Mastering Nutrition

Question: What are the best ways to stabilize blood sugar?I would definitely be trying to lower the glucose response. And what I would do in such a situation would be to run a series of experiments on the type of carbohydrate, as well as the amount of carbohydrate, as well as the context of the meal to see. I would use that as the maximum and so define the carbohydrate load of the specific foods that you can tolerate within that range, and then once you have that, then you can experiment with other things like what happens if I add Apple cider vinegar to this regiment, what happens if I add whey protein, which can also help, what happens if I add glycine, which can also help.The test is a great hint at what might be happening. But at the end of the day, what matters is what happens when you eat the meal you always eat.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. From now through March, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.  

Question: What are the best natural ways to lower cholesterol?The top things that I would think of to lower cholesterol levels are number one, I'd get thyroid status thoroughly checked out. Number two, I would consider experimenting with a diet low in saturated fat or diet low in cholesterol to see how responsive your levels are to those things. Number three, I would experiment with some fiber supplements.  Number four, for people who are overweight, then normalizing body composition is an issue. Number five, I wouldn't use pantothenic acid. I would try pantethine.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. From now through March, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: Does high B12 mean it’s not getting into the cell?The right way to address that would be to measure serum or urine or both methylmalonic acid MMA, and that's a functional marker that's very specific to B12. If B12 was not getting into the cell, then methylmalonic acid is going to be high.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. From now through March, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: What range of folate and homocysteine are good for MTHFR?So 18 to 22 nanograms per milliliter for serum folate and then for homocysteine, I would say seven to nine, I think eight is right smack in the middle and it's fine. No harm in getting down to five, if you can get there but I wouldn't, if you're in the seven to nine range, I wouldn't worry about it.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. From now through March, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: Do Ketogenic Diets Lower Glutathione?And so what a ketogenic diet does is put you in a low insulin to glucagon ratio longterm and the insulin to glucagon ratio is what is used for the body to perceive whether it has enough energy to invest in making glutathione. And so the reason the liver's glutathione is going to go down on a ketogenic diet is because you're in the fasting state. Glutathione synthesis is a fed state process. It's something that goes down in the fasting state and up in the fed state period. And so if you're using a diet that is mimicking the fasting state and is allowing you to carry out fasting state physiology for a longer period of time than you would be able to go on zero calories, then you're going to mimic the fasting state. And the fasting state is characterized by lower glutathione synthesis. And that's the end of it.These are the studies we discussed on the ketogenic diet and glutathione levels: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18466343/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3102314/ If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. From now through March, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: Why do I have a high LDL-C when my diet is on point?Generally in the presence of insulin sensitivity, more carbohydrates, less fat will lower LDL, but in the presence of insulin resistance, more carbohydrate will sometimes raise LDL. And if the LDL is only a little bit out of range and the HDL is good, I wouldn't worry too much about it. If the total to HDL cholesterol ratio is under four, especially if it's close to 2.0 or underneath that, then I would be worrying about all the elements a little bit out of the range. But I would look at coconut oil, reducing it, body composition, normalizing insulin sensitivity, optimizing it. And if all those things are done, substituting some more carbohydrate, less fat may help.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations.  DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: Can protein replete glycogen on a low-carb diet?Yes, it's possible. And I don't know exactly what the dosing is, but I think it's totally possible. It comes at the risk, I don't want to say risk, but at the downside of creating a lot more ammonia. But I think it's quite possible. I think it was Master Nutrition, Energy Metabolism, Lesson 17, it was the one on the evidence around low-carb and athletic performance. And if you look at the studies suggesting low-carb does not compromise athletic performance, the diets are much higher protein than the diets that suggest that it does compromise athletic performance for glycogen levels. And so, I think on a low-carb diet protein is going to probably be a very critical determinant of glycogen levels.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: Creatine: do the benefits outweigh the risks for a mid-30s male?I think that there are borderline no risks to creatine supplementation. I know some people get bloated from it that usually passes. Anecdotally, some people get insomnia. I think if nutrients are balanced and you just stick with it, that'll go away. There's speculation that it could aggravate male pattern baldness, but there's no good evidence of it.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: How important are MAT1A SNPs to methylation?These in principle, could reduce the activation of methionine, but I don't know that there are any studies that have looked at whether that's the case. And so, just because a SNP isn't a gene doesn't mean that it reduces the activity of that gene. In fact, it doesn't mean it does anything even to the protein sequence of a gene because a lot of SNPs don't affect the protein sequence. If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations.  DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.

Question: How to increase red blood cell magnesium content?Well, the first thing you want to do is look at your serum levels. And if your serum levels are low, you want to look at your urinary levels. And if your serum levels are not low or especially, if your serum are high, then you want to focus on promoting magnesium absorbed into the cell. If your serum levels are low, then you probably don't want to focus on that, you want to focus on magnesium intake or retention or absorption. If you're focusing on getting it into the cells, you're looking at insulin sensitivity, insulin stimulation, vitamin B6 and salt. For urinary loss, you're looking at anything that causes too much urinary output, stress. And if you still can't find the answer, you might want to start looking at certain genetic polymorphisms.If you would like to be part of the next live Ask Me Anything About Nutrition, sign up for the CMJ Masterpass, which includes access to these live Zoom sessions, a private discussion group, premium features on all my content, and hundreds of dollars of exclusive discounts. You can sign up at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/masterpass/ and use the code QANDA to get 10% off the membership for life. For the remainder of 2020, I will be working full-time on finishing my Vitamins and Minerals 101 book, while reserving a portion of my time for consulting clients. You can pre-order my book at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/book. You can sign up for a consultation at https://chrismasterjohnphd.com/consultations. DISCLAIMER: I have a PhD in Nutritional Sciences and my expertise is in performing and evaluating nutritional research. I am not a medical doctor and nothing herein is medical advice. Access the show notes, transcript, and comments here.