SuppVersity - Nutrition and Exercise Science for Everyone

Fridge raiding allowed, no even suggested! At least if what you take out of the fridge is a chilled protein shake - preferably one with at least some slow-digesting casein. You will remember my provocative claim that you can "Gain 3.2kg of Lean Mass Over Night" from a 2012 SuppVersity article ( read it  | Groen. 2012). The claim was based on an extrapolation of the lean mass gains you would see within one year if the only thing you did was to consume one serving of slow digesting protein before bed - no training, no other dietary intervention. Now, three years later, I am happy to tell you my prediction was not too far off. In fact, the provision of a shake containing 27.5 g of protein, 15 g of carbohydrate, and 0.1 g of fat right before bed even  doubled  the gains of the those 22 young, recreational active, but  non-resistance trained men who had been randomly assigned to the active treatment (the energy-free placebo tasted identical). You can learn more a...

Are the "good MUFAs" in olive oil not so "good" after all? Should you rather be eating SFAs all day? Whut? I guess that's what you may have thought, when you read the headline of today's SuppVersity article. "How on earth is that possible?" Actually, that's not far off of what I have thought, when I hit on the latest study from the  Top Institute Food and Nutrition  at the Wageningen University  in the Netherlands (Esser. 2015). I mean, I was not surprised to hear that the gene-expression changes the scientists concluded revealed (we should rather say confirmed) that a high fat (HF) challenge in the course of which 18 lean and 18 obese male subjects between 50–70 years, who were non-smoking, normoglycemic (WHO criteria) and not diagnosed with any long-term medical condition, consumed milkshake with 95g of fat that were either high in saturated fat (SFA) or monounsaturated fat (MUFA). Learn more about the effects of your diet on your he...

Creatine, the anti-wheelchair supplement? If you are still looking for reasons to start taking or keep taking creatine monohydrate, I suggest you go on reading. Researchers from the Cardiff and Worcester Universities in the United Kingdom have recently conducted an extensive review of the literature to elucidate whether resistance training and creatine supplementation have an additive effect on muscle structure and function or can older adults receive the same degree of benefit by just partaking in one of these protocols? Their results are, as the headline of today's SuppVersity article suggests, quite intriguing to say the least. You can learn more about creatine at the SuppVersity Creatine Doubles 'Ur GainZ! Creatine, DHT & Broscience Creatine Better After Workout ALA + Creatine = Max Uptake? Creatine Blunts Fat Loss? Build 'Ur Own Buffered Creatine You will be aware that the gym is where the anti-sarcopenic (=anti-age-induced muscle lo...

This is not a CLA supplementation study, but a study probing the effects of CLA-producing bacteria supplementation may explain the ambiguous results of previous CLA studies. From previous SuppVersity articles on CLA you will remember that the real world benefits of CLA are by far not as earth-shatteringly impressive as the body-fat destructive  effects that were reported in previous rodent studies would suggest. Now, one reason that "your" CLA supplement did not work as promised is the isoform mix of commonly available supplements, where the cis-9, trans-11-conjugated linoleic acid content may actually hamper the fat burning effects of trans-10, cis-12-conjugated linoleic acid. This alone does yet probably not explain the very mixed results from previous CLA for fatloss studies. So, if it's not the "mix" that explains the ambiguity ( learn more ), what else could it be? You can learn more about CLA at the SuppVersity Natural CLA Sources Prevent W...

There's something fishy about high dose fish oil supplementation. Increased inflammation and beginning fatty liver disease clearly indicate that the dose-response curve for EPA + DHEA is U-shaped. Meaning: More doesn't help more! Don't worry! I am not going to tell you that you have to drop your beloved fish oil supplements altogether. Next to making sure that they are not filled with unwanted Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs | learn more in a recent SV article), though, the results of a recent stuy by researchers from the University of São Paulo , the University of Southampton and the Campus Universitário in Londrina should remind you that "more does not always help more". Against that background, I am not sure how relevant the increased bioavailability of krill vs. fish oil actually is in terms of the desired beneficial effects your supplements are supposed to have on your health. In spite of that, I would like you to know that European researchers h...