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Peak Human - Unbiased Nutrition Info for Optimum Health, Fitness & Living

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May 10, 2019 • 2h 8min

Part 40 - Paul Saladino, MD: Animal Food vs. Plant Food, The Conclusion

We’re back for the conclusion of this mighty animal vs. plant food discussion. Paul is a beast on this science and I think it’s really interesting to think about this in a whole new way than most of the mainstream nutrition world has for the past 60 years. We’re a day late because I’ve been desperately trying to launch my Grass Fed meat company Nose to Tail which you can find at NosetoTail.org which we mention in this episode. I couldn't release this episode until the website was live. So guess what? We’re now selling grass finished American-grown beef raised in the heart of America in Northeast Texas as of right now. I’ve spent over a year figuring this out and searching for the right ranch to partner with. My guy is the real deal. We have grass fed, grass finished beef, buffalo and lamb, pasture raised Omega-3 pork, and omega-3 chicken. We specially formulate the diet of the pigs and chicken for an incredible Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio is 1.5:1 to 1.7:1. This is huge. If you’ve been listening to the experts I’ve been interviewing we want our ratio right around this range. We sent the pork and chicken to a lab for analysis and you can see the full fatty acid profile results on my site Nose To Tail.org. To give some context this blows away even pastured poultry at an 8:1 ratio and free range poultry at an 18:1 ratio. Our pork tested at 1.5:1 and conventional pork is 20:1. I’m most excited about the primal mixes. We have beef, buffalo, and pork primal mixes with either 30% organ meat mixed in or 5%. We’re talking liver, heart, kidney, and spleen. You can get all the extra nutrients without dealing with the taste that is harsh for some. At the risk of going on too long, we also are offering tins of cod liver in their own oil, wild caught sardines, and bone meal. These things round out the ultimate nose to tail diet and are what I’ve been eating regularly in my diet. So many great things with these including huge amounts of omega-3s, huge amounts of vitamin A, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous, the list goes on. Just check out NosetoTail.org and check out all the boxes and products. I’m so excited about this I can’t believe it’s finally here. This is such a win-win-win-win-win. It’s good for your health, it’s supporting an amazing ranch, it’s helping regenerate the soil and the environment, the animals are raised well and are happy, and it even supports me so I can keep putting out this content and finish the Food Lies film, etc. Thanks so much and I know you’re going to enjoy it. Now onto the rest of the discussion with Paul. We cover everything else you can imagine from coffee, more plant toxins, longevity and anti-aging research, the Blue Zones myth, advanced glycation end products and heterocyclic amines in cooked meat, mTor, the balance of Methionine to Glycine (which is another reason to eat Nose to Tail and why not buy it from NosetoTail.org and get the best stuff around), Paul’s workouts, inflammation, APOe4, safest plant foods, and more. This is an episode where you really need the extended show notes Kristi has been doing that are available to Patreon supporters. You can go to http://Patreon.com/peakhuman and support the show there and get access to the very comprehensive show notes she put tons of time into from this week and last, plus from Dr. Thomas Seyfried and Dave Feldman. So now you have a whole bunch of ways to support the show and the film from $2 on Patreon, to preordering the film and getting your name in the credits on Indiegogo, all the way up to a giant $200 box of grass fed meat delivered to your door. I really appreciate your support and let’s jump in with Paul and hear why eating nose to tail is so great. BUY THE MEAT NosetoTail.org   Show Notes Recap on last episode - fiber, polyphenols, plant toxins, no need for hormetic stressors when we can mimic them with lifestyle stressors such as exercise, cold stress, heat stress, etc. Risk of thyroid impairments from sulforaphane Bruce Ames paper: Dietary pesticides 99.99% all natural Carcinogens in coffee Dangers of oxalates Tea, coffee, and oxalates What are lectins and how do they disrupt the gut Phytic acid as a plant anti-nutrient Minerals in plants are bound to phytic acid and render them non-bioavailable Paul’s own personal cutting out grains and having major benefits on his stress fractures from ultramarathon running Resveratrol and its benefits but also its autoimmune potential Anti-aging research is becoming a stream of biohacking and using molecules instead of diet and lifestyle All the benefits from these anti-aging molecules can be achieved through living a “radical” life We have enough stressors in our modern environment, we don’t need more from plants Carcinogens and cooked meat Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and Heterocyclic Amines (HCAs) in cooked meat and how to cook your meat to limit them Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) are in cooked plants and meat Acrylamide in coffee The dangers of a carnivorous lifestyle Environmental toxins in animal fat are no different than toxins in plants mTOR and why we shouldn’t be afraid of protein Insulin vs leucine effect on mTOR Building muscle on a carnivore diet Paleo anthropology perspective of a carnivore diet Problems with Blue Zones Genetics vs diet in Blue Zones Methionine-Glycine balance and why this is important Importance of calcium on a carnivore diet BUY THE MEAT http://NoseToTail.org Why you should consider adding bicarbonate to your water Flaws in the ethical argument for veganism Paul’s workouts What Paul’s currently questioning - APOE4 and saturated fat, endotoxins, electrolytes Meat and inflammation Would Paul feed his kids a carnivore diet? Safest plant foods Fermented foods Where to find Dr. Paul Saladino   Email: paulsalidinomd@gmail.com Instagram: @paulsaladinomd Website: www.paulsaladinomd.com Twitter: @mdsaladino Facebook: Paul Saladino MD   BUY THE MEAT http://NoseToTail.org Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/
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May 2, 2019 • 1h 54min

Part 39 - Paul Saladino, MD on Everything You Thought You Knew About Food Might Be Wrong

Dr. Paul Saladino, MD, expert in health and nutrition, joins the host for a 4-hour series on plant and animal foods. They discuss the impact of food on health, the evolution of Homo sapiens and their diet, the importance of hunting large animals, the misconception of fiber's importance, debunking the link between meat and cancer, reevaluating the health benefits of fruits and vegetables, and the shortcomings of plant foods. They argue that a well-constructed, whole foods, animal-based diet is optimal for humans.
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Apr 25, 2019 • 1h 32min

