Jonny Bowden's Blog, page 3

Three Health Mistakes Men Make

FOX-29 – KABB-TV SAN ANTONIO, TX – I’ve been on this show a million times and I love it! Listen carefully and you’ll hear a light rhythmic soundscape underneath our interview—the work of their in-house DJ, local legend Xavier “The Freakin Rican” Garcia!  In this clip, I talk to host Kimberly Crawford about three things that men ignore that can lead to big health consequences!

Watch Now

Revamp Your Man’s Health!

KENS-5 TV—SAN ANTONIO, TX – I love this show, the hosts are always so into health, fitness and nutrition. On this clip I talk about three things men ignore—snoring, their bellies, and their prostates. I give a suggestion for what to do about each one.


Watch Now

What is the Keto Diet?

FOX-6 – WITI TV – MILWAUKEE, WI – The hosts on this show had a personal interest in the diet and their questions are very typical of what I’m hearing around the country as well as on social media. If you’re new to keto, this is a good intro!

Get a Summer Body with Dr. Jonny

FOX-31 – KWGN-TV – DENVER, COLORADO – – I talk about  three popular diets—keto, whole 30 and raw foods—their benefits and their potential pitfalls. I talk about how they overlap, what they accomplish, and how to do them right!

Watch Now

The Death of Charles Poliquin

The death of the legendary trainer and strength coach Charles Poliquin at the age of 57 was a tragedy. It would be even more of a tragedy to politicize his death.

Let me explain.

In case you hadn’t noticed, debates about nutrition and health have started to resemble debates in the U.S. congress. They’re acrimonious, tribal, and often ill-tempered: your side is “wrong”, my side is “right” and don’t bother me with any facts that don’t fit my narrative.

Charles was an outspoken advocate of lower carb, higher fat diets. He held thoughtful, educated positions and the research was on his side.

But that isn’t going to stop the inevitable (and partisan) proliferation of comments such as, “See? His high-fat diet did him in and he died of a heart attack! We should all be vegans!”

That’s the absolute last thing Charles would want to happen. He’d hate the fact that anyone would use his death as “evidence” for out-of-date theories about fat, animal products, cholesterol and heart disease. And he’d have a few choice words for the people who’d make that argument.

Because here’s the uncomfortable fact that we all need to face: Sometimes shit happens, and it’s not always because of anything we did or didn’t do. It just….happens.

Every time an icon of the health movement dies early or unexpectedly, people struggle with how to make sense of it. Those of us who answer questions on health for a living get a flood of comments saying, “He did all the right things, and he died anyway, so what’s the purpose of doing the right things?”

This happened when running guru Jim Fixx died at age 52, it happened when nutritionist Shari Lieberman died of ovarian cancer at 51, and it happened when Robert Crayhon—a mentor of both mine and Charles’- died at 49 of colon cancer.

But here’s the thing. People die wearing seat belts, but that doesn’t make wearing seat belts a bad idea. Wearing seat belts reduces the risk of dying in a car crash but it doesn’t reduce it to zero. Seat belts still significantly reduce the risk of fatalities and you’re an idiot if you don’t use them.

And it’s the same with diet. Charles, Robert and Sheri died eating Paleo-centric diets, but do we have any idea how many lives were saved by eating those very same diets?  Conversely, do we have any idea how many deaths from heart disease and cancer were directly caused by eating the low-fat high-carb diet that health authorities recommend and that Charles (and Robert, and Shari) wisely shunned?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from 28 years in the health professions—and I’m 100% sure my friend Charles would agree with this statement—it’s this: There are more factors influencing health outcomes than anyone ever dreamed of even a decade ago. Genetics. Epigenetics. Nutragenomics. SNPPS (slight variations in genes that have wide-ranging consequences). The microbiome. Exposures to chemicals and toxins. Hormones, neurotransmitters, psychoneuroimmunology, meal timing, SIBO, gluten—you name it, there’s a faction in nutrition that thinks it explains everything.

So listen up, people. Nothing explains everything. Sometimes some of those abovementioned factors—and many that we don’t even know about yet—collide like random meteorites and result in a stressor at a vulnerable point in your metabolism, and before you know it you’re looking at an autoimmune disease, a cancer, or a heart attack.

As Dr. Mark Houston—a great friend of both Charles and myself—used to say, “The body has only a finite number of ways to respond to an infinite number of stressors”.

A heart attack is one of those ways.

Losing Charles is very sad. But it would be even sadder if anyone believed we lost him because he ate a healthy, low-carb diet.

