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What Diet Related Disease is 100,000% More Common Today Than A Century Ago?
UncategorizedType 2 diabetes/prediabetes. But what exactly is it and what can be done about it?
If left untreated, insulin resistance turns into type 2 diabetes. To quickly understand type 2 diabetes, let’s go back to the example of the clogged sink. Type 2 diabetes is like running water into a clogged sink for so long that water overflows all over the place and the faucet breaks down. Once so much insulin is produced that it is overflowing our bloodstream while our ability to produce insulin has broken down, we have type 2 diabetes.
This build-up and breakdown causes potentially lethal havoc on the body. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates people diagnosed with diabetes by the age of forty die twelve years sooner if they are male, and fourteen years sooner if they are female.
Estimated Cases of Diabetes (in Millions)
Diabetic vs. Non-Diabetic Death Rate (Per 1k People)
Diabetic vs. Non-Diabetic Heart Attack Rate
Type 2 diabetes is terrible. What is even worse is its disturbing growth. In the late 1800s, one in every 4,000 people was diabetic; today one in every four people is diabetic or pre-diabetic. That is a 100,000% increase in one century, and researchers estimate that we are on our way to a third of men and nearly a half of women in the U.S. becoming type 2 diabetic. That is insane. That is caused by inSANE calories.
How do we avoid this?
Eat more. Exercise less. Smarter. Studies show 80% of type 2 diabetics can reduce or completely eliminate their need for medication by eating more SANEly, while reversing more than a third of a lifetime’s worth of insulin resistance after only a few months by exercising smarter.
Science has shown us the way…now it’s up to us to go SANE and get eccentric.
The Core Confusion of the “Calories In – Calories Out” Theory
UncategorizedEating less does not cause long-term fat loss. Exercising more does not cause long-term fat loss. Thinking in these terms won’t help you. The issue is not calorie quantity, but poor calorie quality causing a hormonal clog that removes your fat metabolism system’s need and ability to burn body fat. One more time, the issue is not calorie quantity, but poor calorie quality.
Unfortunately, the people teaching us about eating and exercise—the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)—have not seen the science. Take this excerpt from chapter 3 of the USDA’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans: “Since many adults gain weight slowly over time, even small decreases in calorie intake can help avoid weight gain.”
Here’s the bureaucrats’ basic misunderstanding: If “small decreases in calorie intake” lead to gradual weight loss, does that mean “small decreases in calorie intake” will eventually make us weigh nothing? Of course not. Why? Because our set-point automatically regulates our weight. But if that is true, then how can a small decrease in calorie intake help us avoid weight gain?
It can’t.
The issue is not that our body wants us to weigh less, but that too many calories per day are blocking it. The issue is that our body does not want us to weigh less thanks to our elevated set-point. The same mechanism preventing “small decreases in calorie intake” from making you weigh nothing also prevents it from effectively causing your body to burn off excess fat right now.
A more promising approach is to unclog and to lower your set-point. And you can do that easily by eating more high-quality calories. Remember, studies on 118,801 people show:
If you can escape the trap of old calorie quantity myths, you will never have to worry about your weight again.
Coming up next on let’s explore how to increase the quality of your calories, lower your set-point, and get your body burning fat for you.
How Much Protein Should I Eat While Going SANE (Part 1 of 2)
UncategorizedEating a natural amount of protein—about one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day (not exceeding 200 grams…aka if you weigh 350 lbs, don’t eat 350 grams of protein)—is critical to getting our biological functions back to normal. Why? First, high-Satiety protein fills us up and keeps us full, so we have no room for low-quality food. Second, our metabolism will burn body fat instead of muscle. As researcher D.K. Layman from the University of Illinois tells us: “Use of higher protein diets reduces lean tissue loss to less than 15% and when combined with exercise can halt loss of lean tissue during weight loss.”
Some people say that eating a gram of protein per pound of body weight hurts the kidneys and liver. This is not borne out, however, in clinical testing. For instance, A.H. Manninen at the University of Oulu concluded: “Simply stated, there is no scientific evidence whatsoever that high-protein intake has adverse effects on liver function.” T.L. Halton at Harvard University addresses the other part of the argument: “There is little evidence that high protein diets pose a serious risk to kidney function in healthy populations.”
