Evan Lynch is AG1’s Director of Product Marketing, Content and Nutrition in Europe - and he's back this month to share some more expert insights that can help you take ownership of your health.
A former semi-professional track and field athlete, sports specialist dietitian and PhD student, Evan has worked with elite athletes across three Olympic cycles.
But as he explains in part two of his Q&A with The Edge, 'performance' is not just for athletes. Everyone can follow Evan's advice to improve their health and focus on quiet progress and good habits - especially with AG1 as part of their journey.
Over to you, Evan!
WHY GOOD HEALTH IS A NON-NEGOTIABLE FOR GOOD PERFORMANCE
This might sound unusual to hear me say, but exercise is only good for you to a certain degree. Overtraining is a term for a reason. A professional athlete frequently blows past the threshold by which exercise is probably beneficial for your health, where it can become detrimental. Athletes break down. They get sick. They get injuries. They get RED-S [Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, think of it as malnutrition for athletes]. They get deficiencies. Bones break. That's not a coincidence. It's merely a reflection of the load they are under, the fact that they toe the line between what is physically possible and what they're trying to do. That's important to acknowledge, because if we look at where that athlete is all the time, they're under pressure. They need to be up for the task. They need to be up for the challenge of that.
So from my perspective, it's an absolute prerequisite for an athlete to be very healthy before they should be able to confidently step into the arena of sports performance, or they will just disintegrate at some point, or break down and end up missing a key match, race, competition etc... It's almost part of the job, much like a healthcare professional has to be in good health to show up to work and take care of others. It's the same for an athlete. So there is a requirement for athletes to be attentive to their diets, to be attentive to their lifestyle, to check their blood work every couple of weeks, for example, to watch their stress levels, to be careful at Christmas time, with excess socialising and even the risk of influenza with socialising. They have to be very cognisant of all of that, because maintaining good overall health is an important foundation for athletes to train consistently and meet the demands of their sport.
And again, performance is not just for athletes. It's for 'normal' people too, because 'performance' is subjective. Parents doing the 'Couch to 5K' need to be healthy to show up for that consistently and productively, dads doing tag rugby need to be up for the task. It’s a fundamental requirement for people looking to get the most out of themselves. You need to be healthy to show up.
WHY QUIET PROGRESS AND GOOD HABITS TRUMP EXTRAORDINARY RESULTS
Let's say a patient comes into my clinic and they want to improve their cholesterol. Someone asked me before, how will I know if my cholesterol is different or better? What will it feel like? And I had to reply and say, well, there's no [feeling], you can't feel that. It's not an emotion or an expression. It's very difficult for people to perceive that their health is improving. And I guess that's why it's very important that we tie into the perception of habit and consistency and routine, because the differences are only really palpable or tangible over time.
But in the meantime, AG1 or other steps that we take, are really these silent, quiet, seemingly innocuous things that we do. It's only over a long time frame that you see, 'oh okay, that is actually having an impact. I've been sick less. My last set of bloods were better. I've just noticed that I've become more of a morning person or I've not stuck to coffee anymore.' Not all of the health interventions that we do need to be plyometrics or sprinting up a hill or putting ourselves in cold plunges. We don't have to be shocking and kinetic and dynamic, it can just be small, elegant things like having an AG1 drink and that can be equally as impactful to our health.
HOW AG1 CAN BE BENEFICIAL FOR MOST PEOPLE, NOT JUST ATHLETES
If you look at the average person, the onus is still there to perform, but the perceived pressure to be healthy is not there. People generally don't think they need to put that much effort into their health. And I think it's an erroneous way to proceed, because if you look statistically at your average person, they're probably harbouring a subclinical deficiency. The average person in the UK does not eat their five a day, is likely to be overweight and has a high chance of having either high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a fatty liver.
That's where we're at as a people. That's Western civilisation. We have poor health problems. We're not doing that much about it. We don't exercise enough. We're all very busy. We're all very stressed. I think it is very important that there are easy-to-implement options. People can turn to AG1, like meal prepping, like turning off your phone at night time. Like going out in nature for 10 minutes. All very easy to do things that have a very real impact on someone's health. Short, medium and long-term.
MAKING AG1 PART OF YOUR DAILY REGIME
When we look at dietary patterns, it isn't necessarily the case that we all have a well-balanced diet and we all tick all the boxes. Lots of people won't eat nuts or seeds. Lots of people don't eat vegetables or fruit or nowhere near enough of them. And in particular, at a population level, that can open us up to deficits in trace elements and metals. Things like your seleniums, your zincs, your molybdenums, your chromiums. They are important because trace elements contribute to normal metabolic processes and energy-yielding metabolism, but we never think of them on a day to day basis.
AG1 can help to plug gaps like that, for a start, which the general consumer doesn't think about because maybe they've never heard of them. They don't pop up that much in popular discourse. But also, if you take someone who has a plant-based diet, someone who is picky, someone who does not eat dairy, someone who eats only a whole food diet, they're likely to be missing all of their B vitamins, maybe even vitamin C. AG1 can help support daily micronutrient intake needs, alongside a varied and balanced diet, particularly for those who are busy, travelling a lot or struggle with limited and inconsistent routines.
It's a good option if you're trying to help yourself meet your needs. If you're not going to totally overhaul your palate tonight or tomorrow, it's a good way to be reassured that I'm ticking the boxes. I shouldn't be missing anything. AG1 plus my diet right now, which I can work on, that's a good place to be. I'm in better care or better hands now than I was before I was taking this.
THE SCIENTIFIC EXPERTISE THAT GIVES AG1 AN ADVANTAGE
I'm all for nutritional science. And it's maybe not something people give enough credit or credence to because a supplement brand doesn't have to have a scientific regulatory affairs team. They don't have to run four randomised controlled trials or voluntarily become Informed Sports approved or even do their traceability work, which is a huge project. AG1 doesn't have to do that, but we are electing to do that because we are trying to be congruent with our consumer goal of improving your health. That has to come from a place of showing that we're invested in being the best people to help you improve your health, which means we need to be safe. We need to be very well-informed. We need to be a thought leader and a path maker in the industry for supplements in general.
Personally, when it comes to a product that someone puts into their body, particularly on a daily basis, like AG1, I think this level of rigour is the least the customer deserves. And I think it's a shame that it's not the de facto standard in the industry, but I can see that changing because of the work that is being done right now by AG1. I think it will become an increasingly important point of distinction for people when they pick supplements in the future.
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