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Most men come to the gym with the goal of improving their aesthetics. Often they look for guidance through various channels of information, the most common being Google, YouTube, or a fitness blog.

These can be a great place to start, but all beginners and many intermediates run into the same fundamental problem. They don’t have a pre-existing understanding of nutrition and exercise and therefore have no way to evaluate the quality of the information being shared.

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For today’s edition of Dear Mark, I’m answering a couple questions. The first one is a big one, one that multiple people have asked me across several different mediums: why don’t I do a full review of “Game Changers,” the vegan documentary on Netflix, or at least watch the film? I explain why I won’t watch it, why I don’t think it’s worth your time, and why I’ve already addressed it all before. Then, I answer why sugar is such a fixation for us and give some options for avoiding or mitigating it.

Let’s go:

Mark,

How come you dismissed the “Game Changers” documentary without watching it?

Because it’s not worth my time. The premise is simply preposterous.

Humans are omnivores. We have eaten meat for millions of years. And not just “eaten meat.”

We used animal femurs as bone marrow storage containers. We fought off massive African predators just to get at the meat and crack the bones for the goodness inside. We slurped brains. We smashed bones to bits and boiled them in animal skin bags to extract every last ounce of collagen and fat. We drove entire species to extinction in our lust for large portions of fatty animal meat.

Even after we were hunter-gatherers, the importance of animal products persisted. The biggest influx of humanity that provided a large portion of extant DNA across Europe and huge parts of Asia were livestock-driving nomadic herdsmen who ate cheese and yogurt (animal products—and not low-fat), drank blood, and hunted game. They farmed a little but relied so heavily on animal products for their calories that they had to borrow the agricultural words from the populations they displaced. To give you a taste of how important animal products were to them, their word for wealth was the same as the word for cattle.

What—that just goes away? Those millions of years of slurping and gnawing and atlatl-ing and spear throwing and stalking and weapons-craft and herding…don’t matter?

So, when a persuasive documentary comes out preaching about the evils of red meat (and let’s face it: it’s always about red meat) and the benefits of excising all meat from your diet in favor of plants, I laugh. I shrug. I smirk even.

Red meat consumption is down across the board. People listened to the “experts.” And guess what? Health got worse. Waists grew. Healthcare spending shot up. Diabetes spiked. Heart disease persisted (deaths decreased, thanks to better emergency care, but incidence is still there).

Does the documentary address all that? Does it mention the word “evolution”?

My time matters too much to me to waste it on the documentary. The arguments I’ve laid out in other responses to attacks on meat eating stand and, most likely, apply to the arguments in the documentary. Check these out for a few of my explorations of the “meat is bad” topic:

Is meat as bad as smoking?

Will meat give you diabetes?

Is charred meat bad for you?

Does red meat give you colon cancer?

Will red meat kill you?

Is saturated fat deadly?

Read those, then get back to me. And I probably still won’t watch the documentary.

I’d rather spend my time:

Helping people who want the help.

Coming up with interesting new products that help people make better choices in the grocery store.

Standup paddling.

Playing Ultimate frisbee (and playing in general).

Writing about new topics or new developments of old topics.

I have yet to see a new argument from the plant-based crowd. I’ve heard the same things for years upon years. Nothing changes. “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

We have better things to do. Bigger fish to fry (in a gluten-free breading using low-PUFA oil kind of way).

How to conquer sugar addiction and is there a primal need to eat something sweet? Would Grok ever get the urge for something sweet?

Our relationship with sugar goes way back. In ancestral situations, sugar was rare. The urge to eat something sweet was so strong because it was so hard to get—a powerful urge was required to coerce the organism to do the work required to get the sugar. And in those situations, sugar was beneficial. An odd trove of honey represented a potent source of caloric energy, a way to replenish glycogen stores. Acute doses versus chronic overload. We have old cave paintings from 25000 years ago of honey hunters climbing trees to grab hives; that’s how much they prized it. Fruit, while not always plentiful or as oversized as today’s fruit, definitely existed—albeit to varying degrees depending on the climate and region. The farther you got from the equator, the scarcer sweet tastes became.

Even up to a few hundred years ago, when sugar was actually available, it remained a luxury item. It had to be imported, out of reach for most regular people.

Today, sugar is everywhere. We’re glutted with the stuff. We can’t escape it. And yet we still retain that ancestral mindset of sugar scarcity. Our bodies still crave it. Our physiological desires were molded in the context of low sugar availability. Introduce them to a sugar-replete environment and you get obesity, diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and tooth decay.

