As he slathered SPF 30 onto his left calf, Ryan Johnson looked back at me and issued a warning: expect honking. I hadn鈥檛 been astride a bike in six years, but here I was on a brutally hot late-October afternoon in Arizona, an e-bike beside me, preparing for a ride. Our destination was a cycling path along the Salt River, which bisects Tempe, a city of 189,000 people about ten miles (or 60 minutes by bike) east of Phoenix. Tempe is home to Arizona State University, and it鈥檚 also the place where Johnson is currently running a grand residential experiment.

Johnson is the cofounder of Culdesac, a real estate development firm that wants to flip the script on urban living. In May 2023, he became one of the first tenants of Culdesac Tempe, a new complex taking shape on an otherwise inconspicuous tract of dirt. More than 225 people have since moved into apartments located inside a tight grouping of white stucco buildings that might be described as Santorini lite, with trendy balconies, spacious courtyards, and inviting patios shaded by trees.

Similar to those pseudo-urban enclaves situated outside America鈥檚 metropolises where residences and retail commingle, Culdesac has its own grocery store, gym, caf茅, and mail service. There鈥檚 a bike shop on the premises, as well as a clothing consignment store, a plant emporium, an art studio, and a wellness boutique that offers IV hydration. A coworking space is located above the gym. Cocina Chiwas, the restaurant on the corner, combines craft cocktails with its own take on Mexican fare. This past May, the restaurant鈥檚 owners opened up Aruma, a coffee shop across from the restaurant.

Once construction is complete, which will take several years, will comprise 760 units total, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms and housing approximately 1,000 residents. The catch: not one of those units will come with a parking space. 鈥淲e鈥檙e the first car-free neighborhood built from scratch in the U.S.,鈥� says Johnson.

Virtually every residential development anywhere in this country includes parking, a requirement common in city building codes. At Culdesac, if you do own a vehicle, it鈥檚 a condition of your lease that you refrain from parking it within one block, in any direction, of the community. 鈥淲e can鈥檛 tell people that they can鈥檛 own a car,鈥� says Johnson, a tall, lanky 41-year-old. 鈥淏ut if people want to have a car, there are other great neighborhoods for them.鈥�

The thought made me shudder. Where I live, in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., about an hour from the city, a car is practically a prerequisite for getting to the grocery store, the barber, the doctor鈥檚 office, the liquor store. Bike lanes are sporadic. There aren鈥檛 many bus stops within walking distance. Taking a rideshare to visit family, an hour by car at least, seems more than a little silly. While I typically work from home, when traveling I drive to the airport鈥攊n the Ford Bronco my wife and I bought last year. (And if I can be frank: I just want a vehicle.)

鈥淚 had an SUV in high school,鈥� Johnson, who hasn鈥檛 owned a car in 13 years, told me when I met him. 鈥淚 just didn鈥檛 know any better.鈥�

The e-bike ride was my first lesson in automotive deprivation. I had flown here to try out a one-bedroom apartment at Culdesac and experience carless living for several days. There鈥檚 a light-rail stop one street over, but early Culdesac residents received a complimentary electric bike, which is Johnson鈥檚 favorite mode of transportation. (He owns about 70 of them, most stored at his company鈥檚 main office downtown.) Plus, I was told that a ride on the Salt River bike path, 100-degree weather be damned, would provide unobstructed views of the mountains framing the city鈥檚 skyline.

We just had to get there first, which involved traveling on streets lacking any bike lanes. The speed limit on our route was 25 miles an hour, but my e-bike maxed out at 20. Barely ten minutes into the journey, I heard the first honk.

Ditching cars entirely might seem crazy. (In nearby Phoenix, once described by The New York Times as an 鈥渆ver-spreading tundra of concrete,鈥� they鈥檙e more of a necessity than a luxury.) But what Culdesac is attempting to accomplish is a revision of city living, where the pedestrian, not the automobile, is more valued. To Johnson, Culdesac is an oasis in a desert of car-fueled aggravation鈥攁 walkable community that鈥檚 safe, entertaining, better for the climate, and better for the individual. And he believes that if he builds it, people will come.

The post Can Car-free Living Make You Happier? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

On a hot October afternoon, Dave Benscoter leads me into a thicket of trees rising from a slope along the edge of Steptoe Butte in eastern Washington. We trudge until a mess of branches鈥攕ome bent low, crooked like a finger, others soaring toward the sun like Icarus鈥攐bscure the outline of his five-foot-nine-inch frame, currently draped in a T-shirt bearing the image of a whitetail buck. He stops, taps me, and points up. Craning his neck, he fixes his bespectacled eyes on an object the size of a tennis ball.