Part 38 - Chris Bell on Family, Addiction, Carnivore, Life, & Documentaries

Welcome back everyone, I’m Brian Sanders and I’m the founder of Sapien.org and the filmmaker behind the feature-length documentary Food Lies. Today we have fellow filmmaker and neighbor of mine, Chris Bell. We’re making similar films and have a lot of similar ideas on nutrition. We’re both coming at it from different angles and I think they’re going to really push the movement forward in unique ways. He has some solid advice on filmmaking as well as life. All the films he has made are awesome and he’s a really interesting and genuine guy. I definitely enjoyed spending time with him talking about all my favorite topics. You can get the Real Foods coin I gave him in the middle of the episode on our Indiegogo page while getting a copy of the Food Lies film. They’re these nice, large metal challenge coins I designed and are actually really cool. We might only have 10 left so get them while you can. If you’ve already preordered the film or don’t have the cash lying around to do so, and you're getting some value from this podcast, I’ve also made a Patreon to help support this show and keep it ad-free. People have been reaching out to sponsor it but I’ve been turning them down. I’d rather give this brief message here in the beginning allowing the community support it instead of having to break for annoying ads, even if the products are something I believe in. Thanks for making this possible - just go to Patreon.com/peakhuman or click through the link in the show notes and you can throw as little as $2 per month at this endeavor and keep it afloat. I sincerely appreciate it and really love our tribe we are forming. I’ll be at Paleo f(x) this weekend so give me a shout if you’re there. Now here’s Chris Bell. Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman   SHOW NOTES We’ve met up a lot lately and realized we definitely not making the same film Vinnie Tortorich is also making a great film to complete the trifecta called Fat Filmmaking is a long, slow process The film changed once he got his parents involved He some health problems and an epiphany They started out wanting to call it War On Carbs Struggle with addiction is real He made the film Bigger, Faster, Stronger which is awesome. He looks a lot better than he did 10 years ago when he filmed it Going back to the beginning with powerlifting and his brother Mark Bell He doesn’t believe there’s any evidence for needing carbs to build muscle You can see his photos on a keto diet and carnivore diet http://instagram.com/bigstrongfast Steroid use The war against carbs is his personal journey Eating well is “sobriety from bad foods” Spread messages through love instead of hate Vegan bodybuilders Being fit is synonymous with being healthy for the most part and also very important as you age He made the movie A Leaf of Faith about kratom Feedlot beef vs. grass finished, omega 3 to omega 6 ratio, and all the intricacies Who do you believe in all this conflicting information? Colesterol, LDL, statins, and metformin He also made the movie Prescription Thugs How do you know when the documentary is finished and you found the story? We watch vegan content to make sure we’re on track and not ruining the world Carnivore adjacent The SAPIEN diet is just eating for nutrient density, focusing on protein, embracing fat, and minimizing carbs http://sapien.org/diet His movie is turning more into a family story Chris Bell on Instagram http://instagram.com/bigstrongfast   Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman   Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/
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Apr 18, 2019 • 1h 40min

Part 37 - Sally Norton, MPH on Oxalates, Plants Hurting Your Health, and Never Eating Spinach Again

Sally Norton has a degree in nutrition from Cornell University and a Masters of Public Health from the UNiversity of North Carolina. She managed a five-year, National Institute of Health-funded program at the UNC Medical School. She’s a nutrition consultant, speaker, and an all around oxalate expert. This is a sad story with a happy ending. Sally’s life goal from age 5 was to study nutrition and help people be healthy. She followed all the traditional advice and ate a very plant-heavy vegetarian and even vegan diet only to have 30 years of health problems because of that diet. At first all this oxalate stuff is hard to believe. It’s talked about so little and there’s not a lot of mainstream knowledge on it in the medical community. We talk some real science a little ways into the episode, so know it’s coming. Also for people who may be skeptical of how bad oxalates are you can go to the vegan site veganhealth.org/oxalate and see the comprehensive mile-long list of problems and warnings about oxalates. Yes, a vegan site warning about plant food dangers. This is not some wacky carnivore idea people. I just started a Patreon for this podcast. I really want to keep this ad-free and I’m getting multiple offers for sponsorships. This is a huge amount of work I do completely on my own and I don’t think I have the bandwidth to keep it up much longer. I’ll spare you the details of how many hours it takes me weekly to put it out, but just know it’s way more than you think. I’ll continue keeping this a high quality and from what I’ve heard valuable resource for people if I can get the support of the community. We are a tribe and everyone does their part to keep things moving. I appreciate all the messages I get that help keep me motivated when the hours get long. Even people’s suggestions on guests really help. This episode was possible from 1 or 2 listeners who kept mentioning Sally and her work. Thanks so much for supporting me in all my efforts. This will allow me to keep putting out content on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube as well. Please go to Patreon.com/peakhuman and become a member of the tribe there. Just a couple dollars a month really helps. You can also get more perks like extended show notes and bonus content we’re just beginning to put out or an invite to the private Slack group. That’s http://Patreon.com/peakhuman Thanks in advance, and here’s Sally Norton. Preorder the film: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   SHOW NOTES Sally had a lifelong quest to be in the nutrition and wellness space Despite eating plant-based diets all her life and focusing on what she thought was good nutrition, she had major health problems Some books convinced her to vegan and soon she could barely walk up and down stairs and got pneumonia multiple times per year She finally figured out it was the build up of oxalated from all the plants foods she was eating She published a great paper “Lost Seasonality and Overconsumption of Plants: Risking Oxalate Toxicity” https://jevohealth.com/journal/vol2/iss3/4/ How come she has all this training and she didn't know a thing about oxalates? We actually knew about oxalates in the 1700s and 1800s Populations like the Irish drank a lot of tea, ate a lot of potatoes, had greens in season, and rhubarb in the spring - all of these have high oxalate Spinach and whole grains have a lot of oxalate They did tests on rats to see calcium absorption of and we saw that spinach wasn't delivering calcium - same for iron and folate The nutrients also degrade quickly unless the spinach is kept very cold the entire time after harvest (which is basically impossible) All USDA data on nutrition in plant foods are wrong and don’t account for bioavailability Nutrients drop significantly in spinach after harvest, especially when not refrigerated to a very cold 4 degrees celsius More and more people are heading towards mostly animal foods as they learn about bioavailability and antinutrients and listen to their body The carnivore movement has been great to just let people know it’s ok to eat only animal foods World War 1 is when we started relying on fallback plant foods she thinks. We invented the idea of the victory garden I was out with a girl from Peru who was laughing at Americans for eating green vegetables - the mainly eat meat, fish, and starches. She talks about why we even think vegetables are so great in the first place Our natural state is now a diseased state Biggest current problems are toxicity and deficiency High oxalate foods: nuts, seeds, brassica veg, potatoes, some berries If doctors don’t have a remedy for it, you don’t have a disease Calcium is being blamed for what oxalates are doing Science behind oxalates Range of oxalate poisoning that could kill you is 3.5 grams - 30 grams A guy died of oxalate poisoning from sorrel soup Cases of people with permanent kidney damage from juice/smoothie cleanses Kidney disease is on the rise faster than anything in the last few decades There’s so many other toxins your kidney needs to deal with these days besides the oxalate She’s read about 3,000 studies and articles on oxalate over the last 4.5 years of research Oxalates travel all over the body before going through your kidney to be detoxified Even vegan sites warn about the enormous problem of oxalates https://veganhealth.org/oxalate/ Whole system is skewed supporting plants foods Researchers aren't doctors don’t have time or aren't curious enough or can't get funding to do all this research She’s had major foot problems most of her life due to oxalates and it kind of ruined her career Susan Owens has great data on oxalate accumulation http://lowoxalate.info Clive Solomons and the Pain Project http://www.thevpfoundation.org/effective_treatment.htm Comprehensive oxalate charts http://lowoxalate.info/recipes.html USDA food charts don’t account for bioavailability and 10-15% of the data is just wrong A lot of oxalate problems are determined by how much is getting through the intestinal tract and how compromised it is / what problems you have like IBS, etc. If you're constantly getting low doses of oxalate your immune system is constantly cleaning it up so you won’t really see any major problems… but that’s not good at all We need to eat seasonally for a real reason - to give our body a break from different foods that may be giving us problems if eaten in excess Herbivores evolved differently to be able to handle oxalates Even these can die if they are stuck somewhere where they only have access to high oxalate food She’s working on some proposals and a book Her site is http://sallyknorton.com Her Instagram is http://instagram.com/sknorton   Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support the podcast: http://Patreon.com/peakhuman   Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/
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Apr 11, 2019 • 1h 24min

