Firemen Causing Fires!

This past week I stumbled across a discussion online of a TV show that aired recently. The show told an interesting story that I’d love to share.

Many years ago, researchers and epidemiologists got together in attempt to reduce the number of fires in the United States. Fire, whether accidental or on purpose, can cause injury and even loss of life.

After sifting through all the data available, a common theme was discovered – firemen were almost always present at fires!

For this reason, the United States passed guidelines recommending that the general public avoid calling firemen in such situations. The association between firemen and fires was clear.

Sure – matches, flammable substances, and improperly wired electronics were also present in many fires. But firemen, with their brightly colored gear and fire truck sirens, were a much more apparent similarity in all incidents.

The public avoided calling firemen and even took measures to reduce the number of active firemen on duty. The number of fires grew in the U.S. every year, but since we had our culprits, we figured we just weren’t strict enough in our fight against firefighters.

For 50 years this continued, until enough people challenged the status quo. The initial studies were easily disproven. Anecdotally, people saw more reduction in fires after improving wiring in their homes and avoiding flammable materials. Enough scientists, researchers, and media sources shared alternative ideas.

Finally, in 2015, the “powers that be” have admitted, for the first time since 1957, that perhaps firemen are not the cause of fires!

Now clearly this is an analogy – but the simplicity of the message really struck home with me.

In this story, fires represent heart attacks and cardiovascular disease. Firemen represent cholesterol. Matches, flammable substances, and unsafe wiring represent man-made fats (such as canola and corn oil) and sugar.

When our nation was confronted with rising rates of cardiovascular disease, we looked at various blood markers in individuals that suffered heart attacks. The first thing we saw was high cholesterol levels. Immediately, our nation concluded that cholesterol was the cause of heart disease. For 50 years the medical community did everything possible to lower blood cholesterol levels.

However, it turns out that cholesterol in the blood, much like firemen at a fire scene, exist to protect us!

When there is inflammation within the blood, caused by overconsumption of carbs or vegetable oils, the body sends cholesterol to protect the artery walls from damage. In an ideal situation, the period of carb and unnatural fat overconsumption ends, and the cholesterol is carried away.

Atherosclerosis, or buildup of plaque within the arteries, occurs when inflammation does not end. This results in the oxidization and hardening of beneficial cholesterol.

This past week, new guidelines were set forth recommending that the public pay more attention to sugar consumption than cholesterol and fat. Keep in mind that all carbohydrates (besides fiber) are broken down into sugars eventually.

Start your day with plenty of whole eggs, don’t fear fatty grass-fed steak, and request more specifics (such as particle size and count) when your doctor tries to prescribe statins to lower blood cholesterol levels.

Just because firemen are the first to arrive at a fire doesn’t mean they are to blame!

Stay Healthy During the Holidays

With the holidays right around the corner, I thought I’d put together a list of things you can do to stay healthy while still enjoying the holiday season. So, without further ado, here are the top 6 recommendations I would make:

1. Stick to your normal eating habits. Don’t try skipping meals or eating less as this may lead to over-consuming snack foods and holiday treats.
2. Build meals around protein and veggies while minimizing starchy or sugary carbs such as fruits, grains, legumes, and potatoes. Always opt for more vegetables and protein to feel full.
3. Avoid liquid calories such as juices, milk, and mixed drinks. Get your calories from whole foods!
4. Once you are full from your meal, then indulge in whatever holiday treat you like most. My favorite is chocolate peanut butter balls! It’s a lot easier to enjoy one or two treats, rather than a dozen, after filling up on healthy food during mealtime.
5. Exercise whenever possible! This will mitigate stress that occurs during the holidays and protect your body from the damage of the indulgences. Exercise can be as simple as sprinting up a flight of stairs, going for a walk after meals, or performing a few sets of body weight pushups and squats.
6. For those that plan to consume alcoholic beverages: drink on an empty stomach. When alcohol is ingested, all other calories are sent to fat storage so the body can break down the alcohol as fast as possible. Pick drinks lower in sugar such as dry wines, champagnes, and hard liquors. Forgo the prepackaged sugary mixers and try flavoring with a lime or lemon. My approach is to have a NorCal Margarita (2 shots tequila, juice from an entire lime, ice, and club soda) a few hours before dinner. Finally, make the following meal high in protein and healthy fat. This will help blood sugar levels, protein synthesis, and hormones return to normal.

