“I find my sun resistance varies more by region than diet.

In the Persian Gulf areas, I’d tan, but I don’t recall ever getting a sunburn (my ancestors were Vikings – my blond hair is darker than my skin, and I cook like a lobster). Further inland, in northeastern Iraq (Zagros Mountains), I developed a minor tan but only burned a little when some of my buddies got the bright idea to suntan on the roof of a bunker and fell asleep. Even in the Empty Quarter of Abu Dhabi, we’d spend hours on quads or trying to snowboard down sand dunes… no burn.

There’s a lot of dust and other particulate in the air in those regions – I don’t know if that made the difference, but there was a noticeable difference in how little I’d burn in 120° sun in the ME vice the scaly hell from the 65° sun at the Ren Faire near Phoenix last week.”

-Interesting.

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Published on March 17, 2023 11:51

March 10, 2023

New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 212

Research of the Week

Chili pepper consumption linked to more gastric cancer in North America, Africa, and Asia but less gastric cancer in South America and Europe.

It appears as if nitrate-free salami is viable and safe.

How the proposed “healthy diet for the world” falls short.

More yogurt, longer life.

Caffeine works even if you’re habituated to it.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Health Coach Radio: Getting Legal Peace of Mind with Maria Spear Ollis

Primal Kitchen Podcast: Food as Medicine

Media, Schmedia

Vice covers carnivore.

Guess it’s about that time again.

Interesting Blog Posts

How might insulin resistance cause obesity?

Evidence against ice age civilizations.

Social Notes

My take on the erythritol study.

Everything Else

Nitrates for power output.

AI tutor.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Totally expected: Elite soccer players who share rooms play worse than those who sleep alone.

Interesting thread: On LDL and inflammation.

Not surprised: Crickets have a lot of protein but do not satiate like beef.

Reminder: Tomatoes are internal sunscreen.

He’s just like me: Prince Louis wants to play in the garden every day.

Question I’m Asking

Do you have more sun resistance since going Primal?

Recipe Corner.Gastrique.Time Capsule

One year ago (Mar 4 – Mar 10)

6 Surprising Signs of Perimenopause and Menopause—What to watch for.Embracing the Heat—How and why to do it.Comment of the Week

“I wonder if the massive demand for students in the STEM fields has led to a decrease in academic rigor. More students means more research, which leaves colleges with relatively fewer/less-qualified reviewers to oversee and troubleshoot.

Plus, there is little short-term incentive for universities to chase away paying students. Long-term, allowing sub-par students to succeed only hurts the sciences – but academia today is very compartmentalized and ethics is about as far from STEM as any discipline can be.

I’m not suggesting that STEM professionals are any less ethical than anyone else; just that ethics have become a legal checklist rather than true moral principles. There are, no doubt, truly ethical professionals out there who remain uncompromising in their standards; I just worry they’re the academic equivalent of the northern white rhino – old and infertile, just waiting to see which is the last of a once-proud breed.”

-Wouldn’t be the first time.

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Published on March 10, 2023 12:47

March 8, 2023

Whey Protein: What It is and Why You Need It

whey protein powder When most people think about whey protein, they think about building muscle. Protein shakes at the gym. Meal replacement drinks in lieu of real food.

The six-meal-and-three-snack-a-day bro who keeps a whey shake on his bedside table to maintain those 2 AM gains.

The up-at-dawn-to-beat-rush-hour woman who drinks a shake in the car in lieu of a pastry.

As most people see it, whey protein’s just for people who want more protein in their diets, people who don’t have the time to cook, or people who hate to cook and also need more protein. It’s for weight lifters and athletes. It’s a “poor replacement” for real food. It’s a compromise when life happens. If you can cook and eat real food regularly, the popular story goes, you don’t need whey protein. Just eat real food—right?

But there’s actually much more to whey than just building muscle.

What is Whey Protein?

Whey is a protein-packed byproduct of cheese production. It’s that pseudo-clear liquid remaining after milk has been curdled and strained. Cheese makers used to toss it aside as waste material, turn it into ricotta cheese, or feed it to livestock until food scientists started to understand its value as a protein supplement for humans.

Today, we know that whey protein is the single best supplementary source of complete essential amino acids. It contains all the essential amino acids we need to promote muscle protein synthesis and muscle growth. is far more than a byproduct of cheese-making. It’s also more than just a single protein. Instead, it houses an impressive array of components with a wide variety of biological effects: beta-lactoglobulin, alpha-lactalbumin, lactoferrin, and immunoglobulins.

Beta-lactoglobulin:

Promotes glutathione synthesis and reduces allergic disease incidence.Improves retinol/vitamin A absorption and uptake.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2929489]/ref]

Alpha-lactoalbumin:

Protects against seizure in epileptic rats.[ref]ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23000629">1Increases serotonin levels in plasma.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12036812&quot... have anti-tumor effects.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24139905&quot...

Lactoferrin:

Improves bone healing and prevents bone loss.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25154204&quot... excessive iron, preventing it from fueling infections (many bacteria require iron), increasing inflammation, or becoming carcinogenic.Has anti-bacterial effects against food pathogens like E. coli and Listeria.

Immuno-globulins (A, M, G):

Neutralize toxins from viruses and bacteria.Prevent adhesion of bacteria to tissues.Inhibit bacterial growth.

Those are just a few of the components found in that undigested whey powder sitting in your pantry. Once the whey hits your GI tract, it forms even more bioactive peptides with their own unique effects. Some improve blood lipids, lower blood pressure, or act as opioid receptor agonists (if you’ve ever seen a milk-drunk baby bliss out after nursing, his opioid receptors are likely being severely agonized by bioactive whey peptides). Others induce satiety and improve metabolic health biomarkers.

Is Whey Protein Good for You?

Yes. Whey protein can help you gain muscle and improve many health conditions, like obesity, diabetes, fatty liver, and more.

