Maybe We CAN Outrun a Bad Diet

Earlier this year we released a fun Kickback Science episode titled: “THE ULTIMATE DEBATE: Exercise vs Nutrition”, where we debate which intervention is more important and impactful on overall health and longevity. This is simply a debate for fun, as obviously they are BOTH extremely important and should be done in combination. BUT there is a clear winner in terms of which intervention has more health implications.

Have you ever heard the phrase “you cant outrun a bad diet"? Well.. interestingly enough, researchers in Montreal conducted a study that may shed some light on whether or not that claim is true. In the study, researchers had a group of healthy young men eat super-size fast food meals three times a day for two weeks. They also had the participants do 30 minutes of high-intensity interval training to see if exercise is able to combat any of the negative health impacts of the diet. (here is the reference if you want to read the study: PMID: 28846611).

What did they find? Despite living on an extremely unhealthy diet made up entirely of fast-food, The participants in the study still showed significant improvement in insulin resistance, body composition, inflammatory markers, cardiorespiratory fitness, and cholesterol levels, while suffering no negative health effects! So maybe you CAN outrun a bad diet after all?

This is just one example of a fun study we talk about in the podcast, but there are many more examples, including multiple systematic reviews and meta analyses, that support this (those studies are linked in the episode description)!