Simple Steps to Decrease Your Hunger and Increase Your Energy on the Go

Photo Credit: https://goo.gl/4J08lU

So you flew out of the door in the morning, barely making it to work on time, and you didn’t have time to prepare lunch or anything to hold you over throughout the day.  By the time lunch rolls around, you’re dying of hunger pangs and ready to scarf down anything accessible for lunch.  Priorities about the quality of food quickly go out the window, and the illusive sandwich and chips are in (and that may be even considered a good day)… And then you wonder why you’re hungry and in need of coffee just a couple hours later, not to mention you can’t seem to shed the unwanted fat in those problem areas.  You think there’s a connection here?  

Now most people view a sandwich and some granola bars throughout the day as healthy.  Unfortunately for most people, this means the simple carbohydrates and gluten (from processed wheat flour) replace other nutrient-dense, energy-sustaining foods that should be the bulk of the diet.  The quick spike in blood sugar sparks feel-good endorphins right after the meal, but then shortly after the spiked blood sugar falls back below baseline, and a snack, sugary drink, or some other pick-me-up seems necessary (see figure below).  And yet a different decision for lunch could avoid the drop in energy and the desire for snacking altogether, meanwhile allowing the cutting of fat, boosting of energy, and reducing of inflammation to take place much more effectively.  

My challenge to you: try eating a high-healthy fat meal with lots of veggies and moderate protein for one week (we’ve made it easy for you by providing examples below).  Note the difference in how you feel toward the end of the day.  You’ll be surprised how much more energy you have, and in turn how much more productive you’ll be.

Now back to the problem at hand: you flew out of your home this morning, and you didn’t have time to cook a high-quality, high sustained energy meal for the road… Now just give up and go buy some Subway right?  No, actually there are plenty of options available, and more becoming available, so that you can still feel good and cut fat throughout the day:

“Fast Food”

Today there are many more options for decent food fast than ever before.  Chipotle is serving organic veggies, humanely harvested meats, and pastured dairy in assembly-line fashion.  Skip the tortilla and other starchy carbs, and go straight to the greens and meat.  Throw on extra guacamole, and even lots of pastured cheese and sour cream if you tolerate lactose well.

You can take a similar approach with many other Mexican or Mexican-hybrid spots too.  Order the carne asada, onions, cilantro, and guacamole, and tell me how life could possibly be better.  It tastes delicious and best of all, you’ll be energized instead of lethargic afterward.

Even traditional fast-food spots are starting to key into this concept: that people care about not being fat and eating quality foods.  If you’re in a grind and wanting a burger, also check out Carl’s Jr.’s “all-natural” burger, which is from grass-fed cows.  Throw a lettuce wrap on it in place of the bun, money.  

Salad

The traditional salad has very little calories and by no means provides a sufficient lunch

meal on its own (for me, and most others I know at least)… We also don’t want our body trying to slow our metabolism down to deal with the greatly reduced calories.  So load this salad with some wild fish, some grass-fed steak, or some pastured chicken if you have access.  Even more importantly though, make sure to throw in PLENTY of fats.  Extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, avocados and/or avocado oil – throw a generous amount on there!

Soup and Other Leftovers

Especially for cooler days, throw a bunch of veggies together with some of that grass-fed ground beef and some broth.  Bring a thermos with you and you shouldn’t even have to heat it up.

Plan on making extra for your dinner, and thrown it in some glass Tupperware for the next day.  Some grass-fed meat, steamed veggies, and a ton of grass-fed butter are pretty good the next day too!

Avoid Snacking When Possible

If you’re eating the right foods, you should be able to teach your body to go without food for much longer than you’re probably used to.  The problem is that you’ve trained your body to eat every couple hours, and it’s conditioned to think it’s going to die if no more food is coming in.  Believe it or not, this is a strong sign of your metabolic health.  You should not be getting super tired and lightheaded if your meal ends up being a couple hours later.  

That said, there are going to be times when you need that extra boost of energy, and you want something to stop your stomach from yelling at you.  When in need, the following options are good go-to’s:

• Water or tea.  Yes, hydrating yourself is a good thing.  You can even throw in some MCT oil in there to give you some quickly converted ketones for your brain to use for energy.

