugly. But when you want to make sure you're squatting with good form, your bare feet can be the stars of the show.
To the trained eye, foot movement reveals a lot about squatting form. Proper foot positioning decreases knee stress, properly aligns the hips, and promotes spinal health. In contrast, sloppy foot contact will alter the path, decrease your strength and effectiveness, and increase your risk of non-traumatic lifting injuries.

It's hard to watch your own feet as you lift. Instead, have a friend videotape your feet as you perform the movement or lift under the watchful gaze of a movement professional. Start by squatting with no resistance. If no faults are evident, add some weight and see if a foot fault reveals itself. Don't keep adding weight to try to force a fault; you just might be one of those lucky people who don't have any! To be sure, check to see if any one of these four things is happening as you squat.

Foot Fault 1: Are Your Heels Coming Unglued? Heels lifting up during a squat is an indication that your body—and the weight—is moving forward. You want to be as stable as possible during a squat and when the heel creeps up, you instantly become less steady. Ideally, the weight should be aligned above your hips and ankles and steady over your entire foot. When weight shifts outside of this downward vertical line, the injury risk to your knees, hips and lower back skyrockets. To be clear, experiencing pain when you lift is not "part of the experience." It is always an indicator of poor form.
One quick way to remedy this fault is to "tripod" each foot by establishing three contact points on the ground: the heel, the ball of the foot, and the outer ball of the foot.

Spread your toes and glue these three points onto the floor to create a solid foundation from which to lift. If you don't consistently establish this solid contact, then you may become prone to: medial meniscal pain (inner knee), hip impingement (front of hip/groin), and lower back pain.

These conditions are brought up all the time in weightlifting forums by lifters who aren't sure where their pain is coming from. Although many lifters don't consider these "injuries," because of the lack of trauma, they are exactly that. These injuries come, not from trauma, but over time from poor form. They are extremely preventable and usually correctable, once you establish proper foot contact.

Foot Fault 2: Are Your Toes Blowin' in the Wind? When your toes come unglued, we have the opposite problem. If the toes are not planted firmly on the floor, it can cause you to sit too far back into your heels. This will result in an overworked posterior chain.
That's right: You can over-train your posterior chain if you're crushing it day in, day out—especially if you're doing lots of these exercises:

1). Back squats (heel dominance) 2). Romanian deadlifts (heel dominance). 3). Reverse hyperextensions 4). Barbell hip thrusts 5). Supermans

To remedy the lifted toe fault, use the tripod technique described above, and practice towel toe curls to strengthen your feet.

Foot Fault 3: Are Your Arches Collapsing? The collapse of the arches (your foot rolls inward) will allow the knees to cave. Poor knee position is a result of poor function or position of the joints above or below the knee. In this case, the culprit is the foot and ankle complex. There are a couple of ways to tell if someone's arches are collapsing:

Look at the outer foot. Does it lose contact with the ground? Look at the inner foot. Does the arch lose height to any degree?

Try this right now: sit down and tripod your foot. Force the knee to cave inward and see if you can feel your foot-contact pressures change.

If you can, try one of these adaptations:
1). Make sure your foot is fully tripoded.
2). Spread your toes as wide as possible while gripping the floor.
3). Push your foot down into the floor with more pressure.

When you correct arch collapse, you can also remedy upstream issues, including: knee cave, hip internal rotation, and leg drive dominance.

Foot Fault 4: Are You Amplifying Your Arches? The three foot faults we've already discussed are the result of a lack of intention while executing the movement. Raising the arches (your foot rolls outward), on the other hand, can be a conscious overcorrection and a learned behavior. More than one lifter has been coached to squat with the "push the knees out" verbal cue to correct knee cave. The coaching intention is good, but the end result is a movement pattern that doesn't allow for proper staking of the knee.

Top 8 Minerals for Staying Healthy, Strong, & Fit

by Emily Bailey for NSAM

You may be familiar with sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium and calcium regarding needs for hydration, but these nutrients are also related to many other physiologic processes in the body. Nutrients—including micronutrients, major nutrients and trace minerals—all play an important role in promoting total-body wellness. And staying healthy, strong and fit improves overall quality of life, decreases stress and enhances athletic performance.

Many athletes are looking for a competitive edge regarding fitness and performance. While research does not conclusively show an ergogenic effect for specific nutrients, being deficient in any of them may hinder performance and potentially decrease overall health. Also of interest: It is debated in the research whether people with active lifestyles have increased needs for micronutrients. Intensity, duration, frequency and overall energy requirements also determine the needs of macro- and micronutrients. More research is needed to determine a conclusive answer on increased needs.

Though micronutrients, major nutrients and trace minerals do not directly boost energy or allow improved athletic performance, they do unlock the properties of our macronutrients (protein, fat and carbohydrate), which are necessary for all of our body’s physiological processes. You’ll see several specific examples in the chart that follows.