The post The Death of Charles Poliquin appeared first on Jonny Bowden.

Don’t Politicize The Death of Charles Poliquin

The death of the legendary trainer and strength coach Charles Poliquin at the age of 57 was a tragedy. It would be even more of a tragedy to politicize his death.

Let me explain.

In case you hadn’t noticed, debates about nutrition and health have started to resemble debates in the U.S. congress. They’re acrimonious, tribal, and often ill-tempered: your side is “wrong”, my side is “right” and don’t bother me with any facts that don’t fit my narrative.

Charles was an outspoken advocate of lower carb, higher fat diets. He held thoughtful, educated positions and the research was on his side.

But that isn’t going to stop the inevitable (and partisan) proliferation of comments such as, “See? His high-fat diet did him in and he died of a heart attack! We should all be vegans!”

That’s the absolute last thing Charles would want to happen. He’d hate the fact that anyone would use his death as “evidence” for out-of-date theories about fat, animal products, cholesterol and heart disease. And he’d have a few choice words for the people who’d make that argument.

Because here’s the uncomfortable fact that we all need to face: Sometimes shit happens, and it’s not always because of anything we did or didn’t do. It just….happens.

Every time an icon of the health movement dies early or unexpectedly, people struggle with how to make sense of it. Those of us who answer questions on health for a living get a flood of comments saying, “He did all the right things, and he died anyway, so what’s the purpose of doing the right things?”

This happened when running guru Jim Fixx died at age 52, it happened when nutritionist Shari Lieberman died of ovarian cancer at 51, and it happened when Robert Crayhon—a mentor of both mine and Charles’- died at 49 of colon cancer.

But here’s the thing. People die wearing seat belts, but that doesn’t make wearing seat belts a bad idea. Wearing seat belts reduces the risk of dying in a car crash but it doesn’t reduce it to zero. Seat belts still significantly reduce the risk of fatalities and you’re an idiot if you don’t use them.

And it’s the same with diet. Charles, Robert and Sheri died eating Paleo-centric diets, but do we have any idea how many lives were saved by eating those very same diets?  Conversely, do we have any idea how many deaths from heart disease and cancer were directly caused by eating the low-fat high-carb diet that health authorities recommend and that Charles (and Robert, and Shari) wisely shunned?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from 28 years in the health professions—and I’m 100% sure my friend Charles would agree with this statement—it’s this: There are more factors influencing health outcomes than anyone ever dreamed of even a decade ago. Genetics. Epigenetics. Nutragenomics. SNPPS (slight variations in genes that have wide-ranging consequences). The microbiome. Exposures to chemicals and toxins. Hormones, neurotransmitters, psychoneuroimmunology, meal timing, SIBO, gluten—you name it, there’s a faction in nutrition that thinks it explains everything.

So listen up, people. Nothing explains everything. Sometimes some of those abovementioned factors—and many that we don’t even know about yet—collide like random meteorites and result in a stressor at a vulnerable point in your metabolism, and before you know it you’re looking at an autoimmune disease, a cancer, or a heart attack.

As Dr. Mark Houston—a great friend of both Charles and myself—used to say, “The body has only a finite number of ways to respond to an infinite number of stressors”.

A heart attack is one of those ways.

Losing Charles is very sad. But it would be even sadder if anyone believed we lost him because he ate a healthy, low-carb diet.

Three Things Most Guys Neglect

I’m appearing on some of my favorite local morning TV shows in San Antonio this week, and I’m talking about things that guys tend to ignore—their snoring, their prostate and their belly. (If you’re female and reading this, you’re probably nodding.)

Here’s why they matter.

When I was a trainer in NYC at Equinox Fitness Clubs, I quickly lost count of the number of people who told me their relationship had been impacted—negatively—by snoring. First of all, it’s not sexy. Second of all, it disrupts sleep (both yours and your partner’s.) And third—let’s face it—it could be a harbinger of some metabolic problems down the way.

So often, however, snoring is nothing more than blocked airways. I recommended a simple little device called Mute that you can pick up anywhere—CVS, Walgreens, Amazon. Mute acts like an adjustable “stent” that just opens up the air passages. If you—or your sleeping partner—snores, this is certainly the first thing I’d recommend trying.

