Having Trouble Losing Weight Or Increasing Muscle?
By Travis Wade
There’s a couple summits coming up that I feel are particularly important for those looking to lose weight or gain muscle. The Thyroid Summit is coming up and so is The Fat Summit. They are related in some ways and I’m sure there will be some of the same speakers at both.
The thyroid is the main driver in your metabolism. You need to take very good care of it and unfortunately it’s under a huge amount of unprecedented fire with the foods we eat and our environment. Thyroid problems have become a huge pandemic. Learn how to take care of your thyroid by attending this expert laden summit.
There’s still so much confusion and misinformation out there about fat, both the fat on our bodies and the fats we eat. You’ve been told that eating fat makes you fat–and increases your risk for heart disease and other chronic illnesses–but fat is NOT the enemy. The truth is: eating MORE FAT can help shut down cravings, accelerate weight loss and potentially prevent or reverse disease!
WHY ATTEND?
Dr. Mark Hyman, Carrie Diulus and over 30 of the world’s top experts created The Fat Summit 2 to dispel the biggest MYTHS about fat, and reveal the latest research about how to eat, move and supplement your diet for improved health and longevity!
There’s still so much confusion and misinformation out there about fat, both the fat on our bodies and the fats we eat. You’ve been told that eating fat makes you fat–and increases your risk for heart disease and other chronic illnesses–but fat is NOT the enemy. The truth is: eating MORE FAT can help shut down cravings, accelerate weight loss and potentially prevent or reverse disease!
WHY ATTEND?
Doctors Mark Hyman, Carrie Diulus and over 30 of the world’s top experts created The Fat Summit 2 to dispel the biggest MYTHS about fat, and reveal the latest research about how to eat, move and supplement your diet for improved health and longevity!
Dr. Hyman’s first Fat Summit was a major hit–The Fat Summit 2 has 30+ brand NEW interviews during which you’ll discover even more about…
Biohacking your biology and weight loss with healthy fats Truths about saturated fat, cholesterol, butter, sugar, carbs and more Review and discussion of the latest articles on fat and weight loss Digestion of fats through supplementation Effects of dietary fat on fertility Importance of community for making/sustaining healthy lifestyle choices How eating more fat complements/combats other dietary approaches Best practices for maintaining your weight and healthy eating habits
Holy the benefits of soup! Grandma is the best! She makes the best soups doesn’t she? The benefits of soup are endless and so are the flavours!
How Grandma Made Soup
Allow me to fill you in on how grandma made the best soup. First she started with a base from boiling the bones of an animal that grandpa shot. Back in the day, nothing got wasted. They used the entire animal tip to tail. That’s why the broth was so good and nutritious. The hardest to digest and least nutritious part of the animal is the muscle. I know, it tastes the best which is why we all eat it like kings.
On a side note, all of the studies showing that red meat is bad for you are studies using meat that has hormones, antibiotics, and fed genetically modified grains. This meat is bad for you. Grass fed or wild meat is extremely beneficial to your health. Enjoy your Walmart steak (sarcastic). Some places around Edmonton that sell grass fed meat are listed in this article.
The Asians got it right again. Not only do they work harder, study harder, and have faster reflexes, they eat meat better too. They eat all the nutritious parts we cringe at. I’m not going to try to talk you into eating testicles or tongue, but throw all those weird organs and parts into the soup base. Grandma did…
Boil your base for at least 12 hours. Grandma would boil it for at least that long and usually closer to 24 hours. Sometimes for days actually. That’s where the song came from, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot, 9 days old”. As long as you’re boiling it, it will keep. No bacteria will grow in those temperatures.
Anyway, boil your carcasses for about 24 hours. You’ll need to invest in a giant soup pot because you don’t want to be doing this every day. You’ll need a couple of them and a giant stainless steel colander that fits around the rim of the second giant soup pot. Strain the carcasses from the broth and throw out all those bones and organs. Don’t feed the bones to your dog. They will be brittle and get stuck in the dog’s’ throat.
Let the broth cool off. The fat rises to the top and after it sits in the fridge it hardens. Break off the fat and keep it for cooking with. Now you have a gelatin full of collagen, L-glutamine, proline, glycine, zinc and all kinds of nutrients that makes your body strong.