Muscle: Regardless of your age, gender, or when you take it, combining whey protein with strength training consistently produces better results and larger muscles.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29751... It isn’t necessary to gain muscle and build strength if you’re eating enough protein through food, but whey protein certainly helps you add high-quality animal protein to your diet.Obesity: Whey tends to reduce fasting insulin levels in the obese and overweight (but not healthy prepubertal boys, who could use the growth promotion), increase satiety, reduce food intake, and improve resting energy expenditure.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20377924&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19471293&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12575908&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19874634&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23768612&quot... If you’re trying to lose weight or prevent obesity, increasing the amount of energy you burn at rest and decreasing the amount you consume—by manipulation of satiety and fat-burning hormones—are indispensable effects.Diabetes: Eaten before a meal, whey reduces the glucose spike from the subsequent meal in non-diabetics and type 2 diabetics alike. It achieves this by “spiking” insulin, but transiently; the insulin area under the curve improves even as the immediate insulin response increases.sciencedaily.com/…014/08/140805132248...sciencedaily.com/…014/07/140707212746...ajcn.nutrition.org/…/ajcn.2009.28406.... Plus, as seen above, fasting insulin tends to lower in people consuming whey protein.Fatty liver: In obese women, a whey supplement reduces liver fat (and as a nice side effect increases lean mass a bit).ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21288612&quot... Fatty liver patients also benefit from whey, enjoying improvements in glutathione status, liver steatosis, and antioxidant capacity.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19638084&quot... Rats who supplement with whey see reduced fat synthesis in the liver and increased fatty acid oxidation in the skeletal muscle.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16157243&quot...Stress: In “high-stress” subjects, a whey protein shake improved cognitive function and performance by increasing serotonin levels.ajcn.nutrition.org/…ontent/75/6/1051.... The same shake had no effect on “low-stress” subjects. And dietary whey also lowers oxidative brain stress, at least in mice.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23748211&quot...Cancer: Both the lactoferrin found in whey and the glutathione synthesis whey promotes may have anti-cancer effects. Lactoferrin shows potential to prevent cancer that has yet to occur and induce cell death in existing cancer cells.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19093266&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23016584&quot... In a recent human study, oral lactoferrin suppressed the formation of colonic polyps.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24867408&quot... And in animal cancer studies and human cancer case studies, whey protein has been shown to increase glutathione (“foremost among the cellular protective mechanisms”) and have anti-tumor effects.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11205219&quot... Whey protein can also help cancer patients stave off muscle loss and maintain strength.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...HIV: HIV is characterized by a drastic reduction in glutathione levels. And even if whey doesn’t always increase body weight in HIV patients, it does improve CD4 (a type of white blood cell) count, lower the number of co-infections, and persistently increase glutathione status.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18996868&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16014759&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11990003&quot...Heart disease: A review of the effect of whey on major cardiometabolic risk factors found that whey protein improves the lipid profile, reduces hypertension, improves vascular function, and increases insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23167434&quot... Whey peptides that form during digestion actually act as ACE-inhibitors, reducing blood pressure similarly to pharmaceuticals without the side effects.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15051858&quot...Sarcopenia: Muscle wasting, whether cancer-related or a product of age and inactivity, is a huge threat to one’s health and happiness. Studies show that whey protein is the most effective protein supplement for countering sarcopenia, especially compared to soy.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21367943&quot...ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20368372&quot... A buddy of mine can attest to this; a couple months back, his grandmother hadn’t eaten for a few days, was suffering from diarrhea, mental confusion, and basically appeared to be on her deathbed. He started making her whey protein-based milk shakes and the recovery was rapid. She grew alert, active, and regained her appetite and control of her bowels. She’s not out of the woods, but at least her remaining days will be much better than the direction they were heading.Gastrointestinal disorders: Contrary to concerns about dairy and gut health, whey can actually improve gut health and gut barrier function, even in patients with gastrointestinal disorders. In human Crohn’s disease patients, a whey protein supplement reduces leaky gut.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22038507&quot... In rodent models of inflammatory bowel disease, whey protein reduce gut inflammation and restore mucin (the stuff used to build up the gut barrier) synthesis.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20338413&quot... whey protein dairy?

Whey comes from milk products, so yes, whey protein is dairy. it’s a major bioactive component of dairy. And, as with other forms of dairy, we have to consider the issue of dairy intolerances and allergies. Dairy just doesn’t work for everyone, whether it’s the lactose or the proteins.

Should dairy-intolerant people avoid whey?

Maybe. It depends on which component of dairy gives you trouble. You can be:

Lactose intolerant. Lactose intolerance is a sensitivity to a form of sugar in dairy products.Casein sensitive. Casein sensitivity is an intolerance of one of the proteins in dairy productsWhey sensitive.

Luckily, most people can tolerate whey without issue. You’re far more likely to be allergic, sensitive, or intolerant to lactose or casein than to whey. And whey may even be downright anti-allergenic, as whey-based formulas have shown efficacy in the prevention of allergic diseases like asthma and eczema in susceptible children and infants.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12142964&quot...medscape.com/viewarticle/776909"...

The exception to this may lie in geography and ethnicity: In East Asian countries like Taiwan, whey sensitivity appears to be more common than casein sensitivity. In western regions like the United States and Europe, casein intolerance is far more common than whey.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23040... However, that’s just one study in people with atopic dermatitis. It might not apply to everyone.

I’ve found that most people with “dairy intolerance” can usually handle whey protein isolate, which has little to no lactose and almost zero casein.

Why eat whey protein when we could just eat yogurt, cheese, or drink milk?

In most mammalian milk, casein protein predominates and whey is a minor fraction of the total protein content. Cow, goat, horse, sheep—very high in casein, low in whey. But in human breastmilk, this ratio flips. As much as 80% of the total protein in human breastmilk is whey protein, where it plays important roles in immune system regulation and programming, cellular growth and differentiation, and overall physical and mental development. Infants raised on formula higher in casein end up with less lean mass and more fat mass than infants raised on formula higher in whey (and closer to the composition of breastmilk).https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/10/9/1...

You could make the argument that whey protein is one of the most ancestrally consistent dairy foods a person can eat.

Overall, whey protein is much more than just a protein supplement. It builds muscle, improves glucose control, regulates immune function, lowers stress, and confers a ton of beneficial effects on people who consume it. Real food is the foundation for a healthy diet. But whey protein is much more than a muscle-builder and meal replacer. I’d argue that it deserves a spot on the “supplemental foods” list alongside egg yolks, liver, fatty fish, and all the other foods that are powerful and vital in small doses.

I feel comfortable recommending its use for almost everyone, given that it’s one of the best-studied and oldest dietary supplements around.

Let’s hear from you guys. Do you take whey? If so, what kind and why? How have you benefited?

Thanks for reading, everyone!

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References ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2929489]/ref]

Alpha-lactoalbumin:

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Published on March 08, 2023 10:34

March 7, 2023

How to Gradually Reduce Carbs to Reach Ketosis

Man uses phone in produce section at grocery store to get more information about his purchases. Sometimes folks who are interested in losing weight or getting healthier get so focused on the minutia of ”optimizing” their diet, supplements, exercise, and lifestyle that they gloss over the basics. This is a mistake. No matter your goal, you have to lay a good foundation before worrying about the finishing touches. When starting a keto diet, that means gradually reducing carbs to build a base of metabolic flexibility and get into ketosis.

