Category Archive

How does nitric oxide impact health, including blood pressure?

How does this relate to nitrates and nitrites?

What does this mean for our dietary choices?

Here, I’ve tried to cover these questions, as well as looking at the Veg-Nitrate Table, developed by Lidder & Webb,and then thinking though potential target intakes of dietary nitrate.

A previous episode of Sigma Nutrition Radio (episode 321) provided an opportunity to have a real-time discussion about lipids and risk, and in particular to discuss the concept of the ‘lipid triad’ proposed by the show guest, Dave Feldman. Dave has become one of the most prominent voices in the low-carbohydrate, high-fat (LCHF) community, and Dave is particularly interested in the risk (or lack of) of elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL), when it is observed in the context of high levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and low triglycerides (TGs). This combination of high LDL, high HDL, and low TGs, is what …

A sizable amount of research is mounting to suggest that there are very real and important implications for when we eat. In this article, we will explore the intersection of circadian biology and diet (termed “chrononutrition”) and offer some heuristics and guidance for practical application

By Ciaran O’Regan[NOTE: Whilst this piece can be read in isolation, you might consider reading Part 1 and Part 2 of this series to get a full insight into these thoughts/concepts.] Albert Einstein presented his field equations that form the basis for General Relativity in 1915. This was done after 8 years of work to reconcile acceleration with his earlier 1905 Theory of Special Relativity. Four years later, in 1919, the first major supporting piece of evidence for the accuracy of the field equations was provided when Sir Arthur Eddington led expeditions to Latin America and the West Coast of …

At the Ultimate Evidence-based Conference (UEBC) in Melbourne, Australia, I presented on the topic of circadian biology and chrononutrition. The amazing hosts, Jacob & Sam, kindly agreed to my request to make the lecture available for free, which I’m grateful for. Download Lecture Slides Lecture Overview: Circadian biology plays a fundamental role in human health. Research has shown that nutrient ingestion can impact our “body clocks” in peripheral tissues around the body, suggesting that when we eat our meals can have implications for health via influencing circadian rhythms. In addition, it has been hypothesized that having a restricted feeding window …

NB: The aim of this article is to illustrate WHY one should paradoxically maintain “uncertainty as ones only certainty” as a Scientific Thinker. You can read Part 1 of this series: “Uncertainty” in order to acquire the some foundational understanding of the topic that will provide a solid foundation for this article below. Scientist/Believer/Victim Thinking The previous article in this series (read here) began with a hypothetical scenario in which one was to find oneself having a discussion with 3 people. Each of those people had views that were radically different to one’s own. Each individual was asked “what would it take for …

This article is a transcription of a Sigma Nutrition Radio podcast episode (this one) that was extremely popular. The episode centered around an attempt to answer the question “what is science?”, or in other words, an attempt to get people to understand and appreciate what it really means to be a scientific thinker. I want to say thank you to the people I got to chat to who I’ve been able to put some of the thoughts across in this episode, Brad Dieter, Mike T. Nelson, Andy Galpin, Ciaran O’ Regan, Trent Stellingwerff, John Kiely, thank you, and thank you to …

What Are You? There are many ways individuals classify themselves based on their views. Often people attach an identity to their views. Maybe they claim to be a “clean eater”. Or a “flexible dieter”. Or maybe it’s as simple as “keto” or “vegan”. Regardless, these classifications are used to tell us the person holds a certain set of views/beliefs. But how attached to them they are may indicate something more important… what type of thinker they are. Consider a hypothetical scenario in which you find yourself in a debate with three people with deeply held nutrition (or other) views. And not only are these views …

Welcome to the Podcast Re-cap post for the month of July 2018. This will be a breakdown of some key points that our re-cap author, Ella Whitcomb, took from the episode. by Ella Whitcomb #236 Kevin Ashworth, MSc – Understanding Anxiety & How To Deal With It Kevin holds a BSc in Psychology from Washington State University and an MSc in Counselling Psychology. His focus has remained on anxiety disorders, and he aims to explain complicated concepts in understandable terminology, whilst providing empathy and helping individuals challenge their worst fears. Kevin provides effective, evidence-based treatment to individuals struggling with anxiety …

Welcome to the Podcast Re-cap post for the month of June 2018. This will be a breakdown of some key points that our re-cap author, Ella Whitcomb, took from the episode. by Ella Whitcomb Episode #232 Ted Ryce – Social Isolation, Flow & the Influencers of Health That The Fitness Industry Forgets Ted has been in the health and fitness industry for 19 years, initially as a personal trainer. He has worked with many busy professionals and celebrities including Richard Branson and Robert Downey Jr. His overarching goal is to help people lead better, more fulfilling lives—legendary lives. Through his podcast, his coaching and …

