Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness

It’s Time You Knew the Truth About Why You’re Fat!

Posted on July 4, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

04
Jul

It’s Time You Knew The Truth About Why You’re Fat!

By Travis Wade

There are 2 thoughts when it comes to food. I hear the comment “Food is meant to be enjoyed”. Agreed. To a point. Alcohol is meant to be enjoyed as well. The other way to think of food is, the number one thing you are trying to accomplish with food is to get the nutrients your body needs. Hopefully you can learn to do both at the same time.

Let me start by saying it’s not your fault that you’re fat. Mostly. I’m not enabling here. Let’s say our society advertised for alcohol and we were told that it was healthy, nutritious, and makes us happy. Have you ever played the game one truth and two lies? Let me get back to this.

The Food Industry

A lot of people don’t realize how huge the food industry is. It is really, really, big business! The food industry wants your money and they hire people to make their food as highly addictive as possible. They’ve done very well. This practice is nothing new. We all know Coca-Cola used to put cocaine in their drink.

Then they advertise it very well. I heard once that if the food needs to be advertised then it’s not good for you. It sounds pretty accurate. So we have foods that are extremely addictive and are constantly advertised to us as being amazing. Then almost all restaurants offer genetically modified grains in the form of some kind of bread. Do you blame people for being fat?

The biggest addictions are sugar, salt, fat, flour, highly processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and almost all packaged foods have some form of these addictions. If you don’t understand what the word is, it’s likely one of the above in some hyper-addictive form or a toxin used to preserve the food to make it taste better.

Part of what makes these foods so addictive is their high glycemic index. When you eat high glycemic foods you get a sugar rush. It’s drug like and your mind relates to whatever you just ate as energy. When you start to lack energy you’ll need your fix. When sugar was compared to cocaine they found it lights up the pleasure centres of the brain 4 times as much as cocaine. Sugar isn’t the most addictive culprit. Flour is even worse with a higher glycemic index. On a side note, a rule of thumb is, if it can last forever on your shelf it’s not good.

Visceral Adipose Tissue

We need to talk about visceral adipose tissue (VAT). This is the fat stored around the belly area. It is a super fat. A hungry fat. A dangerous fat. When you eat high glycemic foods the energy goes into the VAT and then you’re hungry again. You eat more creating more VAT. It is a cycle that continues once you’re on it. It’s a very slippery slope.

Maltodextrin is a glucose attached to another glucose attached to another in a long chain of simple sugars. Maltose is two simple sugars attached to each other. The list of ingredients that is worse than table sugar is long and widely used in almost every package of food made. High fructose corn syrup is one of these that is sometimes disguised as “natural flavours” or just fructose.

I’m going to part with a secret I have kept my whole life. Please, no need to spread this around. I can’t stand watching a fat person eat sugar filled foods. It’s a lot like watching an alcoholic reaching for the bottle with a shaky hand. It’s really hard to watch and I want to help these people. “Food is meant to be enjoyed.” Agreed. To a point.

So how do you kick these incredibly overwhelming addictions? If you’re an emotional eater it is going to be very difficult to quit your addictions, especially during hard times. My best suggestion is to take it seriously like any other addiction and see an addictions counsellor. One resource I found is Jon Gabriel with The Gabriel Method. He is a good man that dealt with his emotional eating and now teaches others how to do it.

The first method I try is to get my clients to follow the 10 day detox by Dr. Mark Hyman. Pick a time when you’re ready and drop the bad stuff all at once, cold turkey. It resets your system and the cravings go away within just days. The hard part is figuring out how to eat properly and finding good food that you like and learning how to prepare it so it tastes good. I see great results and lots of weight loss. It’s an amazing place to start. No gimmicks, just healthy eating habits.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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10 Reasons Why Bread Is Bad For You

Posted on June 20, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

20
Jun

What The Baker Doesn’t Want You To Know!

By Travis Wade

1. Bromide- binds to thyroid hormone carrier. This prevents T4 from being converted into the active T3 thyroid hormone. Thyroid hormone is a big part of what depicts your metabolism. Less T3 means a slower metabolism.

2. Sugar- is one of the products used by the food industry to make food as addictive as possible. When tested against cocaine, sugar lights up the pleasure centres in the brain four times as much. The fast absorption makes sugar drug like and gives a person a quick high, then a crash. The end result is fat gain and left feeling tired and wanting more.

3. Flour- is refined to be higher glycemic index than sugar. It mixes with enzymes in your mouth and turns to glucose right away. This makes flour a great fat gainer. It doesn’t have much nutrient content; anything that will last forever on your shelf is not good. It is more fattening and possibly more addictive than sugar due to its quicker absorption rate. The average american eats 152 pounds of sugar and 146 pounds of flour a year. This sugar and flour combination is the vast leader causing alzheimer’s. A famous book written on the subject is Grain Brain and a famous movie that is a documentary is Bread Head. Click on the link for a trailer.

4. Yeast- like bacteria of the body you have good bacteria that you want to grow and the bad bacteria to die. Same goes with yeast and unfortunately the bad kind of yeast is in bread.

5. Gluten– is the protein in bread that makes it stick together and is one of the highest allergens in our food supply. It breaks down the lining of the gut and gets absorbed into the blood. It’s a big molecule that the body doesn’t recognize and your body forms antigens against it. These antigens can’t tell the difference between the protein in your thyroid and the gluten. Your thyroid gets attacked by the same antigens attacking the gluten. This is the main cause of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Once again, your thyroid depicts your metabolism.

6. The number one thing you’re trying to do with food is get the nutrients your body needs. Bread is very high glycemic and very high calorie with very little other nutrient. It’s a quick fat gainer and takes up room where you could be putting much healthier foods that your body desperately needs.

7. Glyphosate– Monsanto has gotten to be my biggest nightmare. Their glyphosate is sprayed on grain crops 3 days before they are harvested for quick ripening. Of course it gets in the food. It is a really good chelator and binds to minerals to clean them off stuff. It binds to minerals in our body and depletes our body of minerals. It causes massive amounts of cancer in animal studies. There have been no human studies, (no volunteers). It’s known to mutate human cells leading to cancer. Wherever glyphosate gets sprayed at the time it gets sprayed cancer and other diseases have increased significantly. We are now officially allowed to call it a carcinogen. One of the side effects isn’t just the massive increase in diseases but significant weight gain as well.

8. GMOs– Some grains are GMO which means they are genetically modified to be highly toxic to keep bugs and pathogens and birds away. Natural toxins are increased and others are added. All these toxins massively increase inflamation and disease.

9. Toxins– It is common to find over twenty different toxins in bread. Toxins like bleach, high fructose corn syrup, mycotoxins, and bacterial toxins.

10. Phytic acid and wheat fibre. They deplete your body of nutrients. Phytic acid decreases your body’s ability to absorb minerals like zinc, calcium, and iron. The wheat fibre depleats your body from vitamin D which is the highest nutrient deficoency in North America.

