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Owned by Daniel
Performance nutrition: supplements, training and recovery as one system — graded against the evidence by a Le Cordon Bleu chef and strength coach.
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10 contributions to Performance Chef Academy
34m •
The sleep aid that absorbs worse than tea
Chamomile tea makes you sleepy. Somebody worked out which compound was doing it, pulled that compound out, put it in a capsule, and sold it as a natural sleep aid. It's called apigenin, and over the last few years it has become one of the most popular sleep supplements on the shelf. The pitch is always the same: skip the weak tea, take the real dose. One study ran both forms through the same seventeen men, same method, same lab. The capsule came back at 0.5% of the dose recovered. The same compound, drunk as chamomile tea, came back at 34%. The capsule is the worst-absorbed form of the thing. The tea everyone treats as a token gesture is the strong one. Two more things while you're looking at the label. There is no randomized trial of apigenin on its own for sleep — not one. And the 50 mg on the bottle doesn't come from a trial either. The two chamomile trials that exist used roughly 13 mg and 23 mg, and both sets of authors wrote plainly that they chose their dose without any dose-finding study. The one trial in people with diagnosed insomnia was null on both primary outcomes, and placebo did better on total sleep time. So go and look. Is yours a capsule, or a box of tea? And what dose does the capsule say?
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3d •
Your protein powder is probably two scoops
Pick up the tub and find the serving size, not the protein number. On a lot of products one serving is two scoops. So the "25g protein per serving" on the front is two scoops of powder. If you have been using one, you have been getting half of what you think, and the tub is lasting twice as long as the label says it should — which is the tell. This is the cheapest mistake in the category, and it is not a scam. The number is accurate. It is just not the number most people read. Go and look. How many scoops is one serving on yours, and how many do you actually use?
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6d •
Omega-3 is strongly evidenced, and most people still buy it wrong
EPA and DHA are among the most researched compounds in clinical nutrition: triglycerides, cardiovascular protection, joint inflammation, cognition. Consistent and substantial. The catch is the label, and it is the same trick as the magnesium one. "Fish oil 1000mg" is the weight of the oil, not the EPA and DHA inside it. Turn the bottle over. Sometimes the combined EPA plus DHA is 300mg. Grade: Strong. The compound is not the problem. The bottle often is. Go and look at yours. What do the EPA and DHA numbers actually say?
1 like • 5d
Yes — EPA + DHA combined is the number that matters, and it's the one most labels bury on the back. A standard "1000mg fish oil" softgel is usually about 18% EPA and 12% DHA, so roughly 300mg of actual omega-3. If the serving size is two softgels, the bottle shouting 1000mg is giving you 600mg, not 2000mg. That gap is the whole game. Once you're comparing products that clear that bar, two things separate them: Ratio. EPA and DHA aren't interchangeable. EPA is the one that dominates the triglyceride and mood research; DHA is structural — brain and retina. Most general formulas run EPA-heavy, which is fine for most people, but if you're buying for a specific reason it's worth knowing which one you're actually paying for. Freshness. Fish oil oxidizes. Rancid oil is worse than no oil, and it's common. Look for third-party testing and a manufacture date, and if you're getting fishy burps, that's not normal — that's the oil telling you it's gone off. The fastest way to compare two bottles: divide the price by the total grams of EPA + DHA in the whole bottle. That one number sorts the shelf faster than anything on the front label. The omega-3 entry in my supplement guide goes deeper on the ratio question if you want it.
13d •
Creatine: the one where the marketing undersells it
Not everything here is a warning. Creatine has more research behind it than anything else in the book: hundreds of randomized controlled trials on strength, power, lean mass and training volume, consistent across thirty years. Cheap, safe, unglamorous, and it works. Monohydrate is fine. The exotic forms exist mainly because monohydrate is off-patent and costs almost nothing, which makes it hard to build a brand on. The most optimal form in my personal experience is creatine HCL and PH buffered. You'll need less of it as the absorption is better and its easier on the gut with less bloat and less potential upset Grade: Strong. What form are you on, and did you pay extra for it?
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15d •
The 3am wake-up: what actually causes it
If you wake between 2 and 4am most nights and cannot get back down, the usual advice is melatonin. Melatonin helps you fall asleep. It does very little for staying asleep. The usual suspects, roughly in order of how common they are: eating too little through the day and running a glucose dip overnight, alcohol in the evening, training late without enough carbohydrate afterwards, stimulants too late in the afternoon and genuine cortisol dysregulation, which is the least common of the four despite being the one the internet talks about most. Which pattern fits you? Curious what the split looks like here.
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@daniel-edlund-6455
Le Cordon Bleu chef, licensed strength coach. 15 yrs in private estate kitchens, 30 yrs of strength training. 147 entries graded against the evidence.
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Joined Aug 21, 2025