February 24, 2016

Podcast #347 from https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2016/02/26702/

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Introduction: In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness show: A Potent New Fat Loss Workout, Is Foam Rolling Fat For Your IT Band, Why I Eat Bread, Can You Eat Avocado Seeds Or For That Matter Brown Avocados, and Five Things You Must Know About Nutrition!

He’s an expert in human performance and nutrition, voted America’s top personal trainer and one of the globe’s most influential people in health and fitness.  His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance.  He is Ben Greenfield.  “Power, speed, mobility, balance – whatever it is for you that for natural movement, get out there! When you’re working all the studies done… studies that have shown the greatest efficacy…”  All the information you need in one place, right here, right now, on the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast.

Ben:  Rachel, I’m going to have to admit that based off of the discussion we’ve having before we began recording this morning, I’m actually blushing.

Rachel:  (laughs) Oh, I blushed every time I talk about this as well.  So, let’s see if we can get through it without too much awkwardness.

Ben:   Seriously.  You may want to put your mouths on the kids just real quick we promise.  You – if you’re listening, you may recall at one point we had an interview with this gal named Kim Anami who runs like workshop for women and for men in the realm of intimacy, and Rachel, can you tell me a little bit about Kim’s new course that you’ve just started?

Rachel:  Yeah.  Well for a start, it all came about because Ben doesn’t like to endorse anything that he hasn’t experience and this is actually called A Vaginal Kung-Fu course and obviously Ben is a man and he can’t do it.

Ben:  I don’t have a vagina.

Rachel:  So, he sent me to do it.  A very exciting stuff.  And now, I know a little bit about Kim Anami and I kind of experienced her a little bit before, and I found her to be quite provocative.  You know, she talks a lot about shooting ping-pong balls out of your vagina when a lot of us…

Ben:  She loves – she loves kettlebells with her vagina.

Rachel:  She does.  Yeah, and it can be – I don’t know, I found it a little bit uncomfortable.  And honestly for that reason I felt like it was something that I needed to explore.  So when you are like – “Rachel, do you wanna do this course?”  I thought, well yeah, of course I do.  So, it’s been a really interesting experience so far, it’s definitely no, a near as provocative as I thought would be in that respect.  It’s actually very holistic.

Ben:  Are you hoisting coconut yet?

Rachel:  Not yet.  No.  We actually just talking about the jade egg last week.

Ben:  Swacker!

Rachel:  I know, we’ll get there though.

Ben:  Yeah, you gotta move from an egg to a coconut.  You’re pretty quick in order for me to grasp.

Rachel:  (laughs)

Ben: For you guys, who might be feeling left out, you may want to go to bengreenfieldfitness.com and read the episode or read the article where I wrote about it 30-day training session that I did with this magnetic weight called The Private Gym, which I still whip out every now and again when I wanna get a good little ‘pea-nigh’ weight lifting session that is a term that we can use.

Rachel:  And I don’t know if this was the intention of the private gym but a lot of it as around like conscious sex education and about really developing our relationship with your genitals as weird as that sounds but for a lot of us we don’t really, you know, know what’s goin’ on.  All of a sudden down there, so…

Ben: I’ve got a great relationship with my genitals.  I can look down, I can see them, I know what they look like, I know what they feel like.  I know what they’re named…

Rachel:  (laughing out loud)

Ben: I know how to use them.  So, I would say my relationship is solid.

News Flashes:

Rachel:  And now, it’s the time in the show where Ben brings us all of the juicy stuff he’s been telling the world in social media.

Ben:  Juicy!  Juicy social media things.  You know, actually this particular section of the news flashes might be a little bit more ballooness than previous episodes because a couple things just came across my radar this morning…

Rachel:  Ohh!  How exciting!

Ben:  …that I’ve been – of course prepare for the URL on slot.  Things have been…

Rachel:  That’s right.

Ben:  Things have been tweeting about at twitter.com/bengreenfield.  Things have been Facebooking about over at facebook.com/BGfitness.

Rachel:  Final one, Ben, Instagram.

Ben:  Insta…  Yes!  Instagram where we’ve got plenty of bloody posts that I’ll – hopefully talk about here pretty soon over at instagram.com/bengreenfieldfitness.  I memorized all those.

Rachel:   Good for you.  And we’ve also got a whole bunch of really exciting giveaways happening on Facebook in the next few weeks.

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We’re giving away 2 tickets to PaleoFX, Tough Mudder Race code, some Organify Green Juice that we also talk about on the podcast, and our favorite coffee, Kimera Koffee.

Ben:  Gez, as always.  Yeah. (crosstalk)  Okay, so let’s jump in to the good stuff.

Rachel:  Right.

Ben:  WellnessFX just this morning has announced this pretty cool, really in my opinion for anybody whose into self-quantification and health, probably one of the coolest announcements I’ve seen all year.  They have developed the ability for people from their own home to order advanced blood chemistry, hormone testing, genetic testing, and microbiome which should be like skin and poo, and mouth testing, to their home.  All done using a pretty advanced DNA analysis that I won’t get into too intensively now.  I will link to this announcement – this special announcement, this press release that came out today.  Needless to say, for me as someone who recommends to a lot of people to keep track of their blood results and their poop results, and their microbiome and their DNA, having it all appeared to be in one mighty spot now from the comfort of your own home, this happen way, I thought this was – would be something that would be like a year or two out but it’s…

Rachel:  Wow!

Ben:  The way it’s working now and I’ll link to the press release, but you can simply go the the WellnessFX website now and kind of like apply to be one of the first people to go through this new home testing kit.

Rachel:  So obviously, home testing – you don’t need to get blood drawn.

Ben:   You do, but it’s in the comfort of your own home.  Meaning , I believe it is a blood spot test for the blood and then of course like the genetics would be saliva, the microbiome would be skin and poo, but yeah, you just basically send out all these little pieces of your body to the WellnessFX.  So I think it’s pretty cool.

Rachel:   And then the final thing the questions that always get around, Wellness FX is still not available in a couple of States and Canada.  Do you know if they gonna be doing this for Canada at least?

Ben:  Just move to USA.  Things are better down here.

Rachel:  (laughs)

Ben:  Just saying.  No, I actually have a lot of Canadian clients and what I will have them do is when they’re visiting the United States, I have them order kits to their address like a DNA kit or a blood testing kit.  They’re all the kit done while they are in the US, and then when they travel back to Canada, they’ll get the results emailed to them.

Rachel:  Yeah, push it!

Ben:  And I don’t know it that’s legal.  They may be arrested by the Canadian bobbies at some point in the near future, but I’m just saying, that’s how we do things now.  Another cool announcement is that for those of you – so for all the clients who I coached, I use something called Training Peaks.  So when I sit down and I read a training plan like this morning I was working out one for a mountain biker whom I’m coaching and when I’m sitting down and writing out workouts, etc. I use this program called Training Peaks.  It’s just simple.  It’s a calendaring system that lets people see the workouts that I lay out for them, and then they can also upload things like their sleep, and their heart rate or their power or their speed, you know, whether it’s someone who I’m coaching for anti-aging or for triathlon or obstacle racing, it’s the program that I use.  They just, for those of you who’s using or those who wanna use it, they just introduced the ability to add in addition to like your sleep and your soreness, and your workout comments and everything else, heart rate variability.

Rachel:  Nice!

Ben:  So now heart rate variability will appear as a metric on Training Peaks.  They actually partnered with Sweet Beat which is the company that actually runs the engine behind the app that I developed for heart rate variability – the nature beat app.  So if you own the Ben Greenfield Nature Beat App you can grab a free training peaks stick out and start to upload your heart rate variability data to that.

Rachel:  Well, that is awesome!

Ben:  You just made all the nerds on earth very happy.  Nerd athletes.  So, check that out.  We’ll put links to both of those – the WellnessFX and the Training Peaks in the show notes, oh but wait there’s more as they say.

Rachel:  Way more actually.

Ben:  That’s right.  First of all, research study that just came out that looked into short term, high intensity, intermittent training to see how quickly you could lose fat with this type of training.  They compared it to like lower intensity training – what they call modern intensity continuous exercise.  What they did in the study was they had a group of women on a bicycle, and I actually tried this workout the other day just to see what it felt like.  They had them do 15 sixty second bouts.  And so, 15 separate 60 second bouts on a bike and each effort had a 30 seconds of recovery after it.  So pretty straight forward right?  A 2-1 works to rest to ratio.  I’m just saying that ‘cause it makes me sound smart.

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Rachel:  (Chuckles)

Ben:  First, 60 seconds on, 30 seconds off, and what they found was that the group that did this just 3 times a week, okay, so if you do the math, that’s 15 one minute bouts, 30 seconds of recovery, so approximately a 22-minute long workout.

Rachel:  Yup!

Ben:  Three times a week they experienced a significant decrease in fat mass more than 6 kilograms which is over 12 pounds of fat loss in 6 weeks and the clincher for this study in my opinion is that there was no diet, they didn’t change up their diet at all.  They held their diet consent.  All they did was add in 3 times a week of a 15 one-minute effort, each followed by 30 seconds of rest at a pretty high intensity and they saw a pretty shocking drop in fat in my opinion.  It’s just another – another feather in a cap of high intensity interval training.

