Whole Health and Fitness AU

14/12/2025

13/12/2025

Nitrates, naturally found in green leafy vegetables and beets, can help us do the same amount of work using less oxygen. This allows athletes to exercise at a higher power output for the same amount of breath.

Drinking beet juice can reduce the oxygen cost of exercise. What about eating whole beets?
Whole beets can improve running performance. Physically fit study participants ate a cup and a half of baked beets (about a can of beets) 75 minutes before running a 5K. During the last mile of the race, the beet group pulled ahead, compared to the placebo group, who were given berries instead. While the beet group ran faster, their heart rate wasn’t any higher.

They ran faster with less effort.

Berries are a great choice for athletes, too, and not just for races. We should eat berries on days we train, as they help speed up recovery.

If nitrates are so good for us, why not just take them in a pill? Nitrate supplements have questionable safety for long-term use. Non-vegetable sources of nitrates may also have detrimental health effects, so if we want to improve our performance and our health, we should ideally obtain nitrates from whole vegetables.

Note, as I discuss in my book How Not to Age, the nitrate strategy may only be safe in the context of a plant-based diet.

Watch the video “Whole Beets vs. Juice for Improving Athletic Performance” at https://see.nf/nitrates

PMID: 21284982, 25068792, 24476472, 22709704, 22564864

13/12/2025

07/12/2025

06/12/2025

06/12/2025

Why is self-myofascial release (SMR) and stretching the foundation of corrective exercise? 🦴💪

It comes down to simple physics: Muscles attach to bones.

When a muscle becomes chronically weak, tight or dysfunctional it pulls on its attachment points, literally shifting bones out of ideal alignment. This creates joint stress and forces other muscles to compensate.

If we skip SMR or stretching and go straight to strengthening, we are simply loading a crooked structure. 🏗️

Effective corrective exercise programs prioritize self-myofascial release (SMR) and stretching to: 1️⃣ Restore muscle function.2️⃣ Realign the skeletal structures. 3️⃣ Prepare the nervous system for new movement patterns.

You have to create space for movement before you can load it!

05/12/2025

29/11/2025

"We've replaced real food with a chemical experiment, and we're paying the price".

26/11/2025

"Removing animal products and added oils is the key factor that drives improvements in weight, body composition, insulin sensitivity, and cholesterol."

A new analysis from the Physicians Committee shows that a low-fat vegan diet leads to greater weight loss than a Mediterranean diet, even when the vegan diet includes foods like refined grains and potatoes, which are considered “unhealthy” by the plant-based diet index. Removing animal products and added oils is the key factor that drives improvements in weight, body composition, insulin sensitivity, and cholesterol.

Learn more: https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/vegan-diet-even-unhealthy-plant-based-foods-better-weight-loss-mediterranean