Part 36 - Dr. Mark Cucuzzella & Zach Bitter on Fat Adapted Running, Fine Tuning Your Body, and Helping the Community

Today we have a double header with 2 great figures as well as athletes in the low carb community. Zach Bitter is the 100 mile American record holder and 12 hour world record holder for ultramarathons. He hosts the Human Performance Outliers podcast with Dr. Shawn Baker and has learned many lessons from amazing people along the way. He has wealth of knowledge of fat adapted athletics and fueling himself with meat while healing his body. But first we have Dr. Mark Cucuzzella who is a Professor of Medicine at West Virginia University medical school, Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a Family physician for 20 years, and a Lt Col in the US Air Force Reserves. He’s doing such great work in his hospital and community and has implemented some very beneficial programs. He’s a great guy and was a big supporter of the film early on. He brings up that Zach Bitter was actually in the FASTER study that previous podcast guest Dr. Jeff Volek famously did that rewrote the textbooks on fat oxidation. Lot’s of good stuff her beyond running! Thanks again for helping us finish the Indiegogo campaign. We hit our goal, but that certainly wasn’t the amount needed to finish the film. You can still preorder a copy of Food Lies on Indiegogo by clicking through FoodLies.org. Get the limited edition Eat Meat shirt there and check out the other perks - that’s at FoodLies.org. A quick update about me - I just started training for a Decathlon at UCLA. I’m going to do it running on meat and fat. Many of you probably saw the video of me pole vaulting for the first time in over 16 years on social media. This is going to be awesome. Everyone there thinks I’m insane for doing it at 35 while never having done most of the events before, let alone all of them in 2 days at the Masters Championships in Iowa. Also the mostly eating meat, fish, and eggs thing is really tripping them out. Follow along on social media. Also I’ll have a totally unrelated big announcement in the upcoming weeks. Stay tuned - I’m very excited. Now here’s Mark and Zach. http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman   Show notes Zach Bitter Hosts the Human Performance Outliers podcast with Dr. Shawn Baker He holds the 100 mile American record with an average pace of 7 minutes per mile He also holds the world record for farthest distance run in 12 hours He spent the first half of his running career on the conventional high carb diet that all runners believe is best He followed a whole foods approach with lots of whole grains, fruits, and vegetables - no processed foods or junk food At age 24/25 he was having some bad symptoms that shouldn’t face a young man in his prime He wasn’t sleeping well, he didn’t have sustained energy throughout the day, and had poor recovery after workouts He looked towards nutrition as a cure and found the low carb, high fat diet Got turned on to Dr. Phinney and Dr. Volek early on so he had a solid approach to transitioning into fat-adaptation correctly He transitioned in the off-season and sleep and energy immediately improved Recovery and mobility greatly improved after races once fat-adapted What are some other sports where it’s good to be fat-adapted? It seems to be dependent on how soon you’re going to train again. If it’s only once per day it seems carbs aren't really necessary. 2 sessions per day, probably yes. He only needs carbs when doing intensity plus high volume. Either one separately he doesn't. How he got into the carnivore world He’s done 73 podcast episodes with various experts and has learned a lot 2 big things are that vegetables aren’t really necessary it seems and there’s a lot of myths about protein that are turning out to not be true. There’s probably no such thing as too much protein My ultra simplistic theory is that animal foods are +1, processed foods are -1, and plant foods are just neutral (or 0). Plant foods aren't doing much for you other than taking up space in your stomach from things that could be worse. The real nutrition is from the animal foods. He agrees with this and builds his meals around fatty meat, eggs, and some full fat dairy He ferments his own vegetables If you have digestive problems try doing only animal foods and add stuff back in slowly and carefully to track it Hunter gatherers used to eat (and still do) fermented plant matter out of animal’s stomachs, especially in cold environments when that was their only vegetation Check out the HPO podcast he does with Shawn Baker Zach does running and nutrition coaching - find him at zachbitter.com He’s on twitter at twitter.com/zbitter and Instagram at instagram.com/zachbitter Mark Cucuzzella SHOW NOTES Mark is a doctor in West Virginia doing great things for his community and grew up as a runner He’s appeared in a lot of big news articles and news segments over the years https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/magazine/running-christopher-mcdougall.html https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6112350 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1dyKDrkABc His website https://www.drmarksdesk.com He recently wrote the book Run For Your Life which I’ve read and recommend to any runner https://www.amazon.com/Run-Your-Life-Without-Well-Being/dp/110194630X/ He created the Efficient Running Project for the US Air Force https://www.drmarksdesk.com/usaf-efficient-running He almost made the olympic trials for the marathon but was plagued by injuries and almost quit before taking health into his own hands and also running barefoot or almost barefoot He was able to keep running and has a streak of 30 years of under a 3 hour marathon He opened a running store and has organized tons of runs & events for adults and kids and got the community a lot more active He bought into the low fat high carb diet HUGE waking up at 2am eating more cereal he was so hungry He was in charge of figuring out why people in the Air Force kept failing the fitness tests This was in 2002 and he saw the Gary Taubes article What if it’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html As a doctor he always has learned from his patients. He asked auditoriums full of recruits who has lost 50 pounds or more and kept it off for a year? The only answer was “I gave up bread, or I gave up soda, or I did Paleo, or I did Atkins” He also is a professor at WVU writing papers, etc. He started a program at his hospital that removed all sugary drinks 80% of people in a hospital have insulin resistance and/or metabolic syndrome why would we be giving them a toxin like sugar? The staff supported him in this after getting healthier and losing weight by cutting sugar and carbs He helped get double dollars for food stamps at the farmers market https://youtu.be/k5zptL5c9mI #1 thing purchased with food stamps (now called SNAP) in America is soda!! He’s also starting programs to help people make better choices at dollar stores I think “food deserts” are a myth. It’s just information. You don’t need fresh fruit and veg to be healthy. You can get meat, eggs, and canned fish anywhere in America within a few blocks Food industry and advertisements are working against us EAT Lancet debunking His blog post on this http://naturalrunningcenter.com/2019/01/27/eatlancet/ He’s part of the Nutrition Coalition with Nina Teicholz I grew up running barefoot in Hawaii Human evolution and persistence hunting Daniel Lieberman comes up again who’s the Harvard professor I had an unpleasant call with Running shouldn't be about burning calories it should be about being efficient His comprehensive article on fat adapted running http://naturalrunningcenter.com/2017/02/19/simple-food-rules-2/ Zach was actually part of the FASTER study by Phinney and Volek https://www.metabolismjournal.com/article/S0026-0495(15)00334-0/abstract The textbooks say humans can only oxidize 0.8 grams per minute but in the study they doubled that. Dr. Mark did it himself and measured 2.0 grams of fat/min HIs heart rate dropped down significantly after only 1 minute because he is in such good shape and running so efficiently on fat - great for recovery If you’re a medical professional and would like to make changes in your community or otherwise you can contact him at afrundoc@gmail.com Dr. Eric Westman is a great doctor doing low carb for decades with his patients and having great success https://www.dukehealth.org/find-doctors-physicians/eric-c-westman-md-mhs http://DietDoctor.com Dr. Robert Lustig’s “The Complete Skinny on Obesity” https://youtu.be/moQZd1-BC0Y Even though the campaign is over you can still preorder the film and get the great perks   Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman   Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/
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Apr 3, 2019 • 1h 13min

