Why you think fat is bad- a brief history lesson

I grew up in the 90’s when low-fat everything was the craze; margarine, egg whites, skim milk, and fat-free salad dressings were ubiquitous in our fridges. 

The push for low or fat-free food had been going on for decades, but despite this shift, people were actually getting fatter and the prevalence of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease was skyrocketing. What was happening? 

Here’s the quick rundown of what you may not know.

In the mid 1900’s a charismatic American scientist named Ancel Keys produced research suggesting that diets high in saturated fat and cholesterol led to heart disease.

Although it was unknown at the time, Keys actually cherrypicked his observational data to make his hypothesis seem stronger than it was. His outspoken and intimidating demeanor helped him get the ears of government officials who were tasked with making dietary guidelines. This was a critical step towards the the government’s low-fat recommendation.

Around the same time that these dietary guidelines were being made, Richard Nixon was running for President. In an attempt to secure votes, he promised to dramatically expand the farm subsidies program. As a result of his election, taxpayer dollars enabled farmers produce a ton of corn and wheat- foods high in carbohydrates. This led to an abundant source of cheap, high carbohydrate food available to the public.

While everything above was happening, researchers in Japan figured out how to extract high fructose corn syrup from corn. This sweetener was 1.5x sweeter than real sugar and significantly cheaper to produce. Jackpot!

Finally in 1960’s, the Sugar Research Foundation paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of $50,000 in today’s dollars to publish a review of sugar, fat, and heart disease. These studies were hand-picked by the sugar industry to downplay the role sugar had in heart disease and unfortunately this type of thing is still happening to this day. Coca Cola has paid millions of dollars to researchers to downplay the link between sugary drinks and obesity.

So at roughly the same time, we had four big things happen:

1. The scientific community was pushing a low-fat diet to government officials tasked with creating dietary guidelines.

2. High carbohydrate foods such as corn and wheat were subsidized by the government and were now widely available and very cheap.

3. High fructose corn syrup was invented.

4. The sugar industry was paying scientists to downplay the role of sugar in heart disease and to villainize fat.

The confluence of these factors led to decades of promoting a low-fat diet in favor of a high carbohydrate, grain-based diet. Nothing negative was said about sugar or high fructose corn syrup and they were quietly put in every food imaginable. Before you know it, we had the USDA’s infamous Food Pyramid that was plastered in every cafeteria across the nation.

So what does this mean for you? Although saturated fat and cholesterol are the agents that clog arteries which lead to heart attacks, the dietary consumption of them is not the proximal cause of their build-up. It is becoming increasingly clear that a diet high in refined carbohydrates may be the single biggest cause of obesity, heart disease, and many other types of chronic disease.

Sources:

• https://robbwolf.com/2019/09/17/a-brief-history-of-nutrition-in-the-west/

• Mark Sisson’s Two Meals a Day

• https://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/well/eat/how-the-sugar-industry-shifted-blame-to-fat.html

How to Reprogram Your Genes

Diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and neurodegenerative disease account for over 80% of deaths in people over 50 who do not smoke. Dr. Peter Attia refers to them as the Four Horsemen of chronic disease. Would it surprise you to learn that all of them may have the same root cause?

There’s a strong case to be made that the diseases above are rooted in poor metabolic health. That means what you eat, how you move, and how you live on a daily basis can have a very real impact on whether or not you develop these diseases. It’s a departure from decades of conventional wisdom that said those diseases have no discernible cause or remedy. To understand the role of metabolic health in relation to these diseases, you’ll need a basic (and very brief, I promise!) understanding of how your genes work-

Genes are commonly viewed as fixed traits that you inherit from your parents (hair color, eye color, height, etc.) Your behavior has no real impact on these traits, you get what you get. However, you can directly influence the genes that are involved in health and wellness (i.e. your metabolic health). That includes body fat storage, inflammation, muscle development, and more. This is really important to understand, let me tell you why.

