As a food writer, I practically live on TikTok, saving recipes and nutrition hacks to try. One ingredient that keeps popping up in my social media feed? Aloe vera.

When you type 鈥渁loe vera鈥� in the search bar of TikTok, you鈥檒l come across clips of creators touting the purported health benefits of this ingredient. You鈥檒l spot home cooks blending the jelly-like substance into smoothies and hikers rubbing the plant鈥檚 juices on their skin to soothe sunburns.

I鈥檝e appreciated aloe long before it became a trend. As a Haitian-American, Caribbean culture runs through my veins, so I鈥檓 familiar with the gel as the succulent grows on many islands. (Fun fact: Aruba even has an entire dedicated to the plant.) My grandmother, whom I grew up with, often kept aloe leaves on the kitchen counter, right beside her other natural remedies. Whenever the sun got the best of me, I knew she鈥檇 have a cool slab of that green leaf ready for me. She听was ahead of her time.

I鈥檒l always follow her advice without hesitation, but I鈥檓 wary of听viral trends. Let鈥檚 be honest: people often exaggerate the effectiveness of wellness hacks. Luckily, you can鈥檛 really go wrong with aloe vera.

The Health Benefits of Aloe Vera Gel

Let鈥檚 start with a quick disclaimer: eating either aloe vera gel from the plant鈥檚 leaves, unprocessed gel with no additives, or drinking aloe juice is safe, but you should not ingest aloe vera gel-based skincare products. While you can find aloe vera skincare products marketed as pure, some may actually be 98- or 99-percent pure. This means they can include other ingredients that are OK for your skin, but not for consumption, like alcohol, an antiseptic, or lidocaine, a numbing and pain-relief agent that is great for treating sunburns or itchy bug bites.

Aloe Vera Is a Hydration Powerhouse

Aloe vera helps hydrate your body when ingested (and when applied to the skin) due to its high water and electrolyte content (particularly magnesium and potassium), says , a registered dietitian based in New York. 鈥淭hese minerals help replenish electrolytes lost through sweat, making aloe vera a potential addition to post-exercise hydration,鈥� she says.

Scientific evidence also suggests that consuming aloe vera gel improves blood circulation and supports kidney, liver, gallbladder, and digestive functions, says , a registered dietitian nutritionist based in Hawaii.

It Can Reduce Pain and Inflammation When Applied to the Skin

show that aloe vera offers natural analgesic (pain-relieving) and anti-inflammatory properties, says , a board-certified dermatologist based in Toronto. This is thanks to compounds in the plant called anthraquinones, which 鈥渂lock the synthesis of enzymes and hormones responsible for pain and inflammation, relieving discomfort, swelling, and redness,鈥� she explains.

For sunburns or scrapes, you don鈥檛 need much鈥攋ust a thin layer of aloe vera gel will do the trick. Be sure to avoid applying it to open wounds, Yadav says. 鈥淚鈥檇 also recommend refrigerating the aloe gel if possible鈥攖he added cooling sensation can be very soothing,鈥� she says.

How Much Aloe Vera Gel Is Safe to Ingest Daily?

Nutritionists typically recommend starting small, with about two ounces (approximately one-quarter cup) per day, until your body adjusts. This is because anthraquinones also have a laxative effect, which can cause diarrhea when consumed in excess, says Amy Davis, a registered dietitian nutritionist based in New Orleans, Louisiana.

I Tried These 4 Aloe Vera-Based Recipes

Despite all of the amazing health benefits of aloe vera, I鈥檒l be honest: it鈥檚 not that appetizing on its own. It tastes bitter, and its slimy texture 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 feel great on the tongue, so I set out to find delicious ways to enjoy the clear goo. These are the few recipes I discovered and tested. Here鈥檚 how it went.

1. Fruity Mint, Avocado, and Aloe Vera Smoothie

TikTok creator shared a smoothie recipe that involves blending one cup of frozen pineapple, half an avocado, half a cup of spinach, four mint leaves, half a cup of water, half a cup of aloe vera gel (I substituted this for instead because it鈥檚 easier to find in grocery stores and helps you skip the process needing to extract gel from the plant), and the juice from half a lime.

鈥淭his smoothie contains healthy fats from avocado, fiber from the pineapple and spinach, and added electrolytes and nutrients from the aloe vera,鈥� says Davis. To make it even more balanced, try adding a source of protein, like half a cup of Greek yogurt or a few spoonfuls of protein powder,听she says.

Emerick recommends reaching for this smoothie as a hearty snack or post-workout drink to aid recovery.

The Verdict: Creamy, Refreshing, and Nostalgic

This smoothie transported me to my maternal homeland of Bermuda. The pineapples and citrus give it a bright, tropical, and sweet taste. The avocados impart a delicious creaminess, too. All the ingredients blended together nicely, masking the bitterness of the aloe vera.

To test its effects on satiety, I blended up this shake after my morning barre class to see if it would keep me full until lunch. It definitely did the job.

(Watch the author make the fruity mint, avocado, and aloe vera smoothie in her kitchen. Video by Ashia Aubourg)

2. Aloe Vera and Agave Lemonade

Lemonade is one of my go-to hacks for loading up on good-for-you ingredients. (If you haven鈥檛 tried creatine lemonade, you totally should.)

This recipe by on TikTok is simple and took me less than five minutes to make. To prepare this lemonade, I combined half a cup of aloe vera juice with the juice of two lemons, one-and-a-half cups of water, and a tablespoon of agave. Then, I poured it over ice once I was ready to enjoy it.

This drink is packed with hydrating ingredients like aloe vera and water, says Emerick. It also has a good dose of vitamin C, thanks to the lemon, which 鈥渂oosts immunity and supports skin health,鈥� she says.

The Verdict: Crisp and Refreshing听

I’ve been hiking more now that the weather is warming up, so I jumped at the chance to pour this lemonade into my insulated water bottle and take it with me. As I tackled the steep inclines, sipping this drink kept me feeling good.

The sourness from the lemon and sweetness from the agave masked any harsh notes from the aloe vera. Moving forward, I鈥檓 keeping a pitcher of this in my fridge.

3. Grainy Mustard and Aloe Vera Salad Dressing

I was first introduced to aloe vera vinaigrette while traveling to St. Lucia, and I鈥檝e been hooked ever since. I鈥檝e made a few variations of this topping on my own, but recently, while Googling how to incorporate aloe juice into salad dressings, I came across an idea from the food blog that had a similar ingredient makeup to the one I tasted during my travels. I knew I had to try it.

Following this recipe, I blended half a cup of olive oil, a quarter cup of grainy mustard (which tends to be spicier and more robust in terms of flavor than the yellow squeeze-bottle stuff), three tablespoons of honey, a third of a cup of aloe vera juice, or gel from a four-inch piece of an aloe leaf, three tablespoons of fresh basil, and two tablespoons of lemon juice.

鈥淭his aloe vera dressing has plant-based fats (from the olive oil), a touch of sweetness from the honey, and overall, healthier ingredients compared to many store-bought options, which can contain high amounts of sodium, added sugar, or artificial ingredients,鈥� says Davis. To kick it up a notch, Hoch recommends adding ground flaxseeds (about a quarter cup) for an extra boost of omega-3s.

The Verdict: I鈥檒l Be Putting It on Everything.

While it didn鈥檛 taste exactly like the one I first enjoyed in St. Lucia, this version still exceeded all of my expectations. It鈥檚 filled with basil flavors, similar to pesto, which helps calm the bitterness of the aloe vera in this recipe.