Part 35 - Dr. Thomas Seyfried on Cancer as a Metabolic Disease, More Effective Therapies, and Treating it Without Toxicity

Dr. Thomas Seyfried is  a Professor of Biology at Boston College, and received his Ph.D. in Genetics and Biochemistry from the University of Illinois. He then worked as an assistant professor in the neurology department at the Yale school of medicine. He has over 180 peer-reviewed publications and is author of the book, Cancer as a Metabolic Disease. He recently received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Complimentary and Integrative Medicine. I got a chance to meet and interview him at the Metabolic Health Summit earlier this year. You’ll notice we did this podcast shortly after the Super Bowl. In case people aren’t familiar with American football the New England Patriots had just beaten the LA Rams. I hope people look up the paper he recently published that we mention and watch his presentation I linked to in the show notes and go deeper on this topic. It’s very surprising to learn of this completely new view on cancer if you haven't heard of it before. This really shouldn't be very surprising to anyone, however, because of course our modern diet and lifestyle would have the biggest effect on the rising cancer rates. And of course fixing these things would also be a major part of the treatment. He’s really doing legendary work. So without further ado, here’s professor Seyfried. You can still preorder a copy of Food Lies on Indiegogo even though our campaign just ended. We still need your support to finish post production. http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman    Show Notes  Dr. Thomas Seyfried believes cancer is a metabolic disease, not a genetic disease and explains in simple terms why that is The mitochondria in your cells make energy (ATP) There’s 2 types of energy: ancient energy which is a fermentation metabolism which means you can make energy without oxygen, or respiration where you make energy from breathing air Cancer cells ferment - therefore they don’t use oxygen Not all cancer cells have genetic mutations, but all cancer cells ferment The mitochondrial metabolic theory says that the organelle that makes energy from respiration is defective, forcing the cell to ferment. When the cell ferments, mutations collect in the nucleus This means the genetic mutations seen in cancer cells come from a downstream effect of disruption of energy metabolism The cancer cell has to consume a large amount of glucose and the amino acid glutamine in order to survive on a fermentation metabolism On the other hand, normal cells use oxygen and very little amounts of glucose This should make sense to a lot of people because they’ve probably heard cancer cells need a lot of glucose and if you starve them of that they die Have to re-emphasize the fact that the DNA damage comes as a downstream effect Damaged mitochondria, instead of making ATP, make Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) or oxidative stress (which causes a lot of problems in our body) The oxidative stress also causes damage to the nucleus and the genome The field of cancer research studies effects instead of causes We’re not treating cancer by looking at the root cause - it’s absurd - how would we ever cure it? This is supported by thousands of experiments and studies Obvious step to treat cancer is to deprive the cancer cells of glucose and glutamine and transition healthy cells into the use of ketones which they can readily use We evolved as a starving creature and convert fatty acids into ketones and usable forms of energy Cancer cells can't use ketones There’s no dietary way to restrict glutamine to the cancer cells so drugs have to be used Basically nobody he’s heard of is treating it this way If it’s so clear this is how cancer works, why has this not reached the mainstream? The Federal government puts out websites saying cancer is genetic, medical schools teach it's genetic, leading cancer clinics tell patients it's genetic Entrenched beliefs continue this. Also funding money is all based around the genetic theory If you look at the mitochondria of any cancer cell under an electron microscope you can easily see the damage to the organelles and mitochondria Cancer is a result of the industrialization as a society Cancer is so rare throughout history or with non-industrialized societies they don't even have the word for it in their language Cancer comes from all kinds of things like pollution, chemicals, radiation, hypoxia, infections, chronic inflammation, even some rare inherited diseases like BRCA1 (but it has to damage the mitochondria) These are all secondary - the root cause is damage to the respiration Obese people have higher rates of cancer and also higher inflammation (measured by C reactive protein) To avoid cancer it’s as simple as avoiding diets and lifestyles that risk damage to the mitochondria Metabolic therapies need to at least be options for people Problem is doctors aren't aware of them or aren't trained on them Therapeutic ketosis is a medicine - it’s different than just a diet (which is a turn-off to a lot of medical professionals) There’s therapeutic weight loss and toxic weight loss Using a suite of therapies to cure cancer including ketogenic metabolic therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy Hyperbaric oxygen creates reactive oxygen species that kills cancer cells but healthy cells using ketones are protected from oxidative stress and are fine Burning ketones creates less ROS (which is a good thing) and is why many people without cancer eat a ketogenic diet ROS damages tissues and is why you age He published the glucose-ketone index calculator People need to realize sweets are a treat once in awhile - not an everyday thing The food industry has played into our ancient desires for sweet Otto Warburg studied cancer in the early 1900s He found that cancer cells would grow in an 100% oxygen environment - they continue to ferment and create lactic acid Because their mitochondria are defective they can’t switch back to oxidative phosphorylation He recently published a paper filling in the gaps from Otto Warburg’s work Missing link was the glutamine that cancer cells can also use Have to pulse the glutamine so the immune system can do it's job and clear out the dead cells He’s developed the press-pulse system in his lab to attack tumors strategically Almost there with dosage, timing, and schedule - when done with this will have the pathway to resolution He’s having trouble getting funding for this for some reason One problem is people have created separate little communities and foundations around their specific type of cancer even though they all have the common metabolic foundational problem People are going to have to participate in the management of their disease and the culture of the diseases has to change Another problem is the high cost of these standard therapies - people have to pay $400k His paper looking at research conducted on cancer https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3941741/ If you take a normal cytoplasm and implant a nucleus with a tumor you get normal cells. But if you implant a normal nucleus to a cell with damaged cytoplasm, you get more tumor cells. This shows it's the damaged mitochondria in the cytoplasm, not the DNA in the nucleus The wheelchair doesn't cause your legs to not work Needle biopsies are putting people at risk and are pointless He calls this general misunderstanding of cancer the biggest tragedy in the history of medicine What do critics of his views say? They try to create doubt They rely on private funding and some great organizations supporting this research Travis Christofferson’s foundation https://foundationformetaboliccancertherapies.com His book Tripping Over the Truth https://www.amazon.com/Tripping-over-Truth-Overturning-Entrenched/dp/1603587292/ Dr. George Yu’s foundation https://yufoundation.org Presentation by Dr. Seyfried https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APwnkpD_BfI&frags=pl%2Cwn Dr. Seyfried’s book https://www.amazon.com/Cancer-Metabolic-Disease-Management-Prevention/dp/0470584920/   Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman    Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/
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Mar 27, 2019 • 1h 16min

