Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Copyright 2010
Hans Wu
All Rights Reserved
Disclaimer
This book is not intended for the treatment/prevention of disease. My
advice does not substitute for medical treatment whatsoever.
Everything has been provided for informational purposes only and all
recommendations outlined herein shall not be adopted without
consultation with a doctor. Use of guidelines in this book is at your own
risk and is your responsibility.
Author's Note
The ideas explained and discussed in this book are by no means novel
discoveries. Most things have been discussed and researched in the
literature and online communities for many years now. This eBook is
just an explanation for what I have implemented in my life and
recommend for others. For more information visit my blog Beyond
Paleo. The url is: http://beyondpaleo.blogspot.com
If you have any questions you can contact me at:
beyondpaleo@hotmail.com
Hans Wu (2010)
Acknowledgements
There have been many resources online that I have used to discover
many of the issues discussed here, my home forum is the Immortality
Institute (http://www.imminst.org) where the participants have already
discussed the various ideas laid out in the book before I even had the
capability to understand them all, so I would like to thank all the users
there.
If you do not know by now, I hate to proofread and my grammar is
horrendous, so I would like to thank Lisa Ma for taking the time to look
over the book and correct my numerous mistakes. If there are still
mistakes it is her fault.
Last but not least I would like to thank my mother for entertaining these
crazy ideas that I have tried to implement in the household. Sounded
crazy at first but the results are undeniable.
Also thanks for reading the book, not the highest quality you will ever
see but hey it is free.
Table of Contents
Introduction ................................................................................. 7
Chapter 1: The State of Nutrition ................................................ 9
Chapter 2: The Paleolithic Diet .................................................. 12
Chapter 3: Calories and Nutrients .............................................. 30
Chapter 4: Weight Loss/Gain ..................................................... 44
Chapter 5: Minimizing Damage .................................................. 53
Chapter 6: The Natural and Supplements .................................. 63
Chapter 7: Maintaining the Body ............................................... 71
Chapter 8: Biometric Measurements ......................................... 77
Chapter 9: Perpetual Leanness .................................................. 84
Chapter 10: Paleo Shoes, Posture, and Sitting ........................... 93
Chapter 11: How Much Life Left?............................................... 98
Appendix I: Olive Oil................................................................. 105
Appendix II: Acne and Balding ................................................. 110
Appendix III: Skinny Fat Body Type .......................................... 115
Appendix IV: Riskier Supplements ........................................... 117
Appendix V: Bodyweight Exercises........................................... 122
Appendix VI: Soft Tissue Therapy and Stretching .................... 123
6
Introduction
Take care of your body with steadfast fidelity. The soul must see
through these eyes alone, and if they are dim, the whole
world is clouded. ~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Evolution created intelligent but imperfect self-repairing
machines. Our cells and tissues are constantly wearing out and
being regenerated and most of the time we dont even notice it.
We age because of this incomplete process. As we exhaust our
cells, it gets repaired, but it is never like the original. Slowly
over the years the gap between our original state and repaired
state widen expressing itself as the typical changes of old-age.
Only recently has this gap come to the forefront. In the past we
suffered from infectious diseases, injuries, and starvation; most
of the world still does, but modern science has focused on the
new problem of chronic diseases (that is where the money is).
For those reading this book, you are probably more likely to die
of the diseases of civilization than the more tropical diseases.
Modern technology has rid us of many diseases that would
otherwise end our lives when we turn 40; instead we now live
until 80, a territory where evolution has not had a chance to act
upon. In return for our extended lifespan, technology has made
us stressed, out-of-shape, and overweight.
While we have doubled our lifespan in the last century (and will
be able to extend it in the next), people now suffer from diabetes,
heart disease, and dementia. It is not exactly my preferred way to
live the last half of my life. One extreme intervention for
preventing this suffering is Calorie Restriction with Optimal
Nutrition (CRON). This is a lifestyle where you consume less
than you expend but achieve all your required nutrients. The
metabolic adaptation that takes place extends maximum lifespan
(probably your best bet to achieve 120 years of age), but also
keeps you younger at the older age. The Okinawans probably
7
The other problem is the data collected from rats, mice and
hamsters. Lets say we used lions instead for our studies. We
feed it celery for 6 months and we are surprised it died of a heart
attack, we feed it beef for 6 months and they are perfectly
healthy with clean arteries. Then the newspapers can say that
celery causes heart disease, and then the researchers can use their
data and find a relationship between celery and heart disease (I
have seen weirder correlations). Its too bad lions dont have a
shorter life-span. Mice and rats do have a shorter life, in that way
we dont have to wait decades for the results of a study to come
out. The problem is what do rats eat? They are herbivores. Their
natural diet is a bunch of plants with hardly any cholesterol or
saturated fat. If we feed it lots of fat no doubt something bad
happens.
Beginning in 1992 the US government began recommending a
diet high in whole grains and low in animal products (a highcarbohydrate low-fat diet). This began to alter our psychology of
what was considered healthy. With the fear of saturated fat
spreading across the nation, the only thing left to turn to was
carbohydrates and the industry jumped at the idea of low-fat
products, which suddenly meant that high-carbohydrate diets
were good. The agriculture industry (which provides the grains
we use to make processed foods) had developed into a very
powerful entity which now greatly influences our food choices.
If you look at the advisory panel for the USDA Dietary
Guideline recommendations it does not seem very impartial.
One dietary regimen that I thought cut through all these
problems was the Paleolithic Diet. It is based on the principle
that what helps us maintain our health is what we evolved to eat.
Just like a cow eats grass and lions eat meat, in our natural
environment we eat a certain way. The problem is that the
diversity of the human diet is vast. Some are high-carbohydrate
and some are low-carbohydrate, but this is a recent phenomenon.
Anthropology shows that we evolved in the equatorial region of
Africa for millions of years and the diet present there is probably
10
11
Meat (%)
Vegetables (%)
Intake (g/ind)
!Kung Winter
31
69
740
!Kung Fall
90
10
816
To understand why this diet has so much appeal you would have
to understand evolution. Heres a small refresher course that I
hope helps. I love Kent Hovinds explanation of evolution:
Twenty million years ago there was the big bang. 4.6 billion
Years ago the earth cooled down. It rained on the rocks for
millions of years and turned into soup, and the soup came alive 3
billion years ago. So your great great great great great great
grandpa was soup.
This tells you what happened but not how it happened. Before
we start I want to say that this is a thought experiment, I
apologize for any inaccuracies portrayed here. So, imagine a
population of 10 primates living in the jungle. They all eat
leaves. One day a primate happens upon some meat (I dont
know how) and eats some of it and dies. Its digestive tract hasnt
evolved to consume raw meat. Soon the primate is replaced.
Another day another primate finds some meat and eats some, by
some quirk of the randomness of nature (mutations) this primate
has developed not only the digestive capability of digesting meat
but also has developed a taste for it. This primate then has
children who also have the same quirk, but this new primate also
utilizes the nutrients better (another mutation) and thus develops
bigger muscles and brains. This bigger muscled, more brained
primate is liked by more females thus also has more children
with the same quirks. So on and so forth until the meat eating
primates move somewhere else to find more meat. The
vegetarians stay behind to become chimpanzees and apes, the
omnivores move on to become us.