 

The prostate. We take a “once daily” vitamin for general health—but what about for prostate health? Guys—and those who love them—listen up. The prostate is one of the most important glands you have. It’s an essential part of the male reproductive system and it requires the same kind of attention you give other essentials, like the brain and the heart. I recommend a “one-a-day” type vitamin for your prostate called Prostate Complete by Real Health. It has all the nutrients I recommend to men for prostate support, including saw palmetto, lycopene, zinc and the anti-inflammatory quercetin.

 

The belly. It’s amazing how many guys don’t notice their weight gain—usually in the form of an increasing waistline– until it’s time for a class reunion and they try on the old tux. Whoops. But many guys are wrongly stuck in the 80’s thinking the only way to lose that bellyfat is with a low-fat diet. They couldn’t be more wrong.

Guys—especially guys—need an oil change. We do better on diets higher in fat, protein and fiber and lower in carbs. And we need to get reacquainted with some of the healthy saturated fats we scorned for so long because we thought they were bad for us (newsflash: they’re not). Get rid of the corn and soy oils and start using avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, and ghee, and one of my personal favorites— the often-overlooked Malaysian red palm oil.

I mention Malaysia specifically because it’s an environmentally conscious country that protects 50% of their forests and produces palm oil without harming any animal habitats.  I’m a huge fan of palm oil because it stands up to heat, it’s non-GMO, and it’s a rich source of tocotrienols and carotenes. And unlike it’s “vegetable oil” cousins, it’s not pro-inflammatory!

Add it to a diet that’s based on what I call the Jonny Bowden Four Food Groups—food you could hunt, fish, gather or pluck—and you may be amazed at how fast your energy doubles and your belly fat shrinks.

The post Three Things Most Guys Neglect appeared first on Jonny Bowden.

Three Things Most Guys Neglect

I’m appearing on some of my favorite local morning TV shows in San Antonio this week, and I’m talking about things that guys tend to ignore—their snoring, their prostate and their belly. (If you’re female and reading this, you’re probably nodding.)

Here’s why they matter.

When I was a trainer in NYC at Equinox Fitness Clubs, I quickly lost count of the number of people who told me their relationship had been impacted—negatively—by snoring. First of all, it’s not sexy. Second of all, it disrupts sleep (both yours and your partner’s.) And third—let’s face it—it could be a harbinger of some metabolic problems down the way.So often, however, snoring is nothing more than blocked airways. I recommended a simple little device called Mute that you can pick up anywhere—CVS, Walgreens, Amazon. Mute acts like an adjustable “stent” that just opens up the air passages. If you—or your sleeping partner—snores, this is certainly the first thing I’d recommend trying.

 

The prostate. We take a “once daily” vitamin for general health—but what about for prostate health? Guys—and those who love them—listen up. The prostate is one of the most important glands you have. It’s an essential part of the male reproductive system and it requires the same kind of attention you give other essentials, like the brain and the heart. I recommend a “one-a-day” type vitamin for your prostate called Prostate Complete by Real Health. It has all the nutrients I recommend to men for prostate support, including saw palmetto, lycopene, zinc and the anti-inflammatory quercetin.

 

The belly. It’s amazing how many guys don’t notice their weight gain—usually in the form of an increasing waistline– until it’s time for a class reunion and they try on the old tux. Whoops. But many guys are wrongly stuck in the 80’s thinking the only way to lose that bellyfat is with a low-fat diet. They couldn’t be more wrong.Guys—especially guys—need an oil change. We do better on diets higher in fat, protein and fiber and lower in carbs. And we need to get reacquainted with some of the healthy saturated fats we scorned for so long because we thought they were bad for us (newsflash: they’re not). Get rid of the corn and soy oils and start using avocado oil, olive oil, coconut oil, grass-fed butter, and ghee, and one of my personal favorites— the often-overlooked Malaysian red palm oil.I mention Malaysia specifically because it’s an environmentally conscious country that protects 50% of their forests and produces palm oil without harming any animal habitats.  I’m a huge fan of palm oil because it stands up to heat, it’s non-GMO, and it’s a rich source of tocotrienols and carotenes. And unlike it’s “vegetable oil” cousins, it’s not pro-inflammatory!

Add it to a diet that’s based on what I call the Jonny Bowden Four Food Groups—food you could hunt, fish, gather or pluck—and you may be amazed at how fast your energy doubles and your belly fat shrinks.

Is it true what they’re saying about Omega-3s?

A recent Cochrane Review published July 18 entitled Omega-3 Intake for Cardiovascular Disease basically concluded that increasing EPA and DHA (the two omega-3s found in fish) have “little or no effect on all-cause deaths and cardiovascular events”.

