Nutrition, Videos

You’re Probably Taking your Vitamin D Wrong, and it Could be Dangerous (& Ineffective)

Today I’m going over studies to tell you about an easy tweak you can make to prevent negative health consequences from supplementing vitamin D, and make it actually work. I’m not talking about basic stuff like dosing, or D2 vs D3, or taking it with fat sources–I’m talking about something I bet you’ve never heard of before.

The bonus content I talk about is over on my Patreon page. I’m planning to get official tiers + benefits up in a few weeks!

Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:

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Links mentioned in the video:

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Nutrition, Videos, Weight loss advice

Video: Vitamin D Can Make You Lose Weight?

Vitamin D is obviously important for our health, but recent research is suggesting it may also affect our weight too. In today’s video, I’m going over a study looking at how vitamin D supplementation affects weight loss, and who it works for!

Here are the two supplements I’ve used & liked, both are vegan vitamin D3:

Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:

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Links mentioned in the video:

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Videos

Video: Resistant Starch and Body Composition | Body Fat vs Lean Mass | Scientific study

You guys really liked my last resistant starch video and I got lots of requests for another, so here is a long-awaited followup! In today’s video, I go over studies looking at how eating resistant starch affects your body composition: that is, what percent of your body is fat versus lean mass like muscle. I also go over how to get more resistant starch in your diet!

Here’s a link to the video page, or you can watch it below:

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Study links & links mentioned in the video:

List of foods high in resistant starch:

  • Whole grains
  • Beans
  • Underripe bananas
  • Raw potatoes & potato starch
  • Raw oats (like overnight oats)
  • Cooked & cooled potatoes (can be reheated)
  • Cooked & cooled rice (can be reheated)

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Videos

How to Reduce Stress | 7 Natural Science-supported Remedies

7 natural stress remedies

Today, I have something a little bit different for you: 7 natural ways to reduce your stress using foods and herbs, based on scientific studies. Stress is a major reason for overeating and weight gain, and causes all sorts of bad health effects, both physical and mental. So if you’re stressed, reducing it could help you reach your health & appearance goals!

In the video, I go over the remedies and what types of stressors and stress symptoms they help with, how to use them, and briefly cover studies supporting them. In the post below, I list specific supplements/foods, dosages, how long they should take to work, and link the studies.

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Unfortunately, many supplements don’t actually contain what they say they do. So I researched independent lab tests for supplements to make sure they contain the proper dose of the active ingredient, are free of toxins, and have the most bang for your buck!

For the food and teas, I’ve researched the best ones and linked my favorites. I also include my recommended dose for everything if applicable, based on the linked studies and others. And, I found a few combo products (linked at the bottom) that contain multiple remedies in one!

All of these remedies are supported by placebo-controlled studies in humans. (All studies linked below are in humans, and all but one are placebo-controlled). Studies done in rodents also support these remedies.

Tulsi from my garden 🙂

1) Lemon balm:

Studies: 1 | 2

2) Tea

  • Black tea
  • In the study they drank 4 cups a day for 6 weeks, but I imagine less would help too
  • Green tea & matcha
  • Anywhere from 1-5 cups a day is helpful–the more the better (unless the added caffeine causes you stress)
  • Available as a supplement: L theanine (or a smaller dose)
  • Taking as little as 40mg is helpful, but you start to get extra benefits around 200mg (larger dose link). Take one to two 200mg capsules a day, will likely start working within a week.

Studies: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

3) Dark chocolate

A lot of chocolate is high in heavy metals (particularly cadmium), so I researched brands that have the most flavonols and the least heavy metals!

  • Chocolate bars (anything by this brand is good!)
  • Cacao nibs (I LOVE these in smoothie bowls, as a healthy chocolate chip replacement, etc.)
  • Cacao powder
  • Can be taken right before a stressful event to help (studies found good effects with 280 cals/50g of a dark chocolate bar, but you would likely need less when using cacao powder or nibs since they contain more flavanols)

Studies: 1 | 2

4) Ashwagandha

  • Available as a supplement
  • Recommend taking 1 of these capsules per day (do NOT recommend taking higher doses), can expect to see good effects in at most 4 weeks (they will almost certainly start sooner though!)

Studies: 1 | 2

5) Rhodiola Rosea

  • Available as a supplement
  • Recommend taking 1-2 capsules a day, can expect to see benefits in 2 weeks or less

Studies: 1 | 2 | 3

6) Holy Basi (Tulsi)

  • Available as tea
  • Available as a supplement
  • Recommend taking 1 capsule per day, can expect to see benefits by 6 weeks or less

Studies: 1 | 2 | 3

7) Probiotics

  • This probiotic contains 5+ strains mentioned as helpful
  • Take 1 per day, expect to see benefits in 8 weeks or less
  • Can take non-dairy kefir or yogurt as well

Studies: 1 | 2 | 3

 

Combo products:

  • Supplement that contains ashwagandha & L-theanine
  • Supplement that contains lemon balm, ashwagandha, rhodiola rosea, and L-theanine (also contains other herbs though)

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Happy de-stressing,