I’m not sure if there’s a physiological need today to consume sugar. But there’s certainly a physiological desire to consume it. And really, the only way past it is to erect artificial barriers to sugar consumption.

Don’t keep sugar in the house.

Don’t use artificial sweeteners or even natural ones like stevia or monk fruit if they trigger the craving for real sugar.

Just say no. Sheer willpower may not hold out forever, but in those instances where you’re faced with an intense dose of sugar and you don’t want to eat it, don’t give in. You can do this.

Chronic doses of sugar are the real killer: those little peanut butter cups at the co-worker’s desk you grab every time you walk by, those peanut M&Ms at the secretary’s desk, those half donuts in the break room—they add up. They always add up. Acute doses of sugar probably aren’t a big deal for most reasonably healthy people. High quality dessert after a great dinner out? Birthday party and the host is a legit whiz in the kitchen? Try it.

Avoid anything you’re intolerant of or allergic to, of course. Avoid gluten whenever possible.

Whatever you do, don’t waste your acute doses of sugar on garbage. Don’t eat a Hostess donut. Don’t eat a half gallon of low-fat frozen yogurt from those places that charge you by the ounce.

Eat real ice cream made with great ingredients—just a child’s scoop. Don’t get the weird “ice cream” shake from the fast food joint.

Don’t get the microwaved lava cake from the chain restaurant. Share a portion of real panna cotta from the fancy restaurant.

That’s it for today, folks. If you have any other suggestions or comments or questions, throw them in down below.

Take care, everyone.

The post Dear Mark: Why “Game Changers” Isn’t Worth My Time and Sugar Addictions appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Overly restrictive eating can promote unhealthy eating behaviors and anxiety around food. Find out how to adopt healthier eating behaviors and nourish your body optimally over the long term.

The post How to Limit Restrictive Eating and Develop a Healthy Food Mindset appeared first on Chris Kresser.

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When I did my first earnest attempt at a keto diet a few years ago, one of the benefits I quickly noticed was improved wakefulness and energy during the day. I chalked this up to sleeping better on keto.

It turns out that I might have been one of the lucky ones. While plenty of people report improved sleep, a fair number also complain of insomnia, sleep disruptions (waking frequently during the night), and generally poor sleep once they go keto.

Can a keto diet really impact sleep quality? What might be the mechanism behind a correlation? And how does one work around any potential effect?

I’ve written a lot about sleep over the years, and I don’t intend to rehash what I’ve already written. Rather, I want to explore why a very-low-carb ketogenic diet specifically might impact sleep. I’ll link to some of my past posts at the bottom for those interested in improving overall sleep hygiene.

What is “Keto Insomnia?”

Insomnia disorder, as defined in the DSM-5, involves the following:

• Difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep, and/or waking too early without being able to fall back to sleep
• Symptoms occur at least three nights per week for at least three months
• Sleep problems are not explained by other illness, medication, and so on
• Distress and/or impaired ability to function in daily life

Acute insomnia is similar, but it’s short-term and might be attributable to a specific trigger, such as a stressful event, major life change, or travel.

People who complain about “keto insomnia” seem to mean one of two things:

• Sleep disruptions that occur during the transition phase—the days or weeks immediately after starting keto (acute)
• Sleep issues that start after being keto for a few months or longer (might be acute or chronic)

It can be hard to know whether the latter are actually related to keto at all. However, if diet is the only obvious change these folks have made, keto seemingly takes the rap.

Why Might Keto Mess with Your Sleep?

On possible clue is this oft-cited study in which participants experienced decreased REM and increased slow-wave sleep when following a keto diet. Decreased REM sleep can contribute to the subjective experience of insomnia. However, total sleep was not impacted. This study was also small, involving 14 participants who followed a keto diet for just two days.

Other than that, however, there’s not much to go on. A couple studies found no change in sleep quality among healthy adults following a keto diet, and a handful of others reported improved sleep quality (in epileptic children and obese adolescents).

Moreover, the team at Virta Health recently released their findings after one year of treating diabetic and prediabetic patients with keto diet interventions. Their patients enjoyed significant improvements in sleep quality and daily functioning compared to baseline and compared to individuals who didn’t go keto.

All together, the research so far suggests that when it comes to sleep, keto is neutral-to-positive for healthy adults and beneficial for individuals struggling with certain health conditions. Of course, the data are still quite sparse.