Rachel:  So how did it relate to the modern intensity?

Ben:  The modern intensity still saw a pretty good results but here’s the interesting thing about modern intensity exercise or even what we called LIST – low intensity study state exercise.  And we’ve talked about this on a podcast most recently with Mark Sisson.  We see a decrease in testosterone, we see an increase in hunger and appetite and what’s called compensatory eating after that kind of training, and with high intensity training, you don’t see that.  And one of the proposed mechanisms for this is that when you train with high intensity you produce a lot of lactic acid and lactic acid can not only shut down appetite but it can also get converted via a process that’s called the cori cycle – c-o-r-I – the cori cycle.  It can get converted into glucose so your body can take lactic acid, produce fuel for your body after a high intensity workout, and you’re not as hungry compared if you did the same amount of volume or burnt the same amount of calories with a lower intensity type of workout.

Rachel:  Interesting.

Ben:  Yes.  The magic of exercise science.  So…

Rachel:  So, high intensity win again.

Ben:  It wins once again.  So another really cool article that came out from our friends over at The Journal and Strength Conditioning Research.  This was an article entitled, and I read it to you, dietary supplementation during musculoskeletal injury – protein and creatine.

Rachel:  Hmmm.

Ben:  The idea behind this article that I link to in the show notes was that a lot of people when they get injured, they stop taking things like protein or creatine because frankly why take you know, anabolic muscle-building supplements or recovery supplements if you’re not working out that much.

Rachel:  Workin’ out, exactly.  Yeah.

Ben:  So this study looked into was whether if you keep taking protein and creatine – that’s really more of an article than a study because it’s just highlighting a bunch of studies that have been done on this in the past.  They looked at at whether or not if you continue to use protein and creatine when you’re injured, it can accelerate injury recovery.  And they found some really, really interesting things.  For example, one of the things that found was that taking on a daily basis about 8-12 grams of essential amino acids, that would be like amino acid capsules or powder along with 20-25 grams of protein can assist with healing damaged muscle tissue, and in this case what they looked at was healing of the anterior cruciate ligament – the ACL after an ACL sprain.  And so, the consumption of protein along with essential amino acids actually cause a faster recovery of healing tissue, and so, I thought that was quite interesting.

Rachel:  And so the moral of the story?

Ben:  Well, there’s actually more!  Oh, but wait there’s more.  I’ll keep throwing around that phrase.  I’ll kick that horse to death all day long.  Hip fracture, this was an elderly subjects, they found the same thing.  Protein supplementation in this case which is just basic protein powder during the course of healing from a bone injury help the bone to heal faster.  And then they turn and they looked to creatine.  Now, in the case of creatine one of the interesting things is that when you’re injured, when a muscle is immobilizing you, you’re unable to exercise that muscle.  You see a reduction of over 20% in the specific transport that called glut 4, and I’m gonna get geeky again.  So, glut 4 is a protein that helps your body to transport glucose into muscle tissue.  Transport energy into muscle tissue so that muscle can be used from metabolic activity.

Rachel:  Yup.

Ben:  The interesting thing is that if you see a down regulation in glut 4 when you’re injured once you do bounce back from that injury, it’s going to limit your ability to be able to feed fuel into muscle tissue.  Now, what they found was that during rehabilitation from injury, in this case it was leg injury, supplementation with creatine staved off that reduction in glut 4.

[0:15:04.2]

Meaning, when people continue to use creatine while injured, they didn’t experienced the same deficit in the body’s ability to be able to feed fuel to itself.

Rachel:  Wow!

Ben:  So,  case in point at once again if you are injured, it’s actually better to keep taking some of these things that you’re taking like creatine or protein if you’re already taking them.  And the other thing they’ve found was with creatine after an acute injury, right like an inflammatory muscle damaged injury, right?  Like an ankle sprain, they found that a 5-day dosage period of creatine, and this would be taking about 5 grams of creatine per day resulted in significantly lower levels of inflammatory markers like creatine kinase and something called pyruvic acid transaminase.  And so it turns out that creatine seems to be acting as kinda like a potent anti-inflammatory for people who are injured.  You know, and of course if you want to step back and look at this from you know, if you assue supplements and you’re not into like taking powders and capsules, and stuff like that, what’s one source of very potent source of creatine and protein is… steak.  So…

Rachel:   Oh!

Ben:  You know it, it goes to show if you’re injured…  I know, you’re vegetarian, Rachel, so you may have to go more of like the hemp—p rice protein/creatine root.

Rachel:  Okay.

Ben:  But steak, I mean, if you are injured, thrown back a steak.  I actually have a nice riby-steak thawing in the refrigerator upstairs right now.  Uhm, I’m not injured, I’m just hungry.

Rachel:  Just like steak.

Ben:  I’m just hungry.  So, that’s a – it’s a good reason to keep using a protein and creatine if you are injured.  And then finally, here’s a good one.  Talk about steak, we might as well talk about bread.  Really good article over at Earth Easy.  Now, I personally eat bread several times a week.  As a matter of fact, my wife makes 1 to 2 big loads of fresh baked sour dough bread each week.

Rachel:  Yum!

Ben:  And I will do things like toast it, and eat it with my salad, or like in evenings, you know, for example last night we had some sauerkraut and sausage with stone-ground mustard and some sour dough bread, and we certainly don’t avoid bread here at the Greenfield household.  And this article actually goes into bread and wheat particularly, and you know, one sentence in the article says, “wheat it turns out is not just wheat.  And new biotech company like Monsanto have used genetic engineering to increase wheat resistance to things like herbicides, and pathogens and drought and salinity which should be high levels of mineral in the soil, but the problem is that in many cases that type of breeding can change wheat into an edible wild plant that your body actually doesn’t recognize and often it concentrates the amount of gluten proteins in that wheat, and makes it essentially renders it less digestible.  A lot of these wheat-germa glutenines that we find in something like wheat, they’re about as digestible as human hair.

Rachel:  Oh my gosh!

Ben:  Now, when you look at at something like bread, this certainly gives you one clue, and the article goes into this that the source of the wheat what are called the wheat berries used to make the bread or something in you to take into consideration like my wife for example uses a form of red wheat berry from right here on the Palouse in – very close to our house.  You can order this kind of stuff online, but it’s a non-GMO more ancient form of wheat that hasn’t been bread for high yield crop or anything like that.  Now then, what she does is she traditionally ferments the wheat using a sour dough method.  So what happens with that is it actually makes the proteins in the wheat significantly more digestible because lactic acid is produced during the long, rising process of what’s called slow fermentation.  When you slow ferment bread in the article goes into something though a lot of people may not know, it’s effect on blood sugar is much generally.  You have a much lower blood sugar response to bread products that have been produced via this process of what’s called slow fermentation.  This sour dough type of process.  Gluten gets digested very, very well during that process.  So gluten is like pre-digested, it’s only is the bread not spiking your blood sugar and so you have a low glycemic response but the bread also is like likely to cause issues for people who have for example like gluten intolerance, and it’s also by the way, damn tasty.

Rachel:  Right.  I love sour dough bread.

Ben:  Yeah!

Rachel:  It’s incredible.  And you don’t necessa… – and I love the idea of making everything yourself just once so you understand the process, you understand what should and shouldn’t be in your food, and we got incredible sour dough from a local bakery that kinda takes a lot less time, so.

[0:20:04.8]

Ben:  Yeah, yeah.  So, slow fermentation using sour dough, very easy technique to use.  My wife – if you just do a Google search for Jessa Greenfield sour dough, my wife has very good videos out there with her sour dough recipes, and we’ve also – we covered her recipe a little bit in a previous podcast so you could even go to bengreenfieldfitness.com, and do a search for sour dough.  But I get this question all the time, so I’d thought I’d reply, yes, I eat bread.  Yes, I eat bread often everyday.  That’s the type of bread that I eat and I eat it because it taste good, it brings a big smile to my face, and it’s almost 100% guilt-free.

Special Announcements:

Ben:  Rachel, I am one ugly SOB this morning.

Rachel:  Really?

Ben:  Yes.  I was shaving this morning.  I have a black eye…

Rachel:  Ohh!

Ben:  …my nose got busted open last night.  I actually post a photo of it to Instagram…

Rachel:  I saw that, uhmm.

Ben:  …because I’ve been sparring to prepare for my fight, and I got the hell bit out of me last night basically.

Rachel:  How that that feel?

Ben:  I looked like I was in a bar fight.  It felt great!

Rachel:  It did!

Ben:  I feel like – I feel alive!  You know, full of testosterone, and drive…

Rachel:  Good! Manly.

Ben:  …and yeah, I mean like again since we’ve already broken through the explicit barrier in today’s episode…

Rachel:  We have…

Ben:  …this sounds kinda like perverted in a way, you know, ‘cause some out there like fighting with a bunch of dudes but I get uhm, like the nights after I go out and do that – this fighting, I get like night erections and…

Rachel:  Do you really?

Ben:  I get like super horny.  It’s really interesting, so.

Rachel:  That’s fascinating.  So that’s a massive dose of testosterone and glycogen?

