Secrets To Health And Weight Loss

People always ask me for my secrets. How to lose a little weight, best exercises for weight loss, best supplements for weight loss, magic super foods for health, if I take this class will I be fit...

The answer is a complicated mix of diet, exercise, and lifestyle management.

People always want a secret. And people who look for secrets never succeed.

The Breakdown On Types Of Fats

Types of Fats

Saturated fats - Solid in room temperature, mostly from animals. It is not all bad. It can actually be quite good for you as long as it comes from natural, organic sources. Like grassfed beef, pasture raised chickens, wild caught fish, etc. It is also found in coconut oil.

Trans fats - This is an unnatural man-made fat, made from a process called hydrogentation. Makes fat harder in room temperature and increases shelf life. It makes things crispier and flakier, like cakes and pies. This like processed foods, snack foods like chips and crackers, cookies, some margerine and salad dressing, and foods made with shortening and partially hydrogenated oils. Man-made fats should be avoided.

Monounsaturated fats - Liquid in room temperature. Made from mostly vegetables and found in vegetable oils. Should be mostly avoided as it is also man-made fats, unless its olive oil or avocado oil.

Polyunsaturated fats - Liquid in room temperature. The two types being omega 3 and omega 6.

Omega-6 fatty acids - Found in vegetable oils like soy, corn, safflower and also in animals that have been fed grains like corn or wheat, and also soy. Also a man-made fat, and is one of the greatest threats to our health due to its pro-inflammatory nature.

Omega-3 fatty acids - This is the good fat everyone talks about, broken down to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Has a very anti-inflammatory nature and has benefits to fat burning, metabolism, immune system, joints, brain, and hormones among other things. Found in some plants, but most abundant in seafood and small fish, green algae, grass fed animals. According to WebMD, we need to be eating at least 8 ounces or more of these types of fish a week. Read my complete write up on fish oils and omega 3 fatty acids.

In conclusion,

have a diet rich in natural fats. Use fats for energy, carbs for nutrition, protein for rebuilding your body. I wrote more about it on how you should start off your breakfast.

Eat healthy, natural, grass fed pasture raised eggs, meats, or wild caught small fishes, or things like coconut oil. Avoid all man-made fats like trans fats, and monounsaturated fats other than olive oil or avocado oil.

Avoid man-made polyunsaturated fats like omega 6. Eat more of omega 3, especially from fish. Or take a fish oil supplement.

What's The Only Supplement I Need?

If there is only one supplement you could take, what should it be?

The reason I eat the way I do is so I don't have to take supplements (very rare for a trainer). And I don't except for one kind that I feel we all need, to counteract the modern diet and stresses. And if I miss a day, I don't freak out. I don't get obsessive about it, that's not healthy either to be hyper vigilant about supplements (which is easy to fall into).

A lot of trainers take a series of shakes and supplements and powders and get their clients on them as well and sometimes create their own and sell them to clients. I don't know how many times someone has called me to make my own supplements and sell it to clients, or partner up with a big company to sell theirs to clients or on my site. I've never felt comfortable with this idea nor can supplements ever make up for a poor diet.

The original goal is to make people healthy, not do it for the money (though believe me making money is a nice perk. But if that's what I really wanted, more money, I would have stayed in finance). So if I do it to make more money by selling supplements, I will now look with biases to prove to people how good these supplements are, because I have to. So I am no longer scientific. I see this in dogmas about food, if there is something I will never eat no matter what you tell me, I will look for evidence to show how bad it is for me because I won't eat it anyway. It's the only position I feel good about defending. It becomes self serving fact finding. Or if there is a food I won't give up, I will tell you about its merits. All natural vegan ice cream has lots of anti-oxidants my body needs, you'll say.

I find this as well with supplements, I will never give up my juices, my powders, my pills, so I will look for evidence to show how beneficial they are. It becomes this psychological need to always be fixing yourself, and supplements becomes the tool for this chase.

Personally my only loyalty is health and optimization, I will switch to any diet or take any pill if I really saw the evidence that it would truly make me better. But when you research with this type of mindset, you find that most claims are just that, claims. There is no magic pill, and super foods aren't all that super, yet they will charge super high prices (that's the former financial advisor in me looking at the cost to benefit). You HAVE to ignore the marketing machine.

