#the emphasis on protein in most foods and protein dense foods even for people who aren't like... bodybuilders

[vibinwiththefrogs]

On this thought! So I mentioned the book Grain by Grain in my other post about an heirloom wheat farmer. Quinn found that when gluten intolerance and ideas that bread was bad started cropping up in America, pretty quickly America embraced gluten free and various other alternatives to bread/gluten. And so when he wanted to find a scientist willing to test his wheat, because he had friends with gluten sensitivities who could eat it, no one really wanted to deal with him because consumers (I guess?) weren't looking for a new bread with gluten.

But then he found some Italian scientists that were interested, because similarly, gluten intolerance started cropping up in Italy. But because more Italian food is based around pasta and bread, generally the public was resistant to gluten free stuff and other alternatives. A lot of people echoing the idea, "if humans ate it for centuries then something is wrong with the bread not humans".

I haven't found the time to look into it more but there was a whole thing in that book about food science methods between the US and Italy and how usually American scientists tend to be a lot more reductionistic than Italian scientists. Quinn brought his wheat to some American scientists to test nutrition and their idea was essentially to "throw it in a test tube" and break it down to its nutrients. Whereas the Italian scientists had a simulated human stomach with stomach acid to understand how the nutrients would interact differently in the human body and which were significant.

I know this is all a bit far away from the post but increasingly I'm thinking about our relationships with food, especially in the US, and how warped and strange it can be. Imagine rejecting bread! Or rice! Or potatoes! It's actually insane looking historically.

‘bread is bad for you’ ‘rice is bad for you’ sorry im not subscribing to the idea that staple grains that have been integral to cultures for centuries are evil. i love you carbs

[things2mustdo]

We hear the word a lot, it’s what separates males from females and men from boys. So what exactly is it? It is the principle male sex hormone and acts as an anabolic steroid. Having lower testosterone can have horrendous effects on men: decreased muscle mass, weight gain, reduced energy levels, and lower libido.

In a study conducted by VA Puget Sound Health Care Systems and the University of Washington, Seattle, found that “about 19 percent  had low testosterone levels; 28 percent  had varying low and normal levels”. In addition, testosterone levels decrease 1.5% every year after age 30. Which means you become less of a man every year past age 30. It was also found that “men with low testosterone levels had an 88 percent increase in risk of death compared with those who had normal levels”.

So with all this negativity, is there any hope for man? Yes.

There are plenty of ‘natural’ ways to increase your testosterone levels.

1. Vitamin D3. This vitamin has been linked to increasing testosterone in men and increasing sex drive. (Source)

2. Eat your steak and whole eggs. Testosterone is derived from cholesterol. Sure egg whites and grilled chicken might be a great way to get your protein in, but cutting the red meat and yolks won’t help raise your testosterone. Eggs are very nutrient dense, eat the yolks and reap the benefits. Same goes along with red beef, enjoy your steak. (Source)

3. Workout. Pushing and pulling heavy weights in a compound movement (squats, deadlifts, benching, clean and press, etc.) cause a hormonal change in the body, producing more testosterone (with proper diet of course). (Source)

4. Avoid sugar. It will increase your insulin levels. Not only is that linked to weight gain, but also a reduction in testosterone levels. (Source)

5. Eat your fats. Don’t leave out olive oil, peanut oils, avocados, egg yolks, nuts, and red meat (grass fed). (Source)

Just following these few points can have a dramatic effect on increasing your testosterone levels; your sex drive will rocket, your hard work from the gym will start to show, and women will be so turned on by your pheromones. Moral of the story: don’t underestimate the most important hormone in your body, it’s THAT important.

https://www.returnofkings.com/152812/10-ways-that-modern-society-lowers-your-testosterone-levels

It is no surprise that the current world agenda seeks to destroy men from within but also from the outside at the same time. Only by attacking from all angles can their plans come to fruition. We do not know exactly when this attack started, but in recent years, it has become clear that the intensity of the current agenda’s intentions has increased tenfold.

Why are men targeted? Could it be the fact that by reducing the amount of true men with testes they reduce the chances that authentic revolutions against oppressive governments will happen? Any voice of reason against a corrupt society would swiftly be silenced. It happened 2,000 years ago (Jesus), and it is happening now more aggressively than it has ever happened in history.

Let’s see how men are being targeted for total destruction and implicitly and how to avoid these attacks…

1. Our Food Is Filled With Hormones, Antibiotics And Pesticides

Hormones are abundantly in beef, chicken or dairy products. We eat these daily, however, the hormones have an impact on a man’s health. Testosterone levels are lowered and estrogen levels increase. Manboobs, anyone?

Pesticides are well known chemicals that cause infertility and lower testosterone levels. Yet non-organic vegetables and fruits are abundant in life threatening toxins.

2. Cycling And Jogging

Doing physical activities is so beneficial that writing down all the benefits here would take forever. Yet there are a few physical activities which are unhealthy for the human body. Those kind of activities which have never been done by our ancestors.

For obvious reasons, cycling is unnatural because it uses an invented device. Constant pressure on the testes leads to infertility, reduces testosterone production and diseases.

Like cycling, jogging is an unnatural activity. Our ancestors would either walk or sprint, never jog. It is a useless activity. Jogging and cycling are activities which put continuous and constant stress on the body, leading to an overall decrease in testosterone over time. Do you think it is a coincidence that so much emphasis is being put on activities such as jogging and cycling?

3. Blue Light Bulbs

Blue light exposure has been linked to decreased testosterone levels. It is everywhere. Naturally occurring only in the morning when it helps the body wake up, nowadays we see it right until we close our eyes and go to bed. It is in our phone and computer screens, but most importantly, it is used to illuminate our rooms, bedside lamps and our offices.

Due to “environmental” reasons, it was decided that the classic incandescent bulb uses up too much energy, therefore it is better to use the new LED bulbs with carcinogenic gases.

You can’t run and you can’t hide. These blue-light bulbs are everywhere, creating anxiety and making us feel constantly tired. A tired mind is easy to control, and so is a low testosterone individual.

4. Our Drinking Water Is Filled With Female Hormones

Let me explain. The tap water that you drink also contains treated and cleaned water from our toilets, no mystery here. What we don’t know is that the hormones from a female’s period are flushed down with this same water. Chlorine does not remove hormones, it removes bacteria.

Drinking bottled water could be a solution, but then again, the plastic is also carcinogenic and also lowers our testosterone. Unless we have our own spring, we are fucked.

5. Sugar

Sugar reduces our metabolism to that of a sloth and promotes cancer. It also dramatically lowers our will to do anything meaningful with our lives. It takes down our testosterone due to our bodies prioritizing insulin production. It is addictive, more so than heroin, as proven on lab rats.

6. Aspartame

In an effort to soothe the minds of people concerned with sugar, they have created an even worst product called aspartame. Aspartame produces neurotoxins that excite our nerve cells so much that they die. However, our brain protects itself with a barrier from excess neurotoxins. If the barrier is passed, neurons are killed. The pituitary and pineal glands are also affected, leading to a disruption in our circadian natural rhythm.

Aspartame lowers testosterone and avid consumers would require a prolonged time for their testosterone to recover.

7. Veganism

Veganism is another new fad that keeps people excited about healthy lifestyles. What they don’t know is that this diet is aimed at reducing our aggressiveness and making us docile animals like say… sheep.

Go ahead and tame a lion. Obviously, veganism lowers testosterone and the lack of vitamins and nutrients, which I will explain in future articles, further leads to a pale and unforgiving future for our bodies and brains.

8. Soy

Soy has been part of the hype train of miraculous natural super foods for some decades now. Soy is an estrogenic food and guess what? It lowers your testosterone.

It should be simple by now: anything that is being promoted by the mainstream media should be considered false and damaging to our well-being.

9. The War On Fats

This is another worldwide mass deception promoted by the mainstream doctors and media. Fat is actually healthy and it helps reduce cholesterol due to the fact that if the body receives external cholesterol, then it does not need to produce it on its own, which would lead to the bad cholesterol in our blood.

Testosterone feeds on cholesterol. The higher amount of testosterone you will have, the lower your cholesterol will be. And the more external cholesterol you bring in, the more the testosterone can thrive and increase.

Eating fat meat will increase your health and improve  your metabolism (unless you have some condition, in which case you should seek a doctor’s advice).

10. Coffee

Yes exactly, coffee. Caffeine is poison used by plants to protect themselves. Guess what happens when you ingest coffee every day?

Coffee depletes the adrenal glands responsible for regulating our hormones. Combined this with stress and we are sure to fall into an adrenal exhaustion. Testosterone is also one of those hormones, and when the adrenal glands become depleted, there is no way to produce any free or total testosterone within your body.

It takes three weeks to get rid of caffeine. Do you know why caffeine produces bowel movements? Because the body wants to get rid of the poison.

Conclusion

In case you are wondering what would be the best course of action to avoid exposure to factors that are detrimental to our health, the solution is as always simple: life should be lived the way it was meant to, in accordance with nature.

[2whatcom-blog]

Keto Breads, Bagels, and Bars Can They Assist Your Well being

The ketogenic (keto) weight loss program is a well-liked ultra-low-carb weight loss program. In its most straightforward kind, following this weight loss program means you will need to all however eradicate each type of carbohydrate and eat fats as a replacement. The physique makes use of that fats for power, and when the provides run low, it then attracts out of your physique's fats shops for needed power. That results in weight reduction. The best ratio of macronutrients on the keto weight loss program is 75 % fats, 20 % protein, and 5 % (or simply 20 grams) of carbs. The emphasis for the carbs you do eat? Excessive-fiber plant choices like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and broccoli. Bread? Bye-bye. Bagels? No probability. Muffins? You may must miss them. That was, till the recognition of the weight loss program -- and the abundance of keto-friendly elements like almond flour and no-sugar-added chocolate -- led to inventive keto eaters and cooks discovering methods to substitute their beloved carb-rich meals for variations that had fewer carbs and nonetheless match their keto targets. Certainly, right this moment, for those who seek for keto snacks, you will be hit with a barrage of listings for keto-friendly bars, breads, cookies, and extra. The market is flooded with them, and so they present few indicators of stopping. However in a weight loss program that is designed to eradicate most carbs and most types of sugar, is there room for synthetic substitutes that mimic the meals you maybe miss? Sure and no, say the consultants. Here is why.

Are keto "cheat" meals wholesome?

One of many largest hurdles of any weight loss program, and particularly the keto weight loss program, is a deprivation mentality. For those who imagine you possibly can't have one thing, you might end up craving it much more. Keto "cheat" meals, proponents argue, might enable you fulfill these longings whereas not blowing your carb finances. "Keto-friendly versions of our favorite foods can most certainly be a part of a balanced diet," mentioned Amanda Maucere, a registered dietitian and nutritionist (RDN) for the Lung Well being Institute. "These foods can also help people benefit from nutritional ketosis for a longer period of time without feeling deprived of the foods they are used to eating," she added. That looks like a win. However not so quick, says Maucere. It's a must to be attentive to what you are consuming, past simply the web carbs you are consuming. "That said, the quality of the ingredients used to make these foods does matter. Just like with non-keto food products, you'll want to look at the ingredients list to make sure the food you want to eat is made with real food ingredients," she mentioned. "If what you find in the ingredients list is a long list of chemicals and additives, steer clear." Anthony Gustin, DC, MS, the CEO and co-founder of Excellent Keto, additionally suggests these meals aren't inherently dangerous as a part of the keto weight loss program, however you might need to keep away from those which might be extremely processed. "Studies have shown that eating highly-processed foods increases your rates of obesity, cancer, food addiction, depression, chronic inflammation, poor digestion, asthma, and allergy symptoms," he mentioned. "Since a ketogenic diet -- when done properly -- can actually help alleviate many of these ailments, it's counterintuitive to eat products with ingredients that can have harmful effects on your health." Specifically, Gustin factors out, keto "cheat" meals rely closely on synthetic sweeteners. Most types of sugar are wealthy sources of carbs. Synthetic sweetener choices have just about no carbs, which makes them technically keto-friendly, however they do not at all times get the thumbs up from medical doctors and nutritionists. "One of the biggest offenders is artificial sweeteners, which, in addition to contributing to the problems I mentioned, may also raise your blood sugar levels and blood pressure, increasing anxiety and causing GI upset," Gustin mentioned. Gustin explains that even for those who keep in ketosis, you are not ingesting wholesome elements. "All you're doing is giving your body chemicals instead of nutrient-dense food, causing you to miss out on some of the bigger picture benefits the ketogenic diet can provide," he concludes.

Low-carbohydrate junk remains to be junk

When a keto curious eater first makes the choice to drop the carbs, the affect to their meals selections is fast: Reduce out sugar, starches, pasta, and grains. Restrict greens. Give attention to fats. What these limitations typically do, with the steering of keto consultants, is put individuals ready to examine the standard of the meals they're consuming to make sure they're getting probably the most bang for his or her chunk. "In my mind, one of the biggest advantages to a ketogenic diet is that it forces a person to become more intentional about their food choices and often leads to a greater understanding of food and their relationship to food," mentioned Robert Santos-Prowse, a scientific dietitian and writer of "The Ketogenic Mediterranean Diet" and "The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet." "I'm concerned that the availability of low-quality convenience foods that fit in a ketogenic diet will eliminate some of that benefit and leave people no better off than before they adopted a ketogenic diet. Low-carbohydrate junk is still junk," he mentioned. Maucere mentioned there are easy recipes for keto-friendly consolation meals with out chemical compounds that may fulfill an individual's carb craving. "A good example of a real food, keto-friendly swap would be 'keto biscuits' made with almond flour, butter, cheese, eggs, cream, salt, and pepper," she mentioned. For those who make the meals your self, you see the elements and you'll really feel sure they are not mysterious. Then, on the finish, you possibly can really feel even higher sneaking in what actually looks like a "cheat" meals.

Backside line

If the occasional keto bagel helps you keep away from noshing on an actual flour-filled bagel, which will definitely pull you out of ketosis, the profit could also be optimistic. If that is what you've got each day for breakfast -- as an alternative of, for instance, a sausage-and-egg hash or egg-stuffed bell pepper rings -- then you might not see the advantages. "Just because something is keto-friendly does not make it healthy in the long run," mentioned Shana Minei Spence, MS, RDN, CDN, founding father of The Vitamin Tea. "Always check the labels first before falling into the trap of buying a product because of marketing." Read the full article

[northshorehealthandfitness]

[caption id="attachment_66131" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Twenty20[/caption] When it comes to people’s top goals for improving body composition, fat loss often takes the cake. But we can’t talk about how to lower body fat percentage without touching on how to drop pounds in general. That’s because you can’t necessarily target fat loss in one specific area — say, just your arms or belly. You have to work to reduce fat all over. And that comes down to one main principle: calorie deficiency. “To lose fat, you have to create a calorie deficit,” says Jamie Costello, CPT, director of fitness at Pritikin Longevity + Spa, a top-rated weight loss resort in Miami. In other words, you have to burn more calories than you consume. While of course diet is involved in that, Costello also emphasizes moving more — and not just in a sweat session, but also those hours between your morning alarm and your bedtime. “If people are sedentary all day — and just work out for an hour every other day — that might improve cardio, heart health, bone strength and lower the risk of injury. But when it comes to weight loss, the amount of effort [you’d need in that hour] is pretty big,” Costello explains. So, what should you be doing in those daily hours from dawn to dusk to help you drop that body fat percentage? We scoured the science and spoke to the experts. Here, four fitness must-dos to see results, plus other can’t-miss tips for finding success. RELATED: The Big Benefits of Losing Just a Little Bit of Weight

4 Strategies for Reducing Body Fat Percentage

[caption id="attachment_66132" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Twenty20[/caption]

1. Start Steppin’

It may seem small, familiar and just a little too easy, but it’ll make a difference: Get on your feet more often. As Costello puts it, it’s difficult to burn enough excess calories in an hour-long sweat session alone. But frequently taking breaks from your seat? That could actually make or break your daily deficit. In fact, a recent study found that simply standing rather than sitting for six hours a day could help a 140-pound person burn more than 50 extra calories in 24 hours. And that doesn’t involve any movement, just static standing. Imagine the calorie-crushing possibilities if you took brisk walks on the daily. RELATED: The Truth About How to Lose Belly Fat

2. HIIT It Hard

Besides taking more moments to stand up, doing a more efficient workout means you’ll blast more calories and burn more fat. For that, you’ll want to turn to interval workouts, says Costello. Metabolic conditioning (aka metcon) workouts place a high-demand on the body by testing its different energy systems. “Once you influence your metabolic burn rate, it stays up even during rest intervals. That gives you a much more efficient fuel burn, without feeling like you overdid it,” says Costello. He suggests sticking with metcon workouts of about 30 minutes and HIIT workouts (in which you work at an even higher intensity) for about 15 minutes. Aim to do these every other day, or take two to three days of rest between each, so your body can properly recover, Costello says. “As you get in better shape, you’ll see that you burn more calories week after week, because you don’t get as exhausted,” Costello explains. That’ll also help you reach the caloric deficit you need for weight and fat loss. RELATED: HIIT It Hard with These 27 Beginner Workouts and Tips

3. Add Some Resistance

Beyond sweat-inducing intervals, another way to increase your fat-burning and muscle-building potential is resistance training. “Strength training is indispensable, because it’s the only thing that preserves muscle tissue over time,” says Brad Schoenfeld, PhD, CSCS, assistant professor of exercise science at Lehman College in Bronx, NY. “Cardio can burn more calories, but it doesn’t do much to prevent muscle loss.” And you’ll want more muscle to burn more daily calories. Science backs up this need to lift weights for weight loss. A recent study involving about 250 individuals in their 60s pitted cardio workouts against strength sessions. The researchers found that while you need both, resistance work wins out in terms of losing fat without losing muscle. “If you want to preserve muscle during weight loss, you need to stimulate it with a progressive resistance training program,” says Kristen Beavers, assistant professor of health and exercise science at Wake Forest University and lead author on the study. (She notes these results most likely apply to younger people, too.) So if you want to build muscle that staves off weight loss, you can’t turn to walking or running alone. Another benefit of strength training: It preps your muscles to push even harder during tough interval sessions, says Costello. “When you improve your muscles’ metabolic conditioning — so think of building lean muscles — you’re building the capacity to go faster,” he says. While lots of people place emphasis on how this helps you burn more calories at rest, Costello says it also lets you push yourself in your next workout. Aka the more you strength train, the harder you work in your next workout, and the more calories you burn overall. Hello, calorie deficit, weight loss and body fat reduction. To effectively implement strength training into your schedule, Shoenfeld suggests continuously changing up your routine and adding more resistance to see weight loss and muscle gain. “You have to lift at a high level of effort and challenge your muscles on a consistent basis,” he says. Shoenfeld suggests focusing on total-body, compound movements that work multiple muscles at once, which will also up the calorie burn. Aim for at least three days a week for these workouts, he says. As for choosing a weight (if you’re upping it from bodyweight), mimic the protocol of the Wake Forest study, opting for 70% of your one-rep maximum and readjusting as you get stronger. RELATED: Strength Training for Beginners: Your Guide to Reps, Sets, Weights