Ben:  Yeah, that’s exactly why.  So, great, great segue…

Rachel:  (laughs)

Ben:  …in today’s pod…  That’s why I wanna mention how I was shaving this morning with my Harry’s razor, and I was looking at myself, and thinking about just how I beat up I looked and how proud I am of them.  Anyways though, the other thing that I wanted to mention is… I have a shaving tip for folks who are using this brand new Harry’s razor – this German-engineered 5-blade cartridges.  So, before I give you your shaving tip, you can go to Harry’s, you go to h-a-r-r-y-s.com, harrys.com and code “Ben”.  Get you $5 off anything at Harry’s, their moisturizing shave cream that has like cucumber and lime in it, and it’s like toxin-free, good stuff.  The German-engineered 5-blade cartridges I mentioned – did I mention? It has 5 blades already.

Rachel:  Incredible.

Ben:  And pretty much anything, any of the shaving equipment at Harry’s, at your one-stop shop for everything shaving.  So, you can check that out at harrys.com.  Use discount code “Ben”, here’s my shaving tip for you: it’s pretty quick.  This is something that I do; I shave symmetrically.  So what I mean by that?  And I do this just in case something goes horribly wrong when I’m shaving like there’s a fire, or there’s an emergency and a burglar breaking into the house while I’m shaving, or uhm, I don’t know, I collapsed in a heart attack while I’m shaving, I shave just a little bit of one side of the face, and then a little bit of the other side of the face, then I go back to the other side and back to the other side.  So if I have to stop mid shave at any point, I never have like…

Rachel:  None even shave!

Ben:  An uneven shave!  I don’t have like the whole right side of the shave gone, and the left side still there.

Rachel:  Has that happened to you before?

Ben:  No!

Rachel:  You walked out of the house on an uneven shave?

Ben:  But I’m a prepper…

Rachel:  You are.

Ben:  See I have a well solar panels…

Rachel:  We know this.  Uhmm.

Ben:  You know, goats, chickens…

Rachel:  You’re waiting for the world to come to an end.

Ben:  Yeah, so when the zombie apocalypse happens, I will not be caught half-shaven, so.

Rachel:  I got a question for you on shaving.

Ben:  Yeah.

Rachel:  Why do husbands hate it when their wives use their face razors for their legs?

Ben:  But… in my case?

Rachel:  Yes!

Ben:  Again, I’m not doing this on purpose but I’m going after get explicit again.  It’s because I worry that she’s shaving her vagina with my razor and I don’t want pubes on my chin.

Rachel:  Ohhhh, that make sense!

Ben:  That’s why – That’s why, I don’t care about the like but I just wonder how high up she’s going when she shaves, and again, like it’s not a big of deal anyways but yeah, for me, that’s why.

Rachel:  There you go.  That’s enlightening stuff.  Thank you.

Ben:  FYI.  Uhm, oh we’re gonna get so much trouble from our listeners with all of our sexy talk in today’s show.  Oh well, my apologies.  You guys…

Rachel:  Sorry!  Sorry all!

Ben:  You guys know we are upright, outstanding citizens, we are not perbs, this is just stuff we talk about.  Alright, so this podcast is also brought to you by something that I’ve been putting in my coffee every morning during this cold and flu season, and it’s chaga.  So, chaga is an antioxidant balm.  It’s one of the strongest antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents that you can find and it’s a natural immunity booster.  I don’t know if you ever – have you ever seen chaga growing on birch trees?

Rachel:  I’ve only seen it in photos of you harvesting it.

Ben:  Just big old like black, almost like a tumor growing up the side of the birch tree and you chop it off with the – with like a knife.  There’s a – we have a photo on Instagram of me harvesting a chaga mushrooms in Finland.  Now, this company, Four Sigmatic Foods, they use wild-crafted Siberian chaga mushrooms.  They use 1500 ml of them, they do extract them.  So, they extract them with alcohol, and then they extract them with water, and it all goes into this packet that you blend in your smoothie, you can add to a cup of coffee, or even – we’ve talked about Kimera Koffee before which has nootropics in it, well, I step that up a notch and I can turn it into a little immune nootropic blend when I put chaga in it.  So, I’m a huge fan of chaga and their chaga also has eleuthero in it which is basically also known as Siberian ginseng.  It’s got – and Siberian ginseng by the way is an adaptogenic herb, so it’s something that can support immunity but also do things like adjust cortisol and testosterone, and stuff like that.  It’s got rosehips in it and rosehips not only do taste good but their vitamin C bombs!  And they have tons of vitamin C in them, almost 25% of your daily need for vitamin C.  And they’ve got field mint in there for a little bit of added taste and a soothing effect on the stomach, so.

Rachel:  So is this the mushroom coffee in particular?

Ben:  No, but you can get the same stuff in their mushroom coffee but any of these stuff you want, you go to foursigmafoods.com/greenfield, four that’s f-o-u-r sigma foods.com/greenfield and coupon code “Ben Greenfield” get you 15% off, get type my horny “Ben Greenfield”, so there you have it.

Rachel:  (chuckles) It’s an easy one to remember.

Ben:  That’s right.  And then finally, this podcast is brought to you by the National Academy of Sports Medicine.  Now, the National Academy of Sports Medicine is a place where you can go to become a personal trainer, and one question that I get a lot of the time is why would you wanna get a certification from the NASM?

Rachel:  Uhmm, and why?

Ben:  And now here’s the deal, the NASM in particular, and there’s only a few different personal training certifications out there that I recommend, the NASM specifically is heavily focused on biomechanics like how the muscles work together, muscle imbalances, corrective exercise, you may have heard of like the functional movements screen, things along those lines.  So anybody who wants to really look at like joints, biomechanics, and with the body moves and space, joint injuries, stuff like that, NASM is one of the better certifications out there for that type of thing.  Like that I would say it would be the best for you know, there are others like ACSM which is more focused on biochemistry, cardiac health, cardiac rehab, stuff like that, or the NSCA which is more focused on strength conditioning but the NASM is really good for this type of like biomechanic joint considerations, and they’re offering all of our listeners, is not only a free 14-day trial of their online personal training program when you go to myUSAtrainer.com, that’s myUSATrainer.com but they also guarantee, they guarantee, ironclad guarantee, you’ll land a job as a personal trainer within 60 days of earning your personal training certification, or they give you your money back.

Rachel:  Wow!  That is an incredible guarantee!

Ben:  It is ‘cause you could theoretically get your certification through them and then just sit on their bridge for 60 days, or get your money back and then go get your job. That’s just…

Rachel:  Not that we’re telling anyone to do that.

Ben:  No, I’m just saying.  I feel honestly you could do that but myUSATrainer.com.  So, check that out.

Rachel:  Awesome!

Ben:  And then, just a couple other quick things I wanted to mention, first of all, we’ve got a few of  the surprise gift boxes left over at greenfieldfitnesssystems.com, and this is where I sit down and I get like everything from hand-group strengthening devices, to books, to biohacking gear, for adjusting your circadian rhythm, to smart drugs and nootropics, to different types of teas and coffees, and supplements, and I put these all into a box and I ship it to your house.  I picked $300+ worth of stuff, and ship it to you and you get a 450 bucks.  Pretty easy, it’s like a custom quarterly curated by yours truly.

Rachel:  And the awesome thing is that a lot of the products that you get on this surprise gift box are actually sold on greenfieldfitnesssystems.com, and you’re actually getting them for 50% of, so.

Ben:  Basically, it’s a…

Rachel:  Well and truly worth it.

Ben:  Yeah.  We’re crazy to be giving away deal like this!

Rachel:  (laughs)

Ben:  That’s my used “car salesman”

Rachel:  So, greenfieldfitnesssystems.com if you want – I think we have 3 left.  Only 3 left which seems not many but usually 2 or 3 popup every week that we have available.  So as of this recording, 3 left.  Couple other things: upcoming conferences that I’ll be at speaking, first of all: May 21^st is the Biohacker’s Summit in London.

[0:30:08:.5]

You can use 10% discount code “Ben” to get in on that, and we’ll put a link in the show notes.  It is like heaven for anybody who’s into things like digital health, then like prosthetics and night vision, and wearables, and biohacking, and life hacking, and quantified self, you name it.  Everything is there.  So, this one is gonna be in London, May 21^st to 22^nd.

Rachel:  And if you haven’t been to London, super worth it.  Incredible city, total lop side.

Ben:  That’s right.  Big Ben – the clock, everything…

Rachel:  You’re right! (in British accent)

Ben:   Are you alright? I say.  I say, let’s go to London and biohack. (in British accent)

Rachel:  There you go.

Ben:  Let’s biohack ourselves.  On the train.

Rachel:  On the train… (laughs)

Ben:  In the tube.

Rachel:  (laughs) In the tube and underground.  Yup.

Ben:  That’s right.  And then also PaleoFX in Austin, Texas.  This is a really cool event.  Rachel will be there, I will be there.  Everybody’s gonna be there.  My kids might even be there.  We’ll see.

Rachel:  Yey!