It doesn’t take much to make it taste good. Salt, pepper, onion, and garlic make it taste delicious. Grandma would put all the most nutritious strengthening foods in it like turmeric (if grandma was part Asian), cayenne pepper, basil, oregano, garlic, cabbage, onion, tomato, celery, squash, carrots… the list is very long here.
The Benefits
One benefit I need to mention grandma had in mind with her soup is that it strengthens the gut lining. Your connective tissue is made up of mostly collagen. Where are you getting collagen in your diet? Your gut lining is made up of collagen as well and unfortunately, today’s SAD or Standard American Diet is really good at breaking down the gut lining. Inasmuch, the SAD doesn’t have much to build the gut back up.
Hippocrates said that all chronic diseases start in the gut and many doctors believe he was right. Every autoimmune disease is caused by a broken down gut lining. Many things break down the gut lining, but the good news is bone broth builds it back up.
Leaky Gut Syndrome
Dr. Natasha Campbell McBrideis a Russian neuroscientist that created the GAPS diet and has seen thousands of patients get better with a soup diet and psychology. She teaches her methods to other practitioners and they also have seen thousands of patients get better with her methods.
I know a lot of skeptics say why isn’t everybody doing it if it works. For one it’s hard to monetize, but Dr. Josh Axe has done that now. He has created his bone broth protein powder and you can buy it online for around $45. Dave Asprey, the Bulletproof guy, also sells collagen powder.
The other thing is it takes approximately 18 years for scientist discoveries to become mainstream. The issue I’m writing about right now is called leaky gut syndrome and it affects us all to some degree unless you are doing something about it. A drug is in the works to help with the problem. Once the pharmaceutical companies can monetize this issue you will be hearing all about it in the mainstream, but for now a lot of conventional doctors are denying it even exists.
Don’t take the drug because it doesn’t fix what is causing the problem. Do what doctor Josh Axe recommends and eat the one pot diet. He says the crock pot is the key to a healthy gut. He talked about how the gut is a lot like your skin and when you get an abrasion and you keep irritating that abrasion it’ll take a long time to heal. The same is with your gut when you eat hard to digest foods. If you eat crock pot or one pot foods your food is soft and easy to digest giving your gut the chance to heal. Dr. Axe recommends at least 3 cups of broth per day to heal the gut lining.
Dr. Natasha Campbell Mcbride says “Soup for breakfast, soup for lunch, soup for dinner and soup in between. Soup, soup, soup, soup!” 2 weeks to 2 months of nothing but soup to strengthen the gut lining. She’s a Russian grandma.
Maintaining a healthy gut is so highly underrated. As an EMT half the medical patients I saw had gut issues. Half of those patients left the hospital undiagnosed. In all autoimmune diseases you will find leaky gut syndrome. Do all chronic diseases start in the gut?
I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!
Travis Wade
The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton
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I know, cuz they’re hungry. I know, I know, but why do they eat breakfast food? And why are they hungry? Some people eat differently than others. What’s all that about? Let’s have a look at some of these questions and the answers.
Breakfast food. Eggs? Bacon? Fruit? Cereal? Toast? Jam? Ham? Hamburger??? Why does someone eat hamburger at breakfast? And another is vegan and sticks to tofu and oats? How active is the vegan? And do they care about building muscle?
If you’re a bodybuilder, you’ll need a lot of protein and your body is begging for protein in the morning. Is there such thing as a vegan bodybuilder? There aren’t many and that’s cuz a bodybuilder craves meat. The vegan is probably a little more sedentary; they don’t want the meat.
Carbs or Fats
Want to know why I eat bacon? Besides the addiction, which could mean I have a food sensitivity to it and that can be common with pork products. Besides that. I like bacon because I like a keto-diet. A diet where I get my energy from fats instead of carbs. I still have carbs in the form of fruits and vegetables, but not in the morning.
Carbs are good before and after a workout and towards the end of the day because they can make you sleepy. You’ll get the initial rush with the increase in insulin, then the crash. I never eat anything white due to its high calorie content and high glycemic index which is perfect for storing fat. Also, the number one thing you are trying to accomplish with food is to get the nutrient your body needs. All things white like sugar, salt, trans fats, grains, potatoes, parsnips are low nutrient and high glycemic leaving you tired.