To be clear, you can slam your body into ketosis by dropping from several hundred grams of carbs per day, typical in a modern diet, straight to the very low carb intake required for keto. I don’t recommend it, though.

For one thing, jumping from a high-carb diet into keto sets you up for the world of hurt known as keto flu. When you suddenly deprive your body of glucose, you can expect to experience headaches, lethargy, brain fog, and an inability to perform your typical workouts. Gradually reducing carbs gives your body the opportunity to upregulate its ability to burn fat for fuel, a necessary prerequisite of ketosis.

Not for nothing, a gradual transition also gives the people in your life time to get on board. You might be excited about your big lifestyle change, but I hear all the time from people who are struggling because their partners, kids, or roommates aren’t exactly supportive of them tossing all the junk food and refusing to go through the drive-thru on the way home.

Even if you’re already following a moderate-carb Primal way of eating, I still recommend taking the time to make your transition as seamless as possible. No matter where you’re starting, the best way to reach ketosis is to gradually and systematically reduce your carb intake. This is the same approach that I describe in The Keto Reset Diet, and it’s worked for the thousands of people who have participated in our Keto Month challenges.

What Is Ketosis?

Ketosis is a metabolic state in which your liver is making ketones, which are molecules that any mitochondria-containing cell can use for energy. Your brain and heart especially thrive on ketones. To get into ketosis, you must deplete liver glycogen (the glucose stored in your liver) and keep insulin levels low. Very-low-carb diets and fasting, or a combo of the two, will get you there. Glycogen-depleting exercise helps, too.

Ketogenic (“ketone making”) diets are popular for everything from losing weight to lowering insulin and blood sugar to augmenting traditional cancer treatments. Inflammation is at the root of every chronic illness, and ketones are anti-inflammatory. They are also an efficient fuel source, and athletes across the sport spectrum are experimenting with using low-carb diets to burn fat and ketones during exercise.

The Primal Blueprint qualifies as a low-carb eating style, especially in comparison to the high-carb Standard American Diet, simply by virtue of the fact that it eliminates the major sources of carbs in the typical modern diet: grains and sugar. The version of keto I recommend is an offshoot of the Primal diet you know and love, but with fewer carbs—below 50 grams or so per day. That’s orders of magnitude less than the average person eats, and maybe half or a third of what a typical Primal person consumes. So how do you get there?

How to Gradually Reduce Carbs and Get Into KetosisStep one: Start with the big offenders, grains and added sugars

That means no more sugary breakfast cereal, cupcakes, soda, or donuts, but it also means no “heart healthy” whole-grain bread or pasta. Instead, build your meals and snacks around Primal fare—meat, produce, eggs, nuts and seeds, optional full-fat dairy and “sensible indulgences” like very dark chocolate (not the super sugary stuff). For those of you accustomed to the Primal Blueprint, this should be familiar. In Keto Reset lingo, we call this the metabolic reset phase. It’s the first step toward becoming fat-adapted, meaning that your cells can efficiently burn fat for fuel in place of glucose.

At this point you aren’t counting carbs, nor are you worried about the carbs that naturally come along with fruit, vegetables, dairy products, or any other Primal food sources. Depending on where you start, it can take a while to completely eliminate grains and added sugars and get comfortable eating Primally. Stay at this step for as long as it takes. There’s no rush here.

Step two: Eat less fruit and higher-carbohydrate vegetables, tubers, and legumes

Next, take a look at the foods you’re currently eating and start to notice their carbohydrate content. Most people don’t have any idea how many carbs, or how much fat or protein, they’re taking in on an average day. A nutrition tracker like Cronometer is useful here. You don’t need to meticulously weigh and measure your food at this stage, but you want to pay attention to what’s on your plate.

Start limiting the portion size of your highest-carb foods or swapping them out for lower-carb alternatives. There aren’t any rules about how exactly to do this, but aim to be in the range of 75 to 100 grams of carbs, give or take, on a typical day. (If you were eating Primally to start, this might already be your norm.) If you’re eating two or three servings of fruit per day, maybe you decrease it to one and trade grapes (27 grams of carbs per cup) for strawberries (12 grams of carbs per cup). If you’re still eating a cup of black beans three times per week, try half a cup twice per week, then once.

This is also a good time to take a look at your alcohol consumption. Besides the carb content, alcohol can interfere with ketosis.

Step three: Go keto!

The final step is to tighten the reins and get your carb intake below 50 grams per day. I don’t worry about carbs that come from above-ground green vegetables and avocados, so you have some wiggle room there, but 50 grams per day is a good target to keep in mind.

Whereas the first two steps were somewhat laid back, here you need to be strict. Ketosis only occurs when the metabolic conditions are right. There is a distinct on-off switch. Too many carbs, and you won’t be in ketosis. For that reason, it’s often necessary to track your food carefully for at least a few days to see where you’re at. You may also want to measure your ketone levels to ensure you’re hitting your goal. That’s not mandatory.

At this point, there won’t be much room in your carb allowance for fruit, below-ground vegetables, or legumes. Prioritizing the most keto-friendly fruits and vegetables will allow you to enjoy the biggest, most satisfying meals.

What Else You Should Do To Encourage Ketosis

The transition to keto is all about developing new metabolic pathways. That’s largely about what you eat, but there are other things you can do to help the process along.

Increase your electrolytes. When you drop into ketosis, your kidneys start flushing electrolytes. Mindfully increasing your sodium intake especially, but also potassium and magnesium, is key to staving off keto flu.Adjust your exercise. During the transition, you’ll probably have a hard time accessing top-end speed and power. Dial back the intensity and/or duration, then gradually work back to your normal volume.Mind your stress. Stress activates the fight-or-flight response, which will increase the body’s demand for glucose. Reversing the Process – Backing Out of Keto

Transitioning out of keto to a more moderate-carb approach is as simple as gradually increasing your intake of the fruit, higher-carb vegetables, and perhaps tubers and legumes you reduced in step two. Add maybe 25 grams of carbs per week until you find your personal carb tolerance sweet spot—the point at which you feel the best mentally and physically.

Why would you want to stop eating keto? You don’t have to. I know people who have been happily and successfully keto for a couple of decades. But I don’t think constant ketosis is necessary. For optimal metabolic flexibility, I prefer to cycle in and out of keto. This also gives you the freedom to enjoy holidays, meals out with friends, and fresh summer fruit without concerning yourself about staying in ketosis 24/7.

