Welcome to the positive corner of the internet. Every weekday, we make sense of the confusing world of wellness by analyzing the headlines, simplifying the latest research, and offering quick tips designed to make you healthier in less than 5 minutes. If you were forwarded this message, you can get the free daily email here.
Today’s Health Upgrade
Is breakfast the muscle maker?
Recipe of the week
Look back, move forward
Arnold’s Podcast
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Nutrition
The Early Morning Protein Hits Different
If you’re trying to gain muscle or boost strength, your first meal isn’t necessarily the most important — but it could make it easier to achieve your goals.
Research suggests that loading up on extra protein at breakfast could help you build more muscle and maintain strength better than eating more protein later in the day.
Scientists recently discovered that eating a protein-rich breakfast is linked to greater muscle gains than consuming most of your protein during lunch or dinner. This finding challenges the common belief that when you eat protein doesn’t matter as long as you hit your daily total.
To be clear, total protein in a day still matters most. So you want to aim for 1.8 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of goal body weight per day—or about .6 to one gram per pound.
If you’re hitting those goals, it might be worth experimenting with front-loading your protein and ensuring you’re including quality sources. The study also found that high-quality protein sources, assessed by their PDCAAS (Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score), were especially beneficial for maintaining strength.
If you want to give it a try, aim for 30 to 60 grams of protein in your first meal. Our favorite ways to add extra protein to our breakfast include Greek yogurt, eggs, protein shakes, lentils, or overnight oats (see below).
Researchers must conduct more studies to determine why the extra morning protein helps. It’s possible that the early dose of protein might kickstart muscle protein synthesis or align better with your body’s natural circadian biology (a study known as chrononutrition). Whatever the reason, a double dose of morning protein is a low-risk experiment that could deliver the advantage you want.
Recipe of the Week
The Ready-To-Eat High-Protein Breakfast
This recipe is a village favorite if you need a protein-packed first meal that can be ready and waiting. It’s a spin on overnight oats that will make you fall in love with breakfast again.
This classic breakfast from You Can’t Screw This Up packs about 40 grams of protein and is loaded with filling fiber, healthy fats, and more flavor than you imagine. You can make it in a few minutes and eat it, but it’s best to prepare it before you go to sleep, toss it in the fridge overnight, and enjoy it when you get up.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Ingredients
1/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup milk of your choice
1 tablespoon chia seeds
1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter
1/2 banana, cut into small chunks
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 scoop whey or plant Momentous protein powder
Instructions
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl or mason jar and mix well. That’s it.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Eat and enjoy!
Adam’s Corner
Look Back, Move Forward
Preparing these emails is an eye-opening experience.
Every weekday, you receive three or four items based on research designed to make you healthier, happier, and a little better than yesterday.
However, for each item we share, there are probably another 25 worthless studies or topics that never see the light of day.
It’s a reminder that we consume so much information, but most of it is just noise that causes confusion and doesn’t make you any better.
If something isn’t valuable, we won’t share it here. But after 25 years in the wellness industry, I love that I’m still learning new tricks or discovering something that makes me rethink something I once believed.
So, every now and then, I’ll share what I personally find most valuable. I don’t think you should do something because I do it. I think that’s one of the primary fallacies of the influencer revolution. We all have different goals, preferences, and lifestyles.
At the same time, I think it’s helpful to see what others find valuable. So here are a few things that I’m thinking about and adjusting.
The Gut-Brain Connection Grows Stronger
Researchers found that probiotics could improve cognitive function, mood, and sleep in older adults.
The study caught my attention because of the design. We know that probiotics are important for gut health, but we’re still learning how they work because changes in the microbiome appear to be very individualized. What’s good for one person might not benefit another.
In this study, the researchers gave the participants a probiotic for 10 weeks and tracked cognitive performance, sleep, and other health outcomes. Then, they took a 4-week break and put those same participants on a placebo (without telling them it was a placebo) for another 10 weeks.
The probiotics improved every measure of cognition compared to the placebo, including better problem-solving, memory, planning, attention and focus, sleep, and a lower likelihood of depressed mood.
My take: I don’t think you need supplemental probiotics, but everyone benefits from prioritizing gut health. And that starts with more fiber and prebiotics. If you aren’t eating enough fiber, start doing so today. It’s been my biggest nutrition focus for the last two years. And even when I struggle, I throw a couple of scoops of psyllium husk into my protein shakes for an extra 7 to 10 grams of fiber.
Mobility Is A Longevity Secret
Flexibility is often associated with fitness, but could it also indicate how long you’ll live?
A new study found that reduced body flexibility in middle-aged is linked to a higher mortality risk.
The scientists performed 20 measurements that assessed the range of motion on seven different body parts and then followed up on health outcomes nearly 13 years later.
Nearly 3,000 men and women were tested, and improving flexibility was associated with better health outcomes in both genders, but the relationship was much more dramatic for women.
The least flexible women were five times more likely to die prematurely compared to the most flexible, and inflexible men were twice as likely to pass prematurely.
My take: No one likes warmups. But I find the warm-up is the best time to do mobility work. So I’ve become more focused on working on mobility before my workouts, and then making sure every exercise goes through a full range of motion. Because don’t forget: resistance training can improve flexibility as much as stretching. So you don’t need to stretch to become flexible — but you do need to move!
The Downside Of Tough Love
New research suggests that empathizing with a child’s pain can help them become more resilient and better manage health issues as adults.
Researchers assessed the multiple factors that go into a child’s experience when they deal with sickness and pain and how those experiences shape their reactions to health struggles in adulthood. While the research is based on associations (and not cause and effect), the scientists provide an interesting perspective on how emotional support impacts their pain perception and coping strategies.
The researchers found that children whose pain was validated reported lower pain intensity and showed fewer signs of anxiety compared to those whose pain was minimized or ignored. Validation helped children feel understood and supported, reducing the emotional distress associated with pain.
Children who received validation learned to develop positive coping mechanisms, such as verbalizing their pain constructively. This proactive coping helps prevent maladaptive responses, such as fear-avoidance behaviors (avoiding activities due to fear of pain), which are often linked to chronic pain development.
My take: This doesn’t just apply to parents. The need to validate people isn’t just a form of enabling. It’s a way for people to feel heard and supported. Sometimes, the tough love we need to give people comes after we create an environment where they feel heard and supported. We can’t always go easy on people, but we can ensure they know we have their best interests in mind. Focus on that — whether with children or adults — and you’ll likely have an easier time when you need to have difficult conversations.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