• Raw almonds and other raw organic nuts.  Avoid peanuts though, as these are actually not nuts at all, but rather legumes.  Without getting into details, we want to avoid substances that increase the permeability of our stomach lining and cause inflammation as much as possible.  

• Avocados.  Avocados are simply amazing.  They’re a great source of healthy fat that will keep you going with a sustained high level of energy.  Cut it open and throw some sea salt, some pepper, and maybe some cayenne or paprika, and you got one of the best snacks ever.  

• Raw grass fed cheese.  Again, if you tolerate it, pastured dairy is an awesome staple.  

Alright, those are just some ideas for how to get you through the day when you left unprepared.  Be creative, and let us know some of your solutions to being on the go too!

In Excellent Health,

Garrett & Luc

The Little-Known Exercise Recovery Tool You're Not Using Yet

We know you know how important sleep is. Good sleep will not only help you reduce your risk for obesity and diabetes, it’ll help you recover from your workouts too. But what if there was something else you could do to help you recover that took little to no effort?  Well, that tool is here, and you probably already have it.... you just haven’t used it to your advantage yet.

Two weeks ago I did a Full Body Workout.  This workout is extremely tiring and exhausting.  So exhausting that I literally have trouble walking after only one set of leg press. That night I wore compression leggings (tight full-length spandex pants) to sleep.  The next night I woke up and for the first time in months I wasn’t sore in my legs!  I figured, ‘oh what the hell,’ and wore them the next night.   Keep in mind that soreness typically hits me the second day after a workout much worse than the first day after--this is what’s known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS.)  Despite this, the next day my legs weren’t sore either...so what gives?  Could this mean I actually recovered faster?

Well before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s be good critical thinkers and bare in mind a few things:

1. This may be correlative and not causative (if A occurs and B occurs, it doesn’t necessarily mean that A causes B)

2. I ate a ton that night and that may have aided recovery (more nutrients for rebuilding and repairing)

3. There could have been several other unknown factors that sped up recovery (playing devil’s advocate)

With that said, it has been shown that compression does, in fact, aid in recovery. In one study it was shown that compression garments not only decreased perceived muscle soreness post workout, but helped the fast-fatiguing/fast-twitch muscles recover quicker as well.  These are the muscles that take the longest to recover so the fact that compression garments sped up recovery is very worthwhile. A meta-analysis also found similar findings across twelve different individual studies.

So we have evidence that it works but many times why something is effective is much more important than that something is effective.  Knowing the why many times can provide way more clarity and allow connections to be made between seemingly disparate subjects of interest.  Knowing this, what is the mechanism for compression speeding up recovery?  Well, it’s not entirely known but one theory is that blood flow may increase, thereby providing more oxygen and nutrients for repair and rebuilding.

Armed with this knowledge, try using compression when you lift heavy or do powerful movements (like sprinting or jumping.)  When performing these powerful movements or high intensity exercises, you are using your fast-fatiguing/fast-twitch muscles.  These muscles take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to fully recover! (seems like a good idea to get a head start on recovering, right?)  So after your next high intensity workout, wear some compression clothing and let us know how you feel!

In Excellent Health,

Garrett & Luc

3 Ways Sugar is Increasing Your Body Fat

Sugar is delicious.  I love sugar, you love sugar, we all love sugar.  And it’s easy to love it.  Not only is it delicious, but we get a nice buzz when we have it.  Literally.  When we consume sugar, opioid receptors light up in our brains, similar to how our brains respond to heroin or morphine. But that uncontrolled love of sugar could be making you fat. The top three reasons why sugar  makes you fat are:

1. Excess sugar is converted to body fat

2. Sugar is linked to insulin resistance and obesity

3. Sugar feeds “bad” gut bacteria

This will all be explained.  We’ll dig deeper into the top three reasons why sugar is making you fat but first, a crash course in carbohydrates is shown below in the figure from a meta-analysis in Nutrients, an open access journal of human nutrition.  It shows how each carbohydrate is processed in the body and the associated effects on the body.

Photo Credit: http://goo.gl/wYKVSw

There are different types of carbohydrates but for now we’ll focus on the left-hand side in the chart above, labeled Sugars. Sugars, also called simple carbohydrates, tend to taste pretty sweet.  A major one of these sugars that you’ve probably heard of is fructose, commonly found in fruit.  Although it’s pure sugar, it doesn’t cause a rise in blood sugar levels (another type of sugar (glucose) does raise blood sugar levels, which we discuss below.)  Instead it’s commonly sent to the liver, converted to triglycerides and stored as fat.  This mechanism is thought by many to be an evolutionary adaptation to have extra fat stores on hand with winter on the way, particularly because there won’t be fruit for months on end.  As you follow the fructose chain down in the flowchart, you can see that it can lead to not only insulin resistance but high blood pressure as well.  

