Entries by Chet Zelasko

Manteniendo Tu Melón

Tuesday, we talked about Maintaining Your Melon — or manteniendo tu melón in Spanish. The U.S. POINTER study demonstrated that cognitive decline could be reduced using two different approaches in over 2,000 subjects with an average age of 68. Based on the U.S. POINTER design, the Latin American Initiative for Lifestyle Intervention to Prevent Cognitive […]

Maintaining Your Melon

Changing one’s lifestyle is difficult to do, and I think it’s especially challenging if the benefits could be years in the future — specifically doing those things that need to be done now to reduce the decline in cognition that happens as we get older. Two recently published studies have demonstrated how that’s possible. The […]

Is Xylitol Dangerous?

Over the past few years, research papers have suggested that sugar alcohols, specifically erythritol, may increase blood clotting and potentially lead to a major adverse coronary event or MACE for short. It gave me pause — to the extent that I stopped using sugar-free gum when I work out. The same research group recently presented […]

The Memo: AI-Free Zone

I’m still bugged about the topic I wrote about last week, polyphenols in fruit. It’s not that I don’t think it was an interesting topic. It was. Why did it show up in press release now when it was published in 2023? My sense is that AI was involved, based on what I’ve read and […]

Fruit: Variety is the Key

I didn’t want to hold you in suspense, so I already revealed that you can put the banana in your smoothie if you like. I’ll tell you why, but first a little more about the study. The biggest issue, which the researchers acknowledge, is the limited number of subjects. Eight subjects just aren’t enough, nor […]

Should You Skip the Banana?

Over the years, I think I’ve made it clear that I don’t drink smoothies of any type. I’m also aware that it’s a preferred method for many people to get their fruit, protein, fiber, and other nutrients in a convenient manner. That’s why a recent press release for a study published in 2023 caught my […]

Carbs and Insulin: Diet Matters

On Wednesday, I told you about a study of people who experienced an energy crash after eating carbs. The next study was more pragmatic: we have non-diabetic people who seem to have reactive hypoglycemia (RH), but can we treat it with diet alone? This is a concern because many believe that RH in these people […]

Carbohydrates and Insulin

On a typical busy morning, a person has a fairly good dose of carbohydrates in the form of a sugary cereal, a bagel, a pastry, or a breakfast sandwich from a drive-thru. Then a couple of hours later, they seem to crash—not their car, but their energy seems to drain away. Maybe they start to […]

Three Challenges

This weekend is the last holiday of the summer or the first of the fall, depending on how you look at it. I’d like to challenge you to try three different tasks if they are not part of your regular routine. I’ve talked about high-intensity interval workouts a lot the past couple of months. I’m […]

Functional Essential Fatty Acids

Understanding that linoleic acid is the essential omega-6 fatty acid and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) is the essential omega-3 fatty acid, the logical question would be what about fish oil and other sources of omega-3 fatty acids? It’s just a little complicated, but let me explain. It’s true that in humans, we can use ALA to […]