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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Dave Asprey
This first part of the brain, which you can think of as your reptile brain, controls low-level processes like temperature regulation and electrical systems.
All mammals share the second brain—called the limbic brain—which I like to think of as a furry, slobbering “Labrador retriever brain.”
When you resist the craving, you are using your third and final brain, which MacLean called the neocortex and I like to call the “human brain.”
Artificial sweeteners are another common additive in processed foods, especially “sugar free” snack foods. Aspartame is one synthetic sweetener that is responsible for a large number of adverse reactions. I used to consume aspartame before I became aware of how harmful it is. I enjoyed its sweet taste and thought I was doing myself a favor by drinking diet soda (which contains aspartame) instead of regular soda. But I was wrong. Both MSG and aspartame caused my blood sugar levels to fluctuate so badly that it took years for me to sort them out. Because they don’t contain any real sugar or
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By brewing coffee with a metal filter like a French press, gold filter, or espresso machine, you save these precious coffee oils so they can do their job in your body.
It’s also important to blend the butter and MCT oil into your coffee rather than stirring it because blending the butter breaks it up into something called micelles, which allow your body to use fat for energy.
Your liver creates a protein called fasting-induced adipose factor (FIAF). One thing FIAF does is block an enzyme called LPL (lipoprotein lipase), which tells your body to store fat. This means that when FIAF is high, your body burns additional fat, and your liver creates the right amount of FIAF according to your body’s needs.
Luckily, there are ways to “out-hack” the other hackers. When gut bacteria are “starved” of starch or sugar, they get hungry. Hungry bacteria make FIAF and you burn fat. When gut bacteria are fed sugar or starch, they stop producing FIAF and you start storing fat.11
As you know, butter also contains butyric acid, which can help heal the gut and directly lowers inflammation in the brain.14
When it runs out of carbohydrates, it starts converting fat to glycerol for energy. The liver produces ketones as a by-product of this fat metabolism.
Alternate-day fasting, one form of intermittent fasting, has been shown to prevent chronic disease, reduce triglycerides, and produce significant improvements in several markers such as LDL cholesterol in as little as 8 weeks.16 Perhaps most importantly, intermittent fasting increases neuronal plasticity and neurogenesis, meaning it literally makes it easier for your brain to grow and evolve.17
The first is that it triples down on a major physiological mechanism called mammalian target of rapamycin, or mTOR, which increases protein synthesis in your muscles and therefore helps build muscle. The
After fasting, mTOR rises when you eat and builds more muscle. The same thing happens after drinking coffee.
Eating protein (or carbs like sugar) in the morning also kicks on your body’s digestion process, which ends the “fast” you’d been in while you were asleep. Your liver will want to have a source of metabolic fuel to help break down the protein, so you’ll get a food craving a couple hours later.
Feeding your gut bacteria starch and sugar all day long is a terrible idea because it will cause your body to store fat instead of burning it. This is why bacteria-rich yogurt isn’t a great breakfast, either.
There are a few reasons it’s important to eat your carbs at night. The first is that your body uses starch and sugar to make serotonin, a neurotransmitter that relaxes you and helps you sleep. If carbs are going to make you relaxed and cause your energy level to drop, you might as well time this for when you want to go to sleep instead of when you need to perform and focus. It’s also helpful to be asleep by the time your Labrador brain feels that energy crash and begins demanding more sugar. Finally, the extra blood sugar you get from eating carbs at night will help your brain do the work it
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Over time, cells accumulate dead organelles, damaged proteins, and oxidized particles that interfere with cell function and accelerate aging. Autophagy is the body’s method of clearing out this clutter, meaning it helps keep you young. Clearly,
Autophagy is required to maintain muscle mass, and it inhibits muscle breakdown in adults.
I started by looking at the two main signals for the body to turn on autophagy. The first is fasting. I realized that this was one of the reasons I was experiencing such amazing results with Bulletproof Intermittent Fasting, but through my research I found there was an even better way to turn on autophagy, and that’s by occasionally limiting protein consumption.
Soy milk and soy protein have been sold as health foods, but they’re not. In fact, soy is Kryptonite for several reasons.
Brew coffee as you normally would, but use a metal mesh filter if possible.
NO-COFFEE VANILLA LATTE
BULLETPROOF POACHED EGGS WITH SAUTÉED GREENS