It means that just because your father is diabetic, your mother has had a heart attack, or your grandmother has Alzheimer’s disease, you are not destined for their same fate. Your are constantly receiving signals from your environment and turn on or off, this process known as epigenetics. What this means for you is that the lifestyle choices you make today affect how and what genes are expressed.

Eat the way your diabetic dad eats you’ll likely end up with the same disease. But, if you choose to live more primal lifestyle- one that our genes have been adapted to for thousands of years, you’ll send the right signals that promote long-term health and wellness.

You body was meant to eat real food, not the stuff created in factories that fills most grocery stores. Your muscles need to lift heavy things, not sit around in a chair or couch all day. Chronic stress from jobs, finances, and traffic combined with screens in our faces until the moment we hit the pillow wreak havoc on our hormones and sleep. It’s time to take some ownership of your future health by choosing to live differently. Yes it’ll be hard at first, but aren’t decades of good health and vitality worth it?

Now let me be clear, family history and genetic factors can make you predisposed to a disease. I don’t want to minimize that. But I do want to empower to you understand that you have more control than you think over your likelihood of getting one of the most common diseases listed above.

So, what are you doing today to reprogram your genes? Or are you going to allow family history to become your history?

Your shoes matter more than you think.

I used to care about the style of my shoes a lot. As a kid, growing up in public school, I always wanted to have stylish, different, and mostly functional shoes (K-Swiss anyone?). As time went on, my tastes may have changed slightly, but the premise stayed the same- style and comfort mattered more than anything else.

Fast forward to my late twenties- I started to develop some very annoying foot/heel pain. If you’ve ever had plantar fasciitis, you know what I’m talking about and how debilitating it can be. Surprisingly, it affects about 10% of the general population- which means it is not just an athlete’s injury.

I started looking up remedies and it seemed that the conventional wisdom was to put insoles in your shoes. Makes sense at first glance- insoles provide arch and heel support which decreases the amount of strain in those areas, problem solved, right? Well not quite…

Fortunately for me, as I was experiencing this pain and researching solutions, I had begun looking at health from an ancestral perspective. Something about adding more to my already thick-soled shoes didn’t seem right. The more that I researched it, the more I realized that insoles don’t address the root cause of the pain. Similar to most pharmaceutical drugs, they address symptoms but do nothing to address what’s causing the problem. This can lead to reliance on the product/drug for the rest of your life- great for insole companies and Big Pharma- not for you.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts, you know that I believe the human body’s design is hard to beat. That fact is on display in the human foot. Each foot contains over 200,000 nerve endings and 26 bones which is more than a quarter of all the bones in the entire body.

Our feet are incredible and meant to do a lot of things- our toes are supposed to grip, feel, and help us balance. The mid-foot and ball of our foot propels us forward when we walk or run. Our arches are meant to flex and bear weight (think about bridge designs). Our heels have cushion and fewer bones which means they can handle initial contact well (when walking).

As I researched solutions to plantar fasciitis, I learned that the shoes I’ve been wearing my whole life may be the main cause of my problem. And on a much larger scale, many foot, knee, hip, and back problems may actually be the result of wearing modern shoes.

The vast majority of shoes are engineered for maximum comfort and style. They don’t take into account the natural shape and capabilities of our feet- they lock them in a box with minimal space, feel, and flexibility, which leads to a whole host of foot, knee, hip, and back problems over the long run (pun intended).

Here’s a quick overview of the bad things happening when you wear a typical shoe (yes, even your expensive running shoe)-

Wide toe box vs. narrow toe box

Narrow toe boxes- The toe-box is the area of the shoe surrounding your toes. In most shoes, the toe-box is too narrow. That forces your toes into an unnatural, squished together shape. Over time, that becomes permanent. When your toes become squished like that, they cannot grip, balance, and work the way they were meant to.

Take your shoes and socks off for a moment and look at your toes. Are they all squished together? I’m guessing the answer is yes. Folks, that ain’t normal!

Thick cushioned heels- These foam wedges were placed under the heel decades ago by sneaker companies as a way to help absorb shock. In reality, cushioned heels lead people to walk and run improperly. Our heels are not meant to be further off the ground compared to the rest of our foot. That forces people to hit the ground with their heel first and not properly roll to the rest of the foot. It’s the equivalent of putting your brakes on as you move forward. You can get by with improper heel striking when walking, but it’s very damaging over time when you run that way.