Extend this process down to minute-details over millions of
years and there you have human evolution. The first primate died
because of the lack of ability to digest meat. This is because it
didnt have the mechanisms to digest it. This principle also
applies to us. There are some things that we havent developed
the mechanisms to digest yet and probably never will
(considering human evolution has either completely stopped or
at least slowed down incredibly).
13
10,000 years ago, which is a far cry from the millions of years
we have been evolving. There are two important classes of antinutrients: class A (the protease inhibitors and lectins) and class B
(the antiminerals e.g. phytate).
Protease inhibitors block your digestive enzymes preventing it
from breaking down protein.
Lectins are plant proteins that bind to carbohydrate moieties on
our cells. This is a special type of anti-nutrient that everyone
should take the effort to either destroy or just simply avoid.
Lectins are dangerous because they bind to carbohydrates found
on your gut cells, and of course these carbohydrate groups have
other function besides being bound by an anti-nutrient. When
lectin binds it can lead to a host of problems. You can think of
the carbohydrates on your gut as a lock and the lectin as a key.
Normally the lock should not be opened because your gut
protects you from the outside world (just like our skin). You
would not want your skin to have gaping holes, so following this
train of thought, you definitely do not want your gut to have
holes. When the lectin (the key) binds to the carbohydrates (the
lock) it opens a door that leads to malfunctioning membranes
and proteins, and may even cause inflammation and autoimmune
disorders.
Could it be that it is our modern consumption of lectin that leads
to obesity? The study below speculates that the holes caused by
lectin will allow lectin into the bloodstream, where it can then
bind to a bunch of other carbohydrates in the blood (like the
brain):
Jnsson T, Olsson S, Ahrn B, Bg-Hansen TC, Dole A,
Lindeberg S. Agrarian diet and diseases of affluence--do
evolutionary novel dietary lectins cause leptin resistance? BMC
Endocr Disord. 2005 Dec 10;5:10.
15
Wheat
The wheat we know today traces back to a wild grass called
Triticeae. From what Ive read it has a very pleasing flavor, so
thats probably why it got utilized from the beginning. The
17
19
21
Vegetable Oils
If vegetables are healthy, shouldnt vegetable oils be healthy? It
really depends. If you can press it out of the plant in question it
seems okay. If you must extract it with modern processing, that
is another question.
By Weight
Polyunsaturated
%
Monounsaturated
%
Saturated %
Soybean
Oil
57
Margarine Butter
34
Olive
Oil
8
Lard
26
49
29
75
44
15
17
56
16
42
10
inflammation. Short-term inflammation is necessary, its longterm inflammation that can cause problem. If your blood vessels
are constantly inflamed something is bound to happen. With the
introduction of soybean oil, corn oil, and margarine to replace
our traditional fat sources, the n-6/n-3 ratio has been strongly
skewed towards n-6 with commonly known dietary ratios today
of 20:1. Compare this to our Paleolithic ancestors, who probably
had ratios closer to 1:1.
You cannot necessarily solve the problem by increasing your n-3
intake. Instead, it is important to bring your n-6 intake down
because of the other important differences between the fatty
acids type: oxidation and reactivity.
Monounsaturated
Polyunsaturated
Saturated
The basis of the fatty acid names are descriptive of how many
double bonds each type has. The number of double bonds is
important because it determines how reactive it is in the presence
of oxygen or free radicals. Its a tough concept to explain so
hopefully you have had some chemistry classes. All you really
need to know is that the more double bonds it has the more
chances there is for it to break (oxidize).
There is not only controlled oxidation of fatty acids (beta and
alpha), but autooxidation (happens by itself) as well. The type of
damage that happens in autooxidation is bad because it
perpetuates more damage. Just think about keeping nonhydrogenated margarine at room temperature and butter at room
temperature and seeing which one goes rancid faster. The
increased rancidity in butter is due to autooxidation, a process
that also happens within the body.
23
The important thing to realize is that the type of fatty acids you
consume in your diet ends up being the type of fatty acids your
body utilizes. The more polyunsaturated fatty acids (the ones
more likely to go rancid) causes your body to go rancid (the
actual process is a bit more complicated).
One of the numerous mechanisms by which CR works is by
decreasing the incorporation of polyunsaturated fatty acids into
cells. So we should try the same by using safe oils:
Coconut Oil
Palm Oil
Avocado
Olive Oil (please see Appendix I)
Animal Fats
Our diets should be mostly saturated fats and monounsaturated
fats, leaving polyunsaturated fat consumption to our intake of
foods such as nuts, avocados, and the 3 servings of fish per week
(and maybe some flax seed oil).
Fructose/Sugar
Table sugar is half fructose and half glucose. You may know
fructose as the fruit sugar/natural sugar. It's commonly used as
27
29
30
Calories
The amount of energy your body burns in a day is represented by
the calorie. The resting metabolic rate (RMR) is a measurement
of how much energy your body requires in a day if you just sat
there for 24 hours.
Everyones RMR is different (just like everyones set-point is
different) but there are equations out there that can help you
estimate your daily requirements. The most accurate equation is
probably the Katch-McArdle formula which is based on lean
body mass (LBM). This equation requires your body-fat
percentage, which most people dont know. The other formula is
the Mifflin-St Jeor Equation:
Male: BMR = 10weight(kg) + 6.25height(cm) - 5age + 5
Female: BMR = 10weight(kg) + 6.25height(cm) - 5age
161
Multiplied by an activity factor:
1.200 = sedentary (little or no exercise)
1.375 = lightly active (light exercise/sports 1-3
days/week, approx. 590 Cal/day)
1.550 = moderately active (moderate exercise/sports 3-5
days/week, approx. 870 Cal/day)
1.725 = very active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days a
week, approx. 1150 Cal/day)
1.900 = extra active (very hard exercise/sports and
physical job, approx. 1580 Cal/day)
A male who is 70kg, 170cm, and 20 years old has a BMR of
1667.5, and including his activity factor (1.200), his daily caloric
requirement is 2000 calories.
The best way to determine your maintenance calorie level would
be to observe your normal eating habits for one week by
measuring and weighing everything that you eat. Taking the
31
Macronutrients
Protein, carbohydrate, and fat are the macronutrients. In terms of
calories this is how it breaks down:
1g of protein = 4 calories
1g of digestible carbohydrate = 4 calories
1g of fat = 9 calories
Others: 1g of fiber = 1-2 calories, 1g of alcohol = 7
calories
In the end, calories do count. If you want to lose weight you
have to eat below maintenance; if you want to gain weight you
eat above. While it is calories that account for your overall
weight, there are factors we can manipulate that hopefully
increase our non-fat mass while decreasing fat mass (discussed
in Chapter 9)
Protein
Protein is an essential nutrient, our bodies can make the fats and
carbohydrate we require but without protein we cannot survive.