Someone just recently asked me about chia seeds, the studies find that it does have some small health benefits, but nowhere near the claims. It's also a lot of insoluble fiber and works similarly to Metamucil  but at much greater costs. Same with $15 super juices and smoothies.

I find recommending supplements to be problematic and supplementation themselves to be problematic (unless medically required). It's trying to make up for the imbalances of a poor diet instead of confronting the diet head on. The supplement themselves have a whole series of issues and questions on efficacy, bio-availability, active ingredients in comparison to claims, and side effects.

No supplement, just like no amount of exercise can counteract a poor diet. There is also the issue of too much supplementation and fortification in our modern diet, even water has been fortified with fluoride. One of our client's father is a world renowned doctor of endocrinology and his whole practice is about reversing all the ill effects from supplementation. There's even studies on all the harmful effects to our microbiome, taking so many antibiotics have done to us.

Now with all that said, the one supplement I take and I recommend are fish oils...

Q: Why fish oils?

More than anything else, the greatest threat to our health is inflammation. A lot of supplements are trying to give you lots of good things, or things that will enhance you. Fish oils on the other hand directly tries to deal with our biggest threat and tries to mitigate it. And that's what supplements are supposed to do, not solve or cure, but to supplement and mitigate. Anti-oxidants are nice, so are vitamins. But what we really need is something that will lower our inflammation because even with a healthy diet, inflammation is impossible to avoid. It's why its the only supplement I still take. Anti-Cancer was a seminal book on the subject of inflammation and our health, in how it relates to cancer, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and more.

Q: How do omega fats help us?

A huge part of the problem of inflammation is sugar and how we began to put sugar in everything. Another is eating foods that are too hard to digest or bypasses digestion completely. Stress, even caused by overexercising can cause inflammation.

But beyond all that, the other huge problem, right up there with sugar is omega 6 fatty acids. There are 3 omega fats, omega 3, 6, 9. Our bodies cannot make omega 3 and 6. Our bodies can make omega 9 fatty acids and it is the most abundant in nature, and we can use it as a substitute in our bodies for omega 3 and 6.

There is a balance between 3 and 6, a ratio we need to uphold. Omega 6 being the inflammatory fatty acids that we need and the omega 3 being the anti-inflammatory fatty acids that our body needs. But the problem is we have too much omega 6 in our diet. Basically any food with corn, soy, wheat in it, vegetable oils, meats fed with corn, soy, and/or wheat (which is all the common and popular foods) has too much omega 6. Practically every man made food has it. Either it has too much sugar or too much omega 6 or both.

Omega 3 begins to balance all of this out, along with of course changing our diet (which is the key first step all of our clients must undergo). Omega 3 and 6 should be evenly consumed, but right now omega 6 is exponentially higher. Out of balance, our whole immune system and the various cell-signaling components that tell the immune system what to do becomes compromised.

Along with that omega 3 has positive metabolic effects, but more importantly improvements in brain, heart, joints, and hormone functions as well. Back in our history, cod liver oil was often used as a cure-all.

The nice thing about omega 3, especially in the form of fish oils is that, it's not like other supplements with very little data or the data is funded by the supplement makers. There's decades and decades of peer-reviewed research on the benefits of omega 3 by real academics.

A mistake many people will make is that they believe they need all the omega fatty acids and get omega 3, 6, 9 supplements. Its a huge waste of money and may cause more harm than good. You were trying to lower inflammation and promote good health not make yourself worse right?

Remember though only diet fixes diet. No amount of exercise or fish oils can undo what a poor diet does.

Q: If omega 3 is what we need why does it need to come from fish?

There are other sources you can get omega 3's from like grass, phytoplankton, algae, seaweed, and some seeds. We aren't particularly efficient at breaking down any of these things. Omega 3's are a family of fatty acids, the parent molecule is called alpha linolenic acid (LNA or ALA). The ALA in plants are converted by animals and to greater extent fish to become the potent omega 3 anti-inflammatory EPA and DHA. The ALA itself is not anti-inflammatory and only a small percentage of it can be converted to EPA and DHA. Fish feed off the best source of ALA and do the best job converting it into the concentrated source of EPA and DHA. If not, machines or chemicals will try to break it down to its smaller refined parts with inefficient and ineffective results.

