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Today’s Health Upgrade

• How to outsmart (and avoid) Salmonella

• Does drinking carbs and protein during your workouts help?

• “No zero percent weeks” (And why it works so well)

Beyond The Headline 
Worried About Egg Recalls? Here’s How To Stay Safe

Egg recalls have been in the news the last couple of months. Nearly 1.6 million dozen eggs were pulled from shelves in the US this summer. And in the UK, a separate Salmonella outbreak left hundreds sick and one dead.

When the recalls happen, you want to pay attention. And there’s a lesson that is bigger than any lot number.

If you want the lowest-risk egg, cook it until both the white and yolk are firm. Heat kills Salmonella, including bacteria you can’t see, smell, or taste.

Many people don’t realize that you can cook Salmonella out of an egg because it can’t survive at high temperatures.

Of course, depending on how you like your eggs, there are some tradeoffs. That means no runny center. Scrambled eggs shouldn’t be wet. For quiches, casseroles, and other dishes where doneness is harder to judge, cook the center to at least 160°F (71°C), which means a food thermometer becomes your best friend.

We won’t go as far as to suggest that cooking makes a recalled carton worth keeping. When recalls occur, check the brand, plant number, and sell-by date against the recall notice and return or discard any listed eggs. 

And as a general practice, toss cracked eggs, refrigerate the rest, and wash your hands, utensils, and counters after handling raw eggs. The shell can spread bacteria before the egg ever reaches the pan.

If you’re trying to evaluate the risk of eggs, a soft yolk carries more risk than a firm one. 

If over-easy is the entire point, then use pasteurized eggs. They’ve been heated to reduce Salmonella risk without cooking the egg, making them the better choice for runny yolks and recipes such as Caesar dressing, hollandaise, tiramisu, and edible cookie dough.

A recall tells you which carton to avoid. Thorough cooking is the habit that protects you in any situation.

Nutrition
Does Sipping On Protein During Exercise Improve Your Workout?

Yesterday’s post about treating a sports drink like mouthwash (swirl and spit) led to a common question in our inbox: do sports drinks really make a difference during your workout?

And more directly: what if you added protein to your intra-workout drink?

Scientists tested this exact scenario. Imagine two sports drinks sitting side by side. One has carbs. The other adds protein to the carbs.

When researchers compared drinks during an endurance workout, adding protein to a sports drink didn’t appear to improve performance when calories were matched.

A 2020 review combined data from 30 randomized trials to assess the effects of mid-workout fuel on cyclists and runners. Overall, carbohydrates and protein looked better than carbohydrates alone. In tests where people exercised until exhaustion, the protein groups lasted about three and a half minutes longer.

But many of those drinks weren’t equal. The protein groups were consuming more calories.

When the researchers narrowed the analysis to six comparisons in which both drinks supplied the same number of calories, the difference was no longer statistically meaningful. When both drinks contained the same amount of carbohydrate and protein was added on top, the advantage returned.

That doesn’t prove protein is useless. It tells you the original comparison was doing two things at once: adding protein and adding energy.

Once the calories were equal, there was no clear endurance benefit from choosing protein over more carbohydrate.

During long, hard exercise, carbohydrate is the fuel your body can use most readily to maintain blood sugar and spare its stored glycogen. Protein may raise insulin and contribute energy, but sufficient carbohydrate already handles the job that matters most during the session.

And this study does not downplay the importance of timing. It just shows (once again) that timing doesn’t matter as much as you’ve been told.

The biggest priority with protein is getting enough in a day to support general health needs and muscle growth and repair. 

Mid-workout calories become more useful when the session is unusually long, you started underfed, or you have another hard workout coming soon.

For endurance work, if you’re exercising for less than an hour and ate beforehand, water is generally enough. Once you push beyond roughly 60 to 90 minutes, aim for about 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour. For events lasting more than two and a half hours, trained athletes can aim for 90 grams per hour, typically by combining glucose and fructose.

The longer you train — and the less fuel you have going in — the more intra-workout nutrition can help.

