There are a plethora of “satisfying” videos to watch on the internet, and many of them revolve around food. There’s the cake decorating videos we can’t get enough of, and the Instagram boomerangs of someone squishing cheese, and mesmerizing videos of fresh pasta being cut. I’ve spent way too many hours of my life watching these kinds of videos over and over again, and I think I just found my favorite.
I recently stumbled upon the subreddit power washing porn, which shows extreme examples of power washing around the home. It’s mostly GIFs and videos of concrete and patio furniture, but one GIF shows someone cleaning their kitchen floors and it’s very, very satisfying to watch.
Welcome to Kitchn’s new series My Healthy Morning, where we show you how one person greets the day in a way that makes them feel their best. Each post will chronicle how that person defines healthy for themselves, and the habits and recipes that make their morning a little bit better.
Holistic living entrepreneur Lauren Ash lives in Chicago. She’s the founder of Black Girl in Om, a space dedicated to helping women of color “breathe easy,” which includes events, essays, and a podcast. She’s also the cofounder of Lifestyle with Ivory + Ash, a brand dedicated to “affirmations and illustrations for contemporary black women.” (Seriously, check out these cute tote bags!) Today we’re getting a sneak peek into her morning routine, which is centered around mindfulness and taking things slowly.
When time is tight and energy levels are low, but you’ve got a bunch of hungry mouths to feed at the end of a long day, skillet dinners are one of our favorite weeknight solutions. The whole meal comes together in just one skillet. These dinners promise ease and simplicity, and are as quick to clean up as they are to prep.
From lasagna to chicken pot pie, these are our most popular one-skillet dinners.
You know that game where you list three people — dead or alive — who you would invite to an imaginary dinner party? The Rock would be on my list. When he’s not running around film sets or working out for endless hours at the gym, he’s talking to his fans on Instagram. And he’s just so nice! So personal! Who wouldn’t want to have him over for dinner? I bet he’d even offer to do the dishes.
The only problem becomes what to cook for the Rock. His diet is pretty protein-heavy: There’s so much cod (like, lots and lots of cod), and then there’s eggs, steak, vegetables, and potatoes. Unless he’s on one of his epic cheat days, chances are that dinner party food is going to be pretty simple, and it definitely won’t end with a piece of chocolate cake.
Or will it? It turns out that the Rock actually has a sweet tooth and we found the proof on Instagram today.
Saudi Arabian authorities have released a 14-year-old boy without charge, after he danced up a social media storm to the Macarena. The teenager had been accused by police of “improper public behavior” after dancing to the 1990s pop hit in a busy street in the Saudi city of Jeddah. In a 45-second video of the […]
When you’re eating your weight in tomatoes this time of year, it’s hard to even fathom the idea that the season will eventually come to a close and you’ll only be left with memories of the juicy tomato salads, sandwiches, and pastas you ate. Don’t let the fear of an upcoming six months of mealy, grocery-store tomatoes get you down just yet, however. If you take a little time on a lazy summer Saturday to preserve a big bunch of sweet tomatoes now, you’ll no doubt be thanking yourself come winter. Churn out jars of homemade tomato sauce and logs of aromatic compound butter and you’ll have a taste of summer waiting for you in your pantry throughout the rest of the year.
You’ve mastered the school lunch. You have your after-school snacks down to a science. And you already know what you’re going to make for your kid’s classroom birthday party in October. The one thing that has potential to stress you out? All those activities!
Your kid has a ton of soccer matches, plays, rehearsals, field trips, etc. Whether you have an office job or you’re a stay-at-home mom, the calendar gets pretty stressful. Follow these smart tips, however, and you will crush this school year.
Keto detractors and proponents alike often warn that remaining in ketosis will tank your thyroid. The thyroid’s an important gland, exerting major influence over essential systems like fertility, energy, metabolism, body temperature regulation, blood lipids, and general wellness. It controls the metabolic rate of every organ in the body. We want it working well, so this is a major blow to keto—if the criticism holds true. Fortunately, there’s much more to this story.