Part 34 - Dave Feldman on a New Way to Look at Cholesterol, Increasing Health Markers with Fat, and Lowering LDL with a Bad Diet

Dave Feldman is a senior software engineer, lipid and cholesterol investigator, and self-experimenter. He’s done a ton of tests on himself over the past 4 years that are making huge waves in the nutrition world. He’s helping the world rethink cholesterol and go away from the standard lipid hypothesis to the energy model of how our lipid system works. He’s got a great facebook group with an active audience of Lean Mass Hyper Responders. He also travels around the country speaking at conferences This is a must-listen if you have high LDL cholesterol on a high fat diet or still think that cholesterol is bad. You should also go back and listen to the Ivor Cummins episode in season 1 which gives more of a foundation of knowledge and a bunch of other great info on the topic. We jump straight in and get technical in the beginning, but stick around. We backtrack and give a lot more context and explain things more clearly. You’ll want to keep going even if we get into the weeds because we come out again and go over a lot of useful information and ideas. This might be the last time you hear from me before the Food Lies Indiegogo campaign ends. This is the last chance to preorder the film and support us. The crowdfunding ends Monday, April 1st at midnight. We have a ways to go, but if we get support in these last few days I think we’ll hit our goal. We’re still looking for private investors who want to get equity in the film by contributing $15k or more. Please reach out or pass this along if this is a possibility. Thanks so much, I’m really in love with this community. You’ve all been so supportive and it looks like we’re going to be able to make a super high quality film to get this information out to the world without any outside interests or producers stepping in and influencing the message. Click through the link in the show notes or from FoodLies.org. Now let’s hear from the great Dave Feldman. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman    Show Notes  We jump straight into his carnivore experiment He unexpectedly had very high triglycerides after a short time eating only beef products How much things like fasting affect lipid tests New blood test protocol doesn't even ask you to fast even though if you're eating a low carb diet and eat a fatty meal before your blood test you're loading your body temporarily full of triglycerides that will throw off the test We back up a bit and start from the begining with his story of how he got into this cholesterol world Cholesterol is like a distributed systems network The less fat he ate (on a keto ratio) the higher his cholesterol would go. So to lower his cholesterol he would just have to eat more fat before his test This is disrupting the whole standard medical community in 2 ways - they don’t think it can change that much over the course of a few days, and it’s also the opposite of what they say - they believe more fat should be bad What is the lipid hypothesis? There’s no study that really confirms this hypothesis He thinks LDL particles have 2 purposes - first to deliver energy, then to patrol The energy delivery might only be an hour, but they can “patrol” for 2-4 days There’s other purposes we haven’t even studied much like immune response They can bind to pathogens or can provide alpha tocopherol to reactive oxygen species to turn them into non-reactive products Ambulances, accidents, and aliens All cause mortality and lower LDL does NOT correlate as the standard narrative suggests it should People go on low carb or keto diets and every single thing in their life and lipid panel improves except for this 1 factor - LDL He’s been developing what he calls “the energy model” for how lipids work He runs a Facebook group called Lean Mass Hyper Responders for a certain type of people who are lean and fit on a LCHF diet who have super good HDL and triglycerides but super high LDL He polled the group and the vast majority report they feel better to significantly better This “cholesterol is bad” stuff has been hammered into him for so long he may never believe anything otherwise He did a 3.5 hour podcast with Peter Attia (who was in ketosis for 3 years straight) who still looks at cholesterol in the context of a Standard American Diet of trash The group of LMHR people is really interesting to study because they also have super low cardiovascular disease markers The podcast with Peter had some positive outcomes His CIMT (Carotid intima-media thickness) tests that he does regularly to measure his CVD risk factor It actually got a lot better since transitioning from his SAD diet to keto, even though doctors say that’s not even possible He then made his score get worse eating white bread, pizza, and a high carb + high fat killer combo diet and gaining a lot of weight He then got it to drop back down again on a keto diet all while having 200+ LDL-C and 2000+ LDL-P Doing exactly the opposite of what the literature says should happen ALSO on the unhealthy Standard American Diet test where he was gaining weight his LDL went back down to good levels that a normal doctor would like WHILE his CIMT score got worse Join the facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeanMassHyperResponder/ He thinks LMHRs experience a higher level of autophagy - they’re in a blended fasted state - so it’s hard for them to do extended fasts (which is true for me) Your cells need to time to rest and repair Basically, don't always be eating! Let’s talk other diets - he has too longtime friends who are vegan and they eat from when they wake until they sleep You can get away with eating trash while you’re young - he was skinny as a rail while eating rame, Totinos and chugging Coke For the vast majority of people it eventually catches up to them - it could be alcohol, smoking, excessive sunlight - they seem immune to it and then all of a sudden they fall off We both haven't been sick since being fat adapted/eating a nutrient dense diet I actually got a tiny but sick though, for the first time, by assaulting my body with stressors for 3 days straight and then working out More on how LDL plays a big role in the immune system He has an interesting theory about people with familial hypercholesterolemia having lower total mortality rates despite having high cholesterol because of these high LDL numbers that serve them in times of need. These people have survived pandemics Let’s talk N of 1 studies If you’re feeling good 24/7 you're probably doing something right and shouldn't worry about a single number or theory Find dave on Twitter http://twitter.com/daveketo His website is http://cholesterolcode.com If you’re a lean mass hyper responder (LDL 200 or higher, HDL 80 or higher, and triglycerides 70 or lower) join the group https://www.facebook.com/groups/LeanMassHyperResponder/   Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman   Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/
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Mar 20, 2019 • 1h 4min

