Tag Archives: ray peat

Unsaturated fats are toxic to your health

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There are a few foods that I tend to denounce as being “unhealthy” these days: 1) Soy because of its anti-thyroid, pro-estrogenic, and anti-digestive properties (GMO or not), 2) Uncooked, raw above ground vegetables due to their high fiber and cellulose content which can slow down bowel transport time (encouraging a feeding and breeding ground for gut bacteria), create inflammation within the intestinal tract due to “poking,” and, of course, cause digestive disturbances, 3) Grains (although some may not be as digestively degrading, such as rice) because of their anti-digestive, pro-inflammatory, pro-allergen, and possible chemical toxicity, and 4) Unsaturated Fats, specifically the existence of any Polyunsaturated variety, because of their high susceptibility to oxidation (exposure to oxygen that can immediately damage the molecular structure), thus creating free-radicals amongst many other immune-suppressing properties (excess estrogen, unstable cell walls, low thyroid response, excess cholesterol levels in the blood, etc.)

Today we’ll focus on Unsaturated Fats from vegetable, seed, and nut oils, and why the H-E-double hockey sticks these stinkin’ things are causing all sorts of dis-eases and cancers despite our being told that “diet doesn’t affect disease” or that “essential fatty acids promote health (hence the name)” or that “saturated fats cause unhealthy cholesterol levels” or that I’m just going to stop there.

The main unsaturated fats involved are found in soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil, canola oil, sesame oil, sunflower seed oil, palm oil, almond oil, and any others that have any sort of high percentage unsaturated fat content on the label. Chemically, the material that makes these oils very toxic is the polyunsaturated fat itself. (Peat) Polyunsaturated fats are extremely unstable due to their more-than-two double bonds characteristic – the greater the amount of double bonds (and a lack of respective binding hydrogen molecules), the greater the unsaturated, the greater the instability, and the greater risk for oxidation. It is rather impossible to completely eliminate Polyunsaturated Fats from the diet because many of the farm-raised animals that we consume are fed a diet of said fats via soy, corn, and other grains, and vegetable oils are the restaurant industry standard when it comes to cooking oil because it’s cheap and chefs are taught (marketed) to use the oils in culinary school. As in humans, animals will use dietary fat for body processes, conversions, and you name it – one such is to replenish the cell wall and structure. In the late 1940′s, chemical toxins were used to suppress the thyroid function of pigs, to make them get fatter while consuming less food. When that was found to be carcinogenic, it was then found that corn and soy beans had the same antithyroid effect, causing the animals to be fattened at low cost. The animals; fat becomes chemically similar to fats in their food, causing it to be equally toxic, and equally fattening. (Peat)

Let’s get into some why’s…

Digestion and Immunity

“All systems of the body are harmed by an excess of these oils. There are two main reasons for this. One is that plants produce the oils for protection, not only to store energy for the germination of the seed. To defend the seeds from the animals that would eat them, the oils block digestive enzymes in the animals’ stomachs. Digestion is one of our most basic functions, and evolution has built many other systems by using variations of that system, as a result, all of these systems are damaged by the substances which damage the digestive system.”

“The enzymes which break down proteins are inhibited by unsaturated fats, and these enzymes are not only for digestion, but also for production of thyroid hormones, clot removal, immunity, and the general adaptability of cells. The risks of abnormal clotting, inflammation, immune deficiency, shock, aging, obesity, and cancer are increased … Since the unsaturated oils block protein digestion in the stomach, we can be malnourished even while ‘eating well.’ 

 Hot vs Cold – Liquid vs Solid – Stable vs Unstable

“The other reason is that the seeds are designed to germinate in early spring, so their energy stores must be accessible when the temperatures are cool, and they normally don’t have to remain viable through the hot summer months. Unsaturated oils are liquid when they are cold, and this is necessary for any organism that lives at low temperatures. For example, fish in cold water would be stiff if they contained saturated fats. These oils easily get rancid (spontaneously oxidizing) when they are warm and exposed to oxygen. When the oils are stored in our tissues, they are much warmed, and more directly exposed to oxygen, than they would be in the seeds, and so their tendency to oxidize is very great. These oxidative processes can damage enzymes and other parts of cells, and especially their ability to produce energy.”

Protective mechanisms

“Seeds contain a small amount of vitamin E to delay rancidity.” (The vitamin is simply used as protection for the plant, just like how humans produce cholesterol or store fat as a protective mechanism. But we’re promoted that the plants, seeds, nuts and their oils contain “nutrients” for human consumption – bullshit!)

“Plants produce many protective substances to repel or injure insects and other animals that eat them. They produce their own pesticides. The oils in seeds have this function. On top of this natural toxicity, the plants are sprayed with industrial pesticides, which can concentrate in the seed oils.”

“All systems of the body are harmed by an excess of these oils. There are three main kinds of damage: one, hormonal imbalances, two, damage to the immune system, and three, oxidative damage.”

All of these points from Ray Peat’s “From PMS to Menopause: Female hormones in context” are something to consider… considering we are told that unsaturated fats are healthy, vegetable oils are healthy, saturated fats are unhealthy, saturated fats increase heart disease, to eat more unsaturated oils, eat more corn, eat more soy, eat more wheat and grains, eat less meat, eat less saturated fat, and so the saga continues. There’s a lot of minor details to go into everything, i.e. saturated fats from commercially raised animals tend to be saturated with toxins, chemicals, and are also coupled with toxic unsaturated fats because of their diets. In that case, yes, saturated fats can be harmful, but that’s no reason to go denouncing or eliminating the very substance that keeps us alive on a daily basis from all of the indigestible and immune suppressing substances we have grown up eating.

 

If you’d like to discuss this perspective along with other health-related insights, please contact me for a FREE Conversation.

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Recommendation: The metabolic blueprint cookbook

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Today, I’m plugging a newly-released Cookbook, which its recipes are largely based off of the dietary recommendations of Dr. Ray Peat. This is a different kind of cookbook because it also provides physiological explanations as to why specific recipes, foods and their respective nutrients are beneficial to/work synergistically with the body. The book is part of East West Healing’s Metabolic Blueprint Program. The program offers enthusiasts a basic platform to (whole)isitically understand the body, the metabolism, the metabolic mechanisms/reactions, and their relation to healthy/unhealthy biological activities.