I hope you liked the article. If you did, share it with friends. These are the types of issues I deal with daily with my clients in order to accomplish their fitness goals. I believe in a coach like approach and I help guide my clients to do the things they deem relevant for them and they are seeing really great results. For me the reward is the happiness it creates and seeing the new found confidence in people.

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What Vegans Know That You Don’t

Posted on June 6, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

06
Jun

What Vegans Know That You Don’t

These are the secrets vegans are keeping!

By Travis Wade

Oxidative Stress

Oxidants are highly unstable compounds because they are missing an electron. They steal an electron from their neighbor, but now the neighbor needs an electron, so it steals one from its neighbor, and so on. When this happens in the body, it is called oxidative stress and it’s very damaging to our cells if it’s not stopped.

How do we get the oxidants in the first place?

Free radicals or oxidants can be caused from processes in the body like metabolism, exercise, phagocytosis, and inflammation. External causes of free radicals are toxins, radiation like the sun, and medications or drugs. I looked on the internet to see if I could find a table that shows the oxidative stress of foods, but there is no such table. One thing people should know is carbohydrate metabolism causes exponentially more oxidative stress than fat metabolism.

We need a balance between antioxidants and prooxidants. However, if you look at the list of things that cause free radicals it’s easy to see we have enough prooxidants. All the toxins we are exposed to make it vital to get as many antioxidants as we can.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are a molecule that have an electron to give without becoming unstable itself or it can steal an electron from its neighboring antioxidant buddy.

The compounds in fruits and vegetables giving them all their colors are called polyphenols and flavonoids. They are very potent compounds and thousands of them are found in plants. They are only found in plants; nowhere else. They serve as a defense for the plant against the oxidation of the sun. The reason plants don’t get sunburned is because they have these flavonoids, and carotenoids to some degree, that protect them from the oxidization of the sun. They are very potent antioxidants.

They have the same function in us. They lower inflammation very dramatically, they quench the carcinogens directly halting cancer growth, they improve our immune system, they affect our stress response system making us more likely to be calm, and they support detoxification. They do it in a way no other compound can.

Your cruciferous vegetables are high fibre, low calorie, and high nutrient making them essential daily. Check out World’s Healthiest Foods to see the nutrient content of these superfoods! All the nutrients and antioxidants may be the reason fruits and vegetables may be the cure for cancer. Any diet that staves off cancer has to be good for you! Check out Chris’ story here.

The Problem Vegans Encounter

Iron, zinc, coenzyme q10, collagen, protein or certain amino acids, omega 3 fats, and Vitamin B12 are very difficult for vegans to get from their diet. These nutrients are essential. Check out the links on these nutrients to find out more about how they are beneficial. I can’t explain all that here or this article will get really long!

Juicing Recipe

Because I don’t like vegetables, I juice them daily. One of the key ingredients Chris used to cure his cancer is carrots. And by the way, he used his method because he read God’s Way to Ultimate Health by Rev. George Malkmus with Michael Dye; he is not the only one who was successful curing their cancer with raw vegetables. There has been many. One thing I may add is, some doctors will use vitamin C intravenously to help with cancer treatment.

This is what I juice daily.

Ingredients:

1 bunch of spinach
2-3 carrots
1/2-inch knob of ginger
4 celery stocks
5 leaves of cabbage

Directions: Juice ingredients together and drink.

These are a great combination of vegetables for antioxidant and nutrient benefits. Spinach is on the Dirty Dozen list on ewg.org which is a great resource for toxic rating of all kinds of products. If you can get organic, it’s preferred, but if not make sure you wash your spinach really well. Celery is also on the Dirty Dozen list so the same goes. You can usually get organic spinach, carrots, ginger, and celery at Superstore. Cabbage is on the Clean Fifteen list.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Morning Mojo

Posted on May 30, 2016June 28, 2024 by Travis Wade

30
May

Morning Mojo

By Travis Wade

I just wanted to share one of the recipes from the 28 Day Challenge. It’s called Morning Mojo and one of the important things it does is it helps increase stomach acids. A lot of us suffer from low stomach acid and that can mimic high stomach acid. If you go to a conventional doctor you may get treated for high stomach acid making the situation worse. All you really need is Morning Mojo or Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar in water.

The reason stomach acids are so important is because they help us absorb nutrients from our food. One of the substances that causes low stomach acid is antibiotics. With each course of antibiotics, you will produce less and less stomach acids causing you to have trouble with absorption of nutrients.

Got anemia? Lack of iron? Here’s all the things you have going against you. Possible low stomach acids from too much antibiotics. Low nutrient in the soil because farmers use chemical fertilizers which causes lack of nutrients in our food. Heavy metal toxins block absorption in the gut. GMO foods prevent absorption in the gut and binding to nutrients in our bodies depleting them further. Bread.

Grains get sprayed with glyphosate (the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup), 3 days before the crop is harvested. It ripens (kills), the crop and kills the weeds for the next season. Glyphosate is patented as an antibiotic and one of the widest chelators known to man. It is used to clean minerals off things. It binds to minerals in our body and depletes our minerals. Let’s stay away from grains and up our stomach acids for better nutrient absorption. Here’s the Morning Mojo recipe.

Morning Mojo: Lemon Ginger Detox

Ingredients:

12 oz. glass water (at room temperature)

½ lemon

Either: ½ inch knob ginger root OR pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions: Add the lemon juice to the glass of water.

If ginger: finely grate the ginger using a zester, and add the zest to the glass of water.

If cayenne pepper: add a pinch of cayenne to your water. Perfect way to start your day!

If you have a good blender, get organic lemons and blend all the ingredients including the lemon peel. The peel has the essential oil in it, and it’s very beneficial.

This is just one of the recipes found in the 28 Day Challenge. Everything is in place for a reason and has it’s health benefits. The side effect happens to be weight loss for people looking to lose weight. It also teaches good habits. I hope you like the recipe and if you are interested in trying the 28 Day Challenge, click the link and sign up!

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Body Building, Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness, strength

Is Your Vitamin Supplement Doing More Harm Than Good?

Posted on May 24, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

24
May

Are Your Supplements Doing More Harm Than Good?

By Travis Wade

The Truth About Your Supplements

Sayer Ji is an expert in vitamin and mineral supplements. It was his first love in the wellness industry and he is now well known in the wellness industry as the guy who puts it all together. At first I didn’t like this guy because he has no credentials, so I thought “Why is this guy speaking?” He’s now one of my favourite speakers to listen to because he knows his stuff better than anybody. He has the world’s largest evidence based natural health resource. Check him out here www.greenmedinfo.com

Multivitamins

According to Sayer Ji, Centrum and Flintstones multivitamins have known toxins in them and do more harm than good. Sodium selenite, for example, is a toxin commonly found in a multivitamin. Centrum is the number one most common brand of multivitamin recommended by doctors. Flintstones multivitamin is the leading children’s multivitamin. Bauer and Pfizer are the pharmaceutical companies making these multivitamins.