In the late 1800s, local legend James 鈥淐ashup鈥� Davis erected a hotel at the top of the butte, a popular destination until travelers figured that navigating a rickety wagon up 3,600 feet was a surefire way to join the departed. (After it closed, the abandoned hotel became an after-hours booze-soaked hangout.) But Cashup also planted several hundred apple trees in the ravines below. Hundreds still stand, scattered like patchwork between overgrown brush and tilled wheat fields.

Benscoter carries a long pole topped with a metal basket resembling the pocket of a lacrosse stick. Clasping it now with both hands, he maneuvers it between a tuft of green and orange leaves, then plucks an apple with the hue of a highlighter off a branch.

鈥淭here it is, my all-time favorite apple,鈥� Benscoter says after hauling it in. 鈥淚t looks like a butt.鈥� A vertical indent creased it down the middle.

He chuckles, grasps the apple,聽wipes it against his shirt, bites into it, chews a few times, and promptly spits out a chunk of partially masticated fruit. Not ripe enough, it seems. For the next several hours we continue, plucking apples from aged trees, sampling them in the grass, hoping to find one that people haven鈥檛 tasted in decades.

By 1900, about 20,000 known varieties of apples grew across North America. Now there鈥檚 less than half that number. Some are extinct, while others grow on trees . These heirloom varieties fell out of favor when new transportation and storage methods nullified the need for locally grown apples. As commercial agriculture supplanted family orchards, many distinct apples were displaced, too鈥攂ut not lost forever.

A self-styled sleuth of forgotten fruit, Benscoter pursues these rare heirlooms. He鈥檚 the founder of the , a nonprofit whose mission is to rediscover heritage apples in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2014, he has found 29 different varieties that were previously thought to be gone, some dating back to Grover Cleveland鈥檚 first presidency in the 1880s.

鈥淚t is difficult to describe how it feels to taste apples you鈥檝e never tasted before,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t is truly a wonderful experience.鈥�

How wonderful? I鈥檇 flown 3,000 miles to Washington to join the hunt and experience it for myself. I wanted to find an apple I鈥檝e never eaten鈥攎aybe even one that Benscoter himself hasn鈥檛 rediscovered.

But after a few hours on the butte, my chances aren鈥檛 looking good. Many of the trees we investigate are already dead. Many of the apples we try are unripe. We do assemble one bag of apples, but without knowing whether our quarry is an old variety. Yet it鈥檚 precisely in these moments, Benscoter tells me, that he feels he needs to keep searching, before lost apples are gone for good.

The post On the Hunt for America鈥檚 Forgotten Apples appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Bart Yasso was never more himself than when he was on a long run. As the chief running officer of Runner鈥檚 World magazine, he generally logged about 80 miles per week. He regularly trained for marathons and had finished two Ironmans, taking comfort in the distances he traveled. That all changed one cool April day in 1990.

After running a 50-mile ultramarathon around Lake Waramaug in Connecticut, Yasso lay down in a grassy field to recuperate before his drive back to Pennsylvania. A week later, he started feeling sick, unusually fatigued, and achy. He had a fever. On his neck, he found a red rash in the shape of a bull鈥檚-eye. Yasso had never seen anything like it, and he had no idea what it was.

鈥淚 went through a series of doctors, and no one could figure out why I was just not feeling well,鈥� Yasso recalls. 鈥淚鈥檇 try to run every once in a while, but it was awful.鈥�

Awareness around Lyme disease was limited back then. It was a regional infection, confined mostly to the Northeast and near the Great Lakes. While his fever and rash eventually abated, Yasso lived with aching joints for weeks, going to doctor after doctor, trying to figure out what was wrong. It wasn鈥檛 until three months later that he was finally diagnosed with Lyme.

Unfortunately for Yasso, the experience was merely the prologue for what was to come, as he contracted Lyme disease over the next 30 years. As a result, he experiences swelling and pain in his joints. 鈥淭o have swollen joints before you even head out the door on your run is not good,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 want to run. I try to run. Most days I just can鈥檛.鈥�

Lyme is treatable, and most people who are infected recover after a month of antibiotics if the disease is caught early. But the number of cases has risen sharply聽over the past decade, and scientists are now directing their efforts toward novel therapies. The goal is to prevent infection even after a tick bite occurs鈥攁nd possibly crush Lyme disease as we know it.