Introduction Welcome to the first edition to a new feature here at Sigma Nutrition that I think will be tremendously useful to all of you who listen to the podcast… Introducing the Podcast Monthly Recap! I (Danny) am delighted to welcome and introduce you readers to the newest member of the Sigma Nutrition crew, Ella Whitcomb! Ella is a performance nutritionist and completed ISSN Diploma in Sport Nutrition. She is currently in the process of completing the MNU Course. In addition, Ella also has a BSc in Psychology and is beginning a MSc in Sport Psychology this September too! Ella’s monthly …

This is a guest post by Aidan Mackey. Aidan is a coach, nutritionist and Strength & Conditioning student. You can find him at aidanmackeyhealth.com We have never had the level of access to information as we currently do in the modern world. And thankfully the importance of looking to evidence-based practice is an idea that is growing within the health & fitness industry. However, as positive as that may be, are we missing a piece of the puzzle? A piece that is related to some ideas put forth by psychiatrist George Engel about 40 years ago. The Biopsychosocial Model was originally formulated by …

Introduction: As scientists, it is in our nature to question claims made by others and demand evidence to support such statements. It is only by questioning and engaging in meaningful conversation that we progress our understanding of the world around us and as humans. If people did not question we would still all live in fear of travelling too close to the edge of our flat earth, or would continue to poison ourselves with mercury trying to cure syphilis and typhoid. Nothing should be beyond being critiqued. And anyone who makes claims publicly, opens themselves up to questioning, with the …

This is a guest post by Dr. Paul McCarroll, clinical lead at PMC Performance. Paul has graduated with degrees in both medicine and physiotherapy, is currently working as a Junior Doctor and is a fully qualified physiotherapist. Paul takes an evidence-based approach to injury and pain management. He works with a wide range of high-level athletes in international athletics, rugby, cricket and powerlifting. Paul himself is an AIL rugby player with the famous Garryowen RFC in Limerick, Ireland.  “What is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow?” – Monty Python Whilst I’m sure that some will disagree with this post, I …

[IMPORTANT NOTE: As the title implies, this is Part 2 of a series. This piece can be read in isolation but a much better overall picture could be gotten by first reading Part 1 which can be found here. ] The Dark Side of Hard Sparring I wasn’t fucking around when I chose the title of this series; “to spar or not to spar, that is the question”. I did so for a very specific reason. The original line that I was playing off is of course perhaps the most famous line of all of the Shakespearean literature: “To be, or not …

Destroying Your Meat Vehicle Vs. Developing Your Human Potential I think I have a not-so-common lens through which to view martial arts training practices. Academically, I have a degree in sport and exercise sciences. Athletically, I started boxing just over 6 years ago, quite late in boxing terms, as a 21 year old. I have been lucky enough to have spent time training in gyms from Holland to San Francisco, Ireland to Boston and so on. This has primarily been practising boxing but more recently it has involved dipping my toes into the MMA world. And so this is where the …

Introduction In November 2015, Sigma Nutrition founder Danny Lennon published this outstanding article. The motivation for this piece stemmed from a ridiculous opinion piece written by Irish rugby journalist Neil Francis, essentially implicating creatine as a potential player in the tragic and premature death of All Blacks legend Jonah Lomu. Danny’s rebuttal was spot on and made me incredibly proud to be associated with him. In addition, the number of shares the article received at the time put a beaming smile on my face and gave me a glimmer of hope as to the level of intelligence of the human race. …

[Introductory note from Danny: As coaches* we always ask ourselves a number of questions: How can I be the best coach I can be for this client? What attributes would make me a better coach? How can I make the coaching process as smooth and beneficial for this person as possible? etc. But coaching is a two-way street. If we all want to get the most out of any experience we have working with a coach, then there are a number of things that we can do as coaching clients to improve the experience, to get more benefit from it and …

LET US IMAGINE A SCENARIO… You are progressing on your martial arts journey and greatly enjoying the process. All the pieces are falling into place. Your growth curve is beautiful. Every day at training you are picking up new skills and identifying new areas to work on. You have the momentum of a boulder rolling down a hill and you are excited about your progression. With the rate at which you are improving, you see the sky as the limit for your skills. Life is good. Then… BOOM! Some body part, that just seconds before in your mind was as indestructible as steel …

