Wisdom & wisecracks

2009 November 22
by Alan Aragon

The following is a collection of things I’ve blabbered off in message boards and elsewhere. I got the idea of posting this from the illustrious Emma-Leigh, a fellow moderator at bodybuilding.com who stuck a similar collection of my quotes at the top of the female bodybuilding forum. If you’re easily offended, please stop reading right here. If not, enjoy the tidbits…

  • The majority of health nuts will spend $100’s a month on useless supplements, but won’t spend a dime on actually educating themselves on the facts about the body.
  • I love it when I hear folks say that human adults weren’t meant to consume milk, much less the milk derived from a different animal species. Are you kidding me? So who gets to decide which parts of the cow we should consume? Let me get this straight–we can eat the cow’s muscles, but not the milk that laid the foundation for the growth of those same muscles? Huh? The logic is just too rock-solid for me.
  • Folks who carry the torch against milk consumption typically will have some degree of allergy or digestive intolerance to it, and they take the liberty to project their personal problems onto the world around them.  Go frolick in an organic wheatgrass field and spare us your self-righteous noise.
  • Keep your eyes on YOU. It’s fine to get inspired by others’ physiques, but you have to set your own personal standards. People tend to fixate on their weaknesses, while at the same time obsess over the strengths of others. That’s a surefire way to stay eternally frustrated. It’s a healthier approach to acknowledge your own strengths, and use them as benchmarks by which to bring up your weaknesses. Learn to give yourself a pat on the back for the improvements you make. Keep your eyes on YOU, don’t let the achievements of others dictate your obsessions.
  • March to your own beat. Everyone has advice to give, and it’s important to listen, but ultimately, you have to adapt and mold all advice to your own sensibilities. Although it’s not always easy, I try not to be inflexibly dogmatic about what I teach. In many cases, what’s known pales in comparison to the sprawling expanse of the unknown. Over time, you’ll get to know your body better than anyone else, and what some might sell as natural laws should really only be ideas or options to consider.
  • Training and nutritional programs pulled from the “experts” shouldn’t always be followed to the letter, especially for advanced trainees. Beginners without a clue may need to follow a script with zero deviation, since the alternative might be tripping over their own feet. But with more advanced trainees who have a more highly developed sense of individual response, there should always be a margin for personal intervention and adjustment. The best programs out there are at best good guidelines from which to morph better stuff for the individual situation.
  • Question fitness advice given to you by others. “Why” is one of the most powerful words you can put in your vocabulary. Investigating the reasoning behind the advice will often reveal that the answer is “just because”, rendering the advice anywhere from helpful, to dangerous, to just a plain waste of time and resources. I encourage my clients, students, and colleagues to question everyone’s advice, including mine. I firmly believe that the better you can sharpen your thinking, the better you can continue to sharpen your physique.
  • Scientific research is not bias-free. It’s not free of financial interests. It’s not free of study design flaws, and it’s not perfect. However, it’s the best tool that we have for getting closer to understanding the way the body works, the way that nature works. As imperfect as research is, it beats the hell out of hearsay and gym dogma.
  • Many folks into fitness & bodybuilding have this unproductive tendency to think in black & white extremes. They’ll scapegoat certain foods, while glorifying the magic bullets. They rarely see the integration of the various components that comprise the big picture.
  • Maintenance of a given level of progress is indeed a legitimate goal. In fact, people should consciously build plateau phases into their programs. Everyone hates to hear this, but the plateau phases should get progressively longer. When you step back and think about it, isn’t the ultimate goal a plateau of sorts? It makes good sense to give your body regular practice at maintaining. Everyone is so hell-bent on perpetually pressing forward with their goals, that it actually holds them back.
  • A major training mistake I’ve made in the past – one I think that we’ve all done – was to always go more by the numbers than by the feel, letting the numbers dictate the workout rather than letting the muscles do it. I was overly concerned with the quantitative awareness of load progression, rather than what one of my old training partners called finding the pump. This might be more of a bodybuilding thing than anything else, but people should work up to a point where they are indifferent towards the number stamped on the iron. This is particularly useful during maintenance phases, which are more flexible. Trainees should practice developing a sense of optimal resistance for the given goal of any set, even if you’re completely unaware of the actual weight. Blindfolded sensation-based training, so to speak.
  • Don’t be overly cheap with your time off from training. Athletes’ careers are notorious for being slow-motion train wrecks. There are 3 main ways your body lets you know that you need a break: Fatigue, illness, and injury. Fatigue is a bit more insidious, manifesting itself as persistent stalls or decreases in strength or endurance. Most trainees out there wallow in fatigue most of the time, which is a damn shame. Illness and injury are the classic agents of forced layoffs. The best strategy is to stay not just one, but a few steps ahead by taking a full week off from training – I’m talking don’t even drive near the gym – about every 8th to 12th week.
  • No one’s physique ever fell apart as a result of a periodic week of rest. On the other hand, there are plenty of folks whose great physiques won’t last very long, due to bad shoulders, elbows, and knees.
  • Fad diets and fad diet practices should be avoided (and laughed at). Carbs will send you to hell. Sugar is worse for you than cocaine. Fat is no longer the bad guy, so now it’s time to drink a pint of fish oil after every meal. Protein is your savior, eat as much of it as you can. If it’s isolated from food and put in a pill, it’s GOTTA be better for bodybuilding. C’mon now. A mix of patience and realistic progress expectations is the best cure for the compulsion to adopt fad practices or try fad diets.
  • Stop splitting hairs over the rules. The beauty of food is that, unlike drugs, its physiological effects have neither the acuteness nor the magnitude to warrant extreme micro-management, especially when it comes to nutrient timing relative to training. A half an hour difference here or there really isn’t gonna make or break your physique.
  • The first law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.
  • The second law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.
  • The fitness & nutrition world is a breeding ground for obsessive-compulsive behavior. The irony is that many things people worry about simply have no impact on results either way, and therefore aren’t worth an ounce of concern.
  • Worrying about how much fat is burned while doing cardio makes as much sense as worrying about how much muscle is built while lifting weights.
  • I eat three whole eggs almost every day of the week, so as far as American Heart Association limits are concerned, I’m blowing past them like Stevie Wonder through a stop sign.
  • Mother Nature winces every time a yolk hits the waste basket.
  • If you have to chew it, it ain’t anabolic. [/sarcasm about postworkout nutrition]
  • The better someone’s genetics are, the more of a dumbf#ck he is.
  • Avoid food avoidance.