The post Finally, a Shot to Prevent Lyme Disease Could Be on Its Way appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

My first lesson in electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) is this: it won鈥檛 work if you鈥檙e not wet.

That鈥檚 how I found myself, on a Friday afternoon, swapping my gym clothes for a skintight shirt. Personal trainer Connie Ruiz then buckled me into a soft-shell carbon-fiber jacket and matching shorts, each equipped with electrodes. The layers were presoaked, but for good measure, Ruiz fired off a few more squirts of lukewarm water into both the jacket and shorts.

Ruiz is the owner and operator of , an exercise studio just outside Washington, D.C., that specializes in one-on-one EMS training. Ruiz guides everyone from gym novices to fitness junkies through 20-minute strength workouts while delivering low-frequency currents to their muscles via an : a metal box with an LCD, ten dials, and two leads that are attached to the jacket and shorts I鈥檓 wearing. Twisting the dials sends electricity to different muscle groups.

According to James Cousler, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and Personal20鈥檚 director of education, slow-twitch muscle fibers are usually the first to be engaged during a strength workout. Engaging the fast-twitch fibers, he says, requires more resistance. EMS training is more time-efficient: it activates both types of fibers simultaneously, without the additional load. Proponents of EMS say that this leads to a harder workout in a fraction of the time鈥攐ne that works the muscles and defines them without putting as much stress on the joints. Ruiz discovered EMS exercise five years ago, tried it for a month, and never looked back. 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 believe the definition I started seeing in my arms,鈥� she says.

Physical therapists and elite athletes have used EMS as a recovery tool for decades. Some research shows that electrically induced muscle contractions may reduce swelling, inflammation, and pain. By the early 2000s, EMS became more popular among the fitness crowd, who zapped their muscles on a hunch that being jolted with electricity would increase their gains. In the past several years, EMS workout studios have popped up in New York, Tennessee, Florida, and a handful of other states, including Ruiz鈥檚 studio in Virginia, where three introductory sessions will run you $109.

There鈥檚 a small but growing body of research assessing the effectiveness of EMS for strength training. A 2016 study with 41 participants, for example, showed that EMS workouts were roughly as effective as high-颅intensity resistance training in increasing muscle gains. (Unsurprisingly, in addition to being peddled to the fitness crowd, EMS is also advertised as a hassle-free way to tone abs and tighten butts. One such product, the , has been cleared by the Food and Drug Administration for strengthening abdominal muscles.) But standing there dressed like an extra from Tron, I was pretty skeptical.

Ruiz started by determining my optimal electrical setting (a medium level, which she said was normal for a newbie); I immediately felt the throbs in my thighs. She let it run during a warm-up round of bodyweight squats and jumping jacks, then eventually handed me a pair of two-pound weights and told me to do ten biceps curls. I thought she was joking, but by the eighth rep my arms felt it. After kickbacks, rows, and flys, my muscles were tight鈥攖he type of tightness I鈥檇 feel after doing the same exercises with 40-pound dumbbells鈥攁nd pulsing intermittently as Ruiz adjusted the machine鈥檚 dials.

Critics question whether EMS is really better than regular strength training, and was inconclusive on the effectiveness of EMS workouts. Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration notes that while EMS devices can speed recovery and may be able to strengthen muscles, they鈥檙e not a shortcut to a six-pack.

Close to the end of our 20-minute session, though, I was feeling the EMS鈥檚 power. Sets of crunches and planks had my core shaking, partly from the electrical current and partly from fatigue. For the cooldown, Ruiz had me lie on my back on a floor mat. 鈥淲e call this the fish flopping out of water,鈥� she said. While I relaxed with light current jostling my arms and legs, I felt soggy, sore, and surprisingly satisfied. Even if it鈥檚 no better than lifting, it鈥檚 certainly less boring than your average trip to the gym.

The post Can Zapping Your Muscles Enhance Strength Training? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

鈥淥nly 30 days,鈥� I whispered to myself. 鈥淚t鈥檚 only 30 days.鈥�

This spontaneous pep talk happened at my parents鈥� house on September 1, opening day of聽my monthlong plan to turn nutritional orthodoxy on its head. For the third time in barely an hour, I rushed with the urgency of an Olympic race聽walker to the closest bathroom. Let me be emphatic: I was not urinating.