A somewhat larger, but still limited, body of research has looked more generally at how the macronutrient composition of one’s diet affects sleep. To be blunt, the results of these studies are all over the map. There’s tremendous variation from study to study in terms of how diets were constructed or measured, food timing, other relevant dietary factors such as total calorie intake and fiber content, as well as what aspects of sleep were assessed and how. Depending on which study you’re reading, consuming fat, protein, or carbohydrates might seem to help, hurt, or have no effect on sleep.

In short, there’s no compelling scientific explanation for when or why keto would harm your sleep. I know this is no comfort to those of you who are experiencing sleep disruptions now, however. Let’s turn to some things you can try if you’re not in the camp of good sleep while keto.

Possible Solutions

Despite the dearth of research, it’s possible to make some reasonable guesses about what might be causing your sleep issues. Of course, before trying any of the supplement suggestions below, consult your doctor. Likewise, get help if your sleep is so poor that you are having trouble functioning.

First, the obvious: basic sleep hygiene. These are the things I harp on all the time, like avoiding blue light at night and honoring a consistent bedtime. Sure, you probably didn’t change any of these when you went keto. However, it might be that something about keto eating—like getting less tryptophan to your brain (I’ll explain in a minute)—is making you more sensitive to poor sleep habits. Refer to my other sleep posts linked below for more details.

Check your electrolytes. Especially if you’re new to keto, electrolytes are the most likely culprit for sleep issues. You want to aim for the following daily:

• 3-5 grams of sodium on top of what you get from food
• 3-5 grams of potassium
• 500 mg of magnesium

Most keto newbies drastically underestimate how important electrolytes are, not just for sleep but for energy, workout performance, and avoiding the keto flu. Check out this post for more details.

For sleep issues, start with magnesium. Make sure you’re including plenty of magnesium-rich foods such as leafy greens, dark chocolate, and hemp seeds in your diet.  You can also supplement with magnesium—the glycinate form is preferred for sleep—starting with 100-400 mg as needed.

Also consider adding a mug of warm bone broth to your evening routine. Besides being soothing, it’s a great way to get sodium and the amino acid glycine. Glycine is the most abundant amino acid in collagen. Supplementing with 3 grams of glycine before bed has been shown to improve sleep.

You can also supplement collagen for its many benefits. Aim for at least 10 grams at night. Maybe whip up a batch of Chocolate Collagen Pudding (sweetened with stevia or monk fruit for keto).

Make sure you’re neither too hungry nor too full at bedtime. As you adjust to your new way of eating, try to avoid extremes of hunger in the evening. If you’re practicing intermittent fasting, make sure your fasting window isn’t leaving you stuffed or famished at when it’s time to hit the hay.

Dial back the caffeine. Is it possible you’ve been a little too enthusiastic about fatty coffee since going keto?

Get your stress in check. We all know that stress is a sleep killer, and I see stress running high in the keto community. Micromanaging macros, worrying about which foods are and are not “allowed,” trying to do too much too soon—keto folks can really get themselves worked up. If this sounds familiar, you need to take a step back and work on stress reduction.

Try adding a small amount of high-glycemic carbs to your dinner. Wait, what? Am I really telling you to eat more carbs on keto? Yes, for a good reason.

As you probably know, melatonin is the hormone primarily responsible for regulating your sleep-wake cycle. The amino acid tryptophan is a precursor of melatonin. In the brain, tryptophan converts to 5-HTP, then serotonin, then melatonin. To get into the brain, tryptophan relies on protein transporters, which also carry other amino acids across the blood-brain barrier. When there is too much traffic—that is, too many other amino acids trying to use the protein transporters—not enough tryptophan can get across.

Insulin shuttles those competing amino acids into muscles, leaving the roads clear for tryptophan so to speak. By adding some high-GI carbs to your last meal of the day, you bump up insulin and facilitate this process.

Now, I wouldn’t recommend this as your first option if you are brand new to keto. However, if you’re one of those people who is suddenly struggling with sleep after being keto for a while, this is worth trying. Michael Rutherford, NTP, Primal Health Coach, and moderator of our Keto Reset Facebook group says his clients have had good results adding ~20 grams of carbs to their last meal of the day. Potatoes or sweet potatoes are good choices.

If you just can’t bring yourself to eat more carbs, you can also supplement with tryptophan. A dose of 250-500 mg is a good place to start, increasing as needed. Chris Masterjohn recommends taking tryptophan on an empty stomach and as far as possible from other sources of protein.

Another possible workaround is to supplement with 5-HTP, which is a common ingredient in sleep aids. Rutherford advises his clients to start with 100 mg of 5-HTP taken 30-60 minutes before bed. Be cautious with this supplement if you have depression or anxiety.

