Microplastics are everywhere. We can take some steps to decrease our exposure.

In June of 2025, I wrote a post about microplastics. I discussed that very small particles of plastic are found nearly everywhere: water, food, and the air we breathe. We are constantly exposed to microplastics and smaller particles called nanoplastics. As I said in the earlier post, the risk of microplastics to our health is unclear. A few studies have shown potential harm from microplastics, including stroke, heart attack, and possibly cancer, but there is no good data yet on just how harmful they are. I am not talking about BPA. BPA is an endocrine disruptor and should be avoided.

Regarding microplastics, remember that you can find risk in almost anything, and the level of the actual risk of microplastics is still not known. As you know, plastic is very convenient. It is lightweight, lasts forever (part of the problem), and inexpensive. Giving it up can be a big, expensive commitment.

Since microplastics are found nearly everywhere, in our water, animals, plants, and air, I believe. It will take a massive international effort to eliminate them from the environment. Many companies are working on alternatives to plastic products. Still, even if their efforts are successful, it will be many years before we notice a difference in our levels of exposure.

When I first started reading about microplastics, I was worried. I saw the numbers, which show that we likely consume an average of 100,000 to 200,000 particles a year. Many scientists had theories as to how they could sicken humans. I started cutting out as many sources of microplastics as I could. I threw out kitchen utensils, avoided all plastic containers, and drove my patient wife nearly insane.

But the absolute number of particles we consume shouldn’t bother us until we know more. We are exposed to gazillion waves of ultraviolet a day, and that doesn’t frighten us. Red meat may be harmful if you eat more than other meats. The shockingly high number is scary, but it doesn’t mean it will hurt us. There are gazillions of cosmic rays hitting all of us, and cell phone signals coming from everywhere. No one thinks they are dangerous.

I want to know just how bad microplastics are before I kill myself trying to get rid of all of them. I am not going to wear a special mask, if one even exists, in my house to avoid breathing in microplastics, and I will not avoid drinking tap water. It will take a massive international effort to eliminate these sources of exposure. Still, we can take simple steps to significantly diminish our intake of microplastics. I don’t know whether it will improve our health, but if it’s simple, relatively inexpensive, and cuts my intake substantially, I see no reason not to do so.

The largest sources of microplastics are:

• Indoor air (usually thousands of particles a day): Fibers are shed from furniture, carpet, and household products
• Drinking water: Tap water has microplastics, and bottled water, as you would expect, usually contains much more
• Food: Many foods, especially seafood and sea salt, often contain microplastics in the food itself. Some are contaminated by the equipment and processing. Relatively small amounts are found in canned fish (in the hundreds of particles per can.
• Plastic containers: Plastic releases far more microparticles when heated. This occurs whether you heat the plastic container with liquids already in it or whether you add hot liquid to the container. When possible, I use ceramic and glass products to store food, especially liquids, and I never heat food in a plastic container.
• Plastic teabags release tens of thousands of particles per cup of hot tea. Earlier studies found much more, but they may have been in error.
• Pouring hot tea or coffee into a disposable coffee cup can release tens of thousands of particles. Most disposable paper cups and coffee shops are lined with plastic to keep them waterproof. I will discuss below how to avoid this source of microplastics.
• Plastic coffee pods, such as those used in Keurig machines, likely release thousands of particles, but there haven’t been major studies published that I could find. Plastic food containers can release thousands of particles into your food.
• Using plastic tools for cooking can release microplastics
• Teflon-coated nonstick pans release more microplastics than non-Teflon pans. Cracked and damaged Teflon pans release far more. Using cracked and scratched Teflon pans and heating at high temperatures can also release harmful chemicals, and Teflon pans are now banned from sale in Minnesota.