That morning聽I had embarked on a dietary mission to eat only meat for 30 days. Later that afternoon, after my wife and I arrived at my parents鈥� place for a visit, my first meal hit me. I braced myself on the toilet in a state of disbelief鈥攆irst, at what a single steak breakfast was doing to my body,聽and second, at my mother for failing to discover the virtues of two-ply toilet paper.

I initially聽heard about the carnivore diet聽in late 2017, when Shawn Baker was . For two years, the 52-year-old weight lifter and trained orthopedic surgeon has聽eaten an average of four pounds of meat every day. No fruits, vegetables, bread, or sugar, although eggs and fish were fair game. 鈥淚f you would鈥檝e asked me two years ago, I would鈥檝e said, 鈥楾hat鈥檚 fucking crazy,鈥欌�� Baker told Rogan while explaining his daily menu. 鈥淚 did it for a month and thought, Man, I feel pretty good.鈥�

Since then, a cult-like following has branded Baker the unofficial Carnivore King. Men and women of all ages get in touch to share their dietary transformations: there鈥檚 a 聽whose before and after photos Baker reposted, and a bespectacled amateur bodybuilder who after jumping on the carnivore bandwagon. For his nearly 60,000 Instagram followers, Baker success stories of folks who embraced animal protein and found nutritional nirvana. 鈥淚鈥檝e been 98% carnivore since May 2018. I鈥檓 now down 42lbs,鈥� one woman . 鈥淢y inflammation is pretty much gone. My brain is back. My energy is returning. I just bought my first size 6 jeans since I was 20 years old. I haven鈥檛 worked out one time.鈥�

While Baker is generally viewed as the all-meat diet鈥檚 chief evangelist, a robust online community of fellow carnivores has emerged. There are more than 25,000 members of the World Carnivore Tribe group on Facebook. About 125 novice and longtime dieters have shared their stories at聽, a website Baker publishes. And a simple search for #MeatHeals on Instagram yields some 50,000 posts. Two other high-profile devotees of the lifestyle are Canadian psychologist and his daughter, , who credits聽carnivory for sending her severe arthritis, depression, fatigue, and itchy skin into remission. Baker and his followers also claim the diet聽improves sleep, eliminates聽joint pain, increases聽energy, decreases聽weight, and pumps up libido. 鈥淚 have no intention of saying I鈥檓 never going to eat anything else for the rest of my life,鈥� Baker told me in September. 鈥淏ut as long as I鈥檓 feeling good and performing well, I don鈥檛 want to eat anything else.鈥�

It all sounded wonderful. But would it work for me? I had to find out. Listening to Baker, I couldn鈥檛 help thinking about my own poor eating habits, which are at least partially a result of the frenetic nature of my job as a freelancer. Among my staples: pizza, burritos, burgers, and coffee鈥攕ometimes as many as five cups a day. I鈥檓 fortunate to have been blessed by genetics:聽I鈥檓 a 125-pound ectomorph with a fast metabolism, but as I聽inched closer to 30, I聽noticed that I had聽less energy.

Health professionals have many concerns about the diet鈥攂oth for what it omits (vitamins, fiber)聽and for the rising risk of longterm diseases 聽from聽excessive聽red-meat consumption. There鈥檚 also the fact that the claims made by Baker and his followers are mainly anecdotal.

Still, I wanted a change, so I purchased 40 pounds of steak. Not being a seasoned carnivore, I simply loaded up my cart with what I thought would sustain me for a month. With $170 worth of meat in hand, I kicked off my 30-day journey with a steak and eggs breakfast. I felt fine: full but not bloated, sated聽but not groggy. And then came the diarrhea.

Baker discovered the carnivore diet in 2016, not long after he began noticing the effects of middle age. He had always been a big weight聽lifter, breaking records by deadlifting 772 pounds and predicated on feats of strength, including the 2010 Highland Games in Colorado, where he chucked a pitchfork hooked to a 16-pound bag of straw 34 feet into the air. A brawny man with a thick neck and a square jaw, and usually tank-topped, he looks abundantly healthy.

