Hello and welcome to the Nutrition Diva podcast. I'm your host Monica Reinegel, and I'm so

glad you're here because we have another great episode of listener questions. You all

send me such interesting questions, and it's fun to put together these sort of pulpere episodes

that hopefully include a little something for everyone. And today I'm going to be answering

your questions about collagen, evening primrose oil, intermittent fasting, olive oil, herbal

medicines, and much more. So let's get started. Long-time listener Rohini writes,

I've been trying to do intermittent fasting for the past few months, and I can manage a 14-hour

fast quite comfortably from 8pm till 10am. I almost always exercise earlier in the morning,

but I start to feel tired fast if I haven't eaten anything. Intermittent fasting experts often

tout the benefits of exercising in a fasted state. But other credible sources insist on eating

first before exercising. What do we morning exercises do? While Rohini even after an overnight

fast, even after a 14-hour fast, you should have more than enough fuel on board in your muscles

for a moderate intensity workout. That said, the benefits of fasted exercise are often exaggerated.

The real key here is what makes you the most comfortable, because that will support more

consistent exercise. And it sounds like you'd be more comfortable with a little breakfast before

you work out. In the long run, that's going to be far more beneficial than the incremental gains

that you might get from following somebody else's arbitrary rules about pre-workout fasting or

fueling. Val writes, recently, my doctor suggested that I start taking evening primrose oil

for fibrosistic breast disease. However, I can't seem to find studies that support using

EPO for either breast pain or decreasing the nodule size. In fact, the National Institutes of Health

say, studies of evening primrose oil for breast pain have not found it to be more effective than

a placebo, so what's your take? Val, there have only been a limited number of studies on EPO

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