So if we take it in the form of flax or chia or any other plant based source, our bodies have to do the conversion process, which is very energy intensive and inefficient. The converting itself can cause more inflammation, it's why EPA and DHA is what we are after, and we want to actually limit too much ALA. And whatever amount you do convert will be nominal compared to how much you had to ingest. That's also the assumption that the ALA in the supplement you took was even in absorbable in the first place.

Q: So what kind of fish oils

Purity is key. Your fish oil should be free of soy (including lecithin), dairy, wheat, rice, sweeteners, or artificial ingredients.

Look at the EPA and DHA serving which is far more important than total fish oil amount. It may say 1,000 mg of fish oil but a very small amount of it may be omega 3 in the forms of EPA and DHA.

Mercury shouldn't be an issue if the fish oil was harvested from small fish. Most high quality fish oils are tested to ensure that any mercury or other metals are below detectable levels. Herring, anchovies, sardines are the best. Look for wild caught fish, not farmed.

Natural fish oils absorbs better than purified. The more natural the structure of the fish oil the better it absorbs.

Look for a Certificate of Analysis (COA) or see if the manufacturer provides one. If not be suspicious. It is the standard for purity. It's done by an independent third party. There are many supplements, not just fish oils that show you lab studies, the problem is the studies have been done by their own labs. There are a whole host of problems when it's not done independently. The COA is a sign that they were willing to put their goods to the scrutiny of a third party.

Omega 3 fatty acids are susceptible to damage. Meaning it can become rancid easily. Break open a capsule, see if it smells fishy. It should smell like the ocean not like rotten fish.

Don't freeze your pill, turning cloudy proves nothing about if its rancid or not. All fish oils turn cloudy.

Natural triglyceride form has highest absorption rate. It is the closest thing to eating the fish oil in its natural form. Being wild caught and sourced from a clean area is very important.

Most fish oils found in stores are in a ethyl ester form, which has poor bio-availability (ability for your body to absorb it), made from farmed fish or larger fish, not fresh/wild caught or from polluted waters, has low EPA and DHA, has impurities, has harmful additives, and already rancid.

The whole point is to lower inflammation and a lot of the omega 3 products out there including fish oil, can cause more problems with inflammation than it can resolve. So don't try to save with cheap supplements, or supplements that have no research and analysis, nor a high level of quality control behind it. That will either do nothing for you or cause you more harm than good.

Also fish oil is best absorbed with a meal, preferably a very fatty meal (good fats of course).

Q: Why not krill oil?

Krill oil is also becoming a popular option and its phospholipid structure appears to have better absorption than fish oil. Our cell membranes are also made of phospholipids so it takes to it easier.

Most of the data collected on krill oil though has been sponsored by the manufacturers (I told you to be suspicious of this earlier) whereas fish oils as mentioned previously has decades of research. Also dosages used in the studies for krill oil are very high and would be very expensive.

Each krill oil pill has far less omega fats than a comparable fish oil pill. Even with the higher absorption rate (if the manufacturer sponsored data was true), you would still get more omega 3 fats from fish oil. Meaning krill oil has higher percentage of absorption, whereas fish oil has higher volume of omega 3. Bottom line forget percentages, you get more concentrated omega 3 fatty acids with fish oils in your system per pill than you would with several pills of krill oil.

Also there are issues of sustainably harvesting krill, which is something that is also important to me.

What are my recommendations?

I like using Amazon for 3 reasons, its convenient, best value (lots of time free shipping), and accessible to most people because they already have an account.

1. Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega



Triglyceride form. Comes from sardines and anchovies. Wild caught. More potency, so you get more omega 3 per pill than cheaper brands. No gluten, milk, artificial flavors, or colors. Exceeds IFOS, CRN, GOED, WHO, Prop 65 and EP standards and provide a COA upon request. Their fish comes off the coast of Peru, from clean waters. Many store brands will never reveal where their fish was sourced. Nordic Naturals is also regarded as the highest quality in supplements and fish oils. More expensive but my favorite and best potency per pill. If you are only taking one supplement and that's it, you don't need to skimp. Take the money you would have spent on all the other supplements and get a better fish oil.