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72 Responses
  1. November 22, 2009

    “Mother Nature winces every time a yolk hits the waste basket.”

    Love it.

  2. Neal W. permalink
    November 22, 2009

    I’m not convinced by your milk argument. It’s obvious how pre-agricultural humans would get animal meat, but not their milk since animals were not domesticated. Undomesticated animals don’t stand around while you milk them.

  3. November 22, 2009

    Neal – your argument seems to be more of an ideological anti-technology stance than it is anti-milk.

  4. November 22, 2009

    I love this:

    “The fitness & nutrition world is a breeding ground for obsessive-compulsive behavior.”

    SO. TRUE.

  5. November 22, 2009

    I’ll let Alan tell me just how wrong I am, since he’s the brain here.

    Neal, deciding what to eat or not to eat based on our ancestors eating habits is a workable solution when laboratories aren’t available, but with the results from labs and studies at our disposal, we have better ways to know one way or the other.

    It may very well be that dairy, grains, starchy carbs, etc. aren’t all that good for us, but assuming we aren’t “designed to eat them,” the degree of damage is still in question. …and what kind of “damage” is it? There are millions of people in cultures around the world that have been eating dairy and starches for thousands of years and doing fine, healthwise. Would the healthy ones be 30% healthier with these things out of their diets, or is it 10% or 1%. How do the unhealthy ones differ from their healthier brothers? Diet, exercise, food choices, amount of food, amount of exercise, genetics, etc.

    I can’t help but think that much of the evidence in some of those primal and paleo lifestyle books is cherry picked. Not necessarily on purpose, but wishful thinking and finding what you look for, either consciously or subconsciously. A passionate case rarely makes itself.