On the other hand, guess how many studies show positive health benefits and body-fat loss stemming from a more balanced intake of protein? Dozens. A typical report comes from Loren Cordain at Colorado State University: “There is now a large body of experimental evidence increasingly demonstrating that a higher intake of lean animal protein reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, insulin resistance, and osteoporosis while not impairing kidney function.” That’s because researchers have shown that humans evolved to get about a third of our calories from protein. Dr. Cordain goes on: “So called …‘very high protein diets’ (30% – 40% total energy) actually represent the norm which conditioned the present day human genome…The evolutionary template would predict that human health and well-being will suffer when dietary intakes fall outside this range.”
How could a basic part of human evolution harm rather than help us? Emory University researchers S. Boyd Eaton and M. Konner made the point well when they noted, “It would be paradoxical if humans…should now somehow be harmed as a result of protein intake habitually tolerated or even required by their near relatives.”
How did the myth that protein is bad for us get started in the first place? Let’s cover that in the next post.
PS Make sure that as you start to eat a natural balanced amount of protein that you also increase your water intake. Eight glasses per day is the bare minimum. If your urine is not clear, if you are ever thirsty, or if you have room to drink things other than water—or green tea (more on that later)—then you could be slimmer and healthier by drinking more water.
Once Biggest Losers, Now Exercising Smarter – CrossFit, Spinning, Intervals, and More
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Table of Contents
Jay Jacobs & Jennifer Jacobs
Jonathan, you know we’re far from afraid to exercise, but mentally Jen and I feel that we get so much from exercising that we can’t envision only exercising eccentrically 10-15 minutes twice a week.
Jonathan Bailor
Simply add eccentric exercise to your existing routine. While you may not be able to use as much resistance as you otherwise could, you’ll still see great results as long as you can keep your routine up for the next 30 years, not just the next 30 days (more on safe and sustainable exercise).
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Jay Jacobs & Jennifer Jacobs
Can’t we apply the principles and benefits of eccentric exercise to our Spinning classes by upping the resistance as we spin so we get a deep muscle tissue response? Couldn’t we say sprint vs. jog or run and get that benefit? And I gotta believe that CrossFit is pretty close to being eccentric as after we’ve finished exercising we’re all either laying on the floor trying to recover, or walking around like zombies. According to what you share, if we’re doing eccentric exercises right we shouldn’t be able to do anything else.
Jonathan Bailor
Yes. The more resistance you use, the more you will change your metabolism to work like the metabolism of a naturally thin person: burning rather than storing fat 24/7/365. What you mention is almost exactly the “high-quality brief interval training” covered in SANE. Think of eccentric training as another option that will let you use even more resistance even safer–and reduce your total time exercising if you’d like. This is why it’s been popular in physical therapy circles for decades…it’s uniquely safe and uniquely effective. Combine safe and effective with “not time consuming,” and a lot of people find that it’s a great long-term exercise approach for them. I get most excited about eccentric training when I think about how I will exercise for the next 30 years vs. the next 30 days.
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Jay Jacobs & Jennifer Jacobs
Jonathan, you know from our discussions and food journals that Jennifer and I do pretty well at eating SANEly. We get it, and as we’ve shared, it seems that the more and more SANE food we eat, the more and more our bodies are craving healthier, whole foods.
Now it’s not that we never have a craving, or we never go off the reservation and eat inSANEly, but that happens much less frequently than in the past.
The one area in your book that we keep resisting is exercising eccentrically. Truth be told we’ve resisted them so much that we haven’t even tried them. So, here’s our question… you know we’re far from afraid to exercise, but mentally we just feel that we get so much from exercising that we can’t envision only exercising 10-15 minutes twice a week. Now if we could do eccentric exercises in addition to running, Spinning and CrossFit, or at least work them into what we’re doing that would be fine. But according to what you share, if we’re doing the eccentric exercises right, we shouldn’t physically be able to do anything else.
We gotta be honest–if what you’re sharing is really true why hasn’t anybody known about this before, and what are all of us doing signing up for all of these memberships and classes. You can’t say that other forms of exercise don’t work, obviously they do, we’ve experienced them for ourselves, and we’ve seen other amazing transformations as well.
Please help us better understand… we’re still confused.