Here are some words about the cookbook…

The Metabolic Blueprint Cookbook is one of a kind, must-read – 100+ page packed with factual information – from the basics on macro nutrients to defining what foods were designed for human consumption, to understanding how foods can heal your metabolism. More than ever before, people around the world are becoming increasingly health-minded – conscientious of the foods they eat and focusing on establishing a proper dietary regimen. However, nutritional myths currently flood the information super highway.

“The industrialization of food has degraded the actual materials that are available, but it’s still possible, with a cookbook such as this, to have a healthful, varied and enjoyable diet.”

-Ray Peat PhD.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

  1. The Basics: Understanding Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats, Coconut Oil, Gelatin, Salt, Calcium, Dairy and Food List
  2. Staple recipes: Coconut mayonnaise, roasted garlic, homemade sweetened condensed milk….and much more!
  3. Gelatin/Jello/Custard recipes
  4. Drinks, Shakes and Smoothy recipes
  5. Egg recipes
  6. Vegetables/Salads/Snack recipes
  7. Marrows and Broth recipes
  8. Shellfish/Fish recipes
  9. Meat recipes
  10. Deserts and Treat recipes
  11. Home-made Ice Cream recipes
If you are intrigued by the research/work of Ray Peat, Broda Barnes, Hans Selye, Gilbert Ling, Francis Pottenger, Weston Price, Josh Rubin, Chris Dillon, Danny Roddy, and Matt Stone, then this cookbook is right up your alley.

If you’d like to discuss this perspective along with other health-related insights, please contact me for a FREE Conversation.

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Thyroid, metabolism, and symptoms

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So I plowed through Selye’s “The Stress of Life,” which was a pleasant read given its depth and some need for pre-requisite knowledge, and now I’m onto Broda Barnes’ “Hypo-thyroidism: The unsuspected illness.” Throughout the book Barnes’ discusses his personal experiences [as a doctor] with a vast majority of symptoms and how most [symptoms] really boil down to a lack of metabolic efficiency; generally-speak, producing a low amount of thyroid hormones, and, in effect, an inefficiency at maintaing body heat and a “normal” pulse/heart beat. Barnes’ definition is a little less too-cool-for-school wordy, “It is the thyroid which controls the metabolism – the process by which food is transformed into energy and many vital chemical changes take place.” Combine those and you’re on your way to a decent idea of the thyroid’s direct relationship with metabolism. Now, metabolism is a tricky thing because most believe, Broda’s definiton included, that it’s just about burning calories at a high rate and having the ability to eat whatever you want. While that is true and is what we’re basically taught from a young age by Dr. Aloysuis Snuffleupagus, the means towards establishing a high metabolic rate of an individual is a very important and intricate piece to the body puzzle.

There are two things that I’m really intrigued about in this book. 1) The vast majority of symptoms that can result from a thyroid deficiency, and 2) The approach to treat a low thyroid (hypothyroid) condition with the simple prescription of thyroid medication. Let’s begin at the first…

Barnes begins on page one with a bulleted series of patient symptoms

  • A young housewife who feels run down, tires easily, is sleepy much of the time, and strangely oversensitive to cold weather.
  • A middle-aged man who has managed to distinguish himself in his career by fighting all his life against his low energy reserve but now has become tired of fighting and convinced there must be some physical explanation for his problem even though none has ever been found and more than once he has been told to consult a psychiatrist and more than once has done so without benefit.
  • A victim of severe recurrent headaches.
  • A barren couple.
  • A child or adult unusually prone to infections, particularly respiratory, but not limited to them.
  • A sufferer from severe rheumatic pain and potential heart attack victim.
  • A woman whose skin is abnormally rough, scaly, almost fishlike and patients with other skin problems including eczema, psoriasis, and acne.
  • At least one man or woman in a state of severe mental depression.
  • A woman with a menstrual flow problem – painful flow, or irregular flow, or sometimes excessive flow that suggests possible need for hysterectomy.

All of this is some great stuff that can really get people thinking as to what could be more of an underlying cause to their symptoms. Try to look at it this way: The body is (yes, yes) a system of systems and when a very important [thyroid] gland is not working at full capacity, other activities, processes, and reactions will not work as they are designed. Out of the above mentioned, the ones that stick out to me the most are 1) the man with low fatigue that knows there’s something physically wrong with him but all of his lab work comes back negative and he’s slapped with the stereotype that “it’s all mental,” and 2) the ability to become severely depressed as a result of low thyroid activity. I picked these out from the list because they are examples of “mental disorders” or, so-called, “chemical imbalances” that actually have a true physical cause. I am a huge believer that the mind can control, affect, dictate, and sway the body, but the exact same is true for how the body affects the mind and it is quite possible that professionals or scientific tests can completely misdiagnosis this pattern as a purely mental state. In my opinion, there is never a purely mental disease or a purely physical disease because one doesn’t function without the other!

Here are some other common symptoms of a low thyroid function: Weakness, Dry or coarse, Lethargy, Unmotivated, Laziness, Fatigue, Slow speech, Edema, Cold hands, Cold feet, Cold nose, Sensitivity to cold, Cold body despite warm environment, Rapid heart beat, Impaired memory, Brain fog, Forgetfulness, Decline in libido, Decreased sexual function, Decreased sexual desire, Shrinkage of the gonads/sex glands (testicles, ovaries), Erectile dysfunction, Irregular menstrual cycles (heavy, painful, non-existent flow), Overly emotional, Temper tantrums, Anxiety, Depression, Nervousness, Headaches, Weight loss, Weight gain, Loss of appetite, Hair loss, Easily prone to stress, Muscle weakness, Joint pain, Low activity endurance, Increased sleeping (even a good night’s sleep isn’t enough), Hard waking up in the morning, Poor vision, and the list can really go on and on.