    Personally, I believe that we (collectively) would probably be more healthy without milk, starchy carbs, and grains, but to what degree? I don’t know. I choose to eat them, but in moderation. And I choose to eat some modern foods far more than others based on how I, personally, handle them. I have no problems with dairy, for instance, but I tend to feel better after a week or two of no wheat. Not really so much better that I choose to pass on a Double-Double every few weeks, though.

    I find “our ancestors couldn’t” to be an explanation for a reason, but not a reason in and of itself.

  6. Joe permalink
    November 22, 2009

    Brotastic brotips, brofessor.

  7. PeachieJSP permalink
    November 22, 2009

    gosh diddly darn amazing tips. i totally agree with your stance of milk and the human reproductive cycle. with this im made.

  8. November 22, 2009

    I do not tolerate cow’s milk at all, and I really miss some of it (especially yogurt). But, I don’t preach my issues on others. I encourage it as a source of protein and calcium if that’s what works for my clients or friends.

    Just like vegetarians. I do feel that there are those bodies out there that do best with a meat/fish/poultry free diet, but leave it at that. Each body is different and benefits from different dietary aspects – don’t judge me and say that just because I eat a cow I am one.

  9. Jeana permalink
    November 23, 2009

    Droppin’ bombs… This post was riddled and studded with gems of wisdom.

  10. November 23, 2009

    Awesome tips Alan, this proves why you are the only TRUE Brofessor.

    Another quote I like is from comments in your chocolate milk and surge comparison on bodyrecomposition.com

    Your response says:

    “…if TOTAL DAILY PROTEIN from high-quality sources is sufficient, no cute little AA supplementation strategies around or within a normal-length resistance training bout will do anything beyond stimulating your inner bro.”

    Classic!

  11. Eric permalink
    November 23, 2009

    Word on the milk…too bad I can’t have any.

  12. Glenn permalink
    November 23, 2009

    Glad to see you started a blog, Alan. Will be checking this regularly!

  13. Kujo permalink
    November 23, 2009

    “I love it when I hear folks say that human adults weren’t meant to consume milk, much less the milk derived from a different animal species. Are you kidding me? So who gets to decide which parts of the cow we should consume? Let me get this straight–we can eat the cow’s muscles, but not the milk that laid the foundation for the growth of those same muscles? Huh? The logic is just too rock-solid for me.”

    Agreed. The demonizing of dairy in general puzzles me.

    ” The first law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.”
    “The second law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.”

    🙂

    “Mother Nature winces every time a yolk hits the waste basket.”

    LOL! Yep, the yolk is nothing to fear. Hell, just buy one of those egg white cartons for crying out loud.

  14. Chris Nunz permalink
    November 23, 2009

    “The better someone’s genetics are, the more of a dumbf#ck he is.”

    My favorite!!! Haha.

    Nice post Alan and thanks again for the advice on Friday.

  15. Mike L. permalink
    November 23, 2009

    Love it! Great way to start the week :).

    -Mike L.

  16. November 23, 2009

    heh, this is going to be my daily interwebz bread for a while.

    I eat three whole eggs almost every day of the week, so as far as American Heart Association limits are concerned, I’m blowing past them like Stevie Wonder through a stop sign.

    I wonder if they’d frown on me for my days of knocking out a dozen a day?

  17. November 23, 2009

    Alan,

    Great post. You may need a part two.

    “Question fitness advice given to you by others. “Why” is one of the most powerful words you can put in your vocabulary. Investigating the reasoning behind the advice will often reveal that the answer is “just because”, rendering the advice anywhere from helpful, to dangerous, to just a plain waste of time and resources.” The typical Bser has no idea why nor do they care. Their objective is to appear intellectually superior.

    Two other phrases that often deter Bsers “So What” and “Specify” I have nailed many supplement salesman with those two phrases.

    “Many folks into fitness & bodybuilding have this unproductive tendency to think in black & white extremes.” The hate to hear It Depends and moderate is not hardcore, doesn’t sale

    “If you have to chew it, it ain’t anabolic. [/sarcasm about postworkout nutrition]”

    C’mon Alan this is fact. How do I know so? Because a few big guys at the gym told me so, and they know, they feel it.

    Alan, Did you know?