Jonathan Bailor
Cutting edge exercise science can absolutely be a bit mind bending; especially when it’s so different from the marketing messages we’ve been bombarded with for the past couple of decades. Heck, it took me two years before I was able to let go of what I was taught as a personal trainer and enjoy the freedom and reduction in injuries that come from smarter exercise.
Let’s begin the gradual process of freeing our minds and healing our metabolisms by examining the way we think about our bodies. The now disproven theories that resulted in record breaking rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease led us to believe that our bodies work like balance scales. Supposedly, we need to consciously regulate calories in and calories out. Hundreds of clinical studies have proven that this is *not* how our bodies work. Do we have to manually regulate breaths in and breaths out? No. Do we have to regulate blood into our heart and blood out of our heart? No. Do we have to manually regulate calories in and calories out? No. Life sustaining functions are automatically regulated by the body. But—and this is a big but—if we destroy our body’s natural ability to keep us healthy, then that automatic regulation breaks down.
Consider a few examples:
Think of Your Body Like a Sink Instead of a Balance
With this correct understanding of our bodies, instead of a balance scale, think about your body like a sink. When a sink is working properly, more water in means more water out. The water level my rise temporarily, but the sink takes care of that automatically. The only time water level stays elevated is when the sink becomes clogged and loses its automatic ability to regulate water levels appropriately. One way to deal with this abnormally high level of water is to spend an hour or two per day manually bailing the excess water out with a teaspoon. Another way would be to clear the clog and restore the sinks ability to keep the water level low automatically.
Map this back to your body. It is designed to automatically regulate calories in and out such that we automatically maintain a healthy level of body fat. However, when we put the wrong quality of food into our body it becomes hormonally clogged and the level of fat in our body rises. Manually increasing calories out via hours of traditional exercise is like manually bailing water out of the sink with the teaspoon. It yields short term results, but it doesn’t do anything about the root cause, and that’s why it doesn’t work for over 95% of us long term.
The Two Ways to Maintain Healthy Body Fat Levels Long Term
Science shows that we have two options to maintain a healthy level of body fat long term:
Both are fine options. And we can pick the one that best suits us individually. The first works to mask the symptoms of a broken metabolism. The second works to fix the broken metabolism–to make our body work more like the body of a naturally thin person.
Let’s say we like the second option. How do we clear the clog?
How To Clear Your Hormonal Clog
Let’s go back to the sink. One great way is to use a tool to push the clog out. But, we need the right tool. For example, if we use a low-quality tool (this is a bit silly) such as a wet noodle, we won’t be able to generate enough force to push the clog out. We could sit at our sink and gently tap the clog over and over with our wet noodle, but no quantity of low quality will ever clear it out. We need a higher quality tool. Something that enables us to generate a lot of force. Maybe a sturdy plunger.
How do wet noodles and plungers map to our biology? Think of the various types of exercise as the various types of tools we can use to clear our hormonal clog. There are “wet-noodle” exercises that generate a little force (jogging), and “plunger” exercises that generate a lot of force (sprinting). If our goal is to clear our hormonal clog and restore our body’s natural ability to keep us healthy and fit, which would we be better off doing? The high-quality option. And because it’s so high quality, we don’t need a lot of it.
The specific smarter exercises my research recommends are like super plungers. They are exercise tools that enable us to generate as much force as possible as safely as possible (sprinting up stadium steps, while high-quality, can lead to injury). You can also think of them like version 2.0 of many mainstream smarter exercise approaches such as interval training and resistance training. They enable us to generate even more force even more safely.
Summary
The scientific community has discovered that there is an alternative to doing a lot of low-quality exercise: Do a little high-quality exercise. Exercise less—but smarter.
What gets me so excited is how sustainable, safe, and cost-effective this alternate approach is. I’m also so happy to see how quickly it is catching on in the mainstream. Look at the exponential increase in popularity of higher-quality exercise techniques such as interval training, CrossFit, and resistance training. Just imagine what kind of practical and permanent results we could see if we took this to next level with version 2.0 interval training and resistance training; what I call high-quality brief interval training and eccentric training.
Science has provided two paths. Which we travel is up to us. And I love options 🙂
Side-effects May Include: Sexual Dysfunction, Depression, Hallucinations…
UncategorizedWhen it comes to medical issues, the wrong treatment can often be worse than no treatment. For example, subjects in a University of Minnesota experiment were prescribed a regimen of eating less and exercising more for weight loss. Taking a more conservative approach than many of today’s traditional “eat less, exercise more” advocates, the researchers conducting the experiment prescribed subjects 1,600 calories and about an hour of low-intensity exercise per day.