I poured it over a simple salad of crunchy lettuce, yellow peppers, red onions, and croutons. This topping was the star of the show. I can鈥檛 wait to use it again. I plan to drizzle it on pasta, wraps, or grilled chicken in the future.

4. No-Churn Chocolate Coconut and Aloe Vera Ice Cream

Perhaps the most exciting recipe I found was this tutorial from TikTok creator , who turns this gooey plant gel into ice cream. The best part? No fancy machine is needed.

Instead of using an ice cream maker, the creator relies on a no-churn method, and all you need is a freezer-safe bowl. To make this frozen dessert, I blended a cup of coconut cream, a cup of cashews, three tablespoons of maple syrup, one tablespoon of cocoa powder, and three tablespoons of aloe vera juice. Then, I poured the mixture into a bowl and let it thicken up in the freezer for at least six hours.

鈥淭his recipe, which combines coconut cream, cashews, maple syrup, cocoa powder, and aloe vera, is rich in calories, healthy fats, and protein,鈥� says Emerick. (One cup of cashews has over a whopping of protein.) But since it鈥檚 pretty high in sugar, she recommends enjoying it as an occasional sweet treat rather than a daily dessert.

The Verdict: Unreal.

Honestly, I鈥檓 predicting that aloe vera ice cream might be the next viral trend. For starters, it鈥檚 so easy to pull together. It took me under five minutes to get it in the freezer (though you鈥檒l need to be patient while it solidifies!).

The result was a creamy, light, and smooth frozen dessert filled with delicious chocolate flavors. You can鈥檛 taste the harsh taste of aloe at all. It satisfied my sweet tooth, and I can鈥檛 wait to make it again with other fun add-ins like matcha, strawberry syrup, or vanilla.

As a bonus: if you鈥檝e got leftover aloe from any of these recipes, don鈥檛 toss it鈥攖rust me, your skin will thank you.

Want more of听国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Health stories?听.

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For a while, it really looked as though beet juice would beat the odds. Most hot new performance-boosting supplements, even if they claim to be backed by science, don鈥檛 hold up to scrutiny. But after making thanks to high-profile adherents like marathon star Paula Radcliffe, the first wave of high-quality studies supported the idea that beet juice really does improve endurance.

After a decade, though, the bloom had partly faded. There were concerns about its gastrointestinal effects (much as there were with baking soda, another popular endurance-booster), questions about the appropriate dosage, and rising suspicion that beet juice only worked in untrained or recreational athletes but not in serious competitors. These days I rarely hear runners talking about beet juice, and the flow of new studies has tailed off. But a new review takes a fresh look at the accumulated evidence, and concludes that we shouldn鈥檛 be too quick to dismiss the potential benefits of the juice.

Why Beet Juice Might Help

The key ingredient in beet juice, from an endurance perspective, is nitrate. Once you eat it, bacteria in your mouth convert nitrate to nitrite. Then the acidity in your stomach helps convert the nitrite to nitric oxide. Nitric oxide plays a whole bunch of roles in the body. That includes cueing your blood vessels to dilate, or widen, delivering more oxygen to the muscles, faster.

In 2007, Swedish researchers that consuming nitrate鈥攖hat nitric oxide precursor鈥攎akes exercise more efficient, enabling you to burn less oxygen while sustaining a given pace. Two years later, a team led by Andrew Jones at the University of Exeter that you could get a similar effect by drinking nitrate-rich beet juice.

In subsequent years, researchers tested the effects of beet juice on various types of exercise. Crucially, Jones鈥檚 group figured out how to strip the nitrate from beet juice to create an undetectable placebo, and found that athletes improved their performance when given regular beet juice but not nitrate-free beet juice. That made the claims much more convincing. Meanwhile, a company called began selling beet juice with standardized nitrate levels, and eventually added to make the doses more palatable.

When the International Olympic Committee put together on sports supplements in 2018, they included beet juice as one of just five performance-boosting supplements with solid evidence. (The others were caffeine, creatine, baking soda, and beta-alanine.)

What the New Review Found

Over the years, scientists have made numerous attempts to sum up the evidence for and against beet juice. The latest attempt, by a group led by Eric Tsz鈥慍hun Poon of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is an 鈥渦mbrella review鈥� of nitrate supplementation, mostly from beet juice. It pools the results of 20 previous reviews that themselves aggregated the data from 180 individual studies with a total of 2,672 participants.

The problem with lumping that many studies together is that they measure outcomes differently, use different dosing protocols, and have different study populations. Still, the broad conclusion is that beet juice works鈥攁t least for some outcomes. Most significantly, it improves time to exhaustion: if you鈥檙e asked to run or cycle at a given pace for as long as you can, beet juice helps you go for longer.

On the other hand, there was no statistically significant benefit for time trials, where you cover a given distance as quickly as possible. That鈥檚 the type of competition we care about in the real world, so this non-result is concerning. Time-to-exhaustion tests produce much bigger changes than time trials: a common rule of thumb is that a 15 percent change in time to exhaustion corresponds to about one percent in a time trial. So it may simply be that the studies were too small to detect subtle improvements in time trial performance.

Check out the relative effect sizes for time to exhaustion and time trial in these forest plots. Each dot represents an individual study with its error bar; the farther to the right of the vertical line it is, the greater the performance boost nitrate provided.

Taking the time trial data at face value, the results still look pretty encouraging. They鈥檙e all positive; they just need more participants so that the error bars will get smaller and no longer overlap zero. Of course, eyeballing the data like that is risky because it allows us to draw whatever conclusions we want. But I find it difficult to imagine a scenario where improving your time to exhaustion 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 also translate into an advantage in time trials. The two tasks are different psychologically, but they both rely on the same underlying physiological toolset.

Poon and his colleagues also run some further analysis to check whether the dose makes a difference. They conclude that the effects are biggest when you take at least 6 mmoL (just under 400 milligrams) of nitrate per day, which happens to be almost exactly how much a single concentrated shot of beet juice contains. The effects are also maximized when you supplement for at least three consecutive days rather than just taking some on the day of a race.

What We Still Don鈥檛 Know

The big open question that Poon鈥檚 review 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 address is whether beet juice works in highly trained athletes. Several studies have found that the effect is either diminished or eliminated entirely in elite subjects. This isn鈥檛 surprising. Pretty much every intervention you can think of, including training itself, will have a smaller effect on people who are already well-trained. This ceiling effect is presumably because elite athletes have already optimized their physiology so thoroughly that there鈥檚 less room to improve.

The flip side of that coin is that, for elite athletes, even minuscule improvements can be the difference between victory and defeat. The size of a worthwhile improvement at the highest level is a fraction of a percent, which is all but impossible to reliably detect in typical sports science studies. For top athletes, the decision of whether or not to use beet juice will have to remain an educated guess for now.

There are other unanswered questions, like whether beet juice is better than consuming nitrate straight. There have been several studies suggesting that this is indeed the case. The theory is that other ingredients in beet juice, like polyphenols鈥攚hich function as antioxidants鈥攎ight act synergistically with nitrate to produce a bigger effect. But as pointed out last year, the evidence for this claim is too shaky to draw any reliable conclusions either way.

Probably the biggest risk in the beet juice data is the preponderance of small studies, some with fewer than ten subjects. It鈥檚 easy to get a fluke result with small sample sizes, and it鈥檚 human nature to get unduly excited about positive results鈥攚hich is why positive flukes often get published more often than negative flukes. So we should remain cautious about our level of certainty.