    Drinking a bunch of water pre-comp helps you dry out faster

    Drinking “bad water” (non-bottled water) will cause you to hold to extracellular fluid

    If it wasn’t right everyone wouldn’t be doing it

    Natural is always better

    Organic foods are chemical free, and chemical free is always healthier

    Eating cloned meats will kill you!!

    These tips might be nonsense, but to many they are unquestionable facts

    Jamie hale

  18. November 23, 2009

    Roland – well reasoned comment. I agree that a lot of our ancestoral behaviors are speculative, and the hasty “it was therefore it should be” argument is false on multiple levels.

    JC – I don’t want to leave this planet without eating a dozen eggs in a day. The most I’ve had is a half-dozen, so I realize I have a certain margin to go before fabled egg-glory.

    Jamie – You gave me a bunch of ideas for future posts, thanks 🙂

    All – Thanks for reading & chiming in.

  19. Arthur Lange permalink
    November 23, 2009

    Hi, Alan.

    I have a quick question pertaining to various types of metabolic work up for helping to determine what to do vis-a-vis certain foods and such. Before asking it, I want to say that in no way do I think that a person should go out and order every test in creation or think that it will answer every single question relative to his own situation. Additionally I recognize that no one test ever tells the entire story or is without holes. This testing would merely be one potential avenue for getting a more objective, rather than subjective, look at what may or may not be going on.

    You often have the research camp (or more precisely a subset of said camp) who would have you believe that if research seems to rule against gym or nutrition dogma that it covers every single person out there. Conversely, you have the ostrich crowd who take every bit of training or nutrition dogma as dogma and never analyze it’s impact or lack thereof in their situation.

    I have no affiliation to the lab I am posting a link to, I have merely found them to be a reputable company based upon feedback from a number of folks I respect. Basically I am wondering if you feel that some or even all of the various tests have a potential role to fill in helping a person determine what their own food intake may or may not be doing for them in terms of overall bodily function and health. The test list runs the gamut from various immunoglobulin testing to determine if there may be any issues with certain foods currently in the diet (or perhaps none present at all), metabolites of various metabolic pathways, tests for getting at least some inkling of an individual’s level (or relative lack of) toxic burden (I know many cringe when this is mentioned, but it would seem like at least with a test you’d be taking a rough stab at using more evidence than speculation).

    All in all, I’d just like you opinion on whether the tests can be valuable tools at certain points, if needed, or if you don’t place much stock in them at all.

    http://www.metametrix.com/content/DirectoryofServices/DOSCategories

  20. November 23, 2009

    Hey Arthur

    I’m not Alan (obviously), but I work in a clinic where the Dr I work for uses some of these tests (not all of them… some we are skeptical about). But, some are useful. The most useful thing is to have someone that really knows how to interpret the tests and combine them with other measures that have solid scientific backing.

  21. November 23, 2009

    haha @Alan: Yes, I did it a couple of times per week for about a month. Nothing like eating scrambled egg sammiches all day long.

  22. November 24, 2009

    Please define WASTE BASKET?

  23. November 24, 2009

    Thomas – Waste baskets are those receptacles where spam belongs.

    Arthur – I’m somewhat conservative in my stance about tests beyond the more conventional clinical panels, that is, if you have enough cause for concern in the first place. There’s a fine line between assessment-seeking and hypochondria. In my experience, the best foods for the individual are the ones dictated by personal taste preference. I can’t prove this definitively, but I’ve found that people perform best when adhering to their favorite foods strictly on the basis of taste. This leads me to hypothesize that the tastebuds are, in a sense, ‘gate keepers’ to the foods that are best for us individually. This is a primal concept, but I don’t think that high-tech has trumped low-tech in the area of individual nutritional assessment for health or fitness purposes. I think we have a pretty good grasp of what foods to predominate the diet with, and what foods to moderate. Beyond that (& barring allergies or gastric intolerances), let personal taste rule.

  24. JMo87 permalink
    November 24, 2009

    “Nothing like eating scrambled egg sammiches all day long.”

    ^^ Haha been there, done that.

    Great post Alan, especially the part about keeping your eyes on you.