While very low carbohydrate diets and very low fat diets are
possible, a very low protein diet is not; this would lead to protein
deficiency (Kwashiokor) and result in death. Consequently, when
designing a proper diet the first consideration should be protein
intake.
The RDA for protein is 0.8g/kg of bodyweight, however Flango
et al. (2010) have recently shown that there is evidence that
protein requirements have been significantly underestimated,
and that the RDA should probably be closer to 1.0g/kg.
32
Carbohydrates
Many people blame excess sugar and carbohydrate intake for the
increase in chronic diseases today, and I would have to agree.
This is not to say that you should not eat any carbohydrates
whatsoever, but you should definitely eat within your bodys
ability to deal with the load.
Diabetes is a disease of insulin resistance that comes about due
to overloaded energy stores. Your body stores carbohydrates and
fats in 3 places: muscles, adipose tissue, and the liver. The
adipose tissue stores it as lipids, muscles have the ability to store
it both as glycogen and lipid droplets, and the liver stores it as
glycogen (but pathologically can also store tons of fat). When the
adipose tissue is full and the skeletal muscles are full, the extra
carbohydrates and fats you consume in your diet float around in
the blood causing a host of problems (hyperglycemia).
When you eat pure carbohydrates (not including fructose), your
body goes into carbohydrate oxidation mode and shuts down fat
oxidation (saving the fat). When you eat a mixture of
carbohydrate and fats, the carbohydrate is preferentially burned
and the fat gets stored. If you eat pure fat, fat oxidation is
bumped up because of the lack of carbohydrate. Now this all sits
on a spectrum. If your metabolic rate is 2000 calories a day, and
you consume 2000 calories of carbs, itll burn off the 2000
(unless you are diabetic). If you consume 1000 calories of
carbohydrate and 1000 calories of fat, youll burn it all off but
you would never tap into your fat stores. To tap into the fat stores
you must create a caloric deficit; the body has to have a reason to
tap the fat on your body.
35
Fats
So far we have established that a 70kg man should be consuming
70g of protein, 100g of digestible carbohydrate and 30g of fiber.
This total caloric intake comes out to 740 calories. Considering
he probably requires 2000 calories a day to maintain his weight
that leaves 1260 calories for dietary fat, which turns out to be
140g. In reality, if he incorporates this lower38
Micronutrients/Phytonutrients
Dr. Bruce Ames, who has done considerable research on Alpha
Lipoic Acid and Acetyl-L-Carnitine, has also established a
theory of aging: Triage Theory. Basically, without optimal
nutrition the body sacrifices short-term survival at the expense of
long-term survival. Each micronutrient your body uses is
involved in some important process to keep you alive, so if you
are missing one of them or some of them the mechanisms
involved in keeping you alive are not functioning optimally,
leading to DNA damage, cell damage, oxidative damage, etc.
By using the program Cron-O-Meter and measuring your food
intake for a week you should get an idea of which vitamins and
minerals you are deficient in.
The other component is the phytonutrients. Phytonutrients are
the substances found in vegetables which seem to confer health
benefits upon the consumer. Unlike the anti-nutrients in grains,
the phytonutrients have probably been consumed by our
39
Carninutrients
Just like plants have phytonutrients, meat has carninutrients
(carni- stands for carnivore). There are various carninutrients that
we consume which are beneficial. A lot of research has been
done with regards to vegans/vegetarians because of their lack of
meat intake. If they dont consume meat they dont get the
following carninutrients:
Taurine
Carnosine
Creatine
Vitamin B12
There are many more but these are just some of the important
ones. Take taurine as an example:
Sebekov K, Krajcoviov-Kudlckov M, Schinzel R, Faist V,
Klvanov J, Heidland A. Plasma levels of advanced glycation
end products in healthy, long-term vegetarians and subjects on a
western mixed diet. Eur J Nutr. 2001 Dec;40(6):275-81.
This study found that vegetarians have higher plasma levels of
advanced glycation end products (see Chapter 5). It is suspected
that lack of taurine might be the cause. If you do decide to be
vegetarian make sure to get your bases covered by
supplementing with the carninutrients.
43
Chapter 4: Weight
Loss/Gain
Don't dig your grave with your own knife and fork. ~English
Proverb
Eating and storing is much more evolutionarily advantageous
than not eating and not storing. This is the Thrifty Gene
Hypothesis: those more likely to store energy are more likely to
survive. It is much harder to lose fat than gain fat. While your
body does gain weight when you eat more and lose weight when
you eat less, it is much more complicated than that. We all have a
programmed set-point. It is a weight range that our bodies fight
to maintain. If you have tried a diet before you know how hard it
is to lose weight and keep it off. For example, I am 510 and
weigh 175lbs at 10-11% body-fat. On an average daily basis I
consume 2100 calories to maintain this composition. If I ever
wanted to get down to the single-digit body fat levels I would be
required to decrease my caloric consumption down to probably
1700-1800 average daily. While I may be able to achieve those
caloric intakes for a while soon metabolic adaptations will take
place that will make me colder, less likely to exercise, dreaming
about food, shot libido, loss of muscle mass, all which are the
result of going below your set-point because the body is trying
its best to conserve energy and make you eat. If I eat over setpoint, like 2600 calories a day, my metabolism will go up, I will
have more energy, and I would gain weight. Everyones body
tries its best to defend a set-point, and every person has a
different in response when defending the set-point. You
probably seen those very thin people who eat a ton and yet stay
thin; they have a very good defensive mechanism. If one day
they eat a ton, they are more likely to become active and increase
exercise and non-exercise activity thermogenesis (such as
tapping their legs and fidgeting).
44
The big problem here though is that our set-points are much
more likely to go up, than it is to go down. Set-point is by
feedback to the brain and in general I consider there to be two
pathways: the Reward pathway and the Fed pathway. The reward
pathway has to do with how happy you feel after eating. For
example, if you have ever been stressed or got dumped you are
much more likely to eat sweets and carbohydrates. The simple
reason for this effect is that these types of foods raise dopamine.
Under these conditions the reward pathway is below its natural
set-point so the body tries to raise it by any means necessary,
thus eating. This pathway is usually responsible for addiction to
drugs such as cocaine and nicotine. After smoking for months,
your brain is used to a higher dopamine level and when you try
to stop smoking, its hard because your dopamine levels drop, so
most people begin to eat, but sooner or later they start smoking
again. One thing you see with addiction is that, the person never
breaks the addiction, they just use willpower to overcome it,
but they will always crave it under similar circumstances. As you
can see set-points usually go up, but doesnt come back down
(just like weight gain), this is because on the way up the body is
adapting to stronger signals (more dopamine), but on the way
down it has nothing to adapt to because if set point were to move
lower, it has to adapt to a lack of signal.
The Fed pathway is where the body tells itself it is full. If you eat
and your stomach is full or your body knows its gotten enough
calories your appetite gets suppressed. If you ate an extra 1000
calories the day before and didnt exercise it off, today youre
not as hungry so you spontaneously eat less. Then why do we get
fat if the Fed pathway works. It stop workings because of the
reward pathway, that feeling of happiness overrides the fed
pathway, ever hear of the saying there is always room for
desert. So what happens is that one day you start consuming a
lot of junk food constantly stimulating the reward pathways
(which the body likes) and a few months later your 15lbs heavier
(freshman 15).
