Make no mistake about it: diet and movement are the backbone of a weight management plan! There are many weight loss strategies, but they will likely have very little impact if we are not adjusting our diet and moving.

If you want to lose weight, changes in mindset and routine are required. Before embarking on the process, know that you have to overcome obstacles that come up and understand that the progress is not fast. It is a journey. Fortunately, you will find many others on the journey who can provide camaraderie and support.

Now that I have gotten the obvious out of the way, let’s talk about less-considered factors that can help on your journey.

• Research shows that a Mediterranean diet filled with vegetables, good protein, healthy fats and low carbohydrates seems to be the most effective diet for weight loss.
• Our gut microbiome is greatly affected by our diet, and if there is more of one family of gut bacteria than another, it can be much harder to lose extra weight.
  Focusing on digestion will help you lose weight faster. Chew your food well before swallowing, eat while calm, and drink adequate water throughout the day for better digestion.
• Some studies have shown that intermittent fasting can be beneficial, but be careful: this can cause some adrenal issues in women.
• Keep in mind that alcohol has more calories than any other food.
• Exercise at the right time. A new study found that participants showed more success in a lower waist circumference and body mass index (BMI) when exercising between 7-9 am rather than in the afternoon or evening. (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.23851)
• Numerous studies have shown that weight lifting and high-intensity interval training can add muscle mass and increase metabolism (which helps the body burn far more calories).
• Sleep is a big factor in boosting our “feel-good chemicals,” which help us relax and drop weight.
• Be wary of contributing factors to weight gain. These include hormone imbalances, endocrine problems (primarily thyroid), life stressors (family, relationship, and financial problems), and trauma. These can all shift our metabolism, neurotransmitter safety settings, and hormones to tell our bodies to hold onto extra weight.
• Other potential factors that may hurt weight management include air pollution, depleted minerals in our soil, chemicals in our beauty products, preservatives, and pesticides.

Here are some nutrients that are important as you focus on weight management:

• Vitamin D (overweight people tend to have depleted Vitamin D levels).
• Magnesium is a natural relaxer that is depleted by alcohol, caffeine, and stress.
• Fish oil reduces metabolic markers associated with excess weight.
• Lactobacillus (a probiotic) can help shift the microbiome imbalance associated with extra weight.
• Eleuthero and Rhodiola can help with adrenal and stress-related issues.
  Remember:

Everyone is an individual. Do the foundational work of good routines, food, and movement, but consider getting individualized care to find out what your personal obstacles are.

Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash

• Consider a standing desk. Trust me: You will get used to standing in no time and you don’t have to do it all day long. (A standing desk like this is inexpensive and easily converts to a sitting desk by pressing a button.)
• Don’t eat at your desk. Take a stroll instead. A 30-minute walk every day will eliminate the increased risk you face from sitting.
• Take regular breaks every hour or two and walk for 5-10 minutes.
• Go see colleagues in person (rather than texting or calling them).
• Consider desk exercises such as these.

Vitamin C is most often used for immune support, but it serves many other purposes as well. Let’s talk through a few of those today.

Connective tissue repair

First, it plays an especially important role in repairing connective tissues of the body. Vitamin C is a key building block of collagen, which the body uses to repair wounds. When Vitamin C is lacking, that repair is stunted. In fact, easy bruising, rough skin, hair problems, and nail abnormalities are all possible consequences of low Vitamin C.

Strong bones

Vitamin C also facilitates calcium absorption in the bones. Those who worry about osteoporosis or osteopenia will want to ensure they are getting adequate Vitamin C.

Brain function

Neurotransmitters, the brain’s communication molecules, also need Vitamin C in their production.

Immune support

Of course, Vitamin C is well known as an antioxidant and, thus, a supporter of immune function. The elaborate dance it does with the immune pathways is complex and multifactorial, but in a nutshell, as an antioxidant, it provides extra electrons to repair damaged DNA and other cells.

Vitamin C is one of many antioxidants that serve the body like a handyman roaming the house, continually updating, repairing, and replacing missing parts in your body. This is the definition of anti-oxidation (repairing oxidation damage).