Now that I’ve given you a-whole-lot of examples to make your mind go, “Hm, maybe I have hypothyroidism and I can solve all of my problems with medication?!,” let’s take a moment to reflect and to put some things into perspective (and to also address the 2nd point in which I was intrigued). Barnes says that a dose of thyroid medication was the simple solution to a majority of his patients who had had at least one, if not more, of the previously mentioned symptoms. But he fails to mention any nutritional or lifestyle advice in order to “correct” the condition of hypothyroidism. He does state in a few examples that his patients changed absolutely nothing else about their daily lives, eating habits, or routine and with a simple dose of thyroid medication they were good as new within 2-6 months, yet once they stopped taking thyroid their symptoms came back almost immediately. Ok, so he found the cause to their problems, but is it the true cause or just the effect? What about the mechanisms that fuel, drive, and provide the thyroid gland with the energy to function properly?

Barnes patient experiences and learned understanding of how the thyroid basically affects the entire body is huge, but I also think it brings up the question of “how does the thyroid become inefficient?” I believe hydration, nutrition, and rest play some very big factors, but, again, they’re not the end-all-be-all when you throw in mentality, emotions, and relationships.

A simple home-test to check your thyroid includes a thermometer and your tongue. First thing in the morning – absolutely the very first thing that you do upon waking to negate any emotional or physical influence – reach for a thermometer and stick it under your tongue for 2 minutes. Any body temperature that is “below the normal range of 97.8 to 98.2 degrees F strongly suggests low thyroid function.” Why? Because when you’re body isn’t running “hot” then certain activities are paradoxically slowed down or increased; i.e. slow hormonal processes, slow digestion, slow movements, slow thought patterns, or increased heart rate, increased blood pressure, quick bursts of energy via the release of adrenaline followed by a long crash.

Matt Stone of 180degreehealth.com wrote an article Broda Barnes and Ray Peat and its relation to thyroid and he summed it up rather nicely…

Body temperature is just one tool in the bag. It is not the only tool. Assessments of the warmth of your feet and hands, sleep quality, the number of hours you can comfortably go without eating, pulse rate, sex drive, energy levels, fatigue after eating, bowel frequency, water consumption (should be high), calorie consumption, reflex quickness, blood glucose levels – both fasting and postmeal, menstrual regularity – anything and everything should be used in making an overall assessment of your health and self-diagnosing what may be needed to rebalance your “body chemistry” as Melvin Page called it. With those in mind, you can use nutrition and lifestyle change to the fullest.

If you’d like to discuss these perspective along with other health-related insights, please contact me for a FREE Conversation.

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Digestive cocktails all around

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In a not-too-distant past, I was asked what I would consider to be the ultimate superfood. My first inclination was Coconut Oil because, well, coconut oil is awesome. To name a few awesome reasons, it…

  • Is a saturated fat that is very stable at high temperatures and pressures (meaning it doesn’t spoil or turn rancid like many unsaturated fatty acids in said circumstance)
  • Increases metabolic rate by encouraging the body to raise its temperature to break down/digest the fat molecules
  • Aids the liver in detoxification
  • Helps regulate blood sugar by encouraging the liver to store glycogen more efficiently and functionally
  • Provides an optimal environment for the liver to convert T4 to T3 in a timely and functional manner (an essential metabolic hormone conversion)
  • Is naturally anti-bacterial/microbial/parasitic/fungal which helps balance intestinal bacteria to homeostatic ratios
  • Lowers the requirement for vitamin E (meaning it makes the body more efficient at using and storing the stuff)
  • Reduces the oxidation rate of unsaturated fat molecules when consumed simultaneously or when released as free-fatty acids due to hormonal stress,
  • Rebuilds and reinforces the lining of the intestinal tract.

Again, just a few reasons and I could go on and on, but that’ll get boring and redundant and lame and repetitive.

But, coconut oil can only do so much on its own. What about a combination of superfood’s that can do the same super things but different super things in their own super right all-the-while creating a healthier internal super environment which will translate into a healthier external super environment?! I, then, realized that the very thing that I eat every single day that has helped me greatly (amongst many other metabolic and digestive reconstruction workers) is just the superfood of superfood’s answer I was looking for!

The Carrot Salad via Dr. Ray Peat

  • 1-2 medium-sized carrots (peeled and diced)
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 1 tsp olive oil
  • 1/3 tsp raw apple cider vinegar
  • salt to taste

I use 1 tablespoon of each oil and 1/2 teaspoon of vinegar because I don’t really mind the “oily” taste or texture, but I think the above is a good recipe for those just getting into the swing of things. Consume the salad on a daily basis: mid-morning, between 10 am and 12 pm, preferably after breakfast and before lunch. I like to consider the carrot salad as more of a dietary supplement rather than a snack because that’s the role it essentially takes on.

To further coconut oil’s awesomeness, the carrot salad…

  • Helps improve the ratio of Progesterone (pro-metabolic) to Estrogen and Cortisol (pro-stress) within the intestinal tract
  • Pushes out excess Estrogens formed within the intestines due to a pro-stress environment (processed diet, high polyunsaturated fat diet, food intolerances, food allergens, imbalance of gut flora, low blood sugar, excess physical, emotional, and mental stressors, etc.).
  • Balances intestinal bacteria that much more via the carrot fibers “carrying” the oils into the small intestine
  • Stimulates bile production within the gallbladder and liver to break down fats and decrease pathogens within the digest tract

As I elaborated in Thursday’s post, stress can cause a slew of uncommon, unaware, uncontrollable, and shit-I-never-used-to-be-like-this-what-the-hell-is-wrong-with-me problems within a person’s internal AND external environment. When a person’s digestive tract is functioning at optimal speed, output, and the right ratios of hormones are spitting out like its their job, then it will translate into the greater good of the body – physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. If your body is out-of-balance in any way, shape, or form then I highly recommend this daily salad. And if your body is a-ok, in-shape, and strong-like-bull then I highly recommend this daily salad. Boom.