As you can imagine, this led to all kinds of hand-wringing headlines in the media (“Fish oil supplements do nothing to prevent heart attacks!” said Britain’s Independent) and no small amount of confusion on the part of consumers. Could we have been misled about the value of omega-3?

Actually, no.

What we’ve been misled about is the value of these kinds of studies.\

The studies that produce shocking headlines like these are almost always observational studies, not clinical ones. That’s a huge limitation and it frequently leads to some really weird conclusions (for some amusing examples, keep reading). In observational studies, researchers observe—they don’t intervene. They collect massive amounts of data about people’s habits—what they’re already eating, what pills they’re already taking, how much alcohol they’re drinking on a weekly basis—and then, years later, look at their health outcomes. The idea is to connect the dots and uncover relationships between habits and health.

What they uncover sometimes isn’t real, and what they don’t uncover sometimes is. Let me explain.

Observational studies basically look for correlations between variables (like taking an omega-3 pill and living free of heart disease). The problem is, there are a lot of correlations where two things are found together—even in a statistically significant way—but one thing does not cause the other. (Think “rain” and “umbrellas”—found together all the time.) Furthermore, hundreds of correlations show up that essentially have no meaning whatsoever—they’re just interesting, quirky mathematical relationships. Nate Silver and his team of statistical whiz kids over at 528.com recently put together some actual, real-life, statistically confirmed correlations from observational data like the kind used in the “omegas don’t work” study. He published them under the title, “You Can’t Trust What You Read About Nutrition”. Here are a few examples:

It gets worse. You see that list of foods in the left hand column of the chart above? Well, all of these findings require that you get accurate information about how much of each food people in the study were eating. But that’s almost impossible to do. One of the dark secrets of nutrition research is that almost all of it uses a research tool called the Food Frequency Questionnaire which is stupendously awful. Here’s an example taken directly from the questionnaire:

As a busy person who can’t remember what he ate for breakfast yesterday, I shudder at the thought of building research conclusions about diet based on the answer to questions like the ones above.

And it’s exactly the same with supplements. You’d get questions like, “How many times in the last three months have you taken a fish oil ‘pill’?”

With questions like that, you’d have no what kind of omega-3 supplements were being taken. You wouldn’t know the dose, nor the quality. One person’s idea of a “fish oil pill” could be very different from another’s.  And, on top of it all, we have no way of confirming the accuracy of the self-reports.

Interestingly, within months of the Cochrane report saying omega-3s do nothing, another large study was released showing that those with the highest levels of omega-3s in their blood actually live the longest. But unfortunately, that study—like the Cochrane report—was based on the same kind of basically useless data, even when they reach conclusions we agree with!

So the first reason you shouldn’t pay too much attention to studies like this is that they’re based on subjective recall of what people said they ate over the last few months and what “pills” they remembered taking over the last few months. Those data are—let’s be charitable—highly questionable.

But the second reason you shouldn’t worry too much about these studies is even more important, and it’s this.

Health is multi-factorial. No one habit—no one food you eat, no one “pill” you take, no one habit you cultivate—is, by itself, going to necessarily extend your life or protect you from every disease. The question should never be, “Did this supplement/food/diet/lifestyle habit protect me from heart disease?” Instead, the question should be, “Is this a habit that contributes to my overall health? Because in the end, all nutrients, phytochemicals, catechins, flavanols, vitamins, minerals, electrolytes, fatty acids work together in a synergistic way to create resistance to disease and a sense of vitality. No one ingredient alone can shoulder the burden.

That’s why so many of these studies are short-sighted and produce disappointing results. They’re asking the wrong question.

Good health results from a collection of habits. It’s a manner of living (which is why they call it lifestyle). No single nutrient—not even the spectacularly healthy omega-3—works by itself to change your life. If you’re eating 7 meals a day at a fast food restaurant and smoking Lucky Strikes, guess what—taking a fish oil “pill” isn’t going to protect you from heart disease.

But add that “pill” to a healthy diet, some sunshine, loving relationships and a healthy dose of exercise and all of a sudden you’re talking about a very different alchemy.

Thousands of studies—have documented the value of omega-3 in reducing inflammation, lowering triglycerides, lowering blood pressure. I don’t have to tell you that—you can go to PubMed and research it for yourself. Entire books—such as The Omega-3 Effect by Drs. Bill and Jim Sears, or Fish Oil: The Natural Anti-Inflammatory by Dr. Joseph Maroon—have documented the positive effects of omega-3s, complete with hundreds of scientific references. At some point we have to be smart consumers and start connecting the dots. As the great nutrition educator Robert Crayhon once said to me, “The entire New York City fire department doesn’t have a single double-blind study showing that water puts out fire, but they use it anyway because they’ve noticed that it works.”

