What is the Natural Omnivores Diet?
This is my way of referring to a diet rich in foods that we find in nature. This diet includes all forms of animal flesh, above-ground vegetables and starches like potatoes and rice. The main foods I avoid are modern agricultural products which means no wheat, soy, corn, quinoa and the many variations available of these foods. This diet definitely avoids oils made from these foods, these have been proven to be highly toxic even in moderate doses.
I am also pretty specific about the kind of meats I eat and how I cook them. I consider meat to be living unless cooked too hot and long. This means that all meat is cooked rare to medium-rare. I avoid meats that are artificially made lowfat, chicken being the best example. After a lifetime of eating chicken breast I currently try to eat all my chicken in a 50/50 ratio of dark to white meat. No animal in nature would neglect the fatty part of an animal, it is the most nutrient dense part. I'm finally adding organ meats to my diet since they are extremely rich in both macro (fats/protein) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals).
There are some 'in-between' foods like nuts, legumes, raw and fermented organic dairy. A person could easily live without these foods. Nuts and legumes are avoided because they are high in natural toxins. I will eat raw nuts if I am in a pinch to find something to eat. I personally do also eat plenty of eat raw milk and organic yogurt but this is an individuals choice. Animal husbandry has been around only as long as modern agricultural so it could be argued that milk is an un-natural food source. I view drinking milk as a luxury we are allowed as the worlds top and most intelligent predator.
I teach Yoga, Hardstyle Kettlebells and barbells.
Monday, May 19, 2014
Sunday, May 18, 2014
Vegan diet for Diabetes
Main difference between the vegan approach to diabetes control and the natural omnivores approach is that the vegan approach uses foods have a glycemic load of 0-20, the natural omnivores 0-9.
It's important the we understand what glycemic load (GL)is and how it differs from the more commonly used term, glycemic index (GI). GI is a measure of the degree to which a carbohydrate is likely to raise your blood sugar. GL measures the amount of available carbohydrates in a typical serving of a food AND the GI of the food.
Glycemic Load is a more accurate measure of a foods effect on blood sugar levels and here is why.
Take a carrot as an example, a food with a high GI but low GL. 7% of a carrot is made up of useable carbohydrates. A 50g carbohydrate content is employed as the standard measure for a GI rating of individual foods to show how fast blood sugar level are raised. You need to eat 1.5 lbs of carrots to get 50 grams of carbohydrates and nobody eats this many carrots in one siting.
So GI rating often overstates relatively small carbohydrate content in a food item like a carrot.
The reverse is also true, i.e. the glycemic effects of foods containing a high percentage of carbs like spaghetti which has a low GI but high GL. This is due to the fact that almost nobody eats 200 calories (50 grams) of spaghetti in a sitting, the average portion size is 2-3x this.
The vegan diet works because it bring a persons blood sugar levels to the range accepted by the American Diabetes Association, between 70-130 mg/dl. This number actually depends on whether or not the person is experiencing low blood glucose symptoms. A person with no symptoms can have higher BSL.
The natural omnivores diet will bring blood sugar levels below 100
So diabetes is "cured" even if the person has a BSL between 100-130 but the quest for optimum health wants our blood sugar under 100, ideally in the mid 80's.
The vegan diet has a greater effect on a person depending on how overweight they are. The more overweight a person is the more dramatic of a shift they will have in all of the measurable bio-markers when making the shift from SAD to vegan.
The vegan diet has less of an effect on a person who needs to lose smaller amounts of weight. Females trying to lose 5-10 lbs/Males trying to lose 10-15 lbs will struggle to lose these pounds because of the lowfat- high-carbohydrate nature of the vegan diet.
An important but lesser known biomarker for future health conditions is our A1c levels. A1c levels are a measure of our daily blood sugar levels over a period of time, usually 3-4 months. It is generally accepted that an A1c level of 5.6-5.8 indicates that the person has good control over their diabetes. A vegan diet will do a great job of bringing A1c levels down to this 5.6-5.8 range but the newest science says that we should have our A1c levels below 5.2 if we want to have optimum health. There is some interesting research that also says that having an A1c levels of 5.6-5.8 puts us in the higher categories of risk for cancer, dementia and brain shrinkage.
The 2 main advocates of the vegan diet for diabetes control both say that eating saturated fats found in animal products causes insulin resistance but this turns out to be based more on their own personal agendas (don't eat meat!) than an awareness of the newest studies done on saturated fats. While eating protein does effect our blood sugar levels all animal foods have glycemic loads of near 0. This means that eating animal flesh has very little to no effect on our blood sugar and insulin. levels. As it turns out we were wrong about red meat and saturated fat in particular. Modern science is determining that saturated fats are healthy fats and a necessary part of achieving robust health. This is not a dialogue on lowfat vs hi-fat. This is already old news and as you can see one of my source links is from a systematic review and meta-analysis of these kind of studies.