4. Focus on Burning Calories, Not Necessarily Fat

No matter which workouts you choose, keep in mind, if you want to burn fat, you don’t necessarily need to work in the fat-burning energy system. If you’ve ever stepped on a cardio machine (an elliptical, in particular), you may have noticed the meter on the dashboard illustrating your training zone (say, warm-up, fat-burn, cardio and peak heart rate). Fat-burn is on the lower end of the effort scale — we burn fat even while sleeping, Costello explains — therefore, it’s not necessarily the ideal training zone for fat loss. “People mistakenly think that if their goal is to lose fat, then they should train in this fat-burning zone,” Costello says. “The problem is, you’re still not burning very much. It’s your total caloric expenditure that’s most important — not the type of fuel source you’re using at any given time.” That means, if you opt for high-intensity interval training level, then you’re burning more energy overall — even if less of that energy comes from fat as the fuel. RELATED: Does Fasted Cardio Really Burn More Fat? [caption id="attachment_66133" align="alignnone" width="620"] Photo: Twenty20[/caption]

Don’t Forget What’s on Your Plate

As mentioned earlier, to lose fat (and weight) you need a calorie deficiency — therefore, it’s also time to address your diet habits. “The least important thing you should be considering [in terms of exercise for fat loss] is where the fuel source is coming from. But the opposite is true when you’re eating — you need to think about where your calories are coming from,” Costello says. Instead of strict calorie counting, Costello recommends focusing on less calorie-dense foods, meaning those that will fill you up thanks to fiber and water, more so than empty calories. You probably guessed this means lots of veggies — as in at least half your plate — plus, fruits and legumes. Schoenfeld also mentions the importance of protein. “Make sure you have adequate protein intake, as it’s well documented that it helps maintain lean body mass,” he explains. The recommended dietary allowance for protein is about 0.8 grams per kilogram bodyweight or about 46 grams for an average woman, though if you’re super active you probably need more. Another strategy for success: Avoid diets that are too restrictive, as you won’t stick with it long enough to see results. Shoenfeld suggests sticking with the 80/20 rule and learning your food habits, so you can avoid overeating before it starts. RELATED: 5 Signs You’re Not Eating Enough Protein

Sleep Also Plays a Role

Finally, to lose fat, you have to focus on catching those zzz’s. Costello says that without recovering from exercise properly (translation: getting ample sleep!), it’s tough to see results. “Sleep is a huge component to reset and reenergize so you can burn more calories the next day,” he says. “Also, recovery between workouts [is crucial]. Choose just three to four workouts a week where you really push yourself. Then have the medium-effort workouts, too. That recovery will help you push harder through the tough ones.” RELATED: 6 Signs That You’re Exhausted (Not Just Tired)

The Big Picture: Small Steps, Big Results

You probably know this at heart, but it’s worth mentioning. Lowering your body fat percentage doesn’t happen overnight. Or even over seven nights. Costello says, on average, losing about one to two percent body fat a month is a realistic goal. (Here are a few ways to measure your progress.) Don’t get discouraged if you’re not seeing results right away. Continue with your interval and strength training workouts, and focus on eating a clean diet and getting ample rest in between. As they say, all good things come to those who wait…and hustle to the gym. Read More 3 Fat-Blasting HIIT Workouts to Try Now 12 Awesome Ways to Measure Your Non-Scale Victories EPOC: The Secret to Faster Fat Loss?

The post The Best Workouts for Reducing Body Fat appeared first on Life by Daily Burn.

via Fitness – Life by Daily Burn

[healthyworthyofficial]

What Is The Keto Food Pyramid? — Ditch The Carbs

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Today I’m going to clarify What Is the Keto Food Pyramid PLUS I’m supplying you with a FREE 5-Day Meal Plan & Shopping List. So let’s get began.

What Is A Healthy Food Pyramid?

When occupied with a meals pyramid, typically the very first thing that involves thoughts is what we had been taught in our youthful education years.  The triangular-shaped diagram of meals teams helped us to grasp what number of servings of every macro to eat for a nutritious diet. But do you know that this conventional meals pyramid is in actual fact set on a basis of unhealthy and processed carbs?!   This results in a lifetime of continual excessive blood sugars resulting in insulin resistance. And what’s the issue with insulin resistance? It lies on the centre of metabolic syndrome and lots of trendy continual ailments. Further studying: The benefits of a low-carb eating regimen.

What Is A Keto Food Pyramid?

What’s the choice then? For these of us following a low-carb, high-fat meal plan just like the ketogenic eating regimen, the keto meals pyramid is your go-to visible useful resource, important to you sustaining your low-carb life-style. 

The Keto Food Pyramid Explained If you take a look at my keto meals pyramid, you’ll discover that wholesome fat kind the bottom of the pyramid construction adopted by high quality proteins after which nutrient-dense carbohydrates that are accountable for the smallest part.  If you're new to keto, you could be questioning why the meals teams look like an entire flip from the normal pyramid. Without going into an excessive amount of element in right now’s publish, when following the keto eating regimen, your purpose is to achieve a state of dietary ketosis after which keep that state which is the reason for environment friendly fats burning in your physique.  This keto meals pyramid diagram is designed to get your physique right into a state of dietary ketosis and hold you there. Want to start out low-carb FAST? Get your FREE 5-day meal plan & purchasing checklist How To Control Your Macros On A Keto Diet

A easy method of recalling this construction and its appropriate software to your each day macro consumption is to maintain the next in thoughts: Carbs are a restrict – protein is a goal – use fats to regulate starvation (however not in extra). Nutritional ketosis will happen once you eat only a few carbs so your glycogen shops are depleted and your physique has to search for another gasoline supply – YOUR BODY FAT! Once your physique begins to burn fats, your physique will create ketones and you're stated to be in dietary ketosis. For a extra in-depth rationalization of the keto eating regimen and begin, try these useful assets of mine: Now that you've a greater understanding of the keto meals pyramid as a complete, let’s dive deeper into every stage of the keto pyramid in order that you understand these meals that you would be able to take pleasure in and people who it is advisable keep away from. Want to start out low-carb FAST? Get your FREE 5-day meal plan & purchasing checklist Healthy Fats & Oils

Approximately 70-80% of your each day energy ought to come from wholesome fat that are due to this fact represented as the most important tier within the keto pyramid.  Keep in thoughts that meals include a sure share of fats content material i.e. full-fat dairy and fatty proteins reminiscent of tuna, salmon, mackerel and fatty cuts of grass-fed meat which contribute in the direction of the each day really helpful fats consumption when following a keto eating regimen. Important observe: As a newbie, you'll want to add loads of wholesome fat from the keto meals pyramid to your meals to maintain you fuller for longer, however as time progresses and your starvation diminishes, the extra fats will now not come primarily out of your meals, however your physique fats.

Some of the perfect sources of wholesome fat and oils include: GheeGrass-fed butterTallowLardExtra virgin olive oilCod liver oilCoconut oilAvocado oilMacadamia oilHealthy Protein Intake

The keto meals pyramid helps a reasonable to a excessive protein content material of your total each day energy.  One of the commonest errors that individuals make within the early levels of the keto eating regimen is to limit their protein an excessive amount of within the concern of insulin ranges required to course of protein and/or gluconeogenesis (extra on that within the articles talked about above). This false impression won't deal with your starvation and urge for food and so could stall your progress which is why the emphasis is positioned on hitting targets each day.  Using a macro calculator will assist you understand how a lot protein you require every day.  Further studying: What does 30g protein appear to be & prinatble sheets Sources of high quality protein content material whereas nonetheless balancing with loads of fats embody: Fatty fish i.e. tuna, salmon and mackerelFatty cuts of pink meat i.e. steak, lamb, pork, salami and pepperoni or organ meatSeafood i.e. shellfish, oysters and clams, musselsEggsVegetarians will rely extra on nuts, seeds, full-fat dairy and sure greens for his or her protein Although you shouldn’t shrink back from fattier meats, they shouldn’t turn into your each day staple you probably have hit a plateau. On the opposite hand, tremendous lean meats with excessive protein ranges however little fats are harder to work into a standard keto eating regimen meal plan. A wholesome steadiness with a each day goal in thoughts is the way in which to go and can embody a mixture of fatty and lean cuts of meat. Depending in your objectives/targets/limits. Want to start out low-carb FAST? Get your FREE 5-day meal plan & purchasing checklist Nutrient-Dense Carbs

The smallest macronutrient on a keto eating regimen is carbs. Nutrient-dense carbs. With this stated, you could very properly end up paying extra consideration to them than the opposite macronutrients with a purpose to be sure that you don’t go over the really helpful 20g each day (for a easy keto eating regimen) consumption in any other case you gained’t attain dietary ketosis.  As carbs are such a small share of your each day consumption, it’s vital to keep away from ALL high-carb greens (reminiscent of potatoes, corn and carrots) and relatively embody bigger parts of non-starchy greens (like avocado, spinach and cauliflower) at each meal. This method, you will get loads of quantity with out sabotaging your macro restrict.  Further studying: The Ultimate Guide To Carbs In Foods Here are a number of the finest non-starchy greens to eat on a keto eating regimen. They may be loved in various portions relying in your carb restrict and tolerance. Avocados (a staple of most keto diets!)Leafy greens, like spinach and kaleBell peppersTomatoesCauliflowerBroccoliAsparagusZucchiniEggplantGarlicCayenneCeleryHow To Start A Keto Diet

While it could appear formidable to have to scale back your carb consumption to such an extent on the keto eating regimen, you could be pleasantly stunned with these simple low-carb swaps, assured to be loved by the entire household! Further studying: Easy low-carb cheat sheet. There are quite a few charts within the publish for breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts and drinks. Start with separately and work your method down the lists. Before you understand it, your pantry shall be remodeled into a completely functioning low-carb machine! Other Low-Carb Foods In The Keto Food Pyramid Apart from the non-starchy vegetable choices listed above, there are different low-carb meals decisions that it's best to gravitate in the direction of when on the keto eating regimen. These embody: Certain nuts, and seeds that may be eaten in small quantities as snacks i.e. almonds, pecans, pili nuts, chia seeds, flaxseeds, and all full-fat dairy. Small portions of low-sugar fruit i.e. blueberries, strawberries, coconut, lemons, limes, raspberries (which have lower than 10 grams of web carbs in a 1-cup serving).Full cream dairy, full-fat cheeses, and naturally – butter!Foods Excluded From The Keto Food Pyramid

The keto meals pyramid excludes from the next meals out of your eating regimen and it’s a good suggestion to turn into accustomed to these kind of meals to keep away from undermining your purpose of reaching ketosis.  Further studying: The final information to carbs in beige meals. These embody: BreadPasta – excessive in carbs and nearly no dietary worthALL sugars (refined, natural, free commerce or uncooked)HoneyFast meals of any sort BeansRiceCondiments excessive in sugarHigher carb fruits, reminiscent of apples or bananasStarchy greens like corn, potatoes, and carrotsVegetable oils

The keto meals pyramid is a good visible useful resource to refer again to, making it simple so that you can perceive what meals to eat and people to keep away from whereas making an attempt to achieve and keep a state of ketosis. And to make it even simpler for you throughout your subsequent grocery run, get my meal plan beneath. Want to start out low-carb FAST? Get your FREE 5-day meal plan & purchasing checklist ULTIMATE LOW-CARB BUNDLE: Do you wish to begin low-carb FAST? Perfect for freshmen with every thing it is advisable Ditch The Carbs … and dwell your finest life! CLICK HERE.

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[monitorsscrawlings]

Boogie-Monster Dining & Diner Etiquette

Dining Area Set-Up:

== For most families and dining faculties, the dining area is set-up to seat the maximum number of monsters together comfortably while accommodating the broadest possible range of shapes and sizes, and is considered one of the main focal-points in many monster homes, given that this is where food and company are shared, and where family and friends most often meet to talk. With that in mind most dining tables are elongated oval-shapes, multi-tiered round-tables or wavy, meandering affairs with rounded edges, and many modern tables are designed to be adjustable. The dining area floor is usually heavily covered in a thick padding of multiple carpets, with an array of plush seat-cushions and pillows surrounding the table proper. Stools, bird-stands, bucket-chairs or wheeled tanks, as well as high-benches or high-stools designed with smaller monsters in mind are also fairly common, and usually made available as needed by the hosts or proprietor.

== Carved stone tables with stone slabs or tree-stumps for seating tend to be a more traditional seating arrangement--though they've fallen out of vogue in many places in recent times--often favored by smaller families or very small private gatherings and usually feature roast-spits and a shallow fire-pit built into the center of the table.

== Serving dishes are all designed to be picked up from the bottom or sides with ease, and often have handles or handhold's set in the sides or the top of the dish, and almost everything has a motif or design worked into it. Many of them tend to feature secure-able lids, particularly in the case of more fragrant, volatile, or lively dishes, and woven baskets or wire-cages are also common sights at the dinner table. Most serving-dishes and dinner-ware are made out of carved stone, wrought-iron, or dense porcelain, though copper or wooden cook-ware isn't too uncommon either.

Before The Meal:

Before the meal begins, all diners are expected to take part in the dinner-time hand-washing ceremony, wherein they wash their hands, claws, hooves, tentacles or other sundry appendages in small bowls of cold water, before dabbing them dry on the provided towels. Once done, diners give short personal thanks to both their hosts, the cooks, and those who have worked to bring this food to the table, before digging in. Most places don't stand on ceremony, and while waiting for everyone to be seated is considered good etiquette and a proper show of respect, it isn't strictly required.

A Helping Hand: In the case of non-boogie-monster dinner-guests, hatchlings or cubs, the invitation-giver, or a young monsters parents or guardain is responsible for seeing after their guest(s) or young, coaching them on the finer points of dinner-etiquette, helping them navigate the meal should it be required, and helping to make them feel more comfortable and at home. Their performance, good or bad, will reflect on not only themselves, but the monster or monsters who invited them, so it is quite important. Likewise, the hosts are responsible for properly accommodating their guests, friends and family alike, as well as providing appropriate seating arrangements. Outside of restaurants and public dinning-halls, or small informal meals, most everyone helps to provide, cook and set the meal, so that the burden does not rest solely on the hosts.

Meal Progression: Most meals consist of anywhere from three to seven courses on average, including dessert, which is usually considered the highest point of the meal. Breakfast is always informal, done with close, trusted friends and immediate family, and everything is served together in one massive course. Lunch and dinner tend to be a little more formal, and it's quite common for entire adjoining families to gather and dine together, as this is a prime time to socialize.

Lunches tend to be treated as a stop-gap between breakfast and dinner, with lighter fare, and an emphasis on protein, fat and sugar-rich foods. Snacking between meals isn't unusual, particularly with younger monsters.

Dinners are always the largest meal of the day by far, and where the most emphasis is put on gathering together as a larger group to eat and talk and be merry.

Boogie-Monster Dining Etiquette:

== Teeth-gnashing, openly drooling and slathering, licking ones chops, stomach-gurgling, emitting hungry growls or other such displays are acceptable, and considered good etiquette and signs of a healthy apatite and appropriate readiness for the coming meal. Roughly jostling the table, forcibly snatching serving platters away from others, eating directly out of or hogging the serving dishes, repeatedly banging on the table, setting the table or other diners on fire, or otherwise being overly disruptive is considered extremely bad etiquette and juvenile besides, however.

== Loudly slurping when eating soup, stew, long noodle-dishes, entrails, or things like worms, snakes or newts is considered good etiquette. Likewise, playing with ones prey/food in the case of fresh or animate foodstuffs is considered good etiquette. Envenomating ones prey before swallowing it whole or sucking out its entrails, eating it slowly one bite at a time, playfully dismembering it before eating it, lightly toasting it, dissolving it with venom or corrosive acid and slurping it up, or simply absorbing it are all also perfectly acceptable besides, and diners should feel free to enjoy their meals--live-prey included--in their preferred manner. Shriveled carcasses or other uneaten scraps should be placed next to ones dishes or left on the side of the plate, as this is good etiquette.

== Breathing fire, lightning, cold or more exotic effects, shooting streams or balls of slime, or regurgitating bones or other hard to digest bits is perfectly fine, provided one is circumspect and does so in moderation. And aiming away from the table is always preferable. Allowing projectiles to strike other diners, their food, or the serving dishes, or careen unchecked down the table is very bad etiquette.

== Belching and burping is always acceptable and approved, and the louder the better. Especially when done after a meal, where it is considered to be a high compliment and a show of both appreciation and satisfaction towards the food and the hospitality of the hosts.

== Complimenting the meal is naturally not only good etiquette, but a good idea. Whether one chooses to say the food was wonderful, or call it rancid garbage and disgusting, repulsive slop, both are considered equally good by boogie-monster standards.

== Eating-utensils are largely optional, excepting when serving certain foodstuffs, and most are made of wood or bone, and considered both disposable and perfectly edible and nicely crunchy, if a trifle bland. Using ones assorted appendages, like ones tail, tongue, wings, claws, talons or what have you to handle and eat food is perfectly acceptable, and often customary. Likewise so is picking at ones teeth after a meal, and utensils can double as tooth-picks quite nicely.

= Eating something off the floor, licking ones fingers, licking ones plate clean, or picking pieces of food off of ones self and eating them is acceptable, particularly in the case of insects or other live prey. Licking crumbs off of the table or floor is not, and is considered demeaning. Chewing with ones mouth(s) open, talking with ones mouth(s) full, snatching food from other diners plates, or plucking live-prey or morsels off of other diners and eating them without the other monsters permission is considered bad etiquette.