Several well-known research projects have shown that Vitamin C plays a role in controlling allergies and autoimmune diseases. Adequate Vitamin C also helps keep inflammation under control and prevents chronic illness.

Daily intake recommendations

Because our bodies do not make Vitamin C, we need to get it from our diets (especially from fruits and vegetables). Vitamin C intake needs to be routine because our body will not store it; it is a water-soluble vitamin and our bodies excrete it along with water on an ongoing basis.

Recommended intake hovers around 90-200 mg daily, and newer research suggests that you should take even more when ill.

If you supplement your diet to get more Vitamin C, it is always best to consult your doctor for help determining the right dose. Your health and exposure to health risks may affect your recommended dosage.

We recommend that you don’t overdo it. Vitamin C may cause diarrhea and too much can cause kidney stones in some patients.

Tip: Vitamin C can be stimulatory, so it is best taken during the day.

• Vitamin C-rich foods:
• Acerola cherries
• Cantaloupe
• Black currant
• Lychee
• Kiwi
• Papaya
• Pineapple
• Strawberries
• Broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• Cauliflower
• Red and yellow peppers

Dr. Shannyn’s Vitamin C Challenge:

• Tell someone about what you learned about Vitamin C. Teaching someone else helps you retain what you learned.
• Try a new food with high Vitamin C.
• Take Vitamin C before exercising and see how you feel.
• Share a Vitamin C food with a friend and see if they notice it is healthy.
• Plant a high Vitamin C food and assess what the soil needs to produce the most Vitamin C content.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

When we think of caring for our gut, expensive probiotics or intestinal support formulas may come to mind. These can be helpful in restoring digestive capability and reinoculating an intestinal lining that has been damaged. However, I often talk to my patients about a simple yet effective way to help the probiotics you already have dwelling in your gut: beans.

Yes, I recommend a variety of beans. Interestingly enough, you don’t need many. A tablespoon is enough to help a family of microbiota healthy. Variety is important because each bean has a different fiber type that helps different microbiota thrive. This creates the balancing act we are trying to achieve in the gut.

Achieving a healthy gut is hugely important. Studies show that people who live a long time tend to have a huge variety in the microbiome world in their bodies. And, in fact, those studies show that centenarians tend to eat beans!

As a side note, another common trait among long-living people is their tendency to have regular doctor screenings, which can detect and correct intestinal imbalances that lead to bigger issues. Many studies are starting to show that the lack of diversity in the intestinal world can contribute to opportunistic infections and even diseases like rheumatoid arthritis. Prevention is everything.

Now, how can beans help? One particular study investigated the effect of 1 cup of navy beans daily on a population with a previous history of colorectal cancer.  The study did baseline testing and considered the typical diet of the individual.  Stool and blood were assessed every four weeks.  Within eight weeks, the microbial diversity had expanded in those eating beans by 20% compared to the control sample of participants.

The study also found increased fibroblast activity (connective tissue repair in the muscles, tendons, and other soft tissues), and many markers showed immune-balancing effects.

If you need more reasons to eat beans, try these: Beans are a fabulous form of fiber, protein, and some hidden gems such as lysine, which has anti-viral properties.

Take home message: Small amounts of beans added to your diet can greatly impact your future health! I like yellow-eyed beans, but I also love morado beans.

Speaking of clinical health studies, one came out this week that I thought I would mention. If you are already lean, don’t lose weight. Don’t diet just to pursue some Instagram ideal with your body.

Why? There are three reasons. First, as we have discussed here many times, dieting reduces muscle mass, and muscle mass burns calories. If you are losing muscle, you are losing your ability to burn calories down the road. In other words, the weight will come back even faster if you stop dieting.

Second, it is important to understand that your body adjusts to a lower calorie count when you are dieting. Specifically, it tends to slow down the metabolism. While not necessarily permanent, that slower metabolism may not speed up down the road when you stop dieting, leading to fewer calories being burned, and thus, faster weight gain.

And last, the study found a slight increase in diabetes risk for those that diet while already lean.