Ben:  But anyways, you can go to that May 27^th through May 29^th.  They even have May 26^th, the day before.  Me, Mark Sisson, Rob Wolf, Able James, Craig Ballantyne, bunch of folks who specialize in like health entrepreneurship.  We’re gonna be teaching down there, kind of like an intensive for physicians and chiropractors, and personal trainers, and wellness people.  So, that’ll be May 26^th is the day before PaleoFX starts.  Either way, whether you’re health entrepreneur or whether you’re… whatever, biohacking or fitness enthusiasts or a paleo person, or whatever, head down to PaleoFX, leave your cowboy boots at home ‘cause those aren’t Paleo.  You gotta go barefoot.  Leave your baguette at home because that’s not Paleo.  I can’t bring my sour dough bread but either way, you can still sneak in and we won’t tell anybody.  So, PaleoFX, we’ll put a link in the show notes where you can save some money on the ticket and get in at PaleoFX 2016, that being said, what do you think, Rachel?  Q and A time?

Rachel:  Q and A time!

Listener Q & A:

Ali:  Hi Ben, this is Ali from Hongkong.  I just wanted to get your opinion on rowing and rowing with improving the IT band.  I recently read an article that said that in order to be well, don’t use a foam roller written by Sports Surgery Clinic, and I want to get your opinion on that.  I can send you the link to the article.  But basically if you did a research for Andrew Franklin-Miller, Director of Research and Development and Sports Surgery Clinic Ltd., he wrote an article on the 2^nd of February saying that Ilio-tibial Band: Please do not use a foam roller!  I just want to get your opinion on that.  Thanks a lot, bye!

Ben:  Rachel, do you foam roll at all?

Rachel:  I do foam roll.  We’ve got a bright orange one in our living room that doesn’t not go without day call at all which a little bit offensive to me but I still use it.

Ben:  That just won’t do.  Just won’t do.

Rachel:  It will do.  I got to choose that color.

Ben:  You could paint it.

Rachel:  Wouldn’t, yeah.  Maybe.

Ben:  Drape it or something.  I have that same orange foam roller.  It’s actually a good one, it’s quite hard even though my favorite is still the rumble roller which is the foam roller that has all the little ridges that coming off that dig into your muscle tissue as you roll.

Rachel:  Aww!

Ben:  And I roll almost everyday I’m on that thing.  I’ve talked about this before in the podcast how when I go downstairs and I put the coffee on in the morning, I just pick a few body parts and I roll ‘em, and then I do some traction with an elastic, and I actually just this morning I was packing because tomorrow morning I’m going to Hawaii.

Rachel:  Hawaii!

Ben:  And I have a big collapsible foam roller that I packed into my bag and then I also put my big thick elastic band in there, and those are just a couple little travel tools that I throw in.  And this case I’m going hiking in Hawaii for a few days with some fellows who are part of a business mastermind with.  So we’re gonna do some hiking, but I’m also of course bringing my foam roller so that I can do some deep tissue work, and I looked at this article that Ali referred to called Ilio-tibial Band: Please do not use a foam roller!  This article – I liked it!  ‘cause it was nerdy.

Rachel:  Ahh!

Ben:  Uhm, what it went to was cadaveric anatomy.  They took a bunch of adult cadavers – ca-davers.

Rachel:  Cadavers!

Ben:  Dead people basically.  And they looked at the IT band, they did some dissection of the IT band, and they found that there’s like this bursa on the IT band.  There’s a bursa like a fat pad in the IT band, and they shows some of this fat pad, and what they noted was that the way that this fat pad is oriented is such that if you’re to be doing traditional foam rolling on the very outside of your leg on your IT band, you could actually cause some friction against this fat pad and some actual inflammation in the IT band that could theoretically aggravate something like IT band friction syndrome or risk for like pain on the outside of your knee or pain on the outside of the hip.

[0:35:30.6] 

What they found in this particular inspection of these cadavers was that if you wanted to reduce tension on the IT band without actually aggravating this bursa rather than rolling the IT band, you should instead roll or do deep tissue work on a couple other areas of the body specifically something called your gluteus medius which you can kinda hit by crossing your legs like your sitting cross leg in a chair, and then kinda shifting the right side of your butt over the foam roller, and then foam rolling like that.  And then also something called the TFL which is kinda like a – the best way to target that is you roll a little bit higher up in your hips and your pelvis area.  You can even Google TFL foam roller to see some videos of exactly how that’s done.  Now, I 100% agree with this and I personally do not roll my IT band because I do know that it can cause some compression of some of this tissue that’s not supposed to be compressed plus the IT band is so freaking hard and tense, that you’re almost wasting your time rolling it.  Now, the area that I do roll if I want to free up external rotation in my hip is I hit that gluteus medius that’s all fold over my leg and sitting across legged position, and get the outside of the hip and the glute that way.  But then also if you feel along the outside of your leg and if you’re listening in, you can do this, you can feel the outside of your leg where it’s really, really like tight.  That’s your tensor fascia lata, your IT band kinda goes up and down through there even though just the anatomous who are listening in, don’t try to leap through the podcast and throw at all me the TFL or the tensor fascia lata is technically kinda on the front outside your leg and that area you can roll a little bit, but then when you go further down your leg, you get into the IT band and that’s the area that you wanna stay away from.  But then as you’re feeling, you’re feeling yourself all up and down your leg, you’ll notice that as you move your hand more and more towards the front of your leg, it starts to get soft and muscly, and that is your quadricep.  And the idea here is that there’s a little part right – there’s the part where it’s hard and stringy, and that’s your IT band, and there’s a part where soft and muscly, and that’s your quadriceps, but there’s a part right in between there kinda like if you were quadriceps were at noon, we’re talking about the area that would be like between about 1 and 2pm.

Rachel:  Yup.  I got it.

Ben:  Right around there.  Okay.  If you roll that area, what it does – it separate the quadricep from all that fascia that’s right around your IT band and that can do a really good job freeing up external rotation and mobility.  So that’s the area you wanna roll kinda like the front outside of your leg rather than the outside, outside of your leg.

Rachel:  Yeah!

Ben:  Does that make sense?

Rachel:  Yes it does.

Ben:  So, yes it’s true that the IT band is pretty much just a tendon that doesn’t respond well to rolling and this recent study on cadavers shows that they also has bursa in it that can get inflamed if you’re putting pressure on it from rolling but you should roll your TFL the front outside of the leg, the glute, the back outside of the leg, the quadricep kinda like the front diagonal part of the leg but not the IT band.  So that’s the kind of foam rolling that I do.

Meg:  Hi Ben!  It’s Meg from Marietta, Georgia, and what’s up with corns?  I am an active, very active Ironman athlete, I’m a very young 52 year old, female, and I think I’m way too young to have something like corns, and anyway, but it’s bug in the crap out of me and I don’t know what to do about it other than surgery.  So, let me know what you think and if there’s any other way I can get around surgery.  I love the show, keep up the great work and thanks so much.  Bye.

Rachel:  So Ben, what is a corn?

Ben:  What is that – are you kidding me?  You don’t – do you have corns in Australia?

Rachel:  I think we do.  Uhm, ahh, I think they’re the big things that grow on your feet, but are they like cyst?  What is inside them?  Tell me everything.

Ben:  They’re very simple.

[0:40:00.0]

They’re these little circles of a thickened, and hard skin that develop from like friction and pressure.  Not to be confused with corn kernels.  We’re curious of corn which should be super nasty if those around your feet.  I don’t know why they’re called corns but your body just form this little protective armors to protect the tissues from this continuous friction.  Callouses you know, on your fingers is a very similar, they’re like corns on your feet.  But the problem with corns is that a) they can be unsightly if you happen to be wearing high-heeled shoes or barefoot, or something like that, and they can be kind of annoying.  They can even get painful if they get really, really like big, and hard, and you can feel ‘em kinda rubbing against your shoes…

Rachel:  Rubbing, right. Yup.

Ben:  how do they happen?  Well, you can have incorrectly fitted shoes, to typically shoes that are too small which put excessive pressure on certain parts of your foot.  Shoes that are loose can also damage the foot through repeated friction but usually corns are due to your shoes being too small.  Not wearing good socks, right?  Like a big fan of like wool socks and synthetic socks vs. cotton socks or even just like wearing sandals that are really rough and cause friction on the skin.  That can cause it.  Even if you are wearing the correct shoes, just running for long periods of time as Meg who is an Ironman triathlete, probably does, She doesn’t that’s why she’s pretty crappy Ironman triathlete.

Rachel:  She’s still better than me.

Ben:  You gotta run.  Uhm, but anyways, that – any type of chronic repetitive motion, cycling or running can cause corns.  Some people can have like medical issues, right, like abnormal bone structure, flat feet, you know, faulty foot conditions from some kind of injury, stuff like that can also cause callouses and corns but typically it’s just bad socks, ill-fitted shoes, or just like a lot of volume on the feet.  Those are the biggies, so.

Rachel:  Hmm, and then what she do to get rid of them?  Is surgery the only option?

Ben:  No, no.  For heaven’s sake don’t go and get corns surgery.  That’s just waste of insurance deductible.  Some of the things that you can do: first of all, there is lemon juice.  Lemon juice as actually really cool.  Lemon juice works well in warts, especially like a lemon essential oil because it’s really, really concentrated.  But just a basic lemon juice, you can apply raw lemon juice like cut the lemon in half and rub it out like right on the corn, and then let it dry out.  And it turns out that the citric acid in the lemon juice softens the hard upper layer of the corn and gradually removes it.  And this is also why anybody who’s training for American Ninja Warrior are obstacle racing, or Spartan racing, or anything like that don’t let lemon  juice near your hands ‘cause you’ll lose your precious callouses.  You want your big, ugly, logger hands.

