My average biological age in 2019 is 12 years younger than my chronological age (46y) based on the Phenotypic Age calculator (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/11/01/biological-age-31-3y-chronological-age-46y/), and 16y younger based on aging.ai (https://michaellustgarten.com/2019/11/04/years-of-biological-aging-in-the-past-4-years/). One factor that likely contributes to my relatively youthful biological age is my diet. Shown below is my average daily dietary […]
Nutrient Comparisons
I’ve posted individual dietary days as an example of what and how much I eat (https://michaellustgarten.com/2015/12/31/130-grams-of-fiber-2400-calories/). However, a few days of examples may not represent the whole dietary picture. To address this, below is my average nutrient intake for the past 100 days (from October 24, 2018-Feb 5 2019): Notice […]
How do I eat ~100 grams of fiber, on average, every day? Here’s my full dietary breakdown from December 30, 2015: Green tea is associated with reduced all-cause mortality risk (https://michaellustgarten.com/2015/10/20/drink-green-tea-reduce-and-all-cause-mortality-risk/), so I start every day with green tea + lemon. Then, I ate a giant salad (https://michaellustgarten.com/2015/10/09/what-i-eat-giant-salad/), consisting of pickles, […]
The stereotype about the Paleo diet is that it is meat heavy. How much meat Paleo era-eaters ate is debatable, but that they consumed large amounts of potassium rich, plant-based foods is not! When examining 159 Stone Age diets, the average daily potassium intake has been reported to be 400 […]
If your goal is optimal nutrition, which orange root vegetable would you choose, carrots or sweet potatoes? 100 calories from carrots vs. 100 calories from sweet potatoes, let’s have a look! First, to get 100 calories you can eat almost double the amount of carrots, 245g compared with 111g of […]
Do you think Paleo diets involve eating mostly meat? While how much meat was eaten in that era is debatable, what is known is that they ate a lot of high-fiber fruits and vegetables. Shown below are the estimated daily fiber and energy intake (Eaton et al. 1997). On a 3000 calorie […]
In previous articles I’ve written about the heath benefits of eating whole grains, which have been shown in large epidemiological studies to be associated with reduced all-cause mortality risk. Based on this data, the USDA’s MyPlate recommends a minimum of 3.5 oz, up to 7 oz. of whole grains on […]
In a previous article I wrote about the effect of epicatechin on reducing myostatin, which may increase muscle mass (https://michaellustgarten.com/2015/02/02/inhibit-myostatin-with-chocolate-increase-muscle-mass/). Are there any other ways to inhibit myostatin with the goal of increasing muscle mass? 10 grams of essential amino acids have been shown to reduce myostatin levels in skeletal […]
In an earlier post I reported that dietary fiber from whole grains is associated with reduced mortality risk for all causes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory and infectious disease in both men and women (https://michaellustgarten.com/2014/08/02/is-dietary-fiber-associated-with-reduced-mortality/). More specifically, which whole grains are highest in fiber? Shown below are grams of dietary fiber per 100 […]
In an earlier article I wrote about which grain is the best source for total protein, essential amino acids, branched chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine; BCAA) and arginine, from a list of grains that included oats, quinoa, corn, brown rice, potato, barley and millet (http://michaellustgarten.com/2014/07/30/which-grain-is-the-best-source-for-protein-essential-amino-acids-bcaa-and-arginine). However, I have […]
One of the benefits that comes from eating cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and purple cabbage is consumption of sulforaphane, a naturally occurring anticancer compound. However, do you know that boiling these vegetables for longer than 4 minutes destroys most of their sulforaphane? Besides eating these vegetables raw (I like purple […]
Listed below are total protein, essential amino acids, branched chain amino acids, and arginine content for quinoa, oats, corn, millet, barley, brown rice and potato. The values provided are for 100 calories, for each respective grain. Let’s ask some questions: 1. Is there a difference in protein content among these […]
If your goal is optimal nutrition, would you choose grapes or raisins? To most, the obvious answer would be grapes, because they’re less calorie dense than raisins. Grapes contain 20 calories per ounce, whereas raisins contain 85 calories/ounce. But, what if I asked the same question, and you had 100 […]
In a previous article I wrote about how vegans have been shown to have decreased risk of heart disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality. In addition, in 3 separate articles I’ve written about how cooking food at high temperature (above boiling, 212ºF), whether it is roasting, baking, frying or grilling produces […]
Dietary calcium is easily obtained from dairy, green leafy vegetables (i.e. kale) or, nuts/seeds (chia, amonds). What about other sources? Do you know that unhulled sesame seeds are a great source of calcium? One ounce of sesame seeds has 270 mg calcium…But, sesame seeds are important for other reasons, too. […]
Do you eat protein bars and think that they’re a great protein source? Sure, they are. But is there a healthier way to get that protein into your diet? In Table 1 I compared the macronutrient composition and, dietary fiber, sodium and potassium content of 2 popular protein bars, Met-Rx and Pure […]