Glucose is also a big player in the sugar world.  This, unlike fructose, causes a rise in blood sugar levels.  In fact, the term blood sugar is interchangeably used with blood glucose since glucose is what directly raises blood sugar/glucose.  Like fructose, it’s absorbed very quickly, increases hunger and can lead to overeating.  It also dramatically raises insulin levels to counteract the rise in blood glucose.

Polysaccharides, also known as complex carbohydrates, are big groups of sugars.  These are are called starches, and some of these starches are slow digesting (SDS), some are rapidly digesting (RDS) and some are just plain resistant to any digesting (RS).  We’ll dive into these in another post but for now just know they exist.  And they can be very beneficial for you for a host of reasons.

The slow digesting starches are great because although they will raise your blood glucose and insulin levels, it’ll be less than what other carbohydrates will do.  In terms of your body’s response, rapidly digesting starches create responses similar to simple sugars. Resistance starches are what only your stomach is not able to digest it.  Instead, it’s processed by bacteria in your intestines and converted to fatty acids for use in your colon.

So now that you have a primer in simple carbohydrates (sugar), let’s explore the three points at the beginning.

Excess sugar is converted to body fat

A certain amount of glucose is stored as glycogen in our muscles.  The glycogen (strings of glucose/sugar molecules) in our muscles gets quickly used for energy when needed for physical activity.  So if you start to do a squat, your body will use the glycogen stored in your thighs and butt as energy for that movement. This store of energy isn’t unlimited though--there’s a cap on how much glycogen we can store in our muscles.  Once this limit is reached, the excess glucose is converted to body fat.  

Also remember that fructose is commonly converted to triglycerides in the liver and then stored as fat.  Fructose is found in all fruits, but particularly the very sweet ones. Additionally, fructose does a poor job in making us feel full since it doesn’t trigger the release of insulin or leptin (the hormone that tells us we’ve eaten enough), thus you’re more likely to overeat.

So excess amounts of two main sugars--both glucose and fructose--can increase body fat.

Sugar is linked to insulin resistance and obesity

Your body likes to maintain homeostasis (balance), so when your blood glucose level rises, insulin is released from the pancreas to bring blood glucose back down.  But eating excessive amounts of carbohydrates, and especially sugars, will blunt this insulin response.  Eventually, your body figures that glucose levels are chronically high and it becomes resistant to insulin.  This is called insulin resistance or pre-diabetes. This is commonplace in many Western societies today and many times insulin resistance and obesity go hand-in-hand.  

Sugar feeds “bad” gut bacteria

You have over 100 trillion bacteria living in your gut (colon) that compose your microbiome.  They can impact everything from food digestion, to your immune system, and risk for metabolic and mental health syndromes.  So there is food that feeds that “good” bacteria, but there is also food that feeds the “bad” bacteria.  Sugar feeds the “bad” bacteria when it enters your gut because it’s preferentially used by them as fuel.  These bad bacteria become stronger and multiply, directly increasing your risk for obesity.

Bringing together these three reasons why sugar is making you fat you can see that:

• If you eat too much sugar and don’t deplete your glycogen stores, it’ll convert to body fat

• Eating too much sugar can lead to obesity and insulin resistance, thereby causing even more fat gain

• Sugar feeds bad gut bacteria, which can immediately lead to fat gain

We’re not saying that carbs and sugars are the enemy, because they’re not.  Carbohydrates and sugar have their time and place in a diet focused on longevity and optimal performance.  What we’re saying is that the dose makes the poison--and a ton of people are poisoned by excessive sugar.    

So we have some compelling arguments showing why sugar is making you fat. But what can you do about it?  

1. Eat a “whole food” diet.  Sugar is commonly added to processed foods and is hidden in everything from yogurt to tomato sauce.  Eating whole foods, foods with one ingredient, will put you in a much better position to know what you’re eating.  Some brands of processed eggs have a half dozen ingredients.  A whole egg has one ingredient--the egg itself!