Part 33 - Mark Sisson on Metabolic Flexibility, Ancestral Health, and How to Live Long & Drop Dead

Today I’m talking to the legendary Mark Sisson. For many people, including myself, he’s the person who got them interested in ancestral health and sent them down a path of feeling great, losing weight, curing problems they didn’t even know they had or could be treated, and more. He’s been an inspiration to millions and has spent most of his life on a pursuit of health knowledge. He’s been writing his blog Mark’s Daily Apple for 13 years as well as publishing best-selling books such as The Primal Blueprint and the Keto Reset Diet. He also travels the world giving talks and is the founder of Primal Kitchen. He’s 65 and living better than most 20 year olds. I saw this first hand filming with him in Miami Beach and running around with him on the ultimate frisbee field. He is a role model of how to look, live, and feel as you enter the latter part of your life. This probably isn’t new information to anyone listening so I’ll just get to our talk already. Of course I have to mention the Food Lies film crowdfunding first. There’s only 12 days left in the Indiegogo campaign and we have a long way to go. This is when we really need your help. It’s the last crowdfunding we’ll do and we need to hit our goal to make this film. I know it’s been a long process and people are tired of hearing about it, but it’s the only way this can be made. We have no outside investors. This is a group effort by the community to make an important piece of history. This will help change the world’s view of food and human health. Documentaries like this are the best way to inform the public of this important information and open people’s eyes. If you’re listening to this podcast you probably know most of this stuff already - the problem is 98% of the world doesn’t! They’re not going to read all the studies and books and watch all the lectures that you have. They need to see this presented to them in a simple and entertaining audio-visual format that they can stream from the comfort of their own home on a wednesday night. Let’s make this happen. Please go to FoodLies.org and click through to the Indiegogo page. That’s FoodLies.org and you can also click through the link in the show notes. Thanks so much and here’s Mark Sisson. http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   SHOW NOTES After about 25 years in Malibu he moved to Miami Beach I filmed with Mark in his awesome condo and then we played ultimate frisbee Mark has been in the health space for about 40 years and then got into ancestral health when it bloomed in the early 2000s He started with his blog about 15 years ago which helped get the community involved and his message honed He wrote The Primal Blueprint which is an amazing book that I continue to share with people as an entry point into ancestral health and nutrition Through your environment, actions, and what you eat you have control over your gene expression Our genes are awaiting information in order to act - epigenetic influences Primal laws to live by Rejecting modern norms leads to health - on either end of the spectrum The most important factor is what you're not eating Plant protein is less bioavailable and you're getting a bunch of extra carbs trying to get enough usable protein We are wired to overeat Our system of energy storage as fat is the most elegant, perfect design imaginable Our body doesn't want to maintain expensive machinery it doesn't use - most people only burn glucose and lose the ability to burn fat efficiently Being metabolically flexible is the win-win-win-win-win-win-win of nutrition and life Some keto people go too hard in the other direction and are too fat adapted and can’t handle any bit of carbohydrate Some people use keto as a way to overeat and maintain their gluttony A lot of people doing keto for long periods don’t have high ketone numbers - body adapts If you eat an appropriate amount of calories per day over your life you’ll probably help not wear your body out and maybe live longer Everyone eats too many calories - he spells out a 1900 calorie day that should sustain anyone Stephan Guyenet’s strategy to not overeat is to eat food that isn’t that tasty His #1 goal in life is to live awesome and enjoy life - you can eat this way and still be healthy His pet theories on the obesity and chronic disease epidemic Access to these cheap, nutritionally devoid foods are at an all-time high He thinks industrial seed oils are the biggest problems in our food system and the most damaging to our health He carries around his own salad dressing made of avocado oil Primal Kitchen sold to Kraft-Heinz but will remain under his control and will maintain all the high quality ingredients The less glucose you burn in a lifetime the better Lifespan vs. healthspan - don’t see these modern diseases in indigenous living populations “Live long, drop dead” People used to die from accidents, childbirth, traumatic events, and infectious diseases He defines quality of life as mobility and memory I eat this way because it’s the best way we know at the time to prevent chronic disease and extend healthspan A lot of times we don’t realize the inflammation an ill-effects of our diets and lifestyle and think it’s just part of life His arthritis that he thought he would have to live with for life went away at age 47 when he stopped eating grains Whole 30 is a great way to see how much better you feel and examine your diet How do we fight against vegan activist DISinformation? They have way more money and are very organized and good at putting out propaganda All we can do is put out sound, unbiased information and hopefully people will see the truth Find Mark here https://www.marksdailyapple.com Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/  
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Mar 13, 2019 • 1h 34min

Part 32 - Stephan Guyenet, PhD on the Brain Controlling Body Fatness, Your Food Environment, and Low Carb Controversy