Skip the middlemen and supplement melatonin. Melatonin supplementation is somewhat controversial. It’s not my first choice—I’d rather you start by addressing sleep hygiene and tweaking your diet—but I’m not opposed to supplementing as needed.

Doses as low as 0.5 mg can be effective, although as much as 5 mg is generally regarded as safe. I recommend starting at the bottom end, since lower doses are closer to normal physiological levels. Take melatonin at least an hour after eating your last food of the day.

Get your thyroid and cortisol levels checked. If none of your self-experimentation works, or if you’re having other signs of thyroid imbalance, get your thyroid function and cortisol levels checked. While I don’t believe keto is inherently bad for thyroid or adrenal health, it’s certainly worth a trip to your doc.

What’s your experience? Are you sleeping like a baby on low-carb/keto—or not? Have you found any solutions other than those suggested here? Comment below, and have a great week, everyone.

______________

More sleep tips from Mark’s Daily Apple

7 Ways You Might Be Inadvertently Sabotaging a Good Night’s Sleep

10 Natural Sleep Aids: What Works and Why

Does “Sleep Hacking” Work?

How to Manufacture the Best Night of Sleep in Your Life

The Definitive Guide to Sleep

______________

References

Herrera CP, Smith K, Atkinson F, Ruell P, Chow CM, O’Connor H, Brand-Miller J. High-glycaemic index and -glycaemic load meals increase the availability of tryptophan in healthy volunteers. Br J Nutr. 2011 Jun;105(11):1601-6.

Levenson JC, Kay DB, Buysse DJ. The pathophysiology of insomnia. Chest. 2015;147(4):1179–1192.

Peuhkuri K, Sihvola N, Korpela R. Diet promotes sleep duration and quality. Nutr Res. 2012 May;32(5):309-19.

Riemann D, Spiegelhalder K, Nissen C, Hirscher V, Baglioni C, Feige B. REM sleep instability–a new pathway for insomnia? Pharmacopsychiatry. 2012 Jul;45(5):167-76.

Silber BY, Schmitt JA. Effects of tryptophan loading on human cognition, mood, and sleep. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010 Mar;34(3):387-407.

St-Onge MP, Mikic A, Pietrolungo CE. Effects of Diet on Sleep Quality. Adv Nutr. 2016 Sep 15;7(5):938-49.

The post Is Keto Insomnia a Common Problem? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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I’ve always been an avocado fan—and, by extension, an avocado oil proponent. I enjoy the buttery flavor and cooking versatility. I love avocado oil—but…it’s not exclusive.

Anyone who knows me well has seen how much I enjoy Mediterranean food, and for that extra virgin olive oil can’t be beat. It’s been on my list for a while now—create the olive oil I want to eat with every Mediterranean meal. I took my time sampling and choosing for sure, but I couldn’t be happier with the result.

And I hope you’ll enjoy it, too. Bright, peppery, and nuanced, Primal Kitchen® Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil a blend of Spanish and Tunisian olives—perfect for dressings, dipping, and light cooking.

I love using it in recipes where I can really taste and savor it—from fish to lamb to a tomato and cucumber salad and more. I’ve said before that the flavor of a good extra virgin olive oil is nuanced enough to elevate the simplest dishes, and that’s what I’m happy to offer—with the same careful dedication to quality I ensure with all Primal Kitchen products: Whole30 Approved®, Certified Paleo, Keto Certified, Certified Organic, and Non-GMO Project Verified, so you know you’re getting the best. 

Now For the Giveaway…

How do you use extra virgin olive oil in your Primal and keto cooking? Tell me in the comment section—OR—suggest a future recipe or topic for the blog.

Be sure to comment by midnight PDT Friday (11/1/19) to be eligible. (U.S. only for this one, I’m afraid.) I’ll choose 3 random commenters to receive a bottle of Primal Kitchen Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Thanks for stopping in. I’ve got a feature coming up. ‘Til then, have a great day, everybody.

The post Olive Oil Is Here! + a Giveaway appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Although meatless burgers are not a new concept, there are more and more meatless products hitting the shelf daily, enticing vegetarians and even meat-eaters to give them a try. Producers of such meat-free burgers claim that these burgers not only taste good, and are healthy, but that they also can save the earth. So, what […]

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

“Stop slouching.”

“Sit up straight.”

“Your posture is just horrendous.” 

Posture bullies are the worst, aren’t they?

Chances are your mom was the biggest posture bully of all. And chances are your reaction was to want to tell her to f-off (even though deep down you knew she was right because bad posture isn’t attractive).