Incorporating a variety of whole, unprocessed foods will enable you to consume the major and trace minerals needed to allow your body to function at its best. These include the top 8 major and trace minerals: potassium, sodium & chloride (considered together), calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium, and chromium. If you are unable to consume a variety of foods, supplementation may be needed using a certified product. This list, which includes food suggestions and serving sizes, can help you ensure that your diet has a healthy mix of these top 8 nutrients.

   1). Potassium (major mineral): AI for adults: 4.7g (that’s 4,700 mg, the highest need of all the minerals listed here).

Functions: Build proteins and muscle, Carbohydrate utilization, Control electrical activity of the heart, Control acid-base balance, Electrolyte balance.

Food Sources: 1 medium baked potato with skin (926 mg), 1 medium banana (422 mg), 1 medium orange (237 mg), ½ C spinach (420 mg), 1 oz sunflower seeds (241 mg).

    2). Sodium/Chloride (major mineral): For healthy adults: RDA sodium: 2,300 mg, AI chloride: 2.3 g/day. For adults with high blood pressure: Upper limit for sodium: 1,500 mg.

Functions: Blood pressure, Blood volume, Muscle contractions, Transmission of nerve impulses, Electrolyte balance, Digestive juices in the stomach.

Food Sources: 1 t salt (2,300 mg), Cured meats (read labels), Naturally occurring in: 1 C milk (107 mg), 1 C beets (106 mg), 1 stalk celery (32 mg).

    3). Calcium (major mineral): RDA for adults: 1,000-1,300 mg/day. Female needs are at the upper end of this range. Needs are not increased for active individuals except in hot or humid climates.

Functions: Building bones and teeth, Blood clotting, Muscle contractions, Transmission of nerve impulses, Activation of hormones and enzymes, Sustaining normal heart rate, Electrolyte balance.

Food Sources: 8 oz milk (300 mg), 6 oz yogurt (300 mg), ½ C cooked turnip greens (100 mg), ¼ C almonds (100 mg), Medium sweet potato (50 mg).

    4). Magnesium (major mineral): RDA for adults: 310-420 mg, Male needs are at the upper end of this range.

Functions: Several metabolic functions required for exercise, Macronutrient synthesis, Neuromuscular coordination, Transmission of nerve impulses, Regulating heart beat, Immune system support, Electrolyte balance.

Food Sources: 1 C brown rice (86 mg), ½ C spinach (78 mg), 23 almonds (77 mg), ½ C lima beans (63 mg), 21 hazelnuts (45 mg), 8 oz milk (34 mg).

    5). Iron (trace mineral): RDA for adults: 8-18 mg. Pre-menopausal female needs are at the upper end of this range.

Functions: Hemoglobin synthesis (anemia prevention), Transfer oxygen from lungs to tissues and muscles, Cardiovascular performance, Metabolism, Cellular function.

Food Sources: Heme sources are most absorbable from meat, seafood and poultry. Plants and fortified foods are non-heme sources.3 oz oysters (8 mg)3 oz beef (1.6 mg)1 C white beans (8 mg)½ C lentils (3 mg)½ C spinach (3 mg).

    6). Zinc (trace mineral): RDA for adults: 8-11 mg.

Functions: Immune system support, Cell division, Cell growth, Wound healing, Carbohydrate breakdown.

Food Sources: 6 medium cooked oysters (27-50 mg), 3 oz pork (1.9-3.5 mg), ½ C baked beans (0.9-2.9 mg), 1 oz cashews (1.6 mg).

    7). Selenium (trace mineral): RDA for adults: 55 mcg (that’s micrograms, not mg-milligrams).

Functions: Making antioxidant enzymes to prevent cell damage and improve recovery, Thyroid hormone metabolism.

Food Sources: 6 Brazil nuts (543 mcg), 3 oz tuna (92 mcg), 3 oz shrimp (42 mcg), 3 oz chicken (25 mcg), ¼ C sunflower seed kernels (18.6 mcg).

    8). Chromium (trace mineral): AI for adults: 20-35 mcg.

Functions: Carbohydrate, protein, and fat metabolism, Fatty acid and cholesterol synthesis, Insulin action, Glucose metabolism.

Food Sources: ½ C broccoli (11 mcg), 3 oz ham (10.4 mcg), 1 English muffin (3.6 mcg), 8 oz grape juice (7.5 mcg).

References: 
1). Rosenbloom, C. A. & Coleman, E.J. (Eds.) 2012. Sports Nutrition: A Practice Manual for Professionals (5^th ed.). Chicago: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
2). USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), National Agricultural Library. Accessed Dec 12, 2016. https://fnic.nal.usda.gov/food-composition/vitamins-and-minerals
3). NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information). Accessed Dec 12, 2016, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/