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Stress: This shit is real

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Danny Roddy‘s most recent blog, Becoming Stressproof Part II: The symptoms of stress (Bad sex, worse digestion, and shitty depression), is awesome. I am in love with this post for two reasons: 1) I have experienced everything he discusses due to an elevated state of stress hormones that involved my internal environment (digestion, elimination) and my external environment (work, relationship, family) – from low sex drive to extremely poor digestion to yo-yo weight gain and weight loss to unexplained anxiety to bouts of depression to a low immune system to extreme fatigue – and 2) Stress is something not to be overlooked or written off as just a daily part of mental life that defines a person on “how they can handle it”… it’s very real on a hormonal level which can directly correlate to mental and emotional stress and uncontrollable personality shifts.

Around 60-80% of our hormones are produced within the intestinal tract, specifically the small intestine, which also houses the intestinal bacteria and is the main site for nutrient absorption. Consider this: if you have an gut imbalance (by “gut” I am referring to all of the digestion and elimination organs) and the body cannot properly digest, absorb, assimilate, or eliminate due to the imbalance… don’t you think it’s possible (keeping in mind that hormones are being produced/regulated/limited within the imbalanced environment) for that imbalance to translate into mental and emotional shifts, i.e. an imbalance in personality, mood, thoughts, ideas, stress-coping-ability and overall non-physical health?

I think personality “disorders” (depression, anxiety, anger, stressed, tension, impatience, nervousness, timidness, scared, suicidal, etc.), metabolic disorders (diabetes, insulin resistance, hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, etc.), digestive disorders (lactose intolerance, food allergy, food intolerance, etc.) are symptoms to a greater cause and, for the sake of this post, many are caused by a stress-hormone response that can very-well begin and end with an awareness of what up-regulates or down-regulates a stress hormone reaction.

Roddy highlights Bad Sex, Worse Digestion, and Shitty Depression as three [of the many] consequences of elevated stress hormones. The body’s sex drive will cease to exist in a state of stress (high estrogen, high serotonin, high adrenaline, high cortisol) mainly because procreation is absolutely last on the list when the body finds itself in survival mode (stress, lack of calories, lack of carbohydrates, digestive disturbances, over-exercise, etc.). If you’re running from a lion it’s almost unfathomable to get it up… now transpose that high-stress state the body experiences when running for its life into every day life and no sex for you. Worse Digestion can translate into a few things: loss of appetite (because who thinks of food when they’re stressed or sad), irregular hormone output (hinting on what I mentioned earlier), and a low immune system from stress to allow bacteria, fungi, pathogens, and parasites into the digestive tract, thus causing a whole new set of problems (yet still a symptom to a greater cause). And, last but not lease, Depression will surely result because of all of these imbalances – happiness is hard to come by if you’re constipated, dehydrated, malnourished, and cannot get aroused no matter how much your significant other dances naked around you.

The body is a system of systems. If you system is out-of-order, chances are the other systems will follow suit. Your digestion, your detoxification, your elimination, your muscles, your bones, your emotions, your intelligence, your personality, your happiness… are all systems. If you have a low sex drive, have poor digestion, and are depressed… take a look at your systems and the other symptoms that may be present within your body and mind to find its true cause.

Take some time to read Roddy’s blog (along with everything else on his website) to gain some more insight.

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Lita Lee’s diet do’s and don’ts

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Today’s post highlights Lita Lee’s diet recommendations from her free monthly newsletter along with my perspectives in plain text…

Avoid

  • Synthetic vitamins, minerals and isolated substances. Agree. Most of the vitamins added to our foods are impure, shipped-from-overseas, made-in-a-lab, laced-with-metals, I-guess-you-can-call-them vitamins. Purchase non-fortified or non-”added to” foods/drinks.
  • Junk foods, refined foods, fast foods, and fake foods, especially fake sugars (NutraSweet, Splenda or Sucralose, Sacharin, etc.). Agree. All sweeteners are chemicals and toxins to the body. People think they’re “healthier” by avoiding sugar and opting for sugar-free, but they’re just making their body work harder and burdening it more. The body can use sugar – no matter what the source – but it has a shitty time digesting or utilizing fake foods.
  • PUFA (all omega-3 and -6 oils) – all oils that are liquid at room temperature (such as flaxseed, fish oils, borage, Canola, and all seed, nut and bean oils, etc.). Avoid all foods containing PUFA (polyunsaturated fatty acids) such as most bread, most cereals, vegetable juices, etc. When you suck the juice from a vegetable, you get various amounts of toxic PUFA with no protection from the mother fiber. Agree. Polyunsaturated fats are highly toxic and unstable on a molecular level. These can convert into trans fats and are found EVERYWHERE in our food supply – even “healthy” foods contain toxic PUFAs. Avoid omega-6 as much as you can. Omega-3′s are healthy, but should not be heated as they are unstable molecules under pressure. To protect yourself in an PUFA meal – add some saturated fat (animal fat, butter, dairy, coconut oil) to the meal to slow down the oxidation (rancidity, inflammation) of the fat molecules within the body. 
  • Farmed fish and argibusiness animals – all are fed soy, chemicals and drugs. Agree. They are fed unnatural diets, which completely compromises their immune system, so since they’re sick 24/7 they must be administered antibiotics and other steroids to keep them “healthy.” Humans experience this wild reality, too, ya know. 
  • Deli meats containing by-products of the meat industry. Agree. A lot of deli meats are the scraps and leftovers pressed into a slab of meat. Then they’re dressed in nitrates, artificial flavorings, and nutritionally-void salt. No bueno.
  • Avoid or use rarely: all gluten and high PUFA (omega-6 and -6 oils) foods which include seeds, nuts, nut butters, beans (except green), wheat, rye, barley. Raw seeds and nuts are even more toxic than roasted seeds and nuts because they contain protease inhibitors which stress the kidneys. Sprouted seeds contain various amount of cyanide. Eating 100 grams of alfalfa sprouts can be lethal. Agree. Gluten can “burn” through the mucosa intestinal lining and create holes within the digestive organs. Most nuts and seeds contain a high PUFA content and they also yield anti-digestive properties (this is a natural defense mechanism to ward off animals from eating the crops prior to harvest – the same goes for grains, too!). The alfalfa thing is wild – I’ve never heard of it but damn if that’s true. Death by alfalfa!
  • Raw cruciferous vegetables – they must be cooked to destroy the thyroid inhibitors (goitergens). These include broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, collard greens, Chinese broccoli, kohlrabi, bok choy, turnip root and greens, and rutabaga. Fermenting cruciferous vegetables does not destroy goitergens. Not all good things are necessarily “good” and in the case of cruiciferous vegetables… raw isn’t too good. I wouldn’t avoid this all together, but just make sure they’re thoroughly cooked before consumption if you want to keep your metabolic rate in tip top shape (hint: metabolism and thyroid function are bros). 