2. Limit sugar intake to small amounts of nutrient-dense fruits in the evening.  By far the most nutrient fruits are the dark, tart berries.  Although these berries have sugar in them, they also have a ton antioxidants and micronutrients seldom found elsewhere.  Like we said, the dose makes the poison, and it’s excess sugar that’s poisonous.  Having a handful of raspberries, cherries, and blueberries will get you vital nutrients.  And limiting the amount will ensure the sugar isn’t going to contribute to body fat.

3. Eat 50% or more of your calories from healthy fat. Our bodies process two things for energy: fats and carbohydrates.  Getting the majority of energy from healthy fat ensures that you’ll be satiated because of the leptin release (hormone that tells you you’re full) and will help to prevent overeating. Because you won’t be overeating on a high healthy fat diet, there won’t be any excess dietary fats to convert to body fat either. It’s a win-win situation!

Armed with this knowledge of why sugar is making you fat and the action steps of how to not fall victim to sugar, which action step will you try first? Eating whole foods? Making a few berries at night the majority of all the sugar you eat? Or eating a diet high in healthy fats like grass-fed pastured butter? Let us know in the comments how you’ll stop sugar from making you fat!

In Excellent Health,

Garrett & Luc

The #1 Tool for Losing Body Fat That You Haven't Tried

What is the one thing you probably haven't tried in your quest to lose body fat? If you ask most people the best way to lose fat, they’ll say to go on a diet. The term, “diet” for most people is synonymous with reducing caloric intake. However a “diet” can have nothing to do with calorie intake and only refer to following a particular eating plan or eating schedule.  And in fact, the most effective diets are ones which people don’t have to consciously be concerned with regularly reducing calories.  

We’re all familiar with the “yo-yo effect,” where upon losing weight, a person balloons back up again.  It’s pretty easy to see how this might happen, since most people lose weight by eating little amounts of boring, unsatiating foods.  And after achieving their fat-loss goals their hormones are telling them the famine is over and it’s time to start eating again!

One of the other major concerns with simply reducing daily calories is that the body tends to try to slow down its energy processes (metabolism) with this reduced energy intake, and so it may become seemingly impossible to lose the weight in the first place. This has been termed “starvation mode” by many, and it makes sense intuitively that the body would start to reduce its use for energy as much as possible when it feels it’s in a state of famine. There are a variety of possible mechanisms for how this might happen regarding hormones and specifically thyroid function. We can get more into these details at another time. But what's important to remember is that you want to reduce your energy intake to the point where your body uses your own energy stores, but not in a way that makes you slow down the rate at which you consume energy... How do we do this? What is the one thing you probably haven’t tried in your quest to lose body fat?  Well one approach you probably haven’t tried is termed intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting (IF) is the process of expanding your window between meals.   IF can be a period of not eating for a short duration, for example missing breakfast, or it can be extended to longer periods without eating, like 24 or even 36 hours.  Now one of the key factors in this process is that you want to be in good hormonal and metabolic health before you start.  You could end up doing more damage than good if this is not the case, and it will also be much more difficult for you too.  This means you should not be adrenally fatigued, i.e., low on sleep with lots of stress in your life, and your body must know how to burn its own fat for energy...  You teach your body this ahead of time by regularly eating a clean, nutrient dense, high-healthy-fat diet, low enough in carbohydrates to force conversion of fatty acids to energy throughout the day.

Once you’re here, you can try out skipping breakfast, breakfast and lunch, or even breakfast, lunch and dinner in a given day.  Since your body is used to converting fat to energy, and with your body used to getting normal amounts of daily calories in, you will readily shift to pulling your own body fat for energy.  You will literally be burning body fat for energy without even exercising.  After the IF session, go back to eating your regular healthy diet, and show your body it doesn’t have to be in a state of famine.  

In a given week with one or more IF sessions, you will have decreased your total calorie intake by a significant amount, meanwhile maintaining your high level of energy and metabolic health.  And in fact, in addition to the fat loss, you will have spurred a variety of other health benefits as well!  IF has been shown to have positive effects for increasing longevity through the mechanisms below, just to name a few:

Increasing insulin sensitivity

This is one of the main measures of metabolic health.The less insulin sensitive you are, the more likely you are to store carbohydrates and sugars as body fat, and the closer you are to Type 2 Diabetes.