In their ad, Flintstones vitamins say that 82% of children don’t eat enough vegetables and if they are not eating enough vegetables they may not be getting the nutrients they need. So you would think that taking a cheap Walmart multivitamin is better than taking no vitamins at all.

Some of the ingredients in Flintstones vitamins are aspartame, cupric oxide which is known as a pesticide, artificial colouring agents that have been banned in the European Union because of known problems with neurotoxicity and attention deficit disorder, zinc oxide which is used in sunscreen and isn’t very bioavailable, sorbitol, hydrogenated fat, and GMO corn syrup. All of the above are found in Flintstone’s vitamins.

The Top 10 Most Common Nutrient Deficiencies

The number one nutrient deficiency over all is vitamin D which is why I wrote an article on it. You can’t get enough sun my friends. People around the equator are getting 40,000 units of vitamin D a day. Get out in the sun and take your clothes off. Wear shorts. Not only will you get Vitamin D, but you will get infrared rays which detoxify heavy metals better than anything. The difference between D2 and D3 is D2 comes from plants and D3 comes from animals. The D3 is 87% more effective and converts to its active form 500% faster. Other sources of vitamin D are fish, beef liver, and bone broth.

The second most common nutrient deficiency is omega 3’s. I was just talking to a masters student and she was reminding me that through evolution, human brains grew massively after we starting eating fish with omega 3s. Our brains are made from omega 3s. It is true brain food but it is also the third leading legal performance enhancer. We die without omega 3s. If you want more info on omega 3’s; read my article on omega 3’s here. Common sources are the SMASH diet: sardines, mackerel, anchovies, salmon, and herring. I’d like to add a few more of my favourites: cod, oysters, and bone broth.

The third most common nutrient deficiency is vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 makes sure calcium is being used where it needs to be used. I’ve seen people with kidney stones; it’s a medical emergency due to the extreme pain. Take your vitamin K2. Vitamin K2 also prevents calcium from building up in your vasculature preventing heart attacks, deep vein thrombosis, strokes, and other blood clotting disorders. It prevents cancer and builds strong bones. Menaquinone-7 (MK-7), is the kind of vitamin K2 you want to look for in supplements as this form is extracted from real food. The foods that have vitamin K2 are fermented foods like sauerkraut, kimchi, and grass fed butter.

#4 is magnesium found in spinach, Swiss chard, beet greens, bananas, bone broth, and pumpkin seeds. I’ll get into this one in detail later.

#5 is vitamin B12 found in grass fed beef and beef liver, lamb, snapper, venison, salmon, shrimp, scallops, organic-pastured poultry, eggs, and bone broth. Vitamin B12 is involved in every process of the body and deficiencies will commonly result in lethargy, brain fog, and possibly numbness of the extremities. A lot of people will have a bacteria in their gut that steals vitamin B12 and taking an oral supplement will feed this bacteria and grow it. I take an injectable form of vitamin B12.

#6 is vitamin E found in hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, olive oil, legumes, spinach, broccoli, and bone broth. If you take a supplement, natural vitamin E is always listed as the “d-” form (d-alpha-tocopherol, d-beta-tocopherol, etc.) synthetic vitamin E is listed as “dl-” forms. You want the natural forms to get the benefits.

#7 is vitamin A. Retinol is pre-formed vitamin A, found in animal products such as grass-fed meat and poultry, liver, fish, grass fed butter, and bone broth. This is the form of vitamin A your body can actually use. Beta-carotene is pre-vitamin A. You need to have a well-functioning digestive tract and sufficient bile produced by your gallbladder for the conversion into retinol. My favourite supplement for vitamin A is fermented cod liver oil. It also has vitamin D, a probiotic, Omega 3s, and vitamin K2.

#8 is iodine found in sea vegetables, eggs, spirulina, and bone broth if you use fish bones. Iodine is really important for your metabolism. Having iodized salt can help.

#9 is calcium found in leafy green vegetables and bone broth. If you want a pill form, calcium from eggshells is a great supplement.

#10 is iron found in grass fed meats, oysters, lentils, sesame seeds, spinach, and bone broth. A great resource I use to look at nutrient content of food is World’s Healthiest Foods. They used to have a website but it appears to be offline now.

Dr. Mercola and Bulletproof are where I get a lot of my supplements and health products. Things you should look for are, chelated minerals for good absorption. They are attached to an amino acid. Glycine is the amino acid commonly used to bind to a mineral for a healthy supplement.

Some forms will give you problems and if it does then you obviously have to try a different form. Oxides for any supplement tend to have a low bioavailability. Bioavailability is the ability of the body to absorb and use a substance. Citrates tend to cause toilet destruction. Not a great form either.

Get Your Nutrients From Food

In reality, I do my best to get all nutrients from food because it will be much more bioavailable and beneficial. Most food will have much more than the specific nutrient you are looking for and a lot of times those other nutrients will help the nutrient you are looking to absorb. When the nutrient isn’t possible to get with food is when I look for supplements.

I personally use creatine because I will not eat the amount of meat required to get what I need from meat. I use a collagen peptide supplement, glycine, melatonin, a couple different kinds of magnesium, L-glutamine, vitamin D, and a few others as I see needed.

Dr. Longo recommends a multivitamin every 3 days instead of every day. Dr. Longo did 30 years of research to come up with what he calls the longevity diet. It’s a great book that explains fasting as well.

I avoid some supplements altogether like omega 3 supplements. Omega 3s are poly-unsaturated meaning there are lots of double bonds with hydrogens “missing” all over it. Poly-unsaturated fats will get oxidized easily, meaning they go rancid very quickly. What you will likely be taking if you take an omega 3 pill is rotten fish oil. Rancid fish oil is a toxin that causes all the problems you are trying to cure by taking omega 3s in the first place. Please read my article on omega 3s.

Magnesium

Magnesium is the number one leading mineral deficiency in our society. It’s not in the soil anymore and the toxins in the environment deplete our minerals. When I say environment I mean the air, water, things we eat, things we touch, and our inner environment in our bodies.

Things like heavy metals such as mercury or phthalates and other things like glyphosate bind to our minerals and deplete them even more. All kinds of things deplete our magnesium including stress. Magnesium is the first thing to be released from our cells when we are stressed. Not just mental stress but physical stress too.

Jane Goodall (famous anthropologist), has talked about the decline of nutrients in the soil and how the soil has dozens of nutrients, but we use 3 nutrients to fertilize our soil; nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. The lack of nutrient in the soil is the number one reason why magnesium is the most deficient mineral in our society.

