Love the last two days!! The only thing I would add is I would recommend you switch out the fish oil for algae oil, and I swear this is not becuz I'm trying to trick you into becoming vegan! It's just that algae oil strictly dominates fish oil. It's the same omega 3's (that's where the fish get their O3s) but without the mercury
(14:05-16:11) I'm no expert on which algae oil is best but
Nordic Naturals is the one I've used in the past. Also,
the science on fish oils doesn't really live up to its marketing:
Quote:
A systematic review and meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association looked at all the best, randomized clinical trials evaluating the effects of omega-3 fats on life span, cardiac death, sudden death, heart attack, and stroke. These included studies not only on fish oil supplements but also studies on the effects of advising people to eat more oily fish. What did they find? Overall, the researchers reportedly found no protective benefit for overall mortality, heart disease mortality, sudden cardiac death, heart attack, or stroke. And for someone who has already had a heart attack and is trying to prevent another? Still no benefit seemed to be found.
Where did we even get this idea that the omega-3 fats in fish and fish oil supplements are good for you? There was a notion that Eskimos were protected from heart disease, but that appears to be a myth. Some early studies, however, looked promising. For example, the DART trial from the 1980s involving 2,000 men found that those advised to eat fatty fish had an impressive 29 percent reduction in mortality. However, the sequel, the DART-2 trial, found the exact opposite. Run by the same group of researchers, the DART-2 trial was an even bigger study with 3,000 men, but this time, participants advised to eat oily fish and particularly those who were supplied with fish oil capsules had a higher risk of cardiac death.
After putting all the studies together, researchers concluded there was no longer justification for the use of omega-3s in everyday clinical practice. What should doctors do when their patients follow the American Heart Association’s advice and inquire about fish oil supplements? As the director of Lipids and Metabolism at Mount Sinai’s cardiovascular institute put it: “Given this and other negative meta-analyses, our job [as doctors] should be to stop highly marketed fish oil supplementation to all our patients…”
I would also consider adding ground flax seeds and/or ground chia seeds to your diet, not just becuz both foods are good omega 3s sources but they may also aid in weight loss probably by having an appetite suppressing effect:
An excerpt on ground chia seeds:
Quote:
Well, we know from the flax seed literature, if you give people muffins made out of whole flax seeds, they don’t seem to really absorb all the benefit, compared to ground flax seed muffins. And, the same appears to be true with chia seeds. Eat whole chia seeds for 10 weeks, and no increase in short-chain omega-3 levels or long-chain omega 3s. But, eat the same amount of chia seeds ground up, and levels shoot up. So, maybe the problem with this study is that they gave people whole chia seeds. But, there’s never been a study on ground chia and weight loss…until, now.
A randomized controlled trial, about two tablespoons of ground chia a day versus a fiber-matched control made of mostly oat bran. That’s how you know it wasn’t funded by a chia seed company, because they put it head-to-head against a real control, not just a sugar pill or something, to control for the fiber content. So, then, if there was weight loss, we’d know it wasn’t just the fiber, but something particular to the chia. And, those eating the ground chia lost significantly more weight, significantly more waist, in terms of waist circumference (a measure of belly fat), and, as a bonus, C-reactive protein levels—suggesting an anti-inflammatory effect, as well. So, maybe some of those 50,000 YouTube videos weren’t completely off.
Source.
An excerpt on flax seeds:
Quote:
Like in this study. The reason they give for doing a so-called “open label” study where the study group is aware they’re eating flax seeds is because they couldn’t come up with an “inert placebo” for flax seed. I mean, whole wheat flour is a whole grain, and could be beneficial in its own right, and white flour could make the control group look even worse. So, what they did in this study was that overweight patients were randomly assigned to receive either lifestyle advice and daily ground flax seeds, or just the lifestyle advice alone, as the control group. And, not surprisingly: “Body weight, waist circumference, and body mass index decreased significantly in both groups.” Even without the lifestyle advice, just enrolling people in a study where you know they’re going to keep weighing you can get people to lose weight, though there was a significantly greater reduction in the flax seed group, and not just by a little. The control group that just got lifestyle advice over a 12-week period lost nearly seven pounds, and about an inch off their waist. But the group that got the same advice plus spoonfuls of flax a day? So, in effect given more food to eat, lost over 20 pounds on average over the same period and cut nearly four inches off their waist. Those are extraordinary numbers for an intervention that added, rather than actively removed, calories from the diet. Was that just some crazy fluke?
How about flax seed supplementation for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease? Thanks to the obesity epidemic, that’s now “the most common liver disease.[,]..recognized as a major public health problem around the world. A “high-fat diet is the most common cause,” but flax seed fat may be better, compared to lard. Well, that’s not very helpful; so, let’s put it to the test.
Same as last time, lifestyle modification advice with or without flax seeds. They were told to just mix it with water and juice, and drink it down after breakfast. And…body weight went down, along with liver inflammation, and scarring and fat inside the liver in both groups, but better in the flax seed group. And again, that extraordinary 20-pound weight loss, telling people to add something to their diet. So, maybe that first study wasn’t a fluke. Or, maybe, they both were.
There have been dozens of randomized, controlled trials of flax seeds and weight loss, and as you can see most were more equivocal. Here are those two recent 20-pound weight loss studies, which appear to be the outliers. But still, put all the studies together, and you do see a significant reduction in body weight, BMI, and waistlines following flax seed supplementation in randomized, controlled trials—though one should expect more like two pounds of weight lost rather than 20.
Source.
I should mention the black beans were made with 3.6 oz. of chorizo. Got the recipe from serious eats, they're the best black beans I have ever made. Also, I take a splash of milk with my oatmeal. I may try the flax seeds, though.
