Mark Sisson's Blog, page 73

May 19, 2020

Omega-3s: Everything You Need to Know

omega-3s As a health-minded individual, you’ve no doubt gotten the memo that omega-3 fatty acids are important. You may dutifully eat your weekly servings of small, oily fish. Perhaps a fish oil pill is even part of your daily supplement routine. But do you know why?

Looking back, I used to write about omega-3s a lot in the early days of Mark’s Daily Apple (more than a decade ago, geez!) Since then, I’ve covered the topic here and there, but I thought it was time for a refresher. Today I’m going to focus on giving you a broad overview of their function and an update on the state of the research literature.

It would be impossible to cover all the reasons that omega-3s are important for health in a single post, nor all the areas of ongoing research. I’ll try to hit the big ones here. Let me know in the comments what else you’d like me to cover in future posts.

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What Are Omega-3 Fatty Acids?

Omega-3s are essential polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs)—“essential” means the body can’t synthesize them. We have to get them from food or supplements.

As Primal folks, you might have an adverse reaction to the word “polyunsaturated.” It’s true that in the ancestral health world, we tend to be wary of PUFAs—or really, oils containing high proportions of PUFAs such as safflower and canola—due to their propensity to become rancid and be pro-inflammatory. However, this is a don’t-throw-the-baby-out-with-the bathwater situation. First, when it comes to overconsumption and inflammation, we are primarily concerned with omega-6 fatty acids, not omega-3s. Second, PUFAs, both omega-3s and even the oft-maligned omega-6s, serve many functions in the human body.

I’ll return to the issue of omega-6s vis-à-vis omega-3s later in this post. For now, I just want you to understand that omega-3s are polyunsaturated, essential, and important.

A Quick Primer on Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

Omega-3s and omega-6s are both types of polyunsaturated fatty acids. What does this mean? Fatty acids comprise chains of carbon atoms of differing lengths. Picture each carbon atom having four arms. They “hold hands” to form the chain. With the remaining hand(s), they hold on to one or more hydrogen atoms.

If each carbon atom uses one hand to hold the carbon on its left and one to hold the carbon on its right, that leaves two hands free for hydrogen. When each carbon is attached to two hydrogen atoms, these fatty acids are called saturated.

Sometimes carbons form double bonds, meaning they use two hands two grab a neighboring carbon. This leaves only one hand free for hydrogen. These are unsaturated fatty acids. When fatty acids only have one double bond along the carbon chain, they are called monounsaturated. When they have multiple double bonds, they are polyunsaturated.

The number in the name of the fatty acid tells you where you can find the first double bond. In omega-3s, the first double bond is on the third carbon atom from the omega (methyl) end. In omega-6s, it’s on the sixth carbon atom.

Double bonds form “kinks” in the fatty acid chains, affecting the shape, and ultimately the function, of the fatty acid. It is not inherently bad for a fatty acid to be polyunsaturated, but it does mean that they are especially vulnerable to oxidation. Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids (along with their less appreciated cousins, the omega-9 fatty acids) are each important in their own way.

The Three Main Types of Omega-3s

There are many forms of omega-3 fatty acids, of which three are particularly noteworthy for humans:

Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA)
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)

ALA is the most abundant in the diet. In humans, its main biological function is as a precursor for EPA and DHA. ALA that is not converted to EPA or DHA is used mainly for energy.

Even though ALA is converted into EPA and DHA, the latter two are still considered essential (or “conditionally essential”) because conversion rates are too low to provide all the EPA and DHA needed for optimal functioning. Females are better able to convert ALA thanks to higher estrogen, but both sexes need to get EPA and DHA in their diet and/or from supplements.1

But What Do Omega-3 Fatty Acids DO?

Omega-3s are found throughout the body, notably in cell membranes, where they affect the fluidity of the membranes and, ultimately, gene expression. All the omega-3s play numerous important roles in the body, including in cellular metabolism, immune system function, and cardiovascular health.

EPA is involved in producing signaling molecules called eicosanoids that modulate inflammation, while DHA is an important structural component especially in the nervous system and retinas. Both EPA and DHA are generally considered to be anti-inflammatory, although that’s something of an oversimplification. Their effect on the immune system depends on the context.

Generally speaking, though, EPA and DHA exert anti-inflammatory effects, in contrast to omega-6s, especially arachidonic acid (AA), which tend to be pro-inflammatory. Omega-3s work their anti-inflammatory magic in a number of ways, including by producing specific eicosanoids, suppressing pro-inflammatory transcription factors, decreasing production of inflammatory cytokines, and by “turning off” inflammatory responses once they have done their job.2 3

Omega-3s’ Roles in Disease

Because inflammation is characteristic of so many disease states, omega-3s are a major area of research interest. Researchers have studied how omega-3s interact with practically every major disease and developmental process you can think of.

I’ll tell you up front, we still have a lot more questions than answers. Sometimes it seems that omega-3 intake in the diet buffers against a certain health issue, but the results aren’t replicated in randomized control trials. (It may be that the initial epidemiological studies are flawed – I’m highly skeptical of this methodology overall.) Experiments often yield inconsistent results. There may be differences between getting omega-3s from whole foods versus supplements, or certain populations may respond differently than others to supplementation. Studies may not be targeting the optimal dose. On and on.

The fast is, there are few “knowns” with regard to specific diseases. It’s fair to say that it’s clearer that omega-3s are important in a global sense — for overall health — than for any specific disease or disorder.

Cardiovascular Health

The potential for omega-3s to prevent or treat cardiovascular disease has probably has received the most attention. There is lots of data here… and the results are all over the map. Let me try to summarize some of the major findings, focusing on recent meta-analyses where possible:

Observational studies suggest that people who eat one or two servings of fish per week have better cardiovascular health than people who do not.4
A recent meta-analysis evaluated 19 studies, with 45,637 participants, in which researchers assessed biomarkers of omega-3s—basically, how much omega-3 people had in their systems. ALA and DHA were associated with lower risk of fatal coronary heart disease but not total coronary heart disease.5
Some research suggests that omega-3 supplementation may be particularly helpful for individuals with existing cardiac disease, at least in terms of reducing the risk of cardiac and all-cause mortality.6 However, other analyses show minimal benefit.7 8
EPA and DHA may be useful in reducing high blood pressure.9

Overall, the data from many studies seems promising, though it gets messy when you really dig into the literature. Despite the messiness, last year the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concluded that there is “credible evidence” that EPA and DHA may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease and hypertension.10

On the other hand, a Cochrane Review published earlier this year takes a different stance.11 The authors conclude that there it is unlikely that omega-3 supplementation meaningful affects mortality, although they concede that there might be some benefit for cardiovascular disease events and arrhythmia. Effects of supplementation may vary by dose, which might help explain inconsistencies between studies.12 13 Optimal dose could depend on what outcomes you’re hoping to achieve.

One area where omega-3 supplementation seems to shine is in the treatment of hypertriglyceridemia, or high triglycerides.14 Multiple studies show a benefit, but at doses higher that you’re likely to take over the counter. To reduce triglycerides, the American Heart Association recommends taking 2 to 4 grams of EPA+DHA under a doctor’s supervision.15

Mental Health

Omega-3s are abundant in the brain and play key roles in neuronal functioning. It’s no surprise that they would be considered in the treatment of mental health disorders. Some disorders, notably depression, are also thought to be inflammatory, making anti-inflammatory omega-3s a potentially useful intervention. What does the data say?

People who eat more fish are at lower risk of depression16, and individuals diagnosed with depression may have chronically low levels of omega-3s in their cells.17 18
Some studies show that omega-3s, especially EPA, reduce depressive episodes19 and clinical anxiety20.
Omega-3s are also under investigation for a number of other mental health disorders including schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but there is not enough evidence to draw firm conclusions about their efficacy.21

Aging and Age-Related Cognitive Decline

There are multiple pathways by which omega-3s might support healthy aging, especially in the brain. A couple small studies demonstrated positive effects of supplementation on brain structure and function in older adults.22 23 However, results have been inconsistent overall, with no clear benefit for preventing or treating Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Other studies have looked at whether omega-3s can improve physical functioning. One found that in older adults with coronary artery disease, EPA+DHA improved functioning and was associated with getting more weekly exercise.24 Another showed increased muscle protein synthesis with supplementation.25

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)

Likely due to their anti-inflammatory properties, omega-3s show promise for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis. A recent meta-analysis of 20 randomized control trials linked omega-3 supplementation to improvements in 8 distinct health markers for RA, including stiffness in the morning and joint tenderness.26 Some studies, but not all, find that omega-3 supplementation reduces arthritis pain.27

Cancer

The data with regard to cancer are too disparate to summarize neatly. Researchers are particularly interested in the possibility that omega-3s may reduce incidence of breast and colorectal cancers. I’ll be keeping my eye on this.