I personally choose to consume a whey protein shake and digestive enzymes before any meal that is high in processed carbs and low in nutrients, such as pasta or pizza.

Finally, don’t stress about indulging! The holidays should be about family, relaxation, and a change in routine. Sure, under-consuming protein and vitamins while over-consuming sugar and anti-nutrients isn’t going to improve health – but allowing stress levels to increase will only exacerbate fat storage and skew hormone levels.

Make the best choices you can as often as possible, but plan to enjoy yourself and have some indulgences. Then jump right back into clean eating and living on in January.

Hope these tips help everyone enjoy their holidays while staying healthy. See you all next year!

Meal Comparison, Part 3: Dinner

Today’s post will be the last side-by-side comparison of a Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) meal and a grain-free, unprocessed meal.

For Part 1, a breakfast comparison, click here. For Part 2, a lunch comparison, click here.

The healthy American dinner consists of:

1 cup whole wheat pasta (enriched)

1 cup generic tomato sauce

2 ounces low-fat ground turkey

1 cup skim milk (fortified & fortified)

1 brownie (using a recipe recommended by Ellie Kroger, Registered Dietician)

The whole foods meal contains:

8 ounces ground beef (grass-fed)

½ avocado

1 cup asparagus

1 large sweet potato

Both meals provide 650 calories.

First, let’s look at the macronutrients and fatty acid profile:

.	Total Carbs	Fiber	Net Carbs	Protein	Sat Fat	Mono Fat	Omega 3	Omega 6
S.A.D. Dinner	90	10	80	25	5	5	250	12500
Whole Foods	45	15	30	45	10	17	500	2000

As we saw in the previous comparisons, the S.A.D. meal provides almost 100 grams of carbs with only 10 grams of fiber and very little healthy fat. Even adding sweet potato to the grain-free dinner results in only 30 net carbs, fewer than half the carbs in the Standard American dinner.

The whole foods dinner offers a more adequate amount of healthy fat, particularly saturated and monounsaturated, aiding in absorption of vitamins, providing a stable energy source, and maintaining healthy cells.

Finally, the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, which should ideally be close to 1-to-2, is 1-to-50 in the Standard American Diet meal. The tomato sauce and “healthy” brownie both contain canola oil, molecularly the same as corn oil, causing inflammation and cardiovascular disease.

Next is the vitamin content of both meals:

.	Vit A	Vit C	Vit D	Vit E	Vit K	Vit B6	Vit B12	Folate
S.A.D. Dinner	4500	20	0	3	30	0.5	1	50
Whole Foods	27000	42	0	7	83	2	5	180

No surprise here! Vegetables, meats, and healthy fats provide far more vitamins than refined grains, diary, and oils.

Finally, the mineral content of each meal:

.	Calcium	Iron	Magnesium	Potassium	Zinc	Copper	Manganese	Selenium
S.A.D. Dinner	570	5	150	1500	4	0.5	2	55
Whole Foods	130	10	150	2000	13	1	1	36

If you recall the previous comparisons, you’ll remember that grains and dairy provide more of certain nutrients.

The Standard American Diet provides more Manganese and Selenium, and ties for Magnesium. However, just a handful of nuts would close this gap and set the whole foods meal ahead in all categories.

In conclusion, the dinner based on whole foods provides more for the body, with less detriment, than the S.A.D. dinner.

I will do one more follow up post totaling the days’ worth of macro- and micro-nutrients. In the meantime, feel free to ask any questions about particular values, foods that may address shortcomings, or if you’d like me to analyze your own meal options.

Thanks for reading!

Meal Comparison, Part 1: Breakfast

Over the last year, news headlines showcased that saturated fat is not dangerous, animal products are not inherently unhealthy, and most of our health problems stem from over-consumption of refined carbohydrates.