Fibre
So why do people eat fruit in the morning? Well, there are 3 parts to the digestive system and you have to keep all three running smooth. Eating is first, then using the food, then excretion. What part do you think the fruit helps with…? Lots of fibre… After everything in your gut is sitting and fermenting all night, fruit is a good idea for excretion of waste.
Intermittent Fasting
Why do people do bulletproof or intermittent fasting at breakfast? The idea is to remain in ketosis for as long as possible in order to lose weight. Ketosis is the process of using fats for energy. You can get the fats from food or from your stored fats and your body doesn’t care where it gets it from; it’ll take from both until you run out of the fats from food, like in the morning, and then it has to take from your stored fats.
So why the bulletproof? It provides your body with much needed energy in the morning and if you do it the Dave Asprey way, (he’s the guy who founded Bulletproof Coffee), you’ll be in full ketosis right away. It usually takes about 10 days to be in full ketosis when you stop eating carbs and use fat for energy. Compliance is the hardest part of a ketogenic diet but, it certainly works.
Eggs
Why the eggs? The yolk is packed full of nutrients your body needs and the whites are full of protein. Like I said before, your body needs protein in the morning. Eggs are great because they can keep you in ketosis and you get some protein. Add some bacon and bamb! That’s enough protein and fat to keep you going for a while.
Addictions
So why do most people eat the white foods in the morning? Oats, toast, cereal, jam is so much sugar. Cuz they’re hungry! We’ve been over this. They are all addictions. They provide almost no nutrient but, they feed visceral adipose tissue on the stomach. It’s a hungry fat that causes you to crave the white foods so you eat the white foods then more visceral adipose tissue gets created leading to more cravings and the slippery slope continues. These foods cause much more damage to your body then the fat on your stomach; that should be the least of your worries. Check out the article on bread here.
You are what you eat? Hell ya! I eat fat and protein for breakfast. Want to see my abs? It’s not easy to quit all the foods that create visceral adipose tissue but, I can help and I have seen amazing results. Time and time again people lose weight and put on muscle and feel great! They talk about their increased energy and how they keep looking better and better. I love results!
I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!
Travis Wade
The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton
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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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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
Want To Get Started On A New Lifstyle Right Away?
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Would You Like A Plan To Achieve Your Fitness Goals?
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 canclick 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.
Want To Get Started On A New Lifstyle Right Away?
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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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Learn all about Leaky Gut Syndrome before it becomes mainstream knowledge!
By Travis Wade
“We don’t know a lot, but we know that it exists. In the absence of evidence, we don’t know what it means or what therapies can directly address it.” Linda A. Lee, MD, gastroenterologist and director of the Johns Hopkins Integrative Medicine and Digestive Center.
Dr. Oz says leaky gut syndrome is a clinical diagnosis.
Wikipedia says it’s not.
How does a person know who or what is the more reliable source?
Amazingly, the medical profession is just now agreeing this condition even exists. Yet, “intestinal permeability” has been discussed in medical literature for over 100 years!
The medical field is a rapidly advancing field. It seems like the functional medicine doctors are moving forward while your family doctor follows their protocol. However, we can’t be too upset with our family doctors, but you might consider adding a high-quality functional medicine doctor to your team, to ensure good health.
As an EMT, half the people I see going to the emergency room are there for abdominal problems. Worse still, half of those people leave the hospital undiagnosed. While your family doctor argues with an alternative medicine practitioner about whether leaky gut syndrome exists, let me explain what it is, what causes it, and what to do about it. Leaky gut syndrome is nothing like the sasquatch: you see it every day, it has a profound effect on our society, and you probably have it to some degree.
Conversely, the other half of the argument is there are no studies that prove what to do about it. The pharmaceutical companies are working on a medication to treat leaky gut syndrome. When they develop it, they’ll monetize leaky gut syndrome and it will become mainstream knowledge. Remember, you heard it here first!
Fortunately, there are studies on what improves the gut lining and what to do to maintain a healthy gut. The theory is these methods of improving the gut lining will fix leaky gut syndrome.
WHAT IS LEAKY GUT SYNDROME?
We have junctions in our gut linings that act as “gates” in cells at the molecular level. In the gut, they carry nutrients across to the bloodstream. These gates usually allow small molecules to pass while holding larger molecules back to break them down further before also allowing them to pass.