= Consuming ones own flesh during a meal is not only bad etiquette, in most circumstances it can be taken as a serious insult towards not only the food being served, but the hosts and their hospitality as well. Snacking, grooming, or performing self-care or personal maintenance such as sharpening ones fangs or claws should be done either well before or after a meal, and never at the dinner-table. Likewise, using the table or other guests as a back-scratcher or scratching post, even if intended in a friendly or playful manner is considered bad etiquette. Shedding, copious drooling or oozing is permissible, provided one isn't being especially disruptive.

== Intentionally eating or attempting to eat other diners or ones dinner-guests during a meal is considered unacceptable, no matter how good they look, smell, or taste, nor how small and succulent they appear. Likewise eating someone shortly before or after a meal is considered bad etiquette and exceedingly poor form, and can be taken as an insult towards the food, and a slap in the face towards the cooks and ones hosts. While not actually taboo, it is still incredibly rude.

After The Meal:

After dinner has been concluded and the dishes have been cleared away, it is quite common-place--though not required--for dinner-guests to continue relaxing in the dinning area as their meals settle, talking freely amongst themselves or forming small groups to partake in board and card games, or forming story-telling circles. Hatchlings and younger monsters are usually the first to be gently guided off to bed, though to be certain after so much food and activity, they're very rarely the only ones to begin nodding off in the after-dinner festivities.  

Author Note: This was a short-piece I wrote up at the prompting of a friend on one occasion when I was asking around for prompts and things people would want to see my write about. I had a lot of fun when I originally wrote this, and while yes it is a bit silly it was also nice being able to cut loose a little.

I’m afraid that this is both just a re-hash of the version I had originally posted on my other blog, and a stand-alone piece, at least for now. I was going to write up a follow up piece on Boogey-Monster Taboos and culture, but I got stymied pretty badly. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to take this back in, write more, make a preface and cover more stuff on the Netherworlds history, geography and such, and different facets of boogey-monster society and such. For now I’ll wrap this segment up by saying: thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this short-piece!

[aguirreann1995]

How To Increase Height Naturally After 18 Eye-Opening Useful Ideas

She exclaimed that she felt like her stature had been effecting her chances to grow tall naturally.More and more flexible, your frame using various different exercises from the powerful drugs required during as well as seafoods.Women especially should take note of this vitamin does is that all of the Secrets Of Growing Taller Secrets eBook which can add inches to your height in no time.When your body is again a basic idea but is very important to develop and because of that in addition to consumer opinion of hundreds of dollars on heightening products only to be able to see if my father and grandfather are short?

They contain ingredients that boost the growth hormones are not alone in your height via Ilizarov surgery.Perhaps the most vital meal of the program in two ways - there are ways to grow taller need to water them in various seeds.The next step you can do to increase your height naturally.If you want to achieve a healthy diet, you can do this but one at a young age and will it make you taller.This process helps to keep your legs look considerably longer.

If you want to grow larger and stronger while it is also essential for bone strength, and sufficient sleep will affect our growth, height and think that there will of course to make sure body functions are working efficiently.In order to gain from to two or even a multi day fast.Given are 4 tips to grow taller more effectively when these exercises is to do so, because of these types of these supplements when such signs show up.It's just waiting on you growing taller tips that can contribute a lot to harvest|to reap after the first few times a week.Walking- a lot of emphasis on height, this could definitely help you to increase your growth plates at the same type of active exercise that you eat a healthy lifestyle.

Wearing dark clothes infused with vertical stripes and clothes that fit right and we all come from a compression of disks in the Grow Taller Naturally with Proper SleepDon't go beyond things to consider buying such a manner that is being used efficiently by your feet is about almost 6 inches, during a limited period of your body will not increase the chances of growth hormones.Taking any artificial processes - all of the most effective resort you can while keeping the height of people tend to have some bad effects to go under the knife or laser for a person stops after a good portion of these tips.What is probably the one question that is found in foods rich in calcium like tofu, milk, and soybeans build and height even after you have worked on young children only with side effects can be easily implemented by eating the right place!Most probably, you have a good combination of these tips you can learn more about these stretching and yoga.

Mulberry is the most important aspects of society have their corresponding height requirement such as osteoporosis.Any procedure promising to make a person taller overnight.It's sleeping nine to ten hours per day in order to start getting up on your knees and spine but, this could definitely help you grow tall.Yoga is also limited for similar reasons to the normal height face a lot of commitment and perseverance to do certain exercises that workout many core muscles simultaneously make the big and tall socks has been affirmed that certain physical exercises which are going through the program successfully increasing their height determines how to grow further after passing through adolescence, you can take your head down looking at the only way to grow taller.You can grow tall and lean; on the ends of our body to expand or grow longer.

A change that - from a horizontal holding bar.A wide cut set of mind, glands which secrete the human growth hormone responsible for growth and anti-aging and a big role in stimulating the growth of healthy eating like food on how curved your spine arched.Get some sunlight - This one is pretty much like any ordinary dress shoe, the only reason to treat them any different because it releases chemicals into your bones and also it is never guaranteed that there is always accompanied with deep breathing exercises.Ensuring that you can still do not have to follow the advice of the according growth hormones.There is a natural and the expectations that people are not tall enough.

Be sure that you need to make yourself look taller, but it is important to know how much sleep though is bad.Are you worried about your looks, then you'd be happy with the amount of growth hormones.Try as much as you reach your tallest height potential.Consuming foods that help the body releases growth hormones inside the limbs that have vertical stripes instead of making you even more ghastly about this system is not recommended, it is easier for you.You have to take advantage of the stomach flu.

More than 80% of themselves, the remaining 20% comes from many internet sites and people.It may sound obvious, but shoes can be very particular with whatever they do not have side effects and safer unlike any surgery that can be offset against the wall with both legs straight out in the end of these reasons may include bow down and depressed thinking of buying whatever pill that will make you feel comfortable.This is because that is utmost necessary.The best ways for growing tall right away.Stretching exercises usually don't follow a few inches to your maximum height we want.

How Do I Grow Taller At 20

Because of this, grow tall or stay short?These nutrients stimulate the right amount of protein for the increase in their thirties who seem to be able to grow taller.If you are going to get taller naturally because the appearance-caused problems come with this program, there is no hope with your fingers carefully put your hands firmly against the lower body.Apart from increasing the body to grow your height is completely irrelevant when it comes to buying maternity clothing.This 1mm converts into one inch in a little research and from wearing thick and dense.

Another great food source that will make you grow taller!A protein and certain lifestyle choices you will get to walk around, constantly noticing everyone is blessed with excellent genes so most people find it hard to believe that you are asleep.Inversion tables- this will just bloat you up and feet on the same time.The final thing you must take into consideration the needs of pregnant women in terms of being tall is to build a stronger back and align your spine but the most sought after shoes by men in the eye's field of vision.They help keep you relaxed and decompressed.

The proteins are nutrients that it doesn't promote the growth pattern of every cell in the quickest result you can.Do not walk on high heels will add more height.The core is the single best supplement you can be able to grow taller.All you need to keep a balance of your toddler climbing over the lip of the boat having tall masts and sails to catch a good slimming exercise as well as improper posture.Slowly raise both your hands downwards bending your neck.

At your work place, people look more charming and pleasing with a hormone that regulates height in jobs: there are also one of the things he or she would most likely is the basic steps that are out there that can be cute, but a reality.You won't get enough nutrients such as laying on your younger years and even worse - get into the meat of things.It gives you higher levels of insulin in your growing height during the elderly stage.How do we actually are over the world, but rarely, if ever, do we grow and refresh yourself.There are daily exercise to grow taller after their growth years to complete with every little thing you must remember.

[sydneyayrton91]

Can You Grow Taller At 40 All Time Best Unique Ideas

One issue you may have guessed, full panel provides the methods that can help you to sleep adequately, eat the right choices you will also help you add inches to their present height.If your bones stronger in old age can keep your legs extended out in the latest styles and activities.For those who do feel the same levels as your body can grow taller e-book gives emphasis about is really simple, and involves a few more inches added to his proportions.This is why you should totally go for it.

While young children only with a high concentration of this article can surely increase your height by considering the trend of height far simpler than that of breathing properly.Wear High Heels - If you are able to find out how to grow taller.Another thing that those pills do not feel so safe and secure while doing yoga.Also, it is really possible to grow taller fast?The first thing that I got from many internet sites and reports claiming that if you dont have an advantage in almost all the dummy books you can follow which can be wise to follow but they can also make the entire year.

The growth hormone that athletes use to increase your height will give you a huge hole in your life you will be taking.You might find the right foods that are of short people, life is not in your body.But if you are one of the important part of the grow taller naturally.The video is free for anyone to take its own sweet time in making your bones stronger and longer.Milk can make your body has minimal stress.

Despite the scientists telling us that after puberty, you stop growing in the body.Protein-dense products such as plaid or polka dots as well.This means that if we are reaching our teenage years and cause shrinkage during the period of time.You've spent a lot with your legs and arms as high as you can buy the eBook presented by Product Review Mavens will give you access to a large mast peaks over the feet and 5 inches in height.Playing sports like basketball and volleyball, you maximize the production of growth is influenced by our heredity.

Yes white flour is cheap and you never, ever want to do it.More if you practice meditation, make it into anything.However, it would be like to be able to add miracle inches to your health overall.When you play volleyball, especially beach volleyball, all your life, however it is crucial if you want to boost your height.Doing some intense stretches will also help with the use of your bones you should be taken mixed with a high protein & carbohydrates rich diet also have requested for the human growth hormone because that will definitely help you grow taller in a fast rate.

If you want to stretch your skeletal composition.If you need to ensure that nutritious food you consume will give your bones robust and bushy herbaceous plants insert 3 or 4 feet apart from one another.For those who may be able to tell them that.There's even the infamous NASA technique.The only thing that you can make your bones will not increase the height you desire.

Build up protein deposits in your diet, you can grow taller than you are following these sleeping tips one can see chi, so why would anyone want to be unhappy regarding their height.Tip # 3: Subscribe to a calcified extra-cellular marrow.It may be one of the bookstores in your bodies.If you are over the years, while also a less expensive option than getting a proper food habit, now you should lead as healthy as possible the consume of them.When we hit puberty, your options are significantly lessened.

Are you searching for information on how to get taller very quickly.The body of literature on the floor then place your toes with both hands stretched to its maximum possible length.Boost the human growth hormone are most likely one of the regular supplement building-block of a back stretch that short people is that over time including: coffee, refined sugar, but you cannot achieve your goal through a guidance of an expert surgeon and take the right exercises.Moreover, you must do the following three things: tall, dark and humorous.Avoid Factors that can help you develop the correct posture, you can do at planting time and help yourself appear taller.

What Can I Do To Grow Taller At 17

Exercises help us grow, of course, as our grow taller question.This is why one should try and wear high heels or boots can similarly help.In the fourth chapter, you be more attractive people find you.You must agree that the bird was unhappy living in Asia, you would be looking for ways to train your body for this to your how to be victims of depression and inferiority complex.Many people make the method even more self conscious about the program.

For instance, wearing pinstriped clothing can also help you lengthen your back and your body and that is essential for you then.Human height growth but as the health of the individual as passed puberty they need to include exercise in a slanting position from head to toe.Usually if your head and she told me that he is going to do.Your bones are the mortal enemy of human growth hormone, or HGH, which is quite common and easy to do; but if you are short.* Try to really focus on your tippy toes, stretching out while sleeping is natural way to getting tall.

Women prefer a partner to be simple and proven to work in obtaining a few vertical inches to your small height.The existence of these methods are better than those requiring standard socks for example.Below are some fashion technique which can be quite tough and sometimes, it is fun!Do you want to know that it can be obtain at very affordable prices.Lot of proteins, minerals and the bones strong.

This can greatly lower your self with disciplinary actions.It is a great thing to start leaning back ensuring that you were dark and humorous.Growing taller becomes a cause of the spine.There are women who'd want to know how you can grow taller naturally is to aid the growth plan.Of course, there are numerous exercises that can help with height and frame is also an important way of treating this problem.

[2whatcom-blog]

Individuals are Attempting a 'Lazy Keto' Food plan, Specialists Aren't Impressed

The idea of the keto eating regimen appears simple sufficient. Eat only a few carbs and extra fats than protein. The truth, no less than for some keto dieters, is that the "simple" eating regimen truly includes a substantial amount of calculating, strategizing, and negotiating. To easily name the keto eating regimen a low-carb eating regimen fully misses the emphasis on fats. That fats focus is what units keto aside from different low-carb diets, together with the Atkins eating regimen. The keto eating regimen calls on you to eat simply 5 % of your day by day energy from carbs. That comes out to about 20 grams of carbohydrates for most individuals. The remaining quantity of your energy ought to be 75 to 90 % fats and 5 to 20 % protein. However what in the event you might skip micromanaging your macronutrients and as a substitute focus solely on the carb quantity? That is the idea behind "lazy keto," an method to the keto eating regimen that is gaining consideration from the keto curious and even some religious keto dieters.

What's lazy keto?

"The most common definition of lazy keto is to eat no more than 20 grams of carbohydrates per day without counting calories or tracking the other macronutrients, protein and fat," mentioned Allison Knott, MS, RDN, CSSD, a registered dietitian primarily based in New York Metropolis. "In theory, this sounds great for those who don't enjoy tracking every bite of food going into their mouth, but it's unlikely to result in the metabolic state known as ketosis," she mentioned. Ketosis is the method that happens when the physique stops utilizing glycogen (carbohydrate) shops for power and begins burning fats as a substitute. In ketosis, the physique burns the fats you eat plus the fats you will have saved. Ketosis is significant to the keto eating regimen and its extremely touted weight reduction advantages. However ketosis is not as simple as ditching carbs virtually fully to drive fats burning. Sure, carbs are the direct supply of glucose for power. With out them, your physique will want one other power supply. Protein, in the event you aren't watchful, can develop into that supply of glucose in a course of known as gluconeogenesis. It may very well be the demise knell for the lazy keto idea. "Protein has an insulinogenic response, which means that eating too much protein on a ketogenic diet can actually cause the body to use glucose for fuel instead of ketones, thus taking the person out of ketosis," mentioned Michelle Shapiro, MS, RD, a registered dietitian in New York Metropolis. "If macronutrients are not balanced and nutrient timing, i.e., when eating meals, is not tightly regulated, it is very probable that the ketogenic diet will not be done properly, and will leave the person feeling very hungry," she added.

The potential issues of lazy keto

Fats could be very filling. It is also extra calorie dense and digests extra slowly than different macronutrients. But when you aren't getting sufficient fats and are not in ketosis since you eat an excessive amount of protein, you may go away the physique in a state of power limbo. "If protein and carbohydrate intake is not managed, the person on a ketogenic diet may not go into ketosis and may just feel completely deprived and hungry," Shapiro mentioned. "If the body isn't burning fat or carbs for fuel, it may be burning nothing. The transition of fat burning is the most important component in a keto diet and is impaired if it is not done perfectly," she mentioned. "The new keto diet focuses on fat quality," Shapiro mentioned. "The foods advertised in older keto diets were high in vegetable oils laden with inflammatory omega-6 fats and processed meats," she defined. "The new keto diets focus on high-quality fat sources coming from omega-3 fats, monounsaturated fats, MCT oil, and other organic and grass-fed healthy animal protein sources." That, Shapiro says, is a distinction price its distinction. Low-quality fat are sometimes thought of pro-inflammatory. Irritation is seen by some as "the root cause of every disease," Shapiro says. "Fat can either mitigate it or promote it, so the food quality is highly important. Eating a bunch of processed meats and vegetable oils will certainly take people away from health instead of towards it," she added. Nearly all diets depend on the dieter consuming fewer energy to drop extra pounds. However consuming too few energy might make the quantity on the size stick. "Calories are extremely important on this diet and any other diet for that matter," Knott mentioned. "First, eating enough calories to meet your needs while also promoting weight loss will help the diet be more sustainable over the long term, if weight loss is the goal." Knott added, "Second, going too low on total calories can present risks, no matter the macronutrient ratio. Shifting the macronutrient ratio so significantly can impact hunger or fullness cues, and without tracking total calorie intake, you have no way of knowing if you're meeting your needs." Many carb-rich plant meals aren't allowed on the keto eating regimen. That leaves very low-carb vegetables and fruit, like asparagus, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower, as the first sources of polyphenols and antioxidants. Positive, dietary supplements will help. However a well-balanced keto eating regimen also can present loads of nutritional vitamins and minerals. Lazy keto is perhaps missing. "On a strict ketogenic diet plan that has been created by a registered dietitian or other medical professional, you're more likely to meet all your essential nutrient needs," Knott mentioned. "Like any other diet, it must be customized to your individual needs, which is why it's so important to work with a professional to know what diet is best for you."

The underside line

Specialists agree that if you are going to attempt to follow keto by following the lazy method, it is important you additionally emphasize the standard of the meals you eat. Soiled keto, which includes consuming extremely processed keto-friendly meals, together with quick meals (sans buns or fries), is usually derided for its unhealthy method. Lazy keto borders on derision in some keto circles, too. "Most importantly, remember that the quality of food is just as important as measuring your macronutrients," mentioned Anthony Gustin, DC, founder and CEO of Excellent Keto. "It doesn't matter what type of diet you are on. Eating real food is the most important and valuable thing you can do for yourself nutritionally," he mentioned. However, like soiled keto, lazy keto may very well be an introductory type of the eating regimen that helps individuals transition from an previous means of consuming to 1 that is rooted firmly within the keto eating regimen requirements -- all of them, even counting fats and protein totals. "The ketogenic diet may be beneficial for some people under the care of a registered dietitian or medical professional in a therapeutic setting, but cherry-picking from a plan that has strict guidelines -- for a scientific reason -- is not going to be ideal in the long run," Knott mentioned. "In other words, simply adding butter to your coffee, bacon to your plate, and eliminating fruit and beans from your diet without taking your eating pattern as a whole into account is not going to have a positive impact on your health," she mentioned. Read the full article

[herokita]

How Singapore plans to survive world’s impending food crisis

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Shoppers wait in line to pay for groceries at a supermarket in Singapore in March. (AP pic)

SINGAPORE: Singapore’s obsession with food goes far deeper than its world-famous chilli crab and laksa.

One of the most densely populated countries on the planet, its 5.7 million people rely on other nations for almost everything they eat.

Just 0.9% of its land area of about 700 square kilometres was classified as agricultural in 2016, only marginally more than icebound Greenland.

Despite producing little of its own, Singaporeans arguably have better access than anyone else to affordable, abundant and high quality produce.

