In part three of this four-part series, I pose the important question of whether healthy, fit, athletic types might not need to indulge in fasting, keto, low-carb, low-fat, time-restricted feeding, and other so-called hormetic dietary stressors when we have “redundant pathways” we can access to optimize metabolic and cellular function. 

Similarly, let’s throw in the recommendation popularized by carnivore advocates like Dr. Paul Saladino about whether we need to indulge in plant hormesis from high toxin plant foods to prompt an anti-inflammatory and/or antioxidant response when we can indulge in environmental hormesis like cold or heat therapy to prompt the same hormonal benefits with no side effects. 

Of course, it’s all about balance and we don’t want to discount the many scientifically validated benefits of diets like keto, but it’s worth reflecting on the best uses and strategies of the tools we have at our disposal to achieve energy balance and stress optimization and peak performance. 

In my personal example which I detail in the show, I must be careful stacking my assorted stressors:

• High-intensity workouts (including frequently over-exerting myself at high-intensity workouts by mistake and paying the price later)
• Being in the 55+ age group while doing said high-intensity workouts
• Playing around with dietary strategies that prompt stress hormones, including fasting and carb restriction
• Playing around with hormetic stressors/biohacks like cold exposure and sauna exposure to potential excess
• Factoring in all other forms of stress in hectic, high-stress modern life

This show ends with some great marching orders to get everything dialed in and set yourself up for success and healthy energy balance. I’ll relate the experiment I’ve been performing for over a month of a morning fruit bowl and a giant protein-liver-fruit superfuel smoothie (instead of fasting for a while or nibbling on dark chocolate), and increasing carb and caloric intake in general—inspired by Jay Feldman and Mike Fave and the Energy Balance Podcast. 

Here’s a compelling quote from Jay Feldman’s blog: “If we have an energy surplus, we adapt by increasing the amount of energy we use, which improves the functioning of our brain, digestive system, immune system, and other high-level functions. Our body will also favor energy production in place of fuel conservation, which allows us to further improve these functions and increases the pool of energy that we can draw from when we experience minor stressors, which then reduces harmful adaptations.”

TIMESTAMPS:

In the first two parts of the Energy Balance podcasts, Brad reviewed the idea that fasting carb restriction, keto, etc. can prompt stress response, and it is possible to overdo it. [01:20]

As a consequence of overtraining, many biological functions suffer. And a diet of nutrient-deficient foods inhibits your body from producing energy. [03:51]

Do healthy fit athletes really need fasting and carb restriction?  [08:38]

If you are going on a long fast, it really prompts increased psychological pleasure when it does come time to sit down for a meal. [17:28]

If you don’t try these things properly, you can crash and burn. Brad has learned a lesson by loosening the purse strings on his carb restriction. [19:51]

If you want to improve your dietary nutrient density and minimize your exposure to adverse ingredients, such as the high levels of polyunsaturated oils in feedlot animals like chicken, pork, and turkey, you would transition over to more red meat and LESS chicken and pork and turkey. And be careful of the seafood you eat. [25:03]

As we age, we can learn to handle our stress less because of wisdom and experience. Everything is going to be okay.  [30:09]

When we have an energy deficit, our body reacts with a generalized response called the stress response, which is primarily characterized by the release of stress hormones. [33:43]

If we instead have an energy surplus, we adapt by increasing the amount of energy we use.[40:13]

Brad talks about the confusion these theories bring.  They are controversial, but interesting and compelling, needing more research. [44:54]

The bottom line is a diet not restricting yourself in the name of improving, but instead being sensible choosing wholesome, healthy, nutritious foods. Find foods you enjoy. [47:49]

When you provide your body with adequate resources and minimal energy demands, it adapts by increasing energy availability, allowing it to thrive and maximize its capabilities. [51:01]

Weigh yourself every day.  If you are on the upper end of your range, you can probably increase the workout output.  If you are on the lower end, it might be time to focus on increased replenishment. [54:11]

Brad discusses the optimal readings for the next time you get your blood tested. [56:07]

When looking at a group of the world’s elite athletes in all the sports, generally they are paying attention to getting rid of junk food as their main diet strategy. [01:01:14]

The essence of aging gracefully is to maintain your muscle mass. [01:07:00]

LINKS:

• Brad Kearns.com
• Brad’s Shopping page
• Brad Kearns’s Morning Routine
• Energy Balance/Stress Optimization, Part 1
• Energy Balance/Stress Optimization, Part 2
• Podcast with Dr. Casey Means
• Brian Liver King Johnson
• Carnivore Scores Rood Ranking
• Butcher Box
• Beauty Counter
• Body by Science
• Burn
• Dr. Herman Pontzer Podcast (Metabolism)
• Dr. Herman Pontzer Podcast (Energy Expenditure)

LISTEN:

We appreciate all feedback, and questions for Q&A shows emailed to podcast@bradventures.com. If you have a moment, please share an episode you like with a quick text message, or leave a review on your podcast app. Thank you!

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• Brad’s Macadamia Masterpiece: Mind-blowing, life-changing nut butter blend
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• BeautyCounter: Complete line of cosmetics tested to be free of typical toxins and endocrine disruptors. Try Brad’s favorite vitamin-C skin serum and make the switch away from toxic mainstream skin-care products! 
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• Paleo Valley: Nutrient-rich, ancestral inspired health products. BRAD15 for 15% off
• BradNutrition.com: Coming soon – the ultimate whey protein superfuel formula for peak performance and longevity
• Ultimate Morning Routine Online Course: Learn how to custom-design an energizing, focusing morning exercise routine. Enroll now for earlybird discount 
  
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B.Rad Podcast

Brad (00:01:20):
Welcome to part three reflections on energy balance stress optimization. Could more carbs, less hormesis, and a faster metabolism promote longevity, compelling salacious titles? I’ve talked through some concepts that challenge some of the basic assertions of the progressive or ancestral health movement. But I think it’s pretty easy to find some reasonability and common ground and hopefully nothing has been too disruptive or offensive, uh, to date in the first two shows. And in part one, I talked about this concept that was inspired by energy balance podcast with Jay Feldman and Mike Fave. The idea that fasting carb restriction, keto, uh, these restrictive diets can prompt a stress response in the body because you’re starving your cells of energy. That’s widely acknowledged as a truth and many health benefits come from that, especially in contrast to being chronically overfed and underactive, which sets the stage for modern day disease patterns.

Brad (00:02:41):
However, we are striving for balance with our stress/rest patterns in life. So I pose the question that really hit me hard that it’s possible to overdo it. And when you combine high intensity workouts and devoted, uh, fitness training, athletic training schedule and compelling goals along with a baseline level of hectic high stress, modern life and all the things that we do all day long to prompt stress hormones and increase our energy demands, both cognitively and physically, and I’m stacking on doing this crazy stuff in the advanced age groups, unlike those in the athletic prime age groups, let’s say 15 to 35 or whatever. So that’s another stress factor. And when you stack ’em all up, it could possibly tip you outta balance into overly stressful patterns and resulting, health consequences and compromised function in a variety of areas.