45
place. What about for health? I have never read anything about
how constantly exposing your arteries to influx of dietary
products is healthy. If anything it is damaging. There is a lot of
damage that occurs in the post-prandial state (after eating) and
there is a lot of research about how to minimize post-prandial
damage (see Chapter 5). I will discuss this concept of fasting
more in a later chapter, but for now all you have to know is that
fasting is beneficial, not fasting is harmful.
So lets say you are going to a big party where you know you
cant resist. Why not just create a huge caloric deficit the day
before or on that day. If the party is on Friday, fast for 16 hours
on Wednesday and Thursday, after the fast eat a normal sized
meal. That way you just created a deficit of probably 2000
calories, and then do your thing on Friday. If you throw in some
resistance training on Friday in the morning or before the party
thats even better for calorie partitioning (more on this later too).
Dont be too hard on yourself when you fall of the bandwangon.
You have 100 years to live, one day isnt going to put a huge
dent in your lifetime.
The next part of a successful long-term diet is adherence. It has
to be a diet you can follow. It doesnt take too much willpower
(this also ties into flexibility) and is also a diet you dont feel
deprived of. This is where the low-carbohydrate diet comes into
the picture. I discussed many of the issues in the previous
chapter but I will go over them again.
Blood glucose helps regulate your appetite. Your brain is a very
selfish organ and it always gets what it wants. Because if it
doesnt you die. That hunger you get after eating a highcarbohydrate snack isnt real hunger in the sense that you
should eat something because your body is running below its setpoint. No its fake hunger, because of that quick spike in your
blood sugar levels, excess insulin was produced which causes
your blood sugar to fall below baseline, which means less sugar
for your brain so your brain wants you to eat. This is the whole
48
Carbohydrate loading is easy and also fun while were doing it.
Athletes and bodybuilders can easily consume over 3000 calories
of carbohydrate in a day. Theres something unsatiating about
carbohydrates. I could easily eat a whole box of cereal in one
sitting (depending on the box probably 2000 calories) but could
you eat 2000 calories of cheese? The funny thing is that I would
probably be hungry after the box of cereal (resulting low blood
sugar) but with the cheese I would be full and disgusted for the
day. By lowering your carbohydrate intake you not only stop
consuming the junk-food but it allows you to increase the fat
content of the diet which keeps your blood sugar level and
satiety centers satisfied.
The other benefit of a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet is it turns
up fat-burning machinery (this doesnt mean you burn more fat
from your body, that will depend on your caloric intake). This
spares glucose for the brain while the rest of the body runs on
fats (ketones). The ketones may also have beneficial properties
themselves.
Beyond the ability of low-carbohydrate high-fat diets to control
your caloric intake, a low-carbohydrate diet also has benefits that
will prevent the damage of your cells. This is important for the
prevention of chronic illnesses as we get older.
Left out of the discussion is the importance of exercise.
Remember I said set-point doesnt go lower, well it seems when
exercise is applied it does go lower (it also seems that way with
fasting too). By combining exercise, fasting, and a lowcarbohydrate diet a body fat percentage for males below 15%
and for females below 25% should be fairly easy to attain and
maintain.
Body Types
You probably heard of the term endomorph, mesomorph, and
ectomorph. It usually specifies the type of body that people have
naturally. The endomorph has a very easy time gaining weight as
50
51
Endomorph
Low P-ratio
Low NEAT
Does not control caloric intake well
Ectomorph
High P-ratio
High NEAT
Controls caloric intake well
Mesomorph
In the middle
What determines your body type? In the end it is probably
genetics and the environment in which you grew up, but I
believe they can be overcome with hard and smart work (Chapter
9).
Recently a new phenotype has been described and that is the
skinny-fat bodytype. The skinny-fat body type are the people
that are thin but have metabolic dysregulation just like someone
that is overweight with insulin resistance. While other people
would gain weight, the skinny-fat person does not gain weight
but can still end up with Type II diabetes (discussed in Appendix
III).
52
Chapter 5: Minimizing
Damage
About the only thing that comes to us without effort is old age.
~Gloria Pitzer
Aging is a disease because of damage. Just like the transmission
of a car gets worn-out, every cell in your body gets worn-out.
Unlike a car though, you cant replace your cells with new parts.
The damage created is just a part of being alive. Our body tries
our best to fight the entropy but evolution just did not have the
need to act on the parts that would keep us alive forever. Even
though we cannot prevent all the damage from occurring we can
try our best to minimize it. It just makes a lot of sense that we
should minimize damage to our bodies, we dont need to
increase the speed by which we age.
Source: Cai W, He JC, Zhu L, Chen X, Wallenstein S, Strike GE,
Vlassara H. Reduced Oxidant Stress and Extended lifespan in Mice
Exposed to a Low Glycotoxin Diet. Am J Pathol. 2007 June;
170(6):1893-1902
In this study Cai et al show that the group of mice consuming a
lower AGE diet lived longer. AGE definitely is not good for
mice, but they also arent good for humans. There is also a study
showing that by combining a high AGE diet with CR, the CR
benefits are abolished (no lifespan extension). Clearly this type
of damage should be minimized.
by the time you move along the line and get to the middle 50%
are alive, then at the bottom 0% is alive. So the lines can take
different paths. It can become more square, meaning less rats die
near the beginning, but then suddenly drop off at around the
same age (like humans), or that there is a very high death rate
throughout the lifespan creating the blue line (not accurate
because the blue line also shows a decrease in lifespan). The
other way it can move is parallel, the graphs could shift to the
right showing that at each time period the rat is living longer,
thus extending life span.
So in our example above with mice and AGE diets, the AGE-fed
mouse is the blue line and the controls were the black line (a CRmice would be the red line).
There are two sources for this type of damage: your blood sugar
levels and the damaged intermediates you consume in your diet.
Blood Sugar
High blood sugar is a dangerous thing. The body keeps blood
sugar regulated in a fairly narrow range through various
hormones (e.g. insulin, glucagon, glucocorticoids, epinephrine).
If your glucose levels are too low you die (the brain needs
glucose); if your glucose levels are too high, nothing acute
happens, but high glucose levels eventually lead to diabetes.
How well you body responds to your carbohydrate intake
depends on many factors such as source of carbohydrate, how
54
much fiber, protein, and fat you consume, how long since you
last ate, exercise, etc. However, the major factor is your insulin
sensitivity.