One important note is that some studies have found limited evidence of a positive association between omega-3 intake and prostate cancer. However, other large-scale epidemiological studies suggest that men who consume more fish are at lower risk for prostate cancer.28 29 It’s not clear what’s going on here, but it does suggest that you should talk to your doctor if you’re considering supplementing with omega-3s and you have had, or are at high risk for developing, prostate cancer.

What does it all mean?

Here’s how I read the situation: There is no doubt that omega-3s are crucial for health. You don’t want to be chronically low in omega-3s. Whether there is a benefit for supplementing with omega-3s—especially above and beyond what you get from your diet—depends on what you hope to get out of it. If you’re thinking about using omega-3s to treat a specific health issue, talk to your doctor. There are too many variables at play—your dietary intake and health status, types and omega-3s and dosing—to make blanket recommendations.

How to Get Omega-3s
Dietary Sources of Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Marine animals are the primary dietary sources of EPA and DHA in the human diet. This is why I and others have argued previously that fish and shellfish played a critical role in human evolution.30 The abundance of DHA in particular was probably pivotal to our advanced brain development.

Some of the best sources of EPA and DHA are salmon, mackerel, anchovies, sardines, herring, and oysters. Cod livers are delightfully mild and pack a wallop of vitamins A and D to boot. Primal-friendly sources of ALA include flax seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts. You also get some omega-3s in meat and eggs (chickens are often fed omega-enriched feed). Grass-finished beef and pastured eggs31 will deliver higher doses.

Although seafood is by far the best source of EPA and DHA, if you are vegetarian or vegan, you can get these important fatty acids from algal oil. Seaweed and chlorella also contain omega-3s, but nowhere near the quantities found in seafood.

How Much Do You Need?

The generally accepted advice is to aim for one to two servings per week of seafood, but there is no set recommended daily allowance (RDA) for ALA, EPA, or DHA. Generally, you’ll find recommendations to consume anywhere from 250 to 500mg per day of combined EPA+DHA. I developed an omega-3 formula with clean ingredients to make it easy to get sufficient EPA and DHA every day.

Does Your Omega-3:Omega-6 Ratio Matter?

In the body, omega-6s compete for space with omega-3s. Both can be incorporated into cell membranes, where they affect the membranes’ fluidity, permeability, and signaling pathways. Research shows that the amount of each in cell membranes is proportional to omega-3 and omega-6 consumption in the diet. An imbalance of omega-3 to omega-6 PUFAs can negatively affect how the cells—including in immune cells and neurons—function.32

The primary omega-6 fatty acid is linoleic acid (LA). LA and the primary omega-3 ALA use the same enzymatic pathways to convert into longer-chain fatty acids: arachidonic acid (AA, in the case of LA) and EPA and DHA (in the case of ALA). High LA levels can crowd out the ALA and make it so that it can’t make the all-important EPA and DHA.

You can directly impact the amount of omega-3s and omega-6s in your tissues by changing your diet.33 This, in turn, can affect your levels of inflammation and disease risk. For example, across cultures with diverse diets, greater intake of omega-6s is associated with having more omega-6 in the tissues and with greater incidence of cardiovascular disease. This effect is moderated by omega-3 intake. Across all levels of omega-6 intake, higher omega-3 consumption is associated with lower disease risk. The lower the omega-3 intake, the higher the risk.34

Although some research suggests that the high ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 in modern diets puts people at risk for developing certain diseases such as heart disease and cancers,35 Experts argue that our ancestors evolved with a diet that had approximately equal proportions of omega-3s and omega-6s.36 Depending on whom you ask, modern diets may have a ratio of 1:10, 1:16, 1:20, or more!

I used to bang the drum about hitting the right omega-3:omega-6 ratio in your daily diet. In recent years I’ve backed off that stance somewhat. I still think modern diets like SAD are way too high in omega-6s, but the answer isn’t to pile on heaping servings of omega-3s to balance it and “correct” the ratio. The solution is to reduce consumption of omega-6s (mostly from refined seed and vegetable oils, and products containing those oils) while getting adequate omega-3s.

Should I Supplement With Fish Oil?

It is certainly possible to be deficient in omega-3s. Clinical deficiencies usually manifest as scaly rashes. Severe omega-3 deficiencies are rare in most parts of the world, though. Subclinical low omega-3 levels may manifest as brittle nails and hair, poor sleep, or mood disturbances.

Despite a mountain of evidence that omega-3s are essential for health, there is still no clear guidance about who exactly should supplement and how much. It seems to me that the best practice, and one I follow myself is: aim to get omega-3s from food, and supplement wisely as needed. In practice, this means I select grass-fed meat when I can, and I eat pastured eggs most days, and I eat a couple servings of small-oily fish every week. I take an omega-3 supplement most days, but I’ll skip that on the days when I eat fatty fish. Plus, I eat a lot of ALA-containing vegetables.

The other thing I do, of course, is limit my omega-6 consumption by avoiding refined seed and vegetable oils. I’m not overly concerned with omega-6s found in nuts, which I don’t eat in huge quantities anyway, or other whole foods.

For folks who are already eating a lot of omega-3-rich foods, further supplementation may not offer a ton of benefit.37 If you’re not sure where you fall, you can ask your doctor for a blood test for omega-3 levels. You can also just track your food for a few days in an app like Cronometer that tells you how much you’re consuming.

Are There Any Downsides?

Perhaps. Some people have raised the concern that because they are polyunsaturated, omega-3s, especially in supplement form, are subject to rancidity and may cause oxidative stress. This speaks to the importance of sourcing your supplements from a reputable source. Store them according to instructions on the label and use them by their best-by dates. It’s another argument for prioritizing food sources as well.

Furthermore, it seems clear that more is not better, especially when it comes to supplementation. Excessive intake may lead to bleeding since EPA and DHA can reduce platelet aggregation, although this doesn’t seem to be a big risk for the average person. Nevertheless, the FDA recommends of cap of 3 grams EPA+DHA per day, with no more than 2 grams coming from supplements. Higher doses should only be taken with a doctor’s supervision.

In any case, these risks seem to me to be considerably less than the potential downsides of getting insufficient omega-3s. I still count omega-3s as a central player in overall health and healthy aging.

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Published on May 19, 2020 09:00

May 18, 2020

Can Inhaled Nitric Oxide Improve COVID-19 Symptoms?

Today’s guest post is written by Louis J. Ignarro, PhD, a medical research scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his breakthrough discoveries of nitric oxide (NO) and how NO positively impacts health and longevity.

nitric oxide covid

In 1998, I was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for my pioneering studies on cardiovascular function and erectile function. We discovered that our bodies produce a small molecule that protects us against hypertension, heart attack and stroke. This same molecule serves as the neurotransmitter released from the nerves that cause penile erection and sexual arousal. The name of the molecule is “nitric oxide”, not to be confused with nitrous oxide (laughing gas), which has totally different properties.

What is Nitric Oxide?

Nitric oxide, also termed NO, is a gaseous molecule that is produced by our arteries in all organs to regulate cardiovascular function. NO causes the muscle cells (smooth muscle) enveloping arteries to relax, thereby causing vasodilation, or widening of the arteries. This physiological action results in a decrease in blood pressure within the arteries and increased blood flow to all organs through the dilated arteries. In the erectile tissue, the NO released during sexual stimulation causes profound relaxation or dilation of the arteries within the erectile tissue, termed the corpus cavernosum. This results in engorgement with blood and consequent penile erection.

Nitric Oxide’s Action on Respiratory Tissue

Not only is vascular smooth muscle is relaxed by NO, but nonvascular smooth muscle such as airway smooth muscle in the trachea and bronchioles of the lungs is also relaxed by NO. Warren Zapol, MD from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston took advantage of this bronchodilator action of NO in the lungs, and he discovered that inhalation of very small amounts of NO by newborn babies with persistent pulmonary hypertension (constricted pulmonary arteries), results in a dramatic and permanent reversal of hypertension. Inhaled NO (INO) literally turned blue babies into pink babies. Without INO, most babies would have died while others would have required highly invasive procedures to oxygenate their lungs, and may not have survived.

Can Nitric Oxide Kill Bacteria, Viruses, and Paraistes?

Nitric oxide turns out to be a ubiquitous molecule with many different properties. For example, not only does NO relax smooth muscle, but NO also reacts chemically with certain other molecules in cells to alter their function. The NO produced by our own cells can interact with molecules in invading cells such as bacteria, parasites and viruses to kill them or inhibit their replication or spread. NO has been shown to increase the survival rate of mammalian cells infected with SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome caused by coronavirus). Importantly, in a limited study in 2004, inhaled NO (INO) was demonstrated to be effective against the SARS-CoV in severely ill patients with pneumonia. The mechanism of action was thought to be pulmonary vasodilation and consequent improved oxygenation in the blood of the lungs, thereby killing the virus, which does not do well in a high oxygen environment. In addition, however, I would offer the opinion that the NO also interacts with the virus to kill it directly.

