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For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering one question. It’s a burning one, though, judging from the deluge of emails I’ve received in the past few days. A new study has just come out purporting to show the deleterious effects of a “paleo diet” on weight gain, fat gain, and glucose tolerance in type 2 diabetics. It sounds alarming, so today I’m going to explore just how relevant this study is for you guys following a Primal eating plan. Should you be concerned with the results? Is it time to start radically restructuring the way you eat? I’ll evaluate the study, and its larger implications, to let you know.

Let’s go:

Mark,

The media is abuzz with reports of a new study claiming to show that the paleo diet leads to rapid weight gain. Care to respond? It’s getting hard to ignore my skeptical friends’ chorus of “I told you so”s.

Oh, man. The lead author of the study, one Associate Professor Sof Andrikopoulos, makes some of the most amazing quotes I’ve ever read. I can’t single out any single quote, so let’s examine them all one by one.

He claims that a low-carb, high-fat diet is especially risky in people with diabetes or pre-diabetes. “There is no evidence they work.”

LCHF diets are risky for diabetes or pre-diabetes, meaning they put your diabetes at risk of disappearing outright or never showing up at all. But for diabetics or pre-diabetics, it’s risky not to try a low-carb diet. Here’s one recent study of Japanese men with pre-diabetes in whom a low-carb diet normalized blood glucose and prevented the progression into full-blown type 2 diabetes. Those were human men, by the way, not mouse men.

More quotes:

“We are told to eat zero carbs and lots of fat on the Paleo diet.”

No, we aren’t. I don’t know anyone saying that.

“Our model tried to mimic that, but we didn’t see any improvements in weight or symptoms.”

They didn’t try hard enough, because they managed to slip 6% of calories as pure white sugar into the diet. Funny how that stuff just has a mind of its own. Nope, totally impossible not to add that sugar in. Completely out of their hands.

“The bottom line is it’s not good to eat too much fat.”

Well, okay. It’s not good to eat too much of anything. It’s not good to eat so much that you gain weight and body fat. It’s not good to eat too much fat in the context of a refined diet of isolated ingredients, pure table sugar, and a genetic propensity to get severely obese on such a diet. Don’t believe me?

Just look at the diet composition for the low-carb group.

Cocoa butter—Cocoa butter is a legit fat, particularly combined with cocoa fiber and polyphenols. In other words, chocolate.

Casein—Hmm. An isolated dairy protein wouldn’t be my first choice when constructing a wholesome paleo diet, but I’m not the scientist!

Sucrose—Table sugar, eh? I’ll allow it. You need to make this refined slop palatable enough to get the mice to eat it.

Canola oil—Hold on a minute. Canola oil doesn’t belong in my idea of a paleo diet.

Ghee—Interesting choice. I love me some ghee.

Cellulose—Okay, stop right there. You’re basically feeding these mice paper. What’s going on here? I’m sure there’s a more prebiotic type of fiber coming next. Right?

Calcium carbonate—You do realize you could have simply omitted the isolated, refined casein, ghee, and calcium in favor of some actual whole food dairy.

AIN-93G vitamin mix—You could give them vitamin pellets, or you could give them actual food. That’s just me, though. I’m weird.

Potassium dihydrogen phosphate—If you wanted the mice to get potassium and phosphate, you could have given them a little meat and banana.

DL methionine—An essential amino acid that appears frequently in animal foods. It’s important for health but must be balanced with adequate glycine to reduce inflammation. No glycine appears in the study diet, though.

Sodium chloride, potassium citrate, potassium sulfate—More minerals.

Choline chloride—At least they added choline in there. It’s very important for maintaining liver health, particularly in the context of high fat diets.

AIN-93G trace mineral mix—In the absence of food, you need to add these back in.

Delicious, right? I’m salivating just typing this.

So the experimental diet was made up entirely of refined, isolated “ingredients.” Not even foods, but ingredients. Its sole carb source was white sugar. Meanwhile, the control group got an actual real-food diet consisting of wheat, wheat germ, fish meal, soybean meal, beef fat, vegetable oil, molasses, milk powder, yeast, and added trace vitamins and minerals. Not the “best diet,” but way better than the experimental diet. The two are not comparable. We already know that the refinement of a rodent’s diet determines in part how that diet will affect its health and cognitive abilities, irrespective of that diet’s macronutrient ratios.