2. Nutrigold Triglyceride Omega-3



Very similar to Nordic Naturals. It's IFOS 5 star certified. Triglyceride form. Third party tested and certified free of Mercury, Dioxins, PCBs, and toxins. High potency. MSC (Marine Steward Council ) certified sustainably caught fish off Alaskan deep ocean waters. No soy, milk, gluten, or artificial ingredients. Much less expensive than the Nordic Naturals and a very good choice. It's my second favorite because it does use bigger fishes like Pollock and whiting. But still a very good fish oil and does have a little more EPA than Nordic Naturals. You can't go wrong with this one either.

3. Amerifit Nutrition Ovega-3 DHA EPA (Vegetarian)



For vegans and vegetarians or people allergic to seafood. Algae is the best source for plant derived omega 3, more than any other source (including flax, hemp, or chia).  Unlike other plant derived omega 3 supplement, it has both EPA and DHA, whereas most only have DHA. Comes in a dark bottle which helps keep it fresher longer. Since the source is not fish derived it will not deplete the ocean's dwindling fish supply. PCB and mercury free and no taste of after effects like burps.

Why The Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Eat Healthy

"In a public comment posted on the FTC website, our friends at General Mills pointed out that under the IWG guidelines, the most commonly consumed foods in the US would be considered unhealthy. Specifically, according to General Mills, “of the 100 most commonly consumed foods and beverages in America, 88 would fail the IWG’s proposed standards.” So you see? If you people start eating the way the nutrition experts at the CDC and USDA recommend that you eat, that would delegitimize almost 90 percent of the products we produce! Do you realize how much money that would cost us?"

Read the rest: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2013/05/19/dear-american-consumers-please-dont-start-eating-healthfully-sincerely-the-food-industry/

The Scientific Evidence On Dietary Fats And Health

Summary:

Although early studies showed that saturated fat diets with very low levels of PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) increase serum cholesterol, whereas other studies showed high serum cholesterol increased the risk of coronary artery disease (CAD), the evidence of dietary saturated fats increasing CAD or causing premature death was weak. 

Over the years, data revealed that dietary saturated fatty acids (SFAs) are not associated with CAD and other adverse health effects or at worst are weakly associated in some analyses when other contributing factors may be overlooked. Several recent analyses indicate that SFAs, particularly in dairy products and coconut oil, can improve health.

The evidence of ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (Omega-6) promoting inflammation and augmenting many diseases continues to grow, whereas ω3 PUFAs (Omega-3) seem to counter these adverse effects.

The replacement of saturated fats in the diet with carbohydrates, especially sugars, has resulted in increased obesity and its associated health complications. Well-established mechanisms have been proposed for the adverse health effects of some alternative or replacement nutrients, such as simple carbohydrates and PUFAs. The focus on dietary manipulation of serum cholesterol may be moot in view of numerous other factors that increase the risk of heart disease. The adverse health effects that have been associated with saturated fats in the past are most likely due to factors other than SFAs, which are discussed here. This review calls for a rational reevaluation of existing dietary recommendations that focus on minimizing dietary SFAs, for which mechanisms for adverse health effects are lacking.

Read the rest: http://advances.nutrition.org/content/4/3/294.full

Powerful Thoughts About Diet From A Client

One of our clients Jonathan said something powerful.

He was thinking about the discussion we had about how our diet somehow always leaves us feeling hungry. He's been watching a BBC documentary called Human Planet all about how humans have adapted to nature all over the world.

One of the things that struck him was, how so many cultures can spend their whole day in search of food to eat maybe once and be fine whereas we in the modern society can eat 3-6x a day and still constantly be hungry? What is wrong with out diet, why is it not keeping us full?

What is wrong with the modern diet that keeps people obese and hungry?

Such powerful thoughts!