Potential Impact of Nitric Oxide on COVID-19

In view of the above knowledge gained by treating SARS CoV patients with INO, it is scientifically logical that INO might be effective in patients with the current SARS CoV-2, or simply, COVID-19, infection. Indeed, a clinical trial of inhaled nitric oxide (INO) in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19 with pneumonia recently received IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Warren Zapol, MD, is director of this project. In the successful treatment of persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns, the amount of NO inhaled is generally one ppm (part per million). In the clinical trial using COVID-19 patients, the amount of NO will be 100-fold higher, namely, 100 ppm. This is a safe dose of INO, which could prove to be effective in killing the virus and allowing recovery of the patient.

How to Increase Your Body’s Nitric Oxide Production Naturally (Hint: It’s Free)

One thing I urge everyone to practice during this coronavirus pandemic is to breathe or inhale through your NOSE and exhale through your mouth. The cells and tissues in the nose, but not the mouth, constantly and continuously produce nitric oxide, which is a gas. The physiological significance of this is that nasally-derived NO improves oxygen delivery into the lungs by causing bronchodilation – the relaxation and widening of the bronchi and bronchioles in the lungs. Moreover, when inhaling through the nose, your nasal nitric oxide is inhaled into your lungs, where it stands a chance of meeting up with the virus particles. Inhaling through your mouth will NOT accomplish this. By the same token, exhaling through your nose is highly wasteful in that you would be expelling the NO away from the lungs, where it is needed most.

Tip: If you’d like to develop the habit, set a reminder on your phone to chime every hour or so when you’ll practice breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.

About the Author

Louis Ignarro is a medical research scientist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his breakthrough discoveries of nitric oxide (NO) and how NO positively impacts health and longevity. His discovery of this unique signaling molecule and all of its biological actions ranging from lowering your blood pressure to stimulating penile erection and sexual arousal is widely known as the information that led to the development of Viagra.

Ignarro earned his B.S. in Pharmacy/Chemistry from Columbia College in 1962, and received his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Minnesota in 1966. He also did post-graduate studies in Chemical Pharmacology at the National Institutes of Health.

Besides receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1998), Ignarro has received numerous awards and honors including: Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Heart Association, Roussel Uclaf Prize of France, National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society, and the American Academy of Achievement’s Golden Plate Award, given annually to those who have contributed most to human kind.

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Published on May 18, 2020 09:00

May 16, 2020

Crispy Grain-free Coconut Shrimp Recipe

coconut shrimp recipe Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, coconut shrimp is a perfect appetizer or main event for any back patio supper.

Last-minute seafood cravings? No problem. This coconut shrimp recipe comes together in less time than it would take to pick up take out. It is prepared in the oven instead of the traditional pan-fry method, which creates a crunchy coating with hands-off cook time and easy cleanup.

Let’s get started.

Crispy Grain-free Coconut Shrimp Recipe

Serves: 4

Time in the kitchen: 12 minutes, up to 20 minutes if you have to peel and devein your shrimp

coconut shrimp recipe

Ingredients

1 lb. peeled and deveined shrimp (we used size 16-20 shrimp per lb)
½ cup finely shredded coconut (unsweetened)
6 Tbsp. fine almond flour
¼ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. onion powder
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 large egg
Primal Kitchen® Cocktail Sauce

Directions

Rinse your shrimp and pat dry. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and set up a sheet pan with a baking rack on top of it.

In a bowl, combine the shredded coconut, almond flour and spices. Whisk your egg into a second bowl.

coconut shrimp recipe

Dredge the shrimp in the egg, and then carefully toss them into the coconut mixture. Use a fork or spoon to carefully move the breaded shrimp from the bowl to the baking rack. Continue doing this until all of the shrimp are coated. coconut shrimp recipe

Bake the shrimp for approximately 6-8 minutes, or until the shrimp is pink and opaque. Serve immediately with Primal Kitchen Cocktail Sauce and enjoy!

coconut shrimp recipe

Tips:

We used large wild-caught shrimp for this recipe (about 16-20 shrimp per pound), but you can experiment with using smaller shrimp if you’d like. You may need to adjust cooking time slightly depending on the size of your shrimp – shorter cooking time for smaller shrimp, longer cooking time for larger shrimp or prawns.
We like to buy raw shrimp that has the shells and tails on. It takes only a few minutes to peel and devein them. The easiest way to do this is to set up a few bowls of water. In one, peel the shrimp. Then move the shrimp over to the second bowl. Run your knife carefully down the back of the shrimp vertically and scoop out the vein. Then rinse the shrimp in the bowl of water to remove any residual vein or shell.
You can freeze the shells in a freezer bag and use them to make shrimp stock later.

coconut shrimp recipe

Nutrition Information (per ¼ of recipe):

Calories: 268

Total Carbs: 5 grams

Net Carbs: 4 grams

Fat: 15 grams

Protein: 28 grams

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Published on May 16, 2020 09:00

May 15, 2020

A to Z Microworkouts to Weave Into Your Day

If you need ideas for microworkouts to do at home, look no further. We’ve listed an entire alphabet of at-home microworkouts to power you up every day.

The idea behind microworkouts is that you weave them into your day instead of doing one longer, more intense workout. You’ll be amazed at how quickly the effects add up! See how many you can complete in a day, and try to fit them all in over the next few days. Let us know how many you check off.

Alternating Lunges

Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. In a smooth motion, take one step forward and bend both knees at the same time until your back knee is just a few inches from the ground. Return to your starting position and repeat with the other foot.

Burpees

From a standing position, squat down and place your hands on the floor. Kick your feet back into a push-up position and do a push-up. Kick your feet forward to a squat position and do a vertical jump.

Chin-ups

Deadlifts

Elbow-to-knee Side Planks

Start in a push-up position and roll to one side, placing the ball of your bottom foot slightly in front of your top foot for stability. Simultaneously bend your top arm and bottom leg so that your elbow and knee meet.

Flutter Kicks

Lie flat on your back. Lift your shoulder blades and your heels off of the ground so that your abdominals engage. Keeping your legs straight, move one leg up about six inches while moving the other down, emulating a swim kick.

Glute Bridges

Lie flat on your back with your arms at your sides, palms flat. Bend your knees and plant your heels on the floor, just a few inches from your glutes. Press into your heels and raise your hips, holding a squeeze at the top. Lower slowly and repeat.

Hollow Body Rocks

Primal Health Coach Brian demonstrates the hollow body rock at the 2:20 mark.

Incline Push-ups

Find a sturdy platform, like an exercise step or the stairs in your house. Get into a push-up position with your feet on the floor and your hands on the elevated surface. Lower and raise your body just as you would with floor push-ups.

Jump Squats

Start in a standing position with your feet shoulder-width apart. Lower into a squat position as if you are sitting in a chair. In one smooth motion, jump up and land, lowering back into a squat position. The invisible line between your tailbone and head should stay straight throughout the movement – only your legs should bend and straighten.

Kettlebell swings

Start in a standing position, holding one kettlebell with both hands. Feet should be slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Swing the kettlebell up just to the point that your arms are holding it straight out in front of you. On the downswing, bend forward and and bend your knees slightly so that the kettlebell swings just under your pelvis. From there, change direction and swing back up to repeat.

Lying Leg Lifts

Lie flat on the floor and place your hands under your glutes. With straight legs, slowly lift your legs until your legs and torso are at a 90 degree angle. Slowly lower back to the starting position. The key is to keep your abs tight through the entire movement.

Mountain Climbers

Start in a push-up position. Move your right foot forward until your knee is just a few inches from your right elbow. Swiftly switch sides until your right knee is straight and your left knee is near your left elbow, and keep alternating until you’ve completed your set.

Narrow Squats

Start with your feet a little closer than shoulder-width apart. Bend as if you’re sitting into an invisible chair, keeping a straight line between your tailbone and head. Slowly rise back to standing and repeat.

Overhead Tricep Extensions

Grab two light weights, light kettlebells, water bottles, or one resistance band. Starting from a standing position, raise your weights over your head and bend at the elbow to lower them to almost touch your shoulders. Straighten your arms to raise the weight and repeat. If you’re using a resistance band, step on the middle, grip the handles, and execute the movement as you would with weights.

Push-ups

Quick Sprints

Reverse Lunges

Reverse lunges are the same movement as alternating lunges above, except instead of taking a step forward, take a step back before you bend your knees and lower.

Squats

Tricep Dips

Place your hands on the edge of a chair seat, fingers forward. Walk your feet out to where you can comfortably drop down into a dip. With feet planted on the floor, use your arms to lower your body until your glutes are just a few inches from the ground. Press your body back up and repeat.

Upright Rows

Start in a standing position, feet shoulder width apart. Hold a two light weights, or resistance band handles in front of your belly. Gripping the weight, trace an imaginary line from your pelvis to your clavicle. Slowly lower and repeat.