We cannot meaningfully decrease our exposure to the plastics in the air or what is contained in the food we eat. Fruits, vegetables, and seafood contain plastics, but avoiding them would have undesirable health effects, so I am putting that out of my mind. I intend to work at limiting my exposure to plastics in the following ways:

• When possible, I will avoid drinking water from plastic bottles. Even canned drinks have microplastics, so I have another incentive not to drink Diet soda. We are fortunate to have reverse osmosis in our home. RO removes most microplastic particles from the water, and if you own a home, I would consider installing it.
• When I prepare food, I use bamboo or wood cutting boards, rather than plastic. I do eat canned fish because other than salmon, I am allergic to fresh fish and want the health benefits. Otherwise, I try to minimize my exposure to cans, at least until there are cans without the plastic lining.
• Tea: It is easy to avoid the massive amount of microplastics found in tea. Use loose-leaf tea. I use this infuser, but there are many options. You can cut and empty teabags that have plastic, but I drink tea made by companies that don’t use plastic. There are certainly other companies, but I like Bigelow, Twinings, and my new favorite, Stash. Each of these teas has multiple choices of teas, and their sites state they don’t use plastic in their teabags.
• Coffee: I never use Keurig or other pod systems when the pods have plastic, and wrote a post on the beauty of the pourover. I no longer use a plastic pourover dripper. I use a ceramic one (or this one) at home and the Hario metal dripper when I travel, because it is lighter. Regular #2 coffee filters don’t fit right for the Hario, so I use these.
  • In restaurants and coffee shops, it is difficult to avoid coffee made in machines that contain plastic. Our home Hamilton Beach coffee maker is great for the price. Hot water doesn’t sit long in plastic parts, so I expect the overall microplastic exposure is low, but I prefer pour over anyway. In-home fully automatic coffee machines, such as those made by Kitchenaid, De’Longhi, and Jura, hot water comes in contact with plastic. Again, I have no idea how important this is. (Drip coffee may be healthier for another reason. Using paper filters removes nearly all of the diterpenes from coffee. Diterpenes may increase the risk of heart dise
• Coffee Shops: As I mentioned, disposable paper cups shed lots of microplastics. Some studies show tens of thousands of particles released per cup. Fortunately, this is easy to avoid. Most coffee shops will serve you in a ceramic, “for here” cup. Even better, you can bring your own travel mug. Coffee shops, gas stations, and convenience stores will usually fill your mug rather than use a disposable cup. Some will even give you a discount. The good news is that many companies are developing cups without plastic, and I expect they will become the norm soon.

I expect that we will soon know more about the risks of microplastics in our environment, and especially in our food. It may turn out that some of us are overreacting to the risks. If microplastics turn out to be dangerous, research will be able to tell us what levels in food and water are important. For now, you may want to consider what you can easily do to decrease your own risk.

Note: If you want references for any of the data I presented, send me an email at harold@haroldoster.com.

Are Vaccines Still Important?

Early in 2025, I wrote a post about vaccines, stressing how important many vaccines are. Recently, I’ve had discussions with friends and family about vaccines and was surprised by how many people were against vaccines in general and objected to specific vaccines that are uncontroversial in the scientific community. I listened and tried to understand their concerns. It can be unnerving to have foreign material injected into our bodies. People feel different about an injection than they do about consuming something orally or inhaling it. Some of the same people who avoid all vaccines are perfectly willing to consume hallucinogens, tobacco products, and alcohol, which are more dangerous than any vaccine. They can eat bad carbs without concern, yet refuse to get a vaccine, which is proven to save lives with minimal risk of harm.

It can be even scarier to allow our children to get shots. Knowing the history of the vaccines might alleviate some of the concerns. Before vaccines, parents lived in fear that their children would get measles, diphtheria, polio, and other infections. Every year, thousands of adults and children died of diseases that vaccines now prevent. During the frequent outbreaks, parents were afraid to let their children leave the home.

Vaccines changed everything. I was an Infectious Diseases specialist and internist, and I saw one case of measles, a few cases of rubella (German measles), and no cases of smallpox, diphtheria, or acute polio. If you lived before the measles vaccine came out, virtually everyone got measles, and you likely knew someone who had polio.

