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- AM calories are not the same as PM calories, 5 things to boost your health, today, and more.
AM calories are not the same as PM calories, 5 things to boost your health, today, and more.
Sharing knowledge to guide you toward making insightful decisions that support you on your path to health and longevity.
Issue 5 | May 3, 2024
Hello Livelongers,
Welcome to this week’s newsletter. A new study made headlines after researchers discovered that climbing stairs can reduce risk of death from heart disease by nearly 39%. These findings underline the diversity in ways to boost longevity, and we are happy to see it in headlines.
The week is April 29. In today’s email:
Dr. Michael Greger on front-loading food at breakfast to burn more calories.
Patient survival in the hospital may hinge on doctor’s gender, study shows.
Expert biohacker lists 5 things to boost your health, today.
Looking at nature can improve children’s attention.
Are tools that can predict your death helpful for… well, life?
And more…
We love to hear from our community. Please share your feedback, stories, questions, testimonials, ideas and more with us at [email protected].
Calories in the morning are NOT the same as calories in the evening
Calories consumed in the morning are not as fattening as calories eaten in the evening, according to a recent article published by acclaimed doctor and Livelong Summit feature speaker, Dr. Michael Greger, MD, FACLM.
In the morning, the body may burn 50% more calories while digesting food versus at night, meaning that less calories from food consumed in the morning will be stored as fat.
What is the science?
Results from an Italian study—during which 20 people were randomized to eat a 1200-calorie standard meal at 8:00 am or 8:00 pm—showed that the morning meal used 300 of those calories for digestion, while the evening meal only required 200 calories for digestestion.
Harvard researchers also randomized people to eat a same-size meal at either 8:00 am or 8:00 pm (simulating night versus day shift), and identified that 50% more calories are burned while digesting a meal eaten in the morning compared with the evening.
Why are more calories burned in the morning?
In the morning, the body uses glucose from calories to increase glycogen production* rather than burn it as energy. Thus, the body is more likely to burn fat, as it is already using energy from calories (glucose) for the process of creating + breaking down glycogen.
Likewise, the body does not need to store as much energy at night. Therefore, the body burns glucose directly and does not burn as much fat, or “backup fuel,” says Dr. Greger.
Why does it matter?
Overall, eating more calories in the morning decreases calories used, can burn more fat, and promotes weight loss. And AM meals also cause fewer blood sugar spikes because the blood sugar used to boost glycogen reserve in the AM makes muscles more sensitive to insulin.
*Glycogen, which is made from glucose, is broken down throughout the day to fuel muscles.
GET YOUR VIP SEAT!
.You can catch Dr. Greger, billionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson, and Dr. Robert Lufkin at the upcoming Livelong Summit in Los Angeles, CA, on August 3-4, 2024 at the LA Convention Center, alongside a lineup of the best and brightest in longevity. Get ready for meaningful conversations, life-long connections, and life-affirming insights about extending lifespan and healthspan!
For a limited time, YOU, our newsletter subscribers, will get exclusive access to presale tickets with early-bird prices! Stay tuned for more updates.
In other news
Looking at nature can significantly improve children’s mental health, as it can reduce behavioral problems and hyperactivity, and improve attention, immune function, and microbiome. Nature immersion can also boost sleep and improve blood pressure in adults. Read more.
Female hospital patients are less likely to die if they receive care by female doctors, although all patients benefited from female care, in a recent study. Researchers speculate that female providers have good communication skills that can improve diagnoses, treatment, and opportunity for open discussion. Read here.
A low-fat diet may improve flu shot efficacy in people with obesity, after results from a recent study show that mice with obesity who ate low-fat and lost weight prior to vaccination were more able to fight off flu virus post-shot. Read here.
Live longer, together
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SPOTLIGHT: Expert biohacker lists what you should commit to doing to prevent disease
Gary Brecka, a renowned biohacker, human biologist, and co-founder of 10X Health System, was recently featured on an episode of The Diary Of A CEO podcast (an episode that has already amassed nearly 2 million views), where he discussed the severe repercussions of deficiencies, along with a slew of other topics. During the podcast, Brecka listed 5 things that you should commit to doing to prevent getting chronic diseases:
Links to sources: fish supplement, grounding, cold plunge
Reach out to [email protected] if you’d like me to do a deeper analysis of his podcast episode.
The biggest national park in the U.S. (Wrangell-St. Elias, AK) is more than 13 million acres—we think that is some great incentive to get the body moving.
April was IBS awareness month—did you know that 15% of all Americans may have IBS?
74% of people in the U.S. take a dietary supplement.
Toolkit: Life2vec.io AI Life Expectancy Calculator (Death Calculator?)
Brad Inman, founder Livelong Media:
I tried Life2vec.io, which can give a person possible insights about their own mortality. I got life expectancy = 32.5 years. That means, in addition to the 71.5 years I’ve already accumulated, I can expect to live another 32.5, reaching 103 years old. I can live with that.
I’d recommend giving this a try, BUT don’t take it too seriously. There are many extraneous circumstances that AI cannot predict. Plus, sources say it has a 75% accuracy rate.
Although it’s been more than a week since returning home from a vacation in Spain, I am still lost in sparkling memories of strolling ancient Medieval streets and having late-night chats with friends over tapas and sangria.
The Spanish historically follow a Mediterranean diet (voted the best diet in 2024). Today, it is not uncommon to use ample amounts of olive oil and eat fresh produce. Yet many do not know that the Mediterranean diet also encompasses lifestyle, and this is where I think the Spanish excel. I observed:
There is no “rushing” to work. Locals told me time and again that they do not live to work.
People walk everywhere, inadvertently being healthy by just living—my Apple Fitness app was more proud of me in my 1 week there than it had been all last year.
People savor coffee and midday rest. Plus, coffee is only presented in a cup scant 2 inches tall. No caffeine rushes here.
Spaniards of all ages take advantage of the entire day, with mealtime and drinks at 11 pm. Although not technically the healthiest of choices, they chose to eat outside, surrounded by others, and with the intention of relaxation, not overindulgence.
The average life expectancy in Spain is 7 years above the US (age 83.3 versus 76), and there may be hundreds of other reasons why. But my short time there leads me to believe that their lifestyle, founded on enjoying oneself, must contribute.
Have a travel story? We’d love to hear it! Please reach us at [email protected] to submit your experience, which may be featured in a future newsletter.
Don’t miss next week’s newsletter:
We’ll be highlighting longevity technology!
Look good, feel better, live long,
Erin Hunter, head editor
About Livelong
Longevity science can feel a bit like Alice in Wonderland at times — it is a rabbit hole of intrigue, but laden with misinformation: where one magic pill claims to make you bigger, another makes you smaller. Our goal at Livelong is to provide you with credible and actionable information about health and longevity so you can live a longer and healthier life and guide you toward making insightful decisions that support you during your health and longevity journey.
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