Today we’re talking to Stephan Guyenet who has a degree in biochemistry and a PhD in neuroscience. He’s spent over 12 years in the neuroscience research world studying neurodegenerative disease and the neuroscience of body fatness. He wrote a great book called The Hungry Brain, speaks at conferences, is a Senior Fellow at GiveWell and scientific reviewer for the Examine.com Research Digest. He is definitely not a low carb person which is why I had him on. He has a lot of great ideas and is a great mind in the space of nutrition. It was very interesting to hear him talk about all the great benefits he did see when he ate a low carb diet 11 years ago. Make sure to listen until the end when he talks about this. He has some problems with certain people and aspects of the low carb community and is going on Joe Rogan’s podcast soon to debate Gary Taubes on his views of the Carbohydrate Insulin theory of obesity and sugar being uniquely toxic We had some disagreement on the recommended daily allowance of nutrients - he thinks what’s recommended is all you need and getting more than that is pointless. I think this is wrong. I think he’s basing it on studies of worthless, non-bioavailable vitamin C pills that in excess do nothing. So in that - I agree. I don’t think there’s any benefit to popping a bunch of these and think we’re going to cure a cold. I do know that our ancestors got estimates of 10-20 times the amount of nutrients we get today, so there’s a lot more to this discussion that we didn’t have time to get into. We also disagreed on fiber which led to some carnivore talk. He got some things wrong about the member of the Grateful Dead who was a carnivore. He said he died at a young age of a heart attack. I looked into it and it turns out he was carnivore for 48 years and was in excellent health and died in a car accident at 72.  He also says we don’t have longterm studies on the safety of low carb diets at the end. This isn’t exactly true and furthermore, we have hundreds of thousands of years of human populations living on low carb diets to prove its safety and efficacy. He additionally mentions the low carb community makes crazy claims that aren’t based on science. I’m not sure what he’s referring to. Not everything can be measured anyway. If tens of thousands of people report to their doctor they aren’t hungry anymore, their energy is stable, their brain is working better, they aren’t addicted to sugar, they finally have control of their food intake, etc. then this is some great clinical observations and patient anecdotes that add up to a lot. I think everyone has their own ideas about things and collects info to support their opinion. It’s only natural, and I’m sure I’m doing it to, even though I’m trying not to. Everyone has to be in their camp and collect data and narratives to support their theories. He seemed to do this as you’ll see throughout the episode.  I agreed with a lot of his points though, especially that humans didn’t evolve to eat based on tracking macros and calories and using an excel spreadsheet to figure out what to eat. He’s doing great work and looking at this from a different angle which is important. A lot of interesting stuff here so let’s get to it. But first I gotta mention the Food Lies film which is in the last stretch of crowdfunding on Indiegogo. We really need your help to finish it. We have a bunch of cool perks like the Eat Meat T-shirt, the movie poster, bonus features, and more. Find it through FoodLies.org or by clicking through this link in the show notes. I really appreciate it - and now here’s Stephan Guyenet. http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   Show Notes  I’m obsessed with why we get fat and what to do about it and you’ve been researching this for a long time Why the brain is the most important place to focus on The brain regulates how much we eat, our food choices, and our exercise There’s also non conscious processes the brain regulates that influence caloric expenditure, etc. We also study the human genome to find how that plays a role in body fatness When it comes to body weight, the genes that relate the most are in the brain Nobody wants to overeat, but we end up doing it anyway We need to look at our past to understand why we are wired to seek excess calories Animals and hunter gatherers we’ve studied follow the Optimum Foraging Theory when they acquire food. It’s all about the calories per the amount of effort Because we were eating whole foods from nature, if we got enough calories, we by default we’re getting all the vitamins and minerals needed They didn’t have white flour, sugar, or refined oils We only have receptors for fat, sugar, salt, and glutamate  Apparently those are the nutrients that natural selection cared about most to create reward systems for The Hadza people went mainly for meat, tubers, and honey and didn’t go for leafy greens  The brain is motivated to pursue calorie containing foods, not vitamins and minerals Combining bliss points make certain foods almost irresistible You need to control your food environment  Not only don’t have it sitting out so you can see certain foods, don’t even have them in the house How do genetics play a role? We know it’s way more to do with the type of foods eaten  About 70% of people in countries like the US are genetically susceptible to become obese when eating the bad diet that exists there. The remaining percent just aren’t as susceptible and can get away with it Energy balance while always be a fact, but there’s a lot more to it Eat less, move more may work for some people, but it’s not how we evolved. It’s not a natural way to regulate body weight You can set up a food environment to allow your body to naturally eat the right amount You’d have to be hungry all the time to continue eating processed foods and try to lose weight His definition and thoughts on nutrient density Questioning the necessity of fiber His views on the carnivore diet - he thinks a big factor is becoming lean and it certainly does that He questions if there’s long term chronic disease problems that we don’t know about Inuit seek some plant matter Sound engineer from the Grateful Dead who was carnivore for 48 years - Stephan said he died of a heart attack at a young age. Turns out he was super healthy and died of a car accident at 72. His book https://justmeat.co/docs/the-bear.pdf They call him “Bear” https://dangerousminds.net/comments/uncle_johns_ham_the_grateful_deads_all-meat_diet Wikipedia on him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Stephan agrees with what I always say about going to either end of the extreme with super low carb or super low fat you have great benefits He’s going on Joe Rogan’s podcast to debate Gary Taubes on his views of the Carbohydrate Insulin theory of obesity and sugar being uniquely toxic What happened with Gary Taubes and Dr. Peter Attia’s non profit venture NuSI - the Nutritional Science Initiative? What Stephan got wrong in his blog posts Why he thinks Gary Taubes is wrong and what is the evidence  He doesn’t like the fact that Gary is calling out scientists  Exercise and weight loss The model of obesity he subscribes to is that it’s all regulated by the brain Homeostatic regulation - hypothalamus controls body fatness like a thermostat The hormone leptin sends feedback to your brain regarding body fat levels Personal fat threshold, how someone can be skinny on the outside but fat on the inside, people can be obese but metabolically healthy, and insulin as a dam holding back fat in the cells He doesn’t think that eating an insulin lowering diet like low carb allows you to lose weight because of the lowered insulin He thinks low carb diets and low fat diets work merely because you’re taking away the extreme motivation to overeat the foods, AKA hyperplatability  Potato hack Metabolic flexibility He thinks being metabolically inflexible is more a sign of insulin resistance than anything He eats about 50% carb, 18% protein, 32% fat He ate a low carb diet after reading Taubes’ book Good Calories, Bad Calories 11 years ago He said it was about the same but one benefit was that he wasn’t tied to meal times. Eating high carb he definitely knew when it was time to eat. Easier to fast He was easily doing 24 hour fasts. Now on high carb it’s way harder and he experiences brain fog Why are low carb diets so maligned in the mainstream media and medical system? What are his solutions for fixing the nation’s health problems? His book The Hungry Brain http://www.stephanguyenet.com/thehungrybrain/ His website http://www.stephanguyenet.com His Twitter https://twitter.com/whsource   Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/
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Mar 6, 2019 • 60min

