Professional athletes dont get to the top by accident. It takes superhuman levels of time, dedication, and focusand that includes paying attention to what they put in their bellies. In this series, GQ takes a look at what athletes in different sports eat on a daily basis to perform at their best. Heres a look at the daily diet of former NFL star Tim Tebow.

The Friday before the Super Bowl, we chatted with Tim Tebow (who was on Houston's Radio Row as a brand ambassador for Avocados from Mexico) for about eleven minutes, the first seven of which were dedicated to avocados: how many he could eat; how far he could throw one; how much Tim Tebow loves them. Hours later, a photo of him eating guacamole with a spoon created a not-insignificant ripple in the Twitter pond. Clearly, he wasn't lying about the importance of that creamy green fruit in his daily regimen. Of course, it's only one small part of the extensive diet of this former NFL quarterback, current MLB minor leaguer, and potential future...President? (What.)

GQ: Most of these athlete endorsements smell like bullshit, but you seem like a man who loves a good avocado. Tim Tebow: 100 percent. I'm on something called a ketogenic diet which is high fat, moderate protein, low carb, low sugar. So I have to take in a lot of fat, and the number one fat comes from avocados. It's incredible. It's a super food. And even if that's not your diet, it's incredible food for you. I put them in my smoothies, guacamole, a bunch of different things. For me it's more than just trying to stay in shape for sports, it's a way of life, of trying to be healthy. Also when so many of our next generation kids are just having sugar and carbs all the time, well, can we moderate that just a little bit? Pull that back a little bit? And one of the great alternatives can be avocados.

What's in Tim Tebow's smoothie? Avocados, spinach, lemon, ginger, sometimes Cayenne, protein power, sometimes Stevia. And a little bit of crushed ice.

How many avocados are you eating a week? A lot. My avocado bill is high.

So, like, more than fifteen? Honestly, probably four a day.

Four a day? Think about it: If you have two in your smoothies for breakfast, one at lunch, one at dinner, that's four.

Here's the thing about buying avocados, though: it's difficult to tell if it's ripe. It's not easy. And it'stotallya feel thing.Can't be too early, too late. Just right.

Two-part question: one, can you describe what a perfectly ripe avocado feels like?Andtwo, can you describe how to squeeze an avocado at the grocery store without bruising it? First of all, I can't do either one of those because that would be super weird. But I will say that I have, even when some of them have gone slightly bad, I'll still put it in my smoothie because you can't even tell.

I do that with bananas. Except bananas have so much sugar.

How far do you think you could throw an avocado? I don't know. We'll go with about 53 yards.

Outside of avocados, what are your desert island foods? Eggs would definitely be one. Love eggs. Scrambled. Chilean sea bass. Steak. And asparagus. I have my fat, I have my protein, I have my greens. You see how we do that? It's a well-balanced meal. And I got a little flavor with the sea bass.

Don't you ever get a hankering for dessert? Not really. And one of the reasons is [that] you can make some things that taste really sweet. Avocado is actually something that really helps with that. There's avocado ice cream. Being able to mix things. Being able to use Stevia. And I think another one of the keys is continuing to eat on a regular basis, so your metabolism continues to work and burn, so that you're not hungry. A lot of the time, when people make bad [food] decisions it's because they're hungry. So they're going to make a decision to go eat an entire pizza or something. By themselves.

How many times a day are you eating? Seven or eight. But it doesn't have to be big meals! Constantly keep that engine burning, keep that metabolism going. That can be easy. One avocado. Boom. That's a meal replacement. Now I can get to the next one. And I'll add some more greens to it. Add a little more protein. It doesn't have to be: sit down and have these big meals America has become so accustomed to. Are there times when you want to do that? Of course. But you can also just do it where it's to go. It's nice and easy. I throw [something] in [a] smoothie and I just drink it really quick. And so it's not about consuming 1,500 calories at one time. It's about finding something that can sustain you, give you fuel, and then keep your metabolism burning because the ultimate goal is to be as healthy and satisfied as you can.

When is your first meal? Right when I wake up. It totally depends where I am, but let's just say I wake up at 7:00, [then] I will eat at 7:10. As fast as I can. And then I eat every couple of hours. It doesn't mean it's a meal. But if I eat at 7:00, it'll be 9:00, then it'll be 11:00, then 1:00, and so on and so forth. It's not always on the time, but I feel like it's made me way leaner, it's made my metabolism burn and I think it also gives me more energy throughout the day. Because you're not weighted down by having three huge meals and nothing in between. So you're on a huge roller coaster.

You are relentlessly positive. Do you ever get mad? I get mad, disappointed, frustrated, all those things. But it's not about things that happen. It's about: how do you deal with it when it happens? It's about not letting it fester, not letting it grow, not letting it build into bitterness. We all go through those emotions, highs and lows. But it's: what is our foundation? And how are we able to handle that? If you're able to handle that with faith in your family, and love for people, then you can bounce back from it. Life's not always going to be easy but when you're trying to live for a purpose, it can definitely be worth it every time. And so instead of focusing on the disappointment, focus on: how can I learn from this? How can I not let this happen again? How can I grow?

