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A 'Top Chef' alum explains why you should never put oil in your pasta water

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We interviewed 'Top Chef' alum Fabio Viviani while he cooked us a meal from his web series "Dinner is Served." He told us the biggest mistake people make when cooking pasta. Following is a transcript of the video.

FABIO VIVIANI: Don’t waste good olive oil for the pasta not to stick. I think the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard about making pasta is people who waste olive oil in the water, so the pasta doesn’t stick. That’s a lie, it’s wasteful, and you should be ashamed of yourself. Because you should be there stirring your pasta, which doesn’t make it stick anyway, if you stir it. Now, if you throw a pound of pasta in the water and then you go play soccer or take a shower, the pasta might stick to the bottom. That’s natural. But don’t waste good olive oil for the pasta not to stick. Just stir your pasta, you lazy people out there.

JETHRO NEDEDOG: Okay, no olive oil, but what about salt?

VIVIANI: Salt, salt’s fine. You can salt pasta, salt pasta is good, as long as you don’t have a too spicy sauce or a too salty sauce. For example, if you have a four-cheese sauce naturally there’s a lot of salt in it. So, you don’t want to over-salt your pasta. So salt is necessary.   

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Here's how Easter turned into a holiday with pastel bunnies and chocolate eggs

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Easter bunny White House egg roll

Easter is the most important feast day on the Christian calendar: a celebration centered around Jesus Christ rising from the dead.

So, what do egg-hiding, floppy-eared bunnies, chocolate encased in colorful plastic shells, and pretty flowers have to do with any of that?

Such symbols are sometimes written off as a sort of paganistic residue, left over from before Christianity swept across Europe.

But that's probably not true — or, at least, not entirely true.

Eostre is frequently cited as a pre-Christian Germanic spring goddess (who hung out with a rabbit, no less). Early Christians are said to have co-opted her festival's symbols and rituals — and even her name! But the only documentary evidence for this goddess exists in early medieval monk and scholar Bede the Venerable's telling.

The evidence for Eostre-worship being the basis of Easter traditions is thin, at best, as the Guardian's Adrian Bott previously asserted. It's not that it's impossible that Eostre was indeed a popular pagan goddess, or that such pre-Christian influences survive today — it's just that there's really not much concrete to base that assertion on.

Historians in the 19th and 20th century often argued that most medieval Christians were actually just thinly veiled pagans. However, that trend has changed in recent years. As English historian Ronald Hutton put it in his article "How Pagan Were Medieval English Peasants?": "... there is no good evidence for a survival of active paganism among the English population after the early eleventh century."

That doesn't mean that there aren't some strange and unusual beginnings for some of Easter's most popular symbols, however.

Here are some popular Easter symbols with surprising origins:

SEE ALSO: Da Vinci's iconic depiction of Easter's beginnings has a violent history it barely survived

DON'T MISS: The backstory of the man behind St. Patrick's Day has pirates, 'snakes,' and no green beer whatsoever

DON'T FORGET: The ancient story behind Valentine's Day is more brutal than romantic

Bunnies are ancient symbols of fertility

Medieval folks couldn't get enough of bunnies. They're a frequent theme in illuminated manuscripts and other art from the Middle Ages.

Ancient scholars like Pliny the Elder and Artistotle wrote about hares and their propensity for fertility (as the Smithsonian reported, Aristotle actually was right when he proposed that rabbits can get pregnant while they're pregnant).

Due to this potential for double pregnancies, as English polymath Sir Thomas Browne wrote, hares were also long believed to be hermaphroditic — and, therefore, capable of virgin births. That led to an association with the Virgin Mary. The sign of the three hares appears in medieval Christian art as well, symbolizing the Trinity.

So it's not surprising that the hare became especially associated with Easter in Germany by the 17th century. As History.com reported, it was likely German immigrants who brought the idea of the Easter bunny to America in the 1700s.



Eggs have represented new life for centuries... for obvious reasons

Every Easter, children embark on hunts for candy and chocolate enclosed in colorful plastic eggs. It's a bit like the tradition of waking up to presents on Christmas morning, except with more sugar and running around.

The history of egg symbolism goes back centuries. As Forbes reported, "In pagan times, eggs were part of the Bacchic or Dinoysian mysteries, possibly a symbol of the underworld; they could be used to cast spells and, conversely, to offer protection."

Later on, eggs became a symbol of rebirth for Christians.

Easter eggs first got a shout out in a book aptly titled "De ovis paschalibus" (or, "About Easter eggs"). As the book "Thinking Like an Anthropologist" says, the 1682 book refers to "... an Alsace tradition of an Easter Hare bringing Easter Eggs."



Lilies received a special shout-out in the Bible

In the spring, we're all happy to see any flowers at all, but one flower in particular has come to represent the holiday: the lily.

Lilies come up a few times in the Bible. Jesus even mentions the flower in the Gospel of Luke, 12:27, saying: "Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Lilies also turn up in the story of Easter. In some legends, they are said to have bloomed in the Garden of Gethsemane after Christ's agony. As a result, it's become the flower traditionally associated with the feast.



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Here’s why some Coca-Cola bottles have a yellow cap

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In the 1930s, Coca-Cola began producing their signature soft drink with a different sugar substitute, sucrose, that made it kosher for Passover. Jews observing Passover cut out chametz, or any grain-based products that are capable of leavening. Some Jews also cut out kitniyot, which includes foods like rice, beans, peanuts, and corn. Regular bottles of Coke contain high-fructose corn syrup which is not kosher for Passover. Today, bottles of Coca-Cola that are kosher for Passover have yellow caps instead of the traditional red ones. In addition to the yellow cap, the bottle has a Passover certification symbol.

The Hechsher, or the  marking on many common food items, is a signifier that the food is certified kosher. Kosher for Passover items require an additional Passover hechsher. There are various symbols that appear on food packaging. The symbols differ depending on which kosher organization has certified the food and the contents of the food. The small letters next to kosher symbols signify if the food is dairy, meat, pareve (neither dairy nor meat), or kosher for Passover. You can find the Ⓤ on Oreos, Coca-Cola, and many other items people purchase regularly.

 

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This salad-making robot can build 1,000 different salads in 60 seconds each

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sally salad robot chowbotics 3474

In Silicon Valley, you can buy everything from pizza to coffee made by a robot.

Sally the Salad Robot, which debuted at San Francisco coding academy Galvanize on April 13, is more glorified vending machine than automated chef. She (it?) dispenses 21 ingredients to create more than 1,000 different salads, and each takes about a minute to make.

Deepak Sekar, CEO of robotics startup Chowbotics, says Sally's goal is to provide workers with quick and healthy meals they can buy on-site. Sekar hopes to install about 125 salad-making bots in Bay Area tech offices through the end of 2017, and is in talks with WeWork and Amazon to bring Sally to their workspaces.

chowbotics sally salad robot 2

Three years ago, Sekar — an inventor who holds over 100 patents — hacked together a machine that combined spices and vegetables to make curry. He decided to turn his side hobby into a business when a Silicon Valley investor (and owner of 15 McDonald's restaurants) took interest. Sekar got a team together and worked for another two years on a salad-making version.

Sally can make salads, but she relies on humans to get part of the job done. The robot has canisters for different ingredients, which a company can source on its own or buy from Chowbotics. Every day, a person loads the canisters and replenishes them throughout the day.

When a customer orders a salad from Sally, they can make a custom combination or choose from a handful of signature salads created by Chef Charlie Ayers, who's known for being the first executive chef at Google. The menu rotates as seasonal ingredients become available.

sally salad robot chowbotics 3529

The California Love Salad features ripe cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, Kalamata olives, and croutons served over a bed of kale. The ingredients are cut into small pieces, which Ayers says is good for computer programmers who want to graze while they work. 

Sally can't mix salads yet, and avocado is noticeably missing from the ingredients menu. Sekar says the fruit is too soft to be handled by the robot, but the company is working on a solution.

The organizations that install Sally will determine the various costs of the salads. At Galvanize, the average salad will go for $8.

Chowbotics plans to sell the robot to companies for $30,000, and offers a monthly payment plan to make it affordable for midsized offices. The price will probably exclude small startups; Sally makes more sense for companies with cafeterias or infrastructure for storing ingredients.

Sekar says the cost is worthwhile if companies can squeeze more time out of their employees. He suggests that if just five employees (who make $100,000 each on average) decide to work until 8 o'clock five days a week — because they can grab dinner from Sally rather than scavenge for food at home — the value of their time comes in around $10,000 a month.

"Our revenue model is what I call SaaS — Salad as a Service model," he says.

SEE ALSO: Apple and Google alums have unleashed self-driving food delivery robots in San Francisco

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NOW WATCH: CaliBurger plans on using these burger-flipping robots

We visited an Italian cheese factory where mozzarella is dunked and braided in 10 litres of milk

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The making, stirring, and braiding of mozzarella could be considered a fine art in the cheese making production. 

To see first hand how it is made, we went to Caseificio Andriese cheese factory in Bari, south Italy.

It all starts from blocks of curd which are called "cagliata" in Italian: these come from milk when it is drained of its whey.

Fresh curd is chopped and kneaded in hot water and salt. This is the "filatura" (spinning) and it lasts around 10-15 minutes. It takes around 10 kg of curd and 10 litres of milk to make 1 kg of mozzarella.

When the cheese is ready, it can be shaped in braids, knots, and even piglets. It can also be smoked, seasoned, or filled with other ingredients to make “burrata.” 

The factory we visited has a 500 gram "bomb" as its very own speciality. 

Produced and filmed by Claudia Romeo

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The 12 best apps that make moving a lot easier

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Bellhops

There's no getting around it: moving is the worst. 

Even if you're only moving a few blocks away, packing up all your stuff and getting it from point A to point B is a total pain. Luckily, technology is here to help. 

While mobile apps can't make your move pain-free, they can help streamline the process, eliminate mix-ups, and hopefully save you some money. 

Here are 12 apps to download before your next move: 

SEE ALSO: How to use Hooked, the highly addictive reading app topping the App Store right now

Getting started



Zillow is a real estate marketplace of more than 110 million homes.

Zillow's platform is one of the broadest and most reliable sites for finding an apartment. Unlike Craigslist — which can have fake or unreliable listings — Zillow's listings are photo-heavy and easy to filter. 

Zillow is available for iOS and Android.



Flip helps you get out of your lease by finding credible subletters.

Flip is a platform that allows tenants to list available space and find subletters. In a similar vein as Airbnb, hosts create a listing, add photos, and input information like how long the place is available. Flip then takes over, sending out a notice to the landlord, which protects tenants in case the process gets contentious later on. If a user matches with a subletter, Flip will perform a credit check and make a recommendation as to whether that subletter is the right fit.

Essentially, Flip is an advocate, assistant, and housing expert all rolled into one. 

The app is available for iOS



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

16 shopping secrets that will save you time and money at Costco

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costco shoppingCostco is a goldmine for bargains.

But the opportunity to save can be overwhelming, as you face seemingly endless free samples and bulk deals.

There are great bargains at Costco — even Morgan Stanley analysts say the retailer offers some of the best deals in the industry. However, to cash in on the deals, you need to know a few secrets.

Here’s how to make shopping at Costco worth the price of membership.

SEE ALSO: Costco is beating Walmart and Amazon with the 'best business model' in retail

Make a beeline to the center of the store.

Many membership stores stick the best bargains in “center court,” the pallets in the middle of the store, Paco Underhill, author of "Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping,” told Bankrate.

Flashy displays at the front of the store, on the other hand, are going to be more expensive.



Keep an eye out for the "star."

If there’s an asterisk on a Costco price tag, that means the item can't restocked and what you see is the last in the store, reports Costco Insider.

So if your favorite seasonal product is marked with a star, it’s time to buy enough to last you till next year.



Split bulk items.

You might not have space to store 30 rolls of toilet paper, but your friends would probably be more than happy to split the cost of the $19.50 mega-pack, says Time.

Buying in bulk means major savings, so go big — and split the products up before going home.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Here's everything you should have in your car at all times


Here's what 3 of Wall Street's fiercest competitors eat to stay in top shape

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Training for the 2017 Wall Street DecathalonThe D10 is an intense competition that pushes its athletic contestants to their ultimate physical limits. 

A favorite among the Wall Street crowd, the five-city competition is comprised of a 400-meter run, football throw, pull-ups, 40-yard dash, dips, 500-meter row, vertical jump, 20-yard shuttle, bench press, and 800-meter run. It's all for a good cause, raising money to support pediatric cancer research.

We recently caught up with some of the the New York City contestants during a 6 a.m. training session at Tone House's Upper East Side location. They shared what they're eating during training season to keep in tip-top condition.

SEE ALSO: We shadowed a bunch of Wall Streeters during an early-morning training session for the most intense competition out there — here's what it was like

Chris Howell, analyst at Barclays

Because of how early the workouts are (some start at 5 a.m.), Howell doesn't always eat beforehand. "I either train fasted, or eat something light, like applesauce, to get the wheels turning," he told Business Insider. 

After the workout, Howell's appetite calls for a more complete meal. "I eat three to four eggs with multigrain toast and a recovery drink, such as a protein shake," he said.

Throughout his training, Howell's overall diet is high in fat and protein, and he includes a moderate amount of complex carbohydrates.



Samantha Santaniello, data sourcing and strategy at Point72 Asset Management

During training season, Santaniello follows what she calls the "P-F-C rule."

"[I eat a] protein-fat-carb at each meal and snack," she said. "Before a workout, I usually like to fuel up on a handful of nuts and a piece of fruit, or an RXBar — apple cinnamon is my favorite."

Post-workout, her meal includes half of a sweet potato and a plant-based protein shake with almond milk and half of a banana or frozen acai berries.



Nick Fincher, vice president at PIMCO

For Fincher, a protein shake is always in order, both before and after a workout session.

"For me, having a protein shake an hour before the session does the trick," he said. His smoothies consist of whey protein, bananas, blueberries, chia seeds, and coconut milk.

After a session: "I follow up it with a large breakfast when possible." His go-to is a ham and veggie omelet made with three eggs and a side of fruit.



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This is a standing desk chair for lazy people that inspired a multi-million dollar shoe empire

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Focal standing chair

Chances are you've seen, or perhaps own, a pair of Keen shoes or sandals, the ones with a rubberized toe.

They were the brain child of Martin Keen, an avid sailor who preferred to wear sandals on deck. He came up with the idea in 1999 after growing sick of stubbing his toes while boating.

By 2003, he launched the company and within three years Keen had taken off like mad. By 2011 it was reportedly generating $240 million in revenue.

And Martin Keen credits the success of that shoe to another one of his inventions. An almost-chair.

It's a stick with a seat that turns a standing desk into a lazier, lean-on-your-butt workspace.

"The first prototype I built was in 1994, in my studio, my red barn. I had a standing table, but no seat that allowed me to stay standing up longer. So I developed one myself," he told Business Insider.

Keen believes this almost-standing position helped him think better.

"This position in which I worked made me a much more creative designer, get more of that 'flow' state out of the day. And that allowed me to be creative enough to come up with this idea for Keen," he said. "The seat I was working in allowed me to become creative enough to become a very successful footwear designer and conceive my own brand."

Busting out of stuffy corporate culture

Keen sold his stake in the Keen shoe company six years ago. When he looked around for a new thing to do, he decided to rethink office furniture, in the same way he redesigned the sandal. So he launched his current company Focal Upright.

Martin KeenBack when he designed his first chair-on-a-stick, it was an oddball idea. Standing desks were not even a thing back then. He created one for himself out of an old drafter desk 

He had just left his corporate shoe designing job and the standing desk felt like throwing off the yolks of bureaucracy.

"As humans, we tend to accept the tools given to us. 'Here's your assigned cubicle. Here's your chair.' You don't think about these things," he said. "I realized I now wasn't beholden to corporate culture."

Still, he soon ran into problem that most standing desk users face: "Standing is tiring after awhile."

Most standing desk owners simply give up.

"After 8-10 weeks, the novelty of standing wears off and we are back in a chair," he said.

While research shows that sitting all day with no movement is horrible for your health, there's also no conclusive evidence that simply standing all day, which can be hard on the feet, is a real solution.

But a balance between the two is an intriguing option.

Sit, stand, fidget, balance

The chair is increasingly creating a buzz, too. It was quite the hit at last month's SxSW conference in Austin, Texas.

Martin Keen Focal Upright chair"For those who have embraced the standing desk, the stand-up chair is the office chair of the future — and super comfy," Chris Brooks, an account executive for Media and Entertainment at Phunware who saw the chair at SxSW, told us.

I've been trying Focal Upright's $100 Mogo chair for the past few weeks and I've got mixed opinions on it.

My workspace had to be fine-tuned for it.

At first I found that my arms, neck and lower back got quickly tired when using it. The desk has to be adjusted so that leaning on the chair doesn't force you to look too far up at your computer screen, or put your arms at an awkward angle to type.

Yet, it also feels good to stand while working for a few hours at a time, without my feet hurting. 

With a little practice and some adjusting, the chair does seem to offer a nice balance between sitting and standing. And more balance at work is always a good thing.

SEE ALSO: The alarming inside story of a failed Google acquisition, and an employee who was hospitalized

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Harvard doctors say this overlooked move is the quickest way to get strong abs

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abs situps workout fitness exercise woman gym sit ups

If you think sit-ups are the quickest ticket to 6-pack abs, the physicians at Harvard Medical School have news for you: That classic exercise isn't as efficient as it seems.

Instead of crunches, they suggest doing planks, the exercise that involves holding yourself on your hands and toes in a pre-push-up position. The findings are detailed in a Harvard Medical School health report called "Core Exercises."

As opposed to sit-ups, which target only your abdominal muscles, planks recruit several groups of muscles along your sides, front, and back. If you want a strong core — especially the kind that would give you 6-pack-like definition across your abs — you need to challenge all of these muscles.

"Sit-ups or crunches strengthen just a few muscle groups," write the authors of the Harvard Healthbeat newsletter, which summarizes the report's key takeaways. "Through dynamic patterns of movement, a good core workout helps strengthen the entire set of core muscles you use every day."

plank woman fitness gym exercise workoutConventional crunches may also be hard on different parts of your body, including your back, which gets pushed against the floor. Additionally, when you pull your body up into a sit-up position, you're working a group of muscles called the hip flexors which run from your thighs to the lumbar vertebrae in your lower back. When these muscles get too tight or become overly-strengthened, they can yank on your lower spine. This can cause pain or discomfort in your lower back.

And unlike ab-crunch machines, planks don't require a single piece of equipment, so you can do them anywhere.

Ready to give them a try?

The folks at Health.com recommend starting out by lying face-down with your legs extended and your elbows bent, directly under your shoulders, with your hands clasped. Your feet should be hip-width apart; your elbows should be shoulder-width apart. Next, tighten your abs and tuck your toes to elevate your body, keeping your forearms on the ground. Your body should be in a straight line from your head to your heels. To start, hold it for one minute.

As you get stronger, you can gradually build up to maintain the position for longer periods of time, and extend your arms to hold yourself up on your palms.

SEE ALSO: 11 fitness 'truths' that are doing more harm than good

DON'T MISS: We talked to an exercise scientist about whether diet or exercise is more important for weight loss, and his answer surprised us

Join the conversation about this story »

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9 real people share the best relationship advice they've ever heard

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just married couple

Relationships are hard, and a sentence worth of wisdom won't change that. But it can help.

Over on Reddit, thousands of people have answered the question, "What's the best relationship advice you have ever heard?" with insights that relate to everything from conflict to commitment.

Below, we've rounded up some of the best advice on that thread, so you can navigate your next first date or the next decade of your marriage with confidence.

SEE ALSO: 7 things people think are terrible for their relationship that actually aren't

Don't let other people make or break your self-image

Writes cameronbates1: "Confidence isn't 'I know she likes me', confidence is 'I'll be okay whether she likes me or not.'

That wisdom is just as important once you're in a relationship. PM_ME_YOUR_PARTYPICS writes: "Don't go into a relationship expecting to be made happy. You have to be able to be happy on your own first."



Love isn't enough for a solid relationship

"Just because you love each other does not mean that you're good together long-term," writes abqkat. "I love pizza, I loved my high school sweetheart - both make my stomach feel bad and I should have no part in either."

Meanwhile, ItAllBeganWithaBurst shares wisdom from their mom:

"The problem is that love isn't enough. You both have to be committed. There may be times you don't feel like you love each other, like you're so hurt or angry that you can't stand the sight of the other.

"But if you're both committed to the relationship, to the promises you made, then you'll work through it and you'll become stronger. Love without commitment just isn't enough."



Focus on your own relationship — not your friend's

"Practically everyone has a relationship that looks perfect from the outside looking in," writes BrawndoTTM. "Unless you are EXTREMELY intimate with your friends, you will never have any idea what that couple's actual problems are until they break up and spill the beans."

Indeed, research suggests that people are notoriously poor judges of what others are thinking and feeling. That finding may extend to relationships — if you assume your friend and her husband are completely happy in their marriage, you're probably wrong.



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17 habits science shows will help you fall asleep faster and sleep better

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sleep insomnia

Sleep is hard, especially in a world where people spend their time busy and stressed.

But not sleeping, in addition to making you less efficient and more stressed, is terrible for your health.

Americans currently average 6.8 hours of sleep per night, down an hour from 1942. Four in 10 Americans don't even get the minimum of seven hours of sleep doctors recommend. That's a public health emergency. Fatigue leads to short and long term problems with mental and physical health.

Here's what the best research out there has to say about what you can do to help yourself fall asleep.

SEE ALSO: 12 foods you can eat as much as you want of and not gain weight

SEE ALSO: FOLLOW INSIDER on Facebook

1. Dim the lights in your room

This might seem obvious, but it bears repeating: One of the worst things you can do for yourself at night is keep the lights on. Bright light — especially blue-ish light — tells your brain that it's still daytime and prevents the release of chemicals critical for sleep, like melatonin. Harvard Medical School recommends using dim red lights in the evenings and, conversely, exposing yourself to bright lights during the day to help regulate your sleep schedule.

Sources: The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Harvard Medical School



2. Put your phone away you monster

We're getting to the surprises, we promise. But if we don't get through these none of the other tips will work. Study after study has shown that watching a screen before bedtime is terrible for your sleep — whether it's a TV screen, tablet, or phone. So if you want to fall asleep, step away from the pixels.

Sources: Pediatrics, Chronobiology International, Scientific American Mind, Sleep and Biological Rhythms



3. Kick your coffee habit

Coffee may help you deal with the symptoms of your sleep problems, but it also plays a role in causing them. Caffeine alters the melatonin levels in your brain, makes it take longer to fall asleep, and makes you sleep less — even if you aren't drinking right before bed time.

Sources: Sleep Medicine, Brain Research



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How the CEO of Bulletproof Coffee turned buttered coffee into a multimillion-dollar empire

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bulletproof coffee dave asprey

While on a remote mountainside in Tibet, Dave Asprey started to feel "really, really crappy."

In the mid-2000s, the cloud computing executive-turned-biohacking guru trekked to Mount Kailash, considered one of the most sacred places on Earth, because he wanted to learn to meditate from the Buddhist pilgrims who take ritual walks around the base. Temperatures dipped 10 degrees below, freezing his CamelBak. The altitude left him in a brain fog.

Later Asprey stumbled into a one-bedroom mud hut, where a Tibetan woman gave him a cup of tea blended with yak butter. After five minutes, a warmth spread over his body. "I felt a mental clarity come on," Asprey says. "Everything just felt easier."

More than 10 years later, that magical cup of tea is part of the lore that surrounds Asprey. He's built a multimillion-dollar empire around his DIY approach to biology, complete with two bestselling books, conferences, and an executive retreat center where entrepreneurs pay $15,000 for access to technologies that Asprey says will give them a shortcut to success.

Still, coffee is his biggest claim to fame. In 2010, Asprey posted a recipe online for the original Bulletproof Coffee — a version of the Tibetan woman's tea that blends grass-fed butter, a proprietary "Brain Octane" oil, and specialty coffee. He claims its revolutionary combination gives drinkers a "mental edge," satiates hunger for hours, and promotes weight loss.

Last year, Bulletproof sold 48 million cups of coffee, according to Asprey. However, the science behind the brew remains spotty, and it hasdrawn public skepticism from doctors.

bulletproof coffee dave asprey

When he was first starting out with Bulletproof, Asprey mixed and matched butters with hundreds of varieties of tea and coffee. "I'd drink it and think, 'Did it wake me up? Did it smack me upside the head?'" Asprey says. For seven years, he experimented.

He landed on three core ingredients that made him feel good again.

Organic, grass-fed butter is rich in omega-3 fatty acids. These healthy fats can turn the body into a fat-burning machine under the right conditions. A limited body of research suggests that a low-carb, high-fat diet may also dull hunger, promote weight loss, and stave off diseases associated with aging. However, there's no scientific evidence that a dab of butter in your morning coffee achieves the same affect as a diet made up of 80% saturated fats.

bulletproof coffee butter ghee dave asprey

Bulletproof Coffee uses single-origin coffee beans from farms in Guatemala and Colombia. They're processed using a proprietary method that minimizes mold, though as Gizmodo's Brent Rose points out in a debunking of Bulletproof's claims, there's no evidence that Asprey's homebrew has fewer toxins or provides better performance than traditional coffee.

The last ingredient in Asprey's golden recipe is the creatively titled Brain Octaine oil, which is derived from coconut oil and converted in the body into fuel for the brain.

Bulletproof doesn't sell a bottled coffee — though Asprey tells Business Insider it's in the pipeline — and for now offers each of the three ingredients online and in Whole Foods, CrossFit locations, and supplement retailers. Purchased together, the ingredients cost $65. (A bigger, 32-ounce bottle of Brain Octane is almost double the cost of a similar oil on Amazon.)

bulletproof coffee

Asprey can't remember when, between the time he posted the Bulletproof Coffee recipe on his blog in 2010 and later when actress Shailene Woodley and Jimmy Fallon gushed about the brew on "The Tonight Show," his at-home experiment turned full-blown cultural phenomenon. It gathered a cult following slowly, as the recipe spread from one biohacker to another in online forums, while Asprey traveled the world sharing the Bulletproof gospel.

These days, Asprey, who's currently promoting his book, "Head Strong," still drinks Bulletproof Coffee everyday. He says drinking it for breakfast outweighs poor decisions he makes later.

"Even if you're going to have Taco Bell for lunch, [by drinking Bulletproof] you seriously improve the quality of your life all morning long," Asprey says.

SEE ALSO: Silicon Valley's favorite diet has techies eating lots of fat

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Execs have a new attitude about networking — and it's killing famous power-lunching spots and golf courses

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le cirque 2300

America's business leaders are rethinking how they network.

Gone are the days when execs both young and more veteran had the time to spend hours at a boozy lunch or on the golf course. Taking its place are a whole new set of networking activities — think "sweatworking" on a run or at a SoulCycle class, or going on a cultural retreat with business associates. 

Leading the charge is a new generation of business leaders who value efficiency and multi-tasking more than ever before. Rather than devote a large chunk of time to a formal activity they wouldn't necessarily enjoy otherwise, many execs are seeing the value in combining their hobbies with their business. 

"I have found one of the most interesting ones has been music festivals. Several very compelling things have come out of Bonnaroo, Outside Lands, and Trans-Pecos for us over the past few years," Amar Lalvani, CEO of hotel group Standard International, told Business Insider. "It's a real opportunity where executives are way out of their element, let their hair down, and have the time and space to have unexpected conversations about shared interests that lead to ideas and initiatives."

"[It's] consistent with the almost total blending of work and play for most executives these days."

For many of those execs, that means getting a workout in while they catch up with contacts. The trend of taking clients to SoulCycle has been well-documented, but execs at the fitness studio say they see "sweatworking" becoming even more popular.  

"At first it was mostly people in media and finance, but now it's lots of industries," Gabby Cohen, SoulCycle's VP of brand strategy, told Business Insider. "We're all time-trapped, but it's important to stay connected to other people. Having the chance to connect with people in a positive, healthy way for a short period of time makes SoulCycle an appealing option for this."

During SXSW, Foursquare partnered with Cyc Fitness to host a spinning-while-networking event at different sites around Austin.

"Our attendance was really high," Justin Breton, Foursquare's head of marketing partnerships, said. "People felt that they did something different from the usual drinking and eating events at SXSW."

foursquare cyc event

The power lunch is dead

In general, the idea of interrupting a day's work flow to entertain a client over lunch is becoming less popular.

"Running a startup, I rarely have time for a full sit-down lunch meeting in order to network and continue building our business," Adrian Aoun, CEO and founder of the AI-focused healthcare startup Forward, told Business Insider. "Many times I resort to eating a quick lunch at my desk, but as the founder of a startup that's health-focused, I know all too well how detrimental being sedentary all day can be. For this reason, I make almost all my meetings walking meetings.

"I even ask my office manager not to schedule a conference room so it forces good behavior. I find walking meetings to be much more productive because you have to focus and can't be distracted by your phone or laptop."

The trend of "sweatworking" is certainly more common among tech or media companies, where employees tend to be more willing to stray from tradition. But even on Wall Street, today's business lunches pale in extravagance compared to the meetings bankers held prior to the recession. Many businesses are becoming more image-conscious and, along with that, more cautious about appearing wasteful. 

Meanwhile, several of the restaurants that have famously been havens for extravagant lunches have struggled in recent years. Last July, New York's iconic Four Seasons restaurant closed following rent hikes and conflicts with Aby Rosen, the restaurant's landlord at the Seagram Building. 

Le Cirque, another storied Manhattan power-lunching spot, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with its sister restaurant Circo in March. "We had a short-term cash-flow issue so we filed for Chapter 11 to ensure we would not lose the leases on the two restaurants," Mauro Maccioni, son of founder Sirio, told Page Six in the wake of the filing. "Both restaurants continue to operate as usual and fully staffed. We are in the process of restructuring ourselves and securing some additional outside funding."

Still, some say that for a certain set of veteran decision-makers, the draw of a power lunch is still very strong. And while attitudes around the tradition have shifted, high rents and other shifts in the New York real estate market are also big factors in a restaurant's success. 

"There's still something appealing about the energy and seeing all of those people. Face-to-face time spent with a client is really a good thing to do. It's a well-worn tradition," PR pro Leslie Stevens said to Business Insider. "But the two-hour thing — forget it. It's an hour. We're definitely into speed lunch now." 

While the team behind the Four Seasons is working on opening at a new location in Manhattan, Major Food Group — of Carbone, Parm, Santina, and Sadelle's, among others — plan on opening a new complex of restaurants in the Four Seasons' former home. The Grill, the first of three restaurants that are slotted for the space, will be opening soon.

"I think historically, as in places like the Four Seasons, 'power' was heavily defined by being seen and who you were seen with," Christene Barberich, cofounder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29, said. "Today power comes, more likely, from flexibility, freedom, and efficiency ... I don't know many people who have the luxury to travel 45 minutes to sit and 'lunch' for 2 hours, and then spend $300 on top of that."

Golf also isn't what it used to be

Meanwhile, golf, the longtime sport of business executives across America, is losing steam with the average consumer. According to data from the National Golf Foundation, golf participation has fallen nationally by 20% since 2003. The data suggests that while the core group of golfers continues to enjoy the sport, casual participation has fallen in recent years. 

Data from the Sports & Fitness Industry Association has shown that millennials between the ages of 18 to 30 have a lack of interest in playing the game, and more than 800 golf courses have shuttered across the US in the past decade. From Las Vegas to New Jersey, many courses are being replaced with housing developments.

Apple Ridge Country Club 7393

As NPD Group analyst Matt Powell observed in a Forbes blog post in 2014, the golf industry has had a hard time appealing to a younger generation of millennials who have a completely different set of values. Golf is expensive, time-consuming, and exclusive, which doesn't exactly jive with a generation who takes pride in "the hustle" and values experiences over luxury goods. 

"Millennials were hit hard by the recession. This caused them to seek value in every purchase," Powell wrote. "Millennials are willing to spend on things they think are important but always look at purchases with a value lens. Spending big money on rounds and equipment apparently does not connote value to millennials."

But getting some exercise, even if it's just for a walk, does. 

SEE ALSO: It's especially hard to find a home to buy right now — and it could get worse for millennials

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NOW WATCH: These haunting photos reveal what happens when a golf course becomes abandoned

Why there is French on a British passport

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On the front of the British passport,on the Royal Coat of Arms, there are French words such as "Dieu et mon droit" and "Honi soit qui mal y pense."

The origin of some of these words dates back to the 12th Century.

It's believed 
King Richard I used "Dieu et mon droit" as his battle cry in 1198 when defeating Philip II of France at the Battle of Gisors.

Produced by Claudia Romeo

 

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