Macronutrients are foods that contain nutrients your diet needs in large amounts. The macros humans need to survive are:<ul><li>Carbohydrates, which provide us with a quick source of energy. They provide 4 calories per gram.</li><li>Proteins are the building blocks for many structures in our bodies, helping us grow, build muscle, repair injuries, and produce hormones and enzymes. They provide 4 calories per gram.</li><li>Fats are essential to help our body absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as A, D, E, and K. They provide 9 calories per gram.</li></ul>

Calories in macronutrients

A macro calculator helps you evaluate the breakdown of a particular food. It is useful if we follow a specific diet based on the macros consumed. For example,<ul><li>Building muscle requires an increase of protein.</li><li>Endurance sports require a higher carb intake to fuel the body for longer periods.</li><li>Fat loss where the reduction in carbs can reduce the likelihood of excess glucose storage.</li></ul>

The macro calculator

<ul><li>Healthy Eater uses your age, gender, height, weight, and activity level to calculate your macronutrient level.</li><li>Muscle for Life uses your weight, body fat percentage and activity level to calculate your lean body mass (LBM), your basal metabolic rate (BMR) and total daily energy expenditure (TDEE)</li><li>Katy Hearn uses your age, gender, height, weight, and activity level. It helps to improve your body composition or increase your lean body mass.</li><li>Freedieting is a good choice if you know how many calories you need.</li><li>IIFYM (If It Fits Your Macros) gives a step-by-step process to calculate your macros.</li></ul>

The best online macro calculators

When you know how to calculate your macros, you may want to track them to keep an eye on your eating patterns. Think of it as a digital food diary that keeps track of your daily intake. <ul><li>MyFitnessPal provides a useful pie chart with a breakdown of your macros.</li><li>Cronometer tracks vitamins, minerals, macros, blood pressure, cholesterol, sleep, mood, pulse, and more.</li><li>MyPlate Calorie Tracker provides a daily snapshot of your macro intake.</li><li>With MyMacros+, simply scan a barcode to log food intake.</li><li>Fitocracy Macros has an online fitness coaching platform and is best for manually tracking macros.</li></ul>

The best macro trackers

You don't need to track your macros unless you are a high-level athlete. Although tracking is helpful for flexible eating plans, it can sometimes lead to an obsession. <ul><li>Daily tracking food can breed an unhealthy habit that removes the pleasure of eating food.</li><li>It can impact our social lives where we avoid eating with friends because we're unsure of what the food contains.</li><li>It can lead to insufficient fuel for your body if you have undercalculated.</li><li>It can lead to orthorexia nervosa, an eating disorder where you are obsessed with eating only foods you think are healthy and clean.</li></ul>

Potential risks of calculators and trackers

From calculating the carbs in a slice of bread, to tracking your protein intake, macro calculators and trackers are there to, well, keep you on track!

food

Food

What Are Macro Calculators And Trackers?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the backyard barbecue staple as “a flat, round cake of minced beef, fried or grilled and typically served in a bread roll garnished with various condiments.” One thing that generally doesn’t make the ingredients list? Ham. This begs the question: Why is a hamburger called a hamburger if there isn’t any ham in it?

The Hamburger

There’s no clear reason as to why a hamburger is called a hamburger, but our best guess is right in the name: The origins can be traced back to Hamburg, Germany. As Europeans began to immigrate to the United States en masse in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought with them their favourite foods, including Hamburg steaks, or fried patties of <a href="https://www.rd.com/list/best-cuts-of-beef/">minced beef</a> and <a href="https://www.rd.com/article/why-onions-make-you-cry/">chopped onions</a> that were bound together with eggs, bread crumbs, and mild spices.

The Hamburg In The Hamburger

Were the inventors actually brothers Frank and Charles Menches, who placed a beef patty between two slices of bread at a county fair in Hamburg, New York, in 1885?  Or was it Oscar Weber Bilby, who first sandwiched a patty in a bun in 1891 in Tulsa, Oklahoma?  Perhaps the idea belongs to all of them. No matter who originally came up with the sandwiched patty, the national love affair with the hamburger thrives to this day, with burgers being about as American as it gets.