That’s it, pretty simple really. Comment below with any questions or topics you’d like me to cover next!

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Published on March 07, 2023 08:00

March 3, 2023

New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 211

Research of the Week

Afternoon exercise might be the most effective.

The oldest known horse riders identified to date.

Parasitic infections are still common in the US.

The older you are, the more steps you need (and benefit from).

Ancient DNA makes the picture of prehistoric Europe a bit clearer.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Health Coach Radio: Closing Your Client’s Intention-Behavior Gap with Monica Reinagel

Primal Kitchen Podcast: Can You Avoid Cancer?

Media, Schmedia

Kids will eventually tire of cake and turn to fruits and vegetables, suggests a new WSJ article.

Erythritol has some trouble on its hands.

Interesting Blog Posts

What we get wrong about microbiome research.

Robb Wolf’s take on the erythritol study.

Social Notes

An announcement.

Everything Else

Nice overview of EVOO versus regular olive oil.

Healthy items at Whole Foods listicle has some quality picks.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

More obesity drugs: The latest one either inhibits or activates a new receptor site, but they’re not quite sure how it works. This will go swimmingly.

Interesting blog: On pausing alcohol.

I would try this: Wine mixed with milk.

Weird: AI forms images after reading brain scans (supposedly).

Fascinating hypothesis: Have male testoterone levels dropped because we’ve stopped doing physical labor?

Question I’m Asking

What does everyone agree with that you don’t?

Recipe CornerEasy hamburger soup.Crispy air fryer sweet potato fries. Try dipped in PK Chipotle Lime mayo.Time Capsule

One year ago (Feb 25 – Mar 3)

Dear Mark: How to Freeze Produce—How to do it.Embracing the Cold—How and why to do it.Comment of the Week

“What do I believe that most people don’t? I believe in ghosts. Ghost believers only make up 45% of the US population. I never believed in them myself until we bought a 200 year old New England farmhouse and lived there for 9 years. It was a harmless ghost though somewhat mischievous.”

-Interesting.

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Published on March 03, 2023 13:17

March 2, 2023

7 Mood Boosting Foods

Teenage girl happily eating fresh blueberries There are two nutrition-based approaches a person can take when trying to improve their mood naturally—without drugs or pharmaceuticals. One way is to use supplements and individual nutrients to adjust the specific neurotransmitters that help determine our mood. We can think of the three primary mood related neurochemicals—dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine—as primary colors that combine in different concentrations to create what we interpret as our mood. They all mix and mingle and interact.

But trying to modulate each specific neurotransmitter to the perfect degree using specific nutrients and supplements is harder than you think. Top down orchestration of complex neurochemistry is unreliable and prone to side effects. Just look at the how the pharmaceutical single-minded focus on serotonin to combat depression has failed. Do you think you can do the same thing using supplements and get it right?

Another way, a better way, is to look at foods that have been shown to improve mood without worrying so much about their specific effect on individual neurochemicals. It turns out there is a large trove of research on the topic and we have a fairly good idea about the foods that can boost and support our mood.

Foods That Boost MoodMeatFishDairyFermented foodPrebioticsCoffeeBlueberries

Now, this isn’t medical advice. The information contained in this article should not be construed as a replacement for consultation and treatment with a medical professional, particularly if you’re experiencing serious mood disorders. This is simply a post describing foods that have been shown to improve mood—to make people feel better and happier.

How Meat Boosts Mood

The first foundational food of a mood boosting diet has to be meat. There are several lines of evidence that point toward meat being an important mood food.

First, observational evidence shows that vegans, vegetarians, and other plant-based dieters are more likely to present with mood disorders like depression and anxiety. In fact, among the studies collected by a recent literature review, it was the highest quality studies with the best methodology that found the strongest association between meat avoidance and mood disorders.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34612... “The more rigorous the study, the more positive and consistent the relation between meat consumption and better mental health.”

Second, meat contains many different nutrients that have been linked to improved mood or shown to directly improve a person’s mood. Let’s go through some of them:

Carnosine: In many Asian countries, a carnosine supplement derived from chicken meat called “chicken extract” is a popular mood enhancer and stress reliever. Studies show that it can improve mood, reduce anxiety, and ameliorate mental fatigue.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25642... More recently, direct supplementation with carnosine had a rapid anti-depressant effect in people with clinical depression.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32063... The speed at which the supplement improved mood in the depressed patients so astonished the researchers that they’re conducting further research as we speak.

Creatine: Creatine is only found in animal foods, particularly fish and red meat. Research shows that the more creatine a person eats, the lower their risk of depression.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32066... This isn’t proven to be a causal relationship, but there’s mechanistic evidence as well: depression is characterized by poor energy function in the brain, which creatine can restore.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

Zinc: In human trials, zinc supplementation has been shown to reduce anger and improve mood.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20087... Zinc is most abundantly found in animal foods, particularly meat (and shellfish).

If you want to get more specific, the best sources of carnosine are turkey breast and pork loin. The best sources of creatine are red muscle meat and fish. The best sources of zinc are red meat.

How Fish Boosts Mood

Seafood is another class of animal foods with both strong observational and plausible mechanistic evidence for being mood boosting food.

On the observational side, fish and seafood consumption is almost always linked to improved mood, less anxiety, and reduced depression risk.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30238...

One piece of evidence for the causality of the relationship is that it isn’t linear. It’s a U-shaped curve. Both the lowest and highest intakes of fish and omega-3 fatty acids are less protective, while the moderate doses of fish and omega-3 fats are most protective against mood disorders.

Another piece of evidence is that giving DHA directly to people suffering from mood disorders improves their mood. People who received DHA supplements experienced reduced anger and improved mood scores.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16269...

Plus, seafood is also a great way to get creatine and zinc, two mood-boosting nutrients already established as likely causal in the previous section. For instance, herring has the most creatine of any food and oysters are the richest source of zinc—more than even the reddest of red meat.

How Dairy Boosts Mood

Almost every observational study finds an association between low dairy intake and depression, anxiety, and other negative moods.

Among Jordanian college students, a low dairy intake predicts the presence of depression and anxiety.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32830...

Among Fins, higher intakes of full-fat dairy predicted lower odds of having depressive symptoms.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35947...

Among Chinese children, habitual dairy consumption is a strong predictor of low rates of anxiety and depression.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36162...

Again and again, we see that the more dairy people eat, the better their mood and lower their risk of mood disorders. Is this causal? What could be going on?

