17 Nutrition Tips That Change Your Life Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Diet & Fat LossEating 17 Nutrition Tips That Change Your Life Easy Hacks for Health Muscle Fat Loss and More by TC Luoma April 27, 2018June 29, 2022 Tags Carbohydrate Control, Dietary Myth Busting, Feeding the Ideal Body, Insulin Sensitivity, Nutrition & Supplements Going to the gym is the fun part. Nutrition, well, not so much. But don't worry, these tips and tricks will make it easier for you to eat for muscle gains, diet for fat loss, and improve overall health. Take 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar before you go to bed. It'll lower your fasting blood sugar the next morning by 4 to 6 percent. Continued use – at bedtime and even during the day, mixing it into foods when possible – will lead to an average weight loss of 2 pounds in 4 weeks. More vinegar science. Brown rice contains phytic acid, and phytic acid "grabs onto" or chelates minerals (making them unavailable), in addition to inhibiting enzymes we need to digest food. That's why white rice is often a superior food. It's fortified with vitamins, isn't associated with bloating or food allergies, and when you mix it with protein (e.g., meat), it ameliorates its otherwise high glycemic index. A 2012 study of mortality in 400,000 people found that coffee drinkers had between 6 and 16 percent fewer deaths. Another found a 24% decrease in deaths over a 19-year period. And the more you drink, the better, although 3 to 4 cups seems to be the sweet spot. However, one study found that 6 cups a day resulted in a 33% decrease in diabetes diagnoses. More coffee science. Endocrinologists found that women with high or higher levels of vitamin D3 in their blood scored higher on all factors relating to sexual satisfaction. Eating some cooked cauliflower and broccoli every day inhibits a protein called myostatin, thus allowing muscles to grow beyond their normal genetic limitations. More myostatin science. Scientists have found that for every 10 grams of carrots consumed each day, men reduced their risk of developing prostate cancer by 5%. That means that if a man ate at least 50 grams of carrots a day, his chances of developing prostate cancer could be cut in half. The average carrot weighs about 72 grams, and a cup of chopped carrots weighs around 122 grams, so it's not like you have to eat a Bugs Bunny bushel-full of carrots to get to your 50-gram goal. Just one carrot a day should give you some protection against the most frightening of male maladies. A study found that pomegranate juice improved erectile dysfunction. Several others studies found similar results. If you want to experiment with the erection-enhancing effects of pomegranate, drink about 6 ounces a day. Whether you need to drink it a set number of hours before sex is unknown, but drinking it in the morning appears to work fine for those planning on getting some action that same evening. Be careful if you combine it with Viagra, though. The Urology Annals publication documented three cases of men who used Viagra and pomegranate juice together and found that their erections wouldn't subside after sex; good if you're at an orgy, bad if you're on your way to a Baptism. Adding 5 grams of "non-Dutched" cocoa to your coffee lessens its anxiety-producing effects while enhancing its cognitive boosting effects. Cocoa is also rich repository of phytonutrients. It contains scads of polyphenols including flavonoids and flavanols, alkaloids like theobromine, and a whole alphabet soup of bioactive compounds. Together, these substances give cocoa the ability to reduce the incidence of heart arrhythmias and heart disease in general by lowering blood pressure and improving endothelial function. It's also thought to improve insulin sensitivity, fight cancer, and act as a neuro-protectant. Adding cocoa to your coffee is an easy way to take full advantage of these properties. Amazingly, popcorn has more polyphenols (health-promoting plant chemicals) than most fruits and vegetables. It also promotes stronger erections and possibly leads to higher testosterone levels. Avoid the microwave stuff, though. Make your popcorn like this. Inulin is a prebiotic fiber that feeds your beneficial gut bacteria. Collagen is a type of protein that's been shown to work better than glucosamine and chondritin for making your tendons and joints feel better. Mix the powdered forms of these two supplements into one serving of Superfood, a blend of 18 berries, fruits, and vegetables. It's the ultimate health drink for lifters. If you boil rice in water mixed with coconut oil, you change the architecture of the rice, turning it into a "resistant starch." It becomes even more resistant if you then refrigerate it for 12 hours and reheat it before eating. By doing so, you actually reduce the available calories in it by anywhere from 10 to 50%, depending on the variety of rice. Forskolin, a plant extract, increases testosterone levels substantially, increases lean body mass and metabolic rate, and reduces body fat and blood pressure, all without exercise. More forskolin science. A chicken breast is lean, skin or no skin, and leaving the skin on only adds about 50 calories, depending on the size of the bird. What's more, about 55% of the fat in the skin is monosaturated. You know, like olive oil. The rest of it, about 2.5 to 3.0 grams, is indeed saturated. Get over it. Sourdough bread is made by mixing flour and water and allowing the mixture to ferment. Millions of yeasts and billions of lactobacilli then go to work on the dough. The result is an incredibly complex bread that contains a ton of nutrients including B1-B6, B-12, vitamin E, selenium, manganese, calcium, etc., in addition to complex proteins and fatty acids. Furthermore, sourdough pretty much shoots down any reason people might have for not eating bread; its gluten has been broken down by the bacteria, it has a low glycemic index, and it has little nutrient-robbing phytic acid. Researchers at the University of Palermo recruited 23 people between the ages of 18 and 65 to eat a dozen green olives a day for 30 days. Amazingly, the participants lost about a kilogram (2.2 pounds) and replaced it with roughly the same amount of muscle, without any changes in diet or exercise. Here are the details. Drink 16-20 ounces of water upon waking. This triggers what's known as the "gastrocolic reflex," which is the signal your body sends to the intestines to gather two animals of every kind and evacuate. Eat 3 to 4 prunes as a mid-day, between-meals snack. They contain sorbitol, a sugar alcohol that acts as a laxative. They also contain chlorogenic and neochlorogenic acids, which are the same chemicals that often cause you to go to the bathroom after your morning coffee. Drink a large cup of coffee in the morning. See above. Eat two large leaves of Romaine lettuce every day. They contain fiber, but other than that I have no scientific evidence that this technique has any special merits. I learned about it from a competitive bodybuilder in the 90's. He never won any championships, but by God the man could poop. Curcumin started off as an effective pain reliever and anti-inflammatory, but then we found out it also fights cancer, blocks estrogen, boosts testosterone, improves heart health, dissolves arterial plaques, reduces the risk of diabetes, and even helps prevent mosquito-born malaria. Now there's even evidence that small amounts can improve strength and endurance in pathways unrelated to reduced estrogen and increased testosterone. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Diet & Fat Loss The 9 Worst Things About Processed Foods You know to avoid most processed foods, but you probably don't know the whole story. A few of these will surprise you. C3G, Diet Strategy, Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements, Omega-3 Fatty Acids TC Luoma March 1 Supplements Tip Testosterone Blood Tests Are Garbage The President's total testosterone is 441. Does that mean anything? Here's what you don't know about T testing. Nutrition & Supplements, Testosterone Boosters, Testosterone Optimization, Tips TC Luoma October 22 Eating Tip We Might Have Been Wrong About Diabetes New research proves a single high-carb, high-calorie meal might end up causing long-term damage to your insulin sensitivity. Carb Control, Nutrition & Supplements TC Luoma August 12 Diet & Fat Loss Preparing for Battle If you need to decide what to eat, track down those foods in the proper amounts, and then finally take a bite – the chances of you skipping that meal are much higher. Here's how to take the thinking out of eating. Diet Strategy, Feeding the Ideal Body, Nutrition & Supplements Mike Roussell, PhD January 10