When you ingest a bowl of white rice (which is just starch and
water), the amylase (enzyme) in the mouth begins digesting the
starch molecules, which continue to be broken down in your
small intestine. It then gets broken up into tiny glucose
molecules, which are then absorbed through the hepatic portal
vein and released into blood for all the cells in your body. Your
body cannot really burn off all the carbohydrates at one time, so
now the muscles, adipose tissue, and liver suck it up from the
blood to prevent it from doing damage. This absorption of
glucose from the blood depends on a hormone called insulin,
which is released when you eat in preparation for storage. For
many reasons, consuming too many calories and excess
carbohydrates leads your muscles, adipose tissue and liver to
stop responding to insulin. This can lead to high blood sugar
levels (hyperglycemia) and then diabetes. Since your liver cannot
respond to insulin anymore, it believes that you dont have
enough glucose in the blood, which then causes it to start
pumping out glucose into the blood, making matters even worse.
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To get this test go to your doctor and ask for it. You preferably
want a level between 4% and 6%, however if you are already
diabetic aiming for below 7% is good.
In normal healthy individuals, glycated hemoglobin is a good
measure of how well you handle post-prandial hyperglycemia.
Post-prandial meaning after eating. Your blood glucose doesnt
spike up and down randomly throughout the day for no reason, it
usually follows what you consumed. If you ate 250g of
carbohydrate then your blood glucose will spike much more than
if you ate 100g. If you happen to have a blood glucose meter I
prefer to keep post-prandial glucose below 120mg/dL, this is
where my 130g of carbohydrate a day number also came from.
Heres another example to further stress the damaging nature of
glycation. Meat undergoes the Maillard Reaction, this is what
gives it the flavor when you grill it. Te Maillard reaction is what
leads to browning and it is also what leads to burning. This
process occurs in the body. The higher your blood sugar goes,
and the longer you stay in that environment the more browning
and burning occurs to the cells in your body. If you cook your
meat at a very low temperature it takes the meat longer to burn
into nothing, more normal glucose levels slow down the damage
you accumulate.
To prevent blood sugar spikes, consume fiber with your
carbohydrate sources (vegetables) and have some fats to slow
digestion. Also make sure to get your exercise and consume a
lower-carbohydrate diet because this depletes glycogen stores,
increasing insulin sensitivity (the emptier your energy stores are
the faster and more they can store).
Glycemic Index
The glycemic index is a measurement for how different food
types spike your blood sugar level. This would be a useful tool if
everyone ate only one food at a time, but I consider it a moot
point considering people consume mixed meals. Sure, white rice
57
has a high glycemic index, but when you eat it with a bunch of
broccoli, some meat, and fruit, what is the glycemic index
measuring exactly? The glycemic index diet probably works
because it tells you to eat more vegetables and less sugar.
Damaged Food-Products
Besides the glycation that occurs inside your body, you should
also be worried about the glycation in the food you digest
outside of your body. In the study I mentioned at the beginning
of the chapter, it showed that the AGEs in your diet matter. Fried
meat, bread crust, and evaporated milk are all processed at high
temperatures which lead to excessive glycative damage.
Heres a table showing the AGE content of a selection of foods:
Food
Pasteurized skimmed milk
Pasteurized whole milk
Evaporated whole milk
Butter
Cheese
Raw minced beef
Boiled miced beef
Fried minced beef
White bread crust
AGE
0.35
0.52
46.2
0.37
5.80
0.72
5.02
11.2
37.1
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Iron Levels
Women have monthly cycles which cause them to lose ~30mg of
iron every month while males gain ~1mg of iron per day after
the end of their growth period. There may be many explanations
as to why women live longer than men (~7 years longer, e.g.
estrogen, disposition) but one interesting possible reason is that
men get overloaded with iron as they age and women do not
(until they hit menopause).
Overall, our bodies are actually fairly good at regulating iron
stores. At the same time, hemachromatosis (a disease which
causes iron overload in humans) shows us the dangers of excess
iron: liver damage, diabetes, heart disease, arthritis. We can see
that excess iron is a bad thing. Iron causes all these problems
because of its interaction with the free radicals that are produced
from metabolism. The free radicals by themselves are not that
damaging, however, when combined with free iron the damage is
increased. The more iron there is, the more damage that occurs.
Alzheimers, diabetes, and liver disease are all associated with
increased iron stores in their respective locations. Here is a
prospective study showing the association between high iron
stores and atherosclerosis:
Jehn ML, Guallar E, Clark JM, Couper D, Duncan BB,
Ballantyne CM, Hoogeveen RC, Harris ZL, Pankow JS. A
prospective study of plasma ferritin level and incident diabetes:
the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. Am J
Epidemiol. 2007 May 1;165(9):1047-54.
The problem with many supplements and fortified foods is that
they are very high in iron. Not only that, but people go out of
their way to purchase extra iron supplements. Nowadays many
people also take multivitamins which contain Vitamin C. Mixing
Vitamin C and iron together is bad because not only does
Vitamin C increase iron absorption, but it also reacts with it
causing the production of free radicals. Dietary iron is usually
not a big problem (as long as you implement the interventions
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62
What they show in the study is that the rat fed aspartame and the
control rats had the same lifespan. In other words aspartame did
not cause more deaths despite what the conclusion of the study
states (the data was probably due to chance because the
researches were just really bad at taking care of the rats, many
rats died prematurely). If anything, the female group seemed live
longer when fed aspartame. So for the occasional treat I see no
reason why I would choose regular soda over diet-soda (30
grams of sugar or couple 180mg of aspartame).
Supplements
The supplements you should be taking should really be
determined by your diet. After a week of tracking with Cron-OMeter you should have a good idea of what you are deficient in.
If for some reason you cant reach 1.5x the RDA for each
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Cellulose
Di-Calcium Phosphate
Glycerin
These lists are by no means extensive but just keep an eye out
for how other ingredients there are. I have found some very
pricey supplements with 8-10 other ingredients.
Which supplements should you be taking then? Well there iss the
Weston A. Price nutrients, vitamins A, D3, and K2 (MK-7 or
MK-4) and maybe some magnesium and a source of omega-3s,
because modern diets are usually deficient in these nutrients.
Vitamin D3
This is not actually a vitamin but a hormone that our bodies
require to function optimally. Back near the equatorial region of
Africa we probably produced tons of Vitamin D3 due to
exposure from the sun. In 20 minutes our bodies have the
capacity to produce 20,000IU of Vitamin D3, yet for most of us,
when we go outside we cover ourselves up, stay in the shade,
and slap on sunscreen. These are actually fairly smart things to
do considering that UV light causes skin aging, damage, and
maybe cancer, but doesnt do much for our Vitamin D status. So
the first thing you should be supplementing with is at least
2000IU of Vitamin D3. What should optimally be done is to
supplement with 25IU/lb of bodyweight then get blood tests
performed measuring your levels to ensure that you are in the
optimal range >30ng/ml and less than 50ng/ml. You can read
more about Vitamin D and the Vitamin D Council website.
When you purchase the supplement ensure that it is in a softgel
form because Vitamin D3 is fat-soluble, and tablets dont have
any fat.
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Vitamin K2
We are animals so we use K2, but K2 is found mainly in cheese,
organ meats, and fermented soybeans; many foods people do not
consume today and because of modern processing even if you do
they are not present in large enough amounts. This means we
should probably supplement with it. Most people associate
vitamin K with bone health and this is true. Vitamin K2 helps
activate Vitamin K dependent (VKD) proteins allowing the body
to bring the calcium to where it is needed, instead of letting the
calcium float around in the body possibly leading to calcification
(heart disease).