I’m just saying you may need to take a magnesium supplement. It’s needed for over 300 processes in the body. It’s recommended by Wendy Myers, to take a variety of magnesium supplements. Meaning take magnesium that is bonded to various substances. Stay away from oxide. When bonded to oxide, magnesium has a 3-4% absorption rate. Citrates are also terrible for absorption but they are great for destroying toilets; be careful with them.

Wendy Myers recommends magnesium glycinate which raises red blood cell magnesium, magnesium malate which helps with detoxification, and magnesium threonate is the only magnesium that can cross the blood brain barrier. As we get older we become more deficient of magnesium in the brain. It helps memory and cognition and in the mitochondria it helps make energy. You need about 5x your body weight (lbs), in milligrams for dosage.

Mineral Deficiencies

Everyone Wendy Myers (detoxification expert), has tested has been mineral deficient. The good news for me is that meat is very rich in minerals. Lamb and bacon are high in selenium. Unless you’re actively doing something about it, you’ll likely be deficient in selenium. If you don’t like bacon then fish, beef, turkey, chicken, and eggs are other great sources.

Selenium also detoxes the body from mercury which we all tend to have. Selenium needs to be taken in the form of se-methylselenocysteine. Or bacon. I stay away from Brazil nuts because they can have a mold toxin that is a very powerful neurotoxin called aflatoxin.

Chromium is another very common deficiency along with sodium and potassium. Sodium isn’t the big enemy we thought it was. The ratio of sodium to potassium is much more important and according to Dr. Joseph Mercola we should be taking 5x as much potassium as sodium. Thallium is a heavy metal found in gasoline that blocks our usage of potassium which prevents us from producing hormones. We all breath in massive amounts of thallium if you live in an urban area.

Trace mineral supplements can have heavy metals bonded to them. Wendy advises against taking them unless you are working with a qualified practitioner doing a toxic metal detox. For more help with minerals and your heavy metal detoxification you can go to www.liveto110.com

I know doctors and our health care system have their place, but so does proper diet and exercise. A lot of the things I talk about are cutting edge topics in the health industry and some stuff you probably never heard of before, so I encourage you to do your own research. A couple of resources you can and should use are google scholar, National Library of Medicine, and pubmed. Pubmed is a government agency that shows you the research that has been done. You can look all this stuff up yourself and make your own decisions on what’s right.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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How To Increase Brain Function

Posted on May 16, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

16
May

How To Increase Brain Function

By Travis Wade

Neural plasticity is the regeneration of new brain cells. You thought that was impossible? No, it’s possible. I’ll tell you how but first I have to explain a little bit about proprioception. Proprioception is the innate ability to know where your body is in space. There are a lot of proprioceptors on the feet which allows us to balance. More proprioception firing causes increased neural plasticity, brain function, and heightens all of our senses.

Inversely, inflammation in the body causes stiffness of the muscles and joints which decreases proprioception firings. Less proprioception firing decreases brain function. A good anti-inflammatory diet and learning proper mobilizers will help with stiffness. Come see me or send me a message for more help with the diet and exercise details.

Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Exercise

Neural plasticity requires Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor or BDNF. Intermittent fasting is still fairly new but has been around long enough for some studies that show it increases BDNF by up to 400%. Intermittent fasting just means narrowing your eating window down. For most people this would be skipping breakfast and not eating for three hours before bed. There are methods to the madness on intermittent fasting and healthy ways to do it. For details on intermittent fasting done right, contact me.

BDNF has massive protective factors on your neuromuscular junctions. Neuromuscular junctions are where the nerve stimulates the muscle. When people age part of the reason why people lose their strength is because of the breakdown of the neuromuscular junctions. BDNF is great to help prevent that.

In the Journal of Neurology, they state that physical exercise decreases age related brain shrinkage, increases cognition, and promotes neural plasticity. I’m sure we are all shocked with these findings, right? It does this in so many ways but a couple are increasing proprioceptive firing, increasing BDNF, and increasing blood flow.

Exercise also decreases the amount of stiffness for more proprioceptive firing. I’m sure you’ve noticed the more we move the more we feel alert. Exercise also increases myogenic regulatory factors which protect nerves.

Incidentally, leg strength is the biggest determining factor in brain function, (and your vertical BTW). Ya nerds still hate squats? Make sure you use proper form or you’ll wreck your body. Book a consultation with me. Correcting form is very individualized and needs in person attention but you can check out my video here for a quick overview on squats.

High Intensity Interval Training

High Intensity Interval Training or HIIT training is the best cardio exercise you can do to stimulate BDNF amongst other benefits. If you don’t know how to do this, book a consultation with me. It should be done once a week for massive cardio improvements and brain health. There are many different kinds of HIIT training and can also be individualized for your needs.

A Healthy Diet

A healthy diet is crucial to brain function and most of us have heard about the benefits of vegetables, however… according to the Open Heart Journal, healthy fats are crucial for brain function. Don’t skip your Omega 3’s.

I’m pretty sure most people are on to the fact that healthy fats are good for you in so many ways. There are hundreds of books written on this now and I’ve seen a few that have an avocado on the cover. Doctors are still recommending a plant based diet but a high fat plant based diet. I recommend an avocado a day and a handful of healthy nuts, grass fed butter, and coconut oil.

Neurotropic Factor

Anything that is a neurotropic factor is something that increases neural plasticity or brain cell production. BDNF is the most powerful neurotropic factor we have discovered but others exist. Coffee berry extract has shown to increase BDNF by 143%. I still don’t know where to get coffee berry or coffee cherry extract, (not to be confused with coffee bean extract). A couple other neurotropic factors are mushrooms and Dave Asprey’s Brain Octane Oil.

Mercury

Now for the grim truth we don’t want to think about. Some very smart people did a study at the university of Calgary to show the effect of small amounts of mercury on neurons. You have to see this unbelievable video. Detoxify your mercury.

We are all exposed to mercury. It’s in the air, tap water, and our food. The solution? Stop breathing, drinking, and eating. Or detoxify your mercury. Get as much sunlight as you can preferably in the morning. It has infrared light which is a great detoxifier. Selenium and zinc are also mercury detoxifiers.

The culprits: Tuna, sushi, coal burning, amalgam fillings, vaccines, occupational exposures, florescent light bulbs, thermostats, batteries, red tattoo dye, skin lightening creams, over the counter products such as contact lens fluid, neosynephrine and more. Reduce your exposure as much as possible.

If you are like me, you’ll have to get your fillings removed. The main way humans are exposed is contaminated fish and amalgam fillings. See a biological dentist about getting the fillings removed. A conventional dentist can do more harm than good by drilling out old fillings without proper precautions or protection.

Amalgam fillings might seem petty but it’s estimated that you get 3-17 ppm of mercury from them daily. They get approved as being safe but when they are removed they are considered toxic waste and are illegal to throw in the garbage. It’s ok to put them in your mouth but it’s not ok to put them in the garbage. You have to see this unbelievable video.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton.

