Welcome to your modern fitness daily news report! Every weekday, we break down the trending fitness news, tips, and insider scoops to keep you informed. Each read will be under 3 minutes so that you can stay shredded and thumb through no-nonsense fit-quips. Thanks for reading!
TODAY’S LEVEL UP:
Coach's Corner: Ultra-Processed Food: What the Evidence Actually Shows
Supplement Spotlight: Curcumin — The Turmeric Compound With an Absorption Problem
Myth or Real: "If it's processed, it's bad for you."
Question: "Is a protein bar junk food?"
Fit Trivia: Which flamethrowing pitcher threw his seventh career no-hitter at age 44?
Ultra-Processed Food: What the Evidence Actually Shows
"Ultra-processed" has become the food phrase of the decade, and it gets used to mean everything from a bag of chips to a tub of Greek yogurt. That vagueness is a problem, because underneath the noise there's one genuinely good piece of evidence worth knowing about.
The study that matters. In a tightly controlled trial at the NIH, adults lived in a research unit and ate either an ultra-processed or a minimally processed diet for two weeks each. The diets were matched for calories offered, protein, fat, carbohydrate, sugar, and fiber — and participants could eat as much or as little as they wanted. On the ultra-processed diet, they ate roughly 500 more calories per day and gained weight; on the other, they lost it. Same nutrients on paper, very different outcome.
Why. Researchers noted people ate the ultra-processed food noticeably faster — it's softer, more energy-dense, requires less chewing, and delivers calories before fullness signals catch up. That's the mechanism that actually matters to you, and it has nothing to do with chemicals or scare words.
What to do with that, practically:
Judge food by protein and fiber per calorie, not by whether it came in a package. That single filter sorts most foods correctly without any classification system.
Slow the meal down. Put the fork down between bites, drink water alongside, and give a meal 20 minutes. Bigger lever than it sounds.
Fix the three biggest sources first: sugar-sweetened drinks, packaged snack foods eaten straight from the bag, and processed meats. For most men, that's the large majority of the problem.
Keep the convenient items that earn their place. Frozen vegetables, canned beans and fish, plain yogurt, rotisserie chicken, protein powder. Convenience is what makes a plan survive a busy Tuesday.
The honest caveat: most of the wider evidence linking ultra-processed food to disease is observational, and the category is so broad it lumps whole-grain bread in with candy. Treat it as a useful signal, not a moral system.
You don't need to eliminate a category. You need meals that are harder to overeat.
Supplement Spotlight: Curcumin — The Turmeric Compound With an Absorption Problem
Turmeric has been used in cooking and traditional medicine for centuries, but the compound supplement makers are actually after is curcumin — which makes up only a few percent of the root by weight. That gap between spice and supplement is where most of the confusion lives.
Here's what it does: Curcumin appears to influence inflammatory signaling pathways in the body. The most detailed research is in knee osteoarthritis, where several trials have found reductions in pain and stiffness, in some cases comparable to over-the-counter anti-inflammatories — though the studies are mostly small, the formulations vary widely, and the overall quality of evidence is moderate at best. There's also some research suggesting a modest effect on exercise-induced muscle soreness. It's a reasonable thing to try for achy joints; it is not a proven treatment for anything.
How to take it: Studies commonly use 500–1,000 mg of curcuminoids per day, often split into two doses with food. The catch is absorption: plain curcumin is poorly absorbed, which is why products pair it with piperine (black pepper extract) or use a phytosome, liposomal, or micellar delivery system. A label that only says "turmeric 1,000 mg" without naming curcuminoid content is telling you very little.
Worth knowing: curcumin can have a mild blood-thinning effect, so check with your doctor if you take warfarin, aspirin, or other anticoagulants, and stop it ahead of scheduled surgery. It can aggravate gallbladder problems and cause GI upset at higher doses, and piperine can increase absorption of some medications.
We recommend treating curcumin as a worth-a-three-month-trial option for joint comfort, not an anti-inflammatory cure-all — and choosing a product that names both its curcuminoid content and its absorption method.
FROM RYAN’S DESK
Confidence isn't something you wait to feel. It's something you build by doing hard things and proving to yourself that you can handle them. Every workout, every healthy choice, every time you keep going when quitting would be easier adds another brick to the foundation. Be the guy who gives himself reasons to believe. That's where real confidence comes from.
Myth or Real: "If it's processed, it's bad for you."
Myth, as stated — and the imprecision is what makes it useless advice.
Processing covers freezing, canning, pasteurizing, fermenting, drying, and milling. Frozen broccoli, canned beans, canned salmon, plain Greek yogurt, whey protein, and a rotisserie chicken are all processed foods, and all of them belong in your week.
The useful distinction isn't whether a food was processed but what the processing produced: something energy-dense, fast to eat, and low in protein and fiber per calorie. That's the profile that drives overeating.
So run the test on the actual item. How much protein and fiber per 200 calories, and how long does it take to eat? A bag of chips fails on all three counts. A tub of cottage cheese passes all three — and it came out of a factory.
Question from Our Readers: "Is a protein bar junk food?"
Depends on the bar, and more importantly on what it replaced. By the strict classification, nearly every protein bar is ultra-processed. That still doesn't tell you whether reaching for one was a good decision.
The questions that matter: how much protein per calorie, and what would you have eaten instead? A 220-calorie bar with 20 grams of protein that replaced a vending-machine muffin is a clear win. A 400-calorie bar with 10 grams of protein and a chocolate coating is a candy bar with a better marketing budget.
A rough screen: at least 1 gram of protein per 10 calories, and under 15 grams of added sugar. Check the fiber source too — several of the high-fiber versions cause real digestive trouble at two bars a day.
Use them as backup, not as the plan. Whole food still wins on satiety per calorie, and a bar eaten in 90 seconds fills you up far less than the same calories on a plate.
Our Picks: Supps We Actually Use
Some of our coach’s favorite supplements:
Creatine (Travel Packs) - $36
Add this to your water in the morning or in your post-workout shake. Creatine is one of the few supplements that has a mountain of data proving its benefits. Don’t miss out on it!
A great way to hit your protein goals. Don’t rely on a protein powder alone, but add it as a post-workout shake or midday shake to increase your protein intake and hit your protein goals. Remember, high protein equals higher muscle and higher satiety.
Replenishes essential electrolytes. Use this if you sweat a lot, do intermittent fasting, or go on long-distance walks, hikes, or runs.
We are a proud partner of Thorne Supplements! We are affiliated and use these products. We may receive commission from your purchase.
Fit Trivia: Which flamethrowing Hall of Fame pitcher — who threw his record seventh career no-hitter at age 44 and kept pitching in the majors until 46 — was famous for climbing straight onto a stationary bike after every start while his teammates headed for the showers?
Answer: Nolan Ryan! His conditioning work was legendary and genuinely ahead of its time in baseball — a sport that, for most of his career, treated running as punishment and the weight room as optional.
Ryan Engel, Intl. Fat Loss Coach
Ryan is a leading fitness coach and one of the most known professionals in the space.
He specializes in Body Recomposition and visual body aesthetics and has reached millions worldwide with his powerful messaging. He brings a unique, non-nonsense, yet sophisticated approach to body change.
Publisher: Ryan Engel
Editor: Michael Pender
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