Brad (00:03:51):
We call the quote from Dr. Herman Pontzer: reproduction, repair, growth, and locomotion are a zero sum game and quote. That means locomotion, meaning exercise, energy expenditure, right training fitness, uh, building a brick wall, all those things where you’re doing physical output. And if you go deep into the locomotion realm, you will be borrowing from those critical energetic biological factors such as your reproductive fitness, your reproductive drive, your ability to recover from stress repair and of course, growth, meaning challenging the muscles with the workout and then having them repair and come back stronger. And this is essentially what’s going on with the extreme training athletes who are pushing themselves so hard on the locomotion aspect that they turn down the flame of these other important biological functions thereby putting themselves constantly on this red line where a tiny tiptoe over will result in, for example, an overuse injury, uh, the elite female endurance athletes commonly suffer from, I don’t know if we should say suffer because they’re, they’re prompting it with their hard training, but they commonly experience a manure that’s the, uh, cessation of menstruation because their body is no longer fit for reproduction due to the, uh, low body fat levels that we see are a necessary component of performing at the elite level.

Brad (00:05:28):
So it’s sort of a very obvious and visible trade off especially for the elite female athlete. And, uh, let’s of course, uh, draw the comparison to, um, hard training, uh, male athlete whose reproductive flame is being turned down, uh, as well as the other biological functions as a consequence of overly stressful training patterns. And then if we layer in dietary intervention that can prompt stress hormones and starve the cells of energy, uh, for intended health benefits. That’s the question that I’ve been reflecting on, and I’m trying to take you through a summary or a review of what we were talking about in parts one and part two, but a very quick one. And part two, I talked about that important distinction between just the linear concept of consuming calories and either burning them or storing them. And that, that component in the middle of the story, uh, your ability to burn ingested or stored calories for energy and the major major problem in modern life is the consumption of these nutrient deficient heavily processed foods, especially industrial seed oils that inhibit your body’s ability to produce energy.

Brad (00:06:52):
And that is regarded as the big problem with putting on excess body fat, especially visceral fat is a sign of, inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, most likely, or are strongly driven by the consumption of nutrient deficient foods that are inhibiting energy production. And alcohol goes in there too, right? Because alcohol is a source of calories, but it’s a poison that we have to burn off. And it’s not really the intended definition or the intended use of the term calories. Okay. So we covered all that. Hopefully you can listen to that. If you missed it, we talked about some of the conventional discussion of longevity and what it’s all about, how we often hear that calorie restriction promotes longevity due to evidence from animal studies and some of the problems with that. And then the question of turning up stress hormones, and turning down some of those important dials, reproduction, repair growth, and locomotion, and how attempts at calorie minimization or caloric efficiency might not produce the intended benefits. Talked about the Okinawans and how yes, they’re eating healthy foods and having that, um, sensible diet, especially the philosophy of Hara hachi bu which is eat until you’re 80% full rather than stuffing your face as we’ve been prompted and trained to do by Western food processing and food marketing, and, uh, consuming these, uh, nutrient deficient, hyper palatable foods that prompt you to want to consume more and more.

Brad (00:08:38):
So it’s essential to look at this always from a big picture perspective of getting healthy first like Dr. Tommy Wood reminds us and many other experts, Cate Dr. Cate Shanahan as well. Get those seed oils out of your body. Cate says six months is a necessary detox period to do cold turkey reduction, elimination of industrial seed oils. And then only then you have more progress to go from there, but this is a major, major deal. We’ve been consuming these throughout our life. They’re prominent in the food supply, especially in restaurant meals. And so that’s kind of the starting point for the discussion. And until you do that, you’re gonna suck at burning energy and you’re gonna have all kinds of problems, and you’re gonna jump from diet to diet and not see the results you’re looking for. Okay. So that brings us to part three, where we’re going to talk about being reasonably fit, healthy, uh, satisfactory blood work, satisfactory body composition, but looking to optimize further, but still, uh, giving the thumbs up to identify as a healthy human, rather than someone who’s metabolically damaged and experiencing all kinds of daily and chronic dysfunction due to a processed food diet.

Brad (00:09:57):
So we’ve opened up that gateway. And then we asked the important question of whether healthy fit athletic types, not only don’t need to really get deep into fasting, carb restriction, keto, and so forth, but might possibly be harmed by trying to restrict carbohydrates, trying to restrict fat. If we’re gonna talk to everyone here or trying to engage in prolonged fasting time, restricted feeding, things like that, that have the potential to turn down those flames that we want operating at full capacity, reproduction, repair, growth, and locomotion. I mentioned how, my show with Dr. Casey Means she talked about the concept of redundant pathways whereby a sprint workout, a prolonged period of fasting, both starve, the cells of energy, prompting a stress response in some way, and then an adaptive response where you become better at burning energy, conserving energy, repairing, uh, damaged dysfunctional cells, all those benefits, Autophagy, ptosis and mitochondrial biogenesis.

Brad (00:11:10):
That’s the making of new mitochondria and improving the efficiency of existing mitochondria by virtue of challenging the cells to perform better by temporarily restricting their energy in contrast to a life of minimal activity and chronic overfeeding and furthermore chronic overfeeding with garbage. That’s setting the stage for metabolic dysfunction, cancer, heart disease, all that nasty stuff. Similarly, Paul Saladino talks about these redundant pathways in the context of environmental hormesis versus plant hormesis. So when we’re consuming these highly lauded, uh, nutritious foods with high antioxidant anti-inflammatory properties, your kale salad and your steam broccoli and your delicious bowl of nuts and all the rest of the high antioxidant category what’s really happening is we’re consuming the natural plant toxins and mounting an antioxidant defense response, widely regarded as a health benefit, but Paul suggests that there are some side effects according to when you’re consuming a poison and mounting an antioxidant defense response, and you can get the similar benefit, uh, redundant pathway of jumping in the cold water and prompting an antioxidant anti-inflammatory defense response.

Brad (00:12:39):
As we recalibrate back to homeostasis from the cold exposure. My personal observations in this area, when we’re talking about combining fasting with intense exercise with fasting afterward, during my keto experiments with eating very low carbohydrate meals during my keto experience with having a bunch of birthdays, so that I’m in the 50 plus age group, I experience numerous occasions of crash and burn. And I’m talking about six hours after the sprint workout or 24 hours or 36 hours. I would all of a sudden just run into a brick wall and have a desperate need to take a very deep and restorative nap. Fortunately, I’d wake up and feel better, or I was, you know, consuming healthy, nutrient dense foods. So I wasn’t starving myself or dumping in the toxic processed foods, but in that attempt to keep carbohydrates low, um, a lot of times was I think a battle or a conflict with my, uh, intense competitive goals.

Brad (00:13:49):
And I know people have adapted really nicely in this area. Uh, Luis Villasenor, the bodybuilder power lifter behind the keto gains internet, uh, community. They’ve done some great coaching and training. They get people to lose weight, feel better correct all manner of autoimmune and inflammatory conditions by going on the ketogenic diet. And Luis has been a strict ketogenic eater for, uh, going up on 20 years now with, uh, an amazing, uh, physique and performance in power lifting competitions. Same with the low carb endurance athlete scene, where guys are experiencing benefits from going in the ultra distance level of competition, particularly where they’re not growing super fast or at, uh, super elevated heart rates. But they can fuel these efforts, uh, on fat, which is the desired source of fuel for a long distance performance, and by combining, uh, fat adapted training with, uh, fat adapted dietary patterns where they’re emphasizing fat for fuel and trying to become more efficient at preserving glycogen and not needing large doses of carbs, uh, they can kind of ease the difficulty on the digestive system of taking a bunch of onboard carbohydrates during exercise.