However, change takes time. For the last 50 years, the public has been taught to fear fat and cholesterol, and to eat meals built around dense sources of carbs – particularly grains.

The science is now widely available showing that grains disrupt healthy gut function, provide an enormous carb load with few nutrients, and are inflammatory. But even with this information, many people are bewildered by recommendations to choose healthier options.

I can post in-depth articles discussing anti-nutrients, biological mechanisms, and studies…but sometimes a side-by-side comparison is more effective.

So, today I will post part 1 of a series comparing the Standard American Diet (S.A.D.) with a grain-free approach. Each post will compare two meal options, starting with breakfast!

Since I clearly favor a grain-free approach, I have taken the following steps to ensure objectivity:

I picked the healthiest standard breakfast options doctors and dietitians recommend. This includes:

1 cup of oatmeal (not instant; fortified and enriched)

1 cup of orange juice (not from concentrate; fortified)

½ cup of skim milk (fortified with vitamins A & D)

1 handful of raisins

For the grain-free breakfast, I picked foods that conventional wisdom would classify as too “high calorie” or “unhealthy”, including:

1 omelet made with 4 whole eggs, spinach, and sweet red peppers

1/2 avocado

1 tomato

2 slices of bacon

Both meals provide 600 calories and take less than 15 minutes to prepare.

After running all the foods through a nutrient spreadsheet, here are the total offerings of each meal:

Meal	Carbs	Fiber	Protein	Sat Fat	Mono Fat	Omega 3	Omega 6
Standard Breakfast	136	9	15	1	1.5	50	2000
Grain-Free Breakfast	25	13	35	10	20	1300	3500

The oatmeal breakfast provides a major carb bolus, with very little fiber or fat to mitigate the resulting blood sugar spike. At over 100 grams of sugar per meal, it’s no surprise that almost 30 million Americans suffer from diabetes.

These carbs also increase small, dense LDL, causing atherosclerosis. Meanwhile, the grain-free breakfast provides 13 grams of fiber, along with 10 grams of saturated fat and 20 grams of monounsaturated, both raising HDL, or “good” cholesterol.

I included a column for omega 3 and omega 6. These are both essential fats, but O-3 has an anti-inflammatory affect while O-6 causes inflammation, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Historically, humans consumed a 1-to-2 or 1-to-4 ratio of O3-to-O6. The oatmeal breakfast skews this massively, with a ratio of 1-to-40, while the omelet and guacamole is more ideal (1-to-3).

Clearly the grain-free breakfast is healthier in terms of cardiovascular function, inflammation levels, and blood sugar control. But what about vitamin content?

Meal	Vit A	Vit C	Vit D	Vit E	Vit K	Vit B6	Vit B12	Folate	Choline
American Breakfast	2700*	125	50*	0.4*	3*	1	0.5	280	70
Grain-Free Breakfast	10000	250	70	8	184	2	3	330	560

Once again, the omelet, bacon, and guacamole trump the oatmeal and fruit in every category!

You’ll also notice an asterisk in the vitamin A, D, K, and E categories. The oatmeal breakfast offers less of these vitamins but also lacks the fat and cholesterol necessary to activate and absorb these 4 fat-soluble vitamins.

The American breakfast offers far less B vitamins, and folate, which is problematic since carbohydrates use up B vitamins in their processing. It is common for Americans that don’t consume enough animal products, yet eat a large amount of grains, to require vitamin b supplements and sometimes even injections.

Finally, let’s look at the minerals offered by each meal:

Meal	Calcium	Magnesium	Phosphorus	Potassium	Zinc	Copper	Manganese	Selenium
American Breakfast	500*	160	590	1300	2.9	0.5	2	24
Grain-Free Breakfast	170	120	600	1700	4.4	0.8	0.8	75

The oatmeal and fruit offers more in 3 categories! Grains are an excellent source of magnesium and manganese, while dairy provides a substantial amount of calcium.