The Invention Of The Hamburger

While we can’t say for sure why a hamburger is called a hamburger, beef burgers are still called hamburgers, even though there’s no ham in them. The term “Hamburg” influenced the modern food’s name, perhaps because Hamburg steak so closely resembles the beef patty, so every burger is considered a hamburger, including those with meatless patties.

Hamburger Is A Name For Any Burger

In the 18th century, on the rainy isle known as England, the Earl of Sandwich ordered his cook to serve him meat placed within slices of bread so that he didn’t have to abandon his duties for a meal. And so the sandwich was born.  Why is a burger not a sandwich? There are many subtle differences between the two (like the type of bread used and the way the bread is cut), not the least of which is the filling. A burger will always contain one or more grilled patties of ground food—meat or vegetables or faux meat—and will always be circular.

Comparisons With The Sandwich

The iconic hamburger has a rich international history that's still up for debate.

Why is a hamburger called a hamburger? It's traveled around the world to get to where it is today, with a name to remind us of its origins.

scienceandnature

Science & Nature

Why Is It Called a Hamburger If There’s No Ham?

Do Coke Zero and Diet Coke have the same ingredients and same flavor? You might be surprised by the results of our research. <ul><li>The ingredient lists are similar</li><li>Both consist of carbonated water, caramel color, phosphoric acid, potassium benzoate, aspartame, natural flavors, and caffeine</li><li>Coke Zero has two ingredients Diet Coke lacks: potassium citrate and acesulfame potassium</li><li>Diet Coke has one ingredient not found in Coke Zero: citric acid</li><li>Coca-Cola Zero Sugar looks and tastes more like Coke-Cola Classic</li></ul>

The Two Cokes

<ul>
<li>Diet Coke: Smooth and sweet, enjoyable, bubbly, goes well with a meal, refreshing by itself.</li>
<li>Coke Zero: Smooth, sweeter, and more bubbly.</li>
</ul>

Coke Zero vs. Diet Coke

'80s expert and diet soda fan Gael Fashingbauer Cooper conducted a taste test to compare Coke Zero and Diet Coke. Here's what she discovered.

Coke Zero vs. Diet Coke: What’s the Difference?

The mere thought of barbecue's smokey scents and intoxicating flavors is enough to get most mouths watering. However, there is a lot of chemistry that sets barbecue apart from other cooking methods and results in such a delicious experience.   Cooking is the process of using high temperatures to drive chemical reactions that change food at a molecular level.Barbecue: Open flame cookingOn a barbecue, the hot grill grates heat the food via direct contact through a process known as conductionThe food also warms and cooks by absorbing radiation directly from the flames below

Cooking With Fire: The Chemistry Of Bar-Be-Que

<ul><li>When foods are exposed to heat for prolonged periods of time, non-carbon atoms in the food break down, leaving behind the crispy, black carbon.</li><li>Cooking over the direct heat of a barbecue allows you to add just the amount of char to match your taste, but some of the chemicals in charred meat are known carcinogens.</li><li>When smoke comes in contact with food, the components of the smoke can get absorbed.  </li><li>One way to use chemistry to make food smokier is to periodically spray it with water during the barbecuing process.</li></ul>

That Smokey Flavour

From char and crisp, to nutty and meaty, there's science behind every flavor and texture. The secret is an open flame.

These are the chemical reactions that make barbecue so delicious

<ul><li>Eat the right way</li><li>Eat less often</li><li>Get exercise</li><li>Get quality sleep</li><li>Stress your body: adversity mimetics</li><li>Supplements</li><li>Track your data</li></ul>

The most critical things to slow down aging

1. mTOR (Mammalian target of rapamycin)Low levels of mTOR activates Autophagy (a signal that times are tough), the body’s way of cleaning out damaged cells, in order to regenerate newer, healthier ones.2. AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase)AMPK is a sensor of energy; low energy is a good thing for longevity. In response, it protects the body because it thinks it’s going to run out of food. We get more AMPK through exercise and fasting.3. SirtuinsSirtuins are a family of signaling proteins involved in metabolic regulation.  They take care of DNA repair and stabilization of the epigenome.