Rachel:  Is just that the top layer that it does?  What do they do with the underneath layers?

Ben:  Well, there’s some other things you can do it.  A soak can help if it’s really deep.  The best thing to soak your foot in, don’t laugh, but this actually works pretty well.  It’s a mix of chamomile tea and Epsom salts.

Rachel:  (chuckles)

Ben:  So you can take Epsom salts and chamomile tea, what this combination does is it’s softens the dead cells, the deposit on the topmost layer of the corn and after you do this, you can get out like a pumice stone or a callous file, and you could just basically callous it away.  That was one of the worst I personally ever did was when I race a triathlon in Vietnam, I got a pedicure because like Vietnam is the place to get like pedicures and…

Rachel:  Suddenly!  Yup, I get it.

Ben:  …manicures like 5 blocks, you go and get like this be… so I – I’m gonna treat myself to a pedicure, baby…

Rachel:  (laughs)

Ben:  …’cause you know, I don’t get a pedicure much actually, ever since.  So, I got the pedicure, right? And my foot was beautiful, was like a wax and all the callouses, and the corns and everything were off it, and then I went for a run the next day, and my feet were all like almost bleeding ‘cause I gotten rid of all the…

Rachel:  The good stuff.

Ben:  All that good stuff that my foot needed to protect itself.

Rachel:  Totally.

Ben:  So, I’m giving you some tips here Meg, but you may want to consider the fact those corns are doing you a favor.  But either way, you could soak for about 10 minutes in chamomile tea and Epsom salts.  Don’t drink the tea afterwards by the way or feed it to anyone.  But you can actually remove a corn very easily if you scrub it after you’ve done that. Baking soda can also work as an option if you don’t have chamomile tea and Epsom salt around.

Rachel:  So Meg, what I challenge you to do is go and do that, and then come on and tell us if it actually works.

Ben:  There are bunch of other things too.  Pineapple, garlic, papaya – those can all help quite a bit interestingly in the same way that those can work on muscle soreness when you consume them.  They have things called proteolytic enzymes in them which can breakdown fibrinogen, one of the main things in your bloodstream that can lead to excess soreness after workout.  They can also be applied topically to areas of the skin that you kinda wanna wear away a little bit or that you want to soften, you know, that’s why you’ll find some proteolytic enzyme type components in many like facial moisturizers and use washing face, it washes and paste that you put on.

[0:45:13.9]

So, those can work too, and there are lot of other things like tea tree essential oil, there’s turpentine essential oil, but basically you know, the list goes on and on.  Now, I have a special type of thing that I smear on my feet when I’m gonna be out for a long period of time, and I smeared on my nipples, and my balls, and my armpits, and anywhere where I don’t want a lot of friction or corns or callouses or chafing because anybody who’s like been out doing a marathon knows that over and above stress fracture or an IT band issue or bonking from lack of energy or anything, a blister is the one thing that every single step makes you grit your teeth and wanna quit right down there.

Rachel:  Yeah!

Ben:  Blisters are horrible.

Rachel:  Yeah.  They’re small but they’re mighty.

Ben:  They’re the devil.  So there’s this stuff that I use, it’s made by Hammer Nutrition, and it’s called Seat Saver.  It’s was originally applied to just like applied to chammy surface of bike shorts, or like the thick diaper part of bike shorts.  But you can put it anywhere, it is olive oil, shea butter, yarrow, chamomile, beeswax, vitamin E, clove, lavender, peppermint – uhm, you wanna lick your nipples after you’ve been for a run.  So tasty in…

Rachel:  All they feel like they’re on fire.  (chuckles)

Ben:  And tea tree oil, and anyways, you put this anywhere that you wanna lubricate, anywhere that you wanna protect, and the cool thing is that a lot of those ingredients offer lubrication and anti-chafing but also they’re anti-bacterial, right, so you’re less likely to get things like hemorrhoids and infections, in all of those areas that tend to get inflamed when you’re out there doing your chronic repetitive motion stuff.  So that’s another cool one.  We, as the Ben Greenfield fitness people, get a discount on anything from Hammer Nutrition including that Seat Saver cream.  You go to hammernutrition.com, and they’ve got a 15% discount code on this stuff.  The code is 80244, I’ll put that in the show notes because you don’t have memories like steel traps.  But that’s the stuff I would use, and that’s what I would do about your corns Meg.

Rachel:  So basically Seat Saver cream or a foot salad for her foot.

Ben:  A fruit salad for your foot.  Exactly, followed by a nice cup of tea.

Erin:  Hi Ben, my name is Erin Young from Hickory corners, Michigan, and my question is about avocados.  I’ve been told that the pit of an avocado is really good for you.  That it contains high amount of flavanols, and it was suggested that I put it in my morning smoothie, and I was wondering what you know about avocado seeds and why that would be beneficial?  My other question is: I’ve heard you talk a lot about oxidation and how avocados can oxidize, and I often eat half the avocado, put it together with the pit and pull it out later, and there’s a little bit brown.  Should I be removing that brown from the avocado before I eat that?  Is that oxidized avocado and is that essentially bad for me?  Thanks for answering my question and I’ll be listening to you the answer.  Thank you!

Ben:  Rachel, have you actually seen the video I have about this on YouTube?

Rachel:  I haven’t seen the video.

Ben:  It’s called 5 shocking foods you can blend.

Rachel:   Yeah! And I’m gonna imagine that avocado seeds are on there?

Ben:  Oh, in the video I’m blending like egg shells, and broccoli stems, and flax seeds, and I’m throwing like I’d go into which supplements that you can throw into your blender, and then I also throw avocado seeds into the blender.

Rachel:  Hmm?

Ben:  Because you can if you’re lazy like me.  You can just drop the whole avocado into your blender.

Rachel:  Even the skin?

Ben:  Oh no, not the skin.  You – like skin it and then drop the whole avocado. Sorry, let’s clear about it.

Rachel:  Let’s just be clear about that.

Ben:  Yeah.  So, avocado seeds are kinda cool.  They have about 70% of the same antioxidants that you find in the whole avocado but then avocado seed oil itself which you only gonna find in the seed, it’s different than avocado oil.  So avocado seed oil is different than avocado oil, it’s actually higher in antioxidants and it can assist with things like joint repair, and you know, it works very similar like collagen in that way.  It also has more soluble fiber in it than oatmeal.  The avocado seed does so it can like…

Rachel:  This is a great one for the ______[0:49:39.6] and vegans.

Ben:  Yeah, so it can increase HDL and it can help with like moving things along your GI tract, it can even be nourishing and healing for inflammation, and for like irritable bowel or colitis or things like that.  In South America actually avocado seeds are one of the things that they’ll use for dysentery and gut problems.  Things like gastric ulcers and things that arising in your gut.

[0:50:04.3]

And you can powder, you can – like you go to Amazon for example, you can buy avocado seed powder, and it’s one of those things that solve to help to soothe the gut, and like I mentioned avocado seed oil somewhat like the avocado seed, it can increase collagen formation.  So it can help to keep your joints nice and, nice and supple.  There’s one interesting study that they did on avocado seeds by the way that showed that it can help to lower the blood glucose response to your food.  So like if you have carbs in a smoothie or something like that, it could actually lower the glycemic index that that smoothie would produce.

Rachel:  So, is it quite digestible?

Ben:  If you blend it.  I don’t recommend chewing on it like a – eternal Gobstopper but you could definitely blend it and it’s quite edible.  I’ve never heard any issues with it, so yes, yes you can put avocado seeds into the blender.  Now, regarding this question though about avocados and whether you can eat them if you’re brown…

Rachel:  If they’re brown…

Ben:  Yeah!

Rachel:  You can eat them if you’re brown…

Ben:  You can!  Uhm, if you’re brown you can definitely.  If they’re brown, you can also eat them, and I think it’s kinda interesting this whole idea behind browning.  So, if you – I mean, avocados themselves are quite interesting fruit.  So, their flesh as we know it’s mostly fats.  It’s oleic acid and linoleic acid.  So avocados don’t have hardly any sugar or starch in them, and they don’t even start to ripen until you pick them from the tree.  So if you put them in the fridge while they’re unripe, they’re gonna stay unripe.  So if you’re concern if your avocados tend to get soft and brown, and moldy really fast, keep them in the fridge.  Now, once the flesh of the avocado gets expose to air, what happens is that there is an enzyme in the avocados called polyphenol oxidase and that converts what are called the phenolic compounds in olive oil to something called quinones, and these quinones can manifest themselves as a brown coloration to the avocado flesh.  Basically they gathered together to form this big, long chain of polymers are called polyphenols, and you’ll see this occur in a lot of foods, you know, bananas can do this too or an apple, it’s basically browning of these polyphenols.  Now, sometimes that can happen if it gets exposed to oxygen which is what we’re all familiar with, but any type of damage can cause this browning to occur.  So like if you drop open avocado, you know, bruise it’s very similar to phenolic reaction, it’s like a – it’ like a protective reaction.  You can prevent it.  So, you can, you know, the most common way to prevent this in apples or avocados, or anything else is you just keep a little melon juice or lime juice, same stuff you’ll gonna use in the corns on your feet, and you put that on the exposed flesh of the fruit, and these enzymes actually don’t work as well in acidic conditions.  And since lemon is acidic or lime is acidic, what happens is the avocado doesn’t brown as easily.  You can also of course keep the avocado from being contact with oxygen by wrapping it in a little like clean film, like plastic wrap after you do it.  Some people are little bit reticent to do that because anytime you let plastic touch your food, you’re increasing the potential that you could be consuming phytoestrogen.  So you gotta be careful with plastic wrap.  Like I use plastic wrap over bowls full of food but I’m careful not to really wrap a lot of food in plastic wrap where it’s gonna touch the parts that I’m gonna be eating.  So I’m not as big a fan of that, it’s just like laying it down on a plate that has little lime juice or lemon juice in it, and that can work quite well.  So uhm, as far as eating it, yes you can eat brown avocados.  There are no studies that show it to be an issue.  Now, of course an avocado that is brown, that has been exposed to oxygen is going to potentially become moldy more quickly.  So you do wanna pay attention to whether or not there’s like stringiness or mold, that’s when you – you know, when the flesh gets very stringy that’s when you should avoid eating it because that means that it’s becoming quite rancid, and moldy.  But I cannot talk about avocados without mentioning since we’ve talked about vaginal weight lifting and penile exercises, and everything else on the show, we might as well stay on that journey.  Did you know that avocados are pretty potent aphrodisiac?