    I think people get too wrapped up in trying to achieve someone else’s look. While being inspired by someone’s physique can sometimes be motivating, trying to live up to the impossible-to-achieve standards of pro athletes or cover models will ultimately backfire.

  25. Mike Pipes permalink
    November 24, 2009

    Alan,

    A dozen eggs a day rocks, you gotta try it! I normally eat 6 whole/day but when I get tired of meat, which happens pretty often, I go all-egg baby! The whole cholesterol thing – meh- mine is only 169 despite a bad family history and being formerly morbidly obese.

    Cassandra, and the rest that can’t handle milk.. have you tried goat milk? mmmm good stuff, no lactose. Spendy, but tasty! Give me the full fat! 🙂

  26. November 24, 2009

    @MIke Pipes: have you heard of the whey that is supposedly made with goat milk? I can’t remember what it’s called or if it’s still on the market but the label was hilarious.

  27. November 24, 2009

    Hey guys – my son used to be allergic to cow’s milk until he was about a year & a half. At the time, we used goat’s milk instead & he tolerated it just fine. On a related note, goat’s meat is something I really like but don’t get around to eating more than once in a blue moon. Goat cheese is yummy with salads.

    JMo87 – Yup. Unfortunately, lots of people are breaking their backs trying to achieve the look of people who won the genetic lottery and added a little “help” on top of that.

  28. November 24, 2009

    Goat’s milk: yep, did work for me for awhile and then… uh uh. And, I really wanted it to be something I could eat, because it’s so darn tasty, but the gassiness and bloating was horrendous. Plus, the headaches. I really think my issue is mostly with casein – for some odd reason I am ok with isolated whey protein (pure, nothing added) in moderate doses (one or two servings a day). Oh well. Thank goodness I can eat meat, fish, eggs, gluten, etc.

  29. November 25, 2009

    Awesome post and I love this blog already! I really agree with the note that genetic asses are just dumbfucks for giving advice to use average genetically gifted guys. And the question “Why?” doesn’t exist in most peoples heads, when they see authority, they believe everything(I was once this guy and with experience I’ve gotten very critical to extreme claims contradicting old scientific grounds).

    I hate giving advice to people who are constantly asking me stupid questions they could answer for themselves if they actually UNDERSTOOD the fundamental workings of my training/nutrition-advice. I keep repeating myself to people over, and over, and over again. It gets tiresome sometimes.

  30. November 25, 2009

    “I eat three whole eggs almost every day of the week, so as far as American Heart Association limits are concerned, I’m blowing past them like Stevie Wonder through a stop sign.”

    I gotta admit that Stevie Wonder jokes are a secret past time of mine, so this visual activated my hilarity unit fo sho.

    “Got all the money in the world and don’t know if he got hundreds or ones! It’s just a stack to Stevie – its just a stack!”
    – Chris Rock

    Great stuff as always, Alan.

  31. November 26, 2009

    Love the comment about milk. It really brings out the flaws in the whole “we weren’t designed for (insert evil behavior here)”-type arguments.

  32. November 28, 2009

    Priceless!

  33. November 28, 2009

    Throughly enjoying your blog. I even quoted you as words of inspiration on my own. Good stuff! Thanks!

  34. jasper permalink
    November 28, 2009

    solid.

  35. Neal W. permalink
    November 29, 2009

    I actually drink milk, I just don’t think your argument for why it’s ok is very solid. A paleo advocate shouldn’t find it persuasive. Given that milk and meat are chemically different why would it follow that if one is ok the other should be as well? Why isn’t it possible or plausible that one is good and the other bad?

    Your argument is arguing on the terms of the paleo advocate (more philosophical than empirical) and on those terms is fails.

    Now, if you want to say, “studies show nothing bad happens to you when you drink milk,” then that WOULD be persuasive.

  36. November 29, 2009

    Neal – I think you missed the point of the quote. I wholeheartedly intended to present a philosophical counterpoint to a common philosophical assertion of the paleo crowd. Getting into the dry empirics, at least within the context of that quote, would ruin the punchline.