This is a post by Arthur Lynch. Arthur is a PhD researcher in muscle physiology, an international-level raw powerlifter and coach here at Sigma Nutrition. I was recently sent a link to a T-Nation article titled “Tip: Do Quarter Squats To Boost Athleticism” (original piece here), with a request for my opinion on the conclusions drawn by the author. The article is a summary and interpretation of a recently published study by Rhea et al. (full text here). In that study the researchers compared the effect of training quarter-, half- and full-depth squats on performance in the full squat, half squat and quarter squat. …

This is part 3 of a series of articles on caloric deficits. Make sure to read parts 1 & 2: Calorie Deficits #1: Understanding the Nuances of Energy Balance Is Slow & Steady Actually the Best Way to Diet? (Calorie Deficits #2) In part two of this series we discussed how fast rates of weight loss through large caloric diets CAN be used without loss much (if any) muscle mass. Especially in those with a decent amount of fat to lose. So should YOU use an aggressive diet? Let’s evaluate the pros and cons… The Pros of Aggressive Dieting Researchers at …

“Many people advise to lose weight at a steady and moderate rate, and recommend not cutting calories too low, in order to preserve muscle mass”. That’s a line taken from an email I was sent a few weeks back. And it perfectly exemplifies a piece of supposed common sense. And at first glance this makes some degree of logical sense, right? With a slower the rate of weight loss, theoretically, you might expect to have more of that weight loss coming from loss of body fat as opposed to lean tissue. And the more aggressive you diet the greater the degree of muscle …

Recently I received the following question from podcast listener Noah: “what is the best way to lose massive amounts of fat as fast as possible, without compromising gainz?” It should be inherently obvious to anyone familiar with the relationship between energy balance and body weight that to lose the absolute most amount of fat mass over a given time frame would mean creating the absolute largest energy deficit possible. But equally as obvious, is that creating the largest energy deficit possible (i.e. starvation + high activity) is neither practical nor is it desirable if we plan on holding onto muscle …

I have collated all the thoughts of the various protein metabolism researchers to have been on the podcast, into one post on the topic of muscle protein synthesis, protein intake and muscle mass and function. You can read the full article on Medium by CLICKING HERE. Danny

Share this article on Facebook I didn’t really want to do this. Crazy articles related to nutrition/supplementation that pop up in the media regularly get sent my way. Most often I can see the unscientific nonsense straight away, remind myself my time is best spent on other things and avoid engaging with it. But somehow I now find myself writing this public response to one such opinion piece. In this particular case, for reasons I’ll mention later, I feel the need to sufficiently address an article published on the 22nd of November in the Irish Independent. The piece in question, penned by  journalist …

There is a definite growth in the number of people in the health & fitness space talking about taking an ‘evidence-based’ approach to nutrition, training and health. Which can only be a good thing for the fitness industry. In fact, if more people were of the same mindset the incidence of idiotic messaging would decline significantly. But when we’re talking about approaches to nutrition and fitness, to what extent should we constrain possible strategies to employ? I mean, if we want to be evidence-based, how should we approach practices that could work but lack a meta-analysis of several randomized controlled trials? …

It’s Friday night and you’re just settling into relaxation mode for the weekend after a tough week at work. You rock into the kitchen to rustle up something to eat. You’ve narrowed it down to two meals you enjoy. Now it’s decision time… Sweet potato and coconut oil or ice cream? What’s the best choice? (The fact you’re reading this blog I’m going to assume you care about health and body composition) Does this seem like a ridiculous question? Do you think there’s one obvious choice? Or do you feel it doesn’t matter? I don’t think we can answer the …

[This is a guest post by Rob Zand, a personal trainer based in the UK. Tweet him at @RZtraining] In the world of fitness and nutrition, meals plans are common place. There seems to be a reoccurring situation in the fitness industry. One that is unfortunate, shady and sometimes just wrong. It seems anyone and everyone is handing out meal plans. From self-professed models on Instagram to complete idiots out to make a quick few quid. The plans are FAR from individualised or bespoke. And those providing them are far from coaches who actually use scientific evidence to base their recommendations on. This situation is …

With this post I’m going to finish up talking about gluten for a while (“about time!” I hear you say). In the previous three posts, I’ve pretty much laid out all I think needs to be said on the topic for the moment. But there’s one point remaining that I’d like to give my thoughts on. Some readers have made a point something along the lines of: While gluten sensitivity is in the minority on a population level,  I as an individual could still have a problem with consuming gluten-containing grains. Even if I’m not sure (i.e. not symptomatic). They have the …