Back in October, during the Arizona League, there was a man who had a seizure in the stands. And Twitter sort of blew up because you leaned over and consoled him. What happened there? I was signing autographs for some fans and one of the young men that I just signed for, he went into a seizure. And then he was unconscious. I tried to lean over and pray for him. And he came back to. I still try to keep in contact with him. [I] was just texting with him the other day. Very special young man. Just tried to hang with him in a moment of need. And hopefully that's what he would do for me, or what a lot of people would do. And so I think it's about just trying to be there for people.

What are you trying to do next with your career? I'm getting ready for spring training here in a couple of weeks. But I think my biggest passion is what we're doing at the Tim Tebow Foundation. We have a hospital we take care of over 2000 orphans in four different countries. A week from tonight we have something called A Night to Shine every year it's a worldwide prom for people with special needs and we'll have over 380 proms on one night around the world, in all 50 states and 11 countries, celebrating people with special needs.

Is the NFL in that future? Right now I'm just so focused on baseball and Night to Shine, that that's my focus and that's what I want to do. So that's my future.

Okay, but how about a Tim Tebow presidency in 2020? [laughs] I don't know. When I've been asked about it, it's not something that's out of the realm. Right now, other things are my focus. If one day I feel like that's the greatest way I can help people, then that's what I'll do. But that's not yet. Not this day.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

MORE STORIES LIKE THIS ONE

Visit link:
The Real-Life Diet of Tim Tebow, Lover of Avocados - GQ Magazine

Theo Wargo / Getty Images

ID: 10539059

Emails between Dr. Luke and Keshas manager that were filed in court this week detail how the music producer berated the pop star about her weight, citing it in one instance as the reason top songwriters and producers didnt want to work with her.

Dr. Luke aka Lukasz Gottwald and Kesha have been in an ongoing legal fight since October 2014, when they filed dueling lawsuits against each other. Kesha sued the music producer in California for sexual assault and battery, sexual harassment, unfair business practices, and infliction of emotional distress. Dr. Luke then filed a lawsuit against Kesha in New York claiming breach of contract and defamation.

Dr. Luke. Richard Shotwell / AP

ID: 10539284

In her lawsuit, Kesha accused Dr. Luke of verbally and physically abusing her while they worked together, as well as raping her when she was unconscious. She also alleges that Dr. Luke repeatedly harassed her about her weight, calling her a fat fucking refrigerator. Dr. Luke has denied the claims.

Kesha later checked into a rehabilitation treatment facility for bulimia, severe depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and panic attacks, according to court documents.

Keshas California case was put on hold in June 2015 after a judge ruled that the New York case takes precedent. Kesha has since dropped the case to concentrate on defending herself in New York.

Last year, a Manhattan judge denied Keshas request to get out of her exclusive contract with Dr. Luke. In her ongoing quest to be freed from the contract, Keshas lawyers this week released emails that show Dr. Luke criticizing the pop star over her weight.

Kesha wants to be freed from her abuser and rebuild her physical, emotional, and mental health, her lawyers stated in court documents filed Tuesday in a Manhattan court.

ID: 10538975

We have seen it happen multiple times almost every day. It is also double concerning when the A list songwriters and producers are reluctant to give kesha their songs because of her weight.

ID: 10538966

Keshas manager, Monica Cornia, responded saying that the singer was working really hard and that shes a human and not a machine.

And to get in trouble for drinking a Diet Coke and called out in front of the whole room when shes not there is not okay, Cornia wrote. If she were gaining weight or not losing I would totally get it. Everyone wants her to be the best she can be. But she is still a human being who has feelings and major insecurities and she is doing her very best and I would hope you could be support of that.

Dr. Lukes attorney, Christine Lepera, accused Kesha and her attorneys of cherry-picking the evidence to mislead the public.

Rather than agree to a thorough disclosure, Kesha and her representatives improperly publicized, without court permission, three out-of-context emails, which do not present the full picture regarding the events they concern, Lepera said. For example, these emails do not show that the lyrics of Crazy Kids were, in fact, rewritten at Keshas request. Any claim by Kesha to the contrary is deceiving the public, just like her other meritless claims of wrongdoing by Dr. Luke.

Visit link:
Dr. Luke Slammed Kesha In An Email For Breaking Her Diet By Drinking A Diet Coke - BuzzFeed News

If America could be defined by what it likes on social media, you might as well call us the United States of Pizza-Eating and TV-Watching. At least, thats according to research the University of Vermont recently published in the journal PLOS One.

Co-authors Dr. Peter Dodds and Dr. Chris Danforth didnt go around surveying Americans about their leisure-time activities or compiling data based on the total dollar amount spent on different types of foods. They turned to Twitter, and with a tool called the Lexicocalorimeter, they scoured roughly 50 million tweets sent between 2011 and 2012, seeking out terms associated with foods or activities. It turns out Americas tweets read like a middle-school sleepover. The dominant words that feed into our scores are pizza and watching TV, Dodds says. Those are really the dominant terms across the board.