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Fitness Nutrition, Health and Wellness, Weight Loss

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis – Got A Slow Metabolism?

Posted on April 4, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

04
Apr

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis – Got A Slow Metabolism?

60% of people that have this don’t know it!

By Travis Wade

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Signs and Symptoms

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is the most common thyroid problem and it’s very commonly undiagnosed. As your personal trainer, why is that important to me? Your thyroid is the primary regulator of your metabolism. Hashimoto’s causes less production of thyroid hormone with transient bursts of way too much. The hypothyroid (not enough thyroid hormone), slows your metabolism causing weight gain and the transient surge of hyperthyroid (too much thyroid hormone), causes the anxiety symptoms.

Here’s some of the functions of the thyroid. It regulates:

Breathing

Heart rate

Central and peripheral nervous systems

Body weight

Muscle strength

Menstrual cycles

Body temperature

Cholesterol levels

Symptoms of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

Looking at the above functions may make it easier to understand some of the symptoms of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Fatigue is the most common symptom followed by weight gain or inability to lose weight. Some other common symptoms are anxiety, palpitations, hair loss (eye brows), feeling colder than others around you, gut issues, IBS, brain fog, and memory loss. I’m afraid it’s much more common in women.

If you have any of these symptoms, then maybe you have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. Here’s the cause, what to do about it, and how to test for it. Again, we have to talk about the microbiome and Leaky Gut Syndrome.

Autoimmune Disease

Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease. Autoimmune diseases are relatively new. The cause of most autoimmune diseases is Leaky Gut Syndrome which is also relatively new. Some of the causes of Leaky Gut Syndrome are GMOs, pesticides, plastic, pollution, preservatives and all the other toxins in our food which are relatively new as well. For the full list of culprits see my article on Leaky Gut Syndrome.

An autoimmune disease is when your body attacks itself. What happens is large molecules aren’t supposed to leak through the gut. Small molecules like amino acids, vitamins and minerals are supposed to leak through, your body absorbs these nutrients and uses them.

Peptides and proteins are big molecules that aren’t supposed to leak through but if your gut gets broken down or damaged these big molecules will leak through. That’s called Leaky Gut Syndrome.

At this point these large molecules get in the blood and your body doesn’t recognize them so you will produce antigens against them. These antigens don’t know the difference between the proteins that aren’t supposed to be in the blood and the proteins of your body. The result is the antigens will attack your own body. If there is enough of the antigens, this is an auto-immune disease.

In Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis the big protein that leaks through is gluten and when your body produces antigens against gluten those antigens don’t know the difference between the gluten and the proteins in your thyroid so the antigens will also attack your thyroid.

You might be producing antibodies attacking your thyroid for up to 10 years before any symptoms kick in. When your body produces antibodies against your thyroid, it can cause fibrosis (scar tissue), which can be painful and cause the thyroid to swell up. In this process you will eventually produce less and less thyroid hormone.

The test for Hashimoto’s is to test your blood for the antigens against your thyroid. Conventional testing tests for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), or T4 and T3 in some cases. However, the T3 and T4 will likely be normal as well in Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis. That partially has to do with the adrenal glands. If you have chronic stress you will produce a substance called reverse T3. Reverse T3 attaches to the receptor sites of T3, but reverse T3 doesn’t activate the receptors for T3.

The Symphony of Hormones

Another problem with being constantly over stressed is you will burn out your adrenal glands causing Addison’s disease. A less severe condition is called adrenal fatigue, which conventional doctors say doesn’t exist, but you can get a saliva test done with a functional medicine doctor. In Addison’s or adrenal fatigue you won’t be producing enough cortisol or DHEA. The symptoms are the same as hypothyroidism.

Cortisol is an amazing anti-inflammatory. With not enough of this anti-inflammatory there will obviously be more inflammation in the body which causes all kinds of problems; one being Leaky Gut Syndrome and another being weight gain.

There is a symphony of hormones in your body. To treat the thyroid without looking at the adrenals may cause more problems. Dr. Axe actually categorizes Leaky Gut Syndrome. “Stress Gut” is when you have certain stress issues due to leaky gut. One of those problems could be thyroid problems. He talked about cortisol levels, and again, there is a balance going on; the more cortisol, the less thyroid hormone being produced.

There are different levels of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis starting with non-symptomatic progressing to full hypothyroidism and other autoimmune diseases present. Again, this is another disease caused by a crappy diet and all the toxins in our food/environment which can be helped with a proper diet and exercise plan.

How To Fix Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis

Proper Nutrition

The first thing you want to do to fix an unhealthy thyroid is to eliminate the toxins and get the nutrition your body needs. This alone can turn symptoms around. I recommend the 10 Day Detox Diet Cookbook by Dr. Mark Hyman. It’s a great resource and it is where I try to get all my clients to start because it teaches proper eating habits and what proper nutrition really looks like as opposed to what you’ve probably been taught by popular media.

Leaky Gut Syndrome

The next step is to fix your leaky gut. I am talking about the GAPS diet. It starts with soup for breakfast soup for lunch, soup for dinner, and soup in-between. Lucky for us there is no end to the variety of soups that can be made. You start by boiling bones and organ meats for a day. The bones and meat goes into the pot and just enough water to cover the meat and bones. Simmer that for at least 12 hours minimum. Separate the bones and other undesirables out of the pot, then add what you want.

Having said that, squashes are a great food for the spleen which is the immune system organ and in many cases helps with the problems that cause Leaky Gut Syndrome. Garlic boosts the immune system, ginger does as well, turmeric is really great for the leaky gut as well. Salt, pepper. Mmmm. Sea salt or Himalayan of course.

If you have a thyroid problem you might have a lack of iodine; or too much. T3 (active thyroid hormone), triiodothyronine has 3 iodine molecules, T4 is tetraiodothyronine, which has 4 iodine molecules. Some of the other nutrients that are necessary for a healthy thyroid are Vitamin D and B12, selenium, and iron. You need to be tested for everything. If you have too much of something, it can be just as detrimental in some cases as having not enough. Do you need iodized salt or is it killing you? Talk to your doctor and get a full blood panel done.

Then there is the absorption of nutrients. Do you have low stomach acid? Having low stomach acid can mimic high stomach acid and is sometimes treated as high stomach acid and this happens very regularly.

A side note: Iatrogenic damage [damage caused by medical practises], may be the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Our neighbours that pay for doctors who might want to do a good job for more business… our doctors are free… Just so you know this happens and I’ll stop there… for now. Of course that exasperates the issue.