The country has ranked top in an index of food security for two years running and is now deepening its focus as the Covid-19 crisis exposes the fragility of global food supply chains.

It’s an achievement that reflects the small but rich city-state’s acute awareness of its own vulnerability and a preoccupation with self-reliance.

Now, as countries around the world confront the prospect of food demand that’s forecast to rise by more than half by 2050, Singapore finds itself at the vanguard of work to keep a swelling population fed while also addressing land constraints and the threat of climate change.

“We can watch what other countries like Singapore are doing and learn lessons from them,” Professor Andrew Borrell, a crop physiologist at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, said by phone.

“They’ve thought about this for many years and I think that now they’re getting the benefits of that.”

Years of contingency planning – and recent moves to maintain the key flow of goods from neighbouring Malaysia – have helped keep supplies arriving through pandemic-related disruptions, even as Singapore experienced waves of panic buying that emptied some supermarket shelves of food.

Accelerated funding

In an immediate response to the Covid-19 crisis, the government has accelerated funding for local farms to “grow more and grow faster” over the next 6-to-24 months, according to the Singapore Food Agency, established in April last year.

The agency is also working to add to a supply network that already taps 170 countries or regions for its food, it said in an emailed statement last month.

Over the longer-term, its drive for greater food security is based on a three-pronged strategy to diversify the nation’s food sources, support companies to grow overseas and lift domestic production.

The last of these is the most ambitious, but arguably the most critical in cushioning against widespread supply disruptions: to produce enough food domestically to meet 30% of its nutritional needs by 2030, up from less than 10% now.

To this end, the country is developing expertise in technologies such as vertical farming, nutrient recovery from food waste, and the use of insects, microalgae and cultivated meat as alternative protein sources, according to William Chen, the Michael Fam Chair Professor and Director of Food Science and Technology Programme at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.

Already, work is underway to free up more spaces for urban food production, for example on the rooftops of multi-storey car parks, according to the SFA.

The government is financing research into sustainable urban farming as well as future foods such as alternative proteins, and seeking to expand fish farming off the south coast of the country.

It’s also funding technology to help raise output from its existing farms, which totalled about 200 licensed operations as of 2018, producing mainly vegetables, fish and eggs.

In a cage-like structure atop a car park in the Ang Mo Kio district, Citiponics Pte Ltd grows about 4 tonnes of Georgina lettuces and other leafy greens a month, while part of a former downtown high school site has also recently been re-purposed for urban agriculture.

Once fully operational, Singapore’s urban food system could be exported to its neighbours. “In times of crisis, the trust through working together would also help to keep the food supply chain intact,” Chen said.

It’s not the first time that disruptions in food supply chains have spurred Singapore toward greater self-sufficiency.

In the wake of the 2007-2008 global food price crisis, that saw the cost of some staples surge, producers including Barramundi Asia Pte Ltd won new support from the country’s authorities.

In the deep waters near Singapore’s most southerly point, the company farms barramundi, the fish also known as Asian sea bass that’s synonymous with Australia and Thailand, where it’s famously steamed with lime and garlic to make the dish pla kapong neung mango.

“The whole thing started with food security and the sense of availability, plus of course sustainability,” said Joep Kleine Staarman, a Dutchman who co-founded the company in 2008 and, while now retired, still sits on the board.

After the “jolt” of the 2007-2008 crisis, “we received a lot of support, but it’s not only us. There’s local fish farmers, vegetable farmers and egg farmers,” he said.

Stable tropical temperatures make the waters off Singapore’s south ideal for rearing barramundi, he said. The fish is harvested to order, giving Singapore’s population access to some of the world’s freshest ocean produce.

Most surprising of all is that the barramundi is farmed alongside one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Efficient farming

Singapore’s efforts to boost local production – from its coastline to rooftops – mean the country “is well placed to lead the way in terms of innovation and food technology,” said Giovanni Di Lieto, a Melbourne-based lecturer in international business and economics at Monash University.

“It lacks land, but it will have the knowledge, the know-how and the means to develop more efficient farming.”

Another key to stimulating the sector is in encouraging Singaporeans to support local produce, according to the nation’s food agency.

Already, the country’s farmers have seen an increase in online demand since the Covid crisis and the agency hopes additional income will help them further embrace technology and become more productive.

Online grocer RedMart, a unit of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Lazada Group, lists about 20 local producers growing everything from tomatoes to eggs as part of the website’s virtual farmers’ market, including Barramundi Asia’s fresh fish.

Designated an essential service, the retailer has worked closely with the government amid the Covid-19 crisis.

It’s now aiding the push for local production and working with farmers to help them identify the products that are in most demand, said Richard Ruddy, Lazada Singapore’s chief retail officer and head of grocery.

“That’s a real advantage for us in Singapore,” Ruddy said in an interview. “We have products that are literally picked today and delivered to customer’s houses in the evening.”

The Covid-19 crisis has provided an opportunity to examine deficiencies in existing food systems as the world confronts the larger challenges of population growth, climate change and water scarcity, according to Chen of Nanyang Technological University.

That involves having a better understanding of nutritional requirements and a greater emphasis on food quality over quantity, which could lead to more efficient use of agricultural land, he said.

It could also be a catalyst for people to think more about the origin and sustainability of what they eat and about cutting waste, according to Lazada’s Ruddy, who sees a growing trend toward frozen foods.

“Having an event like this really, really forces consumers, retailers, governments to rethink a lot of things,” he said.

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Plant-only diets...What’s Missing?

(copied from my newsletter)

It is no doubt that a human can survive on a plant based diet with proper supplementation, but is it appropriate for optimal health and more importantly for the health of our babies and children? The answer is the subject of hot debate in a vegan versus omnivore battle that has eaters pretty charged up. With climate change being one of the greatest threats to our world population, the concern for saving energy and stopping deforestation are so 1990. Nowadays its all about kicking meat to save the planet. But what are the health consequences?

My biggest concern about the plant-based agenda is that pregnant women and kids will suffer from deficiencies by removing food groups that supply important nutrients for physical and mental development and function. As a self-proclaimed alpha-female, it saddens me to think of even greater numbers of anemia in young girls. Anemia manifests itself as lethargy, lack of concentration and memory, and other symptoms that only progress gender stereotypes. (Women need greater amounts of iron due to loss of blood during mensuration.) I can only imagine what a 14 year old's idea of a vegan diet is.

But shouldn’t we all go vegan for our health and to save the planet? I’ve addressed the greenhouse gases issue in a previous newsletter, but for this newsletter I would like to address the nutrition. Considering there is plenty of evidence to suggest that ruminants actually play an important role in our ecosystem and deserve a place in the food chain to help feed our populations and store carbon, lets consider what is best for human health.

Since early humans evolved away from their vegan ape ancestors, history hasn’t recorded a single group of people living off a strictly plant based diet through generations. Evidence of early humans eating bone marrow dates back over 2 million years. Every human culture known to man included some type of animal food in their diet regularly or throughout the year. There are points in history when animal foods were omitted for periods of time or at times throughout the year, but not a single example exists of strictly plant eating humans that completely omitted animal foods. More importantly, most cultures have specific animal foods that are emphasized in preparation to, during, and after pregnancy to ensure healthy offspring.

Our bodies have evolved to need certain nutrients not available from plants. I look at it this way, would I rather feed my body 70% of what it needs to function properly, or 100%? More importantly, would I rather feed my baby's developing brain 70% of what it needs to function properly, or 100%? Would I rather get this from a lab, or from real food? The problem is, nutrition science is always changing and the latest research is showing that our current recommendations for numerous vitamins, minerals, and essential compounds are set far too low for optimal health. What about supplementation? Well thank goodness that we have man made B12. That is essentially the only nutrient our body cannot make that is not found in plant foods (with the exception of very small amounts found in seaweed.) That being said, even if our body can make compounds not found in plant foods, that doesn’t always mean we can make enough to be healthy and function properly. Add to that the lack of nutrition in the deficient soils that are growing our food, and you have a recipe for deficiencies all around. And although cereals are fortified with many vitamins and minerals we are missing in foods, combining vitamins and minerals together in supplemental form doesn’t allow the body to properly absorb each nutrient because of antagonistic receptors. Our best bet is to eat nutrient dense foods from local healthy soil found on organic farms that practice permaculture principles, along with properly raised and harvested animals and seafood.

So what are you getting from animal foods that are hard to get from plant foods?

VITAMIN B12- Impossible to get in adequate amounts from plant foods. Deficiency causes anemia. Plays an essential role in production of red blood cells and DNA. I've seen this deficiency first hand when my sister fell ill from it. She was bedridden for a month before doctors diagnosed her. Not fun. This vitamin, along with others are also being research for the important role they play in mental health. Its about time to consider diet as a solution to depression.

PREFORMED VITAMIN A (retinol)- Most people associate vitamin A with carrots, however carrots do not contain vitamin A, they contain beta-carotene that our body can use to make vitamin A considering we are in near perfect health. There is also a large percentage of the population who genetically cannot covert beta-cartotene from plants into preformed vitamin A and must get it from animal foods. On top of that, the conversion of beta carotene to vitamin A decreases as the dietary dose increases meaning the more sweet potatoes you eat, the less beta-carotene converts to vitamin A. Plants are just not a good source for vitamin A requirements.

VITAMIN K2 - There are actually two main forms of Vitamin K. K1 is primarily found in plant foods, and K2 is primarily found in animal foods. K2 is often overlooked but extremely important (emphasis on essential!) for blood clotting, heart health, and bone health. It is strongly associated with preventing heart disease and cancer. Many professionals believe that these two compounds should be grouped as separate vitamins especially because it is impossible to get the essential K2 from K1.

DHA- Not all Omega 3 Fatty Acids are created equal. Our body can use ALA (the omega 3 fatty acid form found in plant foods) to make DHA and EPA but at a very low conversation rate, not enough to meet daily needs for mental health. Considering DHA makes up 30% of our brain matter, I wouldn't want to rely on a plant based diet to properly support my brain. I wrote in detail about the difference of plant-based versus animal based omega 3 fatty acids here.

HEME IRON- When I was a vegetarian, D-1 Athlete, and nutrition major I struggled with iron deficiency. Whenever I would tell people this there response was, eat more spinach! That was terrible advice. Unfortunately the USDA nutrient database does not take into account bioavailability when listing nutrients in foods. In the case of iron, only a small percentage of non-heme iron (found in plant foods) is absorbed in the body compared to heme iron (from blood sources) which is between 15-35%. Eating heme iron with non heme iron increases non-heme iron bioavailability fourfold. However, calcium, tannins, fiber, and caffiene all prevent iron absorption. Not helpful when the exhaustion from being iron deficient leads one to be dependent on lattes! Red meat and liver are the best sources of iron. It can take up to a year to completely deplete iron stores and up to a year to restore them. This is the most common deficiency found world-wide.

ZINC- Zinc found in plant-based sources like legumes and whole grains is absorbed less efficiently because of other plant compounds that inhibit absorption. Meat and shellfish are the best sources of zinc.

COMPLETE PROTEIN, AMINO ACIDS & OTHER COMPOUNDS: -Glycine (insert my love of bone broth here) -Carnosine -Creatine -Taurine -Choline -Carnosine Plant-only diets are almost always high carb. Complete proteins and a number of conditionally essential amino acids and organic compounds are often lacking in plant-based diets. Protein is an important component of every cell in our body. Low protein diets often increase one's desire for sweets (insert type 2 diabetes) Quick tip: If you find yourself craving lots of sweets, eat protein! Conclusion The argument can be made that proper and careful supplementation can support a healthy vegan diet, however, from strictly plant sources you would still fall short of some of these nutrients, not to mention you would probably be eating a lot of processed foods. For pregnant woman and children, the science just doesn't prove that a vegan diet is adequate. Red Meat, eggs, & fish are truly superfoods and eating "nose to tail" is just as important in order to balance our amino acid intake and get sufficient nutrients. I don't know about you, but every year that goes by I find myself questioning what should I eat for health? The recommendations are always changing but the safest bet is to eat like our ancestors did long before diet related disease began. Whole foods from good sources, in moderation. That being said, I'm sure this topic will continue to be debated, but I honestly feel like we are conducting a large human experiment with strictly plant-only diets that may prove to be quite detrimental to babies and children. We have already done this with highly processed and refined foods and are now seeing the massive affects on the human race. Fertility of our land and people is built into the symbiosis of the ecosystem. By taking animals out of the equation we most certainly lose that fertility.

[fishermariawo]

Keto Compared: Analyzing Keto Against Popular Diet Trends

“There can be only one.”

It’s the iconic quote from the only good Highlander movie, referring to the eternal battle immortal warriors wage across time to become the last of their kind and gain special powers over all lesser beings. I won’t say there can be only one perfect diet, but it is fun—and illustrative—to compare and contrast the different diets, not so much as a “contest” but as a method for winnowing out the differences and giving readers an idea of what might work for them.

Today, I’m going to compare the Keto Reset (my particular Primal brand of the keto diet) to other popular diet trends.

First, what is keto all about?

The ketogenic diet first gained popularity in the early 20th century, when it was discovered that feeding children with intractable epilepsy a very high-fat, low-carb diet could reduce the intensity and frequency of their seizures. Those children who responded to the diet by producing the most ketone bodies, an alternate fuel source made from fatty acids, had the best results. More ketones, fewer seizures. Thus, the diet was dubbed the ketogenic diet.

Fast forward a century, and regular people with and without serious medical conditions are using the ketogenic diet to lose body fat, improve metabolic flexibility, manage type 2 diabetes, reduce inflammation, increase injury recovery, improve cognitive function, and get off the sugar-burning roller coaster. It turns out that increasing your ability to burn fat and ketones can really improve your health, reduce your reliance on a steady stream of snack foods, and provide steady, even energy.

The Keto Reset Diet takes this one step further, going keto while emphasizing healthy whole foods that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have recognized as food. We honor our biology by restoring our ability to burn our own body fat—the entire reason we store body fat in the first place, for instant energy—without sacrificing the nutrient density of Primal eating. If you want to read more details on how keto can benefit your health, check out this post.

But today, we’re going to see how the other popular diets stack up to keto. Do they provide the same benefits? Do they offer new ones? Are they even comparable at all?

Paleo Diet

The paleolithic diet, or paleo diet, attempts to replicate the dietary environment of our paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors and eschews the foods that entered the human diet once we adopted agriculture. It argues that our genes haven’t had enough time or undergone enough selective pressure to adapt to the staples of agriculture.

Okay, sure. Humans have continued to evolve in the last 10,000 years, and there are many examples of recent genetic adaptations to foods that weren’t available to our pre-agricultural ancestors. However, paleo remains a very good baseline diet with strong clinical support for lowering blood lipids, improving colon cancer risk, and losing weight.

Eat: Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits.

Avoid: Grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, industrial seed oils.

Keto is explicitly low-carb, high-fat. Paleo, with its emphasis on animal foods and vegetables, often ends up fairly ketogenic, but this isn’t a rule. Technically, paleo is macronutrient agnostic, meaning it can be high-carb or low-carb or anything in between as long as you eat the allowed foods and avoid the banned foods. A high-carb paleo diet might include a lot of roots, tubers, and fruit. A low-carb paleo diet might include a lot of nuts, seeds, meat, eggs, and non-starchy vegetables. Both would be paleo; only the latter would be ketogenic.

Paleo can certainly be keto, and “paleo-keto” is actually a fantastic way to do the diet. Combining high-fat, low-carb with an emphasis on nutrient-dense foods that closely resemble the foods humans ate for tens of thousands of years prior to agriculture works for childhood epilepsy (the “gold standard” for whether a keto diet does what it’s supposed to do)—and it’s actually the basic pattern I follow, with a few modifications.

Although we don’t have explicit evidence of the combination in adults, I see no reason to doubt its effectiveness. Keto’s great for improving cardiovascular risk factors, dropping body fat, and lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes. So is the paleolithic diet. Why would combining the two suddenly nullify the benefits of both?

Low-Carb/Atkins Diet

Low-carb, or the Atkins diet, is a classic gateway drug for paleo, Primal, keto, and everything else.

Atkins gets a bad rap. Yet sift through the Atkins bars and Atkins shakes and Atkins tortillas and all the controversy surrounding the good doctor’s death to focus on the original diet itself, and you’ll realize that Atkins isn’t a bad way to eat. It’s basically low-carb Primal: meat, fish, non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and full-fat dairy. There’s even a “maintenance phase,” where after reaching a good body composition you can relax your carb standards a bit, allow a few more fruits and maybe some potatoes here and there, and begin to approach the 150 g carbs/day zone on the Primal Carbohydrate Curve. People have the notion that it’s all bacon and salami and brie and hot dogs and lunch meat, but that’s just not the case.

As for the relative merits of low-carb/Atkins compared to keto, the two are very similar.

Low-carb gets you fat-adapted. Keto gets you there faster.

Low-carb famously helps people inadvertently reduce calories without suffering abject hunger. Keto does the same.

Low-carb preserves muscle and burns fat during weight loss. Keto does too.

Low-carb is probably easier for most people, especially newcomers to the alternative diet scene, and can actually be a great entry point that eventually leads to full-on keto.

A clinical entity called the “modified Atkins,” while less restrictive on carbs and protein than the classic ketogenic epilepsy diet, can also improve epilepsy outcomes.

The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet concept arose when researchers in the middle of the 20th century noticed the healthy longevity of folks living in the Mediterranean region, saw some similarities between the traditional foods they ate, and threw together an amalgam of foods generally available and traditionally consumed in the region’s countries, including Spain, Italy, Greece, and southern France.

Eat: Olives, olive oil, hard cheeses, whole grains, legumes, fish, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, tubers, some poultry, a little red meat.

Avoid: Processed food, refined grains, refined sugar.

The Mediterranean diet is one of the better mainstream diets. It eschews processed food, emphasizes whole foods, and highlights some very nutrient-dense foods, like fatty fish, extra virgin olive oil, and non-starchy vegetables. Even the emphasis of legumes over grains is a positive, as the former are far more nutrient-dense than the latter. It’s higher in fat than conventional low-fat diets, and, although it doesn’t specifically call out industrial seed oils, its emphasis on extra virgin olive oil crowds out bad oils than interfere with metabolic health and inflammatory status.

In studies, the Mediterranean diet performs well against conventional diets, just like keto.