By age 45, Baker found himself maxed out at the gym. Despite being a medical professional鈥攈e completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Texas in 2006鈥攈e didn鈥檛 know how to curb his high blood pressure or manage his weight. So he began experimenting with diet. First he went paleo, consuming only meat and produce, and followed that up with a stint on a low-carb diet. Then he tested out a high-fat ketogenic diet. By that point he had lost 50 pounds聽but still felt sluggish. After reading about various diets online, he discovered , a bodybuilding great from the 1950s and 1960s who advocated a curious approach: steak and eggs with a minimal amount of carbs mixed in. Baker was hooked, and Gironda鈥檚 diet became his gateway into full-blown carnivorism.

鈥淚 felt best when I was just doing steak and eggs,鈥� Baker said during a video chat in September. When I reached him by Skype, he was animated and engaging, and very open to talking about how much carnivory had changed his life. 鈥淭hen I kind of stumbled across these people that had been doing a carnivore diet for a long time,鈥� he said. That included聽Joe and Charlene Andersen, a married couple from the pages of a fitness magazine, who claimed to have lived on a diet of rib eye steak and spring water for nearly 20 years. (They declined to comment for this story.)

In 2016, Baker tried the carnivore diet for a week, then two weeks, then a month. Out of curiosity, he went back to his ketogenic diet, which included greens and dairy, but he didn鈥檛 feel as good. 鈥淚t was like, I don鈥檛 really enjoy all this salad anyway.聽That was essentially the difference. It didn鈥檛 taste that good to me,鈥� he said. Beginning in 2017, he returned to the all-meat diet for good.

Baker鈥檚 enthusiasm聽for the diet soon spread beyond聽his own life. While working as an聽orthopedic surgeon聽in New Mexico, he began discussing diet聽with patients suffering from聽osteoarthritis and other conditions. 鈥淚 was basically practicing lifestyle medicine instead of strictly performing surgery,鈥� he told me. A dispute with the hospital ensued, and in 2017, Baker was pending an independent evaluation, which occurred at the end of 2017. 鈥淭he evaluation said there鈥檚 nothing wrong with me. I鈥檓 completely competent to practice medicine,鈥� he said. He now lives in California聽and expects to have his medical license reinstated聽in February.

It was during this time that Baker became known as the Carnivore King, something, he said, that happened聽gradually after he joined Instagram in early 2017. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been organic and spontaneous. I just started telling my story, and people got interested in it,鈥� he said. Baker聽has supported himself financially by offering online diet consultations at $190 a pop, , and doing the occasional public-speaking gig. (He鈥檚 also tried his hand at writing: his cookbook, , will be published in April.)

While Baker is a happy convert, he鈥檚 not a zealot. He doesn鈥檛 push an all-meat diet on his three kids, for instance; he聽 allows them to eat fruit and dairy聽but very little processed sugar. When I spoke to Baker in September, he had been on a carnivore diet for more than 18 consecutive months. He enjoys fatty cuts of steak like rib eye聽but incorporates eggs, bacon, chicken, salmon, and shrimp. Every so often, he鈥檒l throw in a piece of cheese. Most of his diet is beef, but if it鈥檚 meat, he鈥檒l eat it. Normally, people consume about 100 grams of protein per day. On a diet like Baker鈥檚, that number skyrockets to nearly 500 grams, flouting the sorts of groups like the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics recommend.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of people that earn a living by making nutrition complicated,鈥� Baker told me. 鈥淲hen I say, 鈥楯ust eat a damn steak and you鈥檒l be fine,鈥� that offends a lot of people.鈥�

Eating a damn steak sounded simple enough. But prior to beginning my all-meat-all-the-time grubfest, I asked Baker if he had any advice.

His instructions were basic: don鈥檛 worry about weight, and eat whenever you鈥檙e hungry. 鈥淜ick those carb and sugar cravings,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about changing your relationship with food.鈥� No vegetables, no fruits, no bread, no sweeteners, no milk鈥攁nd no beer. I drank whiskey and red wine, but only in small quantities, as Baker prescribed. The general rule, given my weight, was to eat about two pounds of meat a day. I ate mostly steak, but also chicken, salmon, and brisket. My wife, a veteran CrossFit participant, isn鈥檛 a big fan of steak, but she does like salmon, brisket, and chicken, so I鈥檇 cook up several steaks along with some chicken or fish. (Fortunately for us, our house has two bathrooms.) For snacks I ate venison and chicken protein bars. According to Baker, red meat tends to be favored by carnivore dieters: after all, a fatty rib eye is more flavorful than bland chicken.