  37. December 1, 2009

    Personally, I don’t get the whole “milk or no milk” debate. There’s nothing in it inherently “bad for you” – unless you buy the cholesterol/saturated fat partly line (which I don’t, particularly in their unprocessed states) – and a whole lot of good. So unless it’s been f’ed with, you can digest it, and you’re not allergic to it, then obviously it was “designed” (poor choice of words) for you. If not, your system would “reject” it and you wouldn’t have to search for theoretical reasons why you shouldn’t drink it.

  38. Daniel permalink
    December 1, 2009

    Alan,

    Thank you for starting this blog. I have over the last year or so missed our conversations and this is the next best thing.

  39. December 2, 2009

    Daniel – Thanks for stopping in. Feel free to contact me whenever, hope all is well with you.

    Casey – I agree. Ive found that people tend to grope for theories about why something they can’t personally tolerate is universally “bad”.

  40. December 3, 2009

    Oh, the Alan Aragon brand of wisdom. Wish I had all this packaged in an action figure-sized bro to carry around in my handbag.

  41. December 3, 2009

    Frances, they’re working on a brobag-sized version of me that fits in manbags that are too compact and stylish to be called such.

  42. Eric permalink
    December 13, 2009

    Throwing this out there for the LI peoples, and hopefully Alan can correct me if I’m wrong BUT it seems like 2 cups of Lactaid AND 4 scoops of Nestle Quik equals to roughly to cups of chocolate milk (the premade stuff) in nutritional content and macros. Is it safe to say that this could be a good PWO drink similar to what Alan has talked about in other places? Obviously with some protein mixed in it.

    I’m taking a look at new options for PWO drink mostly because my current protein tastes like shit so I need something to mask the taste.

  43. December 19, 2009

    Hey Eric — Yes, that’s correct, if you were to mimick the macro composition of chocolate milk. Adding protein powder to it would make it ideal. I’ve found premade choc milk to be pretty darn sweet, and it hides the taste of protein powder very well. What I’ve been doing is adding cocoa & a touch of peanubutter (heated & mixed together), and throwing it milk & vanilla flavored protein powder. It’s not vitally important to mimick the macros of choc milk, by the way. Here’s a copy/paste of a post I did earlier today on bodybuilding.com (which includes a snippet from the blog post above):

    Okay, since you’re not an endurance athlete with multiple events per day, have roughly a quarter of your lean mass lbs in protein grams. Or, you can go with target bodyweight in this calculation, which is basically a surrogate index of lean mass with a minor surplus. So, 0.25 x your target BW in pounds = protein dose. Same with carb dose if you’re being restrictive. I’ve seen good results with going up to 0.5g/lb target weight with carb dosing postworkout in those who aren’t restricting carbs. Source of carbs should be your personal preference since there’s no meaningful difference between types, given the goal you outlined. I have a personal preference for fruit & milk, sometimes oats, but the prep bugs me; I’m big on convenience. As for protein source, again, go with personal preference. Cheap whey is what I use (right now it’s Dymatize Elite, used to be ON Gold Std). I throw it in milk. Very fricking convenient. Again, this is personal preference. If you like a piece of meat with some pasta, great, have at it. As long as it’s a high-quality protein source (which most animal-based proteins are), then you’re doing all you can. I’ve asked Ronnie personally what his postW meal was, and it’s either steak & potatoes or chicken & rice, depending on his mood.

    Also, don’t forget the 1st 2 laws:

    — The first law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.
    — The second law of nutrient timing is: hitting your daily macronutrient targets is FAR more important than nutrient timing.

  44. TheWaffleIron permalink
    January 9, 2010

    This makes me want to return to the nutrition section and fight the bros again. Great stuff, as always.

  45. January 10, 2010

    Thanks for stopping by WaffleIron.

  46. January 30, 2010

    I just love your second-to-last bullet point. Thank you for this site.

  47. Ketan permalink
    January 31, 2010

    I love eggs, I think they’re nature’s multivitamin.

    Great post Alan.

  48. Josh permalink
    February 6, 2010

    Dude, Alan. You rock. In for brobag.

  49. stavros permalink
    February 9, 2010

    Alan i would like to thank you with all my heart! You helped me clear up a lot of voodoo theories ( carb n fat , fat post workout etc), i appreciate the time you spent for and i always enjoy everything i read from you!

    keep it up, you rule!