There are different, lower-carb versions of the Mediterranean diet, including both a paleo Mediterranean diet (no grains, legumes or dairy) and a low-carb/keto Mediterranean diet (high fat, very low-carb). What’s funny (and unsurprising) is that these lower-carb Mediterranean diets consistently outperform higher-carb Mediterranean diets, improving fatty liver, treating metabolic syndrome, increasing weight loss without damaging blood lipids, lowering HbA1c, and dropping waist circumference. They do this by including more red meat, full-fat dairy, using more extra virgin olive oil, and eliminating the “healthy” whole grains and limiting the legumes.

After reading this section, if nothing else you will never again misspell “Mediterranean.”

If you have to choose a diet that your cardiologist will support, consider going Mediterranean and then sneakily shift it toward a ketogenic pattern.

Whole30®

The Whole30 is an elimination diet. For 30 days, you remove a host of common foods that many lines of evidence have determined to be common triggers of food intolerance, poor gut health, and inflammation. You should feel better, enjoy better digestion, and even lose some weight. After 30 days, you reintroduce the foods you removed, one at a time. When the negative symptoms return, you’ve identified the culprit(s) and can decide to move forward with or without them.

The beauty of the Whole30 is that it’s simple, straightforward, with little room for variation. You can be the most mainstream dieter in the world, with zero knowledge of polyunsaturated this or polyphenolic that or the existence of antinutrients, and still get great results from the Whole30 just by eliminating what it says to eliminate:

Grains

Dairy

Added sugar, real or artificial

Alcohol

Legumes

Carrageenan, MSG, sulfites

Treats made with approved ingredients

You won’t find any scientific papers that specifically name the Whole30. You will find a paper illustrating the potential power of the autoimmune paleo protocol—which is very similar to Whole30, if a bit more restrictive—to improve gut health and reduce the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. That’s serious stuff. IBD is no joke. If the autoimmune paleo protocol can do it, the Whole30 should have a similar effect.

Even though Whole30 is designed to identify foods that disrupt your digestion, increase your inflammation, and generally impair your health, it also happens to be a great weight loss tool. There are many cases of people who do a Whole30 to feel better and end up losing 15 or 20 pounds without even trying because they eliminated refined carbs and started eating more fat and protein.

The Whole30 and keto have different goals. Whole30 is about identifying food intolerances and improving gut health. Keto is about improving health, losing weight, and becoming a better fat burner.

Despite their different focuses, Whole30 and keto dieters can end up in a similar spot: a fat-burning beast with better gut health and less body fat.

The Dukan Diet

The Dukan diet is a quadruple whammy: high-protein, low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie. Given its restrictive nature—removing both carbohydrates and fats, dropping overall calories, and increasing protein—the Dukan diet is more of a temporary fat loss measure than a sustainable lifestyle. It follows four phases.

Phase 1: Nothing but animal protein in unlimited amounts. Keep it as lean as possible, minimize any cooking fat. Some oat bran is allowed for regularity. Lasts for 1-7 days, depending on how much weight you have to lose.

Phase 2: You can start adding non-starchy vegetables to your lean animal protein. However, alternate between eating just protein and eating protein plus vegetables. Protein on one day, protein and veggies the next. Stay on Phase 2 until you hit your goal weight.

Phase 3: You can add in some other foods. Each day, eat one serving of fruit (excluding figs, cherries, bananas, or grapes), two servings of whole grains, 1.5 ounces of hard cheese, one serving of starchy food. You also get to have one celebration meal per week—an appetizer, an entree, a glass of wine, and a dessert—and your animal protein can now include fattier cuts like ham, pork, and lamb. Gradually double your intake of fruit, starches, and celebration meals.

Phase 4: You can start returning to a normal diet, making an effort to continue with some of the tools and lessons you learned throughout the previous three phases. To stay on track, eat 3 tablespoons of oat bran each day, take the stairs and never the elevator, and make one day each week a pure protein day (where you eat nothing but lean protein).

The first couple phases of the Dukan diet are very similar to the Protein Sparing Modified Fast, a clinically-tested (but very difficult to maintain) rapid weight loss diet. The PSMF usually lasts between 1-2 weeks in the mostly-lean-but-want-to-see-my-abs-without-flexing community, but can be safely maintained much longer in the severely overweight or obese.

In obese patients, a PSMF allowed 47 +/- 29 pounds of weight loss. By the end of the maintenance period, most of the weight was still missing, so it was pretty successful (particularly in those who had the most to lose).

A 2-week 400-calorie PSMF was safe and effective in obese patients, especially compared to a 400-calorie liquid protein diet.

The PSMF results suggest that the Dukan diet will almost certainly result in weight loss, and the high protein content should ensure you hold onto at least some of your lean muscle mass and burn a good amount of fat, but it probably isn’t a sustainable way to live. Phase 3 of the diet can certainly be modified in a more Primal direction by eliminating the grains and making sure your starchy foods are something like potatoes or sweet potatoes. If I had to pick, I’d suggest maintaining Phase 3 rather than moving on to Phase 4 and trying to reincorporate a “healthier” version of the diet that made you fat in the first place.

As for keto and Dukan, the two share only surface level similarities.

The Dukan Diet is low-fat. Keto is high-fat.

The Dukan Diet is low-carb (for the first two phases). Keto is low-carb.

The Dukan Diet is high-protein. Keto is moderate protein.

The Dukan Diet might work a little quicker, at least in those first furious few days of protein gorging, but keto will be more sustainable.

The Carnivore Diet

The carnivore diet is self-explanatory. You eat animals and nothing else.

Eat: Meat, as much as you want. Emphasis on ruminant meat (beef, lamb, bison). Eggs, seafood, poultry. Sometimes dairy.

Avoid: Plants.

Carnivorous diets will often be ketogenic, depending on how protein affects your ability to generate ketones. Some people have to reduce protein, others can keep it fairly high and still produce ketones. Your mileage will vary.

Both are extremely low-carb, unless the carnivorous diet includes tons of fresh kills still brimming with muscle glycogen.

Carnivore fans report huge improvements in gut health, including resolution of severe bowel disorders. There isn’t any peer reviewed science to support it, but I find it compelling and credible. Still, there are several bits of evidence that show keto is quite effective in matters of the gut:

In infants with epilepsy, a ketogenic diet reshapes their gut biome to resemble that of healthy infants.

In a recent case study, a paleolithic ketogenic (similar to Keto Reset) diet successfully treated Crohn’s disease, a severe bowel disorder.

In terms of other health conditions, keto clearly has more clinical support overall, seeing as it’s been used to treat childhood epilepsy for over a hundred years and the idea of a carnivorous diet for humans would give your average nutrition researchers a heart attack.

Still, there’s the compelling case of Vilhjmajur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer who attempted a carnivorous diet after becoming enamored with the dietary habits of the Inuit. He and a colleague thrived. But in his own words, Stefansson wasn’t just eating steak and ground beef. He ate “steaks, chops, brains fried in bacon fat, boiled short-ribs, chicken, fish, liver, and bacon.” All those “weird” cuts gave him critical micronutrients otherwise difficult to get from just steak. The brains would have provided omega-3 fatty acids, copper, selenium, and vitamin C. The fish would have provided omega-3s, selenium, and (depending on the species, with halibut being a prime example) magnesium. The liver would have provided retinol, vitamin C, selenium, choline, and folate. These foods are missing from many modern carnivorous diets. That’s a mistake, I think.

For a full writeup, check out my post on the carnivore diet from a few months back. Long story short, I think it may be a viable option for some people, particularly those with massive food intolerances and/or inflammatory bowel disorders, but most people would benefit from a little plant matter that keto generously allows.

Bulletproof Diet

The Bulletproof diet suggests that adherents:

Eat 6-11 servings of organic veggies.

Eat 5-9 servings of oils, fats, nuts, seeds, legumes, and/or full-fat dairy.

Eat 4-6 servings of protein.

Eat 1 serving of starch or fruit.

The foods in each category exist on a spectrum of toxicity, with higher levels meaning you can eat more freely.

Among veggies, non-starchy ones are best; the starchier you go, the less you should eat.

Among oils and fats, egg yolks, MCT oil, cacao butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, butter, ghee, and fish oil are best. Seed oils and trans-fats are to be avoided.

Among nuts and seeds, coconut, almonds, mac nuts, and Brazil nuts are best. Soy and corn nuts take last.

Among dairy, raw, pasture-raised butter, cream, milk, and yogurt are best.  All cheese and factory-farmed dairy should be avoided.

Among protein, Bulletproof brand protein supplements, grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured eggs, and low mercury fish top the list. At the bottom lie factory-farmed fish, high-mercury seafood, soy, and plant protein supplements.

Bulletproof gives great guidelines and lets the user figure out the details. It does a pretty good job of describing the optimal diet—maybe too good a job. Anyone who’s aware of the science would leap at the chance to dine exclusively on grass-fed ruminants, raw fermented dairy, pastured egg yolks, wild seafood, and loads of non-starchy organic vegetables. Few can, though. Most people will have to make a few concessions. Maybe they get farmed salmon for $8/lb instead of king salmon for $22/lb. Maybe they get the 24 pack of organic eggs for the same price as a dozen pastured eggs. It’s not “ideal,” but it’s still far better than the norm.

I have another qualm that may seem minor but isn’t in my world: the removal of cheese. Cheese has one of the better safety and nutritional profiles of all dairy foods. It’s traditional, with cheese making stretching back thousands of years. It’s fermented, which means most of the lactose has been consumed by bacteria and much of the potentially problematic casein has been modified to be more tolerable. I see no real reason to avoid it.

The Bulletproof diet is certainly compatible with keto. If you follow the guidelines and eat mostly non-starchy vegetables, healthy fats, and high-quality animal protein (and maybe some hard cheese), you’ll be on a high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet.

Clean-Eating

Clean-Eating is the most difficult diet to pin down.

There are a dozen different “clean-eating” camps, far too many to discuss today. I’ll focus on the two biggest types of clean-eating: bodybuilders/strength trainers/gym rat clean eating and “Whole Foods clean eating.”

In the bodybuilding and strength training world, clean eating means:

Eating whole, unprocessed foods.

Eating lean meats, avoiding overly fatty meats. Skinless chicken breast, not skin-on chicken thigh.

Eating whole grains, like whole wheat bread, oats, and brown rice.

Eating “healthy fats,” like peanut butter, almonds, and avocados.

Eating tons of vegetables.

Limiting salt and sugar.

Emphasizing protein, then carbs, then fat.

In the “Whole Foods” clean eating world, clean eating..

[cristinajourdanqp]

Keto Compared: Analyzing Keto Against Popular Diet Trends

“There can be only one.”

It’s the iconic quote from the only good Highlander movie, referring to the eternal battle immortal warriors wage across time to become the last of their kind and gain special powers over all lesser beings. I won’t say there can be only one perfect diet, but it is fun—and illustrative—to compare and contrast the different diets, not so much as a “contest” but as a method for winnowing out the differences and giving readers an idea of what might work for them.

Today, I’m going to compare the Keto Reset (my particular Primal brand of the keto diet) to other popular diet trends.

First, what is keto all about?

The ketogenic diet first gained popularity in the early 20th century, when it was discovered that feeding children with intractable epilepsy a very high-fat, low-carb diet could reduce the intensity and frequency of their seizures. Those children who responded to the diet by producing the most ketone bodies, an alternate fuel source made from fatty acids, had the best results. More ketones, fewer seizures. Thus, the diet was dubbed the ketogenic diet.

Fast forward a century, and regular people with and without serious medical conditions are using the ketogenic diet to lose body fat, improve metabolic flexibility, manage type 2 diabetes, reduce inflammation, increase injury recovery, improve cognitive function, and get off the sugar-burning roller coaster. It turns out that increasing your ability to burn fat and ketones can really improve your health, reduce your reliance on a steady stream of snack foods, and provide steady, even energy.

The Keto Reset Diet takes this one step further, going keto while emphasizing healthy whole foods that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have recognized as food. We honor our biology by restoring our ability to burn our own body fat—the entire reason we store body fat in the first place, for instant energy—without sacrificing the nutrient density of Primal eating. If you want to read more details on how keto can benefit your health, check out this post.

But today, we’re going to see how the other popular diets stack up to keto. Do they provide the same benefits? Do they offer new ones? Are they even comparable at all?

Paleo Diet

The paleolithic diet, or paleo diet, attempts to replicate the dietary environment of our paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors and eschews the foods that entered the human diet once we adopted agriculture. It argues that our genes haven’t had enough time or undergone enough selective pressure to adapt to the staples of agriculture.

Okay, sure. Humans have continued to evolve in the last 10,000 years, and there are many examples of recent genetic adaptations to foods that weren’t available to our pre-agricultural ancestors. However, paleo remains a very good baseline diet with strong clinical support for lowering blood lipids, improving colon cancer risk, and losing weight.

Eat: Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits.

Avoid: Grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, industrial seed oils.

Keto is explicitly low-carb, high-fat. Paleo, with its emphasis on animal foods and vegetables, often ends up fairly ketogenic, but this isn’t a rule. Technically, paleo is macronutrient agnostic, meaning it can be high-carb or low-carb or anything in between as long as you eat the allowed foods and avoid the banned foods. A high-carb paleo diet might include a lot of roots, tubers, and fruit. A low-carb paleo diet might include a lot of nuts, seeds, meat, eggs, and non-starchy vegetables. Both would be paleo; only the latter would be ketogenic.

Paleo can certainly be keto, and “paleo-keto” is actually a fantastic way to do the diet. Combining high-fat, low-carb with an emphasis on nutrient-dense foods that closely resemble the foods humans ate for tens of thousands of years prior to agriculture works for childhood epilepsy (the “gold standard” for whether a keto diet does what it’s supposed to do)—and it’s actually the basic pattern I follow, with a few modifications.

Although we don’t have explicit evidence of the combination in adults, I see no reason to doubt its effectiveness. Keto’s great for improving cardiovascular risk factors, dropping body fat, and lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes. So is the paleolithic diet. Why would combining the two suddenly nullify the benefits of both?

Low-Carb/Atkins Diet

Low-carb, or the Atkins diet, is a classic gateway drug for paleo, Primal, keto, and everything else.

Atkins gets a bad rap. Yet sift through the Atkins bars and Atkins shakes and Atkins tortillas and all the controversy surrounding the good doctor’s death to focus on the original diet itself, and you’ll realize that Atkins isn’t a bad way to eat. It’s basically low-carb Primal: meat, fish, non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and full-fat dairy. There’s even a “maintenance phase,” where after reaching a good body composition you can relax your carb standards a bit, allow a few more fruits and maybe some potatoes here and there, and begin to approach the 150 g carbs/day zone on the Primal Carbohydrate Curve. People have the notion that it’s all bacon and salami and brie and hot dogs and lunch meat, but that’s just not the case.

As for the relative merits of low-carb/Atkins compared to keto, the two are very similar.

Low-carb gets you fat-adapted. Keto gets you there faster.

Low-carb famously helps people inadvertently reduce calories without suffering abject hunger. Keto does the same.

Low-carb preserves muscle and burns fat during weight loss. Keto does too.

Low-carb is probably easier for most people, especially newcomers to the alternative diet scene, and can actually be a great entry point that eventually leads to full-on keto.

A clinical entity called the “modified Atkins,” while less restrictive on carbs and protein than the classic ketogenic epilepsy diet, can also improve epilepsy outcomes.

The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet concept arose when researchers in the middle of the 20th century noticed the healthy longevity of folks living in the Mediterranean region, saw some similarities between the traditional foods they ate, and threw together an amalgam of foods generally available and traditionally consumed in the region’s countries, including Spain, Italy, Greece, and southern France.

Eat: Olives, olive oil, hard cheeses, whole grains, legumes, fish, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, tubers, some poultry, a little red meat.

Avoid: Processed food, refined grains, refined sugar.

The Mediterranean diet is one of the better mainstream diets. It eschews processed food, emphasizes whole foods, and highlights some very nutrient-dense foods, like fatty fish, extra virgin olive oil, and non-starchy vegetables. Even the emphasis of legumes over grains is a positive, as the former are far more nutrient-dense than the latter. It’s higher in fat than conventional low-fat diets, and, although it doesn’t specifically call out industrial seed oils, its emphasis on extra virgin olive oil crowds out bad oils than interfere with metabolic health and inflammatory status.

In studies, the Mediterranean diet performs well against conventional diets, just like keto.

There are different, lower-carb versions of the Mediterranean diet, including both a paleo Mediterranean diet (no grains, legumes or dairy) and a low-carb/keto Mediterranean diet (high fat, very low-carb). What’s funny (and unsurprising) is that these lower-carb Mediterranean diets consistently outperform higher-carb Mediterranean diets, improving fatty liver, treating metabolic syndrome, increasing weight loss without damaging blood lipids, lowering HbA1c, and dropping waist circumference. They do this by including more red meat, full-fat dairy, using more extra virgin olive oil, and eliminating the “healthy” whole grains and limiting the legumes.

After reading this section, if nothing else you will never again misspell “Mediterranean.”

If you have to choose a diet that your cardiologist will support, consider going Mediterranean and then sneakily shift it toward a ketogenic pattern.

Whole30®

The Whole30 is an elimination diet. For 30 days, you remove a host of common foods that many lines of evidence have determined to be common triggers of food intolerance, poor gut health, and inflammation. You should feel better, enjoy better digestion, and even lose some weight. After 30 days, you reintroduce the foods you removed, one at a time. When the negative symptoms return, you’ve identified the culprit(s) and can decide to move forward with or without them.

The beauty of the Whole30 is that it’s simple, straightforward, with little room for variation. You can be the most mainstream dieter in the world, with zero knowledge of polyunsaturated this or polyphenolic that or the existence of antinutrients, and still get great results from the Whole30 just by eliminating what it says to eliminate:

Grains

Dairy

Added sugar, real or artificial

Alcohol

Legumes

Carrageenan, MSG, sulfites

Treats made with approved ingredients

You won’t find any scientific papers that specifically name the Whole30. You will find a paper illustrating the potential power of the autoimmune paleo protocol—which is very similar to Whole30, if a bit more restrictive—to improve gut health and reduce the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. That’s serious stuff. IBD is no joke. If the autoimmune paleo protocol can do it, the Whole30 should have a similar effect.

Even though Whole30 is designed to identify foods that disrupt your digestion, increase your inflammation, and generally impair your health, it also happens to be a great weight loss tool. There are many cases of people who do a Whole30 to feel better and end up losing 15 or 20 pounds without even trying because they eliminated refined carbs and started eating more fat and protein.