Brad (00:15:11):
And they can maintain a faster pace at the fat burning heart rates because they’ve trained their bodies to get really good at burning fat. So those are all wonderful success stories validated by the, the clock and the people, living and breathing a fat adapted athletic experience, same with my main man, Brian Liver, King Johnson, who I quote unquote called out on the first show wondering whether, uh, his amazing stack of stressors could tip over the balance to be qualified or considered unnecessary. But I emphasize that the psychological benefits that he obtains from living that deep ancestral lifestyle, hopefully, you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve seen him on Instagram TikTok, just blowing up the, the space with his amazing, uh, lifestyle coming and sharing with the public finally, which I’ve been begging him to do years ago. And he finally overcame that initial reluctance.

Brad (00:16:13):
That’s now showing people, and it’s kind of over the top and it’s sensational, but let me tell you, it’s not an act. This guy actually lives an ancestral lifestyle to a level that’s more extreme than anyone I’ve ever seen. And so when he’s doing his barbarian workout and fasting for five days every quarter preceded by a glycogen depleting workout this stuff is all working very well for him. And he’s very highly adapted to be able to, uh, survive a five day fast, right, and then perform incredible workouts, maybe not during that five days, he tones down his workouts, but then he’s back into carrying the 40 pounds of chains on his neck and doing all the crazy stuff you see on his social media accounts. But he gets so much psychological benefit from those that you certainly can’t argue against his initial premise that the modern human is soft and lazy, and we would benefit greatly from doing things like exposing our body to cold once in a while pushing ourselves in the realm of high intensity exercise or endurance exercise is fasting gaining a greater appreciation for meal times and nutritious foods, uh, through the fasting.

Brad (00:17:28):
Of course, I think everyone can agree that if you’re going on a an 18 or a 24 hour fast, it really prompts not only whatever metabolic hormonal benefits you’re expecting or hoping for, but also that increased psychological pleasure when it does come time to sit down for a meal. So gaining that discipline, that focus, that resilience, that gratitude, that increased appreciation for the ease and convenience that most of us enjoy in modern life. And as Dr Anna Lembke talked about in her interview regarding dopamine, we also prompt an opponent process reaction that is when we induce deliberate suffering and discomfort, such as jumping into the cold tub, we trigger a hormonal response that delivers lasting and well deserved pleasure. So when we put ourselves into difficulty, when we strive and struggle and overcome challenges, this can be physical in the example of the cold tub, or it can be cognitive in trying to write, uh, your first poem and struggling through difficult times and having, you know, roadblocks when you’re learning guitar or whatever it is that you’re doing, seeking a peak performance endeavor.

Brad (00:18:47):
And you trigger that opponent process reaction as opposed to indulging in instant gratification. And these immediate dopamine triggers that are easy and don’t require any effort. And in that case, what we get is dopamine overload and the withdrawal symptoms that are similar to addiction, where we no longer get that, that high pleasure from reaching for social media. Instead, we’re scrolling through stuff we don’t care about. Um, we’re getting negative and criticizing as Mark Bale points out. When we use social media too much, we’ll turn it into a negative. And all those things are distinct from living a life of challenge and struggle, and putting yourself out there on the starting line like liver king does. So we do not want to discount those benefits that are outside of the the metabolic consequences. Let’s say of Liver King doing a failed hunt, glycogen, depleting workout, and then fasting for five days.

Brad (00:19:51):
And of course you don’t want to try this stuff at home and exceed your stress capabilities. And so that’s what I’m talking about here. And so when I relate my own poor Brad’s crash and burn story from fasting overnight, waking up doing a sprint workout, that was probably a little bit too hard for a 50 plus athlete, and then fasting for a few hours afterward because I’m testing my blood ketones because I’m doing research for a book. And then I feel like crap, the next day. That’s just stepping over the line and learning from the experience and maybe adopting a kinder, gentler approach to both dietary intervention, as well as the actual workout protocol. And so I will state here, as I’ve said in, I think another show where I talked about, um, five ways that I’ve, uh, improved my health and fitness in recent years.

Brad (00:20:46):
And I will say that it was around 2019. So, um, 19, 20, 21, wow. That’s three years ago already. Can you believe that people anyway, since, since 2019, I feel like I’ve had a, a really significant boost in health, energy, and fitness attributed to a number of things. Um, some of which I talked about on the previous show these include, uh, loosening the purse strings on a restrictive diet. So after my initial fascination and foray into keto in the process of working on The Keto Reset Diet book with Mark Sisson and our subsequent books after that throwing carbs back in there on a ad hoc or an intuitive basis, possibly that meant also consuming more calories during the day because I had a little more open purse strings considering my increasingly impressive dark chocolate habit alone, that would probably increase my, uh, calorie consumption every day, because now I allow myself to indulge in dark chocolate, where with keto, everything was, you know, more restricted and I was measuring those carbs diligently.

Brad (00:22:02):
So loosening the purse strings of carb restriction getting in better shape for those sprinting and jumping workouts due to, you know, time going by and putting in more time at the track and, and getting more experience, especially in the high intensity high impact activities. And also making what I believe is a fundamental and very effective shift over into a animal based or an animal emphasis diet, greatly inspired by the early carnivore advocates like Dr. Paul Saladino on his epic podcast back in May of 2019 on Ben Greenfield show. Also Dr. Shawn Baker, another prominent carnivore advocate who in my age group is breaking world records in rowing and showing that you can be a peak athletic specimen. So I drifted in that direction of emphasizing more of the nutrient dense nose to tail style animal foods, doing a much better job than I had prior to that. That’s where the inspiration came for preparing the Carnivore Scores Food Rankings chart with Kate Cretsinger.

Brad (00:23:06):
And you can download that chart for free on Brad kearns.com. Please do so print it out and tape it/magnet to your refrigerator. And it’s the idea of emphasizing the most nutrient dense foods on the planet as your dietary centerpiece. So I drifted away from trying to emphasize plant matter as the bulk of my plate with the realization, inspired by Dr. Saladino, that these are not the most nutrient dense foods on earth, even though they’ve been marketed successfully to think that there’s nothing that tops a kale salad in the area of a health enthusiast, uh, but rather the pastured eggs, the grass fed beef, the oysters, the salmon eggs, the liver, the king of all foods in terms of nutrient density as promoted by liver king and as validated by, uh, laboratory evaluation of what’s, uh, served up in a five ounce, serving a liver.

Brad (00:24:04):
It’s hard to dispute that. And so that’s been a nice awakening where I believe I’ve increased the nutrient density of my diet by making better choices, of course, within the ancestral realm or the ancestral list, you can escalate significantly by making better choices. A great example, that’s come to light recently is how red meat is vastly superior, with its nutrient profile and its lack of an unfavorable fatty acid ratio in comparison to chicken and pork and Turkey. And I’m talking about, uh, mainstream conventionally raised chicken, pork and turkey because these animals have a much more difficult time processing their grain feed. That’s seen in the feed lots in comparison to a cow, which as a ruminant animal, as well as all the other ruminant animals, buffalo, bison, lamb, things like that. Uh, they can process these grain feeds and still deliver a favorable end product with excellent nutritional profile.