We don’t see the infections much at all now and haven’t for years. People who didn’t live during those times don’t understand what it took to eliminate smallpox and virtually eliminate the other infections I just mentioned. They don’t know that all of these infections (except smallpox) are still common in parts of the world. Globally, there are over 60,000 rabies cases per year, all fatal. Over 99% of these are caused by dog bites. What would happen if we stopped vaccinating dogs? We would see cases again. Now, we have very few cases in the United States, nearly all from exposure to bats or raccoons, and virtually all in people who didn’t get the vaccine after exposure.

If you study the history of these infections, you can’t fail to understand that we no longer have them because of the vaccines. Vaccines have risks. Everything does. That is not the point. The point is whether the benefits outweigh the risks.

One argument some people have against vaccines is that the person in question is not likely to benefit much because they aren’t likely to become ill with the disease, anyway. That is true enough, but that is the whole point of all safety measures. Do something that will protect you in the uncommon but serious event that it happens. That is why we buy smoke alarms. Most people will never experience a fire in their home, but I don’t want to die from one. Same with homeowners’ insurance, seatbelts, car seats for babies, bicycle helmets, carbon monoxide detectors, life jackets, and back-up parachutes. The list goes on forever. I am 57 and have never been in a serious car accident. I probably never will, but if I do, I want to minimize my odds of dying. I take 15 seconds a few times a day to put on a seatbelt, knowing that it is unlikely ever to help me. I take a smoke alarm and a carbon monoxide detector on every trip. In the slight chance the hotel or rental home owner doesn’t maintain working alarms, my family and I are protected.

In addition to the individual, vaccines clearly benefit society. Here are links to individual data on Human Papillomavirus (New England Journal, Cochrane Review), Smallpox, TDaP (tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis), and MMR (measles, mumps, rubella). Special note to pregnant women and those who may become pregnant. The MMR article I just linked discusses the horrible birth defects associated with rubella in pregnant women. This is called the congenital rubella syndrome. In the 1964 and 1965 epidemic, over 20,000 babies contracted this syndrome. These articles discuss the overwhelming benefits of the vaccines, and most of the articles also discuss their safety.

Below is from UpToDate. It is a chart of the Effectiveness of routine childhood vaccines.

As with everything, vaccines have risks. The benefits of vaccines significantly outweigh these risks, and serious adverse effects from vaccines are uncommon. The most common side effects are pain at the injection site, fatigue, and fever. Neurologic reactions such as Guillain-Barré Syndrome are much, much less common. People often talk about severe reactions they had to a vaccine. Some of the stories are real, but many are coincidental and not related to the shot itself. Remember, people who have bad reactions to vaccines, real or not, often talk about it, but the millions who get vaccines with minimal or no difficulty don’t.

Johns Hopkins has an excellent site on vaccine safety. Among many other topics, it outlines the data supporting vaccine use. Many people, including some in the government, complain that vaccines haven’t been adequately studied with regard to risks. This site should help assuage them. Also, here is an excellent article showing how much study goes into vaccines and their safety.

When our son was young, I sometimes worried about all the vaccinations he received. Was it safe to give him so many shots at the same time? The coadministration of vaccines has been studied extensively. There is a small added risk of fever and even febrile seizures if multiple vaccines are given together. As scary as that sounds, the risk is small, and fever-related seizures are usually benign. On the other hand, dividing up all the shots causes significant problems. It is difficult to take children to the doctor multiple times in the first two years, and many children would miss out on the vaccines that can save their lives.

When deciding whether to get a vaccine for yourself or your children, please keep in mind the benefits and the risks. It is easy to focus on one or the other. Doctors sometimes focus only on the benefits of vaccines, and if you haven’t personally seen the dangers of the infections themselves, it is easy to focus on the risks. In recent days, we have seen a resurgence in vaccine-preventable infections, most notably measles. If we are not careful, it could soon get much worse.

The importance of water is obvious, yet most of us take the availability of clean water for granted.

I have been working with a start-up company, The Joseph Project. The mission of the company is to help people prepare for emergencies, large and small. The official launch is scheduled for the spring of 2026, but the website is up and running, and a few products are being sold.