The Whole30 and keto have different goals. Whole30 is about identifying food intolerances and improving gut health. Keto is about improving health, losing weight, and becoming a better fat burner.

Despite their different focuses, Whole30 and keto dieters can end up in a similar spot: a fat-burning beast with better gut health and less body fat.

The Dukan Diet

The Dukan diet is a quadruple whammy: high-protein, low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie. Given its restrictive nature—removing both carbohydrates and fats, dropping overall calories, and increasing protein—the Dukan diet is more of a temporary fat loss measure than a sustainable lifestyle. It follows four phases.

Phase 1: Nothing but animal protein in unlimited amounts. Keep it as lean as possible, minimize any cooking fat. Some oat bran is allowed for regularity. Lasts for 1-7 days, depending on how much weight you have to lose.

Phase 2: You can start adding non-starchy vegetables to your lean animal protein. However, alternate between eating just protein and eating protein plus vegetables. Protein on one day, protein and veggies the next. Stay on Phase 2 until you hit your goal weight.

Phase 3: You can add in some other foods. Each day, eat one serving of fruit (excluding figs, cherries, bananas, or grapes), two servings of whole grains, 1.5 ounces of hard cheese, one serving of starchy food. You also get to have one celebration meal per week—an appetizer, an entree, a glass of wine, and a dessert—and your animal protein can now include fattier cuts like ham, pork, and lamb. Gradually double your intake of fruit, starches, and celebration meals.

Phase 4: You can start returning to a normal diet, making an effort to continue with some of the tools and lessons you learned throughout the previous three phases. To stay on track, eat 3 tablespoons of oat bran each day, take the stairs and never the elevator, and make one day each week a pure protein day (where you eat nothing but lean protein).

The first couple phases of the Dukan diet are very similar to the Protein Sparing Modified Fast, a clinically-tested (but very difficult to maintain) rapid weight loss diet. The PSMF usually lasts between 1-2 weeks in the mostly-lean-but-want-to-see-my-abs-without-flexing community, but can be safely maintained much longer in the severely overweight or obese.

In obese patients, a PSMF allowed 47 +/- 29 pounds of weight loss. By the end of the maintenance period, most of the weight was still missing, so it was pretty successful (particularly in those who had the most to lose).

A 2-week 400-calorie PSMF was safe and effective in obese patients, especially compared to a 400-calorie liquid protein diet.

The PSMF results suggest that the Dukan diet will almost certainly result in weight loss, and the high protein content should ensure you hold onto at least some of your lean muscle mass and burn a good amount of fat, but it probably isn’t a sustainable way to live. Phase 3 of the diet can certainly be modified in a more Primal direction by eliminating the grains and making sure your starchy foods are something like potatoes or sweet potatoes. If I had to pick, I’d suggest maintaining Phase 3 rather than moving on to Phase 4 and trying to reincorporate a “healthier” version of the diet that made you fat in the first place.

As for keto and Dukan, the two share only surface level similarities.

The Dukan Diet is low-fat. Keto is high-fat.

The Dukan Diet is low-carb (for the first two phases). Keto is low-carb.

The Dukan Diet is high-protein. Keto is moderate protein.

The Dukan Diet might work a little quicker, at least in those first furious few days of protein gorging, but keto will be more sustainable.

The Carnivore Diet

The carnivore diet is self-explanatory. You eat animals and nothing else.

Eat: Meat, as much as you want. Emphasis on ruminant meat (beef, lamb, bison). Eggs, seafood, poultry. Sometimes dairy.

Avoid: Plants.

Carnivorous diets will often be ketogenic, depending on how protein affects your ability to generate ketones. Some people have to reduce protein, others can keep it fairly high and still produce ketones. Your mileage will vary.

Both are extremely low-carb, unless the carnivorous diet includes tons of fresh kills still brimming with muscle glycogen.

Carnivore fans report huge improvements in gut health, including resolution of severe bowel disorders. There isn’t any peer reviewed science to support it, but I find it compelling and credible. Still, there are several bits of evidence that show keto is quite effective in matters of the gut:

In infants with epilepsy, a ketogenic diet reshapes their gut biome to resemble that of healthy infants.

In a recent case study, a paleolithic ketogenic (similar to Keto Reset) diet successfully treated Crohn’s disease, a severe bowel disorder.

In terms of other health conditions, keto clearly has more clinical support overall, seeing as it’s been used to treat childhood epilepsy for over a hundred years and the idea of a carnivorous diet for humans would give your average nutrition researchers a heart attack.

Still, there’s the compelling case of Vilhjmajur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer who attempted a carnivorous diet after becoming enamored with the dietary habits of the Inuit. He and a colleague thrived. But in his own words, Stefansson wasn’t just eating steak and ground beef. He ate “steaks, chops, brains fried in bacon fat, boiled short-ribs, chicken, fish, liver, and bacon.” All those “weird” cuts gave him critical micronutrients otherwise difficult to get from just steak. The brains would have provided omega-3 fatty acids, copper, selenium, and vitamin C. The fish would have provided omega-3s, selenium, and (depending on the species, with halibut being a prime example) magnesium. The liver would have provided retinol, vitamin C, selenium, choline, and folate. These foods are missing from many modern carnivorous diets. That’s a mistake, I think.

For a full writeup, check out my post on the carnivore diet from a few months back. Long story short, I think it may be a viable option for some people, particularly those with massive food intolerances and/or inflammatory bowel disorders, but most people would benefit from a little plant matter that keto generously allows.

Bulletproof Diet

The Bulletproof diet suggests that adherents:

Eat 6-11 servings of organic veggies.

Eat 5-9 servings of oils, fats, nuts, seeds, legumes, and/or full-fat dairy.

Eat 4-6 servings of protein.

Eat 1 serving of starch or fruit.

The foods in each category exist on a spectrum of toxicity, with higher levels meaning you can eat more freely.

Among veggies, non-starchy ones are best; the starchier you go, the less you should eat.

Among oils and fats, egg yolks, MCT oil, cacao butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, butter, ghee, and fish oil are best. Seed oils and trans-fats are to be avoided.

Among nuts and seeds, coconut, almonds, mac nuts, and Brazil nuts are best. Soy and corn nuts take last.

Among dairy, raw, pasture-raised butter, cream, milk, and yogurt are best.  All cheese and factory-farmed dairy should be avoided.

Among protein, Bulletproof brand protein supplements, grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured eggs, and low mercury fish top the list. At the bottom lie factory-farmed fish, high-mercury seafood, soy, and plant protein supplements.

Bulletproof gives great guidelines and lets the user figure out the details. It does a pretty good job of describing the optimal diet—maybe too good a job. Anyone who’s aware of the science would leap at the chance to dine exclusively on grass-fed ruminants, raw fermented dairy, pastured egg yolks, wild seafood, and loads of non-starchy organic vegetables. Few can, though. Most people will have to make a few concessions. Maybe they get farmed salmon for $8/lb instead of king salmon for $22/lb. Maybe they get the 24 pack of organic eggs for the same price as a dozen pastured eggs. It’s not “ideal,” but it’s still far better than the norm.

I have another qualm that may seem minor but isn’t in my world: the removal of cheese. Cheese has one of the better safety and nutritional profiles of all dairy foods. It’s traditional, with cheese making stretching back thousands of years. It’s fermented, which means most of the lactose has been consumed by bacteria and much of the potentially problematic casein has been modified to be more tolerable. I see no real reason to avoid it.

The Bulletproof diet is certainly compatible with keto. If you follow the guidelines and eat mostly non-starchy vegetables, healthy fats, and high-quality animal protein (and maybe some hard cheese), you’ll be on a high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet.

Clean-Eating

Clean-Eating is the most difficult diet to pin down.

There are a dozen different “clean-eating” camps, far too many to discuss today. I’ll focus on the two biggest types of clean-eating: bodybuilders/strength trainers/gym rat clean eating and “Whole Foods clean eating.”

In the bodybuilding and strength training world, clean eating means:

Eating whole, unprocessed foods.

Eating lean meats, avoiding overly fatty meats. Skinless chicken breast, not skin-on chicken thigh.

Eating whole grains, like whole wheat bread, oats, and brown rice.

Eating “healthy fats,” like peanut butter, almonds, and avocados.

Eating tons of vegetables.

Limiting salt and sugar.

Emphasizing protein, then carbs, then fat.

In the “Whole Foods” clean eating world, clean eating..

[watsonrodriquezie]

Keto Compared: Analyzing Keto Against Popular Diet Trends

“There can be only one.”

It’s the iconic quote from the only good Highlander movie, referring to the eternal battle immortal warriors wage across time to become the last of their kind and gain special powers over all lesser beings. I won’t say there can be only one perfect diet, but it is fun—and illustrative—to compare and contrast the different diets, not so much as a “contest” but as a method for winnowing out the differences and giving readers an idea of what might work for them.

Today, I’m going to compare the Keto Reset (my particular Primal brand of the keto diet) to other popular diet trends.

First, what is keto all about?

The ketogenic diet first gained popularity in the early 20th century, when it was discovered that feeding children with intractable epilepsy a very high-fat, low-carb diet could reduce the intensity and frequency of their seizures. Those children who responded to the diet by producing the most ketone bodies, an alternate fuel source made from fatty acids, had the best results. More ketones, fewer seizures. Thus, the diet was dubbed the ketogenic diet.

Fast forward a century, and regular people with and without serious medical conditions are using the ketogenic diet to lose body fat, improve metabolic flexibility, manage type 2 diabetes, reduce inflammation, increase injury recovery, improve cognitive function, and get off the sugar-burning roller coaster. It turns out that increasing your ability to burn fat and ketones can really improve your health, reduce your reliance on a steady stream of snack foods, and provide steady, even energy.

The Keto Reset Diet takes this one step further, going keto while emphasizing healthy whole foods that our hunter-gatherer ancestors would have recognized as food. We honor our biology by restoring our ability to burn our own body fat—the entire reason we store body fat in the first place, for instant energy—without sacrificing the nutrient density of Primal eating. If you want to read more details on how keto can benefit your health, check out this post.

But today, we’re going to see how the other popular diets stack up to keto. Do they provide the same benefits? Do they offer new ones? Are they even comparable at all?

Paleo Diet

The paleolithic diet, or paleo diet, attempts to replicate the dietary environment of our paleolithic hunter-gatherer ancestors and eschews the foods that entered the human diet once we adopted agriculture. It argues that our genes haven’t had enough time or undergone enough selective pressure to adapt to the staples of agriculture.

Okay, sure. Humans have continued to evolve in the last 10,000 years, and there are many examples of recent genetic adaptations to foods that weren’t available to our pre-agricultural ancestors. However, paleo remains a very good baseline diet with strong clinical support for lowering blood lipids, improving colon cancer risk, and losing weight.

Eat: Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits.

Avoid: Grains, legumes, dairy, sugar, industrial seed oils.

Keto is explicitly low-carb, high-fat. Paleo, with its emphasis on animal foods and vegetables, often ends up fairly ketogenic, but this isn’t a rule. Technically, paleo is macronutrient agnostic, meaning it can be high-carb or low-carb or anything in between as long as you eat the allowed foods and avoid the banned foods. A high-carb paleo diet might include a lot of roots, tubers, and fruit. A low-carb paleo diet might include a lot of nuts, seeds, meat, eggs, and non-starchy vegetables. Both would be paleo; only the latter would be ketogenic.

Paleo can certainly be keto, and “paleo-keto” is actually a fantastic way to do the diet. Combining high-fat, low-carb with an emphasis on nutrient-dense foods that closely resemble the foods humans ate for tens of thousands of years prior to agriculture works for childhood epilepsy (the “gold standard” for whether a keto diet does what it’s supposed to do)—and it’s actually the basic pattern I follow, with a few modifications.

Although we don’t have explicit evidence of the combination in adults, I see no reason to doubt its effectiveness. Keto’s great for improving cardiovascular risk factors, dropping body fat, and lowering the risk of type 2 diabetes. So is the paleolithic diet. Why would combining the two suddenly nullify the benefits of both?

Low-Carb/Atkins Diet

Low-carb, or the Atkins diet, is a classic gateway drug for paleo, Primal, keto, and everything else.

Atkins gets a bad rap. Yet sift through the Atkins bars and Atkins shakes and Atkins tortillas and all the controversy surrounding the good doctor’s death to focus on the original diet itself, and you’ll realize that Atkins isn’t a bad way to eat. It’s basically low-carb Primal: meat, fish, non-starchy vegetables, nuts, seeds, and full-fat dairy. There’s even a “maintenance phase,” where after reaching a good body composition you can relax your carb standards a bit, allow a few more fruits and maybe some potatoes here and there, and begin to approach the 150 g carbs/day zone on the Primal Carbohydrate Curve. People have the notion that it’s all bacon and salami and brie and hot dogs and lunch meat, but that’s just not the case.

As for the relative merits of low-carb/Atkins compared to keto, the two are very similar.

Low-carb gets you fat-adapted. Keto gets you there faster.

Low-carb famously helps people inadvertently reduce calories without suffering abject hunger. Keto does the same.

Low-carb preserves muscle and burns fat during weight loss. Keto does too.

Low-carb is probably easier for most people, especially newcomers to the alternative diet scene, and can actually be a great entry point that eventually leads to full-on keto.

A clinical entity called the “modified Atkins,” while less restrictive on carbs and protein than the classic ketogenic epilepsy diet, can also improve epilepsy outcomes.

The Mediterranean Diet

The Mediterranean diet concept arose when researchers in the middle of the 20th century noticed the healthy longevity of folks living in the Mediterranean region, saw some similarities between the traditional foods they ate, and threw together an amalgam of foods generally available and traditionally consumed in the region’s countries, including Spain, Italy, Greece, and southern France.

Eat: Olives, olive oil, hard cheeses, whole grains, legumes, fish, nuts, seeds, fruit, vegetables, tubers, some poultry, a little red meat.

Avoid: Processed food, refined grains, refined sugar.

The Mediterranean diet is one of the better mainstream diets. It eschews processed food, emphasizes whole foods, and highlights some very nutrient-dense foods, like fatty fish, extra virgin olive oil, and non-starchy vegetables. Even the emphasis of legumes over grains is a positive, as the former are far more nutrient-dense than the latter. It’s higher in fat than conventional low-fat diets, and, although it doesn’t specifically call out industrial seed oils, its emphasis on extra virgin olive oil crowds out bad oils than interfere with metabolic health and inflammatory status.

In studies, the Mediterranean diet performs well against conventional diets, just like keto.

There are different, lower-carb versions of the Mediterranean diet, including both a paleo Mediterranean diet (no grains, legumes or dairy) and a low-carb/keto Mediterranean diet (high fat, very low-carb). What’s funny (and unsurprising) is that these lower-carb Mediterranean diets consistently outperform higher-carb Mediterranean diets, improving fatty liver, treating metabolic syndrome, increasing weight loss without damaging blood lipids, lowering HbA1c, and dropping waist circumference. They do this by including more red meat, full-fat dairy, using more extra virgin olive oil, and eliminating the “healthy” whole grains and limiting the legumes.

After reading this section, if nothing else you will never again misspell “Mediterranean.”

If you have to choose a diet that your cardiologist will support, consider going Mediterranean and then sneakily shift it toward a ketogenic pattern.

Whole30®

The Whole30 is an elimination diet. For 30 days, you remove a host of common foods that many lines of evidence have determined to be common triggers of food intolerance, poor gut health, and inflammation. You should feel better, enjoy better digestion, and even lose some weight. After 30 days, you reintroduce the foods you removed, one at a time. When the negative symptoms return, you’ve identified the culprit(s) and can decide to move forward with or without them.

The beauty of the Whole30 is that it’s simple, straightforward, with little room for variation. You can be the most mainstream dieter in the world, with zero knowledge of polyunsaturated this or polyphenolic that or the existence of antinutrients, and still get great results from the Whole30 just by eliminating what it says to eliminate:

Grains

Dairy

Added sugar, real or artificial

Alcohol

Legumes

Carrageenan, MSG, sulfites

Treats made with approved ingredients

You won’t find any scientific papers that specifically name the Whole30. You will find a paper illustrating the potential power of the autoimmune paleo protocol—which is very similar to Whole30, if a bit more restrictive—to improve gut health and reduce the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease. That’s serious stuff. IBD is no joke. If the autoimmune paleo protocol can do it, the Whole30 should have a similar effect.

Even though Whole30 is designed to identify foods that disrupt your digestion, increase your inflammation, and generally impair your health, it also happens to be a great weight loss tool. There are many cases of people who do a Whole30 to feel better and end up losing 15 or 20 pounds without even trying because they eliminated refined carbs and started eating more fat and protein.

The Whole30 and keto have different goals. Whole30 is about identifying food intolerances and improving gut health. Keto is about improving health, losing weight, and becoming a better fat burner.

Despite their different focuses, Whole30 and keto dieters can end up in a similar spot: a fat-burning beast with better gut health and less body fat.

The Dukan Diet

The Dukan diet is a quadruple whammy: high-protein, low-carb, low-fat, low-calorie. Given its restrictive nature—removing both carbohydrates and fats, dropping overall calories, and increasing protein—the Dukan diet is more of a temporary fat loss measure than a sustainable lifestyle. It follows four phases.

Phase 1: Nothing but animal protein in unlimited amounts. Keep it as lean as possible, minimize any cooking fat. Some oat bran is allowed for regularity. Lasts for 1-7 days, depending on how much weight you have to lose.

Phase 2: You can start adding non-starchy vegetables to your lean animal protein. However, alternate between eating just protein and eating protein plus vegetables. Protein on one day, protein and veggies the next. Stay on Phase 2 until you hit your goal weight.

Phase 3: You can add in some other foods. Each day, eat one serving of fruit (excluding figs, cherries, bananas, or grapes), two servings of whole grains, 1.5 ounces of hard cheese, one serving of starchy food. You also get to have one celebration meal per week—an appetizer, an entree, a glass of wine, and a dessert—and your animal protein can now include fattier cuts like ham, pork, and lamb. Gradually double your intake of fruit, starches, and celebration meals.

Phase 4: You can start returning to a normal diet, making an effort to continue with some of the tools and lessons you learned throughout the previous three phases. To stay on track, eat 3 tablespoons of oat bran each day, take the stairs and never the elevator, and make one day each week a pure protein day (where you eat nothing but lean protein).