Despite that caveat, my overall impression is positive. I sent the following summary to Andy Jones, the scientist most associated with beet juice research, to see whether he would agree:

鈥淚t works. It probably works less well in elites, like most things, but there may still be an effect. Higher doses taken for at least a few days in a row probably increase your chances of a positive effect.鈥�

Jones thought that sounded reasonable. He pointed out that there鈥檚 a 听of evidence emerging that beet juice also enhances muscle strength and power in some circumstances, an effect that Poon鈥檚 review confirms. For endurance specifically, looking at the totality of evidence, Jones figures there鈥檚 a real effect. And he鈥檚 in good company. 鈥淓liud remains a big believer,鈥� he pointed out. That would be Eliud Kipchoge.

***

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Last year, a friend of mine, who is a nutritionist,听recommended that I try drinking bone broth to help optimize my performance. I didn’t think too much of it at the time, as guzzling the stock made from animal bones didn’t sound all that appetizing to me, especially before or after a big workout.

I tabled the advice and didn鈥檛 think about it until I suddenly noticed bone broth everywhere. Various pouches and cartons line the shelves at my local grocery store, and I can鈥檛 escape the stampede of TikTok influencers claiming bone broth leveled up their workout and recovery routines.

I wanted to know if bone broth is as magical as people (my nutritionist friend included) claim it is. So I reached out to three sports dietitians and asked them: What do you make of all this bone broth buzz? Here鈥檚 what they said.

Why Is Everyone Drinking Bone Broth Right Now?

Bone broth is a type of nutrient-rich stock that鈥檚 like calcium and magnesium, along with proteins like collagen and gelatin. Whereas your standard stock (think: what you use as a base in soup) might only cook for a couple of hours, true bone broth has to soak and simmer between 12 and 48 hours for the nutrients to fully leach out of the animal bones鈥攗sually chicken or beef. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 cook it that long, you鈥檙e not getting all the nutrients out,鈥� says , a sports dietitian and associate professor in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at Texas Tech University.

According to , a sports dietitian for endurance athletes in Brenham, Texas, scientific research on the of bone broth is limited, but some scientists believe all those nutrients make bone broth an incredibly healthy snack鈥攅specially if you’re physically active. 鈥淏one broth is a nutrient-dense, versatile, and functional food and beverage for athletes,鈥� Brown told me.

1. Bone Broth Is an Electrolyte Powerhouse

One reason bone broth is recommended by sports dietitians is that it鈥檚 jam-packed with like potassium, calcium, magnesium, and sodium. In fact, this is why , a registered dietician and director of the Center for Nutrition and Performance at Drexel University, refers to bone broth as nature鈥檚 Gatorade. 鈥淚t has all the electrolytes needed to replace sweat,鈥� she said.

2. Bone Broth Is Protein-Rich

Bone broth is also an excellent source of protein, and it鈥檚 well-established that consuming protein鈥攕pecifically, amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein鈥攁fter working out helps . 鈥淲hen you exercise, you break down muscles and you have to consume protein in order to give your body back the amino acids to rebuild those muscles,鈥� explains Brown.

3. Collagen in Bone Broth Can Improve Bone and Ligament Health

The main type of protein found in bone broth is collagen鈥攁 substance that keeps your , like , strong and healthy. While it鈥檚 unclear exactly how much collagen you鈥檙e getting through bone broth, 鈥渃ollagen supplementation has been found to help reduce joint pain and may help with muscle recovery,鈥� Brown says.

According to Childress, it makes sense, then, why so many athletes say bone broth has improved their gait, form, stability, and performance. 鈥淵ou might feel like you can move a little quicker, or you鈥檙e a little bit more flexible in your movements,鈥� she says.

Is Bone Broth Good for Recovery?

Though everyone鈥檚 needs vary (depending on the intensity of your workouts and how much you sweat), a cup of bone broth鈥攚hich generally contains 8 grams of protein and 350 milligrams of sodium鈥攊s generally a good place to start, says Brown. The key is to be consistent, says Childress, and drink it every day, as it can take a couple of months for the health effects to kick in.

As for what鈥檚 better: Having it before or after your workout? The answer really depends on your personal preferences and eating habits. If you, like me, can鈥檛 handle a big meal before you run but need something in your stomach, chug a cup before you head out the door. If you鈥檙e more so looking for a snack that鈥檒l help your muscles recover and bulk up, throw back some broth after your training session, Brown says.

According to Brown, bone broth can even be an excellent mid-exercise snack for those who do ultra-distances or Ironman competitions in which it鈥檚 crucial to consume protein as you go. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like anything else鈥攊t鈥檚 really about what works best for the individual athlete and what the athlete prefers,鈥� says Childress.

You Shouldn鈥檛 Solely Rely on Bone Broth to Get Your Protein

There are a couple of considerations to be aware of. Collagen is technically an protein, which means it 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 have all the amino acids your body needs to function properly, according to Brown. As such, 鈥測ou should not rely on collagen as your main or number-one protein source because you could end up deficient and you won鈥檛 get all those other essential amino acids,鈥� says Childress.

Collagen is most impactful if you鈥檝e already met your overall nutritional needs, says Childress. If you鈥檙e not eating enough protein, the amino acids will just go to the other bodily systems that need them more. But if you鈥檙e hitting your body鈥檚 nutritional needs, the collagen has a way better chance of being used to boost your joint and muscle health, she added. The takeaway: bone broth is best used as a bonus to your diet鈥攏ot a cornerstone of it.

How to Buy鈥攐r Make鈥擝one Broth

罢丑别谤别鈥檚 a lot of variability in the quality of the products being sold online and at grocery stores, so you want to take a good look at the packaging label when you鈥檙e shopping for a broth.

Make sure it鈥檚 been slow-cooked for at least 12 hours (and, ideally, longer) and contains vinegar (specifically, apple cider vinegar), as this doubly helps the bones release nutrients, Brown says. Look for brands that use bones sourced from USDA organic free-range animals like this one by , Brown suggests, and if you see added sugars or artificial additives, steer clear.

You can make your own batch at home using an , slow cooker, pressure cooker, or pot on a stove. Toss in the bones鈥攐r even a full chicken carcass鈥攁nd add chopped vegetables (like carrots, celery, and onion) along with herbs for taste (think: garlic or bay leaves) and salt. Then, cover everything with water and let the mixture simmer for 12听to听24 hours, says Childress, until you end up with a thick, gelatinous substance. If you’re looking for some inspiration, TikTok user @ shared an easy homemade bone broth recipe.

Bone broth is SO good for your health and it鈥檚 so easy to make at home!

You can swallow as is or heed Dardarian鈥檚 advice, which I plan to do, and mix the broth into a bowl of rice, quinoa, or a hearty stew. It only took a year and multiple sports nutritionists touting the potential benefits for me to pay attention鈥攂ut I鈥檓 excited to see if bone broth helps me increase my running pace and improve my overall performance.

Want more of听国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Health stories?听.

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There are a dizzying array of drinks and powders on the market that promise to keep you hydrated and boost energy levels during your runs. But you need more than just water and sugary calories for optimal performance.

Every bead of sweat that drips from your face contains a mixture of electrolytes鈥攊n layman鈥檚 terms, 鈥減ositively or negatively charged ions that conduct electrical activity,鈥� says Jonathan Toker, Ph.D., an organic chemist and elite trail runner who founded the hydration-products company SaltStick. 鈥淭hey are necessary to help maintain proper fluid balance, [and] perform functions involved in muscle contraction and relaxation.鈥�

When electrolyte levels drop too low, performance can suffer. Signs of this include muscular fatigue leading to the dreaded 鈥渂onk,鈥� cramping, poor thermoregulation that makes heat less tolerable and feelings of disorientation. In extreme cases, consuming a large volume of water without sufficient electrolytes can lead to dangerously low levels of sodium in the blood, a potentially life-threatening condition known as hyponatremia.