Seek

  • Organic whole foods as best you can. Whole milk. The whole egg. The whole grain. Agree. I get that organic is “expensive” but you are investing in yourself. People will spend so much on clothes, cars, toys, houses, etc. but they consider the fuel that keeps them alive to not be a worthy investment if a gallon of milk is 6-8 bucks. Those who are not-so-well-off – do the best that you can.
  • Organic, pastured, grass fed, soy-free animal protein. Most chickens, turkey and pork are fed soy (in the US) even if they are labeled organic and free range. Same with eggs. Agree. Eggs are tricky. “Vegetarian fed” eggs are still fed grains and soy, and not a chicken’s natural diet of insects and worms. So you do your best with what you know. If organics aren’t around, try local to minimize the transport time and possible greater toxin exposure.
  • Organic oats, rice, and corn are good. Also, heirloom grains are good (spelt, quinoa, kamut, amaranth, etc.). Make sure the heirloom breads contain no PUFA. Agree and disagree. Some people can’t do grains at all for many reason: their digestive system can be compromised from years of irritation and inflammation, they can have a food intolerance, a food allergy, and their digestive system simply may not be able to handle the grain. Always soak and wash rice thoroughly prior to consumption. Make sure your corn is non-GMO because 86%+ of the U.S. corn (26% world-wide) is an unregulated, government-backed science experiment. 
  • Carrots, beets, onions, cucumbers, squash and eggplant. Agree. Root vegetables are naturally anti-fungal, anti-bacterial, anti-parasitic because they must protect themselves while growing in the earth. This protective quality translates when they are digested within the body and can help balance intestinal bacteria. Carrots should be eaten raw and consumed on a daily basis as they’re extremely protective against pathogens and increased estrogen hormones produced within the intestinal tract from stress. 
  • Fresh salad greens (except for head lettuce). Yes and no. I’m not too well-versed on greens aside from their vitamin content. I’ve heard that raw greens are high in PUFAs so they should be avoided for that reason but they’re also high in vitamins/minerals and when cooked down in water it can be consumed as a natural “vitamin water.”
  • Fruits and potatoes are the only two foods that do not contain PUFA. Fruit juices are high in salicylates so it’s like drinking organic aspirin (very anti-inflammatory). Potatoes are the best vegan source of protein and have an excellent protein efficiency ratio. Agree. Sing it, sister.
  • Use only coconut oil in you rcooking. This is the healthiest fat you can eat and very prothyroid. Butter and olive oil are healthy, too, but not for cooking. Choosing/consuming the right cooking oil is the key to avoiding rancid (trans) fats and limiting an inflammatory response. Coconut oil is 98% saturated fat and is extremely stable at high temperatures and pressures. It is the go-to cooking oil for everything and anything. Try it and love it. Butter has a tendency to burn and it also is not a pure saturated fat; its unsaturated fats are prone to spoiling, too. Olive oil is definitely all it’s cracked up to be… just not when it’s heated. Use it topically and keep it in a dark bottle in a dark, cool place. 
  • Non-iodized white sea salt and coconut water. Avoid colored salts. The color is either dirt or toxins. For example, pink or orange color in Himalayan sea salt is toxic inorganic iron. Agree aaaand I’m still understanding iron’s role within the body. Salt isn’t unhealthy, but its source and processing play a big role. From what I gather, iron can be highly toxic in excess. The body has an extremely hard time of eliminating excess iron because it doesn’t have a true mechanism to get rid of the stuff. There are some tricky diet approaches to get iron out, but the best approach is to avoid iron-rich foods all together, one of those being a deep sea salt [that's colored or moist].
  • Organic dairy products, raw if possible: whole milk, kefir, yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese. Agree and disagree. I love me some dairy, especially milk and cheese. The yogurt recommendation gets me because it’s lactic acid content, which is an inflammatory/stress response from cells, can do more harm than good (especially in an compromised metabolism or digestive system). If people are eating dairy to provide the gut with good bacteria… what about the concept of just balancing the bacteria that’s naturally in there now? If you think that you have more bad than good bacteria, then take a look at the diet. Treat the cause with a diet and lifestyle shift, not the symptoms with a band-aid.
  • Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) from lanolin is one vitamin I recommend for everyone. Agree. Vitamin D is huge for immune health and is a synergist for calcium.
  • Turmeric (from New Chapter) is an important herb I also recommend. I’m not well-versed in Turmeric but I am familiar with its ability to aid in digestion.