Rachel:  Aphrodisiac?  I knew where you were going with that.  I did not!

Ben:  You did not notice.

Rachel:  I did not know, but you know what?  I’ve been eating avocado like crazy lately, and it hasn’t really, I don’t know if impacts my sex drive or not, I don’t know, but they are just objectively delicious.

Ben:  Well, the Aztecs actually were quite fond of avocados for those reasons.  For example, they had a name, it’s like ‘ahucacahuiti’ or something like that they that roughly translates in Astec as testical tree.  That’s what they call the avocado trees.

[0:55:01.8]

And then they also – the word ‘guacamole’ is derived from the same Aztec word that means ‘testical soup’.

Rachel:  Wow!

Ben:  The next time that you’re eating guacamole, it’s original title was ‘testical soup’ in the Aztec lexicon.

Rachel:  I feel that nature gives us good indications for what our fruits and vegetables are good for.

Ben:  It does.  Walnuts are good for your brain, celery – believe it or not, has components in it that are good for erections, and avocado is good for your boys.

Justeen:  Hey Ben and Rachel, my name is Justeen from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, my boyfriend and I listen to your podcast all the time.  We especially love all the propeller hat information.  Currently I’m in school for nutrition so naturally I get a lot of questions from friends and family about what they should eat and I have a hard time not going into straight explaining the gut microbiome and hormones, and things of that nature.  So, I guess my question would be if you were to give let’s say a 20 minute class on nutrition to people who know next and nothing about it, what would be your main points?  Okay, thanks.  Love the show, keep up the good work. Bye.

Ben:  So Rachel, how old are these people that I’m giving this 20 minute class to?

Rachel:  Ohhh!

Ben:  This like 5 year olds or pre-school age?

Rachel:  Uhm, it’s everyone.  It’s a diverse age range.

Ben:  Everyone.  Okay.

Rachel:  Yup.  It makes it even harder.

Ben:  So I got this platform, this platform to the world, and I’ve got 20 minutes to tell them everything to know about nutrition.

Rachel:  That’s correct, Ben!  You’re on.

Ben:  Can I do the Michael Pollan thing and just say eat food mostly plants not too much?

Rachel:  Wow!  I mean, that could – that’s very so sync but I feel like you’ve got more for us.

Ben:  Okay, alright.  So, there’s so many ways I can go with this but I’ll give you 5, count ‘em 5.  I’ll give you 5 big tips when it comes to things that I think everybody should know about when it comes to nutrition that not enough people know about.  So, the first thing I would say would be everybody needs to know something about calories.  So, a lot of people think that calories in and calories out are what are called independent variables.  And what that means is for example you could drop your energy intake and you could maintain your resting metabolic rate while burning the same amount of energy, digesting food, and working out,  and you’d lose fat.  But in reality the amount and the type of calories that you eat are gonna affect the amount of energy you spend.  So calories in and calories out are not independent variables, they’re actually dependent variables.  So, what do I mean by that?  What I mean by that is that the type of foods that you grab to eat are going to have a different metabolic effect on your body even if they have the same amount of calorie.  So, whole foods for example, there’s one study where they gave people whole food sandwich which was basically multi-grain bread with cheddar cheese, and then they gave another group of subject a processed-food sandwich which is basically white-bread with cheez whiz which actually sounds kinda good.  You know what, white bread, cheez whiz sand… I would try that at least once.

Rachel:  Oh good!

Ben:  Anyways, so both meals are isocaloric and they had pretty much the same macronutrient ratios, the same protein, fat and carb ratios.  However, when they measured their metabolism, the people ate the multi-grain sandwiches with the cheddar cheese expended 137 calories as far as their – what’s called their postprandial metabolic rate.  Whereas the white-bread group only expended 73 calories.  So it took – the white-bread group only expended 50% of the calories as a whole-grain group digesting that food even though the food itself had the same number of calories.

Rachel:  Right.

Ben:  So calories in and calories out are not independent variables.  Protein is another example of this.  So a protein has a huge – what’s called energy expenditure or thermic effect from being digested even more so than fats and more so than carbs.  And as a matter of fact there’s one study where they looked at a low-fat, high-carb, high-protein diet which I don’t necessarily endorse as a diet but it does increase what’s called your postprandial energy expenditure by up to 100%.  And so, this idea of consuming some amount of protein to increase the thermic effect of foods is also smart.  Now I could get into like the potential for ammonia toxicity and how you know, there is this potential like longevity, anti-longevity effect of eating too much protein, etc. but proteins are good example of how a certain food, a certain macronutrient is going to cause more calories to be burnt by digesting it compared to say like fats or carbs.  So, that’s the first thing I’d want people to know that when you look at the calorie label of food, the calorie label of the food does not really influence the actual number of net calories of that body is going to produce inside your body, okay?

[1:00:09.9]

So that is number one.  That’s the first.  Does that make sense?

Rachel:  Kind of.  I’m not gonna lie, I’ve got a little skull in my head right now.

Ben:  Okay, alright.  So, just to clarify real quick.  Basically what it means is that some foods are going to require way more energy to burn than other foods from a caloric standpoint.  Protein and fiber are two perfect examples of that.

Rachel:  Great.  Perfect.

Ben:  Okay, the next thing that you have to understand is that not everyone is going to respond to calories equally.  So staying on this calorie bandwagon, for example what they found is that people who are overweight or obese already have what is called insulin-resistance and these type of folks respond to a caloric intake of for example lower carbohydrate, higher fat foods better.  There’s plenty of literature that shows that for someone who’s already obese or overweight, they seem to do best on a lower carb, higher fat diet.  And then some people who are insulin sensitive and very lean can get away with from a fat loss standpoint like a more moderate amount of carbs or what might not be considered low carb.  So that’s one example of like the macronutrient ratios with the type of calories that you consume not being responded to equally depending on your body type.  We can also look at someone who’s like, you know, two different people who weigh 200 lbs. and one person is 10% body fat and another person is 20% body fat.  Well, let’s say that both of those folks eat say a baked potato, like a 200 calorie baked potato.  Well, the person who has a lower percentage body fat, who had significantly more muscle, that means they have a larger propensity to be able to store carbohydrates, so in much greater percentage of those carbohydrates are gonna get shove into muscle tissue, whereas the second person with significantly less muscle is gonna have less room to store carbohydrates as glycogen and so they’re going to be more likely to shovel that glucose into the liver to get converted into fat.  And so what that means is that depending on where you’re at in life from a fitness standpoint, and from a muscle standpoint, you might be able to do better on higher or lower amounts of carbohydrates compared to say, your neighbor, so…

Rachel:  Yes.  That make sense! Yup.

Ben:  Okay, alright.  Cool.  So we know that different foods are going to have different thermic effect, we know that different people are going to respond differently to different amounts of carbohydrate, and then if we wanna take this one step further, and this is something we talked about a few podcast episodes back, but your ancestry is going to influence your diet as well.  And there are specific examples of this.  So, there are some people who would have had a very high what’s called folate intake, okay, so lots of folic acid from like dark leafy greens and vegetables, and stuff like that in their ancestors diet, and people with sufficiently high intakes of folic acid, they would have been selected for what’s called an MTHFR mutation.

Rachel:  Uhmm, this is me, yup.

Ben:  An MTHFR mutation, and yeah, we were talking about this.  You were in Spokane a few days ago and had dinner with some folks, and you mentioned you had MTHFR mutation.  As folks do when they’re eating dinner at a restaurant.

Rachel:  Of course.  That’s what we talked about when we were together.

Ben:  Of course.  Fantastic dinner conversation.  And so if you have an MTHFR mutation, if you’ve been genetically tested for that, it probably means your ancestors had a diet that was rich in folate and that would suggest that you may be somebody who really need to focus on getting a lot of vegetables and plants in your diet, and you’d be naturally drawn towards the plant-based diet, and you may because you have what’s called a poor methylation status, you may not actually do quite as well with high amounts of methyl group from meat…

Rachel:  Hmm, oh it makes perfect sense.