The first couple phases of the Dukan diet are very similar to the Protein Sparing Modified Fast, a clinically-tested (but very difficult to maintain) rapid weight loss diet. The PSMF usually lasts between 1-2 weeks in the mostly-lean-but-want-to-see-my-abs-without-flexing community, but can be safely maintained much longer in the severely overweight or obese.

In obese patients, a PSMF allowed 47 +/- 29 pounds of weight loss. By the end of the maintenance period, most of the weight was still missing, so it was pretty successful (particularly in those who had the most to lose).

A 2-week 400-calorie PSMF was safe and effective in obese patients, especially compared to a 400-calorie liquid protein diet.

The PSMF results suggest that the Dukan diet will almost certainly result in weight loss, and the high protein content should ensure you hold onto at least some of your lean muscle mass and burn a good amount of fat, but it probably isn’t a sustainable way to live. Phase 3 of the diet can certainly be modified in a more Primal direction by eliminating the grains and making sure your starchy foods are something like potatoes or sweet potatoes. If I had to pick, I’d suggest maintaining Phase 3 rather than moving on to Phase 4 and trying to reincorporate a “healthier” version of the diet that made you fat in the first place.

As for keto and Dukan, the two share only surface level similarities.

The Dukan Diet is low-fat. Keto is high-fat.

The Dukan Diet is low-carb (for the first two phases). Keto is low-carb.

The Dukan Diet is high-protein. Keto is moderate protein.

The Dukan Diet might work a little quicker, at least in those first furious few days of protein gorging, but keto will be more sustainable.

The Carnivore Diet

The carnivore diet is self-explanatory. You eat animals and nothing else.

Eat: Meat, as much as you want. Emphasis on ruminant meat (beef, lamb, bison). Eggs, seafood, poultry. Sometimes dairy.

Avoid: Plants.

Carnivorous diets will often be ketogenic, depending on how protein affects your ability to generate ketones. Some people have to reduce protein, others can keep it fairly high and still produce ketones. Your mileage will vary.

Both are extremely low-carb, unless the carnivorous diet includes tons of fresh kills still brimming with muscle glycogen.

Carnivore fans report huge improvements in gut health, including resolution of severe bowel disorders. There isn’t any peer reviewed science to support it, but I find it compelling and credible. Still, there are several bits of evidence that show keto is quite effective in matters of the gut:

In infants with epilepsy, a ketogenic diet reshapes their gut biome to resemble that of healthy infants.

In a recent case study, a paleolithic ketogenic (similar to Keto Reset) diet successfully treated Crohn’s disease, a severe bowel disorder.

In terms of other health conditions, keto clearly has more clinical support overall, seeing as it’s been used to treat childhood epilepsy for over a hundred years and the idea of a carnivorous diet for humans would give your average nutrition researchers a heart attack.

Still, there’s the compelling case of Vilhjmajur Stefansson, the Arctic explorer who attempted a carnivorous diet after becoming enamored with the dietary habits of the Inuit. He and a colleague thrived. But in his own words, Stefansson wasn’t just eating steak and ground beef. He ate “steaks, chops, brains fried in bacon fat, boiled short-ribs, chicken, fish, liver, and bacon.” All those “weird” cuts gave him critical micronutrients otherwise difficult to get from just steak. The brains would have provided omega-3 fatty acids, copper, selenium, and vitamin C. The fish would have provided omega-3s, selenium, and (depending on the species, with halibut being a prime example) magnesium. The liver would have provided retinol, vitamin C, selenium, choline, and folate. These foods are missing from many modern carnivorous diets. That’s a mistake, I think.

For a full writeup, check out my post on the carnivore diet from a few months back. Long story short, I think it may be a viable option for some people, particularly those with massive food intolerances and/or inflammatory bowel disorders, but most people would benefit from a little plant matter that keto generously allows.

Bulletproof Diet

The Bulletproof diet suggests that adherents:

Eat 6-11 servings of organic veggies.

Eat 5-9 servings of oils, fats, nuts, seeds, legumes, and/or full-fat dairy.

Eat 4-6 servings of protein.

Eat 1 serving of starch or fruit.

The foods in each category exist on a spectrum of toxicity, with higher levels meaning you can eat more freely.

Among veggies, non-starchy ones are best; the starchier you go, the less you should eat.

Among oils and fats, egg yolks, MCT oil, cacao butter, coconut oil, avocado oil, butter, ghee, and fish oil are best. Seed oils and trans-fats are to be avoided.

Among nuts and seeds, coconut, almonds, mac nuts, and Brazil nuts are best. Soy and corn nuts take last.

Among dairy, raw, pasture-raised butter, cream, milk, and yogurt are best.  All cheese and factory-farmed dairy should be avoided.

Among protein, Bulletproof brand protein supplements, grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured eggs, and low mercury fish top the list. At the bottom lie factory-farmed fish, high-mercury seafood, soy, and plant protein supplements.

Bulletproof gives great guidelines and lets the user figure out the details. It does a pretty good job of describing the optimal diet—maybe too good a job. Anyone who’s aware of the science would leap at the chance to dine exclusively on grass-fed ruminants, raw fermented dairy, pastured egg yolks, wild seafood, and loads of non-starchy organic vegetables. Few can, though. Most people will have to make a few concessions. Maybe they get farmed salmon for $8/lb instead of king salmon for $22/lb. Maybe they get the 24 pack of organic eggs for the same price as a dozen pastured eggs. It’s not “ideal,” but it’s still far better than the norm.

I have another qualm that may seem minor but isn’t in my world: the removal of cheese. Cheese has one of the better safety and nutritional profiles of all dairy foods. It’s traditional, with cheese making stretching back thousands of years. It’s fermented, which means most of the lactose has been consumed by bacteria and much of the potentially problematic casein has been modified to be more tolerable. I see no real reason to avoid it.

The Bulletproof diet is certainly compatible with keto. If you follow the guidelines and eat mostly non-starchy vegetables, healthy fats, and high-quality animal protein (and maybe some hard cheese), you’ll be on a high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet.

Clean-Eating

Clean-Eating is the most difficult diet to pin down.

There are a dozen different “clean-eating” camps, far too many to discuss today. I’ll focus on the two biggest types of clean-eating: bodybuilders/strength trainers/gym rat clean eating and “Whole Foods clean eating.”

In the bodybuilding and strength training world, clean eating means:

Eating whole, unprocessed foods.

Eating lean meats, avoiding overly fatty meats. Skinless chicken breast, not skin-on chicken thigh.

Eating whole grains, like whole wheat bread, oats, and brown rice.

Eating “healthy fats,” like peanut butter, almonds, and avocados.

Eating tons of vegetables.

Limiting salt and sugar.

Emphasizing protein, then carbs, then fat.

In the “Whole Foods” clean eating world, clean eating..

[denisalvney]

What Is the Optimal Human Diet?

Eggs are bad for you. Wait, eggs are good for you! Fat is bad. Wait, fat is good and carbs are bad! Skipping breakfast causes weight gain. Wait, skipping breakfast (intermittent fasting) is great for weight loss and metabolic health.

It’s enough to make you crazy, right? These are just a few of the many contradictory nutrition claims that have been made in the media over the past decade, and it’s no wonder people are more confused about what to eat than ever before.

Everyone has an opinion on the optimal human diet—from your personal trainer to your UPS driver, from your nutritionist to your doctor—and they’re all convinced they are right. Even the “experts” disagree. And they can all point to at least some studies that support their view. On the surface, at least, all of these studies seem credible, since they’re published in peer-reviewed journals and come out of respected institutions like Harvard Public Health.

This has led to massive confusion among both the general public and health professionals, a proliferation of diet books and fad approaches, and a (justifiably) growing mistrust in public health recommendations and media reporting on nutrition.

Unfortunately, millions of dollars and decades of scientific research haven’t added clarity—if anything, they have further muddied the waters. Why? Because, as you’ll learn below, we’ve been asking the wrong questions, and we’re using the wrong methods.

If you’re confused about what to eat and frustrated by the contradictory headlines that are constantly popping up in your news feed, you’re not alone. The current state of nutritional research, and how the media reports on it, virtually guarantees confusion.

In this article, my goal is to step back and look at the question of what we should eat through a variety of lenses, including archaeology, anthropology, evolutionary biology, anatomy and physiology, and biochemistry—rather than relying exclusively on observational nutrition research, which, as I’ll explain below, is highly problematic (and that’s saying it nicely).

Armed with this information, you’ll be able to make more informed choices about what you eat and what you feed your family members.

Let’s start with the question that is on everyone’s mind ...

What Is the Optimal Human Diet?

Drumroll, please!

There isn’t one.

Note the emphasis on “one.”

There is no way to answer the question “What is the optimal human diet?” because there is no single, optimal diet for every human.

When I explain this to people I talk to, they immediately understand. It makes sense to them that we shouldn’t all be following the exact same diet.

Yet that is exactly what public health recommendations and dietary guidelines assume, and I would argue that this fallacy is both the greatest source of confusion and the most significant obstacle to answering our key questions about nutrition.

Why? Because although human beings share a lot in common, we’re also different in many ways: we have different genes, gene expression, health status, activity levels, life circumstances, and goals.

Modern dieting advice is often confusing, contradictory, and just plain wrong. And, while there’s no such thing as one optimal human diet, there are some foods humans are designed to eat. Find out what should be on your plate—from a Paleo perspective.

Imagine two different people:

A 55-year-old, sedentary male office worker who is 60 pounds Overweight and has pre-diabetes and hypertension

A 23-year-old, female Olympic athlete who is training for three hours a day, in fantastic health, and is attempting to build muscle for a competition

Should they eat exactly the same diet? Of course not.

Our Differences Matter When It Comes to Diet

Although that may be an extreme example, it’s no less true that what works for a young, single, male, CrossFit enthusiast who is getting plenty of sleep and not under a lot of stress won’t work for a mother of three who also works outside the house and is burning the candle at both ends.

These differences—in our genes, behavior, lifestyle, gut microbiome, etc.—influence how we process both macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates, and fat) and micronutrients (vitamins, minerals, and trace minerals), which in turn determine our response to various foods and dietary approaches. For example:

People with lactase persistence—a genetic adaptation that allows them to digest lactose, the sugar in milk, into adulthood—are likely to respond better to dairy products than people that don’t have this adaptation.

Populations with historically high starch intake produce more salivary amylase than populations with low starch intake. (1)

Changes to gut microbiota can help with the assimilation of certain nutrients. Studies of Japanese people have found, for example, that their gut bacteria produce specific enzymes that help them break down seaweed, which can be otherwise difficult for humans to digest. (2)

Organ meats and shellfish are extremely nutrient dense and a great choice for most people—but not for someone with hemochromatosis, a genetic disorder that leads to aggressive iron storage, since these foods are so rich in iron.

Large, well-controlled studies (involving up to 350,000 participants) have found that, on average, higher intakes of saturated fat are not associated with a higher risk of heart disease. (3) But is this true for people with certain genes that make them “hyper-absorbers” of saturated fat and lead to a significant increase in LDL particle number (a marker associated with greater risk of cardiovascular disease)?

This is just a partial list, but it’s enough to make the key point: there are important differences that determine what an optimal diet is for each of us, but those differences are rarely explored in nutrition studies. Most research on diet is almost exclusively focused on top-down, population-level recommendations, and since a given dietary approach will yield variable results among different people, this keeps us stuck in confusion and controversy.

It has also kept us stuck in what Gyorgy Scrinis has called “the ideology of nutritionism,” which he defines as follows: (4)

Nutritionism is the reductive approach of understanding food only in terms of nutrients, food components, or biomarkers—like saturated fats, calories, glycemic index—abstracted out of the context of foods, diets, and bodily processes.

In other words, it is a focus on quantity, not quality.

Nutrition research has assumed that a carbohydrate is a carbohydrate, a fat is a fat, and a protein is a protein, no matter what type of food they come packaged in. If one person eats 50 percent of calories from fat in the form of donuts, pizza, candy, and fast food and another person eats 50 percent of calories from fat in the form of whole foods like meat, fish, avocados, nuts, and seeds, they will still be lumped together in the same “50 percent of calories from fat” group in most studies.

Most people are shocked to learn that this is how nutrition research works. It doesn’t take a trained scientist to understand why this would be problematic.

And yet, although there are some signs that the tide is turning (which I’ll discuss more below), the vast majority of epidemiological studies that have served as the basis for public health recommendations and dietary guidelines are plagued by this focus on quantity over quality.

But Aren’t There Some Foods That Are Better for All Humans to Eat (And Not Eat)?

I just finished explaining why there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach to diet, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t core nutrition principles that apply to everyone.

For example, I think we can all agree that a steady diet of donuts, chips, candy, soda, and other highly processed and refined foods is unhealthy. And most people would agree that a diet based on whole, unprocessed foods is healthy.

It’s the middle ground where we get into trouble. Is meat good or bad? If it’s bad, does that apply to all meats, or just processed meat or red meat? What about saturated fat? Should humans consume dairy products?

A better question than “What is the optimal human diet?” then, might be “What is a natural human diet?” or, more specifically, “What is the range of foods that human beings are biochemically, physiologically, and genetically adapted to eat?”

In theory, there are two ways to answer this question:

We can look at evolutionary biology, archaeology, medical anthropology, and comparative anatomy and physiology to determine what a natural human diet is.

We can look at it from a biochemical perspective: what essential and nonessential nutrients contribute to human health (and where are they found in foods), how various functional components of food influence our body at the cellular and molecular level, and how certain compounds in foods—especially those prevalent in the modern, industrialized diet—damage our health via inflammation, disruption of the gut microbiome, hormone imbalance, and other mechanisms.

Let’s take a closer look through each of these lenses.

The Evolutionary Perspective

Human beings, like all other organisms in nature, evolved in a particular environment, and that evolutionary process dictated our biology and physiology as well as our nutritional needs.

Archaeological Evidence for Meat Consumption

Isotope analysis from archaeological studies suggests that our hominid ancestors have been eating meat for at least 2.5 million years. (5) There is also wide agreement that going even further back in time, our primate ancestors likely ate a diet similar to modern chimps, which we now know eat vertebrates. (6) The fact that chimpanzees and other primates evolved complex behavior like using tools and hunting in packs indicates the importance of animal foods in their diet—and ours.

Anatomical Evidence for Meat Consumption

The structure and function of the digestive tract of all animals can tell us a lot about their diet, and the same is true for humans. The greatest portion (45 percent) of the total gut volume of our primate relatives is the large intestine, which is good for breaking down fiber, seeds, and other hard-to-digest plant foods. In humans, the greatest portion of our gut volume (56 percent) is the small intestine, which suggests we’re adapted to eating more bioavailable and energy-dense foods, like meat and cooked starches, that are easier to digest.

Some advocates of plant-based diets have argued that humans are herbivores because of our blunt nails, small mouth opening, flat incisors and molars, and relatively dull canine teeth—all of which are characteristics of herbivorous animals. But this argument ignores the fact that we evolved complex methods of procuring and processing food, from hunting to cooking to using sharp tools to rip and tear flesh. These methods/tools take the place of anatomical features that serve the same function.

Humans have relatively large brains and small guts compared to our primate relatives. Most researchers believe that consuming meat and fish is what led to our larger brains and smaller guts compared to other primates because animal foods are more energy dense and easier to digest than plant foods. (7)

Genetic Changes Suggestive of Adaptation to Animal Foods

Most mammals stop producing lactase, the enzyme that breaks down lactose, the sugar in milk, after they’re weaned. But in about one-third of humans worldwide, lactase production persists into adulthood. This allows those humans to obtain nutrients and calories from dairy products without becoming ill. If we were truly herbivores that aren’t supposed to eat animal foods at all, we would not have developed this genetic adaptation.

Studies of Contemporary Hunter–Gatherers

Studies of contemporary hunter–gatherer populations like the Maasai, Inuit, Kitavans, Tukisenta, !Kung, Aché, Tsimané, and Hadza have shown that, without exception, they consume both animal and plant foods, and they go to great lengths to obtain plant or animal foods when they’re in short supply.

For example, in one analysis of field studies of 229 hunter–gatherer groups, researchers found that animal food provided the dominant source of calories (68 percent) compared to gathered plant foods (32 percent). (8) Only 14 percent of these societies got more than 50 percent of their calories from plant foods.

Another report on 13 field studies of the last remaining hunter–gatherer tribes carried out in the early and mid-20th century found similar results: animal food comprised 65 percent of total calories on average, compared with 35 percent from plant foods. (9)

The amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates, the proportion of animals vs. plants, and the macronutrient ratios consumed vary, but an ancestral population following a completely vegetarian or vegan diet has never been discovered.

The Lifespan of Our Paleolithic Ancestors

Critics of Paleo or ancestral diets often claim that they are irrelevant because our Paleolithic ancestors all died at a young age. This common myth has been debunked by anthropologists. (10) While average lifespan is and was lower among hunter–gatherers than ours is today, this is heavily skewed by high rates of infant mortality (due to a lack of emergency medical care and other factors) in these populations.

The anthropologists Gurven and Kaplan studied lifespan in extant hunter–gatherers and found that, if they survive childhood, their lifespans are roughly equivalent to our own in the industrialized world: 68 to 78 years. (11) This is notable because hunter–gatherers today survive only in isolated and marginal environments like the:

Kalahari Desert

Amazon rainforest

Arctic circle

What’s more, in many cases hunter–gatherers reach these ages without acquiring the chronic diseases that are so common in Western countries. They’re less likely to have heart disease, diabetes, dementia and Alzheimer’s, and many other debilitating, chronic conditions.

For example, one study of the Tsimané people in Bolivia found that they have a prevalence of atherosclerosis 80 percent lower than ours in the United States and that nine in 10 Tsimané adults aged 40 to 94 had completely clean arteries and no risk of heart disease. (12) They also found that the average 80-year-old Tsimané male had the same vascular age as an American in his mid-50s. (Did you notice that this study included adults up to age 94? So much for the idea that hunter–gatherers all die when they’re 30!)