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Earlier this year, I collaborated on a pair of papers (1, 2) with Matthew Wallden, Global Head of Institute of Education for the Chek Institute and an absolute obsessive when it comes to applying ancestral lessons to modern life. The papers were all about how humans today are failing to honor their tissues at rest: by sitting in chairs, slumping on couches, and slouching at the computer. The sad fact is, we’re ignoring the myriad ancestral or archetypal resting positions that humans have been using for hundreds of thousands of years, and this is having huge consequences on our health.

I wrote a blog post explaining the consequences. Not only are modern resting positions destroying the health and viability of our connective tissues and muscle function, they’re even inhibiting our ability to control blood glucose levels. We’re getting injured more often, ending up with terrible conditions like osteoarthritis, and we’re making our already substandard blood glucose control even worse.

The point of all this is that sitting in one single position with the majority of our tissues supported by furniture is incredibly harmful. Instead, we should be shifting our body from position to position. We should be stretching this muscle in one position and stretching the opposing muscle in the next position. Our rest should be productive. It shouldn’t be turning off the entire body for 8 hours. It should be resting one piece while engaging another—and switching things up constantly. Even our rest, whether from our workouts or daily life, should involve movement, in other words.

Despite being “ancestral” or “archetypal,” it’s a foreign concept if you’ve never done it. These can be hard to visualize through text alone. So I’ve made a helpful video showing some of them. As you can see, these positions aren’t always “easy” or “natural,” especially if you’re coming from a background of modern resting positions (like all of us). But do what you can, and work toward achieving these resting positions. Even breaking up all that sitting with an hour or two of shifting ancestral positions on the floor will be a huge help.

I hope you enjoy the video, and I hope you give these a shot. You can also listen to my podcast with Matt here.

Let me know what you think. Which of the postures do you see your incorporating—now or moving forward?

References:

Wallden, Matthew, Mark Sisson, “Biomechanical attractors—A paleolithic prescription for tendinopathy & glycemic control.” Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Volume 23, Issue 2, 366 – 371.

Wallden, M., Mark Sisson, “Modern disintegration and primal connectivity.” Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies, Volume 23, Issue 2, 359 – 365.

The post Ancestral Resting Positions: Video Guide appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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Yup, success stories are back! And I’m looking for more. Follow-ups, mid-progress reflections—every story at every stage has the potential to inspire folks out there who are getting started or contemplating a new beginning. Contact me here to share your story—long or not so long. You never know who you’ll impact by doing it. Enjoy, everyone!

I was always interested in healthy food, exercising, and learning what I could do to look young and healthy. As a kid, our household was filled with veggies and we ate couscous, buckwheat, and a variety of salads, which were not that common back in the 90’s in Hungary. I also did athletics during elementary school and have loved running ever since. Still, I had times when I struggled with weight issues.

Honestly, I had no idea what was good for my body or how to listen to it.

I ate way healthier than my friends or people around me but still experienced digestive issues, bloating, and headaches quite frequently. It was hard for me to lose weight, but I thought to myself: this is part of life and I am just not lucky.

Then in 2014, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, which explained a lot of my symptoms. I visited many doctors, but did not get the answers I was looking for. They just told me to take thyroid hormones, saying it’s nothing serious and not to worry. But I wanted something more—an explanation why this happened to me.

I wanted to get to the root cause, so I started investigating and looking for information on the internet. That’s when I came across functional diagnostic nutrition and learned that besides my genetic predisposition, I contributed to my illness with my eating choices and my inability to handle stress well.

My love for this new information and how powerful our food choices are started to open my eyes and I wanted to learn even more. I realized that there are many people out there with similar issues who might not speak English and cannot read the books I had found.

I wanted to find a way to help them.

That’s when I started to search for schools that would give me the background in science I was looking for and came across the Primal Health Coach Institute.

I read reviews and contacted people who already had this certificate. I liked the fact that PHCI had a coaching aspect to their program as well. So, I jumped right in and loved the course very much. It was never a burden to sit down and learn, even after a long day of work.

After graduating in the fall of 2018, I created a 6-Week Lifestyle Change Program which could be adjusted to the needs of my clients. My goal is to make people aware of how primal living can help them feel and live better.

Carmen Fodróczy

Connect with her on Instagram and Facebook

Carmen’s listing in the Primal Health Coach Institute Directory

The post I Wanted To Get To the Root Cause appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.

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

If you’re new to exercise, or coming back to it after many years of a layoff, it is very challenging. You don’t have the same sense of fearlessness that you had in the past. You may lack confidence for many reasons. If you are over 50-years-old and starting out, the challenge can seem overwhelming.

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