The Metabolic Revolution

When researchers pooled nearly 200 studies, cutting salt to guideline levels lowered blood pressure by about 1 point in most people whose blood pressure was already normal. In the same trials, low salt diets raised renin, aldosterone, noradrenaline, cholesterol and triglycerides. Dr. Steve Presciutti is back with the strongest case against salt, and the places where it holds up and where it doesn't. Is salt bad for you? The harm shows up above about 5 g of sodium a day, mostly from restaurant...

How do you lower cortisol naturally? Biospark Health's two research assistants are back for a second deep dive. Episode 25 showed that food is the most reliable brake on cortisol. This episode covers everything else: sleep, darkness, light, breathing, alcohol, licorice, supplements, teas and cortisol tests. They ask two things of every lever: does it lower cortisol in human studies, and does it end the emergency or just hide the signal? The Devastating Truth: A single morning cortisol tes...

Is fructose bad for you? Our deep dive series is back. Dr. Steve hands the microphone to Biospark Health's two research assistants for the question last week's episode on sugar left open: fructose, fruit versus juice, your liver and uric acid. Fructose is half of table sugar, about half of high fructose corn syrup, and the sweet sugar in fruit and honey. The trials that show harm test big doses added on top of a full diet, mostly as drinks. At the same calories, most of that harm disappears....

In 1965 the Sugar Research Foundation paid for a review in the New England Journal of Medicine that blamed fat for heart disease and played down sugar. The industry did buy science. Dr. Steve Presciutti lays out the strongest case against sugar, then shows where it holds and where it breaks. Is sugar bad for you? The trials that show harm test extra sugar, mostly in drinks, on top of a diet that already has enough calories. The trials that swap sugar for other carbohydrates at the same calori...

Cut the sugar, cut the carbs, fast until noon, take ashwagandha. That's the internet's plan for high cortisol. In a 1987 study, men on a high carbohydrate diet had lower cortisol and higher testosterone than on a high protein diet with the same calories and fat. Dr. Steve Presciutti explains why food, sugar included, brakes cortisol more reliably than any herb. Cortisol is your emergency crew. It shows up when your body is about to run short of fuel, and it makes glucose out of your own muscl...