鈥淭he electrolytes lost in the highest concentrations through sweat are sodium and chloride,鈥� says Maria Dalzot, a sports dietitian and competitive mountain runner based in Bellingham, Washington. 鈥淭hese electrolytes must be tightly regulated for the body to function properly.鈥� Potassium, magnesium and calcium are also lost in sweat, though 鈥渋n such small amounts that they are not of concern while exercising and can be easily replaced in your everyday diet.鈥�

Some (though not all) experts say that replenishing those lesser electrolytes becomes vital during sustained, multi-hour efforts. Says Toker, 鈥淲ith a finite amount available in the body for easy access, cumulative losses over time for an athlete running four, six or 17 hours will affect calcium and magnesium levels in the blood and inhibit performance.鈥�

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Stay Balanced

The power of electrolytes to help you kick up dirt at a faster clip was illustrated by a 2015听Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports听double-blind study, which found that athletes who supplemented with sodium chloride鈥攖able salt鈥攁nd other electrolytes in addition to a sports drink before and during a half-Ironman improved their race times by an average of eight percent. They also experienced less of a drop in body weight compared to those who took a placebo. The scientists additionally reported that salt supplementation worked to stimulate thirst, which encouraged subjects to drink more and, in turn, maintain better hydration.

A recent study in the journal听Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise听found that taking electrolytes before your run can also enhance fluid retention, thereby improving rehydration.

Watch the Clock

If you鈥檙e out for a leisurely run lasting less than an hour, your electrolyte stores should be adequate without supplementation. 鈥淩eplacing salt losses becomes more of a concern when you push past the 60-minute mark, particularly if you鈥檙e sweating greatly,鈥� says Toker.

Crunch the Numbers

Sweat production, and therefore electrolyte loss, is influenced by a number of factors, including run duration and intensity, genetics, clothing and environmental conditions like humidity.

鈥淎 less fit runner will lose more electrolytes compared to an avid runner who is more efficient at maintaining electrolyte homeostasis,鈥� says Dalzot. What鈥檚 more, some people鈥檚 sweat is naturally saltier.

The most precise way to calculate your electrolyte needs is through a sports lab that offers custom sweat tests. The white coats will measure your electrolyte loss during exercise, and use that data to create a personalized hydration and electrolyte plan. Alternatively, online companies, such as Levelen and Infinit, provide DIY kits that let you gather up your own salty sweat and send it in for analysis.

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Or just go by trial and error. According to Toker, the sweet spot for most athletes is to replenish between 50 and 80 percent of electrolytes lost during exercise. 鈥淗igher replacement usually causes stomach issues, and lower replacement usually causes performance deterioration,鈥� he says.

As a starting point, consult the numbers below (provided by Toker), which indicates the average concentration of electrolytes in sweat, and experiment to determine what works for you.

Average Electrolytes Lost in 315 mL Sweat:

Sodium (mg): 听220

Potassium (mg): 听63

Calcium (mg): 听 18

Magnesium (mg): 8

Think Beyond Sports Drinks

Most of those neon-colored drinks contain no more than 200 milligrams of sodium, and so don鈥檛 come close to matching what endurance athletes lose through their sweat glands. If you鈥檙e serious about maintaining a healthy electrolyte balance, look to other sources, including salt capsules, electrolyte tablets and dissolvable powders and enhanced gels and chews (see sidebar).

Don鈥檛 forget that 鈥渞eal鈥� food can be a good source of sodium as well. If you just finished sweating buckets on a multi-hour epic, it鈥檚 O.K. to reach for those salty, crunchy snacks you are craving: pretzels, nuts, potato chips, even a cold slice of pepperoni pizza.

Cramping Your Style

Before you go stuffing your pack full of bananas, understand that potassium鈥檚 role in staving off cramps has largely been overblown. 鈥淐ramps are most likely caused by overstressed muscles,鈥� says Dalzot. Significant dehydration, poor fitness and electrolyte imbalance, particularly excessive salt loss, can play a role as well.

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Runners can also go overboard on electrolytes during taxing runs. 鈥淚f you do choose to take salt tablets, be sure to drink a sufficient amount of water,鈥� warns Dalzot.

鈥淎 large intake of sodium without water can cause bloating as water moves from the bloodstream to dilute the sodium concentration. Sodium also triggers thirst and drinking more than necessary can cause unpleasant stomach sloshing.鈥�

Salt Lick: Five electrolyte products to electrify your runs

$7.49 for 10 tablets

300 mg sodium / 150 mg potassium / 25 mg magnesium / 13 mg calcium

Drop one of these flavored, effervescent tablets into your water bottle for a balance of electrolytes along with a hint of caffeine.

$22 for 100 capsules

215 mg sodium /听63 mg potassium / 11 mg magnesium / 22 mg calcium

The electrolyte profile in these tasteless capsules corresponds to the ratio typically lost through sweating.

$22.99 for 120 capsules

80 mg sodium / 50 mg potassium / 50 mg magnesium / 100 mg calcium

Available as capsules or drink-mix powder, Endurolytes have a low concentration of sodium for maintaining electrolyte balance if you鈥檝e been hitting the salty snacks.

$23.95 for 100 capsules

341 mg sodium /听21 mg potassium

Designed to match the electrolyte profile of blood plasma, S! Caps contain molecules that aid the energy-production cycle as well as sodium and potassium.

$27 for 48 tablets

320 mg sodium /听55 mg potassium

Dissolve one of these tablets in 16 ounces of water for a low-cal, fruit-flavored sports drink with the electrolytes you need.

This article originally appeared in our July 2015 issue.

The post The Runner鈥檚 Complete Guide to Electrolytes appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

Longer days. Warmer weather. Finally, a dry track. For the , all signs point to spring training. These professional runners are kicking their workouts into high gear for the upcoming season鈥攁nd making sure their nutrition keeps up.

Wherever you are in your running life, you can learn something from the Brooks Beasts. The team includes Olympic medalists, national champions, and world record setters in distances from 800 meters to 5,000 meters. These 15 athletes from around the world train in Seattle under coach Danny Mackey and a full support staff, including two assistant coaches, a physiotherapist, and nutritionist Kyle Pfaffenbach, PhD.

Pfaffenbach, a health and human performance professor at Eastern Oregon University, tailors individualized nutrition programs to each athlete to build the strongest possible base for performance. 鈥淣utrition is a key pillar to performance, along with training, sleep, and mental health, for our athletes. The complete athlete will have a strong, evidence-based approach in each of these areas. However, it is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Individual needs vary based on factors like the person, the time of year, and the event they compete in. Nutrition is critical to this personalized approach, and we work together as a team to put our athletes in the best position to perform great and be healthy,鈥� he says.

Here鈥檚 how the Brooks Beasts fuel up for a new season, from building a strong base to fine-tuning their nutritional intake to incorporating the best supplements into their daily routine.

Warming Up to Warmer Weather

鈥淎s the weather gets nicer, track sessions seem to get a bit more intense and long runs start getting longer,鈥� Pfaffenbach says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to make sure to be well-fueled for these sessions.鈥� That means paying extra attention to carbohydrate intake to ensure athletes have the energy they need for harder workouts, but also maintaining enough protein and fat to provide longer-burning fuel and help with recovery.