As expected, subjects temporarily lost weight by shedding water, muscle, and fat. They then gained back significantly more fat than they lost. By the end of the analysis, subjects’ body fat percentage rose by about 52%. The completely unexpected results of the study were the shocking and severe psychological side-effects of this treatment, which included but were not limited to:
So profound were the detrimental psychological effects of traditional eat-less-exercise-more therapy that researchers coined the term “semistarvation neurosis” to describe the mental breakdown accompanying the subject’s physical breakdown.
As the side-effects from this and many other studies show, when it comes to long-term fat loss and psychological and physical health:
The good news is that the top scientific minds in the research community are now writing a new, safe, and proven prescription for long-term fat loss and robust health. Now it’s up to us to learn and live that smarter science of slim.
How Much Protein Should I Eat While Going SANE (Part 2 of 2)
UncategorizedIn the last post reviewed a small sampling of the mass of research showing that getting a balanced amount of protein (about third of our calories) from natural sources is healthy and helpful for long-term fat loss. So how did the myth that protein is bad for us get started in the first place?
The Protein is Bad for You Myth Debunked
The myth came out of studies where animals that were fed extreme amounts of protein experienced problems. However, rather than proving more protein is harmful, these studies prove that until we exceed two grams of protein per pound of body weight per day, we will get only healthier and slimmer by upping our protein intake.
To put two grams of protein per pound of body weight into perspective, an inactive 150-pound person would not enter the protein danger zone until they ate eleven chicken breasts per day, every day. That would total two grams of protein per pound of body weight, and would mean that 60% of their total calories were coming from protein. That is a terribly imbalanced diet and an unnatural amount of protein.
Bad things happen if we eat too much of anything. Luckily, it is nearly impossible to eat too much high-Satietyprotein. Additionally, a natural increase in our protein intake will improve our cholesterol, triglycerides, and insulin regulation, while lowering our risk of cardiovascular disease. And it does not matter if the protein comes from lean meat. In fact, low levels of animal protein have been associated with an increased risk of strokes.
But The China Study Says Meat Is Deadly
Let’s focus on meat for a moment. There is nothing wrong with eating high-quality meat. Besides the fact that meat was a cornerstone of our diet for most of our evolutionary history, there is no clinical data showing that meat is unhealthy. TheJournal of the American Medical Association reviewed 147 studies on the impact of diet on health. They found zero correlation between meat consumption and cardiovascular disease. Separately, researchers found that people in England have eaten about the same amount of animal fat—the source of most of the concern with meat—since 1910. Meanwhile, the number of heart attacks increased 1,000% between 1930 and 1970. It looks like animal fat is not causing the climb.
Similarly, during basically the same period of time in the U.S., a similar increase in heart attacks occurred while the amount of animal fats being consumed dropped. Meat is not unhealthy. It is a fantastic source of protein and therefore a key part of a natural balanced diet.
But Doesn’t Protein Weaken Our Bones?
Last but not least, at some point one of your more annoying coworkers will bring up some misguided magazine article arguing that protein promotes osteoporosis. This myth comes from the fact that digesting protein requires more calcium than the digestion of fat or carbohydrates. Certain individuals claim this finding shows that eating a lot of protein will suck calcium from our bones. That is inaccurate.
First, you will not be eating a lot of protein. You will be eating the amount humans evolved to eat. Second, you will have no need to grab calcium from your bones since a natural balanced diet provides at least 150% more calcium than the typical U.S. diet (for example, leafy green vegetables are excellent sources of calcium. Calorie for calorie, spinach provides nearly twice the calcium as reduced-fat milk.). Third, protein digestion does not negatively impact bones if intake of the mineral phosphorus is increased, and a natural balanced diet does that. Finally, while more protein increases the need for calcium, it also increases the body’s ability to absorb calcium. When more protein is taken in, the body automatically makes better use of calcium. Studies show that a natural level of protein increases bone density by raising levels of the protein IGF-1.
The only drawback with protein is the misinformation about concentrated sources of protein. Let’s cover that in the next post.