The Problem with Keto—Thyroid Research
Up till now, the vast majority of studies on the effects of low-carb, high-fat diets on thyroid health have used high-PUFA high-fat diets. Could this confound the results? Yes.
It turns out that linoleic acid suppresses thyroid signaling. See the impact for yourself….
Rats on a corn oil diet convert less T4 to active T3 than rats on a lard diet.
Unfortunately, we don’t have any direct studies comparing the effects of PUFA-based and SFA/MUFA-based high fat diets on thyroid function in humans. We do have a few that offer some revealing indications, however.
In 1995, researchers placed healthy young adults on either a low-carb, high-protein diet or on a low-carb, high-PUFA diet. The latter group experienced big drops in T3 levels, though the significance of the change wasn’t explored.
Later, Jeff Volek ran a low-carb, high-fat study in adults using a diet with Primal-ish fatty acid ratios (8% carbs, 61% fat, 30% protein, with 25% calories coming from SFA, 25% from MUFA, and 11% from PUFA). He didn’t directly measure T3, but the high-fat group had normal T4 and lost significant body fat, which is very hard to do if you’re hypothyroid.
Another, much older study pitted the body temperature regulation of low-carb, high-fat (from cream and butter) dieters against that of high-carb, low-fat dieters by exposing both groups to several hours of -20°C exposure under different feeding conditions. After fasting, both groups reduced body temperature by the same amount in response to cold. After eating, things changed. Those who ate the high-fat meal experienced lower drops in body temperature. Since body temperature regulation is controlled by the thyroid, this suggests that 56 days of high-fat (from cream and butter) dieting had a positive effect on thyroid function.
Key Points We Miss about Keto
Yet, the fact remains that many people report disrupted thyroid panels after going keto. Assuming they’re telling the truth (and I see no reason to doubt them), they aren’t chugging soybean oil, they’re eating enough pro-thyroid nutrients like vitamin A, iodine, and selenium, and they aren’t overdoing goitrogens (don’t eat 2 pounds of Brussels sprouts a day).
What else could be happening?
Calorie restriction lowers thyroid hormone. After all, the thyroid acts as barometer of environmental abundance. If things are good and there’s plenty of food coming in, the thyroid will be active, allowing babies to be made, metabolic output to be high, and energy levels to shoot up. If things are bad and food is scarce, the thyroid will down-regulate, limiting fertility, energy, and metabolic output. Calorie restriction tells the body that things are bad and food is scarce, because, well, energy isn’t coming in like before.
Ketogenic diets are excellent at getting people to inadvertently reduce calorie intake. That’s one of their primary benefits, in fact. But if you go too low, you may lower T3.
Weight loss lowers thyroid activity. Irrespective of the diet used, losing weight reduces conversion of T4 into active T3. Weight loss is a common occurrence on a ketogenic diet. For many, it’s the primary goal. If you have weight to lose, it’s going to happen on keto.
You’re trying to train too much and too intensively on keto. When you endure psychological or physiological stress, the body converts T4 into something called reverse T3. Reverse T3 does the opposite of T3—it lowers metabolism and conserves energy, in case things are falling apart around you. If that seems like a disproportional response to doing too much CrossFit without eating carbs, remember that the environmental conditions under which this physiological system evolved featured such stressors as famine, war, and disease.
All that said…
Maybe slightly lower T3 is a feature, not flaw, of ketosis. The longest living creatures on earth tend to have lower levels of T3. Long-living humans often have a genetic predisposition toward lower levels of T3, as if slowing things down staves off aging. If that relationship holds and is causal, perhaps emulating it with dietary means can provide longevity benefits.
You’ll often hear that carbs increase T3. Put another way, the thyroid increases T3 production to deal with the glucose. Carb consumption increases iodine requirements because the thyroid requires more iodine to make more T3 to deal with the carbs.