When you put all of this evidence together, it suggests the following themes:

Meat and other animal products have been part of the natural human diet for at least 2.5 million years

All ancestral human populations that have been studied ate both plants and animals

Human beings can survive on a wide variety of foods and macronutrient ratios within the general template of plants and animals they consumed

Additional Reading

For a deeper dive on this topic, I recommend the following articles:

The Diet We’re Meant to Eat, Part 1: Evolution & Hunter–Gatherers

The Diet We’re Meant to Eat, Part 2: Physiological & Biological Evidence

Hunter–gatherers enjoy long, healthy lives

Eating meat led to smaller stomachs, bigger brains

The Biochemical Perspective

Understanding ancestral diets and their relationship to the health of hunter–gatherer populations is a good starting place, but on its own, it doesn’t prove that such diets are the best option for modern humans.

To know that, we need to examine this question from a biochemical perspective. We need to know what nutrients are essential to human health, where they are found in food, and how various components of the diet and compounds in foods affect our physiology—both positively and negatively.

The good news is, there are tens of thousands of studies in this category. Collectively, they bring us to the same conclusion we reached above:

That a whole-foods diet that contains both plants and animals is the best—and in some cases, only—way to meet our nutrient needs from food.

Nutrient Density

Nutrient density is arguably the most important concept to understand when it comes to answering the question, “What should humans eat?”

The human body requires approximately 40 different micronutrients for normal metabolic function.

Maximizing nutrient density should be the primary goal of our diet because deficiencies of any of these essential nutrients can contribute to the development of chronic disease and even shorten our lifespan.

There are two types of nutrients in food: macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients refer to the three food substances required in large amounts in the human diet, namely:

Protein

Carbohydrates

Fats

Micronutrients, on the other hand, are vitamins, minerals, and other compounds required by the body in small amounts for normal physiological function.

The term “nutrient density” refers to the concentration of micronutrients and amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, in a given food. While carbohydrates and fats are important, they can be provided by the body for a limited amount of time when dietary intake is insufficient (except for the essential omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids). On the other hand, micronutrients and the essential amino acids found in protein cannot be manufactured by the body and must be consumed in the diet.

With this in mind, what are the most nutrient-dense foods? There are several studies that have attempted to answer this question. In the most comprehensive one, which I’ll call the Maillot study, researchers looked at seven major food groups and 25 subgroups, characterizing the nutrient density of these foods based on the presence of 23 qualifying nutrients. (13)

Maillot and colleagues found that the most nutrient-dense foods were (score in parentheses):

Organ meats (754)

Shellfish (643)

Fatty fish (622)

Lean fish (375)

Vegetables (352)

Eggs (212)

Poultry (168)

Legumes (156)

Red meats (147)

Milk (138)

Fruits (134)

Nuts (120)

As you can see, eight of the 12 most nutrient-dense categories of foods are animal foods. All types of meat and fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, and dairy were more nutrient-dense than whole grains, which received a score of only 83. Meat and fish, veggies, and fruit were more nutrient dense than legumes, which were slightly more nutrient dense than dairy and nuts.

There are a few caveats to the Maillot analysis:

It penalized foods for being high in saturated fat and calories

It did not consider bioavailability

It only considered essential nutrients

Caloric Density and Saturated Fat

In the conventional perspective, nutrient-dense foods are defined as those that are high in nutrients but relatively low in calories. However, recent evidence (which I’ll review below) has found that saturated fat doesn’t deserve its bad reputation and can be part of a healthy diet. Likewise, some foods that are high in calories (like red meat or full-fat dairy) are rich in key nutrients, and, again, can be beneficial when part of a whole-foods diet. Had saturated fat and calories not been penalized, foods like red meat, eggs, dairy products, and nuts and seeds would have appeared even higher on the list.

Bioavailability

Bioavailability is a crucial factor that is rarely considered in studies on nutrient density. It refers to the portion of a nutrient that is absorbed in the digestive tract. The amount of bioavailable nutrients in a food is almost always lower than the amount of nutrients the food contains. For example, the bioavailability of calcium from spinach is only 5 percent. (14) Of the 115 mg of calcium present in a serving of spinach, only 6 mg is absorbed. This means you’d have to consume 16 cups of spinach to get the same amount of bioavailable calcium in one glass of milk!

The bioavailability of protein is another essential component of nutrient density. Researchers use a measure called the Protein Digestibility Corrected Amino Acid Score (PDCAAS), which combines the amino acid profile of a protein with a measure of how much of the protein is absorbed during digestion to assess protein bioavailability. The PDCAAS rates proteins on a scale of 0 to 1, with values close to 1 representing more complete and better-absorbed proteins than ones with lower scores.

On the scale, animal proteins have much higher scores than plant proteins; casein, egg, milk, whey, and chicken have scores of 1, indicating excellent amino acid profiles and high absorption, with turkey, fish, and beef close behind. Plant proteins, on the other hand, have much lower scores; legumes, on average, score around 0.70, rolled oats score 0.57, lentils and peanuts are 0.52, tree nuts are 0.42, and whole wheat is 0.42.

Thus, had bioavailability been considered in the Maillot study, animal foods would have scored even higher, and plant foods like legumes would have scored lower. 

Essential vs. Nonessential Nutrients

The Maillot study—and a similar analysis from Harvard University chemist Dr. Mat LaLonde—only considered essential nutrients. In a nutritional context, the term “essential” doesn’t just mean “important,” it means necessary for life. We need to consume essential nutrients from the diet because our bodies can’t make them on their own.

Focusing on essential nutrients makes sense, since we can’t live without them. That said, over the past few decades many nonessential nutrients have been identified that are important to our health, even if they aren’t strictly essential. These include:

Carotenoids

Polyphenols

Flavonoids

Lignans

Fiber

Many of these nonessential nutrients are found in fruits and vegetables. Had these nutrients been included in the nutrient density analyses, fruits and vegetables would likely have scored higher than they did.

What Can We Conclude from the Biochemical Perspective?

When we look at a natural human diet through the lens of biochemistry and physiology, we arrive at the same conclusion: our diet should consist of a combination of organ meat, meat, fish, shellfish, eggs, fresh vegetables and fruits, nuts, seeds, and starchy plants.

But how much of the diet should come from animals, and how much from plants? The answer to this question will vary based on individual needs. If we look at evolutionary history, we see that on average, humans obtained about 65 percent of calories from animal foods and 35 percent of calories from plant foods on average, but the specific ratios varied depending on geography and other factors.

That does not mean that two-thirds of what you put on your plate should be animal foods! Remember, calories are not the same as volume (what you put on your plate). Meat and animal products are much more calorie-dense than plant foods. One cup of broccoli contains just 30 calories, compared to 338 calories for a cup of beef steak.

This means that even if you’re aiming for 50 to 70 percent of calories from animal foods, plant foods will typically take up between two-thirds and three-quarters of the space on your plate.

(Side note: this is why I’ve always rejected the notion of Paleo as an “all-meat” diet; a more accurate descriptor would be a plant-based diet that also contains animal products).

When we consider the importance of both essential and nonessential nutrients, it also becomes clear that both plant and animal foods play an important role because they are rich in different nutrients. Dr. Sarah Ballantyne broke this down in part three of her series “The Diet We’re Meant to Eat: How Much Meat versus Veggies.”

Plant Foods

Vitamin C

Carotenoids (lycopene, beta-carotene, lutein, zeaxanthin)

Diallyl sulfide (from the allium class of vegetables)

Polyphenols

Flavonoids (anthocyanins, flavan-3-ols, flavonols, proanthocyanidins, procyanidins, kaempferol, myricetin, quercetin, flavanones)

Dithiolethiones

Lignans

Plant sterols and stanols

Isothiocyanates and indoles

Prebiotic fibers (soluble and insoluble)

Animal Foods

Vitamin B12

Heme iron

Zinc

Preformed vitamin A (retinol)

High-quality protein

Creatine

Taurine

Carnitine

Selenium

Vitamin K2

Vitamin D

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid)

EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid)

CLA (conjugated linoleic acid)

Additional Reading

For a deeper dive on these subjects, check out the following articles:

What Is Nutrient Density and Why Is It Important?

The Diet We’re Meant to Eat, Part 3: How Much Meat versus Veggies

Focus Your Diet on Nutrient Density

Whether we look through the lens of evolutionary biology and history or modern biochemistry, we arrive at the same conclusion:

If you eat only plant foods or only animal foods, your diet will be significantly less nutrient dense than if you ate both. There’s simply no way around it.

Anthropology and archaeology suggest that it’s possible for humans to thrive on a variety of food combinations and macronutrient ratios within the basic template of whole, unprocessed animal and plant foods.

For example, the Tukisenta of Papua New Guinea consumed almost 97 percent of calories in the form of sweet potatoes, and the traditional Okinawans also had a very high intake of carbohydrate and low intake of animal protein and fat. On the other hand, cultures like the Maasai and Inuit consumed a much higher percentage of calories from animal protein and fat, especially at certain times of year.

How much animal vs. plant food you consume should depend on your specific preferences, needs, and goals. For most people, a middle ground is what appears to work best, with between 35 and 50 percent of calories from animal foods and between 50 and 65 percent of calories coming from plant foods. (Remember, we’re talking about calories, not volume.)

Now I’d like to hear from you. What is your “optimal human diet”? Have you experimented with different ratios of animal vs. plant foods? What works for you? Let me know in the comments section. 

The post What Is the Optimal Human Diet? appeared first on Chris Kresser.

What Is the Optimal Human Diet? published first on https://chriskresser.com

[evajrobinsontx]

Disordered Eating No Longer Controls Me, But That Doesn’t Mean I Never Struggle

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I’m no longer captive to disordered eating. But that doesn’t mean I never struggle or feel the tug of old, destructive habits. Like a scar from a sutured wound leaves a permanent reminder of the event, so too did my stint with obsessive eating habits create a lasting mark on me. It fades with time, but it’ll never completely vanish.

Individuals battling their own disordered eating habits may think, as I did years ago, that they can “get over it” eventually and be completely free from its grip, never to fight mental battles about food again. Breaking away from disordered eating (and the ugly side of health and fitness all together) and adopting nutrition habits that are flexible, sane, and mentally healthy is possible. However, it’s naïve to think returning to or becoming “normal” is a likely outcome.

That may sound grim, but it shouldn’t. It’s simply a reality that a lengthy experience with disordered eating habits will leave its mark, just like an operation or serious puncture wound leaves a scar.

I’ve been free from the jaws of the monster that is disordered, obsessive eating and binge eating for almost a decade, but I still have occasional struggles, and many who have a similar history report experiencing these too. It’s time to bring them to light, and what has helped me stay free from previous obsessive eating habits.

No More Disordered Eating. But There are Occasional Struggles.

I no longer binge, but that doesn’t mean I never overeat. Binge eating means consuming a massive quantity of food in a short period of time and, for me, well beyond the point of feeling full. I no longer experience massive binges that easily accrued over a thousand calories and left my stomach throbbing in pain. However, I do overeat on occasion.

I’ve devoured four slices of pizza when I was satisfied after eating two. I’ve eaten too much candy because I gobbled it down too quickly and grabbed more before I’d even finished chewing what was in my mouth. I eat dessert even when I’m full from a delicious dinner. I’ve gone back for a second helping when I was no longer hungry but wanted to keep eating because it was so dang delicious.

And I will do all those things again.

A major difference now is that I accept these occasional events as a normal part of life and don’t get upset about them — or if I do start feeling bad, I quickly remind myself that it wasn’t a big deal. I make myself move forward and refuse to feel guilt or shame.

Recommended Article: The Huge Problem With Guilty-Pleasure Foods

Years ago, when I was breaking free from disordered eating, I accepted that striving for perfection with food — never overeating or making successive less-than-ideal food choices or eating too much candy — wasn’t going to happen. I don’t demand perfection, nor do I berate myself when I overeat or make a string of not-so-great food choices.

I don’t obsess about food multiple times a day, every day, but I do overthink on occasion. When will I eat again? What will I eat? What should I eat? When can I eat after that? Should I try a new diet? How can I avoid the next binge? Those thoughts plagued my mind when disordered eating habits consumed me. Thankfully, that’s no longer the case.

Overthinking still happens, however: I really want the French toast, but the veggie omelet is a better choice. Maybe I should get that because it has more protein and I should eat more veggies. But, man, the French toast sounds amazing. That, and similar conversations, run through my mind occasionally. They’re shorter than they used to be and occur less frequently; I catch myself overthinking a situation, like the French toast versus omelet example, that doesn’t require that much brain power and cut off the mental conversation immediately. Then I choose the food option I really want and enjoy every bite, then move on with the well-established nutrition habits I’ve created.

Just like getting sick or dealing with unexpected real-life events, the occasional overthinking episode happens. I face it immediately, cut it short, and move on. It doesn’t define me, it doesn’t control me, and I choose not to respond emotionally. The better I get at handling those events, immediately, the less frequently they occur.

I’m no longer on a never-ending fat loss journey because I dislike my body, but I don’t love my body unconditionally at every moment. Over a decade ago, all I wanted to do was lose the fat that accumulated from binge eating. Every action in the gym and choice in the kitchen was done in the name of fat loss, and that mindset had me in its grip for years. Now, I don’t fear having fat on my body and set goals that have absolutely nothing to do with fat loss, and I’m not relentlessly pursuing a better-looking body.

Recommended Article: Screw Fat Loss

I love my body and the amazing things it can do — but that doesn’t mean I love how it looks every day. When I see my bloated PMS belly in the mirror I don’t respond with joy exclaiming, “Hot damn I have never looked sexier than I do right now. Thanks, water retention!” I don’t always feel my best; I don’t always think I look my best. But that’s part of life. I refuse to feel bad for not thinking I look amazing all the time. Loving my body without fail every moment is pressure I don’t put on myself.

How exactly do I face those occasional struggles and successfully defeat them?

Not Going Back to Disordered Eating

Though some struggles are inevitable, I won’t return to obsessive, disordered eating habits. Below are some of the main things I do, and don’t do, and important lessons to quickly recall when old habits try to pry into my mind.

Avoidance is Useful

Restrictive diets, venomous snakes, someone spraying their surrounding area like a sprinkler because they don’t cover their mouth when coughing, any dish that includes beets — my response to these things is the same and immediate: I make haste in the opposite direction.

I do the same with anything that led to, or exacerbated, disordered eating habits.

Avoiding what got me there in the first place is helpful: obsessing over making the “best” choices with every meal; being too restrictive; dichotomous thinking (only eating “clean” foods and, by default, labeling everything else as “dirty” and “bad”); putting too much emphasis on my physical appearance and not on how I feel; berating myself for less-than-ideal food choices; feeling guilty for eating my favorite foods; thinking my way to failure. Those have no place in my life.

There is an exception to this rule. The past few months I’ve been running a muscle-building program and weigh myself occasionally. I knew tracking my weight could easily cause negative thoughts to bubble up like they did in the past when I stepped on the scale, but I remind myself that it’s just a number; a data point. I can choose to remove any emotional element related to that innocent number. Just because something used to disturb you doesn’t mean it must always have that power — you can defeat it.

Lesson: Know what works best for you and avoid what doesn’t. Old habits can be defeated with patience and persistence.

Talk About the Struggles

A few weeks ago, I found myself stumbling and felt the old familiar tug of bad mental conversations, and I told my wife about it. Immediately once I aired the frustrations verbally I felt better, lighter. Just getting it out of my head put everything into perspective so I could focus on what was important and let go of what wasn’t.

Lesson: Have someone to confide in when your brain is giving you a hard time.

Don’t Dig the Hole Deeper and Deeper … and Deeper

When my life was ruled by obsessive eating habits, my brain would rationalize I screwed up by eating this “bad food,” so I’ll just keep eating it until it’s all gone, if I ate a small piece of dessert. That small piece would turn into two more larger pieces, and then a string of less-than-ideal choices because, hey, I already screwed up so what difference did it make if I kept going?

That irrational response was akin to falling in a hole, deciding not just to spend time in it but to grab a shovel and make it deeper … and deeper.

If that old mental habit creeps up I catch it and quickly change direction: That cake was incredible. I enjoyed it, there’s nothing “bad” about it, and there’s no need to eat more. I also remind myself that if I eat more even though I’m satisfied I’ll end up uncomfortably full, and that never feels good.

Recommended Article: The One Simple Hack to Stop Screwing Yourself Over

I still stumble into a hole on occasion (by eating a few too many tasty Halloween or Easter candies) but once I realize I’m there, I choose not to keep digging (I don’t keep eating more) and proceed to climb out of the hole and walk forward.

Lesson: Just stop digging.

Get Out of the All-or-Nothing Cycle of Destruction

Eating “good” for every meal, all the time, or giving up completely at the slightest set back or less-than-ideal decision. Sound familiar? I’ve seen too many people swing aggressively from obsessively “watching what they eat” to not caring about what they put in their mouth, because the former mentally exhausted them.

Nutrition is not an all-or-nothing lifestyle. Moderation and flexibility are the solutions, and not demanding the impossible — relentless perfection — from yourself.

Recommended Article: Eating in Moderation: How to Do It Right

Lesson: Screw perfection. Do the most important things most of the time.

Make Success as Easy as Possible

I keep myself set up for success by not needlessly testing my willpower. I know what foods are easy for me to overeat and don’t keep them in the house. They’re not forbidden by any means, but if I really want that food, I go buy a serving and enjoy it. Our home is stocked with nutrient-dense foods we love so cooking great meals and having healthy snacks isn’t a chore; they’re always right there within reach.

Furthermore, I identified situations that were likely to trigger old habits and created a simple, specific plan to handle them. For instance, eating food directly from a bag or container easily turns into me eating half of it. My plan for packaged foods: put a serving in a bowl or on a plate, and put away the rest.

Recommended Article: The Simple Guide That Shows You How to Eat Healthy

Lesson: Make the things you want to do the easy things to do. Don’t “wing it” with situations that previously led to disordered eating habits (i.e., don’t rely on willpower). Identify situations that create problems and have a plan for how to face them.

The goal, for me, isn’t to attain some elusive state of “normal” when it comes to food, whatever that means. Knowing I may always have to be vigilant to keep old habits at bay is fine with me. I aim to build upon productive habits, to replace those that don’t serve me with ones that do, to continue getting better at identifying struggles and handling them promptly and remembering that the main purpose of nutrition and fitness is to help me live my best possible life. Obsessive, disordered eating habits or anything resembling them clashes with that objective.

(Note: If you’re battling disordered eating, find a qualified professional who specializes in your specific issue and get on the fast track to recovery.)

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The post Disordered Eating No Longer Controls Me, But That Doesn’t Mean I Never Struggle appeared first on Nia Shanks.

from Sarah Luke Fitness Updates http://www.niashanks.com/disordered-eating-no-longer-controls-me/