I am the medical director of The Joseph Project, and one of my responsibilities is education. My first article/ blog post is on the website. I discuss the importance of water, how much we need, and how to prepare for the temporary lack of access to clean water. Even a few days without clean city water is a problem. If you have a well, you will need a backup plan to have water for yourself and your family.

Check out my article and the company if you are interested.

Go back to HaroldOster.com

Food Dyes are not as harmful as the foods they color.

Forty ice cream companies have agreed to phase out the use of artificial food dyes over the next few years. They’ve stated that the dyes are safe, and they are taking this step only to avoid disruption of sales as bans go into effect. The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has banned several food dyes in the last year.

When artificial food dyes are approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), they have to be deemed safe. Increasingly, concerns have been raised about the actual safety of some of these dyes. Remember, not everything artificial is harmful, and not everything natural is safe. I would rather have a bowl of barley sweetened with saccharin than a natural cigarette. (I don’t use saccharin, if you’re wondering.)

Numerous studies have been conducted on artificial dyes. Some suggest harm in children, causing attention deficit and other behavioral issues. This is a review article, and I’ve looked at several of the studies they describe. Observational studies, where researchers observe what children eat without intervening, have several problems. This review article excluded such studies. The reason observation is inadequate is that food dyes are often found in foods that also have other risks. Most food dyes are in sweets, cereals, pastries, and sweetened beverages. Presumably, the dyes are added to make the foods more appealing. I wonder if they really help. If we eliminated the colors from Lucky Charms marshmallows, would kids still eat them? If blueberry ice cream weren’t as blue, would adults still eat it? I think so.

The review article stated that approximately half of the studies examined showed an increased risk of hyperactivity and similar symptoms. Yes, that sounds significant, but I’m not entirely convinced. Remember that there can be a publication bias. Any study that showed an increased risk is likely to be published. Studies that showed no risk may be less likely to be published. Even if that were not a problem, if only half of the studies showed risk and half did not, what does that tell you? It suggests to me that the risk is not that high. I would expect that nearly all smoking studies show significant dangers of smoking.

I am not saying that we shouldn’t ban artificial dyes. I think we should. They have no benefit to our health, may cause harm, and, worst of all, encourage people to eat food that definitely causes harm. As I mentioned, artificial (and sometimes natural) dyes are commonly found in sugar-sweetened foods. I have never heard of artificial dyes being put in unprocessed food. If you buy plain Greek yogurt, you won’t ever find red dye #3. You won’t find artificial dye in broccoli or steel-cut oats.

Ultraprocessed food and food with added sugar cause significant harm. Some have blamed obesity on food dyes, but we know that added sugar and high-carbohydrate foods can lead to obesity, yet these foods aren’t banned. I don’t care if the Twinkie contains artificial dye or not. (It does.) I don’t eat Twinkies because of all the other crap in them.

Similarly, banning food dyes may lower the risk of attention deficit because fewer kids will eat ultraprocessed foods, which are clearly linked to an increased risk of attention deficit.

Food dyes may cause harm. There are studies suggesting that they may increase cancer risk and other serious medical problems. But the most significant medical problem in the United States is obesity. Take a look around and see how many children are overweight. It contributes to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, pulmonary disease, mental disorders, and chronic pain. That is not from food dyes. It is at least partly due to junk food. I have two books that address the topic. Read my books for details: The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever and The Six Rules for a Longer, Healthier Life. The risk of food dyes is small compared to the risk of obesity. Maintaining a normal body weight is crucial for improving your overall health.

The best oils are the ones that you make healthy meals with.

If you keep up with the news, you’ve read about the debate about seed oils. Some people claim that seed oils are unhealthy, even poisons, because they may be inflammatory. They advise using animal fat, or tallow, instead of seed oils. Longstanding science has said that healthy plant-based diets that include unsaturated fats, are healthy, lowering the risk of heart disease and other chronic diseases.

The seed oils that are said to be the most dangerous are soybean, canola (rapeseed), corn, grapeseed, cottonseed, safflower, rice bran, and sunflower. Other oils made from seeds include flaxseed, sesame, almond, and walnut.