Removal of dairy from the diet raises parathyroid hormone. Women who eat a plant-based diet low in dairy see their parathyroid hormone skyrocket.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19368... This has devastating effects on their bone density, and it can also increase the risk of depressive symptoms. In severe hyperparathyroidism—where the parathyroid hormone levels skyrocket—anxiety, depression, and even suicidal ideation are common.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama... Dairy is a potent source of calcium, a known modulator of parathyroid hormone. More calcium, lower parathyroid, better mood. Less calcium, higher parathyroid, worse mood.

How Fermented Food and Prebiotics Boost Mood

A few years back, a study reported that the more fermented food like yogurt, kefir, kimchi, or sauerkraut a person ate, the lower their risk of social anxiety.sciencedirect.com/…/pii/S016517811500... This relationship was strongest in people with a genetic tendency toward neuroticism, suggesting that neuroticism isn’t a foregone conclusion but rather a fermented food deficit. While there are studies looking at specific probiotic strains and mood, I’d suggest just eating fermented food and if you want to take a supplement, use a broad spectrum probiotic like Primal Probiotics consisting of commonly encountered strains that have been show to improve health markers across the board.

Another study found that feeding gut bacteria with specific prebiotics—fermentable fiber that gut bacteria turn into short chain fatty acids—reduced negative emotional bias and lowered cortisol (a stress hormone). People who took the prebiotic (Bimuno-galactooligosaccharides, or BOS) focused more on positive stimuli and were able to ignore negative stimuli in a test of emotional bias. To me, the ability to focus on the positive, to be optimistic, is the hallmark of a “good mood.”

How Coffee Boosts Mood

Dopamine is the primary mood-boosting neurotransmitter, improving motivation, increasing joy, and simply making a person feel good. That’s actually one of the mechanisms by which so many of the most popular drugs like tobacco, cocaine, and opioids are so addictive: they increase the dopamine response. Coffee is one of the most reliable, most legal ways we have of boosting dopamine function, increasing both dopamine release and dopamine receptor density.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25871974&quot...

Many people use coffee the wrong way: to “counter” a bad night’s sleep. That keeps your head above water but it doesn’t really boost your mood. A better way to consume coffee is to do so well-rested after a good night’s sleep. Coffee when well-rested, when you “don’t need it,” is an entirely different experience. The mood boost that results can only be described as productive optimism. You can actually feel the dopamine and feel compelled to create, to do, to act on the world. You feel good and feel like building something great.

How Blueberries Boost Mood

Blueberries are the most powerful berry, almost akin to a true superfood. They can improve cognitive function in children and adults, increase acute performance on memory tests, and they can also boost your mood. A blueberry-based drink was able to quickly improve mood in both kid and grown-ups.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28230...

The compound responsible appears to be the anthocyanin, the blue/purple pigment that gives blueberries their distinctive color. To really get a mood-boosting effect, choose the berries that stain your mouth blue and purple. Smaller berries are better because they have more surface area per gram and therefore more pigment. Other plants carrying the same purple/blue pigments may confer the same mood boosting benefits, like purple sweet potatoes. One study even found that purple cauliflower reduced depressive symptoms in mice.https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...

The beauty of using foods to boost your mood is that there’s no risk involved. You’re just eating foods that are already nutritious, already good for you for reasons that have nothing to do with mood alteration.

What foods do you use to boost your mood? Does this list jibe with your experiences?

Let me know down below!

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Published on March 02, 2023 12:38

February 22, 2023

8 Reasons You Need to Be Eating Avocado

Fresh avocado on cutting board Avocado is one of those foods that almost every dietary ideology agrees is good for you. Vegans, vegetarians, paleos, Mediterranean diet espousers, and keto diet fans all promote avocados as a “good fat.” Even the USDA dietary committee wants people eating avocados. But most avocado discussion stops there. It’s “good for you” and that’s about all you hear about the avocado. I’m as guilty as the next man, seeing as how my main focus is on avocado oil used as the basis of most Primal Kitchen products.

But the human research convincingly shows that avocados—the whole fruit—are incredibly healthy and nutrient-dense additions to anyone’s diet. Unless you have a specific reason for not eating them, you should be eating avocados oil on a regular basis. Here are seven evidence-based reasons why this is the case:

1. Avocados improve cholesterol

What constitutes a healthy lipid profile is a subject of debate, but we can generally agree on a few principles:

Higher HDL is usually better.Lower triglycerides are better.A lower LDL:HDL ratio is usually better.Increased LDL particle size is usually better.Less LDL oxidation is better.

Eating avocados achieves all these improvements. In one human study, subjects were randomized to eat either an American diet, a standard “healthy” low-fat diet, a moderate-fat diet with most of the fat coming from sunflower and canola oil, or a moderate-fat diet with most of the extra fat coming from one large avocado a day.pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25567051&quot... Only the avocado diet improved LDL:HDL ratio, increased LDL particle size, and reduced oxidized LDL. It was the clear winner over both the American, the seed oil diet, and the low-fat diet.

Another similar study pitted avocado eaters against seed oil eaters. The fatty acid composition was identical in both diets, but only the avocado eaters saw reductions in oxidized LDL particles.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31616...

In another study, Hispanic adults with high cholesterol were randomized to a high-carb vegetarian diet enriched with soybean and safflower oil or a high-carb vegetarian diet enriched with avocado (30% of total calories from avocado).https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/94285... The avocado group saw much better improvements in LDL, triglycerides, and HDL.

2. Avocados make meat healthier

Some studies find that eating a hamburger patty by itself increases postprandial lipid oxidation and reduces endothelial function, while eating the same patty with a half avocado almost abolishes these effects and also reduces systemic inflammation. There are other issues at hand here, so don’t freak out about a hamburger patty just yet, but it’s probably is a good idea to have a few slices of avocado with your meat. Other herbs, spices, and phytonutrient-rich plant foods can also help here.

3. Avocados make meals more filling and satisfying

Adding avocados to meals makes said meal both more filling and satisfying.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31035... This effect occurs whether the avocado adds calories or not. Even isocaloric meals, some with avocados, some without, show the effect. A meal with avocado is simply more satisfying and keeps a person fuller for longer. You aren’t full because you’re getting stuffed. You’re full because you’re satisfied—the meal was nutrient-dense and inherently filling. You’re full because avocados have powerful effects on gut satiety hormones.

4. Avocados improve cognitive function

In older adults given a battery of mental tests, eating avocados increased lutein (a carotenoid linked to ocular and cognitive health) levels by 25%, boosting executive functional capacity, sustained attention, and problem solving ability compared to eating chickpeas.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28832...