Beyond just bone health, it has an array of other benefits:
Cancer
Neuroprotection
Cardiovascular health
Dental health
There are two forms: MK-7 and MK-4. MK-7 comes from
fermented soybeans while MK-4 is the endogenous animal form.
If you take MK-7 take 45mcg a day, if MK-4 take 1mg a day.
Also ensure that it is in a softgel form.
Magnesium
If youve analyzed your diet you are probably deficient in
magnesium. It takes conscious effort to design a diet sufficient in
magnesium so most people would rather supplement with it.
Even though I do achieve the RDA I choose to supplement with
some extra to get over the RDA just in case.
In the distant past, the majority of our magnesium was probably
from our water intake. Nowadays we filter our water and it
basically has no minerals in it. Supplementing with 250mg of
extra magnesium a day would benefit a lot of people in terms of
bone health, cardiovascular health, and diabetes.
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70
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Chapter 8: Biometric
Measurements
Friend to Groucho Marx: Life is difficult! Marx to Friend:
Compared to what?
Modern medicine has provided us with many ways to measure
our health. Some tests I wish I could afford are the genetic
screening provided by 23andme and the Biophysical250, which
tests 250 biomarkers (basically most of them in existence). To
judge your health you do not need all those 250 markers, but
there are some important ones that you can easily ask your
doctor to prescribe and then interpret yourself.
Vitamin D3
I discussed the importance of Vitamin D3 in Chapter 2. Take
20IU/lb of bodyweight for 3 months then get a blood test and
aim for 30-50ng/ml (75-125nM/L). If your doctor doesnt want
to give you that blood test either try and convince him (read the
Vitamin D Council Website) or find another doctor. An
alternative would be to just pay for one from the Vitamin D
Council Website (as of August 2010 it costs 65USD).
Lipid Profile
This test gives you 4 numbers, total cholesterol (TC), high
density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDL),
triglycerides (TG). This is my lipid profile as of July 2010:
TC: 5.47mmol/L (211mg/dL)
HDL: 2.53mmol/l (98mg/dl)
LDL: 2.69mmol/L (104mg/dL) (calculated)
TG: 0.51mmol/L (45mg/dL)
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78
79
80
Body Fat
I wish there was an easy and inexpensive way to test your body
fat percentage but there is not. I also wish we had a test for
visceral adipose tissue but I do not know of one (CRP maybe?).
So I have opted for how you look in the mirror and calipers to
make sure you are not getting fatter. Cheap calipers may be very
inaccurate but it is useful to gauge relative change. If you are
getting fatter you should see it in the mirror and also on the
calipers.
Another measurement that can be utilized is the waist to hip
ratio. If you have a lot of visceral adipose tissue your waist
circumference will be larger, it is taking up space and pushing
out the organ (e.g. beer belly). Women should have a waist to hip
ratio <0.7 and men <0.9. Measure waist circumference at the
belly button and hip circumference at the widest part.
Blood Pressure
This is an interesting biometric that lots of people have problems
with. Optimal blood pressure would be near or below 120/80
(systolic/diastolic). When doctors find out that their patients have
high blood pressure the common advice given is to decrease salt
intake. From all the literature I have seen decreased salt-intake
does not work that well, and because this folk wisdom has been
passed around, people are even becoming iodine deficient (most
modern diets source of iodine comes from salt).
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Chapter 9: Perpetual
Leanness
The idler never attains great age. ~Thomas Easton
Exercise is not going to extend you life into the extreme. On
average, I suspect maybe 2 years at most:
Paffenbarger RS, Lee I. A natural history of athleticism, health
and longevity. Journal of Sports Sciences, Volume 16,
Supplement 1, 1 May 1998 , pp. 31-45(15)
What the study found was that those from the Harvard Alumni
who remained active gained 1.5 years by age 90. However,
exercise is something everyone should still be doing; while it
does not extend life it does decrease your chances of dying
prematurely. By exercising you protect yourself from many
chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. The
improvement in strength and endurance you achieve applies to
all parts of the body: improved heart function, increased bone
strength and a more robust brain. It lowers blood pressure, burns
up fat, controls weight, and helps improve your lipid profile.
Finally, exercise not only makes you feel good, but it also makes
you look good which is what most people are interested in.
How does one remain lean 24/7/365? We are all aware of the
cyclical dieting that many people go through. When summer is
over, they pack on the weight, pack on more weight at the
holidays, then try their best to cut down for the beach season
again (but most fail). As I mentioned in Chapter 4 on weight
loss, this up and down cycle is not very good for your
metabolism. It probably increases the likelihood of gaining
weight when you are older. What I am more interested in is
maintaining a lean state all year round. Now, each persons
natural state of leanness is different, but this is mainly due to
genetics and the environment one grows up in (remember Set84
The Schedule
Low Intensity High Volume
(LIHV)
Total Duration: 30
minutes
4-5 sets, 10-20 reps.
Alternating lower-body and
upper-body.
Squats --> Pushups -->
Lunges --> Pull-ups -->
Ab Wheel on Knees -->
etc...
Monday
8:00am
LIHV
Workout
6:00pm
Eat
dinner,
a 24
12:00pm hour
Eat
fast.
largest
meal of
No
the day
more
eating
6:00pm after
Start
8:00pm
eating
(better
again
for
whenever, sleep).
but stop
eating by
6:00pm
Saturday Sunday
Rest days.
Stop
eating
food every
night at
8:00pm
though.
Fasting on
this day is
up to you.
Sometimes
I do
sometimes
I don't.
Exercise Supplements
If you walk into a supplement stores you find various workout
supplements. There are pre-workout, intra-workout, postworkout, pre-sleep formulas and many more. Many of the
expensive brands contain 50 or more ingredients and the
amounts/dosages are all hidden under the term proprietary
formula. Most people continuously switch between various
products and brands because they just do not see the claimed
effects, so how proprietary can it really be? These claims
include:
Increase muscle mass by 300%
Boost testosterone by 800%
Gain 6 lbs of lean mass in two weeks
Lose 2 inches of your waist in 2 days
Third party research/Backed by Science
These claims seem unlikely, and to tell you the truth they are.
They arent false but they arent true either. For example, by
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first you may have tightness in your shoulder not allowing you to
flatten out completely but with practice youll get there.
The squat relies on the contraction of your psoas muscles and
many others in the front of your body, thus to counteract that we
utilize a back bend (which I took from Yoga):
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Shoes
Running shoes are terrible. We did not evolve in the presence of
running shoes, or even shoes in general; we evolved with our
bare feet touching the dirt and rocks on the ground. We ran
barefoot, we walked barefoot and we stood and sat barefooted.
The mechanics of motion when wearing shoes and not-wearing
shoes are different. For example, go run on the grass with your
thick-soled, supported arch, raised heel running shoe, then try it
bare foot, its quite a different experience. With shoes we tend to
flex the foot and strike the heal, while bare feet our foot position
is more relaxed and its more of a front-mid foot strike.