I have once again put an asterisk next to calcium. Dairy and grains create a very acidic environment in the body, potentially leaching calcium from the bones.

The omelet and guacamole offer more minerals in total…but a daily serving of nuts may help shore up the few shortcomings.

As evidenced by this side-by-side comparison of a Standard American Diet breakfast, and a breakfast based around plants, animal products, and healthy fats, grains are not necessary.

There are a few minerals that are more abundant in grains which may support an argument for their occasional inclusion, but the idea that we should eat 6 to 11 servings a day is ludicrous.

Whether we look at carbohydrate load, inflammatory factors, or nutrients, grains clearly are not the “heart healthy” option we have been told.

Next time you’re contemplating what to make for breakfast, crack a few eggs and fry up some bacon – I’ve never heard someone complain that these foods aren’t more tasty…and now we know they are healthier too!

5 Simple Nutrition Tips

This week, I’d like to take a break from the in-depth exploration of such misunderstood topics such as cholesterol or dietary fats. Also, I don’t want to become a target for pharmaceutical companies or dieticians that are waging a misguided “war on cholesterol”! Hahaha.

Instead, I’m going to list some interesting and simple steps you can take to improve the nutritional value of every meal.

• When using garlic, crush it to maximize surface area, expose it to the air until it turns green, and add it to your food after the cooking process. The most beneficial compound in garlic, allinase, is damaged during cooking, minimizing some of its amazing health benefits.

• Try not to drink excess water during meals. Water will dilute the stomachs natural digestive enzymes and cold water will lower stomach acidity, further interfering with proper digestion.

• Start every day with a healthy serving of protein and fat. The protein will prime your neurotransmitters, releasing dopamine and serotonin, resulting in improved mood. The fat will keep you full, improving leptin signaling and stabilizing blood sugar, eliminating intense sugar cravings or energy crashes later in the day.

• I’ve mentioned this one before but try to consume your olive oil in its raw, unheated form. Olive oil is predominately monounsaturated fats that can become oxidized. High quality olive oil will sacrifice its antioxidants to protect the fat molecules, but this will limit its benefits.

• Use balsamic vinegar to season meat or dress vegetables. Vinegar will increase stomach acidity, thereby improving digestion. It will also mitigate blood sugar spikes and improve carbohydrate tolerance. Balsamic vinegar has many other health benefits but I’ll save those for another post.

Well, I think I’ll cap this post at 5 nutrition tips. I kind of like this idea (thanks to my follower that recommended it!) and I’ll continue this theme with other health topics as well.

Hopefully these simple steps can help you improve the quality of your meals without requiring extreme planning or expensive / exotic inputs!

I’ll be visiting my family (and trying to stay as health-conscious as possible) during Thanksgiving, so I’ll see you all again in two weeks. Have a good holiday!

Insulin Resistance

Two phrases I’ve used quite a lot, and never fully explained, are “insulin resistance” and “insulin sensitivity”. If you know what these terms mean, and how to alter them, you can drastically improve your metabolism, and by extension, your health.

Perhaps you’ve heard the term insulin resistance before as it is commonly understood as a part of diabetes. This is a rather limited view of a complex process.

Whenever food is consumed, the pancreas releases insulin to notify the cells of the body to absorb and store nutrients. This process is particularly active whenever sugars are consumed because they must be used immediately or stored to prevent their toxic characteristics from damaging the body. However, if glycogen stores are already full, cells become resistant to this insulin, meaning they can’t absorb more, and the sugars ends up flooding the bloodstream. This starts a dangerous cycle where the pancreas continues to produce more insulin in an attempt to clear the sugars from the bloodstream and, eventually, the sugars are forced into fat storage.

An important detail to note is that, for average people, fat accumulation in the body is not attributable to consumption of dietary fat, but rather the overconsumption of carbohydrates that are all broken down into sugars.

This process of insulin release is repeated until the cells in the body cannot utilize fat as energy and the entire metabolic system becomes dependent on constant sugar feedings or insulin injections…also known as Type II diabetes.