As I’ve mentioned previously (here), unfortunately when it comes to gluten the rate of dogmatic fantasy tales you can read online vastly out-weighs the evidence. It appears that gluten shouldn’t be a major problem for the vast majority of the population (anywhere between 87% to 99% based on currently available reserach). In the cases of accepted conditions with a clear clinical diagnosis, like both coeliac disease and wheat allergy, complete removal of gluten from the diet is warranted. However, when we get to the debated issue of non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) things start to get a little bit more hypothetical. A consensus on either …

In my previous post, ‘Gluten Revisited: Can I Eat That Sandwich?’, I attempted to give an overview of what we can currently conclude from scientific literature on non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS). To briefly re-cap, some important points were: From current evidence it seems that at least 94% of the population would not be diagnosable as having coeliac disease, wheat allergy or non-coeliac gluten sensitivity. There is a continuing emergence of research that lends itself to the fact that NCGS is indeed very real. Although we don’t have an agreement in the scientific community on an universal definition or a clinical …

Unfortunately, the rate of dogmatic fantasy tales you can read online vastly out-weighs the evidence. And it makes things a nightmare for most people to navigate through.

Some of these stories can be very convincing. I have even been guilty of giving some of them too much credence in years gone by.

And when it comes to the impact of gluten on human health, things are no different.

There are so many questions that regularly are asked about gluten. Questions like:

Is gluten bad or not?
Is it ok to have a little bit?
Who is sensitive to it and who’s not?
Why are gluten-containing foods so crazily delicious?

When we overeat calories chronically, weight gain results. This is indisputable. So if we inherently know that “over-eating is what causes fat gain” then the solution should be pretty straight forward: “Stop eating so much and you’ll lose fat”. Which is technically true. If you eat at a caloric intake that puts you into a calorie deficit (i.e. the energy you consume is less than that you expend) then you’re bodyweight will drop. But the problem with that statement (apart from it being as blunt as a hammer) is that it gives nothing in the way of actionable advice. It never gets …

It was about half past 9 on a dark, cold week-night back in January 2009. I remember walking out of the small sports hall in the sports science building at the University of Limerick. My body was tired and slowly drudging along. But my mind was racing. I had just finished my first Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu class with Fergal Quinlan (black belt under Rodrigo Medeiros). I knew immediately that there was something special about the sport right then. I then became obsessed. Not just with thinking about BJJ but with the pursuit of improving. The milestone I set was my blue belt. In order …

What the hell is a low-carbohydrate diet anyway? We should know what a low-carb (LC) diet is by now, right? I mean there’s: Books, blogs and cruises. Forum threads filled with PubMed abstracts, memes and trolls. Videos, presentations and podcasts. Vicious street fights between people who adore their morning oats and their arch-enemies who pour butter down their throat. (Ok, maybe not quite that far but the arguments do get pretty heated). Even a debate on the topic which, for many of us, will be one of the highlights of our 2015! But despite all this, are we actually in universal agreement on what a …

In a past post, “Eat More Fat, Burn More Fat: Myth, Magic or Metabolic Advantage?”,  I talked about why carbohydrates do not cause you to gain fat, unless there is caloric surplus. Similarly, a diet that is low-carb but too high in calories will also lead to weight gain. So it is a calorie issue for sure. But what most people miss is that calories in affects calories out. The example I gave in that post was from an examination of overfeeding studies. Time and time again, when subjects consume a calorie intake in excess of their maintenance intake, we …

Refeeds, cycling carbs and spiking calories are all part of today’s sexiest protocols. And why not? I mean, they sound pretty cool, don’t they? I’m sure at this point you’ve came across various dietary approaches or protocols that are non-linear in nature, through “cycling” either calories, macronutrients or both. There are endless numbers of people who anecdotally report success on using macronutrient cycling, refeeds, fasting or simply using different calorie and macro set-ups based on whether they are training or not. But the question I want to try to answer in this post is not whether these non-linear protocols can work …

Throw your eyes back to that title. It’s important and I want to clarify why. First, you’ll notice the word “simple”. Dieting should  NOT be complex, complicated or need insane amounts of willpower. In fact, one way to guarantee you fail is to base your plan solely on willpower. Second, notice the word “sustainable”. In a world where rapid, extreme, insane, or super-speed-mega-hyper results are revered, sustainable approaches are often rejected by dieters. They aren’t sexy enough. They don’t get amazing results in even more amazing time frames. This is a critical distinction between what I advise people on as opposed to …