  50. February 11, 2010

    Thanks everyone, it’s a pleasure to help!

  51. Jean Paulo permalink
    February 15, 2010

    I just love every single one of it.You should consider being a stand up comedian sometime Alan

  52. July 26, 2010

    Hey Alan, love the blog, love the research review, and thanks for the tip on shopping at bodybuilding.com. Their service is excellent.

  53. August 9, 2011

    It’s true I prefer to have organic food which is chemical free. Living a healthy lifestyle naturally is better than enhancing without understanding themselves on the essentials regarding the body.

  54. September 2, 2011

    great… are you on facebook?

  55. January 10, 2012

    Hi Alan, thanks for writing this great post, especially the stuff about milk phobia. I lived with a guy who tried to tell me that it wasn’t natural for “any” of us to drink milk. I explained to him that Caucasians have an enzyme that enables us to break down lactose (the sugar found in milk), and that it stays active our entire lives, while the same enzyme in Non-caucasians deactivates at the age of 3 or 4, because at this age it is unlikely that an infant will still be breast feeding… He didn’t laugh 🙂

  56. July 14, 2012

    Ahaha I can’t help but imagine these said in a deadpan computer generated voice and paired with strange hand actions.

  57. Jules Nolasco permalink
    March 6, 2013

    ‘I eat three whole eggs almost every day of the week, so as far as American Heart Association limits are concerned, I’m blowing past them like Stevie Wonder through a stop sign.’

    Thank you sir for all these wise words. You rocked!

  58. Bert permalink
    July 20, 2013

    Gold mine that I’ve come across just now. Late to the party, sure, but this stuff is a lot of what I’ve been practicing instinctively and trying to convey to others when the situation seemed right for it. Thanks!

  59. August 1, 2013

    As I come back to this a few years later I’m reminded of how true and relevant this is now as it was then, only now I realise it more. How many arguments and flame-wars do you think would be avoided if people just read it and absorbed?

    Blog more Alan. 🙂

  60. September 24, 2013

    “Mother Nature winces every time a yolk hits the waste basket.”
    >>>

    And those 3 grams of protein never stood a chance…

  61. October 17, 2013

    So true…”The fitness & nutrition world is a breeding ground for obsessive-compulsive behavior.” This is a gem of a blog post Alan.

  62. AnnalisaLynn permalink
    January 28, 2014

    Thank you for the well needed slap in the face 🙂
    Sometimes I let food science scare me out of eating certain foods but recently I’ve relaxed and I’m seeing major changes all around. I still eat ‘clean’. I try to stick to unrefined foods…but if I want a granola bar I no longer have to convince myself that I’ve earned it. Thank you for the realistic and easy to follow information on your site. You are a breath of fresh air!!

  63. Thomas D permalink
    January 31, 2014

    Alan, what about protein powders? In my experience its very easy for me to make a shake in order to meet my macros or calories when I’m in a hurry as opposed to making, re-heating or even grabbing some precooked protein and veggie sticks.
    My question is how do we know what makes a good protein powder? What questions do we ask ourselves when choosing?

  64. TravisRetriever permalink
    March 31, 2014

    On nutrient timing, to be fair, there might be something to it, at least as far as Circadian Rhythm Protein Timing (CRPT) goes, as shown here by Menno Henselmans here: http://www.humanengine.com/index.php/articles/nutrition/item/nutrient-timing-endures-circadian-rhythm-protein-timing
    He lists his references in the article. 🙂

    As for milk, I’m lactose intolerant (somewhat–if I drink more than a cup or two a day, I often get very loose stool) and I STILL will drink it. Even if my body can’t handle the lactose, I’m sure it’s still getting the other stuff–protein, potassium, calcium, vitamin D, etc. And to me, even the skim milk tastes good, so unless I get an order from my doctor telling me, “it is destroying your insides like a person with severe Celiac disease eating a bucket of wheat gluten, stop it or you won’t live past this week!” I will keep drinking it. ^.^ It’s one hell of a natural laxative if anything else. haha!

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