There are studies that suggest that some of the seed oils can increase levels of inflammation in the body. Chronic low-grade inflammation does have harmful effects, including autoimmune disease, heart disease, and cancer. However, there are few, if any, well-designed studies that show these harms occur more in people who consume seed oils. Most studies suggesting harm are in animals and at high doses. Even cottonseed oil, which is rarely defended as healthy, doesn’t appear to increase inflammation.

Numerous well-designed studies show that overall, unsaturated fats derived from plants and their seeds lower the risk of heart disease compared to animal fats. Rather than quoting and referencing hundreds of articles, I reference this superb review. Of note, the authors discuss inflammation and oxidative stress (another proposed risk of seed oils) and show the strong evidence that plant oils are not a cause of these problems. This study from 2025 shows that plant oils, including canola and soybean, lower the risk of dying of heart disease or cancer. I could go on and on. Unsaturated fats from plants, including seed oils, have unsaturated fats and clearly benefit human health.

For those of you who really want to learn about the science of fat and inflammation, I refer you to this article. It describes that both unsaturated and saturated fats can sometimes increase inflammation under certain conditions, such as the other foods the person is consuming.

A big problem with studies on fats is that rarely does someone eat only the fat being studied. And even if they do, something else always changes. If you take people who are eating a lot of olive oil and substitute canola oil for it, you may see something negative. But the apparent harm could be from the removal of olive oil. Replacing tallow and lard with plant oils has shown significant benefit. Some could be from the plant oils, and some from not eating the saturated fat. Regardless, you are better off.

The most important factors are what you eat the oils with and how you prepare the food. Over the last several decades, we have been eating far more seed oil than in decades past. Those against these oils blame the oils themselves. I don’t entirely dismiss that possibility, but we’ve also been eating far more ultra-processed food (UPF), which now represents more than half of the calories consumed in the United States. We know ultra-processed food causes inflammation, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and cancer. Eating the high-calorie, high-sugar UPF is the cause of these conditions, not the plant oil. I bet if you made Twinkies and jelly doughnuts with olive or flaxseed oil, two of the healthiest fats known, people would still become ill.

If the rest of your diet is healthy, unsaturated plant-based oils are better for your health than saturated fats from meat. That is why the Mediterranean Diet is so good for you. If you use olive oil every day, you are better off than if you use tallow every day. If you believe you have evidence from well-designed human studies to the contrary, please email me.

If you want to be healthy, eat mostly plant-based oil. If you’re afraid of seed oils, though I think they’re fine, you can cook exclusively olive oil and avocado oil, as I do. Use avocado for high heat, and olive oil for everything else. You shouldn’t cook with flaxseed oil, but I add it to yogurt. It’s very healthy and makes it creamier. If you want to be as healthy as possible, don’t eat ultra-processed foods, regardless of the oils they contain.

One final point. Robert F. Kennedy, the Health and Human Services secretary, is pleased that some fast food chains are using beef tallow to make their french fries. I don’t have strong feelings about what a restaurant does, but the main point should not be their frying oil. The more important thing for your health is not to eat french fries. We know that frying food isn’t healthy, and french fries have a high glycemic index. With the other foods served at fast food restaurants, you’ll gain weight. Read my book. If you follow the Three Rules, you’ll lose weight. If you also follow the Mediterranean diet, with or without seed oils, you will be even healthier.

Everyone knows that a vegan diet is healthier than eating meat, right? In many cases, no. What makes veganism healthy is eating the right foods and only the right foods on the vegan diet.

For many years, meat was said to have been the cause of worsening health problems in the United States. Then experts said it was fat and meat, which often contains a lot of fat. The evidence was generally unconvincing. Now we know that some meat is better than others, and some fats are far better than others. For example, lean beef and pork may have little, if any, health consequences.