This doesn’t mean carbs are good or bad for the thyroid. It just means carbs require more T3 to metabolize. That “extra” T3 is intended for glucose metabolism, not necessarily “making you feel awesome.” If anything, a well-constructed and maintained keto diet has the potential to make you more efficient with your thyroid levels. Since you’re not burning excess glucose, you can get away with lower T3 levels without incurring the negative symptoms normally associated with low T3.
It all comes down to how you feel. If you’re “hypothyroid” but feel great, have plenty of energy, have no issues losing weight or maintaining body composition, I’m not worried.
But if you’re shivering all the time, your lipids are skyrocketing, you can’t muster the energy to maintain basic order in your life (let alone exercise or excel), you’re having fertility issues, and you just feel generally awful, that’s a problem.
You’ll know it if keto has tanked your thyroid. It’s difficult to miss. Thyroid panels can help you see, but symptoms are the ultimate arbiter.
Thanks for reading today, everyone. Now I’d love to hear from you. Are you on a ketogenic diet? How’s your thyroid? What feedback, stories and questions do you have? Be well and take care!
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Welcome to a column from The Financial Diet, one of our very favorite sites, dedicated to money and everything it touches. One of the best ways to take charge of your financial life is through food and cooking. This column from TFD founders Chelsea Fagan and Lauren Ver Hage will help you be better with money, thanks to the kitchen. A version of this post originally appeared on The Financial Diet.
A few summers ago, I was bored one day and decided I would figure out how to lighten my hair at home. I didn’t feel like buying anything, so I quickly looked up some DIY recipes and settled on the first one I came across that involved ingredients I already had. That ended up being a combination of honey, olive oil, and cinnamon. I applied a thick layer to my hair, wrapped it up in plastic wrap, wrapped it in a towel when the plastic wrap failed to keep the goop from running down my forehead and the back of my neck, waited 30 minutes, and rinsed it out in the shower. Guess what? It did not lighten my hair, and it took several washes for it to come out all the way. It also ruined a perfectly good white towel. (At least it smelled good, and made my hair extra shiny.)
Needless to say, I am no DIY queen. I love the idea of making fancy, complicated home products on my own, but that ends up manifesting itself in me making a hasty decision to try making something after doing very little research on what would actually work best. For example, I once tried to fix a rampant fruit fly problem in my kitchen by making some DIY traps that ended up just making the problem worse. I have never gotten into making my own beauty products because it seems like a bit too much effort, even though many people swear by them. I’ve known several people who’ve found a ton more DIY success than I have.
However, there are several “DIY” products that I’ve made work for me time and again. I say DIY in quotes, because they’re all things that can be used on their own, for many purposes beyond their “intended use” — like apple cider vinegar as a face toner, or coconut oil as a makeup remover. It’s a huge plus when I already own something for cooking purposes, and then find out I can use it for several other things. I’ve put together the following list of products you likely already own that do simple, everyday things either all on their own, or in combination with just one or two other products. Doing It Yourself should be accessible to anyone, so if you’re low on time or patience, these handy products can make your life a little easier with very little effort. Enjoy!
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
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The first day of Tabata, I wondered WHAT AM I DOING - I AM 56 !! Five weeks later I knew that it was what I needed. I learned that I could push myself well beyond my comfort zone and feel good later. I have a marked improvement in physical as well as emotional endurance. - Lyn C.
When I was first told about Tabata I was very excited from the word go, however that excitement stemmed from the fact that I had no clue what it meant. I missed the first week of class b/c I was traveling for work so when I came in during the 2nd week I had some making it up to do.
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Keto is fantastic, everyone says. It’s a great way to lose weight, improve cognition, and stave off degenerative disease. It may help your performance in the gym and on the track. It could even give Grandpa some respite from Alzheimer’s.
For now classes are 6pm and 640pm at 2840 Wildwood st in the Boise Cloggers studio.
Book your class NOW!
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Me 'n Wilson