Low stomach acid and dysbiosis (improper balance of bacteria in the gut), prevents proper absorption of a lot of nutrients creating a lack of nutrients no matter how much nutrients you eat. With dysbiosis you might have pathogens using up iron causing the iron deficiency. Low stomach acid prevents iron from being absorbed. A fix for the low stomach acid is lemon water or apple cider vinegar water to produce more stomach acid. A doctor can put you on medications for better absorption as well.

The Microbiome

The last part of fixing Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is fixing your microbiome (the bacteria in the gut), which is an art. A conventional doctor will likely not help you with this. Conventional medicine can help you with some of the above tasks, but our free health care will not cover a lot of needs. You have to learn to take care of yourself these days. True Balance will test your microbiome to see what you have in your gut and they are extremely thorough.

SIBO is small intestine bacterial overgrowth. 50% of hypothyroid patients have SIBO which is one of the causes of leaky gut syndrome. Remove the source. This might be a herbal protocol, antibiotics, or elemental diet.

It’s a different day and age in medicine my friends. You need to do research on your own and let your doctor know what you want. I know people that are dying, and you probably do too, because you have to take responsibility for your health these days instead of asking a doctor or anyone else to take care of you.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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Soup and The Benefits of the GAPS Diet

Posted on March 21, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

21
Mar

Soup and The Benefits of the GAPS Diet

Learn the secrets of GAPS, Microbiome Balance, Good Bacteria, and Benefits of Eating Soup!

By Travis Wade

What is the Microbiome?

As kids, we learned the downside of bacteria; that they’re bad and we must wash our hands, as well as disinfect them, to protect ourselves from getting sick.

However, that’s simply not the truth.

In reality, bacteria are your greatest allies against disease and illness. Your microbiome, bacteria that flourish inside you, controls virtually every aspect of your physiology. Learning how to nourish it to avoid health problems and perform at our optimum is crucial.

Good Bacteria Keeps You Healthy

Your body contains 10x more bacteria cells than human body cells. In fact, according to Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, you’re alive because of good bacteria and every chronic disease is caused by not taking care of your microbiome. Dr. Natasha has an autistic son and she learned how to help him by managing the bacteria inside his body.

Dr. Natasha is a neuroscientist from Russia who realized her practice wasn’t going to cure her child. She noticed the abundance of gastrointestinal problems that people with autism, and other neurological conditions, have and knew there had to be a connection.

She began studying the microbiome in the early 90’s and says that knowledge of it is only deemed new in North America. It’s important to know, each of us is ten percent human body cells and ninety percent different species of bacteria, fungi, worms, protozoa, and a variety of organisms.

Common Causes of Microbiome Imbalance

Among the things that cause problems for the microbiome are the usual suspects: medication, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like Tylenol, Advil, and Motrin), processed foods, preservatives and flavourings, mercury, pesticides, BPA from plastics, soy, grains, seeds, dairy, GMO foods, and sugar.

The most frequent cause of dysbiosis (the imbalance between good and bad bacteria) is antibiotics. After a course of antibiotics, it takes two weeks for beneficial bacteria to recover. During which, bad bacteria have a window of opportunity to flourish because there are too few good bacteria and more unaddressed pathogens. Bad bacteria create toxins which enter the bloodstream and cause a number of symptoms depending on the toxin, which, in turn, depends on the pathogen creating the toxin. Plus, sadly, wherever a toxin flows, dis-ease (and eventually disease) are sure to follow.

Your Gut Flora Produces Vitamins

Your gut flora creates vitamins, B vitamins in particular and vitamin K2, which helps with mineral absorption, especially calcium. Without K2, calcium is deposited in places you don’t want, like your veins and brain. Misdirected calcium can also cause bile stones and kidney stones. And get this. the only two sources for vitamin K2 is your gut flora or a supplement. Traditionally, vitamin K2 gets produced from fermented foods including cheese, yogurt, and sauerkraut.

Leaky Gut Syndrome Causes Treacherous Inflammation

Another result of hazardous bacteria is Leaky Gut Syndrome: In short, as your gut lining becomes more permeable, your body will react to foods that leak through by causing inflammation. And even if you eliminate the offending food from your diet, the trouble won’t end; your body will react to additional “leaked” foods to inflame you. So, the solution is to both seal and heal the leaky gut.

The GAPS Diet

Dr. Natasha developed a concept called GAPS: Gut And Psychology Syndrome. Its main focus is the diet she prescribes, which has three parts to it. The GAPS diet heals and seals the gut lining, normalizes the microbiome, and stops the inflammation.

The first step in the GAPS diet is to eliminate inflammation and heal and seal the gut lining.

You’ll eat soup for breakfast, lunch, dinner and between meals. The soup’s broth derives from meat stock. As meat from an animal’s muscles is hardest to digest and least nutritious, the GAPS diet uses gelatinous meats. This includes joints, hooves, head, organs, bones, and tripe to make a soup stock.

The glucosamine, vitamins, and minerals in this concoction are natural, as opposed to getting them from a supplement. The main ingredient is collagen, as that’s what connective tissue is mostly up of. Sadly, this tissue, and the cuts of meat they come from, are hugely lacking in a North American diet.

Next. remove all foods that are hard to digest. Instead, eat foods that reinforce the wall of your gut. You need vegetables that are good for the immune system, including non-starchy leeks, onions, cabbage, carrots, marrow, and squash.

Cellulose is an indigestible fibre and starch is 70% indigestible. Beneficial and bad bacteria eat fibre, starch, and sugar so these three are forbidden until your gut is healed—anywhere from two months to years, depending on your baseline condition.

Your wellness scale changes all the time depending on your environment. After eliminating starches and sugars, listen keenly to what what your body’s telling you. Your re-calibrated food cravings, sense of smell, taste, and satisfaction levels will cue you to your actual nutritional needs.

For example, what are you driven to eat right now? After you eat it, your food preference will change, and you’ll want something different. The last food you ate will seem repulsive (“Enough is enough!”), but something else will sound delicious.

In the second stage of the GAPS diet, add more foods and supplements to your diet.

Common second-stage supplements include fish oils, vitamin K2, vitamin D, vitamin A, cod liver oil, amino acids, and a probiotic containing as many species of gut flora as possible.

However, some supplements that are beneficial to many can be detrimental to others, (Vitamin D3 and L-glutamine). Although L-glutamine might be the fix for some, in others it can cause depression or other problems.

In the third stage of the GAPS diet, work in hard-to-digest foods.

Dr. Natasha referred to the program as a dance: moving forward, taking a step back, moving forward some more, then maybe two steps back – all the while slowly moving forward until you can move forward without problems.

Some of the diseases Dr. Natasha’s diet has helped with are Alzheimer’s, autism, Parkinson’s, depression, all kinds of autoimmune diseases and allergies, fibromyalgia, MS, and diabetes. Dr. Natasha believes the microbiome is the root cause and cure of virtually all chronic diseases.

Dr. Natasha has personally trained people all over the world with the GAPS protocol, to help them become GAPS certified. There are five practitioners in Calgary, but none in Edmonton.