What I have done is bought some very expensive shoes to mimic
our natural state. Theres Vibram Five Fingers and then for
something more natural, Vivo Barefoot shoes. Both are well
made but pricey. However, youll thank yourself for spending the
money. The way you feel by activating the proper muscles and
technique for walking/running is something worth spending the
money on.
Related to barefoot states, our feet have also been in contact with
the ground. The ground from before is not smooth and
homogenous like the floors we experience today. Its much more
varied and for the uninitiated its also much more painful but
youll get used to it. By evolving barefoot our bodies have also
developed mechanisms that react to various stimulations of the
foot:
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Posture
The picture on the right is the posture
most people today are told is the
proper posture. Shoulders back head
up, which causes an excessive curve
in the lower back. But in reality
based on traditional populations the
posture on the right is more
natural. Hip back until you can
drop a straight line down from the
hip socket to the ankles. To
counteract the weight backwards we
must lean forward (think caveman
like) then we pull our head up and
back. This gives us a much straighter
spine. If you have children you will notice that this is how your
children stand.
The posture on the left is held up by your muscles and ligaments
while the posture on the right is held up by each and every bone
sitting on top of another. For more information read Esther
Gokhales book 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back (it is accessible
for free on Google Books). Also, make sure to read the section
on sleeping (stretch lying on the side).
Sitting
Today we sit on reclining chairs and stools, when we do our
business we sit on a toilet rather than squat over a hole. The
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You keep your heels flat on the ground. Feet a bit wider than
shoulder width apart, then take your glutes straight to the floor.
Many people have problems with this at first, their behind cannot
pass parallel. This is tightness in your hips. If you have
problems, try holding onto something in front while squatting
down. If you can get all the way down, it is more of a stability
issue (not activating the right muscles). With practice you will
get there. Every day you should take some time to get down into
this position and open the hips and stretch the spine.
Heres a research paper using X-rays to study the quality of the
spines comparing indigenous populations to Western society:
Farhni WH, Trueman GE. Comparitive Radiological Study of the
Spines of a Primitive Population with North American and
Northern Europeans. J Bone Joint Surg Br. 1965 Aug;47:552-5
It is probably the squatting that provided indigenous populations
with their higher quality spine.
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down the rate of aging, I think that CR-folk can probably reach
up to 110-120 years old depending on their genetics and when
they started practicing, earlier being better. CR done today is
practice in conjunction with Optimal Nutrition (ON), while
centenarians probably do not practice ON. If those who are
genetically gifted practiced CRON, I would suspect that they
could live beyond 120.
Life Span
It may seem like we have extended our lifespan in the last 1000
years. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians had a life
expectancy of 30, now we can expect to live up to 80 (Japanese
women can expect to live up to 86.44). Its seems we easily
doubled our life span and if you plot it, it looks like we are
gaining a solid 2.5 years every decade in a straight line with no
plateau in sight. If you plot human survival curves it definitely
seems very square, but the squaring effect stopped at about 1950
(figure 3 in the study below) and seems to be shifting parallel:
Westendorp RGJ. What is healthy aging in the 21st century?
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 83, No. 2, 404S409S.
Remember Chapter 5?
In 1950 we reached the black line and now the survival curve
seems to be moving like the red one. As I said in the beginning
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Health Span
Even if we took the pessimistic view of 90, I would still
implement the lifestyle described in this book. Healthy life
expectancy is the number of years one can live with minimal
morbidity. For example, lets say you live until 90 but have
diabetes for 15 years, then cancer for 10. Your healthy life
expectancy from birth is only 75.
Japan has the longest healthy life expectancy:
Takeda S.[Healthy life expectancy and the standardized mortality
ratio for the elderly in Japan's 47 Prefectures] [Article in
Japanese]. Nippon Koshu Eisei Zasshi. 2007 Jan;54(1):25-31
It seems the longest health span is 80-84. This is quite close to
the life expectancy of 86 (I know Im mixing up data but close
enough).
From all the research, health span and life span are closely
correlated, healthier people just tend to live longer. But as
lifespan begins to reach the maximum (outside of anti-aging
interventions) morbidity will be compressed as people get
healthier. Even if I were to only achieve 86.44 (not saying Im a
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Where to Now?
Research in the field of aging is exploding. Of course, there has
been some resistance (hey, death is natural) but sooner or later
we will have interventions that will expand both our health span
and our life span. The common interpretation of anti-aging
interventions is that you will be 120 years old but be more
decrepit than a 90 year old (which is really bad), but this is not
how these interventions will work. The new technologies being
developed will not make you older, instead it will extend you
lifespan by making you younger. The first development that will
come will probably be CR-mimetics. These are pharmacological
interventions that will mimic the metabolic altering effects of
CR, after that it will be Strategies for Engineered Negligible
Senescence (SENS) (read Aubrey De Greys book on this matter,
Ending Aging). SENS isnt about trying to mimic the effects of
CR, it goes beyond that in that it is trying to go into our bodies
and fix/reverse/remove the damage that happens. If the damage
is gone then the cause of aging is diminished. This seems like a
tall order but it is definitely possible.
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Concluding Thoughts
My goal when I started researching all this was to try my best to
prevent the chronic illnesses. I saw how much pain they can
cause to everyone. Just take Alzheimers for example: lifeless
eyes with no sense of self, time, or place, a dreadful disease with
a slow progression that places strain on yourself as you lose your
soul as well as strain on your family, friends and society. Even if
you wanted to end it you couldnt because you have basically
disappeared. Everyones goal in this life is different, but I am
certain that no one wants to end up in such decrepitude. The
regimens laid out in the book will help with preventing this,
screw the USDA Food Guide and the American Diabetes
Associate Diet, throw out common wisdom and rely instead on
hard science. The basic principle of this book is: eat the right
foods, but not too much; allow the body to take out the garbage;
be conscious of what you put in your body; and exercise.
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105
Tasting
Why is the label extra virgin important? This is a term from
the International Olive Oil Council that signifies that the oil must
have passed certain chemical tests, be fault free, and passed rigid
taste tests. However, these tests arent exactly in place to ensure
quality, but are just there to ensure that the oils are deemed
edible.
If there is a defect
the oil is labeled as
virgin, and if it is
inedible it is
labeled as lamp oil
(scary thought that
lots of people may
be consuming
lamp oil grade).
Thus we either
have to pay
independent labs
to test our oils,
which can get
expensive, ask the
producer to
provide us with
independent tests they have performed (and not all companies
are happy to oblige) or we try our best to use our senses to taste
for extra virgin olive oil qualities.
The first thing is that the oil has to lack defects. On the picture
you can see the various defects; I have had experiences with oils
107
that have tasted rancid, sour, and metallic, but were labeled as
extra virgin.
The positive attributes are harder to get used to and it would be
best if you go to an olive oil tasting session, or visit a gourmet
store and ask if you could taste the various olive oils on the shelf
(some are happy to oblige). These positive attributes are
important because it is the health conferring polyphenols that
provide these various palates.