Hydration needs also increase along with the temperature. 鈥淎s the weather warms up and we get acclimatized to the heat, people tend to sweat more,鈥� Pfaffenbach says. Waleed Suliman, a Brooks Beast 1,500-meter runner with four NCAA titles to his name, makes sure to add electrolytes to his water this time of year. 鈥淚 need to replenish the lost minerals to stay hydrated and avoid fatigue,鈥� he says. Suliman swears by NOW庐 Sports (favorite flavor: lemon lime), an easy source of electrolytes from the team鈥檚 official sports nutrition partner.

鈥淲e trust products,鈥� Pfaffenbach says. 鈥淭hey make straightforward supplements, often with only a single ingredient, and their testing procedure is extremely rigorous.鈥� NOW庐 Sports uses clean, research-backed ingredients when formulating its products, and its in-house lab ensures that its supplements are free of all substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency鈥檚 banned list. Many of NOW鈥檚 products are also Informed Sport Certified for added purity assurance.

Building a Base of Good Health

Performance starts with an all-around healthy diet full of fresh fruits and veggies, lean proteins, and healthy fats. 鈥淪upplements need to be just that鈥攕upplemental to a good diet,鈥� Pfaffenbach says. That said, he notes, runners often don鈥檛 get enough vitamin D, which is essential for bone health and promoting a healthy immune system. Athletes can also benefit from creatine supplements, an amino acid compound that improves muscle mass but is hard to get enough of through diet alone. Pfaffenbach also recommends that runners take collagen to keep tendons and ligaments healthy.

For all-day energy, NOW庐 Sports鈥� and both promote consistent energy production with a suite of B vitamins and other key nutrients, plus caffeine for alertness.*

Fueling Up for Workouts

A successful workout starts well before the Beasts lace up their running shoes. 鈥淲hile maintaining protein and fat intake on a day-to-day basis, most people will experience a noticeable difference in energy if they intentionally eat more carbs in the two meals prior to their long run,鈥� Pfaffenbach says. 鈥淐arbing up before a long run ensures that muscle glycogen is topped off and there is plenty of energy on board.鈥�

Proper hydration also takes time: Start the day with 16 to 20 ounces of water with electrolytes for base hydration, then drink the same amount of fluid again before workout sessions.

What does a pre-workout meal look like in practice? Suliman goes for a simple breakfast of a plain bagel with two slices of turkey, a slice of cheese, and two eggs. He adds a bowl of yogurt topped with honey and drinks a cup of black coffee, plus a cup of collagen with electrolytes.

NOW庐 Sports offers several supplements for an extra pre-workout boost.* combines ingredients like betaine, creatine, beta-alanine, and caffeine for endurance and optimized muscle output.* And features branched-chain amino acids, caffeine, and electrolytes for both energy and recovery.*

Recovering from Tough Sessions

What you consume after a workout is just as important as what you eat beforehand. Pfaffenbach has most of his runners down a drink made with NOW庐 Sports as soon as possible after a training session to help muscles recover and strengthen. Suliman also likes to get some post-workout protein from a turkey sandwich.

Athletes should also look into recovery supplements, like NOW庐 Sports鈥� , which comes in watermelon and grape flavors. This caffeine-free powder features branched-chain amino acids aimed at muscle recovery. (It鈥檚 also a useful endurance supplement before or during exercise.)* help the body shed excess ammonia, aid in protein synthesis, and support a healthy immune system.*

Suliman considers proper nutrition to be right up there with consistent training and mental well-being when it comes to his athletic success. As he works toward his big goal for the season鈥攅arning a spot to run for the United States in the 1,500-meter鈥攜ou can bet he鈥檒l be dialed in on all three.

products have been recognized among the best in the industry, backed by world-class research and development standards and quality-sourced ingredients, to support a range of sports nutritional needs for professional to amateur athletes.

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

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Sure, backpacking is tiring. But if you鈥檙e feeling extra sore, sluggish, and crummy during or after a hike鈥斺�渂onking,鈥� you might say鈥攜ou might not be getting enough protein in your diet.

Fatigue is one of the telltale signs of protein deficiency, says Madi Niemi, a fitness coach in Portland, Oregon with a degree in integrative health. This essential macronutrient helps you build and repair muscle, supports your immune system, and boosts energy, which is especially important for active people. When you don鈥檛 get enough, your body can start breaking down muscle for energy, leading to weaker muscles, increased risk of sickness, and slower recovery.

鈥淲ithout protein, your body can鈥檛 perform at its best,鈥� Niemi says.

On the trail, it can be difficult to get enough protein because you鈥檙e limited to lightweight, non-perishable ingredients鈥攍ike granola bars鈥攖hat only contain so much of the nutrient. Quick, on-the-go meals tend to be heavy in carbohydrates and fats but lacking protein, Niemi says.

Protein intake, like calorie intake, is relative and depends on your body weight and energy output. As a rule of thumb, nutritionists recommend eating 0.8 to 1 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight on a normal day. While backpacking, Aaron Owens Mayhew, the dietitian behind , suggests upping your intake to 1.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight for a relatively easy hike and 1.8 grams per kilogram for a harder hike.

Be careful not to overdo it though. 鈥淗ikers think they need way more protein than they really do,鈥� Owens Mayhew says. 鈥淛ust meeting your personal needs is enough.鈥�

Owens Mayhew adds that an average body can only fully utilize about 25 grams of protein at a time. Consume more than that, and it just ends up being extra calories. Accordingly, she tries to consume roughly 25 grams of protein for every meal, then 10 to 15 grams of protein per snack.

鈥淛ust check it against your body weight and add whatever you鈥檙e missing,鈥� she says.

Another common misconception is that you must eat meat to hit your protein goal, but you can easily consume protein through plant-based foods including legumes, lentils, nuts and seeds, certain grains, and soy-based products like edamame and tofu. You can also get it through dairy and eggs. In a pinch, mix milk powders or egg white powders into your meals for a flavorless boost.

As an ultralight backpacker, Owens Mayhew prefers what she calls 鈥渃ombination foods鈥� that are calorie dense and have protein as well as fat, fiber, and carbohydrates. Her favorite combination foods include nut butters, quinoa, chia seeds, textured vegetable protein (or TVP), chickpeas, and soy milk powder.

A combination food recipe she鈥檚 known for is the 鈥攑erfect if you don鈥檛 get hungry at altitude, aren鈥檛 a breakfast person, or need to eat lunch on the go鈥攆or a blast of 600 calories and 39 grams of protein, plus electrolytes, fiber, fat, carbohydrates.

As you focus on your protein intake, don鈥檛 forget about the other nutrients. Carbohydrates are equally important because they are your body鈥檚 source of energy, while protein is most useful for muscle repair. Pairing proteins with carbohydrates will satiate you for longer.

鈥淎 balanced diet is the best thing you can do for your body, ensuring you are getting the proper nutrients from each macronutrient,鈥� Niemi says. 鈥淧rotein is super important, but it鈥檚 all about balance.鈥�

Backpacking will leave you relatively sore. But eating better will prevent the painful bonk.

The post How Much Protein Should Hikers Eat and What鈥檚 the Best Way to Get It? appeared first on 国产吃瓜黑料 Online.

As a听health writer, I鈥檝e watched wellness trends come and go, each one claiming to be as life-changing as the last.

