Episode #301 – Full Transcript

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Podcast #301 from:  https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2014/12/301-is-sprouted-bread-bad-for-you-can-weed-help-you-sleep-better-how-to-fix-damage-from-birth-control-pills/

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Introduction:  In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast:  Is Sprouted Bread Bad For You, Can Weed Help You Sleep Better, How To Fix Damage From Birth Control Pills, Something Called Cascara As A Coffee Alternative, and much more.

Brock:  So, are you home?

Ben:  I am back home.  I am actually…

Brock:  Snuggled in your own office…

Ben:  Basking in the glow of the awake and alert bulbs in my office.  These are the ones that churn out a disproportionately high amount of blue light, which in the evening is not that great of an idea unless you need to throw down like a late afternoon workout here in Spokane when it’s getting dark like 4:30PM.  But in the morning, these lights in the office, they actually – they do the trick, they wake me right up.

Brock:  Nice.  Do you do that because you don’t have a window in there?

Ben:  I’ve got a window but my office is in a daylight basement and so, I made a decision, I’ve got one, two, three, four, five, like LED receptacles up in the ceiling of the office and each one has one of these, these – they’re bulbs made by a company called Lighting Science, and they’re awake and alert bulbs and they just churn out blue lights.  So, yeah!  Made it back from Disneyland – the Disneyland vacation and I’ll tell you what Brock, I realized on the way back home on the plane, why I do this podcast and do what I do.

Brock:  I’m glad you know!

Ben:  Five people on that plane, on that tiny plane from the Salt Lake City to Spokane needed seatbelt extenders.

Brock:  Ohhh…

Ben:  It’s crazy.

Brock:  Bummer.

Ben:  So, I do this podcast to make airline stewards and stewardess’ everywhere stronger.

Brock:  Nice.

News Flashes:

Brock:  Now while you are on the status plane in America, you are tweeting and facebooking some pretty cool stuff again.

Ben:  Yes, I’ve got a few gems for those of you out there.  If you follow me on twitter.com/BenGreenfield, I tweet studies all week long.  I pick some of the more interesting ones and I tell you about them in the news flashes section of the show.  So, here we go, the first one was about how exercise strengthens your immune system vs. how much weakens it.  And this was an article that appeared over at Sweat Science and what they did was they measured immune function of, in this case, rats and compared 30 minutes of moderate running…

Brock:  Timetable for humans…

Ben:  [laughs] That’s right.  Thirty minutes of intense running and 120 minutes of moderate running and then a control group with no running.

Brock:  Oh, that’s poor little rats.  That’s like a lifetime for them doing that long.

Ben:  I know.  I hope they had some good music.

Brock:  I hope they got a good rubdown after.

Ben:  Anyways though, in the past, most studies that I’ve looked at immune function and exercise, they measure markers in the blood or in the saliva, but in this study they use a brand new method in which they put this chemical, it’s called DPCP and  they put this chemical on a patch, on the lower back of the rats and they do this 20 minutes after the exercise bouts, and this DPCP, is what’s called an antigen and it triggers the development of the immune system response and the strength of that immune system response is basically measured.  And so, this is a very unique but incredibly accurate way to measure what happens to the immune system after exercise.  And the results are pretty clear.  We see that the control group really didn’t have much of a dip in immune function post-exercise at all, and we’re talking 20…

Brock:  And those were the rats that just sort of hang out?

Ben:  Uhmm, 30 minutes moderate intensity and 30 minutes high intensity, not a huge difference even though there was a slight, slightly greater dip in immune function in the people with the high intensity but the hang other people, the rats…

Brock:  The little free people…

Ben:  …are people too.  And then in the 120 group, this team dropped in immune function, and so what the results show is that there’s this certain amount of exercise that doesn’t really impact immune function and then you get to the point where you do need to be careful if you’ve – and anybody who’s done a marathon and got home with the sniffles, you know, ‘cause they hopped on an airplane or whatever, regardless of the number of seat extenders on said airplane.

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And they’re in close quarters, they get exposed to a germ or pathogen and they get sick and the reason for that is this big drop in immune function from hard and heavy bouts of exercise.  So it’s very interesting, you get to this point where I actually would have like to see like a 60 minute and a 90 minute to meet 30 minutes of 220 minutes is pretty a big jump.

Brock:  It’s a big jump.

Ben:  But either way, it’s good information to know if, like if you’re traveling for example, you may benefit and this may sound crazy to some of you listening in and may sound normal to some of you listening in.  You may benefit from not going out and doing like a 90 minute to 2 hour workout and instead kinda keep yourself healthy especially if you’re traveling, or if you’re exposed to colds, flu, stuff like that.  Like keep your workout as close to a 30-60 minutes in length, and know that there’s this acute drop in immune function especially right after you do that workout.  So, the way that I’ve been instructing in my workout by the way, lately as I do a really short workout in the morning, and a short workout in the evening, and that’s kind of my scenario right now.  There’s really palatable kinda to it a scenario and it’s literally almost boringly the same day today.  It’s like yoga, or a little bit of cold thermogenesis or a little bit of mobility in the morning, something high intensity in the evening, and I am pretty much rinse, wash, and repeat that everyday, alternating between like weight training one day, and cardio the next day for the high intensity stuff and…

Brock:  Hmm, that sounds really familiar.

Ben:  It works out pretty well.  Yes! And I use that approach with many of my clients like you, Brock as well.  So the other thing, speaking of traveling and immune system, and all that jazz, there is this really interesting study that came out that showed that, when you are jet lagged and when you’re traveling in airplanes a lot, that it affects what’s called your gut micro biome or the bacteria in the gut.  And they found that bacteria in the gut change quite a bit due to not just jet lag but also lack of sleep due to shift work, and that that literally was decreasing the amount of good bacteria in the gut.  And this is a pretty brief observation that I have from the study but one that I would point people towards this, find some kind of – if you’re traveling a lot find some kind of a probiotic that is heat stable, that you can travel with if possible.  This is something that I’ve kinda added into my travel scenarios.  I take probiotics when I travel just ‘cause frankly it’s the airplane that are serving kimchi and sauerkraut, and kefir are pretty few and far between, you know, airplane serving fermented foods.  So, what this comes down to is like a couple of brands out there, I know for probiotics for example, Prescript-Assist is one, that’s a soy-based probiotics, that’s very heat stable that you can use to take care of your gut.  If you’ve got some sleep disruption whether over the holidays or due to airline travel or due to shift work or whatever.  Another one, and this is one, full disclosure, this is one that I feature over at greenfieldfitnesssystems.com.  The Advanced Caprobiotics is the one that I’m taking.  You’ll noticed that when you order it, it arrives to your house, it is not refrigerated ‘cause it doesn’t need to be, it’s a heat stable probiotics.  So…

Brock:  That’s ‘cause it’s dried?