There was another interesting but predictable takeaway from the study. Those that diet with exercise and healthy eating have a better chance of keeping weight off than those that use other methods such as diet pills and fad diets. That is why you do not hear us talking much about diet products that we sell. Those products can be helpful but should be only one piece of the solution. Exercise and diet are far more important.

Dieting should not be extreme. Don’t take shortcuts. Just make healthy eating and exercise part of your life and you should be just fine. We really did not need another study to tell us that 🙂

If you get confused by the deluge of clinical trials and studies that hit your Google or Facebook feed, you are not alone. Those studies seem to contradict each other constantly. One says that eggs are good for you while another says they aren’t. Some take aim at supplements and classify them as useless while others show clear benefits.

So how should you view clinical studies? Here are a few tips:

1) Understand that the actual takeaways will be very limited.

Clinical trials are designed to answer one specific question in a fairly limited way. For example, they are generally not going to answer questions like “Are eggs good for you?” Rather, they will answer questions like “What is the impact on blood sugar levels when men between 20 and 30 years old eat two eggs a day?”

In other words, from 10,000 feet, contradictions seem obvious, but when you really dig in, contradictions may not exist at all. That leads us to the second point.

2) Pretty much ignore the headlines/stories in popular online sources. Read credible summaries or the study results themselves.

Imagine the headline on a popular news site if a study did find that men between 20-30 saw a slight increase in blood sugar levels when eating eggs. There would be little nuance, and you would see something like this: “Study shows that men should not eat eggs.”

If you want to actually know the results of a study, you have to get into the weeds and read the study, or at least, a solid, unbiased summary of the study results.

3) Look at the funding.

This is obvious. Companies fund studies to support their products. Often, these studies are fairly credible but still slanted. Furthermore, it is reasonable to believe that unfavorable studies will be quashed while favorable studies will be elevated in the media.

4) Watch your bias.

If you love coffee, it might be easy to discount studies that show negative results about coffee while eagerly posting studies that tout coffee benefits on your Facebook profile. We humans are wired that way.

Be careful about letting your bias control what you will accept as truth. Be willing to change your mind.

5) Trust legitimate studies, but accept that they may be wrong.

Unless you are a medical professional that specializes in the area that a study is focused on, you probably do not have the capacity to prove that study results are wrong. Armchair quarterbacks are not real quarterbacks.

That is not to say you cannot head to the internet and find people that agree with you that the study is wrong; of course you can! But why should you accept those opinions any more than the study results themselves? “Trust but verify” is a very flawed concept in general in 2022 because the sources you use to verify have to be verified too. It is a very tangled web indeed.

Our modernist society puts trust in science for a reason; when done correctly, science follows a rigorous process for deriving truth. Therefore, if a legitimate study is done by a legitimate group, it is reasonable to trust the results.

On the flip side, those legitimate results may be wrong and often will be. That is just the way it works; truth is hard to ascertain sometimes.

However, just because clinical studies are sometimes wrong does not mean that they are not the best way we know of in 2022 to try to answer questions about health. Clinical studies are a great tool that we have all benefited from.

So, feel free to accept the results of studies while understanding that you may have to change your mind down the road. Hold that knowledge loosely, but pay attention to it. Our life expectancy has almost doubled over the past few centuries, largely because of the scientific process.

Air fryers are the rage right now, and in our opinion, justifiably so. We bought one in early 2021 when several of us were on a diet. We were eating a lot of raw vegetables and getting tired of it. So, bought an air fryer mostly for the purpose of quickly cooking great-tasting vegetables.

Today, we are still fans.

If you live in the south (as we do), you know that the south loves fried foods in spite of the health risks. While the idea of making foods with a “fried” taste without frying them in cooking oil seems almost too good to be true, an air fryer pulls off this feat. How? I am not exactly sure, but try it if you don’t believe me.

If you think about it, it is very rare to find situations where you can make a particular food healthier without giving up taste. That is where the air fryer shines; the most obvious example is french fries, which taste just as good when made in an air fryer and contain a fraction of the calories and fat.

If you are looking for a brand/model recommendation, this is ours. (Your family size or other variables may lead you in a different direction; check out legitimate review sites for more help.)