Leaky gut syndrome exists when the permeability of the gut lining has been compromised. The gut lining may be damaged in many ways: This includes cell death, damage to junctions, and the destruction of microvilli, all of which cause the gut to be much more permeable. As a result, when the gut becomes hyper-permeable, larger molecules and toxins may enter the bloodstream and start doing damage.
Ultimately, the liver is forced to work harder to destroy toxins and larger molecules while the immune system takes on foreign invaders in the bloodstream. As a result, the body experiences full-blown, system-wide inflammation.
SYMPTOMS OF LEAKY GUT SYNDROME
Symptoms include autoimmune diseases, allergies, skin problems, candida (yeast) overgrowth, digestive issues, depression, and all kinds of other unexplained issues. Also, I should add that there is an unusually massive surge in these types of problems in our society. Sadly, almost everybody I know has at least one of these symptoms.
HOW TO TEST FOR LEAKY GUT SYNDROME
According to Robynne K. Chutkan, MD, FASGE Assistant Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University Hospital Founder and Medical Director, Digestive Center for Women, there’s a simple test for leaky gut syndrome: a urine test.
Mannitol is a small molecule that passes through a healthy gut. On the other hand, lactulose is a larger molecule that doesn’t normally pass through. After drinking the mixture of mannitol and lactulose, we wait six hours and do a urine test. If there are high levels of both mannitol and lactulose, this indicates leaky gut syndrome.
CAUSES OF A LEAKY GUT
Glyphosate
Glyphosate is the active ingredient in the herbicide “Roundup” which has recently been publicized as a cancer-causing agent. Originally patented as an antibiotic, glyphosate has instead proven to be the cause of many devastating issues, from depleting vital minerals and good bacteria to causing leaky gut syndrome.
Monsanto is the company responsible for creating glyphosate. “The Monsanto Papers” shows lawsuits against the company, who eventually sold out to Bayer. A weird thing in the United States is if you change the name of your company, anyone with a lawsuit against you has to start their lawsuit from scratch. These lawsuits are mostly cancer patients who will likely die before any settlement. Monsanto also created things like artificial sweeteners, Agent Orange, DDT, dioxins (PBCs), phthalates, and polystyrene (Styrofoam).
Worryingly, glyphosate has been sprayed by the tons all over North America and many other parts of the world where it isn’t banned. It’s in every American-made wine, our waterways, almost all of our food, and GMOs, of course. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to avoid but do your best to consume as little as possible.
In addition, because glyphosate has been sprayed so much, it’s killing our reed wildlife, which is detrimental to our ecosystems. Obviously, it’s going to settle where water settles, and that’s where reeds usually grow, but glyphosate kills them. Ultimately, no more reeds = no more ecosystems.
I had an environmentalist come see me for a consult one day. I asked her if she heard of the “Dead Zones of the Ocean”. She had learned about them in school. I asked her what they told her caused the dead zones of the ocean and she said “agricultural runoff”. I asked her what exactly is agricultural runoff. She said “You know, pesticides and sprays”. I asked “Can you name any?” She said “No”. She had actually never heard of Glyphosate before!?
Her job was to count up the reed wild life along the North Saskatchewan river and map them because we are losing them rapidly. She told me the prevention strategy our government came up with is nobody is allowed to build on the reed wildlife. My heart sank.
Plant Toxins
Lectin and phytate or phytic acid are plant toxins. Because plants can’t run or fight like the rest of us, they have thorns or toxins as their defense against predators. Of course, we eat lectin all the time. In low doses, we are fine. In high doses, on the other hand – not so much.
Dietary sources high in lectin include soy, grains, seeds, beans, dairy – specifically, the casein which is the protein in the curd of dairy – and the highest in lectin is food containing GMOs and gluten. Gluten is the protein you’ll find in rye, wheat, barley, oats, kamut, and spelt. Lectin will bind to your gut lining and damage or kill the cell causing a leaky gut.
Dysbiosis
Dysbiosis is an imbalance between good bacteria and bad bacteria in the body. In theory, dysbiosis is one of the leading causes of leaky gut. Glyphosate, prescription antibiotics, chlorine and fluoride in water are the biggest contributors that kill healthy bacteria. This imbalance, along with sugar, increases yeast in your gut. In the end, yeast attaches to your gut lining and does damage in the same way as lectin. Anyone want some bread?