Ben:  Yeah, so you Rachel, you’re vegetarian, you’re drawn to a plant-based diet, you have an MTHFR mutation and that kinda make sense.  Whereas, some people who don’t have the MTHFR mutation, you know, it’s possible that your ancestors maybe in a different diet.  And so MTHFR is one thing to look into.  There’s also a salivary amylase – there’s another gene that coats for salivary amylase production, and the more of that genes are called AMY1, the more of that gene that you produce, the more salivary amylase that you produce in response to carbohydrate intake, and the less likely carbohydrates are to spike your blood glucose.  And so if you tend to come from a genetic ancestry that is high in that particular form of salivary amylase, you would have a better metabolic response to starch digestion and you could get away with more like potatoes, and sweet potatoes, and root and tubers, and fruits and rice, and things you know, maybe the things that would make your neighbor fat, you would do just fine with.

[1:05:17.9]

  That’s another thing to consider is this whole idea behind the genes that code for salivary amylase production.  And then there’s lactate persistence, so some people will do very, very well with dairy because they have this lactase persistence gene.  What that means is that the genes that responsible for digesting lactose sticks around into adulthood, and you see this a lot of times in groups like the Maasai which is like the hunter- gatherer group in Africa where because milk is such a staple in their diet that lactase tends to stick around for a long period of time, whereas in like you know, for example Indian populations, you tend to see very low levels of lactase persistence and they do well on dairy at all.

Rachel:  Yeah.

Ben:  And so, basically what this comes down to is that you know, when the only ways to really know is to test your genes and also means that that really cool diet book that your neighbor got that cause them to lose 20 lbs. of fat might not actually work for you, or the person who switch to a vegan diet in your neighborhood… and you know…

Rachel:  Right.  Is doing great on it, uhm.

Ben:   …is preaching to the whole world about how well they feel.  Well, if your ancestors ate a high folate diet, you might carry things that interact with folate status and eating more folate-rich foods could improve your health and performance, but if that’s not the case, and if you don’t have the MTHFR mutation then you might need to take another route when it comes to the type of foods that you consume.

Rachel:  This is why there’s no one ‘size fits all’ diet perfect.

Ben:  Okay.  So couple others, those are the first 3 things.  That’s the first 3 things I would say is: calories in and calories out are not an independent variables, everyone does not respond to calories equally.  Your neighbor’s diet may not work for you.  And then the last couple of things: understand digestibility vs. nutrient density.  So, take quinoa for example.  Quinoa has a really good amino acid and fatty acid rich grain or pseudo-grass or pseudo-grain, whatever you wanna call it, but quinoa is high in coding that’s called saponin.  It’s a soap-like irritant that the plant produces as a protective mechanism that would theoretically cause a mammal who consumes quinoa to go and poop it out somewhere because it irritates the digestive tract, it doesn’t get digested completely and so a new, fresh new quinoa plant will grow wherever it’s been poop out by that mammal.  And so quinoa is certainly nutrient-dense, right?  So, it satisfies that category of amino acids and fatty acids and minerals and vitamins but it’s not very digestible unless you make it digestible right unless you soak it, and you rinse it, and maybe soak and rinse it a few more times and then cook it really thoroughly.

Rachel:  Right.

Ben:  Soy would be another perfect example of this, right?  Like soy can be high in a lot of things that can reduce mineral absorption like phytic acid and it can have a lot of what are called phytoestrogenic properties which could cause guys to get man boobs and stuff like that or women who have estrogen dominance to have even higher levels of estrogen dominance when consuming soy, but if we take that soy and we ferment it, and we make like soy beans and to natto, and we make a soy paste and a miso, and we ferment soy to make things like tempeh, all of a sudden the soy becomes digestible and that really good plant-protein that was nutrient-dense in the first place but not digestible is all of a sudden something that’s digestible.  So understand that a lot of nutrient-dense foods that are out there are not necessarily foods that are gonna do you any favors and may actually cause food allergy responses, and immune system issues, and inflammation unless you render them digestible via things like you know, like the sour dough bread process that we talked about, and fermenting, and soaking, and rinsing, and sprouting, and you could find things that are indeed digestible right off the bat, right, like process sugar.  That’s extremely digestible but it’s not nutrient-dense, right?  Or white bread with cheez whiz, very digestible but not nutrient-dense.  So, what I always look at when I’m considering whether or not I want to include a food in my diet, no matter how many carbs or fat or proteins or what the percentages of those are, I always ask myself – is it nutrient-dense? And is it digestible?  And if the answer to those 2 questions is yes, then it’s a definite inclusion in my diet.  Does that make sense?

Rachel:  Well, that makes perfect sense.

Ben:  Okay, cool.  I’m glad like that there’s no skull on your face from that one.

Rachel:  (laughs)

Ben:  And then the final one is that probably you eat too much, and too often.  And this is something I have had clients who I have spent time with, and I will go through the day with him, and I’ll do my usual you know, eat 2-3 square meals a day, breakfast sometimes, and you know, always like a salad for lunch and dinner.

[1:10:15.7]

And then my clients will do the same, and then I’ll kinda watch them out of the corner of my eye and they’re like eating pumpkin seeds out of the bag and havin’ and energy bar, and then after dinner, I’m gonna have some chia seeds and some dark chocolates, and then all I’ll grab this kombucha, the one from Whole Foods, it’s got 30 calories, and actually it’s 30 calories and there’s 2 servings in a bottle, so it’s 60 calories.  And I start to look at people’s diet, and people who can’t lose weight no matter what, and when you really start to inspect things, you know then they have a cup of high-fat coffee before they have their eggs and their bacon.  And people, if you really step back and look at it, and I would challenge everybody to look at this, sometimes you’ll find you’re just eating all day long.  Even though you’re not thinking about it or even though these choices seem to be really healthy, you just – some people just freaking need to stop eating so much period.  Like it’s one of the biggest things that I see, and I’ll even odd at people’s diet and I’ll look at the diet and I’ll see that there’s no way, no way that this is what you’re eating, right?  Like your tiny little 200 calorie green smoothie for breakfast and your 500 calorie lunch time salad, and then your 600 calorie fish and roasted vegetables for dinner, and you’re gaining weight.  And then I really start to dig then and they’re like – “well, you know I do have – I put MCT oil in my tea in the morning”, and I’m like, “okay, 400 calories”, “and I have my kombucha”, and I’m like, “okay, that’s 70 or 100 calories”, “and then I put a little bit of sugar in my coffee”, “okay, there’s another 50”, “and I had a handful of seeds and nuts but it was the healthy trail mix”, and I’m like, “okay, that was 400 calories”, and you know, a lot of times people just eat too much food.  There’s no evidence that gracing your snacking is gonna elevate your metabolism.  There’s plenty of evidence that restricted eating and intermittent fasting can shift you into a higher level of fat burning and increase fat oxidation, so that’s the 5^th thing I would say, is you just probably eat too damn much and too often.

Rachel:  Yeah, and I supposed we associate eating with just the 3 big meals of the day – breakfast, lunch, and dinner, so we don’t really think about what’s actually happening in between and we are all very busy people so I guarantee we’re not spending on days thinking about what we’re actually eating.

Ben:  Yup.

Rachel:  Which we should, we should.

Ben:  Exactly.  So, those are my 5 things that you must know about nutrition.  Now, before we move on to the next part of today’s podcast, Rachel, we have another tip.  I’ve got another tip here from our friend Jordan Harbinger at The Art of Charm, so you can check out Jordan’s website, he’s a friend of mine.  You can go to theartofcharm.com, or you can go to iTunes just do a search for Art of Charm podcast, but now is the time on the show when we play a special tip from our friend Jordan.  So, Jordan, take it away.

Jordan:  I’ve noticed that really athletic people especially the more athletic they get tend to be very dominant personalities.  This happens a lot.  And what this means is that non-verbally in terms of your facial and non-verbal communication, your body language, it can make you come across a little bit aloof, a little bit unfriendly.  So, what we’re gonna do today is called the doorway drill.  What this means is every time you walk through a doorway, straighten up, stand up straight, chest up, chin up, smile on your face, shoulder’s back.  Now, don’t exaggerate this, you look a little bit like a knuckle jogging idiot but we want you straight out, really erect, and what this will do every time you walk through a doorway, if you this what this is gonna do is program you to really find tune this as your default body language.  So, I want you doing this at home, when you leave your bedroom, when you go to the bathroom, when you leave your own house.  What this does is it drills this level of default by language down to the level of habit, and this is great because that means you don’t have to think about it anymore.  This is a really great drill if you get nervous in groups, or in social situations or in situations in which you’re a little bit uncomfortable no matter what because it gets good open body language down to the level of habits so you don’t need to think about it anymore.  Once you do the doorway drill enough you never have to think about this again so that means that when you’re in interactions with other people, when you’re at a coffee shop, restaurant, networking event, at work, in the office, you don’t have to think about micromanaging your non-verbal communication, you already know you’re getting a great first impression, you’re already know that your non-verbal communication is on point because you’ve made this a habit.  This is really, really powerful because it frees you to think about other things and become more present when you’re interacting with other people thereby making you more charismatic.  Can’t beat that!