Avocado is a unique blend of water and oleic acid that enhances the absorption of carotenoids not just from the avocado itself, but also from any accompanying foods that contain carotenoids.

5. Avocados improve gut health

Dietary avocado increases the diversity of the gut biome, increases “shedding” of fat in the stool of obese and overweight (who don’t “need” the additional caloric energy), and reduces bile acid excretion in the stool. It also tends to increase short chain fatty acid production by gut bacteria, a good indicator of improved metabolic health.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32805...

6. Avocados reduce oxidative stress and inflammation

In general, avocado consumption lowers markers of inflammation and oxidative stress. As mentioned earlier, they can reduce LDL oxidation—the process by which LDL particles are subjected to oxidative stress and damaged, thereby increasing the risk of atherosclerosis. They also have been shown to lower C-reactive protein and other markers associated with endothelial damage and function.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35700...

7. Avocados improve eye health

Older adults who eat avocados see increases in their macular pigment density (MPD).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... Higher MPDs indicate better eye health, a better prognosis for vision, and a stronger ability to absorb and withstand blue light. The pigments act as a “sink” or filter for blue light, which increases visual acuity and improves eyesight.[ref]https://journalretinavitreous.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40942-016-0044-9">8

8. Avocados are micronutrient-rich.

When most people talk about the nutrients found in avocados, they talk about potassium and monounsaturated fat. These are good components of the avocado, to be sure, but there’s a lot more to it. A single avocado gives you:

30% of daily folate40% of vitamin B515% of riboflavin23% of vitamin B617% of vitamin E28% of vitamin K26% of copper9% of magnesium15% of potassium

That’s not bad for 200 calories of healthy fat and prebiotic fiber that also has all the beneficial effects mentioned above. Avocados are delicious, nutritious, and improve many aspects of your health. There’s no reason not to eat them on a regular basis.

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References pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25567051 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31616932/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9428580 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31035472/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28832514/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32805028/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35700149 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5622679/[ref] Higher MPDs indicate better eye health, a better prognosis for vision, and a stronger ability to absorb and withstand blue light. The pigments act as a “sink” or filter for blue light, which increases visual acuity and improves eyesight.[ref]https://journalretinavitreous.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40942-016-0044-9

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Published on February 22, 2023 08:00

February 21, 2023

What Is Yoga Nidra

Two women lying on yoga mats in savasana pose in a sunny, open-air studio. What mental image does the word “yoga” conjure for you? Probably a spandex-clad individual in downward dog or balancing on one leg in tree pose. Or maybe they’re in a complicated full-body knot that requires five times more flexibility than you’ve ever had? Does it look like hard work?

That’s certainly one version of yoga, the kind that dominates the modern notion of yoga in the West, but it’s not at all what we’re talking about today.

What if I told you that there is another kind of yoga, one in which you don’t move at all? You don’t even sit or stand; you lie down the whole time. That’s yoga nidra. “Yoga nidra” literally means “yogic sleep,” sometimes translated as “conscious sleep.” The goal of yoga nidra is to achieve an altered state of awareness where you are neither awake nor asleep but in a liminal space in between—or maybe surpassing both. (Technically, the term refers to the state of consciousness beyond wakefulness or sleeping. That is, “yoga nidra” is the destination, not the journey it takes to get there. But in common parlance, people use it to mean the entire practice.)

Yoga nidra offers the opportunity to step outside your body, thoughts, and emotions. It is a state of deep relaxation and, say proponents, of deep healing where your subconscious becomes more open to learning and establishing new thought and behavior patterns, stress dissipates, and you move towards physical health and homeostasis. “Equivalent to fours hours of deep sleep!” is a common selling point.

The latter may or may not be true, but it’s clear that yoga nidra has a lot to offer by way of promoting relaxation, better sleep, and even recovery from major stress and trauma. There isn’t a person operating in the modern world who couldn’t benefit from slowing down and intentionally tapping into relaxing, restorative practices. Is yoga nidra right for you?

A Brief History of Yoga Nidra

Modern yoga nidra practices have roots tracing back into many ancient yoga and meditation traditions. In ancient texts, yoga nidra or yoganidra sometimes referred to that non-sleep, non-waking level of consciousness or to the goddess Yoga Nidra Shakti. https://www.yoganidranetwork.org/wp-c... ">1 Yoga nidra was often described as a higher state of being, one in which normal mental and bodily activities ceased, and the yogi achieved a state of bliss.https://www.theluminescent.org/2015/0... ">2

The type of yoga nidra practice you’re likely to encounter today was probably inspired by 19th and 20th century “relaxationists” and hypnotists who were interested in harnessing the healing power of rest, according to scholars,https://www.yoganidranetwork.org/wp-c... ">3 but it really got its kickstart thanks to the teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Beginning in the 1960s and 70s, Satyananda devised a method of using breathing techniques and body scans to achieve progressive relaxation and tap into yoga nidra. If you take a yoga nidra class today, there’s a good chance you’ll be following his method, or something quite like it.

Yoga nidra has since enjoyed a surge in popularity, as well as academic interest. In the 2000s, clinical psychologist and yoga scholar Dr. Richard Miller developed his iRest protocol—a version of yoga nidra—and institute of the same name to help people dealing with issues ranging from “normal” stress to severe PTSD, sleep disturbances, and chronic health issues. More recently, Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman coined the term “non-sleep deep rest” (NSDR) to encompass practices that can promote stress release, neuroplasticity, more efficient learning, and better sleep, among other benefits. Huberman counts yoga nidra, hypnosis or self-hypnosis, and napping as types of NSDR.

What Happens During a Yoga Nidra Practice?

Yoga nidra involves a guided, meditative practice designed to achieve a deep state of relaxation where you transcend waking, sleeping, and dreaming states to arrive at a deeper level of consciousness. You remain aware of the outside world (unlike when you’re asleep), but you are totally detached from it. You are aware but not really awake. There but not-there. In a true state of yoga nidra, you reportedly experience not only profound relaxation but a sense of interconnectedness with the universe.

This is where yoga nidra differs from traditional meditation in an important way. With meditation, you are usually sitting up and cultivating intense focus, sometimes on the breath, a chant, or a mental image. You are very much awake, and your conscious awareness is very much “on.” In yoga nidra, conscious thought is “turned off,” replaced by an awareness that is neither focused nor intentional. As yoga scholars Dr. Stephen Parker and Swami Veda Bharati describe it, “Neither thoughts nor images are present, and the practitioner experiences conscious, deep, dreamless sleep, possessing awareness of the surroundings but neither thinking about them nor interacting with them.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24016...