Whether veganism is healthy is a complex topic, and I will divide it into a few sections. First is the issue of ultra-processed foods. Americans eat a lot of it, which is not good for us. Ultra-processed foods, including refined wheat bread, pastries, candies, and most snacks, increase the risk of early mortality. This study in the British Medical Journal followed over a hundred thousand health professionals and tracked the consumption of ultra-processed food and health problems. I was not surprised that those who ate the most such foods died younger on average. I was stunned that the quartile of study participants who ate the least ultra-processed foods ate a median of 3 servings a day. That is a lot.

If your idea of veganism contains significant ultra-processed foods like Fritos and candy, then you are not eating healthy.

The next topic is carbohydrates. There are healthy carbs and unhealthy carbs. Fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and whole grains are generally in the healthy category. Eating what I call bad carbs in my book is the cause of most of the obesity in this country. My diet has some meat—mainly fish and poultry, but I don’t eat bad carbs or ultra-processed foods. You can be a vegan and eat bread, pasta, and candy. If you have a weight problem, then potatoes are bad carbs. Remember, sugar and high-fructose corn syrup are vegan.

Next is protein. Not eating enough protein can lead to muscle wasting. You can get enough protein on a vegan diet, but it isn’t easy unless you pay close attention. Tuna for lunch and chicken for dinner is enough protein for the day. It takes a lot of beans and rice to accomplish that.

What about alcohol? Alcohol is clearly vegan. Veganism is not healthy if the diet contains a lot of alcohol. As far as I know, being vegan does not protect you against the increased risk of cancer and liver disease if you drink significant amounts of alcohol, whether it is in wine, beer, or liquor.

Salt is another problem that vegans and omnivores both face. Vegan pizza, bacon, sausage, and Fritos all contain significant amounts of salt. If you have a blood pressure problem, then your diet is making it worse.

The healthiest diet contains no ultra-processed foods, no bad carbs, and includes beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Adding fish makes it even healthier. And you have to have enough protein. Red meat should not be your primary source of protein, but it is not as harmful as once thought.

If you are vegan and eat the good foods I mentioned and avoid the bad ones, then you are indeed eating healthy. If you eat whatever vegan food is available, you probably are not as healthy as you think.

Eating Healthy Is Sometimes Worth It

What does eating healthy mean? If you are trying to lose weight, eating healthy first and foremost means eating a diet that will result in weight loss. Historically, that meant eating a low-calorie diet. I believe the best way to lose weight is The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever. If you don’t need to lose weight (increasingly uncommon), then eating healthy means eating food that may lower your risk of heart disease or cancer.

You hear a lot about ultra-processed food causing innumerable harms. It’s true. There are many risks of ultra-processed food. Every few weeks, a new study comes out. But fast food and other ultra-processed foods taste good. Is it worth eating healthy and giving them up? This is no way to generalize this answer.

First, in a sense, everything is unhealthy. If you overeat, that can cause health problems. If you eat too little, you waste away. Too much water can dilute your blood chemistries, causing harm. We know what too little water can do. But what about something clearly unhealthy, like ultra-processed food? Let’s take my favorite candy bar as a kid, the Twix. It is ultra-processed and high in sugar, saturated fat, and calories. No one could say it is healthy. But is eating healthy and avoiding the Twix bar worth it?

As I say in my book, you should eat with intent. If you purposefully eat the Twix bar, knowing it has health risks, as a treat or reward, excellent. Eating six or eight a day out of boredom and poor self-control may not be worth it. Even smoking cigarettes could be worth it if it prevents worse harm, such as heavy alcohol use or mind-ruining drugs. You have to decide.

As we age, the concept of eating healthy becomes more complicated. If I were a hundred years old, I wouldn’t worry about eggs, Twinkies, Twix, ice cream, or smoking cigars. I might not start drinking again because I wouldn’t want to weaken my mind at any point in life. But if eating three eggs and bacon daily increases mortality, it would matter less to me at 100 than at 55, as I am now. It takes years for smoking and unhealthy eating to catch up with you. So, it matters less when you have fewer years left.