Brad (00:25:03):
We’re gonna have articles in the Brad Kearns newsletter about this topic because you still hear people spouting these dated, party lines like, well, I’m trying to clean up my diet. So I’m eating a lot of chicken and fish and not so much red meat. And you might even want to consider to flip flop that statement, that if you wanna improve your dietary nutrient density and minimize your exposure to adverse ingredients, such as the, uh, high levels of polyunsaturated oils in the feed, lot animals, chicken, pork, , pork and turkey, you would transition over to more red meat and less chicken and pork and turkey. And also, a great percentage of the fish available in the typical marketplace is has a lot of objections, both from toxicity sustainability, the fishing methods. And of course the farm salmon and the farm shrimp are highly objectionable due to the mass production.

Brad (00:26:04):
They’re kind like a feed lot fish as opposed to the wild cot fish and especially the category of oily cold water fish, which have the most nutrient intensity, a favorable source of omega 3s, which are difficult to obtain in the diet elsewhere. And the smash acronym stands for sardines macro and ch salmon, Wildcat, salmon, and herring. So emphasizing those would be a move up the chart if you’re thinking of the carnivore scores chart. So just a little tidbit there and I’m doing so good on the, the grass fed beef, thanks to Butcher Box. So here comes the commercial in the middle of the show, spontaneous commercials, aren’t those the best. So if you go to butcherbox.com/BradKearns, uh, to make sure that you get the free promo and the promos are pretty awesome, it’s a lot of extra food. Oh my gosh, you will have your custom selection of the very best, highest quality grass fed beef that you can find.

Brad (00:27:02):
It’s way more affordable in my experience from going to a fancy supermarket and paying the big dollars for grass fed beef, I’m always scared to, pay $19 a pound for a cut of steak because I might screw up the cooking. I’m not a, I’m not a gourmet chef. I look at it go. That’s a lot of, that’s a lot of pressure there, man. But with Butcher Box, I’m getting these monthly shipments, uh, stacked with the greatest rib steak. Uh, the ground beef is delicious. The flank steak is delicious and they have appropriate organic pasture raised chicken and, uh, pork. And so you’re getting the, the best quality and that alleviates a lot of the concerns with the factory produced chicken, turkey, and pork. So there’s my message. And I I’m such a big fan and a paying customer. So I feel very comfortable advertising for them for real ButcherBox.com/BradKearns.

Brad (00:27:59):
And this thread is still talking about the changes or the progressions I’ve made to report feeling much better since 2019, as opposed to a quite a bit more rough and rocky road in the years prior to that. So I’m also gonna add, along with loosening up the dietary purse strings, especially with the carbs, and I’m talking about healthy, nutritious carbs. I’m not talking about, I have more Seven 11 Slurpees now because I’ve loosened my restrictions, um, the restrictions and the discipline and the devotion to nutrient dense food, as opposed to putting junk into my body is still very strong. I’m thinking of doing a whole show on this concept that the quip, “everything in moderation” is complete BS because the choices that we have are so disastrous to our health, that we have to be strict and disciplined and devoted at all times to scrutinizing what we put into our body and not to mention that what we put on our skin, Hey, could this be another commercial for BeautyCounter.com/BradKearns?

Brad (00:29:04):
Indeed it could be cuz I have switched around to put nice skincare on my body every day and the natural deodorant, Clean Deo And I’m really into this message that we have to do the best we can, especially with stuff we put into our body with food or put on our skin. So with diet, I have the appropriate level of nutritious carb intake, including deliberately adding more indirect association with the high intensity workouts. Uh, I have the increased attention to dietary nutrient density and the awareness of trying to rise up the rankings on the carnivore scores chart with my food and meal choices and seriously Butcher Box has made that so easy. So, uh, there you go with that. Um, also I think the psychological aspects are so important and the ability to let things go and not get caught up in, um, rumination and anxiety, which my show with Dr.

Brad (00:30:09):
Ron Sinha talks about in more detail where we can be doing all the right choices and checking all the right boxes in a practical sense as we go through the logistics of our day. But if we’re in our head too much, we’re too stressed about things. We know this is a common problem, especially in the progressive health movement. They use the term orthorexia for an unhealthy fixation on doing the correct thing and eating the correct foods. And when you can’t find them or you can’t be perfect, you get stressed out about it or you read an article and it prompts a stress response in the body cuz now you wonder if your diet’s effective or not. So I’m really appreciating the process of getting older as a person and building up a little bit more resilience against stress reactivity to all kinds of things in life.

Brad (00:30:59):
So the goal of worrying less, I think it’s nice that aging can provide a boost for that and more, uh, wisdom experience and peace of mind not necessarily, but hopefully you can leverage that as you get older and learn how to worry less after going through the battles and having a lot of smoke clearing. I don’t think how I, I don’t see how you could, uh, go any other way except to sit back a little bit more and, um, reflect and say that, you know, the sun will rise another day and this goes for parenting, your the constant worry that a parent has over their children, Hey, maybe from ages zero through four, it’s super appropriate. We wanna worry about the, the open door to the swimming pool. And then from age four to 10, we loosen up the purse strings a little bit and we let them climb on the jungle gym at the playground.

Brad (00:31:58):
And maybe they’re gonna fall since we’re not holding them constantly. And then from ages 10 to 18, you have to, appropriately let go and let them live their life and find their own way. And then when they become adults, you take another step back and, oh, isn’t that a wonderful process to go through and realize and apply that the same example to let’s say your career path, uh, your financial matters, um, your fitness goals. And it lines up with my original podcast title, which was the Get Over Yourself podcast for you old time listeners. You can remember that. And I love that theme because it’s kind of an answer to, uh, a lot of this stuff when we get into our head and we start worrying and obsessing. And if you could just tell yourself, Hey,, get over yourself.

Brad (00:32:45):
You’re not the center of the universe and let’s form the belief that things are gonna come out okay. And at least by forming that belief, you will help the process instead of getting in your own way. Okay. So those are a lot of reasons why I feel better, stronger, a more alert, more energy, less of the crash and burn patterns. But that psychological aspect really, we need a big plug for that. So if you’re still listening thus far and you want to experience peak performance, maintain your fitness as you age, your vitality, your muscle mass, promote longevity and minimize the overall stress score and the stress factors in your life, because you think you have enough stress already. And I’m putting that caveat in there because if you’re not providing enough stimulus, remember stress and stimulus are interchangeable. And it’s actually the literal correct term for stress.

Brad (00:33:43):
Since we often use stress in a negative context, what we really mean is over stress. And when we, uh, wanna be literal, we’re talking about stimulus. So if you don’t have enough stimulus in your life, you might want to get up off the couch, try some fasting, try some exercise, try getting a job, going to school, whatever, putting yourself out there. That’s great. But if you feel like you have a sufficient level of stress and you’re just trying to hang on and do the best you can, and you want to get further healthy and, and more energetic, and also if you have goals like losing excess body fat and keeping it off, we shall investigate further, especially this concept about hormesis and how we might be misappropriating this health centerpiece. Here is a quote from Jay Feldman in his article about hormesis on his website, “Energy drives our health and is needed for us to do anything and everything.