V-Sits

Lie flat on your back. Raise your shoulder blades and feet off of the ground. With straight legs, hold the position, making sure that the only part of your body touching the ground is your glutes.

Wall Sits

From a standing position, touch your back to the wall and drop down as if you’re sitting in an invisible chair. Hold for as long as you can.

X-Abs (Alternating Jacknives)

Start in the V-Sit position with your arms out in front of you. Raise your shoulders while bringing one knee closer to your chest, while your hands sweep past your knee. Lower your shoulders and knee at the same time, and repeat with the other knee.

Y-raise (Supermans)

Lie on your belly with straight legs and your arms straight out in front of you. Simultaneously raise your upper body and legs off of the ground until your belly is the only thing touching the ground. Hold.

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Published on May 15, 2020 14:10

Weekly Link Love – Edition 81

Research of the Week

The current estimate of 67-72% of the world’s population having excess body fat may need to be revised upward.

More body fat, worse memory.

Combining fasting with vitamin C may help beat hard to fight cancers.

Metformin: good for autophagy and mitochondria.

Sugary drinks linked to heart disease. But how? Soda has no saturated fat.

Fewer women, more artists.

New Primal Blueprint Podcasts

Episode 423: Gary E Foresman, MD: Host Elle Russ chats with Gary Foresman for the fourth time.

Primal Health Coach Radio, Episode 60: Laura and Erin talk with Dr. Jaime Seeman about female hormones.

Media, Schmedia

Good. I hope it continues.

Interesting Blog Posts

The new normal?

Social Notes

Wouldn’t it be nice if baby food advice still looked like this?

Everything Else

Canola oil lowers LDL. Okay, so?

Interesting liquid keto diet study in the works.

Looks like those of European ancestry are genetically susceptible to a specific subtype of the coronavirus.

Covering up is sexier.

Farming like a Roman.

Things I’m Up to and Interested In

Paper I found interesting in how ridiculous its conclusion was: The one that says protein makes you fat and sick.

Food I wouldn’t eat: Lab-grown celebrity salami.

Interesting study: Low-carb, high-fat athletes have glucose intolerance that isn’t pathological.

Sad to see: Indian study finds that a shocking number of children have fatty liver.

Podcast I enjoyed: Tim Noakes on The Primalosophy Podcast.

Question I’m Asking

Like hell I will. What about you?

Recipe Corner

Is there anything more foolproof than poached cod?
Legit Tandoori chicken.

Time Capsule

One year ago (May 10 – May 16)

Keto Convenience Foods: What to Try (and What to Skip) – How to choose.
Postpartum Body Image: Primal Perspective – What it all means.

Comment of the Week

“Well, that’s a good question. I work with severely mentally ill people, I am now a supervisor so I am not on the “front lines” any longer. It is a challenging field with low pay (for awhile my daughter’s hazard pay at Starbucks equaled what I was getting paid as a case manager with a degree). It is emotionally draining as you attempt to help others with MAJOR problems that are repetitive and not take them on, we see people we have worked with for years die (whether from medical reasons, overdose, drugs, or murder) and have to move forward. I know we have always been the forgotten front lines because most people see mental illness as a blight on society but lately that is even more clear. My car managers pickup people in the community who are in the middle of a pyschiatric crisis and don’t know if they have been exposed, discharge from hospitals and transport home (whether they have been exposed or not, de escalate them and keep them in the room with us, again not knowing if they are exposed or not. We are the forgotten front lines.

But have I heard from anyone anything negative? No, because for some reason or other we have something inside us thay wants to attempt to ensure the most vulnerable are cared for…why? I have no $%^#% idea sometimes because we mainly get treated bad and get blamed for everything that goes wrong. But then…you have the few people who tell you ‘thank you for just being there, you make a difference ‘…and that is why we go forward”

– Thank you for just being there, Jasmine. You make a difference.

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Published on May 15, 2020 09:00

May 14, 2020

Ask a Health Coach: Setting Goals, Breaking Bad Habits, and Making the Most of the Quarantine

Hi folks, welcome back for another edition of Ask a Health Coach. Today, Erin discusses how trusting your instincts might just be your best bet during these uncertain times, how finding your ‘why’ can help you stick with long-term goals, and the one thing you need to do to change bad habits for good. Got more questions? Keep them coming in the MDA Facebook Group or down below in the comments.

“I’ve definitely felt the pressure of having more time on my hands lately. Everywhere I turn I’m hearing people say, ‘what will you do during the quarantine?’ And ‘how will you come out of this better?’ What’s your take on all of this?” – Andrea

From my perspective, there are just as many people shouting “MAKE YOURSELF BETTER!” as there are “TAKE IT EASY ON YOURSELF.” Honestly, I’m team DO WHATEVER THE HECK FEELS RIGHT FOR YOU.

We all have a new normal right now, even those of us who are used to doing the work-from-home thing. Your new routine might have you feeling unproductive, fearful, or totally out of it. Or it might have you living your best life 1 enjoying extra hours of glorious sleep, a reinvigorated sense of creativity, or desire to learn.

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I can’t say exactly what camp you’ll be in, because how one person responds to change isn’t the same as the next person. That’s the beauty of humans. We’re all different. And how we cope with uncertain times, new schedules, and strategizing on how to score a 4-pack of toilet paper is different too.

TP jokes aside, I’d check in with yourself to see if you’re using your situation as an excuse or an opportunity. People tend to see themselves as victims 2 or as empowered, which influences everyday behaviors, from what kind of groceries you put in your online shopping cart to how you interpret someone’s comment on Instagram.

If you’re thinking things like, “What if I can’t do it?”, “I’ll never be as good” or “Why bother?”, there’s a good chance you’re in the fear-based victim camp. Asking “What can I learn?”, “What excites me? or “How can this improve my life?” are signs you’re looking at your situation through an empowered, opportunistic lens.

See the difference?

So, if your days are spent lounging on the couch, it could be that you’re afraid of taking action. Or it could be that extra hours of relaxing with a funny movie or a good book you’ve been dying to read for 5 years is exactly what you need.

Only you know which is right. Not your online friends, your real friends, or your family on the other side of the country. You don’t need the pressure of keeping up with the overachievers or self-care advocates of the world who are unintentionally making you feel guilty for all the things you are or aren’t doing.

What you do need is self-compassion and a little clarity.

I don’t want you to look back a few years (or a few months) down the road and remember that you spent way too much time stewing over whether or not you should have taught yourself Spanish during self-isolation, tried to get washboard abs, or perfected a paleo banana bread recipe. It won’t matter. Seriously.

What will matter is the time you spent trusting yourself and not worrying about what other people think. Trust yourself and the rest will follow.

Stephen asked:

“Whenever I decide I’m ready to make changes to my diet, it never lasts more than a few weeks. Any advice for someone who chronically falls short when it comes to long-term goals?”

Let me ask you this: Do you really want to make changes to your diet? I know you say you do, but saying and believing are two entirely different things. Whenever I start working with a client, we spend significant time uncovering their ‘why’ — their real, deep-down reasons and motivations for wanting to make a change. It’s not just my approach either. Everyone from executives to athletes believes that uncovering your why 3 is one of the key elements of success.

If you haven’t done an exercise like this, I highly recommend it. My go-to method is called Why-By-Five. Basically, it’s an exercise that helps you get in touch with your true motivating factors for change. And all you have to do is ask yourself ‘Why’ five times.

· Why is this change important to you? Think about why you want to lose fat or become more metabolically flexible. What is your current situation preventing you from doing?

· Why does that matter? What would be possible if you made those changes? Would you be less hangry, less achy, or have fewer cravings?

· Why is that important? Maybe you’re sick of feeling that low blood sugar crash or getting lectured by your physician or buying pants in a bigger size. Only you know why this is important to you.

· Why would that be great to achieve? Visualize yourself reaching your goal. Imagine all the things you’d be capable of doing.

· Why? Seriously, why? Is it to prove that you can stick with something once and for all? Or reverse the clock and be a bad ass into your 70’s? There’s no wrong answer as long as it resonates with you.

“I have lots of bad habits around sleep and hitting the snooze button. What’s your number one piece of advice relating to breaking bad habits and developing good ones?” -Eric

I would say pick ONE habit and go from there. Our society is so ‘all-or-nothing’ and frankly, it pisses me off. It’s either sleep ‘til noon followed by a Frappuccino and a fritter…or get up at the crack of dawn for a fasted 6-mile run.

Listen, you’ve probably had these habits for years. And changing them all at the same time is a recipe for disaster. (Just a side note here: some people do really well by changing everything at once, but since you’re struggling, I’m guessing you’re not one of those people. Sorry, Eric. I’m not either, if it makes you feel any better.)

Like I mentioned, instead of focusing on breaking all of your bad habits, the key here is to focus on one thing you want to change. If you’ve ever read the book, Atomic Habits, you know there’s a science to this stuff. It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to go to bed earlier or trying to wake up earlier, behavior change requires a strategy. Say your goal is to stop smashing the snooze button. What’s one thing you can do to refrain from doing that?