Ben:  I honestly don’t know exactly how they protect it.  I think it’s some kind of like a spore mechanism, where it’s like in a spores, it stays intact, it’ll get into your stomach or into your intestine and then it’s somehow released but either way, interesting observation from this study that you should use probiotics especially when you’re traveling.

Brock:  Cool.

Ben:  And then finally, I tweeted out that people who say organic fruits and veggies aren’t any better than their non-organic counterparts need to pay attention to this research now.  And this was in the British Journal of Nutrition and the title of the study, drumroll please… Higher antioxidants and lower cadmium concentrations and lower incidence of pesticide residues in organically grown crops.

Brock:  Cadmium… That’s not a good thing.

Ben:  Those were either the chocolate eggs that my wife used to eat all the time for something really bad.  I don’t remember…

Brock:  That’s Cadbury.

Ben:  She – my wife, when she was pregnant, she had like two of those Cadbury egg packs a day.  I swear.

Brock:  Woah!

Ben:  I’d like find them in the dashboard, like in the little – like the thing in the car, or like the little cup holder dashboard thing like shove the way in there like Cadbury egg wrappers ever.

Brock:  Wow!  That’s like a sugar bomb – that’s a sugar nuclear bomb.

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Ben:  But… they didn’t have cadmium in them and…

Brock:  I guess not.

Ben:  Cadmium is a pretty toxic metal.  Basically, it can wrecked a lot of metabolic havoc.  It has been in Japan, in research in Japan, It shown to be a pretty critical in the development of breast cancer, it’s been shown to contribute to potential cardiovascular disease as well as cerebrovascular disease and stroke.  Not a fun metal to have hanging around in that bunch of grapes on your kitchen counter.  And then they also found higher amounts of phenolic acid, flavanones, flavanols, anthocyanins, like a lot of these good antioxidants and beneficial ones…

Brock:  And the stuff that we do want.

Ben:  Yeah, and the stuff that we do want preferably on the side of the cadmium.  They were higher in the organic crops and so, I thought this just gave me more reason to maybe spend a few extra pennies or shekels or whatever at the Whole Foods with the whole paycheck or nuggets or sprouts or you know, whatever your grocery store is, features the organic fruit and produce.  Make sure that you go out and you make the right decision if you don’t wanna get jam-pack with cadmium and turn yourself into a battery.

Brock:  Unless you could be a rechargeable one.

Special Announcements:

Ben:  So my basement was flooded and I think I mentioned in a podcast.

Brock:  Again?

Ben:  No, this was one first flood but I’ve had to have my gym floor redone, and so my entire gym is kinda surrounded – surrounding me in my office right now and it is comprised like medicine balls, and battle bags, and a battle rope, and these kettlebells with the primal monkey faces on them, and honestly, I have to admit that since I started using a lot of these Onnit fitness gear that not only as my gym very kinda scary place to be because of all the monkey faces…

Brock:  [laughs] It’s like an evil torture chamber.

Ben:  It kinda looks like that.  Yeah, the only thing missing is like a scimitar and some kind of like a skull ball and maybe those little electrodes that attached to your brain that shock you when you’re being tortured.  But I do have a lot of cool fitness gear and it comes from Onnit, and Onnit is a sponsor of this podcast and you can actually save 10% over at onnit.com/bengreenfield.  And it is really fun fitness gear, go buy something for yourself, for the holidays or buy a medicine ball for a friend instead of sending them a plate of cookies this holiday season, and they will thank you when they’re swoll come January.

Brock:  And when they don’t have the seatbelt extender.

Ben:  That’s right.  Check that out at Onnit.  Onnit.com/bengreenfield, no code to remember, it will automatically knock 10% off of your order which is awesome.

Brock:  Sweet.

Ben:  And then also, this podcast is brought to you by Harry’s Shaving and Harry’s Shaving has this brand new thing and by the way, this is freaking awesome if you’ve got like a dude that you need to buy a Christmas gift for, ‘cause they have what’s called their Winter Winston Set, and the Winter Winston Set that you can find over at, and here’s the URL that you gotta go to, harrys.com, when you use code benHOLIDAY, you get 5 bucks off this Winter Winston Set and here’s what it is – it is  precision engineered blade.  This cartridges that flex to contour your face with these comfort strips that sooth and nourish you as you shave.  It’s like a freaking orgasm for your face, and you get metal at the core of this handle so it’s just – it handles really nice, like an expensive knife but it’s a really nice German engineered blade, beautiful to look at.  So it’s better than just buying your friends for Christmas these disposable razors and then also, that winter Winston set comes with the brand new Harry’s foaming shave gel.  So you get all of these stuff and this nice little premium box that you can even get engrave if you wanna give it as a gift.  So, that’s normally $30, you save 5 bucks off that, so that’s a $25 gift.  That’s a pretty sweet gift for yourself or for one of your friends for holidays.  harrys.com, benHOLIDAY.  harrys.com, benHOLIDAY, you get the razor, you get the blades, you get the foaming shave gel, you get that entire winter Winston set.

Brock:  Winter Winston…

Ben:  And speaking of cool stuff that you get, if you happen to be listening to this podcast on the day that it comes out, our great Biomat giveaway ends today.  So head over to bengreemfieldfitness.com/giveaway if again, you happen to be listening to this podcast on December 3rd because you’ll qualify for over $1,750 worth of biomat prizes which is actually pretty sweet.

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So then, a few events I wanna tell you about before we jump in to this week’s Q and A.  I’m gonna through this…

Brock:  Bring them on…

Ben:  Get out your calendar people because when I talk about events, I only talk about them because I highly endorse and vouch for them.  All right, the first is, I’m speaking in Dubai, January 30 through 31st.  So if you’re one of our United Arab Emirates listeners then head over to the show notes for this episode over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/301 to get all the nitty gritty details on that.  Next, no matter where you live in the world, brand new thing, it’s called the the Spartan Cruise.  You can check it out at thespartancruise.com and this is a cruise to a private island in the Bahamas for a tropical Spartan race.

Brock:  Oh good! It’s on an island, I was afraid the Spartan race was on the cruise and I’m like – that is dangerous!

Ben:  No, it’s gonna be pretty freaking cool.  So those of you who aren’t familiar with Spartans, this is gonna feature a sprint Spartan on the island.  So that’s only about 4 miles long, and it takes anywhere from 30-60 minutes to do.  It’s a blast and this is a super duper family friendly cruise.  I’m bringing my family, they’ve got a kid’s race, it’s free for kids to go on a cruise, so if you’re listening in, I mean, whether you’re single or you have kids or family, you just wanna go as a couple, whatever.  It’s gonna rock, so it’s March 6th through the 9th, 2015.  Go to thespartancruise.com and they’ve actually got a 10% discount code.  The 10% discount code is BEN10.  It’s gonna rock, there’s gonna be lots of partying, beautiful beaches, these cool new island obstacle challenges.  I think this is gonna be the highlight of the sprint.  Check it out thespartancruise.com, use code BEN10 to save 10%.  Me, my wife, my kids are gonna be on the boat, come hang, it’s gonna be awesome.