Three Longevity Genes

<ul><li>Fasting inhibits mTOR and activates AMPK and the Sirtuins.</li><li>Sugar spikes glucose. Glucose shut down sirtuins and AMPK.</li><li>We should avoid high protein diets (specially red meat) for longevity. </li><li>Exercise, Heat, Cold & Other Stressors are “Adversity Mimetics” - we want to trick the body into thinking it’s under threat of survival.</li><li>Weight training maintains hormone levels, the ability to walk well and to have good posture, and also makes you look better, which can boost your confidence and reduce anxiety and stress.</li></ul>

When the cells replicate, the best thing is that they replicate into the same type of cell (we have liver cells, skin cells, nerve cells, etc.).As we age, the packaging of the DNA that allows a cell to remain of a certain type of cell forever starts getting lost. This is the process that give birth to most diseases (Dementia, Alzheimer, Diabetes, Heart Disease). If you slow down Ex-differentiation, it means you are getting the cells to remember how to behave. And consequently, you reverse aging.The 3 regulators (mTOR, AMPK and Sirtuins) slow down the Ex-differentiation process.

Ex-Differentiation

In the Morning:<ul><li>1g of resveratrol with yogurt or olive oil</li><li>1g NMN</li><li>Spermidine: 1g</li><li>Fisetin </li></ul>At night: 800mg Metformin, after dinner. Not the night before doing weightlifting.

Supplements - Dr. Sinclair’s Protocol

This is a summary of the first season of the Lifespan Podcast. Need to listen to the whole thing.

The following article is a summary of the first season of the Lifespan Podcast, from world-renowned research doctor David Sinclair, Ph.D. Dr. Sinclair is a professor of genetics and co-director of…

health

Health

exerciseandfitness

Exercise & Fitness

longevity

Longevity

Reverse Aging: How To Live Longer and Healthier

From an evolutionary perspective, we only live as long as we need to replace ourselves efficiently. For example:<ul><li>Mice live 2-3 years. They divert most of their resources into reproducing rapidly and little into preserving their bodies.</li><li>Whales live hundreds of years because they're at the top of the food chain and they can live as long as they want. So they breed slowly and build a body that lasts.</li><li>We, as humans, are somewhere in between mice and whales.</li></ul>From a biological perspective, there's no maximum to human lifespan. There's nothing that says biological organisms have to die.

Aging

<ul><li>Diet: Eat healthy food. Don't overeat. Don't become obese</li><li>Exercise: Do aerobic and strength training a few times a week</li><li>Sleep: Get into a constant sleep-wake cycle</li><li>Manage your mental stress</li><li>Don't smoke because it accelerates aging</li></ul>

Tips to slow down aging

<ul><li>Eat a moderate amount of calories and eat during a shorter period during the day. You can do this through intermittent fasting and calorie restriction.</li><li>Eat plenty of leafy greens, such as broccoli, spinach, kale, or Brussels sprouts.</li><li>Reduce fruits that give you a sugar high because spiking your sugar is unhealthy in the long run. High sugar fruits include grapes, cherries, pears, watermelon, and bananas.</li><li>Limit your servings of red meat.</li></ul>

Diet

<ul><li>Fasting is one of oldest ways to improve health. We know it works, but we don't know why. Current research is aimed at figuring out what's optimal and how it works.</li><li>It's been shown that fasting activates some longevity genes, but the research is ongoing, so no recommendations can be made to the general public yet.</li><li>Results from animal studies show it's more important when you eat than what you eat. Mice that ate general food once a day lived longer than mice that ate carefully chosen food 3 times a day. But you want to focus on both — eat good food at the right time.</li></ul>

Research on fasting

It's been proven that exercise extends lifespan. People who exercise regularly have lower risk of major diseases such as heart disease.A basic routine with aerobic and strength training, done a few times a week, is enough. The main goal is for the aerobic training to reduce your heart disease risk, and for the strength training to maintain your hormone levels.However, bear in mind there are diminishing returns to exercise. Over-exercising is detrimental to your health as you wear out your joints.