Clearing out the bad/defective cells in your body (autophagy)

Autophagy is one of your body’s defense mechanisms against cancer, in which dysfunctional or unneeded cells are destroyed.  In some cases, autophagy triggers cell death of potentially cancerous cells.

Detox

Intermittent fasting can promote detoxification by allowing your body to process its natural detox mechanisms (this is one of the reasons juice fasts and others tend to make people feel better).  These processes work much more efficiently when there’s an extended time in which they’re not being flooded by environmental toxins from food!

Stimulation of FOXO3 Proteins

The lower insulin levels means more Foxo3 regulator activity.  These regulator proteins are involved in healthy glucose metabolism, the autophagy discussed above, and detoxing and cleaning up oxidative stressors, DNA repair, and even creating new neurons in the brain!   

Hormesis

Hormesis is the term used to indicate acute stress that can be beneficial for the body.  Refer to the “The Secret to Living Over 100” post for why acute inflammation or acute stress (as opposed to long-term, chronic stress) can help you to live longer and resist disease.  

So in addition to being a great tool for losing body fat, IF offers a slew of other health benefits.  Give Intermittent Fasting a try when you’re healthy and ready if you haven’t yet, and let us know how it went for you.  Did you try 12 hours?  24?  Or 36?  What did you find was the most manageable, and how did you feel? You’re not only on your way to losing body fat, but better overall health too!

In Excellent Health,

Garrett & Luc

The Secret to Living Over 100

Photo Credit: http://goo.gl/FicsxH

What is the secret formula to living over a century old? Is it the Mediterranean diet?  Drinking green tea?  Eating lots of fish?  Reducing stress… meditation??  Cultures, diets, and superfoods are all brought under investigation when trying to answer this question.  Is there a commonality that is shared by all those aging past 100?  A recent study shows that regardless of the approach you choose, the key commonality for centenarians is keeping down chronic inflammation.  

Okay, there are plenty of studies showing the links between inflammation in the body and most every disease we fear as a society (1, 2, 3).  The research shows us that reactive oxygen and nitrogen species put oxidative (inflammatory) stress on our DNA, which can lead to mutations and eventually cancer.  There are links to more plaque in our arteries due to oxidized LDL cholesterol and calcium deposits, stemming back to inflammation.  We can associate overexcitation and death of brain neurons to inflammation in the brain.  

But here’s the thing... When we get an infection, we need inflammation in order to attack the pathogen and survive.  When we exercise, acute inflammation at the muscle sites and the various cascade reactions are what make exercise good for us.  So what’s the deal?  We need inflammation to be healthy, and yet we can’t have inflammation otherwise we’ll die at an earlier age??  Yeah… kind of.  

The key is whether the inflammation is acute (quick and intense) or chronic (persistent and long-lasting).  We tend to benefit from inflammation when we are able to use it as a means of a quick repair, but we can develop severe systemic problems in our bodies if the inflammation is constantly present.  Think of a prompt tune-up to your squeaking car brakes as opposed to an air filter that’s been clogged for a long time and leads to overheating and all kinds of internal problems to the engine.  When we think of this analogy in the context of our bodies and aging, It becomes pretty clear that chronic (rather than acute) inflammation doesn’t mesh well with long-term well-being.  

The study at Newcastle University's Institute for Ageing studied markers for chronic inflammation along with other markers for heart-disease, metabolic syndrome, liver function, telomere length (which has been shown to directly indicate chronological age) and several others in people between 50 and 115, and it was shown that low levels of systemic inflammation were the most important marker for longevity.  

So the answer is keep your inflammation low, but then, naturally… how do you do that?  Well this is where eating a low-inflammatory diet, keeping your stress down, and keeping your acute inflammatory response intact comes in.  In short, this means absolutely no processed foods (eat whole foods with one ingredient), exercising (intense effort that stimulates acute oxidative stress), and keeping your stress low (via meditation, playing or prayer).  These are just some ideas to help you live longer, but we know you have plenty of ideas as well.  What strategies are you going to use to make it to 100?

The #1 Reason You’re Not Getting Stronger

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that 20% of the inputs create 80% of the results.  This can be shown in everything from the places you go (you’ll visit 20% of all the places you go 80% of the time, i.e., work/home/grocery store); to the food you eat (you’ll eat 20% of all the food you like 80% of the time, i.e., consider your typical breakfast); to the people you hang out with (you’ll kick it with 20% of all your friends 80% of the time). And this is true for many other cases as well. Especially when it comes to exercise.