Fun? Yes. Healthy? Debatable.

Heres how the Lexicocalorimeter works: Every time one of the thousands of identified foods or activities popped up in a tweet, itd be assigned an associated caloric value. For instance, if you tweeted, Capped off a training run with a steak dinner, the Lexicocalorimeter would tag run with the average number of calories burned for an hour-long workout, and steak with the number of calories associated with a single serving.

Clearly, its not an exact science, but getting exact, individual numbers wasnt the point. Identifying state-based trends and providing a broader, health-related correlation, was.

Were interested in large-scale problems where theres something really important about humanity thats hard to measure, Danforth says. Quantifying how well were functioning as a society is a multi-dimensional process. A lot of the data traditionally is based on economics, diseases, emergency-room visits, and healthcare costs. It takes time and money to compile these stats. But using the Lexicocalorimeter, Danforth and Dodds were able to show a strong correlation between geographical location, how people tweet, and common diseases or risk-factors, such as diabetes and obesity.

This is a proof of concept to quantify behavior in shorter time periods, Danforth says. People near you use the same words you use. People near you exercise the same way you do. Weve shown that the behaviors of those who tweet reflect those of the people who dont tweet. Theres a strong correlation between the calories we consume and the foods we talk about, the exercise we engage in, and the balance between the two.

While fascinating and entertaining at the individual level Texas, why is eating one of your biggest activities? Michigan, why do you talk about lying down so much? the end-game of this new technology is broad in scale. Its big picture, public health, public policy stuff, Dodds says. The tool is complementary to other data, such as surveys. Its a real-time way of looking at what people are talking about and how their health might be changing improving or declining over time.

While real-time stats wont be available until the project is fully funded, for now you can check out the data from 2011 to 2012 to see how your states doing, and whether you fit in or stand out from the crowd. You can say, "Hey look, theres a culture of activity in my state that Im engaging in or not engaging in, Dodds says. Its helpful to get a bigger picture, another lens into what your cultures like.

Link:
Scientists Can Now Judge Your Diet by Your Twitter Feed - Men's Journal

Science Daily

Father's diet impacts on son's ability to reproduce, study in flies suggests Science Daily "Our study found that males that were raised on either high or low protein diets, but spent their adulthood on an intermediate diet, produced sons that had large differences in gene expression, which most likely contributed to the resulting differences ...

Excerpt from:
Father's diet impacts on son's ability to reproduce, study in flies suggests - Science Daily

dulezidarGetty Images/iStockphoto

All cholesterol is not equal. It comes in healthy and unhealthy forms, and doctors have long advised people to cut back on the bad cholesterol, LDL , found in red meats and fried foods. The good kind, HDL, pulls out the LDL that builds up on blood vessel walls and raises risk for a heart attack. Upping levels of HDL may therefore protect the heart from damage.

That's the theory, but studies looking at HDL levels and heart disease events haven't always shown that higher HDL levels lead to lower risk of disease. Scientists may finally know why. In a new study of nearly 300 people at high risk of heart disease, published in the journal Circulation , researchers found that just having high levels of HDL may not be enough to make a heart healthy. But the Mediterranean diet may help HDL to work more effectively.

The people in the yearlong study were randomly assigned to eat either a low-fat diet with little red meat and plenty of fruits and vegetables, or one of two versions of the Mediterranean diet : one enriched with olive oil and the other with nuts. After the year, the researchers compared the blood cholesterol levels of the participants to their starting levels. They found that only the people who ate the low-fat, non-Mediterranean diet lowered their total and LDL cholesterol levels, but that the people eating the two Mediterranean diets had better-working HDL.

The scientists, led by Montserrat Fito from the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute in Barcelona, knew this because they took other measurements of how well HDL was working. The group that ate the diet higher in olive oil showed the most improvement in HDL function; their HDL was better able to pluck out LDL from heart vessel walls and shunt them to the liver for removal, and it was better able to work as an antioxidant, protecting against the inflammation-related damage that can weaken blood vessels and make them more vulnerable to heart attack-triggering plaques. The HDL in this group was also better able to keep the blood vessels elastic and pliableimportant, since hardened arteries are more susceptible to damage.

Our hypothesis is that all the antioxidant compounds in olive oil bind to the HDL particle and preserve [it] from oxidative stress, says Fito. And that maintains the HDL in better quality.

The people eating the Mediterranean diet enriched with nuts also had some increase in HDL function, but the olive oil seemed to outwork even the nuts.

Its important to note that none of the three diets boosted the amounts of HDL considerably. While diets rich in fruits, vegetables and antioxidants, like the Mediterranean diet, can increase levels of HDL, experts say that other methods, including regular exercise, may be better. Scientists at drugs companies still havent found a drug that can increase HDL levels, either. Based on these new results, they may have to focus not just on increasing amounts of HDL, but also on making sure that HDL is working optimallyan effect olive oil seems to have naturally.

Read the original here:
Why Olive Oil Is So Good for the Heart - TIME