Inflammation
Inflammation exacerbates the issue. When the body is in attack mode, our cells often get caught in the crossfire. Unfortunately, the antigens our bodies create through inflammation actually attack our own cells.
Worse still, inflammation also makes the body weak and allows all kinds of problems to occur, just as mental stress is the number one cause of medical problems in North America. Things that cause inflammation are another type stress on the body.
Some causes of inflammation include medications, NSAIDs or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like Tylenol, Advil, Motrin); processed foods, preservatives and flavorings, mercury, pesticides and BPA from plastics. Obviously, infections and other sicknesses are in there too. Also, importantly, I’d like to point out that some functional medicine doctors believe NSAIDs are the number one drug that kills people.
Looking at all of the above, it’s clear that your gut is under constant attack. For most people, this is happening at a higher rate than the repair. And, of course, age contributes to leaky gut syndrome as well. I’m sure with all the undiagnosed abdominal problems coming through the emergency room, we can all agree it’s a big deal to take excellent care of your gut. Let me tell you how.
HOW TO FIX YOUR LEAKY GUT
Step 1: Eliminate Causes
Many studies have been done to learn what repairs and maintains a healthy gut. As a result, the four R’s (Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, Repair) is the agreed treatment among functional medicine doctors for leaky gut syndrome. The idea is twofold: First, to heal inflammation and then to restore the integrity of your gut lining.
For a start, eliminating sugars, starches, grains, and other irritating foods alleviates inflammation and starves out yeast overgrowth. The most common allergens are gluten, dairy, sugar and other sweeteners, soy, corn, peanuts, and egg whites. No processed foods either. Almost any food that comes in a package is processed.
What’s more, artificial sweeteners deserve special mention because they kill the good bacteria (flora) in your intestine. We want to grow the good bacteria for protection against bad bacteria that destroys our gut.
Worse still, artificial sweeteners are more addictive than sugar, which lights up the pleasure centers in the brain four times as much as cocaine. On top of that, artificial sweeteners cause diabetes faster than sugar because they spike your insulin even more than sugar. Also, sweeteners increase your pallet for sweet foods which isn’t good for someone who may be addicted to sugar.
Step 2: Add the Repair
Now that you’ve eliminated things that cause leaky gut syndrome, you can work on healing the gut with proper diet and supplements.
The next thing to incorporate is the GAPS diet by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. It starts with soup and Dr. Josh Axe recommends 3 cups of bone broth a day. Moreover, Dr. Natasha advises eating nothing but soup at first; then you can incorporate other foods after your gut heals a bit.
The bone/meat broth is the key ingredient, as it contains collagen, minerals, and the amino acids proline, L-glutamine, and glycine that can help heal your damaged cell walls. The good news is, all these nutrients are great for the gut and all the body’s connective tissue, including the skin.
After incorporating a healthy diet, you may want to consider some supplements to help maintain a healthy gut. I have to mention that taking some of the supplements listed below may do more damage than good, and you should contact a doctor before taking any supplements. However, the bone/meat broth naturally contains a lot of the desired nutrients, so you can consume it safely.
Quercetin
Quercetin is a plant pigment (flavonoid) and has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. It is used as a supplement for many ailments. According to Dr. Axe, it’s also been shown to improve gut barrier function by supporting the creation of tight junction proteins.
L-glutamine
L-glutamine is an essential amino acid and an anti-inflammatory. It has many benefits, including assisting brain function, promoting muscle growth, preventing muscle wasting, enhancing athletic performance in endurance sports like snowboarding, improving metabolism, curbing cravings for sugar and alcohol, fighting cancer, improving diabetes and blood sugar, and dramatically decreasing recovery time. I wish I had been taking it before squat day on Tuesday…
The main benefit of L-glutamine is how it helps build and repair the intestines. L-glutamine coats your cell walls and acts as a repellent to irritants. Also, L-glutamine has been shown to repair the gut after damage from chemotherapy and radiation and, in theory, is beneficial in leaky gut syndrome.
Coconut Oil
Similar to omega 3s, coconut oil comes with a long list of benefits, one of which is its positive influence on weight loss. When it comes to improving lifestyle, its anti-inflammatory properties make it one of the healthiest disease fighting sources of energy for your body. It is also easy for the body to use.