Exercise

Get into a constant sleep-wake cycle.Results from studies on people who work shifts show that disrupting your sleep-wake cycle accelerates aging and increases your risk of developing certain age-related diseases.

Sleep

Do what works for you and what you enjoy. What's a long life if it's not enjoyable?

What is the best way to live longer? Here are a few factors within your control

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

How To Live A Long Life

TIL diseases show up more often in older people because of aging. It's causation, not correlation 🤯 So if we slow down aging, we decrease the risk for many age-related diseases

David Sinclair is a geneticist at Harvard and author of Lifespan. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors: - Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off - Clear: https://clearme.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 2 months free - National Instruments (NI): https://www.ni.com/perspectives - SimpliSafe: https://simplisafe.com/lex and use code LEX to get a free security camera - Linode: https://linode.com/lex to get $100 free credit EPISODE LINKS: David's Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidasinclair David's Website: https://lifespanbook.com PODCAST INFO: Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8 RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/ Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4 Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41 OUTLINE: 0:00 - Introduction 1:34 - Staying young at heart 5:30 - Bringing people back to life 11:05 - Wearables and tracking health data 20:18 - How to solve aging 30:22 - Why do we age? 35:50 - Genetic reset switch that reverses aging 38:20 - AI in biology 40:52 - Health data 48:58 - Fasting 56:29 - Diet 1:04:40 - Exercise 1:10:01 - Sleep 1:18:29 - Data 1:24:00 - Extending lifespan 1:26:42 - Immortality 1:32:28 - Denial of death 1:35:45 - Meaning of life without death SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman - Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman - Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman - Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

David Sinclair is a geneticist at Harvard and author of Lifespan. Please support this podcast by checking out our sponsors:
- Onnit: https://lexfridman.com/onnit to get up to 10% off
- Clear: https://clearme.com/lexpod and use code LexPod to get 2 months free
- National Instruments (NI): https://www.ni.com/perspectives
- SimpliSafe: https://simplisafe.com/lex and use code LEX to get a free security camera
- Linode: https://linode.com/lex to get $100 free credit

EPISODE LINKS:
David's Twitter: https://twitter.com/davidasinclair
David's Website: https://lifespanbook.com

PODCAST INFO:
Podcast website: https://lexfridman.com/podcast
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/2lwqZIr
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2nEwCF8
RSS: https://lexfridman.com/feed/podcast/
Full episodes playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOdP_8GztsuKi9nrraNbKKp4
Clips playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrAXtmErZgOeciFP3CBCIEElOJeitOr41

OUTLINE:
0:00 - Introduction
1:34 - Staying young at heart
5:30 - Bringing people back to life
11:05 - Wearables and tracking health data
20:18 - How to solve aging
30:22 - Why do we age?
35:50 - Genetic reset switch that reverses aging
38:20 - AI in biology
40:52 - Health data
48:58 - Fasting
56:29 - Diet
1:04:40 - Exercise
1:10:01 - Sleep
1:18:29 - Data
1:24:00 - Extending lifespan
1:26:42 - Immortality
1:32:28 - Denial of death
1:35:45 - Meaning of life without death

SOCIAL:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/lexfridman
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lexfridman
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexfridman
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexfridman
- Medium: https://medium.com/@lexfridman
- Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/lexfridman
- Support on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lexfridman

Lex Fridman

David Sinclair: Extending the Human Lifespan Beyond 100 Years | Lex Fridman Podcast #189