And then also, two last things:  the first is that, I know that this is far out but PaleoFX is coming up and I’m gonna be speaking there.  This is one of the highlight conferences to go to whether you’re a paleo dieter, or whether you eat vegetables for a living, Paleo FX 2015, bengreenfieldfitness.com/paleofx15 will get you there or you can go head over to the show notes but it’s got who’s who gathering with a lot of world class speakers, physicians, nutritionists, research scientists, lots of very, very good free food and a ton of awesome talks.  It’s one big party, all week long, awesome Texas, check it out April 24th through the 26th, 2015.  I got a link in the show notes where you get kind of a special, early bird price and everything.  So go over bengreenfieldfitness.com/301 to check that out.

And then finally, the Rev Yourself Conference is next week.  I’m actually interviewing Dr. Mercola this weekend, this Sunday.  I’m interviewing Dr. Mercola from mercola.com where we’re talking about his life, his habit, his food, what he eats, the supplements that he takes, all that jazz.  We’re gonna delve deep into his insider, dark, and dirty secrets of Dr. Mercola.  Dirty, dirty, doctor…

Brock:  I’m sure he’s got some real dark secrets.

Ben:  Anyways though, him, 23 other experts, we’ve got everybody like Mark Sisson, junky for Nora Gedgaudas, everybody.  That’s all over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/revyourself, totally free conference, December 15th through the 19th, 2014.  Those are all the special announcements.  Let’s answer some questions people.

Brock:  Yey!

Listener Q And A:

Bill:  Hey guys, how’s it going? I just recently bought a sprouted bread and it has soy lecithin in it and I was just wondering kind of what that is and is it harmful or is it okay to be taken in? Basically that’s it.  Thanks for all you guys do.

Brock:  Soy lecithin…

Ben:  Hmm, soy lecithin.

Brock:  Lecithin, sounds gross.  Something you should smear on yourself and not put it on your bread.

Ben:  Well, there are things that you do have to worry about when it comes to sprouted bread but let’s talk about soy lecithin first, whether you actually do have to worry about that.

[0:20:04.1]

So, lecithin basically, typically in nutrition science that refers to a mixture of what are called phospholipids and oil.  Phospholipids are part of the cell membrane in just about every plant and animal, and then the lecithin that’s mix with – it can come from milk, from soy, from egg yolk, from sunflower, etc.  In this case obviously it comes from soy, if it says soy lecithin.  Typically, that means that it’s got some soybean oil in it and then it’s got what’s called phosphatidylcholine in it.  And phosphatidylcholine is this lipid that you find in liver, and egg yolks, it very good for the brain, it’s good for the hormones.  It’s the primary form of what’s called choline that you find in foods and in moderate amounts, it’s actually good for you, and to make soy lecithin, what they do is they take soybean oil and they extract that from raw soybeans and then that soy oil goes through what’s called the degumming process.  And that means that they mix water with the soy oil until this lecithin is hydrated and it separates from the oil.  And then they dry it and they add it to either like a food product or they’ll add it to for example, like a vitamin to enhance the liver ability of something like sometimes you’ll find soy lecithin mixed in with things like a curcumin for example.  You’ll find it mix in with a number of different botanicals like green tea and boswellia.  A lot of these things are made more absorbable when you combine that botanical with this phospholipids that you get from lecithin.  And so you find in supplements as well.

Brock:  That sounds so bad?

Ben:  Well, it’s actually really not that big of a deal unless you’ve got a pretty significant soy allergy.  So, the first thing is that, yay, because there’s a solvent involved in extracting the soy, there’s probably a very, very slight amount of chemical in soy lecithin but there’s no evidence that that actually makes up or causes many issues, you know, from like an allergenic…

Brock:  It’s not a significant damage…

Ben:  No, it’s not like smoking to cigarette every time you eat a piece of sprouted bread, don’t worry.  We’re talking about very, very light trace, extremely small amounts.  So, soy allergies can get triggered by soy proteins and whether or not soy lecithin is gonna trigger an allergic response depends on the protein content of that soy lecithin.  So protein concentrations range significantly in different soy lecithin samples that the FDA has actually done soy lecithin sampling on, and what they found is that most of it doesn’t contain sufficient amounts of soy protein to trigger an allergic response in people who are allergic to soy but you would know, like if you’ve taken like an allergy test and soy is something that you’re allergic to, and you eat something with soy lecithin and whatever, your face swells up or somebody has to shove an epiPen into your chest, then you probably know you’re allergic to soy lecithin.  Now, most of the soy that’s grown in the US is genetically modified.  So, this concerns me a little bit more just because when it’s genetically modified, that means that a lot of times just genetically modified to be resistant.  Pesticides, etc. and sometimes that means that it can do some damage to your gut.  Now, you want to look for soy lecithin from organic non-GMO sources preferably, so I’d be very careful but you should bear in mind that soy lecithin itself – it actually has very little genetic content, very little DNA and a lot of times the DNA is pretty degraded by the time the soy lecithin arrives in the bread, or the supplement or whatever compound it’s in.

So, there’s probably not a ton of damage from a GMO perspective but I’d be very careful.  When we look at phytoestrogens, soy and phytoestrogens, there can be some estrogenic activity from soy lecithin but it’s very, very minimal.  It’s not anywhere close to even like what you get from for example, ground flaxseeds and when it comes to smaller amounts of phytoestrogens, those have actually been shown to be protective when it comes to cancer and not a culprit when it comes to cancer, effecting fertility, or something like that.  So small microdoses of phytoestrogens such as you might find in soy lecithin are really not that big of a deal.  Toxicity – there was one really interesting study that hit a lot of the natural news, websites, a while back about how soy lecithin somehow affect the brain biochemistry in rats, and they fed these rats a ton of soy lecithin and what they found was that it impaired the rats reflexes and their swimming ability.

[0:25:09.7]

So they weren’t able to enjoy their breast stroking, their tiny little rat breast stroking quite as much.  But the fact is that this toxicity was due to the choline in the soy lecithin.  In fact there’s a few overdue acetylcholine supplementation or phosphatidylcholine intake or even if you eat too many egg yolks, it can be toxic and in the case of these rats, they got up to the point where they were taking in so much choline that was impairing their reflexes and their swimming ability, but it was due to choline toxicity not from the soy lecithin per se.  So, that’s another thing to bear in mind is that you always have to look at the studies in the light of what’s actually causing the issues.