I contacted a GAPS practitioner in Calgary and have a freezer full of soup bones and animal parts. I eat soup regularly—and happily. It’s delicious!

If you want to know more about the benefits of the GAPS diet and the huge impact it can have on your health, contact me and I can help you out.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton

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The Benefits of Bulletproof Coffee

Posted on March 14, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

14
Mar

The Benefits Of Bulletproof Coffee

Discover the secrets behind Bulletproof Coffee!

By Travis Wade

If you haven’t heard of Bulletproof Coffee yet, it’s a coffee recipe founded by Dave Asprey in 2009 and was featured on some very popular talk shows in 2014, causing it to gain a lot of popularity. Today, Dave has a number of New York Times best selling books: “Game Changers”, “Head Strong”, and “The Bulletproof Diet”.

A lot of people have been butchering the original Bulletproof Coffee recipe not knowing why the exact ingredients are in place. Some people that have heard about Bulletproof Coffee have been putting butter and coconut oil in their coffee hoping to lose weight. I’ve seen an intermittent fasting specialist talk about putting coconut oil in your coffee and skipping breakfast to keep your body in fat burning mode. As long as you’re not adding carbohydrates to your body you will be in fat burning mode; this is the basis of a keto-diet.

About Dave Asprey

I’m going to tell you straight up, Dave is the real deal and his recipe sounds way too tempting not to try. In this article, I’m going to tell you the real recipe to Bulletproof Coffee and why the ingredients are exactly the way they are. If you want to try it yourself you can order some with this link.

First, I have to tell you a bit about Dave Asprey: Dave’s not a doctor, he’s just a very brilliant man that had medical issues and learned how to overcome them. However, he is married to a doctor. He is also known as the original “Biohacker”. He is the man that coined the phrase “biohacking”.

Dave’s arthritis started at 14 and he was 300 pounds by the time he was in 4th year university. He had fibromyalgia, asthma, chronic fatigue syndrome, and brain fog. Today, Dave weighs 200 lbs. at 6’4” and all of his other symptoms have been relieved. The remedy to Dave’s health problems is rooted in fixing his microbiome.

In time, Dave learned the importance of meditation and travelled to Tibet to improve his skills in this area. On a mountain in Tibet, Dave was given some yak butter tea in a bowl and it made him feel so awesome he had to recreate it. Dave learned why the yak butter tea worked so well then came up with his own recipe and wanted to share it with the world.

The Bulletproof Coffee Recipe

The first component of the coffee recipe is the beans, which Dave grows in Central and South America. The problem with even the best brands of coffee in North America is the mold toxins in them. The mold toxin, which is a metabolite of the mold called a mycotoxin, accumulates in the brain and affects the gut biome. In fact, these mycotoxins are so toxic they are limited in the parts per billion, (not parts per million) in other countries. As a result, Dave makes sure his coffee is toxin free with his processing, before lab testing it for 27 different toxins. (That was last count, maybe more now).

The mold toxins cause side effects like the jitters and a crash after the original caffeine high wears off, alongside food cravings. These mold toxins are banned in other countries in Europe and Asia, but are not regulated as much in North America. This means, coffee companies sell their toxin free coffee in other countries that have better toxin regulations. This doesn’t mean they throw out their toxic coffee – they sell it to us here in North America.

Furthermore, I have to mention that mycotoxins are also found in grains. People and cows eat the grains and breast milk/dairy products have mycotoxins. Also, antibiotics are a mycotoxin. Dave, myself, and a lot of medical professionals believe antibiotics are way overused and should only be used in emergency situations.

Grass-fed Butter

The second component of Dave’s recipe is the grass-fed butter. There’s 3 ingredients in the butter that are important and that’s why it’s necessary for it to be grass-fed. In fact, Dave stresses the importance of not cheaping-out on proper butter. The first ingredient is saturated fat, the preferred energy source of the brain and body and an anti-inflammatory.

The second ingredient is butyrate or butyric acid, named after butter because that’s where it’s most commonly found. Butyrate is used to help increase good gut flora. Lastly, the third ingredient is CLA, or conjugated linoleic acid, which is commonly used as a weight loss supplement.

Plus, the antioxidants in the coffee and the ketones from the fat are anti-inflammatories. All in all, this whole combination turns down the bad and turns up the good bacteria. In a nutshell, this is one of the greatest things you can do to improve your overall health, performance, fat loss, and disease prevention.

Brain Octane Oil

Finally, the last component of Dave’s Bulletproof Coffee is “Brain Octane Oil”, also known as C8 oil. There are 4 different medium chain triglycerides: C6, C8, C10, and C12, named for their length of their hydrocarbon tails. You’ll find all 4 MCTs in coconut oil, with C12 being the most abundant at 52% and C8 being the rarest at 5.5%. Dave’s C8 is triple-distilled in an oxygen free environment. Dave doesn’t give away all his secrets but he says if you get your C8 anywhere else you’ll get what he calls “disaster pants”. As you can imagine, it’s not good. That is all.

C8 and Weight Loss

C8 is the key ingredient for people who want to lose weight. This is because its metabolized and used by the body a lot more efficiently than other fats. C12 is a longer chained fat. C12 will go through the liver and is stored there as fat that can be used when necessary.

On the other hand, C8 metabolizes a lot like a sugar, as it easily breaks down into ketones for your brain and body to use immediately. With 2 tablespoons of C8 and the absence of any carbs, you will immediately go into full ketosis in about a half an hour.

When I first started taking C8 I didn’t drink coffee and I put it in my soup. I remember one morning when I actually felt it kick in. My brain just felt like I snapped out of a day dream and was ready for the day.

Plus, you’ll think better and clearer without the crash you normally get with coffee and you won’t get hungry. The C8 puts you into ketosis and you’ll stay there until you eat carbohydrates. Better still, the butter is another source of fat that staves off hunger. As a result, if you drink Bulletproof Coffee in the morning, by lunchtime you may or may not be hungry. Coffee just happens to be another appetite suppressant.

Perhaps best of all, Dave also learned how to manipulate the microbiome to lose weight. C8 is an anti-fungal and works together with the coffee to induce a healthier microbiome. Thin people have more bacteroidetes and less firmicutes while obese people have the opposite.

Scientists have conducted studies where they put bacteroidetes in obese people, causing them to lose weight. While, on the other hand, they put firmicutes into skinny mice, causing them to gain weight. In short, C8 decreases the firmicutes, and the antioxidants in the coffee feed the bacteroidetes, (these are the 2 main types of bacteria in the gut).If you’re interested, you can have your own levels tested at viome.com.

How to Become Bulletproof

In Dave’s New York Times best-selling book “The Bulletproof Diet”, he talks about foods you need to avoid to heal your body and to lose weight, as well as those you need to incorporate. Click here to view the Bulletproof DIet Road Map. Plus, if you want to try Dave’s Bulletproof Coffee, you can click here.