How about putting your alarm in the next room with the volume up really loud? You’d literally have to get out of bed to shut the damn thing off!

You might also want to work with an accountability partner, which is what I’m doing right now. Truth be told, I’m a snooze button pusher too. At least I was until I decided that having an awesome relaxing morning routine (tea, journaling, reading, staring out the window serenely) was more exciting to me than lazily lounging in bed for far too long. Now my accountability partner and I text each other at 5:15 every morning to make sure we’re up.

For you, I’d see if there’s someone in your circle of friends who has the same goal as you do and partner up. That way you’ll be helping someone else break their bad habit too.

References https://www.mic.com/p/quarantine-does...

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Published on May 14, 2020 09:00

May 13, 2020

The Definitive Guide to Collagen

definitive guide to collagen

For decades, the health community had written off collagen as a “useless” protein. It wasn’t essential, in that it contained no amino acids you couldn’t make yourself. It didn’t contribute directly to muscle protein synthesis, so the bodybuilders weren’t interested. In all my years running marathons and then competing in triathlon at an elite level, no one talked about collagen. It was completely ignored, especially after the rash of collagen-based “liquid diets” ended up with a lot of people dead or in the hospital.1

But you know my bias is to look at things from the perspective of human evolution and ancestral environments. And there is a ton of collagen on your average land animal. Close to half the weight of a cow is “other stuff”—bones, skin, tendons, cartilage, and other collagenous material. Most meat eaters these days might be throwing that stuff away, if they even encounter it, but humans for hundreds of thousands of years ate every last bit of that animal. Even as recent as your grandmother’s generation, utilizing every last collagenous bit of an animal to make soups, stocks, and stews was standard practice. This was the evolutionary environment of the ancient meat-eating human: rich in collagen.

There is strong evidence that humans are meant to eat the meat and the bones, skin, and sinew. That we function best when we eat the amino acids in muscle meat and the amino acids in collagenous materials. That the more muscle meat we eat, the more collagen we require. That we live longer, live healthier, and look and move better with plenty of collagen in our diets.

First, I’m going to tell you why collagen is so essential.

Then I’m going to tell you how to get it.

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Collagen Benefits: Why It’s Essential

The collagen question is a complicated one. The benefits are both “superficial” and deep. Most people know about its effects on skin and joints, but there are also “deeper” reasons to eat more collagen, including conferring longevity and protection from disease.

Glycine to Link Other Amino Acids

Collagen is the single greatest source of glycine in the human diet. Glycine is an interesting amino acid. It’s conditionally essential, meaning we can make it in-house but certain situations render it essential. What are these conditions and why is glycine so important?

Basic Physiological Requirements

We simply can’t make enough glycine to cover our basic daily needs. The average person needs 10 grams of glycine to cover all the physiological requirements. The average person makes 3 grams every day and gets 1.5-3 grams from their diet, leaving a glycine deficit of 4-5.5 grams per day.2 Collagen is about 1/3 glycine, so a 12 gram serving of collagen—about a heaping scoop of collagen peptides—will give you the glycine you need to fill the gap. Some people will need a bit more, some a bit less. But almost everyone needs some.

Further reading: What is the Difference Between Collagen and Whey Protein?

High Meat Intakes

As I mentioned earlier, meat comes packaged with collagen in natural settings. You kill a deer, you get a lot of meat and a lot of skin, connective tissue, cartilage, tendons, and bones. And you eat all of it. These have different amino acid profiles. Meat contains a lot of methionine. Collagen contains a lot of glycine. Animal studies confirm that the more methionine an animal eats, the shorter their lifespan—unless they balance it out with glycine.3

Human studies suggest this, too.

In one study, the relationship between red meat and diabetes was abolished after controlling for low-glycine status. People with low glycine levels and high meat intakes were more likely to have diabetes, while people with higher glycine levels could have higher meat intakes without any issues.4
In another study, low circulating levels of glycine predicted diabetes risk.5
Meanwhile, high levels of glycine predict normal blood sugar control.6
In fact, low glycine comes before diabetes onset, suggesting causation.7
Low glycine levels are also common in patients with chronic kidney disease.8
High levels of glycine even predict higher physical activity in women.9

These are observational studies and cannot prove causation. But the trend is consistent, with higher levels of glycine being linked to better health and lower levels being linked to worse health across a broad range of conditions.

Meat is incredibly healthy and has been a vital part of the human diet for hundreds of thousands of years, but it’s possible that the way most people eat meat in developed countries—eating chicken breasts over chicken wings and skin, lean steak over oxtails and shanks, muscle meat over bones, skin, and tendons—is unhealthy. Increasing your collagen, then, could balance out the meat intake by providing ample glycine.

Collagen to Support Sleep

A great sleep remedy I’ll incorporate when I really want to knock out fast is a cup of bone broth with extra collagen or gelatin added. About midway through drinking it, I’ll start feeling sleepy. But why? What’s going on?

Once again, glycine is doing the lion’s share of the work here.

It enhances production of serotonin, a necessary precursor for the sleep hormone melatonin.10
It drops body temperature when taken at night, which improves sleep quality.11
It improves subjective sleep quality; people feel like they get a better night’s sleep after taking 3 grams of glycine before bed.
More importantly, it improves objective sleep quality; people perform better the next day after taking 3 grams of glycine the night before.12

These studies used isolated glycine, but I much prefer using collagen.

Collagen and Skin Elasticity

Your skin is made of collagen. To maintain its elasticity and stave off wrinkling, we must provide the foundational substrates for collagen synthesis and deposition. That’s, well, collagen and two of its most prominent constituent amino acids: glycine and proline.

The beneficial effects of collagen supplementation on skin health are well-documented:

2.5 grams of collagen per day for 8 weeks reduced eye wrinkling by 20% and increased skin elastin (a skin protein that does exactly what it sounds like—provides elasticity) by 18%, an effect that persisted for one month following cessation of the supplement.13
1 gram of a chicken sternum cartilage collagen extract per day reduced wrinkling by 13% and skin dryness by 76% while increasing collagen deposition by over 6%.14
6 months of collagen supplementation even reduced the appearance of cellulite.15

Now, in case you’re thinking skin appearance is a superficial benefit, consider that how old your face appears is one of the better predictors of your overall health.16 The quality of the collagen in your skin is a window to the quality of your internal collagen—your joints, your fascia, your other tissues. Improve one and the rest will follow.

Joints are Comprised of Collagen

Just like skin, your joints are made of collagen. Just like taking collagen can improve your skin, taking collagen can improve your joints—especially if there’s a problem.

In athletes complaining about joint pain, taking collagen hydrolysate supplements reduced pain.17

In osteoarthritis patients, a collagen supplement reduced pain scores and improved walking ability.18

Taking or eating collagen is low-hanging fruit for anyone with joint pain.

Collagen for Performance

Even the old claims about collagen being useless for muscle gain and gym performance are falling apart. Growing evidence shows that collagen can be protein-sparing; by providing extra “non-essential” amino acids, it allows you to utilize the essential amino acids for more important, performance-related processes. For instance, in resistance training seniors, taking collagen supplements (and collagen alone; no whey or anything else) increases the anabolic response to lifting.19

Taken pre-workout along with 50 mg of vitamin C, 15 grams of collagen can actually improve the performance of your tendons by increasing collagen deposition and remodeling. We usually think of building muscle from our training, but with collagen, you can build connective tissue too.20 I actually used this same protocol to heal my own Achilles injury several years ago.

And if you use collagen to improve the quality of your sleep, your mental performance will also improve.

Accelerating Healing with Collagen

Most traumatic injuries involve damage to the connective tissue, skin, or fascia. Since we have good evidence that collagen supplementation speeds up healing time in ulcer patients and topical collagen can improve wound healing when added to dressings, and we know that pre-workout collagen can increase collagen deposition in tendons, it’s a safe bet that taking extra collagen can also speed up the healing time from any wound or trauma that requires the laying down of new collagen.21 22

Best Collagen Sources: Foods and Supplements

Although getting hold of and consuming an entire animal is probably the ideal, optimal way to get the collagen you need, supplemental collagen is an easier alternative for most people that’s about as effective.

What are the best sources?

Gelatinous meats: shanks, necks, feet, cheeks, oxtails, ribs
Bones and cartilage
Skin
Bone broth
Powdered gelatin
Collagen hydrolysate
Primal Kitchen collagen bars

Eat gelatinous meats. Many meats are low in collagen, but not all. Shanks, necks, feet, cheeks, oxtails, ribs, and all the other cuts that take extra time in the slow cooker to become tender are high in collagen. Favor these meats instead of yet another chicken breast.

Clean your bones. You know those crunchy caps at the end of chicken drumsticks? That’s cartilage, a big whopping dose of concentrated collagen. Eat it. Or those stringy tendons and sinew attached to the ends? Eat those too.