So in terms of soy lecithin, the takeaway message here is that, if you have a severe soy allergy or you’re trying to completely detox or remove any chemicals whatsoever, then soy lecithin would probably something to eliminate or at least look for a completely organic non-GMO sources of soy lecithin.  Ultimately, microdoses the benefits that you get from the ability of lecithin to enhance the liver ability of some of the compounds and supplements, make it really not that big of an issue for supplements in the very, very small amounts that you’re gonna find in something like bread where it uses what’s called the emulsifier which allows the ingredients to mix better in something like bread.  It’s not that big of a deal, I think there’s bigger fish to fry that soy lecithin.  However, when it comes to sprouted bread you should be aware of some other issues with sprouted bread.  And a lot of people think that when bread is sprouted that makes the gluten easier to digest, makes less damaging to your gut, and it is true that sprouted wheat and sprouted grains have significantly lower levels of gluten, but when you look at a lot of the sprouted breads that are out there, they’re extremely concentrated in lectins, and in what’s called wheat germ agglutinin.

And so if you look at like Ezekiel 4:9 Bread for example, that’s a really popular one here in the States that a lot of people use who are wanted to go like gluten or get off regular bread and they use an Ezekiel, and the fact is that lectin is extremely concentrated in that, and that can affect what’s called brain-derived neurotrophic factor.  It’s one of the most inflammatory substances that you can dumped into your immune system.  So you need to be very, very careful with this concentrated sources of WGA that you might find in something like Ezekiel 4:9.  Now, a lot of times if you’re looking at something that’s been both fermented and sprouted, that’s gonna make a lot better.  It’s like a good – like a preferably home-made, like an organic, non-GMO sourdough bread that’s been sprouted, fermented, etc.  That be the way to go but understand that lectins are concentrated and even the sprouted bread, so something to be careful with.  If you wanna learn more about that, and I actually didn’t know this about sprouted bread until recently there was an online conference called the Digestion Sessions, and in one of the episodes, it was the one with this guy name Sayer Ji, and it was called The Dark Side of Gluten: New Perspectives on Celiac Disease and Wheat Intolerance.

Brock:  Seem terrifying.

Ben:  May possibly get sued by Star Wars for that.  Anyways though, if you go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/fixmygut, that’s like my link for those sessions and they’re really good.  It’s like 12 audios and videos that you download and listen to and read, but you know, it’s got everything from constipation to gas bloating, indigestion, things along that, like how to fix your gut basically.  So, that’s over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/fixmygut.  I recommend that you listen to that if you want more on the perspective on bread but ultimately, I would not worry too much about the soy lecithin.  If you are gonna bread, then try and choose like a sprouted/fermented source of bread or do as I do and primarily wrap your meat or cheeses or whatever it is that you’re gonna eat and things like rice wraps, and nori wraps, and bok choy and cabbage, and kale, and all those other hippie foods.

Cara:  Hi Ben and Brock, this is Cara Saler from Columbia, Maryland again.  Got another quick question for ‘ya.  I tried the CBD hemp oil last night and it really helped me fall asleep without a problem which I’ve been struggling with for the past couple of weeks.  However, I will get really startled two hours later.  I did fall back asleep but I did wake up again, probably about every couple of hours.

[0:30:03.1]

So I’m not sure what was going on and if you had any experience using the product for sleep.  So, any insight would be great!  Thanks again.

Brock:  So have you still been using that CBD stuff?  I know you’re doing it when we first had that podcast all about the CBD oil and all those kinda things, but are you still on it?

Ben:  Well, yeah, we did that podcast on CBD oil which is basically cannabidiol extract and we can talk about what that is in a second, but you know, just without getting into too much detail, weed, marijuana, buds, whatever you wanna call them.  Those are completely legal in a state of Washington now, and what that means is there are more direct and efficacious ways for me to get CBD (nudge, nudge, wink,wink) and get it for a very affordable price.

Brock:  Yeah, that stuff was pretty darn expensive on…

Ben:  So yeah, I personally have other ways of getting CBD into my system now.  So, anyway though, when it comes to CBD oil, you have what’s called an endocanniban weight system in your body and it regulates like relaxation, eating, sleeping, inflammation, cognitive function, etc. and there’s two types of receptors that are found throughout your body and these are cannabinoid receptors or called CB1 and CB2.  And CBD is an abbreviation for cannabidiol which is the naturally occurring cannabinoid component that you’re gonna find in cannabis.  Sometimes it’s up to like 40% of like a cannabis plant, and it’s very devoid of psycho-active effect.  THC is the more psycho-active component of cannabis.  CBD however has a lot of other effects that go above and beyond like the psycho-active effect, and one of the things you’re gonna find in like strains of marijuana for example that are higher in CBD or like a CBD extract, like a CBD oil extract is there is a relaxative property to it, like a sedative type of property.

Brock:  A mellowing out property.

Ben:  And there are some very interesting studies that show that this CBD rich-tincture or CBD rich-oil especially when taken a few hours before bedtime has this effect of facilitating a good night sleep, and if you go to PubMed, I mean, there’s a variety of studies there on cannabis, pain, sleep, the effect of cannabis on modulating sleep, on modulating circadian rhythm, and it’s certainly is something that can slow you down at night.  And that would be whether you are for example, using like a CBD rich-oil which you would spray underneath your tongue and you hold for about 60-90 seconds.  You could also for example vaporize CBD and I believe we talked about this before, but vaporizing is a much, much healthier alternative to smoking.

It’s better for your lungs, and even though a lot of times you’ll CBD sold as a concentrate or an oil or an extract, you can also inhale CBD, and if you vaporize like a marijuana for example, at a… not for example, it be about the only you’d vaporize to get CBD, but if you vaporize marijuana at a certain temperature, it’s actually right around 450 degrees Fahrenheit or so, you get a pretty big release of CBD without a lot of those THC components and so vaporizing a very, very potent way to maximize or even magnify the effects that you might get from CBD based oil.  And interestingly they’ve done studies on the best temperatures for vaporizing these type of things and for – you know, I don’t want this podcast to turn into what sounds like a drug paraphernalia type of podcast, just…

Brock:  We’re walking a fine line.

Ben:  Yeah, we’re walking a fine line.  We’re basically – when you use kind of like a medium to low temperature to vaporize, you get a little bit more of these extracts vaporized into your lungs and that’s just means like a very slow and low type of, it’s not a high, it’s more like just you get sleepy.  So…

Brock:  I believe they call it chillin’.

Ben:  Yeah, chillin’.  So, if this CBD oil isn’t working for you and you happen to live in a state of Washington or Colorado, you can just go out and get a vaporizer, you can buy a vaporizer off of Amazon and you can just vaporize.  And that’s another good way to get the effects of CBD.  Whether you’re using A CBD rich-oil or whether you’re vaping your own CBD, the fact is that if it’s putting you to sleep, what’s happening is when the effects of it wear off, that’s when you’re waking up when that sedative effect wears off, that’s when you’re waking up.