Why You Need Healthy Germs In Your Gut

Because the article is so long I thought it would be helpful to write up a summary of this 8 page article on microbes and our health by Michael Pollen in the NY Times:

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/magazine/say-hello-to-the-100-trillion-bacteria-that-make-up-your-microbiome.html?_r=0

For every human cell in our body, there are 10 resident microbes. We are not just bearers of our own genetic information but theirs as well. Nearly 99% of the genetic information we carry is microbial. Often called the "second genome." You're inherited genome is more or less fixed, it is possible to cultivate and shape your second genome.

Creating the wrong kind of internal ecosystem, and loss of diversity, and proliferation of the wrong kinds of microbes can lead to diseases, infections, and obesity.

In transplants of a healthy person's microbiota to a sick person's, the results have been positive in treating metabolic syndrome and infections that were resistant to antibiotics.

Our microbes also have a huge impact on training and modulating our immune system.

When we are born, our gut starts out in a blank state. Shortly after an infant community of microbes assemble in the gut. Then with introduction of solid foods, the microbe community changes until around age 3 when it resembles an adults. Certain elements in human breast milk are there solely for the purpose of the microbes, to create healthy gut flora.

Mother's milk is the only mammalian food shaped by evolution, is the Rosetta stone for all food. The gut of bottle fed babies are not optimally colonized with microbes.

Most of the microbes that make up the baby's gut is acquired during birth, a microbially rich and messy process that exposes the baby to a whole variety of maternal microbes. Babies born of c-section do not get all the necessary microbes at birth. Which may account for higher rates of allergies, asthma, autoimmune disease, and their immune system may fail to develop properly.

(The fault does not lie with the women, like antibiotics, c-sections are far too often overly prescribed or out of the control of the women along with breastfeeding.)

We have far less diverse and healthy gut microbes in modern cultures compared to rural native cultures. A big part of the reason being excessive use of antibiotics not just in healthcare but in the food system. Consumption of processed foods which has been cleansed of all bacteria. And also the over sanitizing of our life.

We also spend less time outside, in contact with plants and the soil. Also the lack of being raised by a community of people where microbes from hand to hand are being spread. We have a culture of avoiding touching unless we hand sanitize after.

Healthy gut bacteria is why some people may get food poisoning while another person may have the same meal with little ill effect.

Our gut bacteria also plays a role in the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin, enzymes, vitamins, and other essential nutrients. They also affect the immune and metabolic systems. Which may regulate our stress and temperament, digestion, appetite, and satiety.

So why do we rely so much on bacteria to do things and not ourselves? Because its more efficient, bacteria can evolve and adapt and go through generations much quicker than we can. Which has been a huge key to our survival. Its our connection to the wild, to evolving out of huts and we are losing it rapidly. Some microbes are nearly extinct in western microbiomes.

The microbes engage with the immune system to lower inflammation to serve its own best interest. Preventing things such as type 2 diabetes to acid reflux.

Farmers for years have been using antibiotics on livestock for years to make them gain weight. The drug favors bacteria that makes the animals gain weight and we do the same to our kids. By 18 most western kids go through 10-20 courses of antibiotics. Antibiotic residue is also found in meats, milk, and even sometimes water. Also chemical antimicrobials found in hand sanitizer to vegetables. Even one round of antibiotics devastates the gut microbiome. It will eventually bounce back to normal but the more rounds of antibiotics the less likely it will bounce back at all.

Another huge problem is the lack of fiber in the western diet which deteriorates the microbiome and excessive preservatives and emulsifiers in food.

The biggest health problem currently scientist find are from excessive inflammation which can lead to diabetes, cancer, heart disease, etc. One theory is that it starts from the gut.

People are using probiotics to cultivate their gut but due to poor regulation, very few brands if any carry the exact species stated on the label.

What can we do? Go and play outside. Start a garden. Eat less processed foods, eat more real foods. Cook. Sanitize less, take less antibiotics. A lot of Americans ask for antibiotics for colds and flus (and are often given it) even though cold and flus are caused by viruses and the antibiotics will have 0 effect on it. A certain amount of fermented foods. A biodiverse diet. Lots of fiber. Less sugars and salt. More real plants not fiber supplements. Eat local, make friends with the farmer's markets.

This may make you reconsider any cleanses and detoxes you may have planned.