In reference to the Mediterranean diet: “It’s backed by evidence and is a low-refined sugar diet with healthy oils and fats from fish and extra virgin olive oil, legumes and protein.”

Reduce/drop the legumes, and what diet is he really talking about? Sounds pretty familiar to me.

Other niggles: These weren’t humans. These weren’t even normal “wild-type” mice, who are already bad proxies for studying the effects of high-fat diets in humans. They were New Zealand Obese (NZO) mice, a type of mouse genetically-engineered to get quickly and severely obese on high-fat diets. That makes them useful for studying obesity.

The good doctor has made questionable recommendations in other venues, like if you’re going to eat fast food, make sure you have a sugary soda with it.

But perhaps the most egregious and pernicious aspect of the doctor is his penchant for Hellenic nationalism. There’s his last name. There’s the fact that he concocts imbalanced study designs to promote the Mediterranean diet. What next, Sof? Will you stop at nothing until Greek war chariots pound the streets of every city across the globe and boys and girls have bowls of kalamata olives (pit-in) with red wine instead of cereal for breakfast?

I jest, of course…

But next time, design a study that actually mirrors a Paleo diet. Then we’ll talk.

So if you’re eating Primally and you’re not getting fat (or you’re actively losing fat), the results of this study do not apply to you. The study displays the negative health effects of getting really fat really quickly. That the diet used to get the mice fat was a bastardized version of a high-fat, low-carb diet has little bearing on how we eat around here.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Take care!

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Given the passion with which Dale Talde, the two-time Filipino-American Top Chef contender behind four restaurants in Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Miami, talks about bodegas, you’d never guess he didn’t grow up ordering egg, bacon, and cheese on a roll or going on late-night Gatorade runs. His first experience was just over a decade ago when he moved to New York to open Morimoto; now he’s lived around the corner or down the block from many a bodega — all of which he, inevitably, ends up calling “my bodega” — and he has strong opinions. We asked him to share his bodega intel, including a few “dope finds.”

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There are a few camps when it comes to closing chip bags. There are the crumplers and the rollers, and then there are the people who have their lives so together that they accessorize their snacks with special-made clips. Confession time: I am not one of those people. Fortunately, however, there’s an easier way to keep your chips fresh — no clips required.

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Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/

If Deadpool was a real person, he would be a card-carrying member of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

In fact, I would go as far to say that Deadpool is the most realistic superhero movie created to date, and the most useful hero to consider when trying to live better lives.

Allow me to explain.

In case you’re one of a handful of people who haven’t seen the recently released Deadpool movie, starring a resurgent Ryan Reynolds (making up for all past superhero cinema sins), get your ass to a movie theater and check it out.

Don’t worry, only minor plot spoilers in this article! Even if you have no clue who Deadpool is, this article will still help you live a better life and move down a healthier path.

You can start with the trailer:

Let’s take a look at how this ninja mercenary with super human healing powers, a crazy amount of pop-culture knowledge, and unusually high self-awareness can help us live better lives.

Life is messy

Wade Wilson, former US Special Forces who has been dishonorably discharged from the military, makes his living taking on contracts as a mercenary. 

Like many superhero origin stories, something goes wrong that kickstarts Wade’s journey. He discovers he has aggressive terminal cancer, and under shady circumstances he’s told by a company that he can be cured and turned into a superhero.

So far, we’re still in typical superhero plot land. It’s here that things take a drastic turn: he’s cured of his cancer and develops superpowers, but at the expense of turning his ridiculously good looks into somebody that now resembles Pizza the Hut from Spacebars. Throw in some mental anguish and torture, and our protagonist becomes a bit… unhinged.

Most superhero pictures paint pretty photos of what happens once the person becomes a superhero. They get bigger, stronger, and better looking, and have to deal with being more awesome.

Wade, on the other hand, has to deal with a complete loss of identity, and the messy reality that comes along with a drastically altered appearance.

Unsurprisingly, things are messy for Deadpool – he’s foul-mouthed, says the wrong thing at the wrong time, and ends up in some pretty shitty situations.