Every day,聽I checked my weight, my blood pressure, and my 鈥攖he amount of blood sugar in my body鈥攚ith a glucometer. I also weighed the meat I ate and tallied the glasses of water and the cups of coffee I drank. (If you鈥檙e interested in the TL;DR version, check out this聽. Yes, it includes a column for bowel movements.)

Like a lot of diets, the most difficult part is sticking with it when聽you aren鈥檛 near your own kitchen. Away on a reporting trip early in the month, I found myself sitting in a roadside motel room, using a plastic fork to pick the protein out of a ten-inch steak sandwich. Initially, the desire to cheat was strong. A diet of meat and eggs gets boring pretty quickly.

But after a week I was pretty well acclimated聽and enjoying a satisfying mix of chuck, strip, and rib eye steak. My guts were playing nice, too; no more power-walking to the toilet. I noticed that I was sleeping better, and I felt less sluggish each morning and more energetic in the afternoon, which is normally when I鈥檇 be pouring my third or fourth cup of coffee. For most of the month, I drank only two cups a day without deliberately聽trying to cut back. And while I lost several pounds鈥攁 result of the water content in my body shifting as I got聽used to a diet without carbohydrates鈥擨 never felt famished. In the gym, I was soon benching 130 pounds with ease. (Hey, it鈥檚 a lot for me.) My cravings for other foods subsided. Blowing up my diet forced me to focus on how my meals were prepared, how much I ate, and whether I felt nourished or bloated afterward. For the very first time, I cared about what I put in聽my body. I really did feel good.

And then came a fresh onslaught of diarrhea.

Frankly, it surprised me. I鈥檇 read articles before starting the diet that noted constipation as the main problem of carnivorous living. That seemed to make sense: you鈥檙e not getting any fiber. But when I started , and a possible treatment, I turned聽up numerous carnivores who mentioned diarrhea. In an interview she did on Rogan鈥檚 podcast in August, Mikhaila Peterson said that her bloating and diarrhea before it sorted itself out.

The reason has to do with how the body absorbs and digests fat, according to Teresa Fung, a professor of nutrition at Boston鈥檚 Simmons University. Glucose is the body鈥檚 preferred fuel, but in the absence of glucose-rich carbs, it turns to the fattiness of meat for energy. Usually, once fat hits the small intestine, signal molecules tell the pancreas to secrete lipase, a fat-digesting enzyme. The body normally produces enough of the enzyme to process the fat. Not so on a carnivore diet, at least at first. The amount of fat I was eating had surpassed my body鈥檚 ability to break it down. My colon had become a biodome of water and undigested fat. It got so bad that eventually I had to take lipase supplements鈥攖wo capsules before every meal. That, along with some Imodium, improved matters. (鈥淚f you keep this up, I would be very worried about you,鈥� Fung told me during our interview, which took place at the end of my 30-day test.)

鈥淭he diarrhea thing is very common,鈥� said Baker, who also recommended that I stick with the diet for聽60 to 90 days.

Later on聽I encountered another snag. During the final week of September, I noticed consistently rising fasting-glucose readings: 95, 106, 96, 100, 102. above 100 indicate prediabetes; score 126 or higher on two separate tests聽and you have diabetes. (In May, some online critics Baker after he publicly shared bloodwork聽revealing that聽his fasting-glucose level was 127.)

To help me distill this information, I turned to Stanford University School of Medicine professor (and vegetarian) Christopher Gardner. He said that while the human body can store a few pounds of carbohydrates and boasts an endless capacity for holding on to fat, it doesn鈥檛 store protein. Over the course of the day, protein helps make and repair cells, produce enzymes, and complete various other tasks. By the end of the month, I was regularly eating hundreds of grams of protein per day, way more than I needed. As a result, my body was trying to convert that excess protein into energy.

鈥淎s soon as you鈥檝e met your capacity for other things, amino acids from protein will turn into glucose,鈥� Gardner said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 probably why your blood glucose is going up.鈥�

While Baker allows聽that not everyone should be a strict carnivore, he does wear the mantle of Carnivore King proudly, using Instagram to poke at the vegans and vegetarians who fault聽his relationship with food.