Better Questions, Better Solutions 
The Donut Isn’t the Biggest Problem

You ate a couple of donuts. Or maybe it was a few too many slices of pizza. Or, if food isn’t your poison, you had a few too many drinks. None of those behaviors was part of the plan. And that’s when the guilt, frustration, and stress kick in.

But what happens next matters more. Because oftentimes what feels like accountability is a judgment that leads to a series of defeating decisions.

Old Question: How do I stop slipping up with my diet?
Better Question: What if you stop reacting like every mistake is a detour away from your goal?

While it’s easy to think your behaviors are the root cause of falling short of your goals, the way you respond to a slip may matter more than the slip itself.

In a review of 27 randomized trials, the key to better eating wasn’t perfection; it was responding to setbacks with greater self-compassion, which scientists found improved eating behaviors.

The changes weren’t dramatic or immediate. And self-compassion didn’t mean pretending the choice didn’t matter. It meant acknowledging what happened without turning one decision into a judgment about who you are.

Nearly 2o years ago, scientists saw how learning to react better when you deviate from the plan affects your eating behaviors. In the research, college students ate a donut. Some were then told not to be too hard on themselves.

The strictest dieters who heard that message ate less candy afterward, but the reassurance didn’t help everyone. And those who were most prone to food guilt still ended up eating slightly more.

A scripted “be kind to yourself” won’t magically override years of shame, restriction, or all-or-nothing thinking.

The real answer is to change how you speak to yourself each time you make a mistake, so you build resilience that lets you know you can withstand errors and bounce back.

Telling yourself that you’re “weak,” “hopeless,” or “ruined everything” shapes your perspective and can detour your next behaviors far more than any meal.  

When you can put your actions in perspective, it’s far easier to decide what to do next and make better decisions. 

The next time you go off plan, don’t turn one donut into a character trial. Admit what happened, learn what you can, and make the next reasonable choice.

Achieving your goals isn’t about perfection or never making mistakes. It’s about consistency: making sure you do what is needed most of the time, and not letting one bad decision turn into ten. 

Because you can’t screw this up if you avoid “zero percent weeks.” And that means your job is to avoid doing absolutely nothing once you’ve slipped up.

If your mistakes occur because life gets chaotic or stressful, shrink the plan instead of abandoning it: one workout, one walk, a few protein-and-vegetable meals, or any meaningful action that keeps you connected to the person you’re trying to become. That will help you get back on track, and then hold the line.

A 20-percent day may not feel impressive, but it preserves momentum and prevents one difficult stretch from becoming a full retreat. The key is using the day to reset instead of spiraling, because that’s where the real trouble begins. You’re still setting standards and holding yourself accountable. That’s the path. But it requires flexibility too.

Sometimes, you might need to lower the bar for a moment, but you never remove it. 

That’s consistency designed for real life, not perfection disguised as consistency.

The Positive Corner of The Internet
About Arnold’s Pump Club Editorial Standards

We do things a bit differently here, starting with transparency.

1. The Content: All APC emails are researched, written, and fact-checked by the APC editors (see bottom of the email), with written contributions from Arnold (noted with “Arnold’s Corner”). Links take you to original studies (not second-hand sources).

2. Does AI play a role? Not for the primary content, but it is used in two ways. The main items are original content written by the APC team. The summaries at the end are AI-generated based on the human-written content above. We also use an AI tool to edit and review our interpretations of the research, ensuring scientific accuracy. We don’t assume AI is right, but we use technology to hold ourselves accountable.

3. Yes, we have partners (all clearly noted by “Together With”). Why? Because it allows us to keep the APC emails free. We first test products, and then reach out to potential partners who offer ways to help you improve every day. The bar is set high, and to date, we have turned down millions in ad deals. (Example: we will not partner with any non-certified supplements or those without evidence in human trials). If we won’t buy the product, we won’t recommend it to you. And if there’s no evidence it works, then there’s no place for it here.

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Publisher: Arnold Schwarzenegger​

Editors-in-chief: Adam Bornstein and Daniel Ketchell