鈥淚 read that [insert detox drink or mushroom coffee here] is really good for you,鈥� people have said to me with promising smiles, time and time again. But they didn鈥檛 actually read the information anywhere. Most likely, they watched a conventionally attractive woman in a matching athleisure set sing the elixir鈥檚 praises on Instagram while plugging a brand-affiliated discount code. Or, they watched someone hop on camera to share their personal reasons for disavowing once universally accepted, scientifically-backed health advice like wearing sunscreen or getting vaccinated from infectious diseases like COVID-19听and took the opinion as fact.

Netflix鈥檚 new original series Apple Cider Vinegar, marketed as a “true-ish story, based on a lie,”听explores just how detrimental those embellishments can be. The show is a fictional retelling of wellness influencer . As an ambitious entrepreneur, she establishes an online following, mobile app, and cookbook rooted in the lie that she healed her terminal brain cancer with food, all while omitting the fact that she was never actually ill. Meanwhile, in a secondary plot, a peer-turned-rival influencer scrambles to hide her very real, active sarcomas from an equally robust following while selling the organic juices and coffee enemas that she claims put her in remission.

The moral of the story: neither schtick is sustainable, and both lead to more harm than good.

The Allure of Social Media Wellness Trends

鈥淭he wellness space is flooded with misinformation, fear-based narratives, personal anecdotes, and quick fixes,鈥� says registered dietitian . 鈥淭his type of information spreads faster than nuanced, science-backed advice.鈥�

Such misinformation, defined by the (USDHHS) as 鈥渇alse, inaccurate, or misleading according to the best available evidence at the time,鈥� is a growing problem. There are a few reasons why.

鈥淚n an age of instant gratification, it can be incredibly tempting to try to find quick solutions to all of our problems with a swipe of an app,鈥� says , a board-certified internal medicine physician and researcher specializing in brain health. That鈥檚 especially because there is a 鈥渇undamental issue with access to healthcare in the United States,鈥� adds , a triple-board-certified endocrinologist and professor at Weill Cornell Medical College, and finding a doctor can be overwhelming, expensive, and frustrating. There is also a general, wide-reaching , Perlmutter adds, for many reasons鈥攖he main one being that with the health care system are so common. 鈥淢any people with legitimate concerns are turned away for 鈥榥ot being sick enough鈥� or 鈥榥ot motivated enough,鈥� which can scare them from seeking future care,鈥� Kumar explains.

All of this makes it tempting for people to take health matters into their own hands鈥攅specially when information is so easily accessible. 鈥湴粘蟊鸢疴�檚 a sense of community that comes along with chatting online and being a part of the wellness movement,鈥� adds , a registered dietitian, researcher, and member of Bragg鈥檚 scientific advisory board, which can be very alluring, she says.

As for influencers鈥� part in it all, they鈥檙e paid to 鈥減ackage advice in a way that feels relatable compared to the approach that doctors may provide,鈥� explains Larson, which lands nicely with people in vulnerable states in search of validation or answers. If users听engage with that type of content鈥攎eaning they like it or comment on it鈥攖hey鈥檙e very likely to be algorithmically delivered more of the same, reinforcing the echo chamber of falsehoods, add Kumar and Perlmutter.

How to Spot Bad Wellness Advice Online

The USDHHS says that one of the most impactful ways we can throttle the spread of misinformation is by learning how to identify it and question it when we do. Here’s how to do just that.

1. Check the Source鈥檚 Credentials

If you鈥檙e learning from a person who is talking to their phone鈥檚 front camera, click on their profile and read听more about their background.

If they鈥檙e giving medical advice, do they have the certifications to do so? Look for specific letter credentials like MD, medical doctor, RD or RDN, a registered dietitian or registered-dietician nutritionist, respectively, or CPT, certified physical trainer, that go beyond vague placeholder titles. 鈥淎nyone can call themselves a nutritionist,鈥� says Cresci. Similar words that should raise red flags are 鈥渉ealth coach鈥� or an undefined, non-credentialed 鈥渆xpert.鈥�

Also, check the profile鈥檚 username and activity history to ensure you aren鈥檛 interacting with a fake or spam account. 鈥淟ast year, I came across a TikTok that impersonated me by posting my videos and asking people to Venmo or Zelle them for access to GLP-1 medications,鈥� recalls Kumar. 鈥淧eople easily fell prey to this scam because the account was using my real content.鈥�

2. Cross-Check Information Before Believing It, and Especially Before Sharing It

Getting information from a single source simply isn鈥檛 enough. Before you store something in your memory or discuss it with others, do a quick search of your own to corroborate the facts.

Look to reputable sources 鈥渓ike medical journals or government health websites,鈥� says , a registered dietitian, such as the or the . And even then, don鈥檛 be swayed by a single study鈥檚 conclusions. 鈥淥ne study 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 prove a trend,鈥� says Larson. Established research backed by multiple studies and credentialed professional input is the most reliable.

3. Be Wary of Quick Fixes or 鈥淢iracle鈥� Cures

Posting a dramatic before-and-after transformation, be it genuine or not, is one of the easiest ways to go viral online.

Anything that promises instant results鈥攆ad diets, workout programs, supplements鈥攊s something to be wary of right away. 鈥淎s an endocrinologist, I know about all the fad diets and quick fixes that promise to help you lose ten pounds in a week. To set the record straight once and for all: those trends never work,鈥� says Kumar. They鈥檙e 鈥渦nsustainable or misleading at best, and could put your health at risk at worst,鈥� she adds. Anything that truly sticks, health-wise, takes time and consistency.

Put differently: 鈥淚f it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,鈥� says Larson. 鈥淛ust because it worked for one influencer 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 mean it’s science-backed and safe for you to do.鈥�

4. Ask Yourself: “Am I Being Sold Something?”

If there鈥檚 a shopping link to click or a promo code to punch in, think twice before proceeding or taking intel to heart. 鈥淟ikely, the influencer is pushing a product or service that suits their agenda, not your well-being,鈥� says Cresci.

This is especially the case for self-help books or supplements, adds Kumar. 鈥淚t鈥檚 trendy for influencers to have supplement brands, and while most won鈥檛 harm you, you are likely falling prey to marketing tactics,鈥� she explains.

The bottom line is: question everything, and remember that no piece of guidance is one-size-fits-all. 鈥淓ven if you鈥檝e confirmed the source as legitimate, you should always speak to your doctor before taking medical advice,鈥� says Kumar. 鈥淲hat works for the majority of people might not work for you.鈥�

Want more of听国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Health stories?听.

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Seven miles into the 2004 Cherry Blossom Ten Miler in Washington, D.C., a few months before that summer鈥檚 Olympic track trials, I felt a strange pop in my lower back. Hobbling gingerly to a halt, I realized that my race was over. As it turned out, so was my track career. I鈥檇 suffered a stress fracture in my sacrum, the bone that connects your lower back to your pelvis. It鈥檚 an unusual injury, and in the months that followed, I puzzled over my fate. Had I been wearing the wrong shoes, or logging too many miles, or not stretching enough? It wasn鈥檛 until a decade later that I began to consider another possibility: perhaps I hadn鈥檛 been eating enough.

, the International Olympic Committee unveiled something it called 鈥渞elative energy deficiency in sport,鈥� or REDs. The link between eating disorders, missed periods, and weakened bones was already widely known as the 鈥渇emale athlete triad.鈥� But REDs adopted a broader view. Failing to get enough calories to fuel both normal metabolism and the rigors of training were associated with a wide range of problems in 14 categories: not just poor bone health (it turns out that a stress fracture in the pelvis or sacrum is considered a primary indicator of REDs), but also impaired immune function, digestive issues, disrupted sleep, even urinary incontinence. The syndrome could afflict men as well as women, and it wasn鈥檛 limited to athletes with eating disorders. Some who鈥檇 been struck by it simply didn鈥檛 realize they weren鈥檛 getting enough calories to support their training.