[0:35:16.7]

And so, I’ve got a couple of suggestions to Cara and anybody else who’s using this stuff who is using it to sleep and then waking up and having trouble getting back to sleep.  And these are also recommendations that I make to people who just wake up at 3 or 4AM with their mind racing.  Number 1 would be passion flower extract.  Passion flower is something that causes your body to release an inhibitory neurotransmitter specifically what’s called gamma aminobutyric acid or GABA, and when your body releases it’s own levels of this inhibitory neurotransmitter, it can cause you to feel sleepy, it can be kinda anti-anxiolytic, it’s the same effect as like valium or diazepam without you having to metabolize that in your liver for example.  So without a lot of those deleterious side effects, and you can just keep a little droplet of passion flower and this stuff.  I’ll put a link in the show notes.  You can get the same stuff I get off of Amazon if you want to.  And you dissolve a little bit under your tongue and you gradually fall back to sleep.

The other option is that about 20-30 minutes before you go to bed, you can put on a melatonin patch.  This is much different than taking a melatonin pill or capsule or whatever, the melatonin patch gives you this slow bleed of melatonin all night long that helps to keep you asleep.  There are some arguments out there that by supplementing with melatonin in this manner, you may potentially down regulate your own endogenous self-production of melatonin, which may possibly be true.  That’s why I primarily only use melatonin when I travel and I use this passion flower stuff when I’m at home.  Not all the time but it’s there, next to the bed just in case I do wake up and I need something that kinda help settle me down and help me to fall back to sleep.  So, I would try the passion flower first, if that doesn’t work, I’d put on something like this melatonin patch, and you’d would literally just slap it on an area of high blood flow like your air thigh, or like underneath your armpit, or next to your armpit, and just let that melatonin bleed right in as you lay there drenched in CBD rich-hemp oil.

Megan:   Hi Ben and Brock, I had a question about birth control.  About four months ago I stopped taking Yasmin after 15 years, and I found some prior podcast that talked about why you shouldn’t be on it, and I’m having some trouble finding out what to do to deal with the aftermath of going off of it.  I’ve been to the doctor and their suggestions to go back on it which is not something that I intend on doing.  I feel like my ridiculously crazy mood swings are finally starting to level out somewhat, but now, you know, I have the acne to deal with that just comes at any given time.  My biggest concern is my hair loss.  It’s really starting to thin out quite a bit.  I’m 37 years old and I’m really working on cleaning up my diet and, just overall, trying to improve my lifestyle. So, just looking for any advice that you can give me to get myself back on track and keep moving in the right direction.  Love listening to the podcast of yours, they’re great.  Thanks a lot.

Ben:  You know, what’s really interesting about birth control pills, Brock?  And this is something my wife and I talk about.

Brock:  Only one thing…

Ben:  So, there was this study and it was a couple of weeks ago I saw this that – your skin micro biome can affect your attractiveness to a potential partner.  Meaning that, certain people have more compatible micro biomes on their body and the bacteria on your skin can send a signal to other people about your level of attractiveness or your level of bio-compatibility with them.  In other words, like whether or not you two together might produce a child that could whatever, have allergies or be messed up or something like that vs. whether or not your genetics are really compatible with each other.  And…

Brock:  So our skin bacterias actually kinda checking each other out.

Ben:  Yeah, isn’t it weird.  And birth control pills affect your hormones in such a way that you’re more likely to choose a partner who once you’re off the birth control pill, you actually are not as compatible with.  And I’m just totally – just because I wanna dwell on the crocks of Megan’s question on how to fix the damage from birth control pills, I’m just gonna breeze over this, but what that means is that if you’re on a birth control pill and you wind up like marrying someone or having a kid with someone that you may not actually be compatible with that person.  So, if you both have a poor skin micro biome, ‘cause you’re using a bunch of personal care products that are killing the skin micro biome and you’re using a bunch of non-organic shampoos and soaps, and at the same time you’re on birth control, and then you’re like getting married to someone, you may actually become screwing yourself over.

[0:40:10.4]

Brock:  I think you just explain the high divorce rate in North America.

Ben:  [chuckles] So, anyways though, let’s dig in to Megan’s questions and kinda what happens when you’re on the pill and how to fix it.  So, birth control pills have a few different issues but a few other things they do is they can deplete folate, and lack of folate can disrupt your DNA metabolism.  So it can affect your ability to repair.  They definitely deplete pretty much every B vitamins, so B1, B2, B3, B6, B12.  You tend to be deficient in all of those and that lead to irritability, it can lead to insomnia, brain fog, fatigue, etc. and birth control pills have been shown to deplete those vitamins.  They also due to the way that they metabolize, deplete the zinc.  So they lower your immune system strength and the depletion of zinc can also increase insulin resistance, meaning that, you’re less likely to shove glucose and calories into – in the muscle tissue for example to be stored away for energy and instead get converted into fat.  They deplete magnesium, and that can lead to a lot of different mineral imbalances in the body in addition to the inability to properly metabolize calcium.  And then also they’ve been shown to disrupt the balance of healthy bacteria in the digestive tract, so we talked about this a little bit earlier, what that means, you may not be able assimilate nutrients quite as well, less immunity, more susceptibility to the overgrowth of bad bacteria or pathogens such as candida.

You see that a lot in people who are in birth control pills, like a candida use fungus type of infection.  So, if you’re getting off the pill, whether you’re just getting off or you took the pill years ago, there are certain things that you should do to reset this cycle – kinda to reboot your body.  So, the first is that when you’re on hormones specifically, you need to understand that your body is governed by a negative feedback.  So, what that means is, if you use like the household thermostat analogy, if you set your household thermostat to say like 72 degrees and the room temperature of your house is 69 degrees, then the heater is gonna kick in to warm that room up from 69 degrees and then when it reaches 72 degrees, the heat is gonna shut off until the temperature drops again.  And what happens is once you start on to hormones, it disrupt that entire system, it’s like throwing a space heater into the room which shuts your furnace off, ‘cause the furnace isn’t heated and then all of a sudden removing that space here right away.  And so, what you have to do is give that negative feedback loop a little bit of extra support when you’re off of birth control especially when you’re experiencing things like low metabolism, chronic fatigue, brain fog, and things of that nature.