Pro-thyroid Diet

  • 4 oz (25 grams) organic animal protein 3x/day, fruits 3x/day, fresh fruit juices 3x/day, carrots daily, white sea salt on all foods and in juices, coconut oil as your main oil and Great Lakes Gelatin as the best protein powder. NOTE: this is the adult amount and would be less for a child. This is a pretty standard and generic recommendation. Three meals may not be ideal for those on a broken metabolism, which will require someone to eat more frequently so their blood sugar doesn’t drop and create a stress hormone response. A high amount of animal flesh protein can actually be anti-metabolic and highly inflammatory, which isn’t what anyone wants and isn’t available in small orders. Great Lakes Gelatin is an extremely pure and beneficial protein, but it’s expensive. Carrots should be raw and consumed in between breakfast and lunch to aid with digestion and detoxification for the remainder of the day into the next.
  • Eat ripe fruits (except grapefruit) and drink fruit juices (except apple or grapefruit juices) daily. In a ripe fruit (bananas, pears, peaches, nectarines, etc.), the starch is converted into healthy sugars. Agree. Fruit is your friend. Grapefruit juice can contain a high amount of phytoestrogens, which are nay bueno when the goal is to increase metabolic rate and efficiency.
  • White sea salt (not commercial salt) is very important and should be consumed on all foods and in fruit juices. Agree. Salt your juices. It sounds wild but it works synergistically with the sugar and mineral content. A small pinch of salt will do just fine.
  • Drink organic coffee (not decaf) with milk, cream or 1/2 & 1/2. Green, black, and white teas absorb lots of fluoride from water, air, and soil – I don’t recommend them. Agree. Most decaf coffees are treated with formaldehyde to strip the caffeine content. If you’re a tea-lover, make sure you’re drinking it with pure water: get yourself a good filtering system or purchase glass-bottled water and heat it up on the stove as needed.
  • Do not drink water from plastic bottles. Not only do they contain endocrine disruptors, but many brands are tap water plus added synthetic vitamins/minerals and tons of plastic bottles are contaminating our oceans and killing our marine life. Avoid RO and distilled water – it’s dead and destructured. Agree. It’s wild what most companies try to sell as “healthy” water when it’s really just science.
  • Carbonated water is good for you if it doesn’t contain fluoride. My favorite brands include Perrier and Pellegrino, both of which come in glass bottles. Agree. The CO2 (carbon dioxide) provides the body with energy on a cellular level – it’s an energy-antagonist! On top of that, most carbonated waters are mineral waters so there isn’t a need to add salt! Good stuff.
  • Use an ion exchange filter to remove fluoride and all the other impurities from your sink and your shower. I recommend Tim Hickey of Friends of Water. Agree. And I recommend Tyent. I had access to one for a while. It was awesome.

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10 tips for better sleep via FPS

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Today’s post is too good to be re-worded or paraphrased. Below is a copy of Functional Performance Systems’ 10 Tips For Better Sleep. To be honest, this post provides much more than just a few ways to sleep better – it provides insight on how to reduce stress, how to increase energy resources, anabolic hormones, and metabolic rate, and how to create a healthier digestive system (aka burn fat, boost metabolism, build muscle, increase sex drive, recover quicker, have healthy teeth and gums, increase memory capacity, detoxify efficiently, and everything else desired from a healthy diet)…

Energy production and resting body temperature regulate many functions. Ample energy is required to relax fully and sleep deeply. The key to quality sleep is high energy metabolism and maintaining optimal body temperature (98-98.6F). Children sleep well because of their ability to maintain a high body temperature and produce energy and carbon dioxide. The combination of these factors lead to restful sleep rather than inflammatory or stressful sleep.

Disturbed rest is associated with aging, obesity, menopause, depression, and other health problems. If sleep quality is poor, the basis for the issue is an energy problem. As efficient energy production fails (as in hypothyroidism), compensatory mechanisms kick in to prop up the metabolism and the falling body temperature. This compensation involves stress substances that provoke a wide variety of symptoms, among them insomnia or other sleep issues. Here is a brief list of some signs or symptoms of poor sleep quality:

  • Waking unrested or groggy
  • Nocturnal urination
  • Night sweats
  • Difficulty going to sleep
  • Difficulty getting back to sleep if awoken
  • Low waking temperature and pulse
  • Resting temperature or pulse falls after eating breakfast
  • Waking once or more during the night
  • Waking with a rapid heart beat
  • Waking with inflammation, swelling, or coldness especially in hands or feet
  • Snoring
  • Sleep apnea
  • Mouth breathing or waking with dry mouth
  • Nightmares
  • Waking with no appetite

All of the following sleep-enhancing tips promote the production of energy and a reduction in substances that increase stress and inefficient energy production.

1. Eat something salty before bed.
Sodium lowers several stress mediators that can rise during sleep including serotonin, adrenaline, cortisol, and aldosterone. Salt optimizes the blood volume and circulation essential for the delivery of oxygen and nutrients, helps stabilize blood sugar, increases or maintains the body temperature, and raises the production of carbon dioxide (see #8 in this list). A canning and pickling salt added to a sugary beverage, off a spoon, or in bone broth eaten before bed is a good way lower inflammatory nocturnal substances.

2. Eat something sugary before bed.
Like sodium, sugar is anti-stress and raises the body temperature. Ripe fruits, fresh orange juice, or milk are good sources of sugar before bed. These carbohydrate choices also contain anti-stress minerals (magnesium, potassium, and calcium) that benefit energy production and sleep quality. Fresh juice with some salt and gelatin added is a good combo, and to make it more potent coconut oil eaten off a spoon can help produce energy efficiently and balance the bloods sugar. Starchy carbohydrates should be avoided because they make blood sugar balance difficult.

Milk with a little sugar and a pinch or more of pickling salt added is a pre-sleep cocktail that has proven successful with my clients and myself. The casein in milk is anti-stress, and the calcium in milk is pro-metabolism and can regulate blood pressure while lowering parathyroid hormone (PTH), which plays a role in some cases of insomnia when elevated. Tips #1 and #2 can assist you with going back to sleep if you happen to awaken one or more times during the night.

3. Eat less meat later in the day.
Meats are rich in tryptophan, which is the precursor to the stress substances serotonin and melatonin. Although generally seen as substances to increase to improve sleep by mainstream standards, these stress substances lower metabolism and disrupt restful, regenerative sleep. This means do not supplement with melatonin or 5-HTP supplements.

By consuming foods deficient in tryptophan later in the day, you can minimize the the nocturnal production of serotonin and melatonin. Foods high in tryptophan are meats, whey protein, and egg whites. Cheese lacks tryptophan because the whey has been removed. Milk does contain tryptophan, but its other nutritional properties seems to offset its tryptophan content. Food, supplement, or food additives (carrageenan for instance) that inflame the intestines increase serotonin. High cortisol from stress, exercise, or blood sugar imbalances can increases serotonin as well.