Take for instance strength training.  There are a myriad of different set schemes for strength training out there: progressive overload, supersets, drop sets, pyramid sets, 5x5--the list goes on and on and on.  Well, what if there was one way to get the most out of your strength training?  What if all these “sophisticated” set variations add complexity but don’t add results? If you look at the Pareto Principle, you might guess that only 20% of the different set schemes would give you 80% of your results.  Or even taking it a step further, only 20% of the sets would give you 80% of your results.  What if instead of doing five sets of five reps, you just did one set?  Or instead of three sets of twelve reps, you just did one set?  And what if you got the same strength increase from each?

Funny you should ask! The effectiveness of just a single set is exactly what has been proven time and time again.  In one such study that lasted 10 weeks, 1 set was proven to be just as statistically significant, i.e., effective, as 3 sets for hypertrophy (muscle size increase) and strength gain. In a separate study lasting 6 weeks, 1 set of a leg press done once per week was shown to be as effective as 1 set done twice per week.  Another study showed the same benefits of training once per week versus twice per week and three times per week.

But that’s not all folks.  A meta analysis that examined training durations of 4 weeks all the way up to 25 weeks showed that just a single set was all that was needed. In fact, the researchers even went out of their way to specifically state that “there is little scientific evidence, and no theoretical physiological basis, to suggest that a greater volume of exercise elicits greater increases in strength or hypertrophy.”  

So what are we really saying here? That all the different types of sets and different set schemes out there aren’t needed?  Well, if you’re looking to increase muscle strength and size then yes, that’s exactly what we’re saying.  The research has clearly shown that a single set is just as effective as three and is just as effective as five.  It’s also shown that you only need to do that single set once per week.  What that one set looks like in terms of weight, repetitions, duration, and intensity will be explored in a future post. Just know that there’s a minimum effective dose that exists--more does not necessarily equal better.

But you might be saying to yourself now “yeah, that’s fine, but I like working out and being in the gym.”  That’s awesome and we absolutely applaud you for that.  The effort and determination is there.  But doing too much in the gym may be the one reason you’re not getting stronger.  When you break down your muscle tissue with strength training, it takes a while for your body to heal itself, synthesize proteins, and build new muscle.  This process can take anywhere from a few days for slow fatiguing (commonly known as slow twitch) muscle fibers to a even several weeks for super fast (fast twitch) fatiguing muscle fibers.  

Lifting just once per week allows your body not only to repair your muscles, but make sure you come back stronger.  It’s easy to see now why people plateau in their strength numbers--they’re simply doing too much!  So with all that being said, the question now is are you going to lift less so you can lift more?

In Excellent Health,

Garrett & Luc

Is Your Detox Diet Actually Hurting You?

Today we're talking about detox diets: what they are, where they go wrong, and what you can do about it!

In Excellent Health,
Garrett & Luc

Was Mom Right When it Comes to Drinking Your Milk?

A question that comes up often is, “What’s your opinion about milk?”  We’ll take a shot at answering that for you and provide some context for a more informed decision when it comes to dairy.

So there’s the whole argument that no other mammal drinks milk after infancy.  Okay, fair point.  Let’s be frank though… we humans pull a lot of shenanigans which other mammals wouldn’t dare to do throughout life. Are other animals advised to get 8 glasses of water a day?  Do they eat 3 meals a day, or more, or do they snack?  Do they have to take vitamins?  Or minerals?  This is just some of the conventional health advice that comes our way that people generally seem to accept without questioning.  And yet if we were to use the same logic as that proposed above for milk, none of these pieces of advice would make sense either, would they?  

Whether the examples of health advice above make sense or not is beside the point and will be reserved for later discussion.  But resting on the argument that milk is unnecessary after infancy simply because of how other animals live their lives is incomplete at best.  What if being human allows us to take advantage of the health benefits from something that other animals can’t have?  Should we simply not eat it because of that?  Well, one could perhaps make that argument as well, but we prefer to look at the research and the mechanisms to gage whether we should or shouldn’t consume something...