Eat skin. Skin is almost pure collagen. Chicharrones or pork rinds are the most widely available way to eat skin. If you ever get your hands on pork belly with the skin on, this is the way to cook it so that the meat is fall-apart tender and the skin is crunchy and delectable (and full of collagen).

Drink bone broth. Bone broth is trendy right now, and for good reason; it’s a rich source of collagen. Bone broth is simple to make but takes valuable time. If you can’t do it yourself, there’s a budding bone broth industry more than willing to ship frozen or shelf-stable broth to your door.

Use powdered gelatin. I always keep a can around for cooking. My favorite use is a quick 10-minute Thai curry: toast the spices and curry powder in coconut oil, add coconut milk, reduce, and whisk in a couple tablespoons of gelatin powder to obtain the desired texture and mouth feel. Delicious and a huge dose of collagen. You can also add powdered gelatin to pan sauces to replicate the use of demi glace, or even make healthy jello out of herbal/green tea/coffee with non-caloric sweetener.

Use collagen hydrolysate. Several years back, I suffered an injury to my Achilles tendon. I’d already been eating gelatinous meats and drinking broth, but I really wanted to step up my collagen intake. I was moved to create my own collagen powder with 20 grams of collagen protein (more collagen than 2 cups of bone broth) per serving. Eating 20-40 grams of supplemental collagen per day fixed my Achilles right up.

Eat Primal Kitchen bars. Each Primal Kitchen® collagen bar contains 7.5 grams of pure collagen from grass-fed cows (it’s what gives the bar its unctuous chewiness). With collagen being about 33% glycine, that’s almost 2.5 grams of glycine in each one—almost enough to satisfy those 3 grams used to improve sleep quality and reduce joint pain in studies.

Bone broth, chicharrones, tendon stew, gelatin, collagen powder—I don’t care how you get it, just get it. Collagen is non-negotiable.

That’s it for today, folks. How do you get your collagen? How much do you take or eat a day?

References http://charm.cs.uiuc.edu/users/jyelon/lowcarb.med/topic9.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2...

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Published on May 13, 2020 09:00

May 12, 2020

Why Eating Less Doesn’t Always Work

why eating less doesn't always work

Off the bat, I should say that I’m actually a fan of eating less. I’m on record as saying that my goal is to figure out how few calories I can eat and still thrive. Still, eating less isn’t always the magic bullet people will hope it will be. There are many ways that eating less can go wrong.

For weight loss, the advice to “eat less, exercise more” often doesn’t work like it “should” on paper. The weight-loss diet industry thrives on repeat customers who struggle to lose weight and keep it off. Dutifully following this strategy has led many people down the road to frustration and dejection, as they blame themselves for their failure to successfully lose weight. This is despite their best efforts to eat less.

From a health perspective, eating less is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, caloric restriction may promote longevity. It certainly does in many animal models. Human evidence is still mixed, but I’m betting that the same is true for us.1 On the other hand, long-term or severe calorie restriction can cause serious health problems, including nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, and muscle loss.

Today I’m going to look at some of the ways that restricting calories can go wrong—or simply be ineffective—as well as ways to eat less to actually promote health.

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Just Eating Less Is (Often) Not Sufficient for (Long Term) Weight Loss

Don’t get me wrong. At the end of the day, if you’re trying to lose weight, the body must expend more energy than it takes in. I’m not talking here about the oversimplified CICO—calories in versus calories out—approach to weight loss. Calories are just one variable in the incredibly complex equation that ends in weight loss. I’m talking about more valid but harder to quantify balance between energy consumed and energy expended.

In both cases, the idea behind eating less is to put fewer calories (or less energy) into the system. However, the energy balance approach recognizes that:

All calories are not created equal.
The types and amount of food we eat, as well as when we eat, affect how the body uses those calories.
The “energy out” side of the equation is dynamic. It, too, is affected by the foods we eat, their hormonal impacts, and the body’s natural desire for homeostasis.

Oftentimes, when someone is struggling to lose weight, they’ll get, “You’re just eating too much. Eat less, and you’ll start losing.” This person might already be down to 1100 or 1200 calories per day. They’re thinking, “How can I possibly eat less and still have the energy to get through my day?” The advice-giver doesn’t understand how the body adapts to calorie restriction.

The Body is Incredibly Adaptive

One of the reasons that weight loss is so difficult is that your body actively fights back against it. It makes sense if you think about it. The body stores fat for times of famine. It doesn’t know (or care) if it has stored “too much” according to your personal preferences. When you intentionally try to lose weight, your body “defends” its body weight by altering the amount of energy it expends.2 It tries to tightly ration body fat in case you’re facing a prolonged food shortage.

Let’s back up. The “energy out” side of the energy balance equation comprises several factors:

Basal metabolic rate – the energy your body expends in the everyday functions of being alive (breathing, circulation, generating new cells, etc.)3
Thermic effect of food – the energy it takes to metabolize the food you eat
Activity-induced energy expenditure – the energy you spend moving your body

When you eat in a caloric deficit and start to lose weight, the body responds by lowering its metabolic rate. That’s actually desirable from an aging perspective. Reduced metabolic activity and subsequent lower oxidative stress might explain why caloric restriction promotes longevity.4 It’s not so great when it comes to weight loss.

Moreover, the body responds to caloric restriction by dialing back activity. “Non-exercise activity thermogenesis,” or NEAT, is the term for the energy you expend through spontaneous movements like tapping your feet or nodding your head along to music. NEAT can vary up to 2000 calories per day between individuals.5 That’s a massive difference in “energy out.” It gives your body a little of wiggle room when it comes to reducing energy expenditure.

These metabolic adaptations aren’t inherently bad. One reason your metabolic rate goes down as you lose weight is simply that smaller bodies expend less energy. Unfortunately, though, it’s also a coordinated attempt to thwart your ongoing weight loss efforts. This is why weight loss is so tricky. There are things happening under the hood that you can’t monitor. Eating less can actually increase your body’s adaptive response, making it harder and harder to lose weight.

People Are Bad at Counting Calories

Another reason the advice to “just eat less” fails dieters is because people are notoriously bad at judging how much they actually eat. In studies, participants chronically underreport their caloric intake, even when they are paid to be accurate6 and when they are dieticians.7

If you’re also trying to balance your food intake against estimates of how many calories you burn through exercise, fuggedaboutit. One study found that individuals believed they burned three times more calories than they actually did on a treadmill test.8 Another small study showed that individuals who were struggling to lose weight underreported their caloric intake by 47 percent and overestimated energy expended by 51 percent, on average.9 (It’s not you. Activity trackers are notoriously terrible at accurately estimating calorie burn.10)

Even if you’re diligently weighing and tracking your food, you’ll probably be off through no fault of your own. The FDA allows a margin of error of up to 20 percent for calories reported on food labels.11 Packaged meals and restaurant meals often contain many more calories than stated on labels and menus. 12 13

“Weight Loss” Isn’t Actually the Goal

What you really want is fat loss. Nobody is striving to lose lean muscle or organ tissue or bone mass. Unfortunately, that’s often exactly what happens when people restrict calories too much and for too long without taking great care with what they are eating.

There are lots of ways to eat less. You can start your day low-fat, “heart healthy” (eye roll) cereal and skim milk, drink a smoothie for lunch, and have plain chicken breast and steamed broccoli for dinner. Or, you can eat in a compressed eating window, enjoying eggs, chicken thighs, steak, fatty fish, and abundant vegetables. Only one of these options will get you sufficient protein, healthy fats, and lots of vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients to mitigate non-fat loss.

When Eating Less Backfires
When It Causes Excessive Hunger

Not surprisingly, hunger is a common complaint among people who are trying to restrict calories. Besides being unpleasant, excessive hunger can derail your efforts by causing you to unintentionally eat more. You take a slightly bigger portion, grab a handful of nuts in between meals, and eventually devour the ice cream hidden in the freezer. Those calories add up.

Some hunger is to be expected if you are eating in a caloric deficit (although there are ways to attenuate hunger that I’ll discuss later). Excessive hunger is a problem, and a sign that you’re overdoing it.

When It Messes with Hormone Balance

Leptin is one of the hormones responsible for regulating appetite. It’s considered an energy indicator, communicating to the brain whether you have sufficient energy on board. When you’re losing weight—specifically when body fat is on the decline—leptin drops.14 In fact, it drops more than would be predicted by body composition alone.15 It seems to be signaling to the brain, “Hey, we’re losing our fat stores over here! Send help.” If leptin gets too low, all hell can break loose. Symptoms of low leptin include hunger, depression,16 loss of libido, and infertility.17

Going too low on calories can also depress thyroid function. In particular, lower T3 seems to be related to calorie restriction even without weight loss. I’m not convinced this is necessarily a bad thing. It may actually be adaptive—another pathway by which caloric restriction increases longevity.18 That said, you can definitely have too much of a good thing. You don’t want to restrict calories to the point where you start experiencing symptoms of hypothyroid such as feeling cold all the time, unexplained weight gain, or fatigue.