鈥淢y goal is not to necessarily denigrate anyone,鈥� he told me. 鈥淚t鈥檚 to expose as many people to this diet as possible, because it鈥檚 potentially helpful.鈥�

Unsurprisingly, it鈥檚 not hard to find doctors and nutritionists who object. 鈥淲e have no evidence that this is a good idea,鈥� John Ioannidis, a clinical epidemiologist and professor of health research and policy at the Stanford School of Medicine, told me. 鈥淲e have mostly indirect evidence that this is a bad idea.鈥�

Animal protein tends to throw the balance of good and bad cholesterol in our bodies out of whack, which can lead聽to cardiovascular disease. According to the World Health Organization, red meat higher long-term risk of diabetes and colorectal cancer. Questions remain about the carnivore diet鈥檚 effect on the gut microbiome (the healthy bacteria that live in the colon, aid in immune response, and subsist on fiber). There鈥檚 also an insidious, unseen risk that comes with heavy meat consumption: meat is highly anabolic, which stimulates cell聽growth and boosts metabolism. Repeated studies show that such stimulation can make聽us age faster.

The lack of dietary fiber is of particular concern to personal trainer (and known self-experimenter) Ben Greenfield, who points out that the prebiotics and probiotics necessary to feed the gut microbiome鈥攚hich plays a role in the long-term health of the immune system鈥攁ren鈥檛 present in significant quantities in meat like they are in vegetables.聽Last May, he offered a critical assessment of the carnivore diet on Rogan鈥檚 podcast.

鈥淭his points to a bigger cultural issue,鈥� Greenfield told me over the phone. 鈥淪o many people have distanced themselves from a healthy relationship with food that all of a sudden they鈥檙e saying, 鈥楩uck it, I鈥檓 just going to eat one food group.鈥欌��

Opponents of the diet also bring up the environmental hubris of focusing on a food group that contributes to 14.5 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, according to the United Nations. The figure cited by the UN is a so-called life-cycle assessment number,聽which takes into account the feed, fertilizer, and land required to raise not just cattle聽but other meat-yielding livestock such as聽pigs and chickens. In the U.S., beef contributes only 2 percent of overall greenhouse-gas emissions, according to Sara Place, senior director of sustainable beef production research for the National Cattlemen鈥檚 Beef Association. But research from 2017 argues that substituting 聽could provide聽three quarters of the emissions reductions needed for the U.S. reach its 2020 goals.

But perhaps the biggest question mark is why exactly some people鈥檚 bodies seem to respond聽so well to the carnivore diet. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really hard to tease out whether it鈥檚 the presence of meat or the absence of other things,鈥� said Gardner, noting that eliminating sugar, junk food, and wheat products鈥攅specially white-flour products like pizza, bagels, and cereals鈥攎akes us healthier.

Baker parries these concerns. When I brought up his higher fasting glucose, he pointed聽out that he鈥檚 not聽diabetic,聽 that suggested high-performance athletes who wore continuous glucose monitors routinely registered very high blood sugar levels. And a recent coronary-artery calcium scan, one of the best predictors of cardiovascular risk, showed zero calcification of his arteries, he noted. As for the World Health Organization, Baker pointed to , which allows that estimating cancer risk associated with聽red-meat consumption is difficult to do because the evidence that red meat causes cancer isn鈥檛 as clear-cut as the evidence that processed meat (your fast-food cheeseburger) does.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 fine to be skeptical,鈥� Baker explained.聽鈥淚 would have been skeptical, too. But if you鈥檙e overweight, you鈥檙e tired, you have no libido, your joints hurt, you鈥檙e depressed, and you go on a diet and all of that gets better, the question is: Are you healthier?鈥�

On the final Saturday of September, I ate four eggs for breakfast and聽a bunless bacon burger聽for lunch, then showed up at my brother-in-law鈥檚 house with a can of sea salt and ten pounds of meat: four thick strip steaks聽and four fatty rib eyes. I immediately called dibs on a strip and a rib eye, two juicy pounds we cooked to medium rare on the grill.

When I first announced to my family in August that I was going to eat meat for 30 days, the only real reaction I got was from my mother, who was convinced I would become violently ill. Granted, the stretches of time I spent in her bathroom on September 1 did nothing to assuage her fears. Yet I鈥檇 be lying if I said I didn鈥檛 like being a carnivore for a month. I like steak, and 30 days of almost nothing but meat did little to ruin my enjoyment of聽it. I relished the simplicity of mealtime, despite the challenge聽of finding diet-friendly options on certain聽restaurant menus. (Socially, too, it could be a bit awkward; several times I had to explain to curious onlookers what lipase was.) Once I figured out my bowel troubles, continuing with the diet was a cinch. Aside from my slightly elevated fasting-glucose levels, my blood pressure and weight both remained聽normal.