The diagnosis caught on. The most recent , from 2023, pooled data from 178 studies involving more than 23,000 participants. It concluded that anywhere from 15 to 80 percent of athletes have REDs, depending on the sport. The problem is more common among women, and most prevalent in endurance sports like running, where weight affects performance. But not everyone is convinced that REDs should be applied so broadly. , penned by eight prominent sports scientists, poses a provocative question: Is REDs even real?

The piece鈥檚 lead author is Asker Jeukendrup, the Dutch Olympic Committee鈥檚 top nutritionist and a former head of the Gatorade Sports Science Institute. He and his colleagues take a deep look at the evidence underpinning REDs. The studies they examine are mostly short-term and observational, making it impossible to prove that calorie shortage causes the symptoms described. And in practice, measuring how many calories a person consumes and how many they burn is so error-prone that it鈥檚 impossible to say with confidence who is or isn鈥檛 coming up short. As a result, they conclude, estimates of REDs鈥檚 prevalence should be considered highly suspect.

Despite these shortcomings, 鈥淩EDs has become a much-discussed topic on social media and in mainstream media news outlets,鈥� the authors note 鈥攖o such a degree, they argue, that calorie shortage has become a convenient scapegoat for whatever problems athletes face. Jeukendrup and his colleagues suggest replacing the diagnosis with an alternative framework incorporating eight potential triggers: training, nutrition, disordered eating, sleep, infection, mental health, life/environmental, and undiagnosed clinical conditions. Any of these factors, alone or in combination, can cause a constellation of symptoms resembling REDs.

Meanwhile, out in the real world, some of the nuances of that message are getting lost. 鈥淭he title of the paper鈥斺�楧oes REDs Exist?鈥欌�攎akes for a shocking headline that can be easily shared but 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 fully reflect the content,鈥� says Megan Roche, a running coach whose doctoral work included research on low energy availability, hormones, and bone health in ultrarunners. Suddenly, she鈥檚 fielding tough questions from athletes and podcast listeners, few of whom have engaged with the details of the 11,000-word scientific review. Persuading athletes to seek help for REDs can be challenging at the best of times, she says; confusing them about whether a condition is even a thing only makes it harder.

The scientists who developed the original set of guidelines for REDs are also befuddled. They never intended to suggest that all training and health problems are the result of calorie shortage, or even that it should be the default assumption. Their are explicit that the signs and symptoms noted can be caused by other triggers. In other words, there鈥檚 nothing straightforward about any of this. 鈥湴粘蟊鸢疴�檚 never going to be a 鈥榩regnancy test鈥� for REDs,鈥� says Trent Stellingwerff, a physiologist at the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific who helped author the IOC鈥檚 most recent REDs guidelines. 鈥淟ife is not binary. Disease is not binary. Clinicians have to make decisions based on incomplete information every day.鈥�

Much of the debate seems to be about messaging: Are the risks associated with calorie shortage getting too much attention? But there are some specific points of disagreement, like whether athletes who don鈥檛 otherwise show signs of disordered eating might sometimes slip into calorie shortage without realizing it. Meanwhile, Roche sees REDs crop up in athletes during times of stress or lifestyle transition鈥攆reshmen in college taking on a heavier training load, new mothers adjusting to altered schedules and the caloric demands of breastfeeding.

Which brings me back to that stress fracture. I was a hearty eater throughout my track career, but I increased my mileage substantially in 2003 and 2004, adding regular two-a-day runs for the first time. My weight decreased, and my BMI dropped below 18. It鈥檚 impossible to know exactly what led to my fracture, and it鈥檚 clear that REDs as a diagnosis will continue to evolve. We may eventually get a better understanding of how calorie supply interacts with risk factors like training load and stress. But I can鈥檛 help but wish that someone had been beating the drum about risks from inadequate fueling鈥攅ven in athletes who never turn down seconds, and even for men鈥攂efore I hit empty.

For more Sweat Science, join me on and , sign up for the , and check out my forthcoming book .

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In the fall of 2020, pro-climber Sasha DiGiulian underwent her . As she doubted whether she鈥檇 ever climb again, she found herself with a lot of downtime during her recovery. She took those months to听fully commit to her long-time passion: starting a protein bar company.

鈥淚 registered the name in 2012 when I was a freshman at Columbia University,鈥� she says. Today, her superfood snack brand is stocked on shelves in climbing gyms and health stores nationwide.

Her passion for the protein bar business stems from her own experience of relying on nutrient-dense snacks for energy. When she鈥檚 not enjoying a or Send Bar, she鈥檚 making one from scratch at home.

Her one rule for making homemade protein bars? It has to start with date caramel鈥攁 thick paste that you can make easily by . She loves the dried fruit goo because regardless of the other ingredients she adds, it always seamlessly binds everything together into a chewy, tender bar that boosts her energy before training, hiking, or climbing. 鈥淚f my energy reserves are low, I can鈥檛 lift as hard, I lack power, and I burn out much faster,鈥� she says.

Another benefit, she says, is that they help her recover by replenishing her body with protein to repair muscle damage鈥攁 ritual she has taken seriously since healing from her past surgeries.

I decided to make DiGiulian鈥檚 nutty date bar recipe myself and spoke with a registered dietitian, who weighed in on how DiGiulian鈥檚 homemade bars can boost performance and support recovery. Here鈥檚 how it all went.

How to Make Sasha DiGiulian鈥檚 Homemade Nutty Date Bars

The author makes Sasha’s nutty protein bars in her kitchen. (Video by Ashia Aubourg)

Servings: 8 three-by-one-inch bars

Duration: 10 min (plus 30 minutes of refrigerating)

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely chopped cashews
• 2 teaspoons
• 录 cup plant-based (vanilla or unflavored)
• 4鈥�5 , pitted
• 录 cup raisins
• 录 cup pecans, roughly chopped
• 录 cup
• 录 cup almond butter
• 陆 teaspoon cinnamon
• 陆 teaspoon vanilla extract
• A pinch of salt
• 1鈥�2 tablespoons water, if needed (to help blend the dates)

Recipe

1. In a food processor, blend the Medjool dates with almond butter and vanilla extract until smooth. Add one to two tablespoons of water if needed to help blend.
2. In a separate bowl, mix chopped cashews, spinach powder, protein powder, raisins, chopped pecans, coconut, cinnamon, and salt.
3. Pour the date mixture into the dry ingredients and combine until a sticky dough forms.
4. Press the mixture onto a piece of parchment paper and mold it into a square.
5. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes, and then slice it into eight bars that measure about three inches long and one inch wide.

Note: The bars will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to a week when stored in an airtight container.

The Verdict: These Nutty Date Bars Didn鈥檛 Last a Second in My Kitchen

I had high hopes for a protein bar recipe created by the founder of a popular health snack company, and DiGiulian鈥檚 date-nut duo did not disappoint. I prepared them in under ten minutes, using my blender instead of a food processor. Shaping the dough into neat rectangles was effortless, and they turned out looking like store-bought bars.

These bars are sweet, chewy, and packed with rich, comforting, nutty flavors. I kept a container of these in my fridge, and they didn鈥檛 even last a week.

How to Get the Most Out of These Bars, According to a Nutritionist

It turns out DiGiulian might be on to something when it comes to her love for dates, says Erika Collette, a registered dietitian based in Boston, Massachusetts.