When It’s Stressful

I’ve said it a million times: stress is the enemy of health and weight loss. As with so many things in life, calorie restriction can be an adaptive (hormetic) or maladaptive stressor. It all depends on how it’s applied and how your body reacts.

Restricting calories increases cortisol, aka “the stress hormone.”19 Chronically high cortisol leads to problems including:

Excessive carb cravings
Belly fat storage
Increased inflammation
Exacerbation of existing health problems

When It Counterintuitively Reduces Appetite

I know, this sounds like a good thing. If you’re trying to eat less, isn’t it better if your appetite is reduced? Yes… to a point. Anecdotally, I see a subset of people whose appetites are suppressed when they restrict calories—possibly due to being in ketosis20—and who subsequently struggle to eat enough. If they aren’t mindful, they can easily under-eat to the point they are getting enough nutrients.

If you suspect you might be under-eating, use an app like Cronometer to track your food for a few days. Make sure you are checking the nutritional boxes you need to stay healthy.21

When You Burn Muscle Too

Caloric restriction can lead to your body catabolizing muscle tissue if you’re not careful. Some muscle breakdown is probably unavoidable, especially if you are losing substantial amounts of weight, but you want to mitigate it as much as possible. Protein intake is key. Eating more protein protects lean mass (muscle and organs), even when you’re in a caloric deficit and losing weight.22 23

When you eat less, make sure you aren’t cutting your protein precipitously. You may even want to increase it a bit.24 Your calorie deficit should come from reducing fat and/or carbs, depending on your current diet.

What about Metabolic Damage?

Dieting forums are filled with dire warnings against dieting so long or so hard that you go into “starvation mode” and create permanent “metabolic damage.”

You might be familiar with the highly publicized Biggest Loser study, which followed contestants from the televised weight loss competition.25 The researchers found that six years after losing significant weight, the contestants’ resting metabolic rate was on average 500 calories lower than would be predicted based on their size. That meant they had to eat many fewer calories (and/or burn more) just to maintain their weight, compared to people with similar body compositions who hadn’t lost a bunch of weight. In fact, many of them regained significant weight in the six years after the show ended.

As I said above, it’s well established that the body defends against weight loss by slowing metabolic rate and reducing energy expenditure. Other studies have shown that this metabolic adaptation persists even when people maintain or start to regain weight.26 27 28

Whether this constitutes permanent metabolic damage is a hotly debated topic. A recent paper called the notion into question. 29 The authors reanalyzed data from several studies that purportedly showed persistent metabolic downregulation. Using different equations that took into account participants’ body composition, they concluded that given enough time, metabolism will revert back to pre-weight-loss levels. Even the men from the most extreme weight loss experiment to date, Ancel Keys’s Minnesota starvation study, recovered eventually.

I’m not convinced that caloric restriction “breaks” your metabolism by any means. Still, if you engage in sustained caloric restriction and weight loss, there will likely be a period in which your metabolic rate is reduced. That means if you go right back to eating as much as you were before, you’ll regain weight. It seems to the trade-off.

How To Eat Less and Thrive More
Focus on Nutrients

The less you eat, the more every bite counts. Make the most of the calories you eat by prioritizing nutrient density and getting sufficient protein. Although I embrace fat in my diet, it’s the cherry on top, not the main course. I fill my plate with nutrient-dense meat, seafood, and poultry; eggs; and abundant veggies. Then I add sauces, dressings, and condiments (Primal Kitchen, naturally) for flavor and interest.

Prioritizing nutrient-dense foods ensures that you are being nourished on a cellular level. Consuming mostly low-protein, low-fat, low-nutrient foods will leave you hungry, unsatisfied, and craving more. There’s a reason that physique athletes only follow the “chicken breast and steamed broccoli” diet for short periods before competitions. It’s miserable. It messes with sleep, sex drive, and mood. You’re hungry all the time. It’s no way to live.

Eating sufficient protein increases satiety30. It helps keep your metabolic rate up by protecting energy-guzzling muscles and organs. Protein also has a higher thermic effect than fat or carbs, further contributing to metabolic rate.31

Cycle Your Caloric Deficit

If you’re chronically in a caloric deficit, say 15 to 20 percent or more, you may benefit from cycling in periods where you eat at maintenance calories. That means you try to eat about the same number of calories you need to break even each day. Obviously you can’t know exactly how much energy you’re expending, but you can use an online calculator to get a rough estimate. It doesn’t matter if you’re spot on.

The idea here is to “reset” your hormones, especially leptin and thyroid hormones. This will also bring your metabolic rate back toward baseline, although it will decrease again once you go back to a caloric deficit.

There’s also something to be said for taking a mental break from restricting calories. Especially if you feel stressed, or you simply get tired of feeling hungry, loosening the reins periodically is a good idea. Stress counteracts the benefits of any diet or lifestyle intervention, including calorie restriction.

There are many ways to execute cyclical dieting. Go with whatever style works best for you. A popular method is 8 to 10 weeks of caloric deficit followed by 2 weeks at maintenance, and repeat. A word of caution, though: Those maintenance weeks aren’t meant to be free-for-alls. Sure, you can enjoy some foods you avoid during the deficit phase. It’s no big deal if you eat somewhat above maintenance some days. Eating 10,000 calories in a weekend can quickly wipe out a few weeks’ worth of caloric deficit, though. If you’re trying to lose weight, you’ll be taking three steps forward, and two (or three!) steps back if you do this. If you’re going for longevity and general health benefits, it doesn’t make sense to binge on inflammatory foods.

Experiment with a Ketogenic Diet

As I mentioned, ketones are known to suppress appetite, which can lead to a spontaneous reduction in calories. If you are struggling with hunger but still eating a moderate- or high-carb diet, consider doing a Keto Reset. Drop your carbs to 50 grams or less. Increase your fat proportionately. (Carbs have 4 calories per gram, while fat has 9 calories per gram. If you reduce your carb intake by 50 grams, that’s 200 calories—about 22 grams of fat.)

Anecdotally, lots of people report that they find it much easier to sustain a caloric deficit on keto. They no longer feel like they are white-knuckling it and relying on willpower. If you have questions about going keto, head to my keto diet hub and grab my free Beginner’s Guide to Keto.

Try Intermittent Fasting

Many people find it easier to eat less when they observe a shorter eating window. Start slowly. If you currently eat between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.—a 12-hour window—see if you can shorten it by an hour or two. Six- and eight-hour windows are common, but there are no hard and fast rules about what’s optimal. As with keto, intermittent fasting isn’t for everyone, and you have to make sure you’re eating enough in your window.

If you’re eating less for longevity purposes, fasting may give you an extra boost in the autophagy department.

Be Patient, and Listen to Your Body

Trying to starve yourself into rapid weight loss is a bad idea. Hopefully that goes with saying. A modest caloric deficit with periodic breaks seems best in most cases.

As always, you should experiment and see what works for you. Especially when it comes to longevity, we don’t have enough solid evidence from human studies to lay out a specific calorie restriction protocol that is optimal. We probably never will given the tremendous variability between people.

Although caloric restriction has benefits, it’s a means to an end. Like carb restriction, intermittent or extended fasting, HIIT, it’s a tool in your metabolic toolbox. Use it appropriately, enjoy the benefits. Apply it too much or in the wrong situations, and you risk digging yourself into a hole.

Be patient. Stack the odds in your favor by eating satiating, nutritious foods, and by doing all the “other stuff” that supports metabolic health—getting plenty of sleep and sun, exercising appropriately, moderating stress. Resist the temptation to double down on restriction when your body needs a break. Control the variables you can control and make peace with the outcome.

Related posts from Mark’s Daily Apple

7 Common Calorie Myths We Should All Stop Believing

9 More Calorie Myths We Should All Stop Believing

Dear Mark: Am I Eating Too Little Food or Too Much Iron?

Top 14 Ways to Increase Your Metabolism

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Published on May 12, 2020 09:00

May 11, 2020

Easy At-home Yoga Sequence to Relieve Pressure

at home yoga

You’re doing the best you can.

You’re trying to stay at home. You’re homeschooling the kids. You’re trying to keep working at your job, or you’re navigating the waters of having lost employment. You’re trying to remain upbeat and optimistic.

There’s a lot of juggling going on, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my 25+ years in the health and fitness industry, it’s that the first ball we let drop is our own – our self-care.

Inertia is a Powerful Force

You may start each day with grand plans for a healthy dose of movement. You may have visions of a long, brisk walk. You may decide that today’s going to be the day you dust off the Bowflex or your dad’s ancient dumbbels in the basement. Whether it’s because you’ve run out of time, energy, or steam, or because your sense of overwhelm is holding you down like lead, perhaps you’re not taking as much care to get your body moving these days.