One of the best ways to do that is get on some kind of hormone based tissue from animals.  I’m a big fan of introducing organ meats such as liver for example, like doing a weekly dose of liver to start up hormones that would be considered something that’s rich in a lot of the same glandular extract that you might get from supplements for example.  And they also – they saw what are called glandulars which are typically made from the pituitary or the hypothalamus tissue of animals.  But I’m a bigger fan of just introducing like liver pate, or weekly serving of liver, or weekly serving of organ meats to support the hormones, to support regeneration of hormones, and making sure that you’re on a lot of vitamin D, eating of high fat diet, those type of things are all gonna help to reboot the hormones as well.  But introducing organ meats as a staple diet, that can help out quite a bit as well.  So, that’s one thing I would do, and for example I use a company called US Wellness Meats to order organ meats and if you can’t find like a good organic source of liver, also what are called sweet breads which are a lot of times extract of like thymus and thyroid, and stuff like that, then you can order all that stuff from US Wellness Meats.  That’s where I get it – I’ll put a link in the show notes over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/301.  So, the thing that you can do, few other things, first of all, a lot of times when you’ve been on the pill, your menstrual cycle gets messed up and there is this way to reboot your menstrual and this is actually detailed in this really good book called Honoring Our Cycles.  I know that that’s one of Brock’s favorite books.

Brock:  It’s honoring your bi-cycle, right?

Ben:  Cover to cover, multiple times.  One of the concepts that they go into in this book is something called Lunaception.

[0:45:04.2]

And that’s actually using this idea that women’s cycles are wired to be in sync with the moon, and in a lot of early societies before like industrialism and process foods kinda disrupt the traditional culture, most women ovulated at the full moon and they menstruated at the new moon.  It’s like this intrinsic setting and it’s this really complex biology but you can reboot your period by basically using this lunaception and this light dark cycle to reboot it.  And it goes into great detail this book, “Honoring your Cycles”, but the way that it works, the way to regulate your cycles or to get your cycles back into rhythm with night lighting, is you get your bedroom completely dark.  That means, you get like blackout curtains or you put in like towels over the windows, you’re making sure your clocks are unplug, like the lights are totally off, you shouldn’t be able to see your hand in front of your face, then you can also of course, use a sleep mask on top of that.  And if you’re taking bathroom trips during the night, make sure that any bulbs in the bedroom are like red light bulbs, so no blue light.  We don’t want any circadian rhythm disrupting blue light at all in the bedrooms.  And the way that you do it is you sleep in complete darkness, complete darkness, and then there are three days out of the month where you actually, you get this special like night light or blue light or you leave your door open or you put a light in the hallway, and the book goes into detail about which three nights of the month to actually do that, but you light your room for these three days and then you make it black again, and after a few months of doing that what happens is your period realigns with the moon because your…

Brock:  Oh, so you’re simulating the moonlight… ahah…

Ben:  Uhm, uhm, you’re simulating like the full moon cycles.  So, I’ll put a link to the book because it would take me like an hour to go into detail and I have to say the word vagina a lot.  So, I’m going to…

Brock:  No problem…

Ben:  Empower our female listeners, go grab that book.  Read about it if you’ve been on a pill and just reboot your circadian rhythm.  Super easy to do using this concept of lunaception.  So, that’s the second thing I’d do in addition to introducing some organ meats.  The next is to replenish a lot of the nutritional deficiencies that I just talked about that are gonna build up when you’ve been on the pill.  First of all, I’ve mentioned that minerals and magnesium are gonna be out of balance.  Best thing you can do to bring those back into balance would be number one: drink a good couple of two bone broth everyday.  You can either order like organic, home-made bone broth from the website like The Brothery, or you could make your own bone broth, either way.  Hope it was helpful links for you in the show notes.

The other thing to introduce is a really good mineral rich salt like a Himalayan salt or an Aztecan Salt or a salt that’s got a lot of trace minerals in it and salt your food liberally using like a good Himalayan salt or Aztecan salt or some type of mineral-rich salt.  So, that’s gonna help to address a lot of the mineral deficiencies that build up, that combination of using bone broth liberally and using salt liberally.

And then finally, you want to fix your gut, so like I mentioned there’s some pretty significant damage that occurs to guy bacteria and you’re gonna need to rebuild your gut flora.  So this would mean beginning to eat more fermented vegetables, begin to drink more fermented beverages like kombucha and kefir, yogurt, pickles, sour cream, sauerkraut, all that stuff, and I would actually if you’ve just gotten off the pill, I would consider even using like a good therapeutic great probiotic, that advance probiotic I mentioned that works, that prescript-assist that I talked about that works, but you’re also going to want to possibly pay attention to the potential that you may have candida as well, and use some type of a cleansing supplement simultaneously like oil of oregano for example, is really, really good for that.  So you could start in everyday with a glass of water with oil of oregano in it and then probiotics at the beginning and the end of the day to begin to gradually fix the gut.  And I’ll link in the show notes for you to a really good gut fixing protocol that you can use that I’ve designed.  That’s over at greenfieldfitnesssystems.com, it’s called the gut fixing pack but it kinda includes everything you need to rebuild your gut flora while at the same time knocking out the bad guys.  So big picture, those are some of the things I do: get an organ meats, some good minerals and sea salt, get your circadian rhythm back in line or use this concept of lunaception or lunar cycles, and then also fix your gut.  Those would be the top four things that you could do to fix the damage from birth control pills.

[0:50:01.2]

Brock:  I love it when the cure is something delicious.

Ben:  Uh uhm.

Michael:  Hi Ben, this is Michael in Austin, Texas.  I was interested in a product called Cascara Tea.  It was a follow up to when your previous podcast is about coffee flour.  And so I started looking at coffee flour and apparently coffee flour seems to really only be available from the coffeeflour.com website as far as I can find.  And that’s not gonna be available until 2015.  So, I’m just trying to get my hands on some of that. It sounds really interesting and I don’t want to wait until next year. So, I found a product called Cascara Tea which is basically the same thing and it’s kind of a traditional tea, people have been drinking it for a while in other cultures.  And it’s made from the cherry of the coffee plant, after the bean has been discarded.  I got some and had it.  It’s pretty cool, really earthy interesting flavor but I was just curious if you knew anything about this and particularly any sort of benefits of the cascara tea over traditional coffee? even traditional teas I suppose?  And I’ve got all this ground up cascara tea leaf kinda lookin’ stuff and am curious if I can even further grind it  and throw it in my Vitamix or something and get it into a really fine grind and use it as a coffee flour and basically eat it.  Thanks, I appreciate the podcast and take care. Bye.

Brock:  I do remember us talking about coffee flour and remember being confused whether it’s  f-l-o-u-r  or  o-w-e-r.

Ben:  No!  It’s coffee flour like we talked about this on a podcast although this new sustaining movement where they’re using like a lot of the garbage that you get from the side effect of coffee harvesting, and making coffee flour added like the husk and stuff of coffee, and using that to make bread, and scones and biscotti, all sorts of wonderful things.

Brock:  All those high carb deliciousness.

Ben:  Uhm, cascara – first of all, don’t confuse this with this really powerful stuff called cascara sagrada which is a tea and it’s like this plant-based laxative.  Do not rush out and buy yourself a bunch of cascara sagrada tea because you will be poopin’.  Poopin’ like a champ.