The bitterness and fruitiness should be a flavor you taste/smell in
good extra virgin olive oil, while the pungency is the pepperiness
you will feel when swallowing that stings the back of your
throat. Below is an example of each category:
Defects
Fusty: Brined olives, lactic acid.
Musty-Humid: Mouldy
Muddy: Stale muddy water, baby vomit, wet soil.
Sour: Vinegar
Metallic: Metal on teeth (try some Epsom salts).
Rancid: stale oil (try leaving raw walnuts in a room for a couple
of days)
Positive Attributes
Fruity: Grass, orange, lemon, apple, nutty, leafy, almond,
eucaplyptus, perfumy, buttery.
Bitter: grapefruit rind, tonic water.
Pungent: chili, makes you cough, hot, pepper.
Always check for a date on the product you are buying, making
sure it is not too old (also taste for rancidity, it is a very bad
sign).
There is a process to tasting olive oil (just like wine) and this is
due to the fact that our noses and our tongues are connected (oil
should be at around room temperature):
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Chemical Tests
Some producers do have certificates of authenticity (COAs) on
hand that might show the free fatty acid level and peroxide
levels. These are important because it tells you how well the oil
is stored and how fresh it is.
Fats are usually in the form of
triglycerides. When the fat becomes
red, part of it breaks off (bad
storage) the fats, which are actually
acids, creating acidity. So COAs
testing olive oil usually give an
acidity value that should be lower
than 0.8%.
The other important value is oxidation/peroxidation. This is a
measurement of how damaged the fats are (due to heat, light,
preparation). We dont want damaged lipids so this value should
be 20mEq/kg or less.
While we can taste for polyphenols it is not the most accurate
way to determine the concentration. Many of the studies seem to
show that consuming polyphenol oils with content of 300mg/kg
and above are the best. If the producer is willing to provide a test
on the polyphenols, that would be great.
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Acne
In western populations acne affects up to 95% of adolescents and
50% over the age of 25. The economic and psychological effects
are undeniable and best avoided. However in huntergatherer/traditional populations there have been no reports of
acne in the anthropological reports:
Cordain L, Lindeberg S, Hurtado M, Hill K, Eaton SB, BrandMiller J. Acne vulgaris: a disease of Western civilization. Arch
Dermatol. 2002 Dec;138(12):1584-90.
It is commonly stated that acne has no relation to diet and that it
is mainly genetic but taking into the account that acne is fairly
recent phenomenon genetics just does not explain the
pervasiveness of this ailment in western society.
Acne vulgaris (vulgaris meaning common) develop because of
many factors: 1) pores get clogged because excess skin cells clog
the pores (hyperkeratinization); 2) increased sebum production
(which is the waxy/oily substance your skin produces to
protect/maintain itself); 3) Propionibacterium acnes colonizes
follicles causing inflammation. Below is a picture I drew
depicting the usual path that a pimple takes. First the gray stuff
gets produced in to large amounts, which then clogs the pores as
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Our skins should not have evolved so that everyone gets acne, it
should only occur to signal to the other sex that something is
wrong with the metabolism. The metabolism goes awry because
of your hormones and hormones depend on diet (and genetics
but only in special cases). Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
affects women and is characterized by excess androgen (male
hormones), too much insulin, and insulin resistance. PCOS
patients often struggle with acne. These hormonal profiles are
associated with acne in healthy people and by correcting the
hormone levels acne lesions decrease:
Smith RN, Braue A, Varigos GA, Mann NJ. The effect of a low
glycemic load diet on acne vulgaris and the fatty acid
composition of skin surface triglycerides. J Dermatol Sci. 2008
Apr;50(1):41-52.
The diet is a very important factor that determines insulin levels.
By elevating insulin with a high carbohydrate diet, it activates
pathways which then results in increased androgen production.
This leads to elevated insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and
decrease insulin-like growth factor binding protein 3 (IGFBP-3)
[which bind IGF-1, thus resulting in more free IGF-1]. Somehow
this leads to low amounts of retinoids in the skin which is
responsible for keeping cell proliferation at proper levels (thus
the use of retinoids to treat acne). So to stop this progression we
have to lower insulin and we lower insulin through a low111
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hair follicles to DHT is higher. But one thing for sure is that if
you want to keep your hair, do not use steroids and do not get
metabolic syndrome.
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Lithium [1.25mg/day]
This mineral is not on the Institute of Medicines official list of
essential vitamins and minerals but there is convincing evidence
that humans do require it and consumed it in times past:
Schrauzer GN. Lithium: occurrence, dietary intakes, nutritional
essentiality. J Am Coll Nutr. 2002 Feb;21(1):14-21
We most likely got the lithium from our drinking water:
Ohgami H, Terao T, Shiotsuki I, Ishii N, Iwata N. Lithium levels
in drinking water and risk of suicide. Br J Psychiatry. 2009
May;194(5):464-5; discussion 446.
What the study shows is that populations with more lithium in
the drinking water are happier and at less of a risk of suicide.
Most people know of lithium as an anti-depressent, but those are
pharmacologically high dosages greater than 120mg per dose. It
seems our unofficial RDA for lithium is probably around
1mg/day.
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Beta-alanine [2g/day]
This altered amino acid is a precursor to the dipeptide carnosine.
Carnosine prevents cell damage and aging, it also prevents
glycation end-products:
Alhamdani MS, Al-Azzawie HF, Abbas FK. Decreased formation
of advanced glycation end-products in peritoneal fluid by
carnosine and related peptides. Perit Dial Int. 2007 JanFeb;27(1):86-9
While you can buy carnosine in a supplement, I prefer to utilize
beta-alanine because 1) it is cheaper and 2) the human data
showing tissue elevation of carnosine is very extensive.
Vegetarians lack beta-alanine.
Taurine [250mg/day]
The reason for supplementing with taurine is a paleolithic one.
Taurine is found in high concentrations from seafood and organ
meats. Cooking also destroys about half of it from the meat we
commonly consume today. While some mammals produce
taurine by themselves, other mammals such as cats and humans
rely on dietary ingestion. Taurine is involved in many activities:
preventing atherosclerosis, modulating intracellular calcium,
osmoregulation, preventing glycation, and possibly even
preventing the transfer of diabetes from the mother to the fetus:
Bouckenooghe T, Remacle C, Reusens B. Is taurine a functional
nutrient? Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2006 Nov;9(6):72833
Vegetarians lack taurine.
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Appendix V: Bodyweight
Exercises
An important part of various exercises is to utilize the full-range
of motions. Sure, cutting the distance you have to move by a
couple inches makes it easier, but it would be better to activate as
many muscles as possible. Lets take the pushup for example:
As you move
down your hips
should not sag
downwards.
Keep them up
by pushing the
glutes up. The
chest should
touch the floor
then when you
go up and reach
the very top,
and make sure
to activate the
various muscles
around your
shoulders and ribs, and also try to extend up as far as possible.
Most people just wait until their elbows lock and then head back
down, what we want to do is reach the top and try and reach
more. Hopefully you can feel the difference.
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