I look at diabetes as a spectrum disorder and the diagnosis of diabetes and level of diabetes depends on measurable bio markers (blood sugar levels, insulin levels, A1c levels) as well as whether or not the person is experiencing diabetic symptoms (excess bodyfat, headaches, poor sleep, daytime lethargy, poor mood and allergy like symptoms such as sinus problems).
Whether or not you chose to pursue the vegan diet as a method of controlling diabetes depends on your goals. If you have very high goals, lets say being very lean and muscular the vegan diet will be challenging due to its high-carbohydrate content. If you have moderate goals and don't mind a little bellyfat and are feeling well with your blood sugar levels between 100-130 then the vegan diet is a great approach to manage and control diabetic symptoms.
http://diabetesmanagement.insulitelabs.com/glycemic_index.php
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/expert-blog/blood-glucose-target-range/bgp-20056575
http://chriskresser.com/how-to-prevent-diabetes-and-heart-disease-for-16
http://www.nealbarnard.org/books/diabetes/
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/dec/diabetes.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885952/
http://www.drperlmutter.com/important-blood-test/
It's important the we understand what glycemic load (GL)is and how it differs from the more commonly used term, glycemic index (GI). GI is a measure of the degree to which a carbohydrate is likely to raise your blood sugar. GL measures the amount of available carbohydrates in a typical serving of a food AND the GI of the food.
Glycemic Load is a more accurate measure of a foods effect on blood sugar levels and here is why.
Take a carrot as an example, a food with a high GI but low GL. 7% of a carrot is made up of useable carbohydrates. A 50g carbohydrate content is employed as the standard measure for a GI rating of individual foods to show how fast blood sugar level are raised. You need to eat 1.5 lbs of carrots to get 50 grams of carbohydrates and nobody eats this many carrots in one siting.
So GI rating often overstates relatively small carbohydrate content in a food item like a carrot.
The reverse is also true, i.e. the glycemic effects of foods containing a high percentage of carbs like spaghetti which has a low GI but high GL. This is due to the fact that almost nobody eats 200 calories (50 grams) of spaghetti in a sitting, the average portion size is 2-3x this.
The vegan diet works because it bring a persons blood sugar levels to the range accepted by the American Diabetes Association, between 70-130 mg/dl. This number actually depends on whether or not the person is experiencing low blood glucose symptoms. A person with no symptoms can have higher BSL.
The natural omnivores diet will bring blood sugar levels below 100
So diabetes is "cured" even if the person has a BSL between 100-130 but the quest for optimum health wants our blood sugar under 100, ideally in the mid 80's.
The vegan diet has a greater effect on a person depending on how overweight they are. The more overweight a person is the more dramatic of a shift they will have in all of the measurable bio-markers when making the shift from SAD to vegan.
The vegan diet has less of an effect on a person who needs to lose smaller amounts of weight. Females trying to lose 5-10 lbs/Males trying to lose 10-15 lbs will struggle to lose these pounds because of the lowfat- high-carbohydrate nature of the vegan diet.
An important but lesser known biomarker for future health conditions is our A1c levels. A1c levels are a measure of our daily blood sugar levels over a period of time, usually 3-4 months. It is generally accepted that an A1c level of 5.6-5.8 indicates that the person has good control over their diabetes. A vegan diet will do a great job of bringing A1c levels down to this 5.6-5.8 range but the newest science says that we should have our A1c levels below 5.2 if we want to have optimum health. There is some interesting research that also says that having an A1c levels of 5.6-5.8 puts us in the higher categories of risk for cancer, dementia and brain shrinkage.
The 2 main advocates of the vegan diet for diabetes control both say that eating saturated fats found in animal products causes insulin resistance but this turns out to be based more on their own personal agendas (don't eat meat!) than an awareness of the newest studies done on saturated fats. While eating protein does effect our blood sugar levels all animal foods have glycemic loads of near 0. This means that eating animal flesh has very little to no effect on our blood sugar and insulin. levels. As it turns out we were wrong about red meat and saturated fat in particular. Modern science is determining that saturated fats are healthy fats and a necessary part of achieving robust health. This is not a dialogue on lowfat vs hi-fat. This is already old news and as you can see one of my source links is from a systematic review and meta-analysis of these kind of studies.
I look at diabetes as a spectrum disorder and the diagnosis of diabetes and level of diabetes depends on measurable bio markers (blood sugar levels, insulin levels, A1c levels) as well as whether or not the person is experiencing diabetic symptoms (excess bodyfat, headaches, poor sleep, daytime lethargy, poor mood and allergy like symptoms such as sinus problems).