Brock:  Is that the stuff the Asian girl for a start to sell as like slim tea?

Ben:  It is highly possible because it would be pretty dang slimming.

Brock:  Yeah.  I tried that once, I have never had such bad stomach cramps in my life.

Ben:  Yeah, yeah.  It can almost be too much what’s called peristalsis.

Brock:  Oh, it was way too much.  Way, way too much.

Ben:  But coffee cherry tea is also known as cascara, but it’s different.  It’s not this cascara sagrada, so know that there’s a difference and I will put a link in the show notes to the actual coffee cherry tea that you can get off of like Amazon for example.  It’s made from the dried berries of coffee plant and the cool thing is, is it taste a lot like coffee, it’s got this little bit of kinda like a berry flavor to it but it’s much lower in caffeine.  It’s got about a quarter of the caffeine content of the coffee, so it’s almost like you can get that taste of coffee without necessarily drinking coffee.  The other cool thing is because it has a lot of those plant-based extract in it, it has antioxidant content that’s pretty high.  A lot of what are called phenolic acids which are very, very good at fighting free radicals.

Now of course, coffee has a lot of that stuff in it too but if you’re trying to avoid caffeine, this is a pretty decent alternative and a lot of people who drink it swear by the flavor.  General brewing time is about 5-10 minutes, you pretty much get this stuff in like a loose leaf type of format and you make it just as you would tea.  But it’s actually – I haven’t found any evidence, any studies that have shown that there’s any deleterious effects of it.  It’s actually pretty ancient type of tea and was prepared around the beginning of the 9th century I believe as when they first started using this stuff like Arab and Ethiopian cultures.  And so, coffee cherry tea – it’s like this dark red tea and yeah!  I mean like, I personally haven’t drink it.  I don’t and I can’t say a lot about other than it’s not gonna hurt you.  It’s got less caffeine, it’s probably a pretty decent coffee alternative if you like the taste of coffee and who knows? Maybe a week after this podcast comes out, we’ll have bulletproof cascara drinkers running around mixing cascara with butter and MCT oil.

Brock:  That would not surprise me.

Ben:  And chocolate powder and whatever else they’ll put in.  Or else the kids are putting in their bulletproof coffee these days.

Brock:  Those crazy kids…

[0:55:00.1]

Ben:  So, that’s right.  So, cascara – c-a-s-c-a-r-a.  I’ll put that along with a helpful links to a lot of the other stuff that we talked about like the books, and the digestion sessions, and the CBD oil and the vaporizers, and all that good stuff over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/301.  You can get all of your drug paraphernalia as well as everything you need to fix yourself from being on birth control pills.  So…

Brock:  As far as Michael’s last question about turning it into flour, that’s pretty blue sky kinda…. Michael, you should try it and let us know.

Ben:  Yeah, there’s a lot of stuff you can put into your vitamix and turn it into flour, I mean, freaking cocktails you can turn into flour like there’s so many things that go above and beyond wheat that you can turn it into flour.  It’s pretty crazy, so yeah, go for it.  Knock yourself out man.

Brock:  Go for it.  Let us know how it goes.  And, in the meantime, let’s give some stuff away.

Ben:  Yeah!  I love giving stuff away.  So, especially around Christmas time.  What we wanna give away today is a Ben Greenfield fitness gear pack which is beanie, a BPA-free bottle, and a cool tech t-shirt that makes you look ripped.

Brock:  I’ve been running the hell out of my beanie or toques as we call it here ‘cause the weather has been terrible lately.

Ben:  Anyways, you can support the show if you go bengreenfieldfitness.com/gear and the show does indeed need support because I have gone ahead and signed on the dotted line to pay $8,000 to have this giant satellite put on top of the roof, so I’ve actually got internet, high speed internet, and so, yeah, sizeable investment that I’ve made in the Ben Greenfield fitness show but it will allow us to get much higher bandwidth speed and videos, and all that jazz and so…

Brock:  Did you already have it? Or…

Ben:  No, it’s supposed to be installed by the 15th so the next couple of weeks.  So, right now this podcast is bringing about to you by tiny little AT&T WiFi hotspot which is actually…

Brock:  I’m actually happy about that ‘cause the connection is not good.

Ben:  Yeah, the bandwidth right now though, you know what I’m paying AT&T for a month right now?

Brock:  Uh… hundreds of dollars.

Ben:  Nine hundred dollars a month.

Brock:  Woah!

Ben:  That’s how much it cost for the bandwidth of like what I’m podcasting and stuff because it’s all that I can get out here in the middle of the forest until I get this satellite on top of the roof and…

Brock:  That is more hundreds than I have…

Ben:  Yeah, I’m paying AT&T a lot of money.  So let’s wrap this freaking podcast stuff.

Brock:  Get off lion!

Ben:  … but support the show, go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/gear and that way when you support the show you actually get craps send to you.  So let’s read this review from Acme Art Glass and Acme if you hear us read your review, and you email [email protected] with your t0shirt size and your address, we’re gonna send you some stuff.  Take it away, Brock.

Brock:  All right, we can’t start reading this until we read the title ‘cause the title is kinda better than everything else.  It’s 30 degrees and I’m rowing half naked.

Ben:  Uhmm.

Brock:  What else do you need to say really.

Ben:  Hopefully the bottom half is covered, so it could be some chafing.

Brock:  [chuckles] Yeah, I didn’t think about which half.  Anyway, “Thanks!  Thanks to learning about cold thermogenesis from Ben.  My teammates think I’m crazy and I think they’re crazy when they slog away an indoor rowing machines for hours while I get the job done with sprints, weights, foam rolling, and a kale smoothie.  With links to everything, and I mean everything, he talks about the show notes are a major treasure.  The depth of detail of Ben’s knowledge is mind blowing, but he makes it all accessible to everyone.  My favorite part of the podcast is the review of the studies that I could never read on my own.  Thanks Ben”.

Ben:  Uhm, and now thanks to today’s podcast, podcast number 301.  Acme Art Glass can add a CBD and vaporizers in with his kale smoothie, his or her kale smoothie, and foam rolling, and weights, and sprints, to make themselves even better at rowing or to have a nice nap on the…

Brock:  Yeah, I was thinking more better at chillin’.

Ben:  What do they call the rowing, uhm, boat?  Crew boat, the…

Brock:  What are you talking about?

Ben:  What do you call the boats that you row? in rowing races.  You know…

Brock:  No idea… kayaks?  Clippers, kayaks…

Ben:  No, but they have a special name.  Anyways, if you know that special name…

Brock:  Write in to the show!