High meat consumption relative to calcium intake from dairy or eggshell powder can disrupt calcium metabolism and cause a rise in parathyroid hormone, which is associated with sleep problems. This is another reason to be careful with over consumption of meat if you’re having sleep difficulties.

A gelatin supplement and broth contain no tryptophan and are high in glycine making them an is an excellent choice. Add a little butter and salt to broth for a sleep-inducing combo. Having broth or gelatin at meals containing meat during the day and night can help safeguard against poor sleep by providing a more balanced, anti-stress amino acid profile.

4. Use light therapy right up until bed time.
Light is essential for a high rate of metabolism. Our best defense against the stress from the onset of darkness is youthful, restorative sleep. As soon as the sun goes down, metabolism falls and stress substances that harm can sleep quality begin to rise. Darkness damages the energy producing structures (mitochondria) of the cell and (red) light from the sun or brightlight supplementation restores them. Red light also activates a key enzyme, cytochrome oxidase, needed for energy production. Shine one to three bright incandescent lights (250 watt BR40 bulb with 10” metal surround) on your skin continuously or intermittently from sunset until bed time to keep the metabolism revved up and stress hormones at bay. Light therapy can also be used during the day if you unable to get outside or if daylight hours are short like during the fall and winter.

5. Balance your blood sugar from the first to your last meal.
Eating imbalanced meals or eating too infrequently degrades sleep quality because of the stress response that results and if chronic enough, the metabolic suppression that occurs. Eating frequently and consuming digestible meals that contain both a protein source (something from an animal) and something from a plant (a carbohydrate) promote balanced blood sugar.

A balanced meal will generally allow you go 3 to 5 hours comfortably without feeling hungry. Anything shorter than that may be a sign that your meal balance or food choices need adjustment. Sipping fresh orange juice, milk, or a homemade shake during the day is a simple way to balance the blood sugar and keep stress substances from interfering with energy production.

6. Use raw carrot (salad) or bamboo shoots daily to reduce endotoxin.
Endotoxin made by bacteria in the intestines are responsible for systemic inflammatory responses in the body. During any type of stress, like darkness or low blood sugar for instance, endotoxin enter the blood stream and promote the stress reaction (rises in histamine, estrogen, tumor necrosis factor, serotonin, and cortisol). Bamboo shoots, raw carrot (salad), aged cascara sagrada, a digestible diet, cholesterol, at least one daily bowel movement,fructose, aspirin, and saturated fats are protective against endotoxin. The raw carrot and bamboo shoot therapies also help support the removal of estrogen, a stress hormone that decreases efficient energy production. Estrogen is in birth control and hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Using these classes of drugs can distort sleep quality, energy production, and hormone balance.

Raw Carrot Salad
C = 8g P = 1g F = 9g
117 calories per serving
Serves 1

Ingredients:
½ to 1 medium carrot
1 t olive oil
1 t refined coconut oil (or additional 1 t olive oil)
½ t favorite vinegar
Pinch of canning and pickling salt

Instructions:
1. Wash carrot thoroughly.
2. Shred carrot vertically and put in bowl.
3. Mix in remaining ingredients. If coconut oil is hard, melt slightly.
4. Pour dressing on carrot salad.

7. Avoid exercise later in the day.
Workouts raise a multitude of stress substances. Exercise depletes glycogen used to balance blood sugar while sleeping and promotes hyperventilation (excess loss of carbon dioxide). If exercise is chronically excessive, it can decrease reproductive hormones that promote sleep quality and suppress thyroid hormone synthesis.

Exercise is least stressful when the body is most resilient and resting temperature and pulse is at its highest (during the afternoon from 11 to 3 pm usually). Irregardless of the time of your session, having baking soda and aspirin with vitamin k prior to a session and sugar before, during, and after can reduce the stress from exercise.

8. Use carbon dioxide therapies.
Carbon dioxide is an often forgotten anti-stress substance. Many poor sleepers lack carbon dioxide, which is essential to energy metabolism and oxygenating the cells of the body (Bohr Effect). Carbon dioxide inhibits the release of serotonin (see #3) and directly opposes stress-promoting lactic acid.

The hypothyroid tend to be deficient in CO2. Using carbon dioxide therapies during the day and at night such as bag breathing, drinking carbonated water, a baking soda bath, or consuming baking soda off the spoon on in a beverage can be useful. Buteyko breathing techniques like mouth taping or improving the control pause are other therapies to research.

9. Limit PUFA.
Polyunsaturated fats (PUFA) are promoted as the “healthy fats” and “essential fats” yet they are universally toxic to human physiology and poison our energy production at multiple points,suppress immune function, lower the body temperature, harm the brain and heart, inhibit protein digestion, promote estrogen and cancer, shorten lifespan, and negatively affect our detoxification systems. PUFA also serve as the basis by which toxic and inflammatory breakdown products are made such as prostaglandins, isoprostanes, and lipid peroxides. Excess consumption of PUFA will not only degrade sleep quality, but they are silently a figure head in the rise in obesity and chronic disease in the western world.

Examples of PUFA:

  • Soy oil
  • Corn oil
  • Safflower oil
  • Canola Oil (used in cooking at Whole Foods Market)
  • Fish oil (DHA/EPA) supplements
  • Fatty fish
  • Flax Oil/Linseed Oil
  • Walnut Oil
  • Almond Oil
  • Grains
  • Above ground vegetables
  • Beans
  • Nuts
  • Any nut, seed, bean, or vegetable oil
  • Industrially fed chickens and pigs

PUFA are found in all natural foods so avoiding them completely is impossible. However, consuming foods rich in saturated fats offer protection against the toxicity of the PUFA you eat and the PUFA stored in your tissues. Saturated fats are best for humans since these fats are stable at temperature and when exposed to oxygen.