Brad (00:34:42):
When we have an energy deficit, our body reacts with a generalized response called the stress response, which is primarily characterized by the release of stress hormones. The stress hormones allow for energy to be produced, to make up for the energy deficit, which allows us to continue to function.” As I said in short fasting turns on stress hormones. Okay, here’s an argument about overdoing. It obviously everything’s striving for balance, but Jay says, while these stressors can be helpful in the short term, the adaptations can come at the cost of reducing our structural complexity and function as these are both energy dependent. And that’s what I’m talking about with Dr. Pontzer’s quote, that reproduction, repair, growth, and locomotion are a zero=sum game. We need to have all our flames burning appropriately on the stove. Back to Jay’s quote. They also result in adaptations that allow us to conserve energy, to handle future stressors, which further reduce our structural complexity and function.

Brad (00:35:41):
And this might be turning down your metabolism because you go on an extreme calorie restriction diet. As I mentioned about the Biggest Loser participants, having all kinds of problems, six years later, still having a turn down metabolism and a lack of desire to expend energy through workouts. Back to the quote, this energy deficiency and the resulting reduction in complexity and function underlies all negative health symptoms. We may experience from fatigue to lack of libido, to inability, to concentrate, to constant hunger and cravings. Okay. On the other side, still quoting Jay: “excessive amounts of energy usage or an excessive energy demand is therefore extremely detrimental. Let’s put some examples in here. Training for an iron distance triathlon as a regular citizen who has a job and a family, uh, working too much working 10 or 12 hours a day seems to be too much. Training for the CrossFit games or being a devoted participant who goes several days a week to what might be considered a difficult to very difficult workout.

Brad (00:36:52):
So back to J’ays quote. Optimizing energy production or mitochondrial respiration is the best way to increase our resistance and resilience to the stressors that will inevitably experience. So exposing ourselves to factors with the least energy demand relative to their beneficial, special effects is ideal for our health. These special effects would on their deepest level be measured by their ability to impact energy production end quote. So if you’re getting tossed up in the wording, um, what we’re talking about here is the optimal amount of stimulus to prompt, let’s say a fitness response or a healthy metabolic function. So of course, no one’s arguing that we should consume an excess of calories, nor should we consume too few. And when it comes to, uh, workouts. Oh my gosh. That’s what everyone’s striving for is to find that sweet spot where you’re getting the maximum fitness benefits with the minimal amount of over stress or risk to over stress.

Brad (00:38:02):
And at my show with Dr. Doug, McGuff talking about his big five workout, extremely popular concept, where he argues very persuasively with a lot of science behind it, that you can increase your strength on an incredibly minimal commitment to high intensity strength, exercise, strength, workouts, and his big five is five different, machine, very safe machine full body functional movements where you’re doing overhead press, pull down seated row, chest, press, and leg, press working all the major muscle groups of the body. And you’re doing one set to total failure once a week. So the workout takes around 12 minutes. Like the subtitle of his book Body by Science, says 12 minutes a week to stronger body. And you will get stronger over time with that minimal of a commitment. Now we have all kinds of other fitness goals, especially building endurance to perform in our chosen sport like tennis or an endurance sport, in fact, or getting competent at things that require skill like basketball, golf, high jumping, things like that.

Brad (00:39:13):
So we’re gonna be out there practicing our sport certainly longer than 12 minutes a week, but to isolate that big goal of getting stronger with a single workout is a really interesting concept applicable to optimizing your the stress that you put on your body with minimal risk of overdoing it. And guess what happens when you go in there and lift weights too frequently in an effort to get stronger? Yeah. You succumb to breakdown, burnout, illness, and injury possibly due to turning down those other dials, of reproduction, repair, growth in the pursuit of excess locomotion. And I have discovered this intuitively so many times when the load that I put on myself on workouts, was excessive to the extent that I couldn’t recover appropriately. And so that is indicated by fatigue in the hours and days after the workout fatigue at rest, I think would be an inappropriate training stimulation.

Brad (00:40:13):
You don’t wanna be tired the day after your workout nor six hours after your workout. Um, as I reported, and I also believe a contributing factor was the nutritional aspect and throwing in the fasting with the, uh, extreme challenge of the workouts. Okay. I’m looking at more content from Jay Feldman energy balance on his argument. And he says, if we instead have an energy surplus, we adapt by increasing the amount of energy we use, which improves the functioning of our brain digestive system, immune system, and other high level functions. Our body will also favor energy production in place of fuel conservation, which allows us to further improve these functions and increases the pool of energy that we can draw from when we experience minor stressors, which then reduces harmful adaptations. And in the podcast that Feldman and Fave produce, they are going on to say some things that could be considered highly controversial or in opposition to the traditional or the template for ancestral health, progressive health.

Brad (00:41:20):
They’re arguing that in order to optimize mitochondria energy production, uh, we might choose to eat every few hours, including the introduction or the inclusion of easy to digest fruit and even fruit juice, HORRORS! They want you to always balance carbs and protein and fat because we have essential requirements for each of those macronutrients and, you know, rejecting the funny business that we engage in about choosing either carbs or fat and all these things that are predicated upon not overeating or optimizing fat metabolism by restricting dietary carbs, as the ketogenic message says. Um, they’re on board with the, uh, non-controversial calling out of the seed oils as the real culprit and the, the most evil way to hamper your mitochondrial function. So that’s cool. And we also have to put in a plug here for not doing stupid workouts that prompt all this reactivity against an extreme stress and hampering your ability to produce energy, such that your narrator here can report, you know, feeling like crashing and burning, uh, 24 to 36 hours later.

Brad (00:42:38):
So clearly this idea, this suggestion to eat a lot of food frequently and include all the macros, uh, definitely conflicts with the popular niche diets of the day. The whole food plant based vegan style, low fat eater is gonna take exception. The ketogenic and low carb consumer is going to take exception with this idea. Um, and they fire back. This is Jay’s article with a condemnation of these niche diets quote, the same can be said for lowcarb ke low carb ketogenic and carnivore diets, which mimic the fasted state. Also called the starvation state, like fasting or starvation, these diets cause a considerable amount of stress. There’s a bunch of scientific references here. And under the guise of hormesis, the stress is considered to be responsible for the benefits seen, but like fasting the benefits from these diets can largely be attributed to reductions in gut irritation rather than stress, because many of the irritating hard to digest foods that would lead to increased endotoxin production are carbohydrates.

Brad (00:43:50):
And these types of foods are avoided on these diets. This has been supported by recent evidence showing that the anti-seizure benefits of ketogenic diets are due entirely to their effect on the gut. And rather than the stress they cause these benefits can be attained in ways that don’t concurrently inhibit energy production, such as eating easily digestible foods and correcting gut function. If we were to evaluate the use of interventions like ketogenic diets, calorie restriction, or intermittent fasting, we’d see that they are generally a terrible idea because they’re disastrous for energy production. Along with these principles, it’s important to recognize our body’s natural drive for optimization and increase complexity by providing it with the adequate resources and minimal energy demands. It adapts by using increasing energy availability, allowing it to thrive and maximize it capabilities. Whew, and quote, okay, your head spinning like mine. These assertions are highly disputed by, uh, many experts that I follow and respect.