From this perspective, Deadpool is the most realistic Superhero Movie ever created. In fact, Deadpool might just be more instructive for us Rebels. Real life is not always a fantasy hero’s journey; in fact, more often than not it’s messy, awkward, and R-Rated:

• You might have a kid unexpectedly. Oops.
• You might get dumped when you were prepared to propose. #$@%!
• You might get cheated on.
• You get might get injured or sick.

In real life, our workouts aren’t the infomercials and ads you see on TV to sell products. They are boring, disappointing, or we’re just tired.

All of us live lives that are messy. Every success story. It’s how we react to this messiness that matters.

Have you met Anthony?

He’s one of my favorite success stories at Nerd Fitness because he presents a realistic picture for somebody who drastically transformed his life and lost 200+ pounds, and handled it with grace.

As a result of him transforming, he has a lot of excess skin, and he was proud to share these photos with our community to show what happens. Look at that freakin smile on his face! Yup, the loose skin chafes. Yup, he wishes his skin was tighter and hopes it will continue to tighten up over the years.

He knows loose skin is a small price to pay for saving his own life and adding years to his story. It’s a badge of honor. 

Embrace the imperfect. Life is messy.

As Deadpool says, “Destiny doesn’t care that I’ve made sacrifices to get here.That I’ve said my prayers and brushed after meals. Destiny wants a garbage man… and I’m always it.”

Things are not always black and white

Wade Wilson is The Merc with the Mouth: he has a conscience, but he also has a checkered past. He tries to do right, but he often gets in his own way by saying the wrong things at the wrong time.

In fact, it seems like his life would have been a whole lot easier in many instances if he just shut up! However, that would have made for a boring movie, and it’s the “foot-in-mouth” comments and actions that make Deadpool who he is.

Welcome to life!

We all make mistakes. I can think of plenty of moments where I’ve woken up the day after a night out or immediately following a decision, and I can’t help but say to myself “What the F*** was I thinking!? How could I be so stupid? I’m so embarrassed.”

Sure, it would be great if we were all like Captain America (he’s my hero, after all), pure through and through, always saying the right thing and doing the right thing.

Unfortunately, we’re human.

We say stupid stuff! We do stupid things sometimes. We make decisions that completely sabotage our efforts to be better people. Whenever these things happen, we have two choices:

• Build a time machine, undo our mistakes, and threaten to destroy the space time continuum.
• Learn from our decision and try to be better next time.

This is something I’ve come to terms with: regretting things I did in the past is a waste of brainpower.

We are who we are today because of EVERY SINGLE THING we’ve done. EVERY decision is part of our path and our current wisdom, good or bad.

Changing the past is impossible. Beating yourself up over what you’ve done is useless. Instead, all we can say is the following: “Okay, I’m here now. What’s the next step?”

When Deadpool wakes up in a dumpster, sure he might go “I’m so stupid!” but more importantly, he says “okay, what’s next?”

You don’t have to go it alone

Unsurprisingly, Deadpool, once transformed into a superhero (but scarred) version of himself, doesn’t think very highly of his appearance or himself.

Wade is a character who seems to instinctual flee his problems to try to go it alone. In fact, one of the funniest scenes in the whole movie comes from our buddy Deadpool refusing to combine forces with Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (the two X-Men in this movie).

Unsurprisingly, each of these decisions to try and go “lone wolf” come back to bite him in the ass – only after he finally relents and joins forces with others does he start to make progress.

As we’ve said here on NF in the past, you don’t have to be “the only one.”

We all have flaws, we all have things we’re working through, but you are the average of your allies. Surround yourself with other mutants who are also trying to live better, and you’re going to have people to lean on when things go wrong.

We are ALL mutants. We have flaws, we have things that make us weird to the outside world. And that’s pretty awesome.

Learn from Deadpool – even the mightiest of us need friends and allies.

Your real friends will accept you for who you are.

Deadpool refuses to accept that anybody will like the new version of him. Sure, he’s got super powers, but also his looks have drastically changed. I have to imagine for somebody who has placed a lot of self-worth on his outward appearance, this was a kick in the crotch.

So, he finds a blind roommate to live with. A blind roommate who loves cocaine and building IKEA furniture. But a blind roommate who accepts him for who he is, warts and all.