Omega-3 may not be the one and only thing that keeps your heart healthy, but there’s plenty of reason to suspect that it makes a huge difference

The post Is it true what they’re saying about Omega-3s? appeared first on Jonny Bowden.

Why Is A Nutritionist Talking About Amy Schumer?

This column is about the new Amy Schumer movie, I Feel Pretty.

You’re probably wondering, why is a nutritionist is writing about the Amy Schumer movie?

Well, for the same reason I wrote about Kate going to fat camp in This is Us. Which is that it touches on issues that every nutritionist deals with on a daily basis.

Look, I’m fully aware that anyone reading me wants to hear what I have to say about nutrition and health, not politics and media. But I’m also aware that nutrition is only part of the puzzle. Every aspect of human health—including our weight— is built on a number of different pillars of which nutrition is only one. These pillars include digestion, detoxification, sleep, plays-well-with-others, recreation, stress, exercise, relationships. Every one of them matters.

So in the spirit of “everything is connected”, let me explain why I’m writing about the Amy Schumer movie. Three reasons.

 

Number one: It’s about self-esteem.

I started as a trainer on the floor of the first Equinox gym ever built, in Manhattan 27 years ago, and over the years I saw hundreds of clients in my seven years as a personal trainer, and hundreds more afterwards as a nutritionist. Through my articles and website and at live events I’ve communicated with thousands. The majority of my clients have been women. A very large number of them have had self-esteem issues. A very large number of, let’s see, everyone has self-esteem issues. And there’s no way to underestimate how important self-esteem is in your health and well-being.

This movie is about self-esteem, It’s also about body image, something every trainer and nutritionist in America deals with multiple times on a daily basis.

 

Number two: Amy Schumer.

I’m about  to talk about a person’s appearance, and I’m sorry if we’re not supposed to say this stuff anymore because it’s not politically correct, but I’m going to say it anyway: Amy Schumer is not fat.

Now the whole question of whether you can be “fat” and sexy and confident and healthy is totally worthy of discussion (the answer’s ‘yes, duh!’), but it’s not the point right now. The point is that if we all collectively acquiesce to the preposterous idea that this beautiful healthy girl with a few curves is “fat”, man we are going down the wrong road.

Surprisingly, even a few of my closest women friends have told me, “well you know she has gained a lot of weight” in a whispered tone once used for statements like “you know, Aunt Mary has cancer”. I look at them like they’re off their rockers. I have many beautiful, sexy women friends in their forties who literally announce to me how fat they are every time I see them. I want to scream. YOU’RE NOT FAT, YOU’RE CRAZY. Stop buying into this shit! If Amy Schumer is your idea of a “fat girl”, you need a serious reality check. Please, people, don’t normalize this. Beauty doesn’t come in one size only.

Amy Schumer’s not only not fat, she’s also really good looking. There’s a scene in a bathroom where Amy’s character is talking to a girl who just oozes Maxim Magazine, and is supposed to represent what guys, god helps us, supposedly think of as perfection, with her “perfect” little body in the tight little dress with her  “perfect” little face, and “fat” Amy is gushing over how incredible it must be to be so perfect. Meanwhile I’m thinking that if I were single, and a genie jumped out of a bottle and gave me a fantasy choice of spending a consequence-free night with either one of them, I’d be outta there with Amy so fast the wind from the door slamming would knock the little 90 pound glam queen right off her seat.

And if you’re thinking of sending me hate mail because you think I love “fat” women, don’t bother. I don’t love or not love “fat women”—what I like is real women.

 

Number three: The message

I know that critics think this movie is sappy and preachy. I have two words for them and the first one I won’t say on my blog but it rhymes with a bird that quacks. And the second is “you”. This movie has a very important message and it delivers it in a beautiful and entertaining and meaningful way. The morning after Michelle and I saw it I was texting with every woman I know who has a girl child and urging them to get out and see this movie and to take their kids with them.

I urge you to do the same. I hope every girl over the age of eight sees this movie.

And guys of all ages, this might be a really good time to start re-evaluating what it means to be “beautiful” and “sexy”. Just sayin.

The post Why Is A Nutritionist Talking About Amy Schumer? appeared first on Jonny Bowden.