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In a recent video, Stef was speaking to a listener about pollution and brought up the issue of sedentary living and its negative effects. First, let me be clear, I am not disputing the negative effects of remaining sedentary for long periods, or the importance of exercise. But Stef, like many others, is vastly inflating the importance of exercise relative to other factors, namely diet. It's a common misconception (70% of people believe) that exercise and diet are both equally important to weight management and weight loss (International Food Information Council Foundation, 2011). This is simply untrue (Flatt, 2011). To quote Dr. Greger: 'What we put in our mouths is most important'. Regarding cancer, literally 5000 hours in the gym can't compete with a plant-based diet. Barnard et al. (2003) compared a group of participants eating a plant-based diet who did moderate exercise (i.e. walking) to another group who did daily, strenuous, hour-long exercise and ate a standard American diet, with a control group. After 14 years, the exercise group were still overweight whereas the diet and exercise group were a healthy weight. More importantly, the participants in the diet and exercise group were roughly twice as effective at fighting cancer growth compared to the exercise group. Another study by Jenkins et al. (2012) showed that consuming a cup a day of beans, chickpeas, or lentils for three months may reduce one's resting heart rate by as much as 250 hours on a treadmill. I strongly urge FDR to shine a light on the importance of diet. I have already posted about nutrition, twice. My first post didn't get much traction but my more recent post seems to have been well-received. References Barnard RJ, Ngo TH, Leung PS, Aronson WJ, Golding LA. Prostate. A low-fat diet and/or strenuous exercise alters the IGF axis in vivo and reduces prostate tumor cell growth in vitro. 2003 Aug 1;56(3):201-6. Flatt JP. Issues and misconceptions about obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2011 Apr;19(4):676-86. International Food Information Council Foundation. 2011. Food & Health Survey: Consumer Attitudes Toward Food Safety, Nutrition & Health. D J Jenkins, C W Kendall, L S Augustin, S Mitchell, S Sahye-Pudaruth, S Blanco Mejia, L Chiavaroli, A Mirrahimi, C Ireland, B Bashyam, E Vidgen, R J de Souza, J L Sievenpiper, J Coveney, L A Leiter, R G Josse. Effect of legumes as part of a low glycemic index diet on glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a randomized controlled trial. Arch Intern Med. 2012 Nov 26;172(21):1653-60.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick outlines the health benefits of elevating the core body temperature. I did my first 40 minute session in the sauna last night, and it was more stressful than any work out that I've done before. I'm still feeling it!

I'm trying to get back in shape and would appreciate any advice and recommendations (websites, youTube, books, etc.).