Try walking around barefoot on a hard surface and intentionally put your heel down first. Your feet are going to start hurting quickly. Alternatively, try walking barefoot allowing your heel to briefly touch then roll to the mid foot. You’ll feel how much more smooth the experience is. That’s because your mid-foot and arches are meant to absorb a lot of the shock and help propel you forward. When you heel strike without proper mechanics, all of that shock is sent up through the leg to the knees, hips, and lower back. Which leads to all types of chronic pain over time and can ultimately lead you to live a more sedentary life. This short video is worth a watch to understand the different ways to walk.

Shortened achilles tendon and tight calves. With modern shoes, these tendons and muscles are not getting the range of motion they were meant to. This leads to decreased function, tightness, and weakness which leads to injury.

So what’s the solution? In a perfect world we’d be able to go barefoot a lot. When you are on grass, sand, and some dirt, walk barefoot more, but walk correctly. It’s going to take a concerted effort to retrain your body after decades of improper form.

When shoes are required on hard surfaces like cement and pavement it’s important to wear shoes that have wide toe boxes, flexible soles, and zero drop (this refers to the height difference between the forefoot and the heel).

Thankfully this barefoot-style approach is becoming more popular, so you have multiple shoe brands to choose from. All of these offer wide toe-boxes, zero-drop, and flexible soles:

• Xero Shoes is currently my favorite brand. They have great everyday/performance shoes, sandals and boots.

• Altra was my first zero-drop shoe. I think it’s a great shoe to start your journey to the barefoot world.to

• Vivobarefoot has an awesome selection, but they are on the pricier side.

• Lems has some great formal shoes for business settings.

I encourage you to get a pair a slowly start changing the way you move through the world. Your future self will thank you.

Leaning Into Discomfort

We live in a very odd time- one when you can work from your couch and have food delivered to your front door without needing to step outside all day.

We’ve been conditioned to seek comfort in everything we do- from padded office chairs and climate controlled houses, to luxury cars, and escalators to avoid walking up stairs. Why workout when you can take the weight loss pill? The sad truth is that the modern human is overfed, climate-controlled, and under-challenged. This constant need for comfort has robbed us of a primal need- discomfort.

Discomfort is hugely important and it something we need to lean into more than ever. It creates resiliency and a greater appreciation for almost everything we have in life.

Have you ever gone 18 or 24 hours without eating? I can tell you that the first bite of steak afterwards is enjoyed on a completely different level. If you submerge yourself in a cold lake or ocean for five minutes, it makes any other stress you experience throughout the day almost laughable.

The resilience is not just subjective- on a cellular level, the term for this is hormesis. It’s a process by which a low dose of damage from the environment induces an adaptive beneficial effect on the cell or organism.

Discomfort is another area where we can take a page out of our primal ancestors’ book. For the vast majority of human history, discomfort was a part of their daily life:

• It was normal to walk for miles in the heat (sweaty and thirsty) to gather berries.

• It was routine to skip a meal because there wasn’t enough meat to go around. Hunger was a constant companion and motivator to hunt efficiently.

• Dragging a heavy animal back to your village leaving your muscles sore was just a part of living.

So what’s the significance of that?

Well, our primal ancestors were incredibly lean and free of chronic disease, they slept well, and weren’t chronically stressed. Their habits are a good indicator that our bodies are designed for discomfort. We need to sweat, elevate our heart rate, use our muscles, and feel hunger. In the moment it might suck, but once you get past it, you realize it feels right.

Compare those trials with the modern white-collared worker- he/she can go days without sweating or physically struggling at all; overhead fluorescent light has become their form of sunlight as they rarely step outside. Walk around barefoot in the dirt and grass, are you crazy?