In next week’s newsletter, I will talk some more about the microbiome. I hope you liked this article and, if you did, then please forward it, like, and share. If you want more help with your health and fitness journey, contact me and I will help you.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton.

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The Hunger Hormones

Posted on February 22, 2016March 5, 2023 by Travis Wade

22
Feb

The Hunger Hormones

Beat your hunger hormones (ghrelin, leptin and CKK) with these secrets to prevent overeating!

By TRAVIS WADE

I’ve heard a lot lately how it’s not your fault that you’re fat but that hunger hormones (leptin, ghrelin and CKK) are getting the best of you. Now, I don’t want to enable addictions but if you’re going to blame somebody else – blame the food industry. Here’s why:

Ghrelin

Leptin, ghrelin and CKK (cholecystokinin) are 3 of the hormones which need to be manipulated in order to control weight. Ghrelin is the hunger hormone and was first discovered in 1996 and reported in 1999. Ghrelin increases exponentially until you eat, with the highest increase just before eating. It is primarily created in the stomach and stops releasing after the stomach gets stretched. For this reason, eating is the best way to bring down ghrelin levels. Proteins are the most effective macronutrients for reducing their secretion.

The easiest way to manipulate ghrelin for weight loss is by having a glass of water before each meal. The good news is, ghrelin is also the thirst hormone. You may have heard that if you feel hungry, you might just be thirsty. This is due to the effects of ghrelin in your body. That’s a little behind the scenes info on why water might help bring down your food cravings.

Now, if you’re going to drink a glass of water before a meal (which, I have to add, has shown to significantly decrease the amount eaten during a meal ), then you’re on the right track to curb those hunger hormones. However, why stop at that when there is much more you can do? Like eating some fibre too.

Fibre

Fibre is such an important and profound pre-meal weight loss macronutrient. Moreover, it has so many other benefits, such as aiding peristalsis movement and cleansing the colon, to name but a few. However, you need to eat it with at least one glass of water, as you certainly don’t want to find out what happens if you don’t.

Ok, I guess I should tell you: Fibre absorbs water and takes up space, thus stretching your stomach. Ultimately, this slows down ghrelin production. If you don’t increase your water intake with fibre intake, you will inevitably get constipated.

The benefits of fibre are too vast to explain here, but here’s a quick list: it absorbs calories, improves motility, increases good gut flora, makes you feel full, is anti-inflammatory, reduces chances of contracting diseases (especially those of the digestive tract) and helps cure what ails you. In short, this whole list contributes to health and weight loss.

Overall, there’s nothing bad to say about fibre except we don’t get enough in our diet. If you follow paleo, I have to mention cavemen in the paleolithic era had about 10 times the fibre most people get these days. Take the fibre! Dr. Mark Hyman recommends Glucomannan fibre from Konjac root a.k.a. PGX fibre. For more weight loss tips see my article on how to cheat a cheat meal.

Leptin

While Ghrelin is the least complicated out of the hunger hormones, Leptin is more difficult to conquer. Leptin was reported in 1994 and was the first discovered fat cell releasing hormone. Plus, the word leptin comes from the Greek word leptos, meaning thin.

Leptin is primarily created in fat cells and its main function is to tell the body not to eat more, due to sufficient fat storage. This means more fat cells equal more circulating leptin accordingly. Here, is where the food industry becomes the enemy…

Leptin Resistance

In the same way you can become insulin resistant (as seen in type 2 diabetes), you can also become leptin resistant. Incidentally, the two problems are often seen together due to a lot of the same causes. Leptin resistance is found in obese people. They exhibit high leptin levels but their bodily receptors aren’t functioning properly for signalling the body to stop eating. Unfortunately, this lets hunger hormones rampage unchecked, eventually wreaking havoc on both their diet and health.

The causes of leptin resistance and type 2 diabetes lies in a diet of highly palatable, high calorie foods. Fructose should be especially mentioned here, but more importantly, without the fibre from fruit. Fructose is an extremely sweet tasting sugar and that’s why the food industry uses it to increase the addictive properties of food. It gets modified along with other extra high glycemic sugars which are seen in most packaged foods. For example, these sugars include high fructose corn syrup, maltose, and maltodextrin.

How it Affects Health and Fitness

Sadly, other things that cause leptin resistance are the things that cause many epidemic diseases of today. I covered them in detail in my article on Leaky Gut Syndrome. However, another quick list is sugar and sweeteners, gluten, dairy, grains, prescription and nonprescription drugs, lectin, GMO foods, chlorine and fluoride, yeast, preservatives and flavorings, processed foods, mercury, pesticides, BPA from plastics, and infections. Now, I know that’s a big list but it should be obvious why obesity and diabetes is an epidemic in North America. Needless to say, the food industry is my enemy in my fight to contribute to a healthy, happy, and fit society.

The way to beat leptin resistance/diabetes/Leaky Gut Syndrome/depression and everything that ails you, is to cut back on the above mentioned causes as much as you can. In addition, adopt a balanced diet and consume vegetables, healthy fats, and meats/seafood along with proper exercise. I recommend the “10 Day Detox Diet Cookbook” by Dr. Mark Hyman for healthy eating.

Cholecystokinin (CCK)

Lastly, cholecystokinin or CCK is another hormone that makes you feel full, countering hunger hormones. CCK is released in the gut and brain when fats and certain amino acids from protein are present. CCK slows gastric emptying or stomach emptying into the intestine. It also stimulates the release of pancreatic enzymes into the duodenum, which is the first part of the intestine after the stomach. CCK also releases bile from the gallbladder and stimulates bile salts from the liver into the duodenum.

Though CCK hormone makes a person feel full ,overweight people do not produce much CCK. Consequently, most weight loss diets fail because a 400 pound person, for instance, turns into a 200 pound person. But they’ll still have the appetite of a 400 pound person. My favourite weight loss diet increases a person’s CCK as they lose weight so a 200 pound person will have the appetite of a 200 pound person.

Hunger Hormones and Health and Fitness

For more on how to implement a healthy diet and exercise routine contact me. It is important to note that when you start losing weight your body will start producing less leptin and more ghrelin, but it will level off and you will become more responsive to insulin and leptin.

Another factor in initial weight loss is a decrease in thyroid hormone, sympathetic tone, and energy expending along with increases in parasympathetic tone. This means your metabolism will slow down and you’ll have a decrease in energy. This isn’t permanent.

However, care needs to be taken to increase thyroid hormone and reduce cortisol. There are methods to that madness and and you can read my article on thyroid hormone. Also, the best way to control cortisol is to implement stress management techniques.

I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!

Travis Wade

The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton.

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Would You Like A Plan To Achieve Your Fitness Goals?

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