Ben:  So Rachel, have you actually tried this since listening to Jordan’s tip?

Rachel:  I haven’t, no but I absolutely going to.  I think it’s brilliant!

Ben:  I think it is too.

[1:15:00.3]

And I have actually been going out of my way not that I go to many cocktail parties but I speak a lot, and I go to conferences and it is actually quite helpful when you stop at the expo doors of the conference or you stop right before you walk into the room, or before you knock on the door of someone’s house, and you just do a little postural adjustment, a little power pose.  I really like this!  You could even use this before you step into the gym, you know, before you step into spin class at the gym, so.

Rachel:  And it’s an easy way to make something into a habit as well.  I think he actually mentioned, did he say to do it through all doorways so it gets ingrained?  Yeah!  All doorways, so when you walk into doorways in your house even…stand up.

Ben:  Yeah!  When you walk to the bathroom to take a crap, flex your biceps, get your body ready.

Rachel:  (chuckles) Yup.

Ben:  So, there you have it.  Now, we also speaking of tips, we have a wonderful review.  A 5-star review that was left on iTunes, and we always like to out of the goodness of our hearts spread the good karma and give things away to people who leave a review on iTunes.  So if you go to iTunes, you leave our show some stars and you say something nice, and you email us if you hear us read your review on the show, you simply email [email protected], that’s [email protected].  Let us know your t-shirt size, and we’ll send you a super-duper cool gift pack with a beanie, and a bpa-free water bottle that’s not gonna give you man-boobs, and a cool tech t-shirt, and we actually have a review this week that I chose because it was left by a man or a woman with a very interesting handle on iTunes.  So Rachel…

Rachel:  Yup…uhmm…

Ben:  What was the name of this particular reviewer?

Rachel:  I feel like it just is perfect with today’s theme as well.

Ben:  Uhm, take it away.

Rachel:  It just fits perfectly.  Okay, so the review is by Banana penis.

Ben:  Banana penis…

Rachel:  Banana penis and…

Ben:  Ah!

Rachel:  (chuckles)

Ben:  It’s great name!

Rachel:  (chuckles) And the title is – Thank you Ben, 5-stars.  Here we go…

Ben:  What is Banana penis have to say?

Rachel:  “I started listening to this podcast around 2 years ago.  Ben, is my go-to resource for anything health and fitness related.  He is a stickler on research, and is not afraid to challenge any of his guest’s theories and recommendations.  I have transformed my health and fitness for the better and I owe a lot of it to this podcast.  I also enjoy his new sidekick Rachel!  Ahh!  Thanks banana penis!

Ben:  Uhm, and he spells your name Ratche-el.

Rachel:  Ratche-el!

Ben:  So I’m guessing banana penis must be from some exotic island somewhere.

Rachel:  Maybe!

Ben:  …I call myself banana penis man. (with Russian accent)

Rachel:  (laughs)

Ben:  Ratche-el, my new sidekick.

Rachel:  Oh!  The accent’s back, I love it!

Ben:  The accent is back.  Okay, so yeah!  If you wanna leave a review, go to iTunes, leave a review, 5-stars – are always much appreciated, it help us spread the word about the show, and what we have done is we have compiled everything that we’ve talked about in today’s show from the special discounts on like the Paleo conference and the biohacker’s conference to the new home kit that Wellness FX has introduced, to the Training Peaks heart rate variability, to the sour dough bread recipes, to the Greenfield fitness systems gift box to the avocado seed video, everything.  Just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/347.  Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/347, and all the goodies will be there for you.  Now, we will have a special episode coming next Wednesday because I will be off in the hills of Kauai somewhere hiking around, and working on my tan…

Rachel:  Livin’ in bliss.

Ben:  Livin’ in bliss but in the meantime, stay tuned for a special episode this weekend on pulse electromagnetic field therapy just in case you want more nerdiness, and also next week for an even special episode which I will… make it that a secret for now.  So anyways, bengreenfieldfitness.com/347, check it out.  Rachel, enjoy your day!

Rachel:  Adios!

You’ve been listening to the Ben Greenfield fitness podcast.  Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness and performance advice.

[1:20:26.0]    END

 

 

February 24, 2016 Podcast: A Potent New Fat Loss Workout, Why Ben Eats Bread, 5 Things You Must Know About Nutrition & More!

Have a podcast question for Ben? Click the tab on the right (or go to SpeakPipe), use the Contact button on the app, click Ask a Podcast Question at the bottom of this page, or use the “Ask Ben” form at the bottom of this page.

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News Flashes:

You can receive these News Flashes (and more) every single day, if you follow Ben on Twitter.com/BenGreenfield, Instagram.com/BenGreenfieldFitness, Facebook.com/BGFitness and Google+.

• WellnessFX introduces an extremely comprehensive home-kit for genetic, microbiome and blood test.
• TrainingPeaks adds Heart Rate Variability (HRV) tracking
• Pretty crazy how quick, short term intermittent high intensity training can strip fat off body (15 rounds of 60 on/30 off).
• Fantastic article on why you should use protein and creatine when injured.
• In defense of wheat…

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Special Announcements:

This podcast is brought to you by:

-Four Sigmatic Foods: Click here and use 15% discount ‘bengreenfield’.

-Harrys.com – Get $5 off anything at Harrys.com with discount code ‘BEN’.

-NASM – Go to MyUSATrainer.com for a FREE 14 day free trial of their fast and fun online program!

–GreenfieldFitnessSystems “surprise gift box” – 50% discount on instant access to a box shipped to your front doorstep and full of the latest cutting-edge biohacking gear, nutrients, smart drugs and more, handpicked and curated by Ben.

Did you miss the weekend podcast episode with Marc Warnke? It was a must-listen – titled “How To Get Into Hunting, Build Hunting Fitness, The Most Challenging Hunts & More.” Click here to listen now or download for later!

New course from Ben! The 7 Day Full Body Reboot Program To Get Strong And Fit. Optimal fitness and health are closer than you think. In just one week, you can set yourself up for a strong, long, lean and healthy body.

May 21-22, 2016: Ben is speaking at the Biohacker’s Summit in London. The venue will be one of the most charming venues of London, Tabacco Dock, and features an Upgraded Dinner with wild forager Sami Tallberg and a great opportunity to bring together some fantastic UK based biohackers in the realms of digital health, wearables, supplements, biohacking, lifehacking, quantified self and much more. You’ll discover digital health & wellness providers, nutrition & supplement companies, wearables & mobile applications and smart home appliances from infrared saunas to smart sensors. Click here to register and use 10% code “ben”.

May 27-29, 2016: Ben is speaking at PaleoFX 2016 in Austin, Texas. This is the The Who’s Who gathering of the Paleo movement, with world-class speakers including New York Times bestselling authors, leading physicians, scientists, health entrepreneurs, professional athletes, fitness professionals, activists, bloggers, biohackers, and more. And you DON’T need to be Paleo to be able to get a ton of benefit and fun out of this one! Also, one day prior, on May 26 is Health Entrepreneurs f(x) – a full day of deep discussion on marketing, business development, and entrepreneurship for health and wellness people, featuring Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Melissa Hartwig, Sarah Ballantyne, Mike Bledsoe, Abel James, and a bunch of other speakers in small group coaching sessions.

Nov 17-18, 2016: Ben is speaking at the Biohacker’s Summit in Helsinki, Finland. Discover the latest in wearables, internet of things, digital health, and mobile apps to increase performance, be healthier, stay fit, and get more done. Learn about taking food, preparation, cooking, and eating to the next level with the latest science and kitchen chemistry. Even delve into implanted chips, gene therapy, bionic arms, biometric shirts, robotic assistants, and virtual reality. Two days with an amazing crowd and a closing party with upgraded DJs to talk about. Click here to get in now at a 40% discount.

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 – click here to leave your review for a chance to win some!

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Listener Q&A:

As compiled, deciphered, edited and sometimes read by Rachel Browne, the NEW Podcast Sidekick.

Is Foam Rolling Bad For Your IT Band?

Ali says: She recently read an article titled “Ilio-tibial Band: Please do not use a foam roller!” and she wants to get your opinion on this?

In my response, I recommend:
–Rumble Roller

Natural Remedies For Corns

Meg says: She’s an active ironman triathlete and has corns but she feels like she’s way too young for them. What causes them and what should she do about them? Is there any other way to get rid of them except surgery?

In my response, I recommend:
–Seat Saver cream by Hammer Nutrition (use 15% discount code 80244)

Can You Eat Avocado Seeds (Or Brown Avocados)?

Erin says: She heard avocado seeds are good for you, should she put them in her smoothie? What do you know about avocado seeds and why would that be beneficial? She’s also heard you talk about avocado oxidation. Is this when they turn brown? Should she be removing the brown before eating them?

In my response, I recommend:
–My avocado seed video (5 Shocking Foods You Can Blend)

5 Things You Must Know About Nutrition

Justeen says: If you were to give a 20 minute class on nutrition to people who know nothing about it, what would be the main points?

In my response, I recommend:
-Calories In And Calories Out Are Independent Variables
-Everyone Does Not Respond To Calories Equally
-Digestibility vs. Nutrient Density
-Your Neighbor’s Diet May Not Work For You
-You Probably Eat Too Often

Read more https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2016/02/26702/