This has implications for your energy. Energy moves through the body freely when the body is open and unblocked. More energy begets more energy: once you’ve got it flowing, you’ll find yourself coming back

online; fully charged.

Yoga to Unlock Energy and Relieve Pressure

I’ve created the following yoga sequence precisely to help unlock energy and relieve the pressure you’re feeling in your head and heart, and that’s locked up inside your body. This sequence is simple, slow, and low-stress; designed to feel like an exhilarating and relaxing deep sigh.

And we could all use a deep sigh right about now.

So get down on the floor (you don’t even need a yoga mat) and do as many of these easy, feel-good postures as you can, for as long as it feels good.

Your Hips Hold Your Tension

Many yogis affirm that our hips are the spot in our body where we hold much of our emotional and spiritual tension. Whether that sounds plausible or far-fetched to you, there is simply no denying that hip opening yoga postures feel darn good.

So in this series, we’ll focus predominantly through the big hip joints, while also flowing through some spinal rolling. Let’s get your energy flowing again. You can complete the whole sequence in less than 30 minutes; a perfectly affordable amount of time to spend on yourself.

I’ve created short instructional videos for each couplet. I encourage you to linger in each pose of each sequence as long as you like (I move through them more quickly in the videos, in the interest of brevity). This

isn’t meant to be a heart-pumping workout. It’s an exercise in self-kindness; slow and gentle is the name of the game.

I hope it helps you feel better!

——-

Warm-Up Yoga Sequence

Spinal roll down
Forward fold with dead hang
Garland pose (or child’s pose)
Spinal roll up

Repeat this sequence as many times as you like until your back and hips feel warm and juicy. Observe how the first round feels. Observe how this improves in the second round, the third, and so on.

On the spinal curls, imagine each of your spinal vertebrae rolling up, one at a time, like a string of pearls. Concentrate on moving each one independently of its neighbors.

In the forward fold, allow your head, shoulders, and arms to hang very heavily, as dead weight, enabling a sensation of traction within the spine.

In garland pose, press your knees out with your elbows, drop your tailbone toward the floor, and try to lift the crown of your head toward the ceiling. If garland pose is eluding you today, take child’s pose and settle right down into the floor. Be sure to emphasize the length of your spine by reaching the arms very far forward, and sending the hips very far back.

Lunge Sequence (front of hip)

Upright reaching lunge
Low lunge

In the upright version of the lunge, reach the same arm as the downward leg as high as you can. You may choose to lean away, to add more length to the stretch in the front hip.

In the low lunge, bring your arms to the inside of the forward leg. You can remain up on your hands with straight arms, or play around with bending your arms a bit to drop even lower. You may even be able to take your elbows to the floor. Don’t feel the need to push it. This is meant to be gentle.

Linger as long as you like in each lunge, repeating the sequence on the other side.

Frog Sequence (inside of hip)

Frog pose
Wide child’s pose

To get into frog pose, put your elbows on the floor, then take your knees wide, your ankles wide, and your toes wide (you may wish to double up the mat under your knees or put a pillow under each knee for comfort on a hard floor). Lightly press into your elbows to send your hips and tailbone slightly backward. It doesn’t take long for frog pose to feel intense. Come out of it when you’re ready for a break.

Then move into this very wide-legged version of child’s pose by shifting your weight slightly forward from frog pose, and bringing the tips of your toes together behind you. Keep the knees wide. Reach your arms as far out in front of you as you can. Settle your body into the floor in between your knees.

Repeat this sequence as many times as you like.

Pigeon sequence (side of hips)

Half lotus
Pigeon/Extended pigeon

Don’t worry if your half lotus or pigeon look a little rougher than what you see on Pinterest. You’re working with what your body is giving you today and that is perfectly enough. Concentrate on how it feels, on letting go of any “hold” though the hips, and in the breath.

Half lotus can be done with the ankle stacked up on the opposite knee, or for a little easier option (depending on how your hips and knees feel) take the ankle to the opposite calf. Can’t manage half lotus? Simply sit cross-legged with one leg folded in front of the other.

In pigeon pose, try your best to extend your leg as far back behind you as you can, allowing your kneecap and all five toenails to anchor to the floor. You can remain upright, fold down to your elbows, or bring your forehead to the floor.

Take your time allowing gravity to sink your pigeon ever-closer to the floor, then repeat on the other side.

Seated bends sequence (lower back, side of trunk)

Head to knee forward bend
Seated side bend

“Head to knee” is merely a suggestion. A directional aspiration, if you will. Your head does not need to make contact with your knee, but behave as if that’s your desired outcome.

You may find the seated side bend a little “sticky;” I do too. Don’t worry if you can’t get over very far. Rather than leaning to the side, imagine curling your trunk over in a C shape. Observe how your body is suspended by the muscles and connective tissue in your side trunk and see if, with each subsequent round, you can’t bend a little more.

Feel free to cycle back and forth between these two postures, and don’t forget to switch sides. Observe how one side feels compared to the other.

Spinal twist sequence

Spinal curls
Supine twist

Your spine has 33 individual vertebrae, 17 of which make up the mobile and bendy part of a healthy back. This final sequence is designed to deliver on the spinal suppleness that is your birthright.

As you curl your spine in and out, can you imagine all 5 of your lumbar (lower back) vertebrae and all 12 of your thoracic (middle and upper back) vertebrae moving, one at a time? Observe where you get stuck. On each subsequent curl, observe whether that stickiness begins to loosen up. Complete several rounds of these curls before moving to the twist.

Hug your knees into your chest and then simply allow your bent legs to fall to one side, while keeping your shoulders anchored square to the floor. The weight of your legs will help deepen into this very gentle spinal twist. Switch sides when it feels good.

————

One you’ve finished your sequences, lay quietly or come to seated, and simply observe how different your body feels, and how different you feel in your body. Then go about the business of managing the challenges of the current day, with renewed, flowing energy.

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Published on May 11, 2020 09:00

May 9, 2020

Instant Pot Chicken Bone Broth Recipe (with Stovetop Option)

Once you start making your own Instant Pot chicken bone broth, you’ll never buy salty packaged chicken broth from the store again. It’s fully prepped in minutes, you probably have all of the ingredients on hand, it costs pennies per serving, and we suspect you’ll make roast chicken a little more often knowing that a steaming pot of bone broth will follow.

What Is Bone Broth? The Difference Between Broth and Stock

A lot of people use the words “broth” and “stock” interchangeably, when in fact, they’re not prepared the same way. Each has its own characteristics and uses.

Broth. Broth is made from simmered meat and serves as the base for soups. Meat broths are not nearly as rich and flavorful as stock.
Stock. Stock is made from bones and cuts of meat that have a lot of connective tissue. To break down the tough cartilage and ligaments, stocks are simmered for much longer than broths.
Bone broth. Bone broth is always made with bones and connective tissue, and usually some amount of meat. It is simmered long enough for the bones’ mineral content to break down into the liquid. Of the three variations, bone broth is the most rich in collagen and nutrients, and the most satisfying to sip on.

There’s no need to buy packaged broth when you can make your own easy and nutritious broth for a fraction of the price. All you need are the bones and carcass from roast chicken night, plus a few vegetable odds and ends you probably already have in your fridge or pantry. You can experiment with your favorite herbs, but any combination of thyme, sage, rosemary and parsley will work well.

The lemon is optional and does impart a stronger flavor on the broth. Additionally, adding a small amount of acid helps break down the bones, so you get a higher mineral content in your broth. If you plan to freeze the broth to use in a variety of dishes, you may want to leave the lemon out. If you plan to primarily use the broth immediately in soups or for sipping, the lemon is a lovely addition.

Here’s the easiest way to make bone broth.

Instant Pot Chicken Bone Broth Recipe
Ingredients

1 previously roasted chicken carcass

2 large carrots, halved

2 stalks celery, halved

¼ onion

3 cloves garlic

1 small bunch thyme

1 small bunch sage

8-10 cups water

1 tsp. black peppercorns

Salt

1/4 lemon (optional)

instant pot chicken bone broth recipe

Directions

If you are using an Instant Pot, place all of the ingredients in the pot except for the salt and top with water. Set the Instant Pot to “Pressure Cook” and cook at high pressure for 40 minutes. Allow the pressure to naturally release before removing the lid. Strain the broth and add salt to taste. Add to your favorite soups, stews, or just sip on its own.

instant pot chicken bone broth recipe

No Instant Pot? If you are making the broth on the stove, place all of the ingredients in your pot. Bring the liquid in the pot to a boil and remove and scum that accumulates on the top of the liquid. (It’s not dangerous, but your broth will come out more clear if you remove it.)

Reduce the heat so the liquid is simmering and cover the pot. Simmer for about 2-3 hours, or until the broth is flavorful and the vegetables are very soft. Strain your broth and season with salt.

Use or consume your broth within 3-4 days, or freeze some in jars or containers for later.