During this process, the arteries harden from the inflammatory and toxic nature of sugars, causing atherosclerosis. Nerve damage can ensue, leading to blindness. Also, the cells become resistant to amino acids so the muscles can’t even use protein.

Some symptoms of insulin resistance include:

• An energy crash, feeling of low-blood sugar, brain-fog, or fatigue within a few hours of consuming a large carb meal.
• Increased hunger and sugar cravings.
• Weight accumulation, particularly around the midsection and hips.
• Elevated triglycerides, blood pressure, and blood sugar.

Insulin and carbs are not inherently bad. They both serve an important purpose of storing energy for intense activity or times of stress and famine. However, it is estimated that for the first 200,000 years of our existence, humans consumed about 80 grams of carbs a day (varying by location). These carb were in the form of tough, fibrous vegetables and roots. The insulin release would be so minor that the cells of the body would stay primed to receive glucose.

Insulin sensitivity is the exact opposite of insulin resistance. Insulin sensitivity suggests that the muscles are prepared to absorb glucose from the bloodstream with the aid of insulin.

I will list the most effective ways of promoting insulin sensitivity:

• Moderating carb intake based on activity level.
• Short periods of fasting where the body is encouraged to use fat as energy and break sugar dependence.
• Consuming nutritious carbs such as fruits and vegetables that also contain fiber, mitigating insulin release.
• Eating enough fat with every meal to blunt insulin secretion.
• High-intensity interval training during which the body can only use glycogen as fuel.
• Weight-lifting and other forms of exercise that place a demand upon the muscles and trains the metabolism to partition nutrients.

To put these tactics into a real-world context, I will explain my approach to maintaining insulin sensitivity:

On days I don’t work out, I limit my carb intake to a couple pieces of fruit and fibrous carbs. On my training days, I consume a large carb meal within 30 minutes of my workout to replenish glycogen stores.

On Friday, I have my last meal around 8 PM. On Saturday, around 11 AM, I walk to a steep hill where I do 10 to 15 sprint intervals in a fasted state. I walk home, stretch, shower, and have breakfast about an hour after my workout. In all, I fast about 16 hours. I’ll discuss fasting in another post because it can be a very effective, but potentially risky, method of improving health.

There are many other factors that can contribute to insulin resistance including vitamin D deficiency, heightened cortisol, highly acidic diets (building meals around grains instead of vegetables), consumption of trans-fats and oxidized poly-fats, and omega-3 deficiency.

Some studies suggest high-fat diets are a leading cause of insulin resistance but these studies merely replaced each gram of carbs with a gram of fat, resulting in an enormous calorie excess due to the fact that fats have 9 calories per gram and carbs only have 4. The most reliable study I have come across shows that after 12 weeks of replacing grains and dairy with vegetables and fruits, a type 2 diabetes diagnosis was completely reversed…meaning the body became insulin sensitive again.

So, if you experience sugar cravings or a blood sugar crash after eating, maybe try eating lower carb on the days you aren’t as active. Also, try to substitute nutritious carbs, such as vegetables and fruits, for less nutritious foods such as soda and snack bars filled with sugars and grains. Finally, throw in a tough workout every few days to create a demand within the muscles for any carbs you consume.

If you’d like me to recommend a more specific carb intake for your activity level, let me know!

Carbohydrates

Time to discuss the third and final macronutrient – carbohydrates!

Carbs are the only macronutrient that is not essential for life. However, this does not mean they are not an important part of a healthy diet.

There are many different forms of carbs but, let’s look at the top 3 that make up most foods.

There are starchy carbs like potatoes and grains. These contain glucose which is stored as muscle glycogen and used as fuel. The brain needs a small amount of glucose (about 30 grams a day) but this can be converted from protein via gluconeogenesis. The body can store between 300 and 500 grams of glycogen in the muscles.

There are sugary carbs such as fruit and honey. These contain fructose which is stored as liver glycogen but can also be hepatotoxic in high amounts. This isn’t a problem when consuming a few pieces of fruit but, soda, loaded with high fructose corn syrup can overwhelm the liver. The sugar floods the blood stream, causes a sugar spike and crash, accompanied with fatigue and hunger, and is ultimately stored as body fat. For this reason, I avoid processed foods containing sugar and enjoy fruit as a desert or pre-workout snack.