Whether or not you chose to pursue the vegan diet as a method of controlling diabetes depends on your goals. If you have very high goals, lets say being very lean and muscular the vegan diet will be challenging due to its high-carbohydrate content. If you have moderate goals and don't mind a little bellyfat and are feeling well with your blood sugar levels between 100-130 then the vegan diet is a great approach to manage and control diabetic symptoms.
http://diabetesmanagement.insulitelabs.com/glycemic_index.php
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/diabetes/expert-blog/blood-glucose-target-range/bgp-20056575
http://chriskresser.com/how-to-prevent-diabetes-and-heart-disease-for-16
http://www.nealbarnard.org/books/diabetes/
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2009nl/dec/diabetes.htm
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885952/
http://www.drperlmutter.com/important-blood-test/
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Connection between diet and strength training
The connection between diet and strength training is absolutely undeniable. If a client does not eat well it will manifest in their strength training within 90 days, less if the person is older than 30 and already overweight/de-conditioned. What happens is this: Client experiences progress without fixing their diet. The progress is a product of them having a "beginners body", a body that is unaccustomed to strength training. Their nervous system gets used to the moderate intensity of strength training and they do develop some new muscular strength. So the person gains some strength, sees some new muscle developing and gets excited. They think this can continue w/o proper diet so they don't make the necessary nutritional changes. Somewhere between day 30 and day 90 this progress stops, the body can no longer grow due to poor diet. I believe a person can be overtrained even if they are not actually training too often/too strenuously. I have seen it a few times this past year. A person seems to be doing well initially but the stress of their diet puts them in an overtrained state due to poor nutrition. You can identify these folks easily because their strength gains will stop and you will find them often yawning in the middle of a session. This is why most programs are "90 days", this seems to be the limit to how long a person can train with any level of intensity w/o modifying ther diet and lifestyle.
I am convinced that many of these people find themselves attracted to cardio/conditioning/endurance work because this work is often untracked and non-progressive. You can just mindlessly bang out the miles and get the "feel-good" sensation of endorphins and cortisol running through the body I believe there is no better proof than can be found in mid-level marathoners/triathletes (not high-level, these folks usually understand nutrition). If you look closely at a mid-level biker, runner, swimmer, they all carry certain physical traits, mainly excessive bellyfat. So a person can be "in shape", have the ability to do long duration medium intensity exercise, but are most likely experiencing degenerative health conditions. The bellyfat tells it all, we have known this for decades but the truth of it is just now being slowly revealed.
I can not tell you how many bad eaters have asked me, "can I just do cardio? You know, get on the bike and bang out an hour or 2 to help me lose bodyfat?" No, the answer is no! When we eat poorly the body is accustomed to burning glucose for fuel. When a glucose-burner runs out of energy their body starts breaking down muscle tissue for fuel. This is the beginning of metabolic disorder, the body can no longer work with efficiency. When a person eats "right", basically a fat-burner, their bodies do everything it can do in order to burn fat and retain muscle mass. Cardio is absolutely a waste of time for a person who does not eat "right". The lean "cardio-bunnies" always look the same, their body never changes. Their bodies are sick on the inside and they have the same health issues an obese person has.
I am convinced that many of these people find themselves attracted to cardio/conditioning/endurance work because this work is often untracked and non-progressive. You can just mindlessly bang out the miles and get the "feel-good" sensation of endorphins and cortisol running through the body I believe there is no better proof than can be found in mid-level marathoners/triathletes (not high-level, these folks usually understand nutrition). If you look closely at a mid-level biker, runner, swimmer, they all carry certain physical traits, mainly excessive bellyfat. So a person can be "in shape", have the ability to do long duration medium intensity exercise, but are most likely experiencing degenerative health conditions. The bellyfat tells it all, we have known this for decades but the truth of it is just now being slowly revealed.
I can not tell you how many bad eaters have asked me, "can I just do cardio? You know, get on the bike and bang out an hour or 2 to help me lose bodyfat?" No, the answer is no! When we eat poorly the body is accustomed to burning glucose for fuel. When a glucose-burner runs out of energy their body starts breaking down muscle tissue for fuel. This is the beginning of metabolic disorder, the body can no longer work with efficiency. When a person eats "right", basically a fat-burner, their bodies do everything it can do in order to burn fat and retain muscle mass. Cardio is absolutely a waste of time for a person who does not eat "right". The lean "cardio-bunnies" always look the same, their body never changes. Their bodies are sick on the inside and they have the same health issues an obese person has.
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