The hard truth is that there’s a real cost associated with constant comfort. Modern humans as a whole are unhealthier and unhappier than ever before. Obesity and chronic disease are rampant. The need for anti-depressants and other pharmaceuticals is sky-high. I’m not saying that comfort and convenience are solely responsible, but it begs the question as to whether this constant need for comfort is affecting our ability to lead healthy, happy lives. I believe so.

The central theme here is that in a world of comfort, it’s important to regularly seek discomfort. Putting yourself in tough situations, leads to a healthier body and mind.

So my challenge to you this week is to do something uncomfortable. Go for a long hike with a heavy backpack, skip a meal, submerge yourself in cold water, sit in a sauna, or simply go for an after-dinner walk instead of watching TV. Let me know how it goes in the comments!

P.S. Michael Easter wrote a great book on this called The Comfort Crisis. Michael puts himself through some very difficult endeavors like a 33-day backcountry hunting expedition in Alaska to share how these challenges positively impacted his life. There’s also a lot of research cited to back it up. Worth a read!

Why Most People Shouldn’t Run

If you were like me, you probably think that you should be running more; that’s what healthy people do right? It helps with weight-loss, it’s good for your heart, and it has been supported by the medical establishment and athletic brands alike for the last 50 years.

With that in mind, once or twice a week I’d force myself to wake up early and head outside or drive to the gym after work to go for a run. I’d be tired, hungry and generally miserable until after the run was finished, then I’d feel good.

I did this for years but didn’t notice any difference with weight or overall health. If anything, both continued to slowly decline. I wondered what I was missing.

It wasn’t until I stumbled upon the primal/ancestral health movement that the concept of ‘cardio’ was flipped on it’s head- I realized that most people should not be running, especially if they are overweight; instead, walking is actually the single best exercise you can do for your health.

It seems counter-intuitive at first glance, but it makes sense as you take a closer look at how humans have lived and thrived for thousands of years before jogging/running became a thing.

Our ancestors walked A LOT and sprinted a little. Walking was necessary to get anything done- hunting, gathering, building, playing, the list goes on and on. The occasional short burst of speed was needed for survival too, but what you didn’t see was running a consistent 7-8 minute mile pace for multiple miles. Running is calorically demanding and didn’t make sense in a time when calories were so scarce.

So what does this mean for the modern jogger/runner? Why are so many folks that are running 10Ks and marathons overweight? Something isn’t adding up.

When you look at runners today, they are dealing with a host of problems including joint injuries, overeating of refined carbs which leads to inflammation, heart problems, poor immune function, and they often lack strength. Weight-loss seems to be challenging for many as well.

Let’s dig a little deeper into each of these common problems:

To complete these long runs, the vast majority of runners are fueling their bodies with refined carbs- pasta, bread, shakes, sweets, and grains. Although it gives them the energy needed to run, these foods produce an inflammatory response in the body. This results in gut issues, poor skin health, significant blood sugar swings and it negatively affects the immune system.

The significant carb intake also means their bodies never learn to burn fat for fuel, hence the struggle to lose body fat. So while these runners tallying up the miles, their overall health is actually declining.

Joint pain is a common problem as well. I’m sure each of you know someone who used to be a runner who can now barely walk without pain. There’s two aspects to joint pain:

1. The modern running shoe is doing more harm than good. I’ll do a separate post on how its design encourages poor running form and what you should transition to for better joint health.

2. The fact that most peoples’ joints (especially if they are overweight) cannot handle the repetitive, long-term impact as a result of running. Are these early years of running worth decades of joint pain later in life? I don’t believe so.

Finally, the human heart isn’t designed to handle the stress that comes with years of endurance training. Anecdotally, if you know endurance athletes, I’m betting they know seemingly healthy folks who have dealt with their share of heart problems including strokes, heart attacks, arrhythmias, etc. The research is also starting to support this as well.

As always, health is nuanced, individualized, and constantly evolving. Running works great for some people, but for most people, walking is your better bet for long-term weight loss, heart health, and joint health. Plus, walking is actually enjoyable. Running, on the other hand is not. I encourage my clients to make walking a part of their daily activities and the foundation to their exercise routine.

What do you think about running or walking? Share your comments below!