Like all forms of yoga or meditation, the particulars of your practice will depend on who’s guiding you. Depending on how your guide or teacher was trained, they may follow a script or they may tap into a more intuitive flow during the session. Either way, it will probably involve a similar series of steps, something like this:

You begin by lying on your back in savasana, or corpse pose.Set an intention, or sankalpa, for the practice. This might be something simple like “I am going to relax,” or it could be something bigger you are trying to achieve like, “I will sleep well at night” or “I will stop drinking alcohol.”Next comes a series of visualization and breathing exercises. The purpose is to move you through different layers of the self toward a state of yoga nidra. Typically you would start with a body scan, moving your awareness to different points around your body, followed by instructions to bring awareness to your breathing, your senses, and your thoughts, often with specific visualization cues. Ultimately, you arrive in the desired state of deep relaxation.Finally, you reaffirm your intention or sankalpa before returning to a waking state.Benefits of Yoga Nidra

According to traditional wisdom, yoga nidra is a deeply healing state. Yoga nidra is especially touted as an effective way to alleviate stress, sleep better, and improve overall well-being. And there are plenty of studies to support these assertions, for example:

Yoga nidra reduced stress and anxiety among college students,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31003... ">5 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24165... ">6 nursing students,https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/... ">7 https://ajner.com/AbstractView.aspx?P... ">8 and professors.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... ">9Adults with chronic insomnia were randomly assigned to receive cognitive behavioral therapy or do yoga nidra at home (using a recording) for five weeks. Both groups’ total sleep time and sleep efficiency improved, but yoga nidra outperformed CBT in terms of changes in slow-wave sleep and total insomnia severity.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34825... ">10Four weeks of yoga nidra was more effective than progressive muscle relaxation for improving sleep quality in male athletes (though both were helpful).https://link.springer.com/article/10.... ">11Two studies found that depression and anxiety decreased, and psychological well-being improved, among women with menstrual health problems after six months of yoga nidra.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... ">12 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... ">13 (Interestingly,yoga nidra also seems to affect reproductive hormone levels.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23647... ">14)Yoga nidra may be an effective tool for helping veterans (and potentially others) cope with PTSD symptoms.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23929... ">15 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/... ">16 The U.S. Army Surgeon General has endorsed yoga nidra as an effective strategy for pain management.https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltex... ">17

Scientific studies (small though they are) provide some evidence about the physiological effects underlying sthe mental and physical health benefits practitioners observe.

According to one study, for example, yoga nidra can activate the parasympathetic, rest-and-digest nervous system, as evidenced by higher heart rate variability (HRV).https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22866... ">18 Another set of researchers put eight experienced yoga teachers in a PET scan and had them do a yoga nidra practice, during which they showed a 65 percent increase in dopamine release in the brain.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11958... ">19 Other studies suggest that a regular yoga nidra practice can reduce blood pressure,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... ">20 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23387... ">21 inflammation as measured by CRP,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... ">22 and blood glucose levels.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19810... ">23 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19810... ">24Getting Started

There’s no question that all forms of yoga and meditation can offer tremendous physical, mental, and even spiritual benefits for people who practice regularly. However, other forms of yoga have barriers to entry—concerns that you might not be strong enough or flexible enough, for example—that can scare people away. And a lot of people give up on meditation because they find it too hard to quiet the monkey mind and achieve the desired focus (although that does get easier with time).

The beauty of yoga nidra is that it can be practiced anywhere by anybody. No special equipment nor physical fitness capabilities are required. There are lots of free yoga nidra exercises online, and many yoga studios offer in-person classes. Some are as short as 10 minutes, which are great when you need to take a quick break. To really tap into the benefits, though, most yoga nidra practices will last 30 to 45 minutes or so.

If the idea of disconnecting from the conscious mind while still retaining awareness, of “surfing the interface between sleeping and waking consciousness” (a common tag line of yoga nidra) feels a bit too abstract for you, I’d encourage you to give it a try nevertheless. All you have to do is lie still and listen to the teacher’s voice. Consider it a practice of deep relaxation to start. Who couldn’t benefit from that?

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Published on February 21, 2023 09:50

February 17, 2023

New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week—Edition 209

Research of the Week

More good news about Covid immunity.

The case studies about using ketogenic diets for binge eating are impressive.

Fructose may bear some responsibility for Alzheimer’s.

Getting a Michelin star might make a restaurant more likely to fail.

Hominins were using stone tools to butcher large prey a million years earlier than expected.

New Primal Kitchen Podcasts

Primal Health Coach Radio: Closing Your Client’s Intention-Behavior Gap with Monica Reinagel

Media, Schmedia

Major German grocery chain set to reduce meat in stores.

What’s going on with egg prices, lawmakers wonder.

Interesting Blog Posts

On the impact of low-carb diets on cholesterol.

On lab meat and cancer.

Social Notes

Helluva breakfast.

How I’m eating these days.

Everything Else

Protein is the primary directive.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Interesting paper: Competitive middle aged athletes who switched to a high-fat, low-carb diet suffered no decrement in mile or 800 meter run performance.

Cool study: Increase the incline to make treadmill running more similar to overland running.

I want to believe: Could the hobbits of Flores Island still exist?

My favorite type of garden: Oyster garden.

Incredible: Japanese scientists quantify new antioxidants in meat.

Question I’m Asking

What do you believe that few people agree with?

Recipe CornerSlow-fried plantains. Use avocado oil, obviously.Italian sausage breakfast casserole. For big eaters.Time Capsule

One year ago (Feb 11 – Feb 17)

Summer Survival Tips—How to survive.Fresh Versus Frozen Food: Which is More Nutritious?—Well, which is it?Comment of the Week

“Those of us who need Ozympic to control our diabetes are having a hard time getting it because the weight loss community is buying all of it. Please, people, don’t interfere with our health in order to look “prettier.”

-If true, I wonder why they wouldn’t just make more to meet demand.

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Published on February 17, 2023 12:58

February 15, 2023

All About the New Weight Loss Drugs

Man sitting in front of coffee table preparing Semaglutide Ozempic injection. The United States and much of the industrialized world has an obesity problem. The environment is obesogenic. The food is delicious and engineered by PhDs to target and titillate our brain reward systems. The portions are enormous. Half of our waking hours are devoted to sitting slumped over in a chair staring into an electronic device—for work and for pleasure. We eat carbs we don’t need, use seed oils in quantities our bodies haven’t adapted to handling, and largely avoid the most important food our ancestors evolved consuming: animal protein. The cheapest food is the worst and the healthiest is the most expensive.