Omega 3s
The list of benefits of omega 3s is far too long to duplicate in this article. Instead, please visit my article specifically on omega 3s. For now, I’ll just state omega 3s are high in beneficial anti-inflammatory properties and reducing cortisol. This reduces stress but ultimately, omega 3s are building blocks of the body and help in the repair and maintenance of a healthy gut.
Fibre
Fibre also offers many benefits, including weight loss; but here, I’ll just talk about its contribution to a healthy gut. Your gut is a muscle that is activated by the parasympathetic nervous system or the digestive system. In other words, you can’t work this muscle the same way you can work your biceps.
The way you work the smooth muscle of the intestines is to consume insoluble fibre. It improves motility or the wave action of the tube moving contents through it. Another thing fibre will do for you is maintain a fresher environment – out with the old; in with the new – less time for things to ferment.
Probiotics
Doctors recommend that you have 85% good bacteria in your gut. If you have lots of bad bacteria, nothing you do will heal your gut because the bad bacteria will continue to destroy it. Yeast overgrowth (Candida) or SIBO (small intestine bacteria overgrowth) are common problems that cause leaky gut syndrome.
Unfortunately, most probiotics are completely ineffective. Dr. Kellman interviewed a guest doctor who conducted a study in Africa and Canada; and, according to this doctor, taking a probiotic is like sending an army out without weapons! Consequently, you need the medium that a bacterial culture grows in, like yogurt. When bacteria take up residence in the gut, it’s like equipping the bacteria with weapons. So, eat fermented foods!
Your microbiome is essentially an ecosystem in your gut. There are trillions of bacteria in there, outnumbering your own body cells by approximately 10 to 1. Fermented foods, including kimchi, sauerkraut, and homemade yogurt and kefir, will improve your microbiome. This has so many benefits that another article will have to be written…
A Good Multivitamin, Vitamin D, and Zinc
One of the things I’d like to mention is how zinc improves dry skin (it’s the active ingredient in dandruff shampoo but you’re probably better off getting it in your food) and prevents prostate cancer in men.
Chronic skin problems are rooted in gut problems. Zinc improves gut health as well so if you have dry skin and you add it to your diet, you get treatment for all of your connective tissue. Sadly, Zinc is typically lacking in a North American diet. It can be found in grass-finished red meat and, of course, wild meat is best. Don’t bother with zinc-oxide as your body doesn’t absorb it. (It does make a great sunscreen, however!) Inasmuch, zinc-citrate isn’t good either; citrates are good for bowel movements but not for absorption.
A high-quality multivitamin has many benefits. Your body needs nutrients; and when you get those nutrients your body functions at a much higher capacity. The same can be said for vitamin D which is the leading nutrient deficiency in North America. Over 95% of us are not getting enough. Conversely, do not over do it on these vitamins. Too much is just as bad as not enough. For more on vitamin D, see my article on it. I take my multivitamin once every 3 days or sometimes after a good sweat at hockey.
Digestive Enzymes
Digestive enzymes ensure full digestion of our food, decreasing the chance that partially digested food particles will damage your gut lining. Most people have low digestive enzymes which causes acid reflux. Acid reflux is usually treated with medication to lower stomach acids. Although this relieves symptoms, this just increases the cause of the problem. A natural substitute is to take lemon water or apple cider vinegar water in the morning or before meals. It is also a great additive to improve digestive enzymes for anyone looking to improve gut health.
I KNOW THIS WAS LONG BUT HERE IS MY CONCLUSION
In closing, maintaining a healthy gut is imperative to your health. Spend five minutes in an emergency room. “Unexplained abdominal problems” are an epidemic which is often treated with pain meds and the old phrase, “We will have to keep an eye on that.”
Functional medicine doctors highly recommend a detox to kick-start your journey to a healthy gut. I mean a proper detox – not some gimmick you buy. If you want me to hook you up with a proven detox, DM me or see me in person for a free transformation session.
I wish you lots of health, love and happiness!
Travis Wade
The only holistic personal trainer in Edmonton.
Want To Get Started On A New Lifstyle Right Away?
Or
Would You Like A Plan To Achieve Your Fitness Goals?