You know, I’ve been thinking an awful lot lately about the difference between the terms “most nutritious” and “most healthy”. When it comes to diet, are these simply synonyms or are they in fact completely different? So the question is… Is the diet comprised of the absolute “best” foods (i.e. most nutrient-dense or “nutritious”), in the correct amounts, necessarily the healthiest way to eat? Seems like a bit of a silly question on first glance, right? But taking the time to delve into it reveals an awful lot more. For a long time I was notorious for only focusing on biochemistry, nutrient …

Enjoy this article? Click here to share on Facebook I’m sure you’ve probably came across that slogan before. If you eat more fat, you’ll burn more fat. Now, I’m all for people including plenty of fat in their diets. In fact, I’ve spoken many times about the problems that arise from “fat-deficient” diets. So please don’t go avoiding dietary fat.. However, telling people that they should “eat more fat to burn more fat” may be misleading. Not because you won’t “burn more fat” on a high-fat diet but because the practical implications of this are different to what most people will think of …

Tracking our food intake is now incredibly simple thanks to food tracking apps that are freely available and simple to use. Such apps provide a breakdown of calorie and macronutrient intakes (carbohydrate, protein, and fat) for the meals you eat. Often, in order to improve your healthy or body composition through dietary changes, you don’t need to track calories but instead focus on building better habits and consistency with eating an overall healthy diet pattern. However, in many cases, tracking intake can be incredibly useful. Doing so even for a relatively short period of time can allow you to learn things …

For quite some time I was the most unhealthy “healthy eater” there is. On paper, I had constructed a set of rules that made my nutrition flawless. And while some made a tremendous positive difference, the problem was that the list was never finished. More reading and researching led to more potential problems I could counteract by creating a new rule. It started as a healthy principle of generally eating plenty of whole foods: meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruit, nuts, as well as some minimally processed dairy like butter. The very starting point I get everyone to consider with their …

We all used to think fat was evil. Something ingrained in us by the bombardment by the promotion of low-fat dietary guidelines, low-fat branded products and “fat is bad” marketing campaigns. We fell into a low-fat diet trap. But thankfully the tide has started to turn. I think it’s become clear that dietary fat is not “bad” per se. The after-effects of the scaremongering around fat intake means that many people need to actually increase their fat consumption. And science-driven coaches, nutritionists and researchers are warning people not to buy into the “anti-fat” dogma. Many people now realise fat isn’t the …

In what seems to be an increasingly common occurrence, I am seeing popular nutrition trends emerging, following something I can only describe as the “hipster pattern”. You know, the “get-on-it-now-because-its-the-opposite-to-everyone-else” thing. And once everyone else starts doing it, it’s no longer cool. One perfect example right now is carbohydrate intake. We were being erroneously told that eating most of our calories from carbohydrates was a good idea. Only to realise that this in fact is probably not all that helpful for a large number of people. With this, the low-carb scene exploded when the word got out. And at first …

What’s the perfect diet? I’ve said many times before that there is no single diet that is perfect for everyone. I hope that is clear by  now. But even beyond that, there is no single diet that is perfect for one specific person, all of the time. Goals, circumstances and requirements change. One of the biggest determinants of what diet is right for you is your focus. There are three primary areas of focus for nutrition: Health Body composition Athletic performance The Triangle of Focus Obviously it would be great if we could eat and live in a way that …

Buy the book: Making Weight – The Ultimate Science-based Guide to Cutting Weight for Combat Sports This is part II of a 4-part series. You can catch part I here. Can a fighter get lean without absolutely tanking performance in the gym or making themselves feel dreadful throughout the leaning out process. Without doubt, YES! But to do so there are things that need to be considered. Cutting Weight vs. Losing Weight One thing to clear up for those of you who aren’t involved in combat sports and perhaps not familiar with cutting weight is the difference between cutting weight …

Buy the book: Making Weight – The Ultimate Science-based Guide to Cutting Weight for Combat Sports In early 2014 I started working with a professional Muay Thai athlete, Cian Cowley. Cian is an insanely talented fighter, and at the time was on a winning streak and was already lean. However, after digging into what Cian had been doing nutritionally up to this point, we needed to implement some extremely important changes into his diet. He had been falling into some of the same traps a lot of fighters out there are falling into. Over the course of this four-post series, …

Health. We hear that word all the time. Improve your health by… [doing “X”/not doing “Y”] Consider the term “health & fitness”. There is often the simplistic black and white view that we take care of the fitness portion by moving more and the health portion by “eating healthy” (whatever that means). But health is not solely about nutrition and exercise. It’s not the absence of illness. It’s not how we look or how we move. It’s not even hitting perfect numbers on all the endless biomarkers we can use to assess health (cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose, CRP, etc.) And …