Brad (00:44:54):
And so it leaves us in a little bit of a state of confusion. And my goal is to find some common ground and some sensibility here, but I do not reject this argument out of hand because it’s very interesting and very compelling. And I think there’s some parts that we can acknowledge and come to agreement on and then look further and do some personal experimentation. And clearly the carnivore movement has been bolstered by people who are experiencing immediate and profound health turnarounds, most likely due to the reductions in gut irritation, just like Jay asserts and Dr. Paul Saladino I’m sure would agree with this when you eliminate those plant toxins that are causing leaky gut and causing all kinds of autoimmune, inflammatory and digestive conditions, it really does feel great. And so people can say thumbs up to the carnivore diet. I feel fantastic.

Brad (00:45:50):
Don’t tell me anything otherwise. But it’s an interesting angle to look at to realize that this extreme restrictive diet is beneficial because of what it’s eliminating and possibly, partly objectionable because of what it is not including, right? So you’re eliminating the plant toxins, but you’re not including sufficient carbohydrates to meet your energy needs because a strict carnivore diet of course, is animal foods and little to no carbohydrates. I’m sure. And I checked with Saladino on this he’s completely on board because he has altered his position very admirably in recent times to be a huge advocate of fruit and honey and making sure that carbohydrate intake is sufficient on a highly animal based nose to tailed diet. So I think Paul’s finally dialed this in after a couple, few years and starting out of the gate talking about eating only a meat Dr. Shawn Baker.

Brad (00:46:55):
haven’t checked in recently, but he was touting this very simple carnivore approach where he was eating big piles of steak and hamburger and not much else. And proclaiming that this was sufficient. You didn’t have to go into this ordeal of sourcing all these different animal foods and going nose to tail and getting all the great nutrition from the organ meats instead, just slap another steak on the Barbie might, and you can perform magnificent athletic feats and have a six pack and be a strong, healthy functioning human again, hard to argue with results for anybody and all the results that have been presented at Shawn’s website that he, uh, presides over this community called meat RX or meat heels.com. I can’t remember the present, but you’ll, you’ll find him on, on online and all the success stories that are out there.

Brad (00:47:49):
But again, you’re reducing these offenders, but you’re possibly missing out. And the way around that, with Paul’s guidance is to choose the carbohydrate sources that have the most nutrition and the least potential for toxicity or reactivity to the plant toxins, the gut irritation. And that would be fruit and honey, which is Paul’s big, presentation. You can find him on Instagram with his nice assortment of tropical fruits down there in Costa Rica, his hood. So, this has been really successful. And I think that maybe it represents the cutting edge of dietary strategy where you are not devotedly restricting a certain macronutrient in the name of improving your diet, but instead being really sensible and choosing wholesome, healthy, nutritious foods. And as far as the macronutrient, content or the percentages, I think it’s probably better to experiment with that yourself.

Brad (00:48:57):
Find the foods that you enjoy. We forgot to put in a plug for enjoying your life and eating delicious meals, but making sure that you have a total elimination of the toxic nutrient dense foods, especially the seed oils and cutting back on those plant toxins that could be secretly, uh, harming your life and your intestinal lining. And I talked about the least offensive with fruit and honey and in the most offensive category like grains and legumes. The gluten we’re so familiar with is widely intolerable. And the other lectins that are found in those food categories, roots stems, seeds, and leaves as Paul likes to tout are all areas where you’re gonna find foods with high levels of natural toxins, because this is their defense mechanism against predators. So we’re thinking about that kale salad with nuts and seeds and bell peppers and everything’s raw, and it represents the highest ideal of a healthy, woke, environmentally sensitive human.

Brad (00:50:07):
And of course you’re getting chicken breast, sliced on top to get your, get your protein from one of the worst sources on the list, right? The conventionally raised chicken. So it’s a real awakening to then go look over, visit liver king on Instagram and see him Ching down on liver and taking egg yolk shots and things like that. But we’re talking about the nutrient of your diet, and it’s a big factor to kind of awaken to and reflect further and realize, uh, through testing. And I think a restriction period where you eliminate the plant toxins and see if you notice any improvements in the common conditions of, uh, gas, bloating, transient, digestive pain, and association with meals. These are all signs that you’re processing some stuff that you might have a little difficulty with. So back to Jay’s very sensible comments.

Brad (00:51:01):
I’m gonna emphasize that the very sensible parts of the sentences, where when you provide your body with adequate resources and minimal energy demands, it adapts by using increasing energy availability, allowing it to thrive and maximize its capabilities. Hey, who can argue with that? And in support of this idea that you want to fuel yourself, optimally reference my shows with Dr. Herman Pontzer the evolutionary anthropologist and author of the great book Burn, where he discusses this, uh, widely scientifically validated constrained model of energy expenditure. So our body has an upper limit, a calorie burning ceiling every day. And as I keep repeating locomotion, reproduction, repair, and growth are a zero sum game. So if you systematically underfeed your body in an attempt, for example, to drop excess body fat, or because you’re on a restrictive diet and you by default are not getting, uh, the nutrition and the macronutrients that you need such as a zero carb carnivore diet, a low carb ketogenic diet, or a whole food plant based vegan inspired diet where you’re cutting out all these important nutritional requirements.

Brad (00:52:19):
Wow. I mean, you’re gonna turn down dials. It’s pretty obvious. I don’t think too many people can argue with that. So we want to get enough nutrient dense food to keep all of our flames burning effectively, especially if we are the athletic type where we’re making huge energy demands on our body. And this is giving me a healthy step back from succumbing to the hype about fasting and time restricted feeding such that we automatically assume that more, more, more is better, and we’re gonna get extra points if we can slam out an impressive workout while being in a fast state and bank more hours fasting. So again, there’s many, many millions or perhaps billions of folks today that are erring on the side of excess caloric intake eating a lot of bad stuff. That’s inhibiting energy production, and then storing a lot of excess energy.

Brad (00:53:18):
But for those of us in the devoted health and fitness community, we might wanna step back and ask that question if you are adding too many checkpoints on the stress side of the balance scales, and whether you need to be so aggressive with your fasting calorie restriction, carb restriction, fat restriction, as well as energy output at workouts. So I’m a month into an experiment here inspired by the show with Ben Greenfield and Jay Feldman and Mike Fave, where I’m getting up in the morning. I do my morning exercise routine, and then I make a deliberate attempt to put down a bowl of fruit and my big protein, super fuel smoothie that has, uh, frozen raw liver in there. It has a sufficient amount of frozen fruit. So I’m getting carbs. I’m getting the most nutrient dense food on the planet without having to make a face.

Brad (00:54:11):
When I, when I down it, I’m getting the great whey protein isolate, that’s easy to digest and is helping to, uh, meet my daily protein requirements. So all this is happening early in the morning, not first thing, but after I do my morning exercise routine. And the idea here is that I’m sufficiently fueling myself for an active, energetic day, both cognitively and physically. A month into the experiment my body weight is the same. It’s around 163 pounds. Of course, there’s a float there every day, like Dr. Sinha talked about in his show where, you know, you say to a lot of people, Hey, don’t step on the scale. It’s too stressful. It’s aggravating. He wants you to step on the scale every day and realize when you’re in the upper range or the lower range of your typical float in your body weight being at the top range could indicate that you are sufficiently glycogen replenished, and you can go and increase your workout output.