Ben: …leave it in the comment section so, head over to bengreenfieldfitness.com/301.  Brock and I are gonna be back with you next week but it’ll be a special episode because tomorrow we are both headed to the Unbeatable Mind Summit down in San Diego, and I’ll be talking there about biohacking your environment.  We’re gonna bring you the recording of that next week, so tune in and also tune in this weekend, Saturday, for a really good episode on how to turn yourself into a fat burning machine.

[1:00:09.5]

So all sorts of good stuff coming your way, thanks for listening in and have a safe and healthy week!

Visit bengreenfieldfitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness, nutrition, and performance advice.

 

 

Dec 3, 2014 Podcast: Is Sprouted Bread Bad For You, Can Weed Help You Sleep Better, How To Fix Damage From Birth Control Pills, and How To Use Cascara As A Coffee Alternative.

Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the tab on the right, use the Contact button on the app, click Ask a Podcast Question at the bottom of this page, Skype “pacificfit” or use the “Ask Ben” form… but be prepared to wait – we prioritize audio questions over text questions.

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News Flashes:

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Special Announcements:

This podcast is brought to you by Harry’s Shaving. is gifting all listeners of my show $5 off with promo code benHOLIDAY. That’s right, even if you’re already a loyal Harry user, you will still get $5 off a Winter Winston set with the promo code benHOLIDAY. You’ll get the razor, three quality blades, and a tube of their foaming shave gel or shave cream for just $25!

This podcast is also brought to you by Onnit. Just click here to see a video of Ben Greenfield and top Spartan athlete Hunter McIntyre punishing maces, steel bells, primal bells, medicine balls and much more. You save 10% at http://www.onnit.com/bengreenfield.

As part of the celebration of our 300th podcast episode (last week), the Great Biomat Giveaway ends today, Dec 3. Click here to get in now and maximize your chance of $1750 worth of detox prizes!

December 15-19, 2014: Ben interviews 23 of the world’s leading experts in performance, recovery, nutrition, fat loss, brain, sleep and hormone optimization, and you get a free all-access pass. Check it out now at BenGreenfieldFitness.com/RevYourself.

January 30th – 31st, 2015: Ben will be speaking in Dubai – Talise Fitness and Jumeirah Emirates Towers, proudly invite you to take part in an exclusive two day seminar held by the renowned nutrition and fitness expert, best selling author, coach, speaker, ex-bodybuilder and Ironman triathlete, Ben Greenfield. Click here for all details.

March 6-9, 2015: Come on the Spartan Cruise with Ben Greenfield and family! Use code BEN10 to save 10% when you book this cruise to a private island in the Bahamas for the ultimate tropical Spartan Race. This cruise includes free travel for kids and a kid’s Spartan race, along with a sprint Spartan for the adults, tons of partying, beautiful beaches and new, exclusive island challenges.

April 24-26th, 2015: Come hear Ben speak at PaleoFX 2015Below is just a taste of what to expect at this can’t-miss conference that is the Who’s Who gathering of the Paleo movement, with world-class speakers including best-selling authors, physicians, nutritionists, research scientists, professional athletes, trainers, sustainability and food activists, biohackers, and more.

Grab this Official Ben Greenfield Fitness Gear package that comes with a tech shirt, a beanie and a water bottle.

And of course, this week’s top iTunes review – gets some BG Fitness swag straight from Ben – leave your review for a chance to win some!

 

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Listener Q&A:

As compiled, deciphered, edited and sometimes read by Brock Skywalker Armstrong, the Podcast Sidekick and Audio Ninja.

Is Sprouted Bread Bad For You?

Bill says: Hey guys, how’s it going?  I just recently bought a sprouted bread and it has soy lecithin in it and I was just wondering what that is and is it harmful or OK to be taking in? That’s about it. Thanks for all you guys do.

In my response I recommend:
The Digestion Sessions (the episode with Sayer Ji)

Can Weed Help You Sleep Better?

Cara says: Hi Ben and Brock, this is Cara again from Columbia Maryland again. Got another quick question for ya. I tried the CBD oil last night and it really helped me get to sleep, which I’ve been struggling with the past couple weeks. However I woke up, startled two hours later. I did fall back asleep but I did wake up again and again, probably about every couple hours… so, I’m not sure what was going on. I’m wondering if you had any experience using the product for sleep? Any insight would be great. Thanks again.

In my response I recommend:
CBD Rich Hemp Oil
Vaporizer
Melatonin Patch
Passionflower

How To Fix Damage From Birth Control Pills

Megan says: Hi Ben and Brock, I had a question about birth control. About four months ago I stopped taking Yasmin after 15 years. I found some of your prior podcasts that talk about why you shouldn’t be on it but had some trouble finding out what to do to deal with the aftermath of going off of it. I’ve been to the doctor and their suggestion is to go back on it, which is not something I intend on doing. I feel like my ridiculously crazy mood swings are finally starting to level out somewhat but now, you know, I have the acne to deal with that just comes at any given time. My biggest concern is my hair loss. It’s really starting to thin now. I’m 37 years old and I’m really working on cleaning up my diet and, just overall, trying to improve my lifestyle. I’m currently running about 15 to 20 miles and I’m just about to begin training for my first half marathon this fall. I’m just looking for any advice that you can give me to get myself back on track and keep moving in the right direction. Love listening to the podcast – thanks a lot.

In my response I recommend:
USWellnessMeats
Bone Broth
Honoring Our Cycles book
Mineral Rich Sea Salt
Gut Fixing Protocol

How To Use Cascara As A Coffee Alternative

Michael says: Hi Ben, this is Michael in Austin Texas. I was interested in a product called Cascara Tea. It was a follow up to one of your previous podcasts about Coffee Flour. I started looking up Coffee Flour and Coffee Flour seems to really only be available from the coffee flour website, as far as I can find. And it’s not going to be available until 2015. So, I’m just trying to get my hands on some of that. It sounds really interesting and I don’t want to wait until next year. So, I found a product called Cascara Tea which is basically the same thing and it’s kind of a traditional tea, people have been drinking and consuming it for a while in other cultures. It’s made from the cherry of the coffee plant, after the bean has been discarded. So I procured some of this through some means on the internet (was a little bit difficult, but got some) and it’s pretty cool. Real earthy and interesting flavor. But I was just curious if you knew anything about this and particularly any sort of benefits of the cascara tea over traditional coffee or even traditional tea? I’ve got all this ground up cascara tea leaf kinda lookin stuff and am curious if I can even further grind it by throwing it  in my Vitamix and getting into a really fine grind and use it as a coffee flour and basically eat it? What sort of unique nutritional benefits might that provide? Thanks and I appreciate the podcast and take care. Bye.

In my response I recommend:
Cascara Tea on Amazon

Read more https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2014/12/301-is-sprouted-bread-bad-for-you-can-weed-help-you-sleep-better-how-to-fix-damage-from-birth-control-pills/

 

 

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