I relayed this to Baker when we spoke at the end of September. Even then, he told me, I was聽looking at the diet the wrong way.

鈥淲e have to realize we鈥檙e not individual lab data鈥攚e鈥檙e an entire complex system,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he more important lesson here is to realize that meat is human food, human nutrition, and it鈥檚 probably what we need to make the basis of our nutrition.鈥�

Since completing my 30-day experiment, I鈥檝e become more methodical about what I聽eat, returning to聽foods I鈥檝e long enjoyed,聽like broccoli, rice, and black beans, and adding others I聽rarely ate in the past, like asparagus and sweet potatoes. I used to eat a sandwich for lunch, but I鈥檝e abandoned that, only because it made me sleepy, which led me to drink more coffee. The clarity I gained from eating a limited diet聽has made me more discerning. In December, I ate pizza for the first time in months, but I didn鈥檛 feel bloated, groggy, or sick鈥攑robably because I聽had two slices instead of six.

鈥淚鈥檓 always up for someone who finds a new eating pattern and聽tailors聽it to their own needs,鈥澛燝ardner told me. 鈥淚 truly believe that there isn鈥檛 one diet for everybody.鈥�

There certainly isn鈥檛 for me. I don鈥檛 think I will ever go full carnivore again. But for one month, I was very deliberate聽about the food I put into my body. I thought about how it was prepared. I made sure I ate it in the right quantities. I limited how much my work schedule interrupted the meal patterns I was establishing. Now when I sit down to dinner, I eat what I need. I鈥檓 less tired. I鈥檓 more active. I still eat a steak every now and then. And I feel good.

The post What I Learned from a Month on the Carnivore Diet appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

This spring, 47-year-old Frenchman Ben Lecomte will step into the Pacific Ocean in Japan and, over the next five months, attempt to become the first swimmer to cover the 5,500 miles to California. His plan: swim eight hours a day鈥攗sing flippers and a snorkel but no flotation device鈥攖hen rest for 16 hours on his support boat. We鈥檇 doubt his prospects if he hadn鈥檛 become the first person to swim 3,700 miles across the Atlantic in 1998.

But just because Lecomte has one ocean under his belt doesn鈥檛 mean the voyage is without risks.

The Route

Waves

鈥淵ou can swim in big waves as long as they don鈥檛 crash on you and keep you underwater for too long,鈥� says Lecomte, who encountered 30-foot swells while crossing the Atlantic. And because his support boat鈥檚 electromagnetic field extends only about 20 feet (see 鈥淪harks,鈥� below), Lecomte has to stay close鈥攁nd risk being dashed against the hull.

Exhaustion

The six-person support crew can pull him on board if he suffers physical fatigue, but mental fatigue is of equal concern. To stay alert during his shifts in the water, Lecomte will do a series of mental exercises, including counting and remembering family vacations. 鈥淭he goal is to have your body on auto颅颅-pilot and your mind somewhere else,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hen you lose that, that鈥檚 when the trouble starts.鈥�

Sharks

When Lecomte crossed the 颅Atlantic, a blue shark followed him for five days. In the Pacific, he鈥檒l face the ocean鈥檚 most fearsome apex preda颅tor鈥攖he great white. To hold the sharks off, Lecomte鈥檚 support boat emits an electromagnetic field that acts as a deterrent. Says Lecomte, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not a matter of if I鈥檒l 颅en颅counter sharks, it鈥檚 a 颅matter of when.鈥�

The Cold

Lecomte could face water temperatures below 60 degrees. To fend off 颅hypo颅thermia, he鈥檒l wear up to four two-millimeter wetsuits.

The post An Illustrated Guide to Ben Lecomte’s Nightmares appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Last spring, cyclists got a two-wheeled answer to Airbnb and VRBO.com: , a national online bike-rental service. Bike owners upload photos of their rides, along with locations and prices broken down by hour, day, and week. Renters log in, scroll through the inventory, and select their vehicle of choice. I tried it out on a recent weekend in Manhattan, picking up a sleek black Fuji Feather single-speed called Midnight Rider for $15, complete with helmet and lock. It handled the West Side Highway bike path like a champ. Sure, New York鈥檚 share program, Citi Bike, launched this summer. But you have to pay extra for rides over 30 minutes, and the bikes look like CitiBank credit cards on wheels. I鈥檒l take the Midnight Rider any day.

The post Take My Bike鈥擣or $20 appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.