Alright so… what about milk?  The short answer is: It depends.  One thing we know for sure is that everyone tolerates food items differently.  We’ll try not to get too far into the details, but we want to give you just enough info to allow our answer to make sense (this will be a common theme).

First, there are three main components in milk that have the potential to be an issue (along with a few more subtle, more “sciency” ones that we won’t go into, i.e., casein A1 beta-casein vs. A2 beta-casein, DHT precursors, etc.):

1. Lactose: About 65% of the human population does not tolerate lactose after infancy.  Lactose is the sugar in milk that if you don’t have particular enzymes to break down, you’ll likely experience many, let’s say, gastrointestinal issues…

2. Casein:  About 80% of the protein in milk is casein.  People who have “dairy allergies” are reacting to the casein.  Although I used to love casein as a slow-digesting protein for muscle recovery during sleep, casein has been linked directly to cancer growth in a number of studies.  One overwhelming fact about cancer though is that it likes taking the body’s nutrients -- it’s pretty good at stealing nutrients from surrounding cells.  Despite this, cancer cannot derive energy from fat… but that’s a topic for another discussion.  So it’s not necessarily fair to deduce that anything correlated to cancer growth is bad for people who don’t currently have cancer. That said, we do think it is warranted as something to be a little weary of.

3. Industrial Dairy Farms: Alright, so this is really the kicker for why I went from having about 4-5 gallons of milk a week to none at all for a long time.  Industrial, factory-produced milk generally comes from sick, antibiotic-fed, hormone-fed, herbicide enriched corn/grain-fed cows.  Sorry to say, what that cow eats, you most assuredly eat as well.  Additionally, the milk is then pasteurized, destroying all of the beneficial enzymes (which could otherwise be very advantageous for the immune system and gut flora), along with many of the vitamins and minerals in milk.  Additionally, the fatty acids and would-be healthy cholesterol become rancid through the pasteurization process.  

All of that said, milk has the potential to deliver many healthy vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, proteins, and enzymes if it’s from the right source. In fact if it’s from the right source, it’s arguably a superfood.  For those who tolerate milk (note it’s going to be less than 35% of the population who have the necessary lactose-digesting enzymes), we’d recommend raw milk from grass-fed cows.  It’s going to be more costly than the crappy milk from sick cows, but that’s typically how things go with superfoods.  There’s still a potential pro/con list that comes into play here, but the favor is greatly shifted towards the pros when compared to industrial factory-produced milk.  

Before signing off, we’ll note there are plenty of alternatives to factory-farmed milk that have made their way to the grocery store these days.  Unsweeted almond and coconut milks are nice alternatives.  Soy on the other hand, not so much (we’ll touch on that one a bit later). What’s your favorite alternative to factory-farmed milk?

In Excellent Health,

Garrett & Luc

Does Losing 30 Minutes of Sleep Cause Obesity and Pre-Diabetes?

Photo Credit: https://goo.gl/mMuqF2

If you’re like many Americans, you sleep about an half hour less than you should each night.  This is what’s called sleep debt -- and this debt is usually made up on the weekends by sleeping in.  It’s basically a piggy bank right?  You take some out, you put some back in.  So what’s the issue with this? Well, huge amounts of research over the past several years have shown that sleep debt is not only harmful to overall health, it’s downright dangerous.

The Endocrine Society recently published findings that show losing as little as 30 minutes of sleep during weekdays can lead to obesity (large excess body fat) and diabetes (extreme insulin resistance).  In fact the study found that after a year of slight sleep deprivation, for every 30 minutes of sleep lost, the risk for obesity increased 17% and insulin resistance (how diabetic your metabolism is looking) increased by 39%!  Yes, you read that right--losing just an half hour of sleep dramatically increases your risk for two major metabolic diseases.

You might be wondering why this would happen. Well, one huge factor is hormones.  Many people have heard of testosterone and estrogen (more on these in a later post) but few have come across ghrelin, leptin, insulin, interleukin 6, growth hormone and cortisol--but these are just some of the additional hormones affected by sleep. Several studies reveal unfavorable effects on these hormones when people lose part of a night’s sleep: hunger hormones increase, stress hormones increase, and people crave calorically-dense food.  Even worse, most calorically-dense food in the Standard American Diet, or SAD, isn’t nutritionally-dense.