His best friend is a local bartender. Sure this bartender gives him some guff for his changed appearance, and even comes up with some inappropriate terms for his new ‘look,’ most of which don’t make any sense:

But his friends also help him out when he needs it. The X-Men put up with his nonsense because they know you can’t just take part of somebody; you sign up for the whole thing.

Your true friends (and a healthy partner in a relationship), will accept all of you (even if they sometimes poke fun at you).

You are the average of your allies. Choose wisely.

DON’T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY.

My favorite part of the Deadpool comic and movie is the character’s ability to break the 4th wall and talk directly to the audience.

The movie never takes itself too seriously, pokes fun at those that do, and is incredibly self-aware of the ridiculousness of the present situation.

Coincidentally, this is my favorite part of Nerd Fitness and the community here… we don’t take ourselves too seriously either:

• When people email us saying “I don’t believe in the Paleo diet because I read this one time on a site about this thing,” we say “Great! Don’t do it!”
• When people tell us “I read about a diet where a guy only ate Twinkies and lost weight,” we say “Great! Let us know how it turns out!”
• When people email me to tell me why I’m wrong for recommending strength training for this reason or that reason, and why they’re right, I say “Congrats! You cracked the code!”

I don’t have all the answers. Our results might not work for everybody. So, we do the best we can to help the greatest number of people possible. And we also know that life can be absurd and we’re all figuring it out TOGETHER.

Instagram is full of beautiful people with perfectly sculpted abs telling you that you can be perfect like them if you just follow their super secret program. They’re selling you on the hopes and dreams of being pouty and serious, always without clothes on. Just subscribe to their monthly program or join their special group and you too can have perfect success and a body you love… and also find real happiness.

Or, if you just take their supplement you can have success like this instagram model:

At Nerd Fitness we try to show you the truth. You’re going to have loose skin, you might be pregnant, or you might think you’re too old to start. Your success won’t happen overnight, and it definitely won’t be easy. You have to make real, permanent changes. You may get derailed a few times and might sabotage yourself before finally breaking through.

Welcome to the Rebellion – home of the misfits and underdogs and loud mouths and stubborn idiots and mercenaries in red spandex who are trying to figure out how to navigate our brief few years on the planet with as much fun, growth, and purpose as possible.

Thanks for being here with us.

In the comments below tell me one messy thing going in on your life right now. Here’s mine:

For the past week, my sleep schedule has been JACKED UP. No matter what time I go to bed, I’ve been waking up 30 minutes earlier every day (6:00AM, 5:30AM, 5:00AM, 4:30AM, 4:00AM). Not because I set an alarm, not because I had gone to bed earlier. But because my body has decided that it wanted to be an ass. My workouts have also been sluggish, my mornings are ruined, and it’s made the rest of my day more useless too.

Let’s own it together.

–Steve

###

photo source: Sergio Quesado: Deadpool with Sombrero, Mark Leichiliter: Deadpool head, Tim Deering: Deadpool and Wolverine, Miguel Discart: Deadpool Bracelet, Sergio Quesado: Deadpool Lego

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I’m all about snacks. Whether it’s something to crunch on during a movie, or giving dinner guests something to munch on while dinner’s in the oven, any new additions to my snack game are welcome.

If I can make those snacks healthy, that’s even better. If I can somehow give chickpeas the addictive crunch and cheesy taste of a bag of Cheetos? Holy moly — hold me back from going into full-on snack-attack mode.

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Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

In this fitness business, the word “coach” gets tossed around more than a tithing bucket on a Sunday. It’s important to recognize this overuse, because the word denotes a job, as well as a certain set of requirements. If the job description is not met consistently, then we are an industry with no standard. As such, our reputation and our ability to help people diminishes greatly.

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Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

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Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss

What if it were possible to blur the line between the gym and the rest of the world? For those who want to challenge their fitness, exercise, and movement skills in unorthodox ways, I have a way to do just that. The concept is not new. I’ve heard it described as “Parkour Vision,” and basically it means viewing through the eyes of “x” art. In short, it’s a way of looking at your environment through a broader lens, which provides a more varied way to train, practice, and play.

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