Examples of saturated fats:

  • Chocolate fats
  • Refined coconut oil
  • Butter
  • Ghee
  • Dairy
  • Ruminant fat (buffalo, cow, goat, lamb, deer)
  • Grass fed eggs
  • Pastured or wild animal fats

10. Be careful with fermented foods.
Lactic acid is produced by cells during stress and also by bacteria in fermented foods. In either case, the liver is responsible for converting lactic acid into glucose. This process requires the use of fuel stored in the liver (glycogen). When available, glycogen is used during sleep to maintain the blood sugar so depleting it with fermented foods affects sleep quality and duration. To avoid this energy burden on the liver, reduction or elimination of fermented foods like kombucha, alcohol, yogurt, sauerkraut, and homemade fermented anything is a good idea. If you find yourself waking during the night, kick some of the fermented foods in your diet to curb for a while to see if your sleep improves.

Summary
This list is not meant to be exhaustive. When health issues are considered a deficiency of energy, many useful and simple therapies are available. The tips listed here extend to correction of more health problems than just sleep issues.

Charting your resting temperature and 60s pulse upon waking while lying in bed, 30-40 minutes after breakfast, and in the afternoon between 12 and 2 pm can give you feedback about whether your dietary and lifestyle strategies are positively or negatively affecting your energy production. The body is capable of overcoming any health issue if given enough energy. Many thanks to Ray Peat, PhD for opening my eyes and others to a new, optimistic perspective on health.

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Metabolism, Stress, Cold Hands & Feet

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I’ve been asked about (and have experienced) cold hands and feet on occasion. It’s not just a way of life, as it can be for some, but a true symptom of an underlying cause. External environment aside, the body isn’t meant to have cold hands or feet and stress is its most important factor. No, not running-from-a-lion stress (although that can be included), but dietary, physical, and mental (and thus all resulting in hormonal) stress can very easily be the cause.

You can live without an arm or a leg but you can’t live without a liver! (Paul Chek)

Paul is right. In a state of stress (or shock) the body will pull blood from the non-important areas of the body to bring it back into center where all of the vital organs reside. These vitals keep the body ticking; not-so-much the fingers, feet, or knee caps. The body knows exactly what it is doing and, as individuals, we must be responsible to keep an eye and ear out to understand, interpret and then react accordingly to what’s going on.

The temperature of [the] fingers, toes, and nose helps to interpret the balance between stress and thyroid; [the] fingers should be less cold as [the] metabolic rate comes up. In extreme hypothyroidism, the hands and feet can be very cold while the oral temperature looks o.k.; then as the metabolic rate increases, the difference between fingers and mouth decreases. (Ray Peat)

Thanks, Ray. He hit the nail even more on the head by correlating stress and thyroid function – metabolic rate, homeostasis, the epicenter of all-things-regulating-healthy-bodily-functions. Peat looks at the heart rate and body temperature as instruments in determining thyroid (metabolic) health.

It’s not rocket science to notice cold hands and feet, meaning you don’t need a thermometer to tell ya what you can experience through awareness. Why does it happen? Well, I can go on about diet, physical, and mental stressors, but I think I’ll be barking about what you intuitively already know. Instead, here are a few questions to get you pointed in a perspective direction…

  • What time of day do you experience cold hands and feet? Upon waking, before/after lunch, before/after dinner, before/after exercise, before/after bed.
  • What is your heart rate at the same times mentioned above?
  • Do you notice cold hands and feet or an increased/decreased heart rate when consuming certain foods/drinks, in between meals (note the duration), doing certain activities (exercise, showering, sleeping, work, school, sex), or pertaining to certain sleeping patterns (sleeping “on time” or enough)?

This perspective approach can be taken with ANYTHING, not just cold hands and feet. Lifestyle Journals are the new black.

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Reduce stress and disease by removing morons

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So I’m reading through an article on Epilepsy and I come across this excerpt in the article – had to blog it…

By manipulating the diet and environment, [humans] can be made more or less [disease]-prone, and it happens that the changes that affect the brain affect all other organs, in ways that are now fairly well understood. Examining the cellular events associated with a [disorder] is useful for therapy and prevention of [disorders]… It is now clearly established that stress can cause brain damage, as well as other diseases. Now that our public health establishment has eliminated smoking from public places, maybe they can find a way to reduce stress and disease by removing morons from positions of power.

-Ray Peat

Over-Simplifying Ray Peat

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If you’re familiar with some of my previous physical-health-related posts you may have picked up on what I’m for or against. Much of my current health stance stems off of the work of Dr. Raymond Peat, his research via Hans Seyle & Gilbert Ling, and Peat’s blogging army of Josh Rubin, Matt Stone, Danny Roddy, Rob Turner, Tracie Hittman, & C02 Factor (to name a few). For the sake of getting-to-know-the-basics, below is a short-summary of Peat’s stance via Chris Rosenfelt, a Peat-a-tarian, as Roddy boasts…

“Dr. Peat believes that energy and structure are interdependent, therefore providing proper oxidative energy to the simplest, smallest unit of living matter, the cell. Cells form tissues, tissues form organs and organs form the human body, obviously this is in its very simplistic form but if you take care and provide the proper nutrients/energy to the cell then it should have a “ripple effect” throughout the organism.

So Dr. Peat’s philosophy is just about maintaining proper oxidative energy through the use of protective hormones and elements such as thyroid, pregnenolone, progesterone, testosterone, carbon dioxide, glucose, saturated fats and not letting the potentially negative hormones and elements (if chronically activated) like cortisol, adrenaline, estrogen, PUFA’s, ACTH, lactic acid, carbon monoxide, parathyroid, prolactin, TSH, protein kinase C, etc… get out of control in the body.”

What does this all mean [without context]?

Peat approaches health by breaking the body down into its simplest form: a cell. Providing a cell with the appropriate energy (fuel/nutrient-dense food) and the appropriate environment (pro-anabolic hormone, anti-stress hormone, excreting bacterial endotoxin, eating anti-inflammatory foods) will encourage the tissues, organs, muscles, bones, and blood (which are all made up of cells) to follow suit (hence the ripple effect). Sounds pretty simple, huh?!

Peat researches hormones and how diet/lifestyle can either help or hinder their appropriate release. I suggest starting with Roddy’s blog to get a general idea of what Peat promotes.

Regarding any diet changes or implementation – do your own research, figure out what works for you in the interim AND long run (the long run is HUGE), and consult a trained professional.

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