Brad (00:55:11):
And if you’re on the lower end of your typical range, it might be a time to focus on increased replenishment and maybe tone down a workout energy expenditure. And so that’s an interesting, helpful tidbit, but we should all acknowledge that float of around four pounds of body weight, depending on how much you weigh, right? Whatever percentage I know that my scale will go up and down around four pounds. So if my body weight is the same and I’ve been eating, what I believe are to be extra calories, because it departure from my typical routine where I wouldn’t really bother to eat much until later in the morning, it’s gotta be healthy, right? Cause I’m putting down 100% healthy, nutritious food, uh, like the fruit and the ingredients and the smoothie. So it’s not about having more potato chips in the name of, you know, improved energy production.

Brad (00:56:07):
So if we can assume that I have healthy gut function due to a lack of those disturbing symptoms and more nutrition, it’s argued that I’m getting, uh, a better energy output, uh, turning up those flames on the stove. And as Dr. Tommy Wood says, keep eating as much nutritious food as possible until you gain a pound of body fat. And then you can turn the dial back a bit. So I, I feel good. I can’t report some miracle transformation in my athletic performance, thanks to eating some extra calories in the morning. But it seems to be working for me. Uh, I have stable body weight. My recent blood results are looking pretty good. And in particular, with numbers like triglycerides at 27 HDL at 79 insulin at 2.3, uh, those are really low on the triglyceride level.

Brad (00:57:05):
Chris Kelly might argue that there’s a possibility of having triglycerides that are too low. That’s the amount of fat circulating in your blood. And so to bump that number up, which is almost no one, because most people want to get that down, especially Dr. Sinha urges us to get triglycerides down under 100. Um, I could conceivably eat more sugar, more carbohydrate, fasting insulin at 2.3 is a very favorable score in the eyes of people like Peter Attia, Dr. Paul Saladino, people who are touting this important test. And interestingly, next time you go get your blood test or go to your annual checkup. Please ask for a fasting insulin test. It’s very rare that it’s ordered in a routine panel. Uh, but many experts contend it’s the single most valuable number or test to track your cardiovascular disease risk and your metabolic syndrome risk, which is characterized by elevated a chronically elevated insulin production.

Brad (00:58:06):
They call it hyper insulinemia and it’s believed in regarded by mainstream medical community as the single most, disturbing concern about modern citizen’s modern diet, because it leads to metabolic syndrome, which leads to type two diabetes, obesity, cancer, heart disease. So it’s absolutely critical to get your insulin under five as recommended by Saladino. And the mainstream, thought is that they wanna see that insulin under 15, which is a lot higher than five, right? So five would be optimal and under 15 would be essential, but if you’re out there busting a 12 and you go to your physician and the physician says, okay, looks fine on the insulin. You know, that optimizing is a lot different than being normal or in the normal range, because we are comparing, we are building a database with such a disastrously unfit, unhealthy over fat overweight population.

Brad (00:59:05):
And so with those numbers so low, I have so much room for play there that I could conceivably consider a higher carbohydrate diet. My serum testosterone is recently 696. It’s spanned from f560 to 1,008 over the past two years with many, many tests, maybe a dozen tests or maybe 20 tests in the last five years. I go and get it all the time, cuz it’s a great way to track that reproduction, growth repair and locomotion and making sure that all my dials are turned up free, testosterone 75 on a scale of 35 to 155 sex hormone binding globulin 68 on a scale of 22 to 77. So the sex hormone profile is good. Um, I would even like to see things, be superior or optimal, like when I pulled that 1008 and bragged about it on social media, that’s an indication that my body was way off the chart in the 95 percentile and beyond even for a younger male specimen.

Brad (01:00:10):
So I’m doing something right there, but it’s interesting to see that level of range in testosterone numbers from five 60 to 10 0 8. And that indicates to me, I think that the testosterone level is so sensitive to, uh, your overall levels of life stress and exercise stress. And I believe it’s directly correlated with, have I been training too hard in recent times when I go and do that blood number and also correlated with just natural, healthy range. But I’d like to see that always trending on the high side, due to the pathetic competition that we’re looking at when we’re trying to, get our blood work in the, in the favorable categories. So I’m going to carry on eating a sufficient level of nutritious food to fuel my many endeavors and goals and flames in daily life. I’ll maybe I’ll see if I can gain a pound of fat and then turn it down a bit.

Brad (01:01:14):
On this topic, it’s very interesting to note, I was just reflecting on my podcast with Lindsay Berra host of the Food of the God’s podcast, where her focus is on interviewing and elite athletes in a variety of different sports from race driving to PGA golfers, to major league baseball players, to Olympic runners. How few of the elite athletes on the planet are involved in extreme and or restrictive diets. We’ve seen the horrific documentary. What was it called? I forgot the name of it. Oh, game changers with all that propaganda and heavy, heavy criticism of how they manipulated, uh, scientific insights and assertions to make a case to, to pretend it was a documentary, but really it was propaganda, uh, looked no further than Chris Crestor’s lengthy interview with Joe Rogan, where he took it apart, uh, with a 77 slide PowerPoint presentation, just how ridiculous it was.

Brad (01:02:06):
Anyway, that was a game changers was highlighting the vegan or plant based elite athlete. So they had a handful or however many guys that were touting how they’re performing better due to cutting meat outta their diet. And it’s a pretty strong message and a strong voice. And the strong leaders in that community are showing, showing what’s up. But generally, it’s an infinitesimal sample of the elite athletes in all the major sports across the planet. And I think it’s just worth discarding. Same with if there were an infintesimal number of elite athletes proclaiming to be strict keto or carnivore, or what have you. In general, as Lindsay Berra reports, and you can find on doing some individual analysis of interviews and commentary from the athletes. In general, today’s elite athlete is the most prominent aspect of their collective dietary habits is the avoidance of crappy processed foods.

Brad (01:03:15):
And they’re probably doing a pretty good job of that much better than they were five years ago, 10 years ago, or 20 years ago where there was little attention to diet. But I still think they’re probably, um, embellishing how clean their diet is. And they’re probably still chewing down, uh, a lot of objectionable, nutrient deficient food as they attempt to unwind and balance their lifestyle from the extreme training regimen. I saw Lance Armstrong shoving some cookies in his mouth, on his private jet, washed down with a diet soda. And I gave him a hard time about it. He didn’t really appreciate my feedback, but it was like, dude, you’re the biggest and most amazing, endurance machine on the planet. And you’re putting you know, poor quality fuel into the machine. Doesn’t make sense. Why are you training so hard, but then not paying attention to this?