My son wisely says that you have to live now, no matter your age. That is true. It is difficult for me to indulge in unhealthy foods, even though it should matter less to me now than it did ten years ago. How to balance living now and preventing an early death is very difficult. If I could add six months to my life by eating only tofu and broccoli, I wouldn’t do it. But if eating only junk food took ten years off my life, I wouldn’t do that either. (This does not mention the other downsides of junk food, such as obesity, which impacts quality of life, in addition to increasing mortality.)

Again, you have to act with intent. You have to decide whether eating healthy is worth it. Is the harm of the food (or drink, cigarette, or even riding a motorcycle) worth the benefit? Most people don’t think about it at all. They drink alcohol or eat junk food with abandon. Then, 15-20 years later, they have diabetes, cancer, or liver disease and regret what they did.

The balance my son has created for himself may be the best approach for him. I find it difficult to eat unhealthy foods occasionally since I become addicted to things easily. If I could have one drink without the risk of drinking too much, I would do it. If I could roast Twinkies over the fire with my wife and son, and not get hooked, I would do that too.

We each have to decide for ourselves, but make a decision. Think about how you want to eat and eat with intent.

Until about eight years ago, I struggled with my weight. If you’ve known me for years, you remember how many times I gained and lost weight. My relatives, and sometimes my friends, made fun of me because once I started eating something, say M and M’s, I couldn’t stop. Simply put, I couldn’t control myself once I started. Many people are like me with junk food. I also had trouble controlling myself with alcohol. Fortunately, I knew myself well enough to never try drugs. Now, I never drink any alcohol, and I never eat what I call bad carbs. I wrote a book about my plan, The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, Second Edition. Buy a million copies here.

People who know me now say I have superb willpower. I don’t believe it—I believe my willpower is poor. My wife has willpower. She can eat a single cookie or a bite of someone’s pecan pie. Not me. I would eat the row of Oreos or the can of Pringles if I had even one. My rule now is to have zero. The secret to willpower is to avoid situations when you have to practice self-control. Plan ahead to minimize the work required not to indulge in your dietary habits. This article in Science News illustrates the difference between willpower and self-control. Studies agree that there is a big difference between the self-control of planning ahead and the willpower needed at the moment.

Planning ahead is not having a box of Oreos or a can of Pringles in the house. Willpower is having the can, opening it, and eating just one. James Clear, in Atomic Habits, talks about some of the methods of planning ahead to establish healthy habits. I was fortunate enough to learn some on my own. The secret to willpower is to plan ahead as much as possible.

Junk food, or bad carbs, as I call it in my book, has always been addictive to me. I never eat it. I haven’t had bread or snacks with carbs in at least five years. I prepare several blocks to avoid eating them. I never keep junk food in the house. Never. So, when I am in my house and open the pantry, I don’t need any willpower. There is nothing in there that is off of my diet plan. In the refrigerator, there is no junk food. I open it and can only find healthy food, say an apple or some nuts (nuts are better in the fridge). There is no leftover pizza in the refrigerator.

When I go to the store, I shop with a list and never stray. If it’s not on the list, I don’t buy it. The list is the intermediary. It requires less willpower in the store when I have my unbreakable list. I won’t buy Cap’n Crunch cereal at Costco, even if it’s on sale. It is not on the list. By the way, I don’t drink either. In Minnesota, you can’t buy alcohol in the grocery store. I never go into liquor stores unless shopping for a gift. Same thing.

The samples at Costco are a challenge. Look around. About 75% of people in the store are chewing. The ends of the aisles are congested with people getting samples. What, they never tried Oreos before? Make an ironclad rule to never, ever, ever have a sample. You can’t go to Costco without seeing samples. So, you need an absolute rule to never eat a sample. That does take more willpower than avoiding Costco, but it’s easier to follow an ironclad rule than to decide at each aisle whether to have a sample or not.

At restaurants, if you want to avoid eating off your diet plan, always look at the menu before you go. I know what I am ordering before I go in. If there is nothing on the menu on my diet, I don’t go to that restaurant. You can always find a restaurant your friends like that accommodates your diet. When I go on vacation, I usually stay at a rental house. Then, we can make healthy meals, even on vacation. I have had patients who blame weight gain on the cruise they were just on. What did they expect? No one can spend seven days on a boat, surrounded by junk food, and never eat junk food. It’s like a person with an alcohol use disorder (the preferred term) hanging out at a bar every night. If you don’t want to eat junk food, don’t go on a cruise.