鈥淭he Medjool dates and raisins are great sources of pre-workout carbs,鈥� Collette says. These ingredients help fuel your body before getting active because they鈥檙e rich in simple carbohydrates that are easy to digest, providing quick energy for your workout soon after eating, she says.

Eat Them 30 Minutes Post-Workout to Aid Recovery

Collette recommends eating one of these bars at least 30 minutes after a workout. This protein-packed snack helps kickstart muscle repair and replenish your energy, she says.

One nutty date bar has nine grams of protein, and since nutrition experts recommend aiming for per meal, snacking on one of these bars can help you get there.

I took Collette鈥檚 advice and ate one of these nutty date bars about a half hour before my barre class. I was able to power through my toughest range of motion exercises, and I didn鈥檛 feel achy after my workout; it was energizing and surprisingly filling, too. I鈥檒l definitely be making these again.

Want more of听国产吃瓜黑料鈥檚 Health stories?听.

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When I started writing about sports science two decades ago, fueling advice for endurance athletes was simple. The goal was to take in roughly 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour, in order to preserve the limited supply of carbohydrate stored in your muscles and liver. More would theoretically be better, but studies had found that it simply wasn鈥檛 possible to absorb more than that from the stomach into the intestine.

The science has evolved since then, mainly with the realization that (like glucose and fructose) in specific ratios enables higher absorption rates. top out at 90 grams per hour, but recent studies have suggested that it鈥檚 possible to take in 120 grams per hour鈥攁nd top athletes in cycling, ultra running, and other sports are reportedly going even higher than that.

In contrast to all this, a new study gave its subjects just 10 grams of carbohydrate per hour, and argues that this is all you need. This is a surprising and contrarian take, and I鈥檓 not suggesting you should swallow it whole. But it鈥檚 a good opportunity to pause the carb mania for a moment and take a closer look at the evidence and assumptions underlying the 鈥渕ore is better鈥� view.

The new study is published (and ) in the American Journal of Physiology 鈥� Cell Physiology by a group of researchers at several universities led by Philip Prins and Andrew Koutnik. Its main purpose is to compare endurance performance in ten well-trained triathletes following either standard carb-heavy diets or low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets. That鈥檚 a complex and long-running debate (which I wrote about most recently in 2020) that I鈥檓 not going to get into here, other than to note that they didn鈥檛 see any significant differences either way in an endurance test lasting about 90 minutes following six weeks on either diet.

What鈥檚 more interesting here is their test of in-race carbohydrate supplementation. All the subjects did two rounds of endurance tests on each diet: one with a carb drink every 20 minutes totaling 10 grams of carbs per hour, the other with a placebo drink with no carbs. On average, the athletes lasted 22 percent longer with the carb drink, regardless of which diet they were on. That鈥檚 a big improvement. Time-to-exhaustion tests, where you hang on as long as possible at a predetermined pace, are different than races, but an improvement like that likely corresponds to going one to two percent faster in a race.

The reason they chose such a small dose of carbohydrates is that one of the study authors, South African scientist Tim Noakes, that we鈥檝e badly misunderstood the role of in-race carbohydrates. The traditional view is that we drink carbs to prevent our muscles from running out of glycogen, the form in which muscles store carbs. Noakes鈥檚 view is that glycogen 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 matter, and that the real benefit is preventing a blood sugar crash. This is a brain-centered view of endurance: keeping blood sugar high convinces the brain that everything is OK, so the muscles鈥攚hich were never truly in danger of running out of carbs鈥攌eep on pumping.

If blood sugar is what matters, then we don鈥檛 need to choke down such large quantities of carbohydrate after all: at any given moment, there鈥檚 only about a teaspoon of glucose circulating in your bloodstream. What鈥檚 missing from Prins and Koutnik鈥檚 study is an explicit test of higher carb doses. We see that 10 grams per hour helps, whether by maintaining blood sugar or simply by tricking the brain into thinking that fuel is coming (as has been demonstrated with studies of ). But we don鈥檛 know whether, say, 30 grams per hour would have been better or worse.

On the other hand, you might imagine that the conventional view of carbohydrate needs鈥攖he more the better鈥攊s backed by plenty of evidence. And you鈥檇 be right. But Noakes argues that in all the studies showing that the depletion of muscle glycogen corresponds to a drop-off in performance, the subjects also had low blood sugar. We鈥檝e been watching the wrong variable, in his view, and drawn the wrong conclusions. This argument echoes Noakes鈥檚 critique of hydration research, which was that studies didn鈥檛 distinguish between being dehydrated and feeling thirsty. In his view, being dehydrated only matters if you feel thirsty, since it鈥檚 your brain that decides when to slow down.

The debate gets pretty complicated at this point, with dueling interpretations of the minute details of decades of research. Rather than getting lost in the physiology, though, I think the simplest test is to ask about the outcome we really care about: Does taking higher loads of carbohydrate lead to better performance? When you dig into this dose-response literature, the findings aren鈥檛 as clear as I might have expected.

Here鈥檚 a graph from one of the key papers, from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (who, I鈥檓 sure I don鈥檛 need to point out, like the idea that more carbs are better). Fifty-one cyclists and triathletes completed a series of tests consisting of two hours of moderately hard cycling followed by a 20-kilometer all-out time trial, while consuming anywhere from 0 to 120 grams of carbohydrate per hour, in 10-gram increments. The results:

The paper describes this relationship as a 鈥渃urvilinear dose-response relationship鈥�: more carbs are better initially, but at the highest doses more carbs hurt performance. The sweet spot where performance is optimized, in this data, is 78 grams of carbohydrate per hour, consistent with the idea that 60 to 90 grams is the right range.

But take another look at that data. Performance is worst at 0 or 10 grams; it鈥檚 a little better at 20 grams. Take those three data points out, and it鈥檚 hard to see any evidence of a dose-response relationship above 30 grams. It鈥檚 certainly not a very strong demonstration that 60 grams is better than 30 grams, let alone that there are benefits from upping to 90 or 120 grams.

The case for 90 grams over 60 grams, using a more modern mix of carbohydrates, is made in from researchers at Leeds Beckett University. Ten subjects tested 0, 60, 75, 90, and 112.5 grams of carbohydrate per hour for two hours of cycling followed by a 30-minute time trial. Here鈥檚 the average power outputs in the time trial:

From this, you might conclude that 90 grams is indeed the best bet. It鈥檚 hardly definitive, though. The placebo option, with no carbs at all, is clearly the worst option, but it鈥檚 not that far from the 75-gram result, and there鈥檚 no data to compare with for lower doses. How would the cyclists have fared with, say, 20 grams an hour鈥攅nough, as Noakes would argue, to keep blood sugar constant but not to conserve muscle glycogen in the legs?

Personally, I find it hard to believe that muscle glycogen 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 matter. Even if we don鈥檛 grind to a halt because our glycogen tanks are empty, there鈥檚 evidence that we begin slowing down when our muscles are partly depleted. It could even be that the brain monitors glycogen levels and dials back performance as fuel levels drop, just as Noakes proposes for blood sugar.

Whether that means big carb doses like 120 grams per hour are a good idea is a different question, though. The scientific data that I posted above 诲辞别蝉苍鈥檛 seem overwhelmingly convincing. The real-world experiences of elite athletes are much more compelling, and that evidence should be taken seriously. I鈥檇 love to see better dose-response data showing more clearly what happens across the whole range of intakes between 0 and 120 grams per hour. But those are hard studies to do, so in the meantime we鈥檙e stuck with the golden rule of training and sports science: try a few different approaches, and see what works best for you.

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