Brad (01:04:04):
Okay, nice aside there. But back to the focus on this collective group of the world’s elite athletes in all the sports, you are generally seeing some careful attention to getting rid of the junk and then across the board, kind of a maybe a rudimentary in the realm of an ancestral health enthusiast, but they’re going for their whole grains. They’re having oatmeal in the morning. They’re having their yogurt. They’re getting in, uh, a plenty of all the macronutrients, uh, particularly protein. I think they must be doing a good job of that, or otherwise they’d be breaking down under the training load, but they’re also consuming plenty of carbs. And it’s pretty rare that they would be doing something like restricting fat in the name of a whole food plant based approach. It’s just not happening. And I think we have to pay close attention to that.

Brad (01:04:58):
You think of Eluid Kipchoge, the greatest, maybe the greatest endurance machine that’s ever lived. The legendary marathon who ran the 1:59 marathon and he’s consuming a lot of that staple Kenyan meal. Ugali is it? the stew, with all the corn meal in there and nutritionists, uh, evaluated this African runner diet many years ago, decades ago when I first was exposed to it. And they realized that it met, it checked a lot of the boxes for across the board, uh, protein requirements, macronutrients, plenty of carbs to fuel their incredible training regimens. I would, speculate the same for the great legends of, uh, tour de France. Chris fr is one, a few times recently, probably not on a strict diet, right? And if they wanted further optimization, like getting rid of simple sugars or something maybe that’ll come five years from now, but maybe when they’re eating their cream puffs and their eclairs that they hand them on the side of the road, the traditional French fair that they’ll hand to a cyclist.

Brad (01:06:03):
It’s probably going into a very hot furnace so that those legs can take the rider up. Another mountain pass closer to home. My son, Jack, going from a six foot two, a hundred fifty five pound high school basketball player senior year to currently a 200 pound well muscled strength, training and basketball enthusiast who eats nutritious foods all day long seems to be working for him. And I do mean all day long. So he’s either working out, resting and putting a lot of food down and maintaining a much higher level of muscle mass than previously. And I do not think there’s any, uh, adverse health consequences from someone eating a ton of food, especially when it’s nutrient dense. Now, that might not work for me if I tried to keep up with him and his level of caloric intake, but let’s talk to people in the older age groups.

Brad (01:07:00):
And if you’re in the 50 plus age group, or maybe even the 40 plus age group, your main goals are going to be number one preservation of lean muscle mass. That is the essence of aging gracefully. You also might want to enjoy stable, steady energy levels throughout the day, pursue peak performance goals that you enjoy, of course, prevent disease and stay away from those disastrous patterns with metabolic syndrome type two diabetes, all the popular stuff. And I would say that most everyone can nod their head. Who’s in an older age group, perhaps unless you want to excel in an extreme ultra-marathon event and you wanna stay emaciated, um, good for you realize how significantly these extreme endurance goals are potentially compromising your health. And then we go back to this sensible discussion of having a broad based anti-aging peak performance goals.

Brad (01:07:58):
You’re going to want to get as much nutritious food as possible. Now let’s say you are listening and you’re pretty healthy. You’re pretty fit, but you have an interest in dropping that final five, 10 or 15 pounds by perhaps getting a little more disciplined with your diet. Hmm. We have a lot of evidence, especially from Pontzer’s work, that this is not a highly effective strategy to just cut back on your caloric intake. Your body’s gonna turn down some of those flames and you’re gonna adjust over the long term over the short term, anything will work. We know that right? Um, starvation biggest loser style, more exercise. But if you are talking about turning the corner and having a healthy graceful aging experience over the next five, 10 or 20 years, and getting that excess fat off your body, especially your spare tire, the first area of focus is, and this is not my opinion.

Brad (01:08:53):
This is widely validated. And, and I don’t think anyone could dispute this. The first area of focus is to get rid of those toxic nutrient deficient, metabolic, inhibiting, processed foods, particularly the seed oils. And if you think you’re doing a good job, um, let’s try to go up one other level because when you were out at the restaurant dining, research suggests, cited by Shanahan, that up to 40% of the calories found in dining out meals comes from the refined industrial seed oils. The main reason is that they’re cheaper than the much higher quality and more temperature, stable oils that they could use if they cared about your health, same thing for Whole Foods market. They nickname it whole paycheck because they do charge a premium for by and large. What’s a healthier option, healthier offerings than a mainstream supermarket, but the stores are still there’s.

Brad (01:09:53):
The seed oils are pervasive in all manner of ingredients on the shelf and in their hot bar. And it’s just so tragic and inexplicable how they could continue to offer these things, especially when they’re touting how healthy they are and how superior they are. And it’s truly to, to save money. That’s the only reason, my son four mentioned son worked in a very, very expensive restaurant with the highest prices, and it was just the elite of, uh, culinary experience. And they still cooked with these cheap oils, just shocking that you’re charging a hundred dollars for a steak and maybe, a couple drops of nasty oil in there instead of cooking with the more temperature, stable saturated fats, like Ghee butter, coconut oil, and the like, Hey, what a spot to end for today? And I’m going to put together a part four on the related topic of hormesis in general.

Brad (01:10:49):
So we’re gonna talk about how all these things stack up with your cold exposure, your sauna, your intense workouts, your fasting, your carb restriction, and try to get optimal here, where we can live a challenging high stimulatory life and grow and develop from the challenges that we face, but not overdo it. So thanks for listening to part three. Love to hear your feedback. I know we’re getting a little controversial, potentially confusing from some of the information, from different authorities. So let’s talk about it together. Let’s work through this podcast@bradventures.com. And before you do anything as I report before I choose to eat or fast and whatever I choose, you gotta get the morning routine going. It will change your life. And we’re so excited. All of us that we’re working on this great project that the program is available for enrollment.

Brad (01:11:47):
So look at bradkerns.com. You can click on the link for online courses, easy to find the morning exercise routine. And we have a complete educational experience for you with video, with eBooks, with audio accompaniments, and you can pick and choose to customize your own ideal morning routine for your fitness level, your interests, and the time available, going all the way to my pretty crazy extreme 40 minute routine that have built up slowly and carefully over the past five years without missing a single day, or you can start with a gentle skeleton setting routine that takes a few minutes, but it gets you on the board and it makes this commitment to your yourself, your own wellbeing and to starting the day in a proactive manner. So really just committing to two or three minutes outta the gate, maybe building up to five minutes after the first week after you get rolling, get some momentum, maybe building up to 10 minutes after the first 90 days, this is the path to changing your life.

Brad (01:12:46):
And I encourage you to just check it out watch the video, get excited about it, and hopefully enroll. Thanks for listening. Thank you for listening to the show. I love sharing the experience with you and greatly appreciate your support. Please email podcast@bradventures.com with feedback, suggestions, and questions for the Q and A shows. Subscribe to our email list@bradkearns.com for a weekly blast about the published episodes and a wonderful bimonthly newsletter edition with informative articles and practical tips for all aspects of healthy living. You can also download several awesome free eBooks when you subscribe to the email list. And if you could go to the trouble to leave a five or five star review with apple podcasts or wherever else, you listen to the shows that would be super, incredibly awesome. It helps raise the profile of the B.rad podcast and attract new listeners. And did you know that you can share a show with a friend or loved one by just hitting a few buttons in your player and firing off a text message? My awesome podcast player called Overcast allows you to actually record a soundbite excerpt from the episode you’re listening to and fire it off with a quick text message. Thank you so much for spreading the word and remember B.rad.

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