Finally, there are fibrous carbs such as vegetables. These have much more fiber which regulates healthy digestive function and stabilizes blood sugar. Vegetables are one of the most nutrient dense food groups next to maybe mussels or offal. When I eliminated grains, I simply replaced them with extra veggies…adding more fiber, vitamins, minerals, and color to every meal!

Most plants contain a combination of these. For example, an orange is about 70% sugar, 10% starch, and 20% fiber. A white potato is about 5% sugar, 80% starch, and 15% fiber. A cup of spinach is about 10% sugar, 10% starch, and 80% fiber.

To determine carb intake level, let’s examine goals and activity levels.

When the heart rate rises above 65% of its max (a brisk walking pace) the body starts burning more carbs than fat…at 65% it burns a 50/50 mix. An hour of walking burns approximately 250 calories and carbs have 4 calories per gram, so, about 30g of carbs are burnt in that one hour.

You don’t have to do all these calculations but it’s clear that, unless you are an athlete, you won’t be emptying your glycogen stores regularly.

The government recommends 65% of your calories come from carbs. This means, if you eat 2000 calories a day, you should consume 325 grams of carbs – more than most people could possibly utilize in one day!

If you are an athlete or attempting to gain weight, maybe 40-50% of calories from carbs may be beneficial. When I am attempting to gain muscle, I have about a pound of potatoes in every meal (totaling 300-400g carbs a day) to stimulate an insulin release. Insulin is a good topic for another post but, simply put, it helps shuttle nutrients to different parts of the body. If you are eating clean and training hard, the nutrients will be sent to the muscles. However, if you’re eating processed foods and not creating an adequate stimulus to recover from, the insulin forces excess calories into fat stores.

If fat loss is the goal, less carbs will make this easier due to the satiating nature and blood sugar stabilizing effect of protein and healthy fats. Perhaps have a sweet potato or piece of fruit post workout but focus mostly on meat and vegetables.

If the prevention or reversal of blood pressure or blood sugar issues is a concern, low carb eating would be advisable. Also, the blood sugar spike from too many carbs causes an increase in triglyceride levels in the blood, contributing to unfavorable cholesterol levels.

There are certain conditions or diseases that are treated by lowering carb intake. Epileptics are often put on ketogenic diets, consuming less than 50 grams of carbs a day, to prevent seizures. Forms of cancer require glucose so patients may be advised to restrict carbs to literally starve their cancer.

At this point, I would like to reiterate, I am not a doctor. I am merely suggesting you do a little research to understand the science behind your condition and bring this information to your doctor so both of you can make an informed decision together.

It is my opinion that most Americans consume more carbs than they need and this, in part, causes many modern health issues. However, I want this blog to be objective and useful for everyone; regardless of what I believe is best. So, like everything else – experiment.

For a couple months every year, I consume zero carbs (besides vegetables) to prime my fat metabolism and lean out. Other times of the year, when local starches, fruits, and grass-fed dairy are available, I consume more carbs.

I feel that a moderate level of carbs (around 150 grams a day) is optimal for exercise recovery and weight maintenance; low carb is ideal for leanness, stable energy, and mood; and high carb is best for muscle gain or frequent high-intensity training.  But, let me know what works best for you!

Well, that should do it for the 3 macronutrient groups. I tried to keep the info as simple as possible while still offering real-world application. As always, feel free to contact me directly for more specifics to satisfy your curiosity or to achieve your goals!

Going forward, I will continue to shoot for 1 post a week but will vary my topics more. If an interesting study is discussed in the news, I may dissect it. If one of my clients has remarkable success with a specific training protocol, I’ll talk about that. If I come up with a new recipe that is particularly tasty, I’ll share it with you…

I guarantee this blog will always be a source of valuable information. To stay up to date, just click the “+ Follow” in the right-hand corner and every post will be emailed directly to you.

Thanks!