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Today’s Health Upgrade
Fact or fiction: carbs and blood sugar
A surprisingly simple reason pre-workouts work
Are oysters the key to stronger antibiotics?
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Fact Or Fiction
Do You Need To Cut Carbs to Lower Blood Sugar?
Keto diets have been praised for improving blood glucose management, but new research suggests their benefits may come with a catch.
If you want to improve your blood sugar, you don’t have to cut carbs — but you do need to cut calories and lose weight.
Researchers recruited obese individuals with type 2 diabetes and placed them on a ketogenic diet while ensuring they maintained their weight (no caloric deficit). Over several weeks, they measured key markers of glycemic control, including fasting glucose, HbA1c (a marker of long-term blood sugar control), and insulin sensitivity.
Despite cutting carbs, participants showed no meaningful changes in fasting blood glucose, HbA1c, or insulin sensitivity when weight was maintained.
To be clear, the study didn’t suggest keto was bad for your health. However, if you don’t lose weight, then you are unlikely to see any benefits that help prevent type 2 diabetes or put it in remission.
If you want to protect against diabetes or improve blood sugar or insulin, the benefits you desire are not linked to a specific macronutrient — such as carbs. Instead, finding a sustainable way to eat fewer calories and drop body fat will deliver your desired results.
Together With LMNT
A Surprisingly Simple Reason Pre-Workout Drinks Work
Are your workouts lagging? The simplest shift to your workout nutrition could make a surprisingly big difference.
Research suggests hydrating before or after your workout can improve performance, reduce fatigue, and speed up recovery — and added electrolytes can help more when you’re depleted.
Here’s the issue: It’s not just that your workouts deplete your body; you likely underestimate how little you drink before hitting the gym.
Research suggests up to 50 percent of people might start their workouts slightly dehydrated.
That matters because even a 1 percent drop in hydration can lead to noticeable decrease in performance.
Add sweat and a long workout to the mix, and you’re setting yourself up for more fatigue and reduced results. While ingredients like caffeine improve performance, drinking pre-workout provides additional hydration to support better workouts.
And if you sweat a lot, hydration becomes even more important. Electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and magnesium are key for your muscles and neurons to fire correctly. When you sweat, your body loses these critical nutrients—and water alone won’t replace them.
If you don’t drink much water or perform longer workouts, LMNT can give your workout the boost you want. LMNT replenishes the electrolytes you lose when you sweat without any added sugar, artificial ingredients, or unnecessary colors. It’s simple, effective, and built for performance.
As part of the Pump Club community, you can grab a free 8-packet sample pack (all flavors!) with any purchase through this link. If you’re not satisfied, their no-questions-asked refund policy has you covered.
If you’re hydrating well, we recommend using electrolytes before or after your hard workouts that last longer than an hour.
On Our Radar
Are Oysters The Key To Stronger Antibiotics?
What if the secret to beating antibiotic resistance is hiding in the ocean?
A new study suggests that proteins found in oysters might dramatically improve the effectiveness of conventional antibiotics. The breakthrough could reshape how we fight drug-resistant bacteria and infections.
Before you start looking for your local oyster happy hour, there’s nuance to how it works.
In the study, researchers isolated antimicrobial proteins (AMPs) from oyster blood and tested their impact when combined with common antibiotics. The goal was to see if these natural compounds could boost antibiotic efficacy against resistant bacteria.
Anti-microbial-resistant bacteria are a growing concern and a threat to modern medicine, with one study suggesting they could be associated with 40 million deaths by the year 2050.
And that’s where oysters might come to the rescue. When paired with AMPs, conventional antibiotics were more effective in killing drug-resistant bacterial strains.
Much more research is needed before these findings can be applied to medicine. Still, the study highlights the potential of these natural compounds to support existing antibiotics, especially as antibiotic resistance becomes a global challenge.
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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell
