NatNews

Whether an individual is an avid fitness enthusiast or more of a couch fan, it is important for each person to fuel his or her body with proper nutrients, as doing so is vital to one’s health, regardless of age.

Dallas-area resident Lyndsey Kohn, RD, LD, said the most effective option for a person to ensure better overall mental and physical health is having a diverse diet of various food groups that includes fruits, vegetables, healthy fats, whole grains, and protein.

“These will give you the energy and essential nutrients you need to maintain overall health,” she said. “Focusing on whole and unprocessed foods, limiting added sugars and refined carbohydrates, and incorporating a more plant-based diet will help you maintain optimal health.”

Dallas-area resident and runner Steve Bergsman said when he thinks of fueling his body, he does so in terms of his physical and athletic goals as well as what he needs to stay sharp mentally.

“Over the years, I’ve discovered that my body performs and recovers best with a whole-food diet,” he said. “This might be why I’ve turned into a bit of a grocery store snob, too. Omega 3s are a huge part of what keeps me going. Outside of that, I strive to hit a protein goal that is aligned to my weight, 50–80 grams of dietary fat, and carbs to make up the rest of my calories. I’ve found the best foods for me to be salmon/seafood, chicken, lean cuts of beef, liver, apples, bananas, sweet potatoes, avocados, greens, oranges, lemons, limes, oats, and teff.”

For Dallas resident and Pilates instructor Laura Hays, it is essential to keep a consistently healthy diet so that she is able to continue to lead the lifestyle she desires.

“The way I take care of my body now not only impacts how I look and feel today but also how I age and my future health,” she said.

But just because one consumes healthy foods doesn’t mean that he or she doesn’t enjoy having treats at times, as well. Bergsman said having healthy-eating “breaks” serves a purpose of providing him mental relaxation and allows him to take part in social situations such as eating cake at his niece’s birthday party or a butter-and-Flamin’-Hot-Cheetos-covered soft pretzel at a baseball game.

“I do like to splurge on sweets and dark chocolate on occasion,” he said. “The temptation is a struggle whenever I am out and about at a restaurant or grocery store, and sometimes I do come up short on self-control. I also try to avoid corn and milk, as well, but that’s only because my body feels better when I do.”

Kohn said that because each individual has his or her own unique specific needs and fitness goals, she recommends consulting a registered dietician, rather than relying on Google or ChatGPT, for someone seeking more specific guidance.

“Now, the actual individual breakdown and composition of a healthy diet can vary depending on the person—age, sex, activity level, food access, allergies, dietary preferences, etc. all impact your energy needs,” she said. “For example, suppose you are a runner training for a marathon. In that case, you’ll want to make sure you are prioritizing your carbohydrate intake, especially after long runs, to replenish your glycogen (energy storage) and maintain your physical fitness.”

More phone calls are made on Mother’s Day than any other day of the year.

In recent years, we’ve seen rather significant technological advancements occur, often causing individuals to forget how simple times were before they had the answers to all of their questions literally in their hands at almost all times.

Included in this evolution is artificial intelligence, which allows machines (particularly computer systems) to process information and perform tasks that previously were only completed by humans. A.I. creates mixed feelings in many individuals because of the range of capabilities it has. Dallas resident Drew Mbiam, a senior local IT and cloud-computing specialist, said he trusts A.I. and its beneficial components but doesn’t trust the marketing behind it.

“Artificial intelligence has been around for a while now and is used in things that people interact with every day—Google searches (and other search engines, too), social media algorithms (planting stuff in users' feeds that keep them online longer), and maps,” he said. “I trust A.I. to do what the engineers program it to do. It’s the people behind the A.I. I don’t trust.”

One of those individuals is Elon Musk, whom Mbiam sees as someone with more marketing knowledge than actual intellect in technology and the use of artificial intelligence.

“I wouldn’t take advice from [him] about this,” he said. “His driverless Tesla’s keep having accidents because he doesn’t understand you can’t make engineering choices because of marketing decisions.”

Dallas-area resident Josh Odegard, president and CEO of a new technology company, said A.I. has proven to be useful for individuals in a variety of ways and doesn’t necessarily have to be feared as something that will serve as a replacement for humans.

“Thanks to large language models being open to the public beginning late last year and Version 4 of ChatGPT being recently released with much more powerful capabilities than Version 3, the advancement in A.I. has started speeding up exponentially,” he said. “I do believe that A.I. will start replacing some professions, because so much can be automated now, but it will also create a lot of new professions. People said that the invention of the camera would be the death of painters and also that it isn’t art, but there are still many painters today, and the photography profession was created from it.”

Dallas-area resident Ryan Miller, a future-ready designer and instructional technology coach for a local school district, said she believes that A.I. has already begun to take over in many areas of our lives—which she doesn’t think is necessarily a good thing.

“If the movie War Games taught us anything, just because a computer can run things doesn’t mean it should,” she said. “I heard that A.I. could start making a big presence in ER rooms for triage. Can that be helpful? Absolutely. Should it replace a human? No. There is an element of empathy and human touch that A.I. cannot replicate (yet—yikes!), so I think we are still a ways out from a full shift. However, I think there are areas like data entry and warehouse operations where that shift is only a few months to years away.”

Though he sees positives in some of its uses, Odegard also said that there are certainly negative aspects of the growth of A.I.

“We don’t know how powerful A.I. can potentially get,” he said. “Large language model chatbots with no guardrails, such as ChaosGPT, show us that A.I. can be dangerous, too. Last month, some idiot gave ChaosGPT a command to do anything it could to destroy humanity—and it actually tried.”

And Odegard said he thinks that the situation can potentially worsen over time and as technology continues to advance.

“I do believe that, at some point, some kind of A.I. will be created or evolve and will determine that humans are a plague to the Earth and then decide that the planet would be better off without us,” he said. “I just hope I’m not around when that happens.”

Not everyone foresees such a drastic future, though. Miller said she is an “eternal cynic” regarding A.I., and even though she thinks it will be responsible for significant changes, she doesn’t believe it will wipe out the human race and take over everything.

“I do think, like with all technology, that caution and oversight should be used,” she said. “Who knows? Maybe I used ChatGPT to write my answers.”

WEEKLY PHOTO OP

Bailey Kinder asked NatNews to tell our dear readers that she hopes you have a really great week

Wednesday, May 10: Dallasites101 Disco May Ladies Night at Casablanca
Thursday, May 11: National Foam Rolling Day
Friday, May 12: Summer Crawfish Boil Block Party at Dallas Farmers Market
Saturday, May 13: WRRC Saturday run at Taco Joint; The Cure at Dos Equis Pavilion
Sunday, May 14: Mother's Day