<ul>
<li>Social cognitive theories are based on observing and learning from observing and seeing outcomes, which is by nature highly motivational.</li>
<li>We are more likely to internalize or adopt a behaviour if we believe that the outcome is positive and achievable.</li>
<li>Before-and-afters provide proof that certain outcomes are possible.</li>
<li>They are also great marketing.</li>
</ul>

The Before And After Picture: Why We Can’t Resist a Transformation

The Federal Trade Commission has strict guidelines about verbiage in these types of ads.Diets frequently fail, which is why so often you’ll see in the fine print of dramatic weight loss pictures: “Results not typical.".Facebook has also banned these pictures in advertising on its platform.WW, a company with a history of dramatically debuting the weight loss of various celebrity endorsers in big ad reveals, banned the use of before and after images in its ads in 2018.

Before-And-After Photos Are Controversial

<ul><li>Alexis Conason thinks these images are fundamentally flawed because they come from a place of self-hatred and encourage toxic dieting culture.</li><li>Erin Parks, a clinical psychologist, says, “There's no data to suggest that they help motivate people to lose weight in a healthy way.”</li><li>A good rule of thumb is that the before and after images for things you can change (e.g., teeth straightening, hairstyle, painting a room) can be inspirational. Looking at things you cannot change (body build, height, etc.) might be counterproductive.</li></ul>

Not Good For Our Psyche

People love before-and-after pictures. But do they do more harm than good?

Understand yourself and those around you.

psychology

Psychology

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

Why we can’t look away from before-and-after pictures

Manuka honey is produced by bees who pollinate the flower of the Leptospermum scoparium, or manuka bush. The manuka plant is native to New Zealand, and manuka honey contains over 2,000 individual natural compounds, twentyfold more than ordinary pasture-type honeys such as clover.

Manuka honey 

The antimicrobial and wound healing effects of manuka honey are extensively studied. The honey also exhibits anti-inflammatory, immune-modulatory and antioxidant bioactivities, which work together to give manuka honey its therapeutic effects. Other compounds found in manuka honey are methylglyoxal, responsible for antimicrobial properties, and leptosperin, which may have anti-inflammatory benefits.

The potential health benefits of manuka honey

Manuka honey ranges from $2 per ounce to more than $14 per ounce, depending on its grade or Unique manuka factor level. The better the grade, the higher the price. The pant is very rare. The flower is only open for 12 days and sometimes helicopters have to be used to collect this honey.

Why Manuka is so expensive

The UMFHA serves as the leading body behind the New Zealand honey industry. Licensed Manuka honey growers must comply with regulations to receive the UMF quality label en ensure their product meets the requirements. These requirements include independent laboratory testing of product samples to confirm the presence of unique signature markers.

The Unique Manuka Factor (UMF)

Many consume manuka honey for wellness reasons. However, many just like the thicker, creamier taste of manuka honey, which undergoes a creaming process. The unique New Zealand flair has brought on an onslaught of controversy. The manuka plant goes by many other names, such as Tea Tree and Red Damask. The shrub is native to New Zealand, but other countries also seek to capitalize on this goldmine. New Zealand has taken Australia to court because New Zealand beekeepers don't want the Australian version to be called manuka honey.

Protecting the manuka honey brand

HowStuffWorks explores the world of expensive manuka honey to find out how it's different from other honeys.

What's All the Buzz About Manuka Honey? 

Diet culture believes that appearance and body shape are more important than physical, psychological, and general well-being. Diet culture normalises labelling foods as good or bad and thinking that food is either something you earn or don't deserve depending on how you've eaten and exercised. People also label themselves as good or bad for eating certain foods. They may have a poor self-image, talk negatively about themselves, and believe that a thin person is better.

The diet culture is harmful

It is a toxic idea to think that food is only fuel and must be earned. Food is more than fuel. It is a social and cultural part of our lives. Thinking of food as good or bad fuel prevents you from enjoying food as a more meaningful part of your life. Restricting your food intake so that you do not obtain the correct amount of nutrients for optimal functioning can be detrimental to your health.