The secret to willpower is to plan ahead. Set up as many blocks to your habit ahead of time. Don’t keep junk food in the house. Don’t buy it. Always have a plan. Do not put yourself in situations where you will need willpower. When you must be in a situation that tests your willpower, plan ahead by making ironclad rules.

The best protein powder mix is one you make at home.

I buy a few simple, healthy ingredients, and in five minutes, I have my protein mix. I make a protein drink every morning.

Why would you want a protein mix? Inadequate protein intake can lead to muscle loss. There are various recommendations, but I tell my patients to eat at least 1 gram of protein daily for every kilogram of weight. There are 2.2 pounds per kilogram, so if you weigh 150 pounds, you weigh about 68 kg. It is not that difficult to eat 70 g of protein a day, but you have to think about it–weighing, counting, and measuring. I don’t like to do that. If you read my book, The Three Rules to Lose Weight and Keep It Off Forever, Second Edition, then you know I don’t like to weigh, measure, or count.

A morning protein drink is about 25 g of protein, making it very easy for me to get to my 60 g of protein for the day. (I’m pretty small.) The recipe is so simple that you can remember it without trying. I make fifteen days’ worth of protein mix at a time, so it is very easy. You don’t need special equipment, though a blender bottle or something similar helps.

Any protein base should work, though no study has ever shown that any protein powder is better than whey, and whey happens to be the cheapest. If you‘re a vegan, I recommend pea protein, but whey is better for muscle growth. If you’re milk intolerant, you may not be able to tolerate whey, so you can use pea, soy, or whatever you want. I can guarantee that the whey powder works, but I don’t see why pea protein wouldn’t be fine.

I have tried several whey products, and I like the one by Now Sports (part of Now Foods). I used to write for their natural health foundation, but I used Now products years before working for them. This recipe will work with other brands, so buy what you like if you’re worried that I’m overly biased toward Now Foods. I have also tried several different ratios of protein powder and the other ingredients, and I like this recipe the best, but if you want to tweak it, of course, you can.

This is not really a fully homemade mix. I don‘t milk the cow or make the whey powder myself, but this mix is better than the premade mixes. There is no added sugar, and the only sweetener is pure stevia. Some zero-sugar, non-nutritive sweeteners have recently been linked to stroke and other medical problems. There are issues with some of these studies, but stevia, to my knowledge, has never been linked to any medical problem. (The stevia packets have other ingredients that may not be healthy.)

I prefer mixing my few simple ingredients so I know exactly what I’m consuming. Optimum Nutrition, my favorite premade protein powder, usually has sweeteners and other ingredients I don’t want, though it’s probably fine to consume.

So, this is the recipe for Homemade Chocolate Protein Mix. I use the scoop that comes with the whey powder, which is about 28 g and 1/3 cup.

Note that on January 3, 2024, I started adding cinnamon, a healthy, tasty spice. Try it or not.

Ingredients:

• 15 scoops of unflavored whey powder (isolate slightly preferred over concentrate). 
• 10 tablespoons unsweetened baking chocolate powder (I use Hershey’s or Nestlé.)
• 1 teaspoon pure stevia powder. (I have only tried the Now Foods brand.)
• ½ teaspoon table salt (optional)
• 5 tablespoons Cinnamon, preferably Ceylon (optional)

Directions:

Transfer all the ingredients to a gallon-size Ziploc bag or other suitable container. Seal the bag and shake it. Make sure it’s fully sealed before you shake it vigorously, or you will have a serious mess to clean up. I have found that you don’t have to eliminate all the tiny clumps of powder and chocolate because when you mix the drink in the blender bottle, they dissolve.

I use about eight ounces of cold water with the mix, but many people use milk or a milk substitute. Suit yourself. Whether you drink the protein first thing in the morning or right before or after a workout is a topic for another post. I do it every morning.