It’s a big mess, and many people resist the dietary and lifestyle changes required to fix the issue. It’s no wonder many people have been hoping for a pill or medication that fixes the obesity problem.

Over the last few years, scientists appear to have found a class of medications that can help: GLP-1 agonists like semaglutide (sold as Ozempic® and Wegovy®) and liraglutide (aka Victoza® and Saxenda®). Hollywood celebrities and fashion models are taking these drugs in vast quantities. Silicon Valley tech circles are taking them—Elon Musk, most famously, is on semaglutide. In short, almost everyone with the money and access and weight to lose is using semaglutide and related drugs to stay thin. I know several docs who prescribe it for overweight patients.

Originally designed as diabetes drugs, these agents mimic the effects of glucagon-like peptide-1, an incretin hormone the body releases when you eat food. GLP-1 has two primary effects:

It stimulates the release of insulin and inhibits the release of glucagon. It slows down gastric motility and the passage of food through the gut, keeping you full for longer.

GLP-1 is a hormone that “signals” fullness. There are all sorts of positive downstream effects as well:

Lower glucose productionMore glucose uptake by musclesIncreased insulin sensitivity Lower blood pressureImproved endothelial function

The new weight loss drugs bind to the receptors that normally interact with GLP-1 and elicit the same effect as the hormone itself.

Do the obesity drugs work for losing weight?

Yes. They work. Out of all the weight loss drugs the industry has pushed and tested and tried, the GLP-1 agonists actually help people lose weight.

A recent paper tested semaglutide for two years in obese people.https://www.nature.com/articles/s4159... The average starting body weight was 106 kilos, or 233 pounds. Average starting BMI was 38. Most were women. One group got the drug, the other got placebo. Both groups were counseled to follow a “behavioral intervention,” which probably means exercise and other typical things.

By 104 weeks, the semaglutide group had lost an average of 15.2 percent of their bodyweight. The placebo group had lost an average of 2.6 percent.

Now, this didn’t make them thin. At the end, most were still overweight or obese. 15 percent of 233 pounds is about 35 pounds. That’s a great improvement, but it’s not enough to get you to a normal body weight. Furthermore, there was a major plateau of weight loss in the semaglutide group around 68 weeks. They didn’t really lose any more weight after that (as a group), and they even started to slightly gain by the end of the study. It was a very minor uptick, but an uptick nonetheless.

Semaglutide wasn’t enough for them. They were still mostly overweight, and the weight wasn’t continuing to come off—and it may have been starting to come back on.

But these drugs aren’t just about weight loss. There are other beneficial effects, too:

Reduced blood pressure.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34047... cravings for junk food.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28266... major cardiovascular events (heart attacks, strokes, etc).https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32916... glucose tolerance.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34622... visceral fat.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...

So these obesity drugs also improve other health markers. That’s great and suggests that the effects while you’re taking the drug are mostly positive.

I see some potential downsides, however.

Potential Downsides of GLP-1 AgonistsYou probably have to take it for life. A recent paper followed a group of people who had taken semaglutide for over a year and lost a lot of body weight in the process.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... Half of them continued taking the med and the other half got placebo injections. This went on for 48 weeks. Those who were still on the sauce kept most of the weight off. Those who went off the drug quickly regained most of the weight and lost almost all of the other health benefits (blood sugar, blood lipids, blood pressure, etc.).It’s expensive. At least as of now, the monthly cost of a GLP-1 agonist subscription is $1500. Insurance may cover much of that, but you have to be severely overweight or wait til these drugs are prescribed for mild overweight—but even then, assuming you have insurance, someone’s paying.Liraglutide has been shown to increase adipogenesis, the creation of new fat cells, at least in mice.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... Even as the rodents lost weight, they increased the number of fat cells in their body. This is a process that normally occurs in childhood. It’s one reason why childhood obesity is so hard to overcome and so often leads to adult obesity. You have a ton of “extra” fat cells from when you were obese as a kid, so filling them up becomes easier and easier. If liraglutide or semaglutide also increase the creation of new fat cells, what happens when you stop taking it? What happens in five or ten years? Do those “empty” fat cells quickly fill up? It’s an interesting question we simply don’t know the answer to. Yet.GLP-1 agonists increase resting heart rate, with the longer-lasting versions like injectable semaglutide (the most common used for weight loss) leading to sustained and long-lasting rises in resting heart rate.https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28086... Whether this portends an increase in health issues down the road remains to be seen, but it’s generally accepted that a higher resting heart rate is a bad thing.GLP-1 agonists cause nausea and diarrhea. They’re actually the most common side effects people complain about, and they may even contribute to the disinterest in food people report. It’s hard to be hungry when you feel like throwing up.GLP-1 agonists cause loss of lean mass.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... This isn’t unique to GLP-1 agonist-related weight loss; it’s typical whenever you lose weight, but anecdotally, it doesn’t seem to happen when people lose weight following a Primal way of eating and exercising. This could potentially be avoided by simply emphasizing protein and making sure to lift heavy things rather than relying on the semaglutide to do all the work.The benefits level off after about 68 weeks. They might continue if you bump up the dose, but that will also increase the chance of side effects like nausea, diarrhea, and any issues related to increased adipogenesis.We don’t know what we don’t know. These are fairly new drugs and we don’t have any good long term (10 to 20 years) data.My Final Take on GLP-1 Agonists

It’s not going to fix obesity. All the studies find that it helps users shed significant body weight but that there’s a lull in the loss. It’s not enough. It’s doesn’t get you past obesity and overweight into true leanness. To do that, you also have to address other aspects of your diet and lifestyle to really make the changes stick and extend them into perpetuity.

I do think it can help people stick to a better diet. While the fanfare focuses on the fact that you can “eat whatever you want” and still lose weight, it’s also been shown to reduce cravings for junk food and starches.https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1... A smart use of this drug would be to pair it with a healthy low-carb diet based on whole food that emphasizes animal protein. Whole food so you’re getting the micronutrients you need and protein so you’re getting adequate protein to stave off muscle loss.

Ultimately, most people reading this don’t need semaglutide injections. You’re already willing to do the work and make permanent changes to your diet, lifestyle, and exercise habits that set you up for long term success. But millions of people aren’t. While I have some major reservations about the long term effects of these drugs—after all, I strongly suspect there’s no free lunch when it comes to stuff like this—they may be beneficial on net to people who’d otherwise never consider changing their diet and lifestyle.

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