Food is more than fuel

Labelling yourself as good or bad based on the foods you eat can lead to an eating disorder, such as orthorexia, sticking rigidly to consuming food that the person believes to be the "correct" healthy diet. This obsession leads to interference with everyday life, including social, emotional and more. Examples include avoiding gluten when you're not intolerant or allergic, extreme versions of veganism, extreme low-fat or low-carbohydrate diets, detoxes, cleanses and avoiding all non-organic foods.

Diet culture as an unhealthy obsession

While it is impossible to avoid the diet culture due to its pervasive nature in all aspects of society, you can limit your exposure to diet culture and advocate against it. <ul><li>Avoid social media, forums, or online groups that make you feel like you are not good enough for the way that you look.</li><li>Practice body neutrality - the idea that you should focus on what the body can do right now, not what you want it to look like.</li><li>Educate yourself on what overall health is. It might help you understand how focusing solely on thinness and food restriction can be detrimental to your health.</li></ul>

How to combat diet culture

Diet culture is the belief that physical appearance is more important than overall well-being. It can lead to disordered eating when it becomes obsessive.

habits

Habits

What Is Diet Culture?

In the distant past, studying nutrition was a relatively simple science. Diseases such as scurvy, pellagra, anaemia and goitre were solved by developing hypotheses and running experiments until they found what was missing in people's diets. However, nutrition is no longer that simple. Today, our greatest health problems are related to overeating. People eat too many calories from too much low-quality food, causing chronic diseases like cancer, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. These diseases develop over a lifetime, and fixing them is not as simple as adding a few oranges to the diet.

Nutrition is not a simple science

The randomized controlled trial is considered the gold standard for many areas of medicine. People are randomly assigned to two groups, and the only significant difference between the groups is the treatment. But with nutrition, it's too difficult to randomly assign different diets to people and assume people will stick with the specific diets for years to find clues if certain foods caused certain diseases. Scientists can't lock people up to ensure they stick to the diet. At best, studies can only measure short-term effects.

 It's not practical to run randomized trials

Studies that track very large numbers of people who already eat a certain way can be very valuable. For example, that is how scientists learned about the dangers of smoking and the benefits of exercise. But observational studies are rife with uncertainty. These studies aren't controlled like experiments, and they're less precise and noisy. Health outcomes could also be the result of a higher income or better educated, or being more health-conscious.

Nutrition researchers have to rely on observational studies

Many observational studies rely on surveys and have subjects report on their diets. An obvious challenge is that people don't remember what they ate for lunch yesterday or if they sprinkled something over the salad or snacked afterwards. Yet, much nutrition research rests on people's self-reporting from memory of what they ate. Many people also lie about what they eat, offering more socially acceptable answers.

Many nutrition studies rely on (wildly imprecise) food surveys

Researchers discovered that different bodies have very different responses to the same food. This makes nutrition research more difficult. Israeli scientists tracked 800 people over a week, monitoring their blood sugar levels to see how they responded to the same foods. Every person responded differently to identical meals, suggesting that health and nutrition cannot be simply understood by assessing what people eat.

People and food are diverse

Nutrition science is horribly underfunded by the government, so food companies and industry groups sponsor research. Industry-funded studies tend to have results that are more favourable to the industry.

Conflict of interest

Researchers have used all these imperfect tools to learn important things over the years. Nutritional research contributed to the knowledge that folate deficiency among pregnant women causes congenital disabilities or that drinking too much soda increases the risk of diabetes and fatty liver disease.

Nutrition science isn't futile

<ul><li>Always consider all the available research on a question, not just single studies. Meta-analyses or systematic reviews are helpful.</li><li>Different types of studies on a question, such as clinical trials, observational data, and lab studies, should all point toward a common conclusion.</li><li>Paying attention to the source of funding behind the research is key. Research funded by independent government agencies or foundations tends to be more credible.</li></ul>

What nutrition science to trust

I asked 8 researchers why the science of nutrition is so messy. Here’s what they said.

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