Since you’re interested in increasing your overall health and working to prevent obesity and insulin resistance, make sure to get adequate sleep!...Yeah yeah, you’ve heard that over and over, but the question is how?  First, having a consistent sleep time and wake time is key so your circadian rhythm is on point.  It can take some time to get it down, but making a committment to sleep at a certain time will add a ton of energy for you the following day. Secondly, avoiding bright lights and particularly blue light (the light coming off of your phone, tablet, and computer screens which suppress melatonin production, the primary signal that makes us sleep!) one to two hours before bed.  This will get you in a sleepy mood.  Finally, cooling your body temperature down with a lukewarm or cold shower will rev all your systems down.  Better yet, get into a sauna or hot tub for 5, 10, or 15 minutes, get out and wait a few minutes for your body to cool down and then take a cold shower.  This will have a multiplied effect and really get you feeling sleepy.  

There are more tips for getting to sleep out there, but try one of these at a time and let us know how it goes folks!

In Excellent Health,
Garrett & Luc

Why Cardio is a Waste of Your Time...And What to Do About It!

We all know that you should get a half hour of moderate “aerobic” exercise five days a week right?  At least that’s according to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: “[A]dults should do at least 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) a week of moderate-intensity...aerobic physical activity”.  Common knowledge is that if you want to lose fat, a large investment in time spent jogging, swimming, or some other low/moderate-intensity exercise is the best way to do it.  So we know this as fact, but we also knew that the Earth was flat and it was the center of the universe at one point too.  Well, recently a lot of evidence has been popping up showing that “aerobic” exercise, aka “cardio,” is NOT a superior form of exercise.  And not only that, but it can unnecessarily take up a ton of time!

Let’s take a look at what some of the research shows for body fat loss in teens.  In a study spanning 5 months, traditional cardio and resistance training were compared in obese teenagers. Teens lost 40%--yes, 40%!--more belly fat when doing resistance training compared to cardio.  As if that wasn’t enough evidence, in another study that lasted 5 months, cardio training, resistance training, and cardio plus resistance training were compared to determine the best exercise regimen for obese teenagers.  The teens who only did resistance training lost 50% more body fat than those who only did cardio. Wondering where the teens on the combined regimen ended up?  Exactly where you’d think!--right in between: they lost more body fat than those only doing cardio but not as much as those only doing resistance.

So what conclusions were drawn from the above studies? The two main ones are:

1. Lifting weights can help decrease body fat over time better than steady state cardio.

2. Adding in cardio to your resistance training can potentially blunt your body’s ability to burn fat!

If you haven’t started yet, it’s definitely time to try lifting weights. In terms of fat loss, your time may be better spent by trading in your cardio for weight training or some other form of high-intensity exercise.  And there may be similar conclusions drawn for overall health as well, but we’ll save that discussion for a future time.  With that said, do you even lift?

How Butter May Help Prevent Diabetes

Photo Credit: http://gmoinside.org/cant-believe-butter/

Conventional health wisdom is that saturated fats are at the root of all evil, and you should avoid at all cost.  So if that’s the case, how on earth would increasing butter in your diet be related to a decreased risk in developing diabetes?  Well recently, there’s been more and more evidence showing up that saturated fats may in fact be beneficial for a variety of reasons (essential fatty acids, reduced inflammation, fat-soluble vitamins, etc.), noting that the source of those saturated fats may in fact be the most important factor (which we can get into at another time).  A new study provides yet another link to how saturated fat can be a good thing for health, decreasing several markers for diabetes.    

In short, two groups of dolphins were analyzed for markers related to diabetes (high insulin, triglycerides, and ferritin).  It was uncovered that the group with significantly lower risk for developing diabetes had much higher amounts of a particular fatty acid in their blood, independent of other dietary markers.  When increasing this fat (heptadecanoic acid) in the high-risk dolphin group’s diet, the dolphins’ markers for diabetes risk came dramatically down, statistically back to normal levels.  

The particular saturated fat they were targeting is found in some fish and in dairy, of which the highest concentration is in butter.  In fact, butter had 10 times the amount as that of the next closest dietary source tested in the study.  Although this may be surprising to some, it’s becoming more known that real genuine butter (not margarine), particularly from grass-fed cows, can be helpful for health.  At a minimum, you should consider adding butter back in your diet in place of those “I can’t believe it’s not…” shenanigans ;)

In Excellent Health,
Garrett & Luc