Part 31 - Dr. Jeff Volek on Carb Intolerance, Reversing Type 2 Diabetes, and Personalized Nutrition

I talk to a lot of great people on this podcast but this may be the man who really knows this stuff at the deepest level and most qualified to talk about fat adaptation and ketogenic diets & therapies. He has been doing amazing work in this field for such a long time.   Dr. Jeff Volek is a professor, researcher, registered dietitian, and co-founder and Chief Science Officer of Virta Health. For the last two decades, Dr. Volek has performed cutting edge research on how humans adapt to diets restricted in carbohydrates with a dual focus on clinical and performance applications of nutritional ketosis. His scholarly work includes more than 300 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts and five books, including a New York Times Best Seller, and he has provided more than 200 lectures at scientific and industry conferences around the world. He’s an all around great guy and someone I admire.   He very rarely does interviews so I was honored to spend some time with him. He is busy running his lab at OSU while also being a co-founder of a major health company I mention a lot called Virta. My company SAPIEN which you can find out more about at SAPIEN.org is producing technology similar to them. They use an app as well as devices like a smart scale to help monitor patients and keep them accountable as well as communicate with a health coach as they reverse type 2 diabetes with diet and lifestyle. We’re doing the same thing at SAPIEN so if you are a healthcare provider or a health coach and are interested in our platform please reach out to us via our site SAPIEN.org   Before we start the interview I want to ask people who have gotten any value out of this podcast to support me by contributing to the Food Lies film Indiegogo campaign. Go to FoodLies.org and pre-order the film or check out the great perks we’re offering like the EAT MEAT shirt, movie poster, and Real Foods coin. We rely on the community to make this podcast and film a reality. I’m seriously on my last dollar here and the post production of the film is slowing down due to budget constraints. I really appreciate the support. You can also click through the show notes in your podcast app to support the film. Thanks, and here’s Dr. Jeff Volek.   http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post   SHOW NOTES He presented some of his research at the Metabolic Health Summit in Long Beach at the beginning of February Keto is very popular these days but it’s a double-edged sword His interests in ketogenic research are broad including metabolic disease, type 2 diabetes, athletes, military personnel, etc. He’s studying tons of military applications to help them deal with energy, fatigue, recovery, cognitive function, etc. He and Dr. Steve Phinney wrote the great book The Art & Science of Low Carb Living which should be perfect for the savvy nutrition folks listening to this podcast https://www.amazon.com/Art-Science-Low-Carbohydrate-Living/dp/0983490708 The concept of carb intolerance What percentage of the population might be carb intolerant? Before the agricultural revolution humans had very little access to carbohydrate Low carb or ketogenic diets are what our bodies were made to run on There’s probably only a small percentage of the population that is tolerant to these refined and abundant carbs in the modern food environment Carb tolerance also goes down with age What’s great is that basically everyone can adapt to a low carb diet and this makes sense from an evolutionary perspective We all have the ability to run on fat but eating a ton of carbs suppresses that   It’s helping to treat diabetes (reverse it or put it in remission), cancer, neurological diseases The preponderance of trials shows low carb diets are superior to low fat diets in a free living setting There was interest and studies in ketogenic diets for weight loss in the 50s and 60s but then we hit the “dark ages” of this research with the USDA guidelines and it was basically toxic to study low carb in the 70s, 80s, and 90s There’s been a huge amount of research done in the last 20 years that supports low carb diets There’s so much entrenched beliefs and momentum behind low fat paradigm it just takes a while to get past it - we’re doing really well actually The dietary guidelines don’t reflect the current body of science They dietary guidelines actually matter - affect what kids eat at school, military eat, what’s taught to dietitians I think we should have two dietary strategies offered as the official guidelines instead of ending up high fat AND high carb like most americans artoday Dr. Volek believes low carb should be the preferred option for those with any sort of metabolic syndrome Personalized nutrition is the future but we’re just scratching the surface Mapping the genome and genetic testing aren't really panning out He’s looking at some biomarkers to help tell if people are mismanaging carbs What about eating more protein? It’s pretty straightforward to implement a ketogenic diet but it’s also pretty challenging in modern society His company Virta http://virtahealth.com is working on tools for this I’m doing something similar with SAPIEN http://sapien.org They use technology to efficiently scale the program to thousands and potentially millions of patients Dr. Sarah Hallberg ran the clinical trials and showed amazing efficacy of the program and keto diet in reversing type 2 diabetes Their blood sugar and hemoglobin A1c values were normalized which is pretty unheard of in the standard treatment of T2D They recommend eating fat to satiety but limit carbs and protein to achieve ketosis They recommend 1.2 to 2 grams of protein per pound of reference bodyweight Ketones have an anti-catabolic effect so they decrease protein breakdown - so no need to overeat protein Some people report less than ideal body composition on a ketogenic diet - may be because not getting enough minerals and electrolytes You can get a stress response as a result from this - sympathetic nervous system response and aldosterone causes potassium to be wasted as it tries to absorb more sodium If you have low sodium that has a negative effect on your protein status He has another book called The Art and Science of Low Carb Performance focused on athletics He had a great presentation at the conference I missed In the 60s and 70s Scandinavian researchers found out about the importance of muscle glycogen which led to the concept of carb loading A coach out of Florida invented Gatorade a bit later and then the Gatorade Sports Science Institute formed which really influenced our view sports and exercise science Since the 1960s it's been unanimous that all athletes should eat as much carbohydrate as possible before, during, and after exercise. It’s pretty insane. And there’s multi-billion dollar industries behind it to keep it this way He thinks athletes should be consuming as few carbs as possible while maintaining peak performance Consuming all these carbs are like absorbing punches to your body - you can get away with it for a while but the damage builds up It also prevents them from being able to burn their own fat He rewrote the textbooks and what was possible with VO2 max and fat oxidation in his FASTER study Ultra distance runners are winning races fat-adapted Burning basically 100% fat for 3 hours during tests They’re recovering better, not relying on tons of sugar and refined carbs packs, better GI function, and have greater enjoyment exercising He also studies military applications which overlap with these athletic advantages He says more importantly even are the cognitive benefits of the ketogenic diet They are also studying the effects of ketones on inflammatory pathways, an association with less oxidative stress, perhaps better immune functioning So far being in ketosis has been found to help people recover faster, cope with stress better, improved mental clarity and cognitive function Also helpful for traumatic brain injuries There’s so much more that needs to be studied and there’s so much promise for new applications of ketosis We need to support federal and private funding of research on ketogenic diets and therapies   Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post Film site: http://FoodLies.org YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com   Follow along: http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg http://instagram.com/food.lies http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg   Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/

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