Wellness Wednesday: The Power of Expectations

Welcome back to the Daily Dumbbell, where expectations for a serious, educational newsletter meet the reality of our vibe based approach and inability to be serious for more than a few seconds at a time.

But at least we also love memes!

Let’s dive in!

WTF Wednesday

Sigh.

Another day, another dumbass tweet sent out to his 160k followers.

We’ve covered in the past how Paul doesn’t seem to read the studies he posts. He has a knack for citing studies that don’t address the claim he’s making or actively refute his point. But he cited a source for most of these claims so lets look under the hood:

Heavy Metals:

Everything grown in soil contains some level of “heavy metals”. In this case he’s talking about Cadmium. Which is present in oats at about .03-.05mg/kg of dry weight. The level deemed safe for consumption is .1mg/kg.

If you remember our deep dive into the “dangers of aspartame”. The levels deemed safe are usually WELL under an amount that would even approach minor harm.

The link he cited isn’t even a study. It’s a paper proposing a potential mechanism for how oats could uptake cadmium. Dumb.

We searched for some more reputable info about this idea but couldn’t find anything. It appears he’s pretty much just made this up.

Pesticides:

The citation he provided here is a link to a blog post from the EWG whose Mission Statement is not exactly… impartial.

The study in question was conducted by EWG itself. Should the organization that publicly states Monsanto is evil be taken seriously here? Not likely.

But for posterity…

Cheerios had one of the highest levels of glyphosate in them. How much you ask? If you ate 150 BOXES of cheerios for breakfast tomorrow, you’d be getting awfully close to the limit set by the FDA.

Mycotoxins:

Lest you think we’re exaggerating how dumb Paul is, the study he cited has literally nothing to do with humans. It’s a deep dive into how plants metabolize a very specific mycotoxin.

This would be like us writing a piece about how marathons are bad for you and linking to a paper discussing the rules of the Boston marathon to support our position.

The audacity is truly unrivaled. \

Saponins:

We swear he makes up new things to be afraid of every fucking day. Wtf are saponins you ask?

They’re naturally occuring compounds in legumes. Have you ever opened a can of chickpeas and noticed it’s kind of foamy? That’s due to saponins. It’s why you can use aquafava (chickpea liquid or literally ‘bean water’) as a vegan substitute to egg whites.

The study he cited is an in vitro study from 1986.

Once again, if you put gut cells in a petri dish and dump shit on them, you cannot then extrapolate that to what would happen in the human body.

We’re beginning to lose our patience.

Phytic Acid:

Phytic acid isn’t bad. It just is. It exists in grains like wheat and rice and because of it’s charge it likes to bind to minerals like calcium, zinc, and iron.

This makes the minerals in those foods less bioavailable. So if your diet is mostly rice, bran, or oats then yea, you’d be at risk of having deficiencies. But that isn’t an issue in the developed world. Also most of it degrades when you cook it so it doesn’t really matter anyway.

We’re mostly just annoyed that he used a screenshot from a study because the paragraph before and after the one he posted contradicted his claims. Because he’s the definition of a grifter.

Also! Kidney stones are caused by over calcification. Phytic acid & foods high in it are incredibly effective at stopping that from happening because they bind to calcium. That’s a good thing.

Another reason foods aren’t healthy or scary, good or bad.

The Verdict:

Eat your oatmeal if you want to and don’t listen to jack knockers like a guy who calls himself the Carnivore MD.

Are Expectations Swiping Your Happiness?

If you've ever wondered why life seems to be an endless rollercoaster of emotional highs and lows, wonder no more. We’ve got the culprit pinned down: It's Expectations. Yep, that good-for-nothing, always-looming-around-the-corner weasel who seems to have made a side hustle out of pickpocketing our joy.

Expectations vs. Reality: The Happiness Showdown

The way our brains are wired to perceive rewards plays a colossal role in how we feel about our achievements. Take the study we discussed on Monday out of Japan's National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS). These researchers pinpointed an intriguing brain circuit that assigns value to our rewards based on others' rewards. I know, sounds like a perfect recipe for a mid-life crisis.

So before you go out and buy that corvette, keep reading.

When this brain connection was blocked, subjects became less bothered about others' rewards and remained content with their own. As if they'd walked into a Zen garden of contentment. So, it's clear: the more we compare our rewards to others', the more chances we have of being down in the dumps.

The exciting news is that while this is our default circuitry, we aren’t stuck with it. All you have to do is interrupt the connection between the two areas of the brain and you’re in the clear!

Sleek Gadgets vs. Goodnight Sleep: The Secret to Well-being

In the same vein, the sleep study from the University of Warwick, showed more of the same. Researchers discovered that our perception of sleep quality matters more for our well-being than our actual sleep quality. This means even if your SleepTracker tells you that your sleep was subpar, if you feel that you slept well, you're more likely to be Chipper Charlie the next day.

Our expectations about our sleep quality, then, can make or break our mood. If we keep obsessing over a perfect sleep score, we'll end up feeling grumpy more often than not. How's that for a plot twist?

Have you ever showed up to the gym feeling run down and shitty only to have an amazing workout? Bet you didn’t expect that! On the flip side, we’ve all showed up feeling great only to have a completely shit workout.

One will improve your mood, the other may wreck your day. But why?

Expectations.

The Art of Outsmarting Expectations

So, how can we keep expectations from sticking their noses in our business and stealing our happiness?

First, learn to celebrate your achievements without sizing them up against someone else's. This isn't the Olympics, and you don't need a gold medal to validate your success. Remember the NIPS study? The brain's reward circuit isn't bothered by comparisons when it's disconnected. So, why should you be?

100,000 years ago if your neighbor had bigger muscles than you he might be able to kill you. That’s not good. And if he has a bigger shack than you he might have a better chance with the hottie down the road. And that’s bad cuz there’s only like 9 chicks in this tribe!

But life isn’t a zero sum game anymore. Your friend, cousin, or neighbor getting a raise or a new car doesn’t mean the inverse for you. These things aren’t scarce and this neural pathway is no longer serving you.

Don't let the number on a scale, or a screen, determine your worth or happiness. You are more than a number, you're a freaking superstar!

Bottom line

Your happiness deserves to be guarded with the intensity of a hungry bear protecting its lunch. Although we’d recommend the vibes of Yogi Bear over that one bear from the Revenant.

Man that bear fucked Leo up. That was not cool. V bad vibes. But we digress.

Don't let the sneaky bandit of expectations swipe your happiness from you. Step out of the rat race of comparisons, tune into your feelings, and gently swat those feelings of envy away when you feel them.

You’ll be much happier if you do.

Happy Hump Day! Hope your week has been amazing so far. We’re halfway through so make today count! See you back here on Friday for some furious finds.