Eat Meat And Stop Jogging: 'Common' Advice On How To Get Fit Is Keeping You Fat And Making You Sick (2 page)

Calorie Re
striction = Decreased Satiation

One of the reasons many fail on diets and calorie restriction plans is bec
ause they’re constantly hungry.  Although ghrelin (the hunger hormone) plays a major part, it’s largely because our body is seeking nutritionally dense food for proper functioning.  A meal high in animal protein not only provides our cells with what they require, but it increases fullness and satisfaction until lunch, and decreases the motivation for food throughout the day. On a calorie restriction plan, a meal containing animal protein would be frowned upon, because it’s high in calories.  After a meal like this, individuals on a diet would likely have to restrict their intake for the rest of the day in order to avoid eating too many calories or going over in ‘points.’   Those following such an approach have been severely misguided, as we require the essential fats, nutrients, and amino acids in these sources for survival.  Not only are we fighting one of our basic primal desires to consume these high-calorie foods, and missing out on higher levels of satiation (fullness), but we’re putting our health and longevity at risk.

Despite efforts to lower calories and restrict higher calorie fats and proteins in North America, obesity has nearly tripled.  It appears we’ve been listening to the message, but we’re clearly not getting the result.  For instance, take a look at the change in % of food ‘type’ from 1965 to 1991 in teenagers in the U.S. (11-18 years):

To
tal calories, fat and protein have all decreased, yet obesity has steadily increased over this same time period.  This is because it’s not the number of calories in a meal, it’s the quality of those calories. There are specific foods that build muscle and burn fat, while supporting our health and longevity.  Unfortunately, conventional wisdom tells us to exclude these foods if we’re attempting to get in shape. The long-term affect of such an approach leads to a consistent struggle to get fit and remain disease-free.

Calorie Restriction = Unhealthy

Failing to provide our body with adequate nutrients causes deficiency and degeneration.  For instance, by limiting fats because they are the highest calorically (9kcal vs. 4kcal in carbohydrates and protein) we inhibit the absorption of essential fat-soluble nutrients (A, D, E, and K) and the synthesis of key steroid hormones (testosterone, estrogen, androgen). Our body needs these nutrients to manufacture, repair, and refurbish our bone, tissue, and cartilage, and the cells of the heart, brain, and liver.  Over time, failing to provide this ongoing nutritional support leads to deterioration, and cell death and damage that is associated with aging and disease.

When food is scarce, mammals utilize the limited supply of energy they have to survive, forcing other systems to go dormant.  Research has suggested that when food and nutrient supply, or caloric intake, is inadequate to meet metabolic demands, the reproductive system can suffer, leading to puberty and development delays, ovulation suppression, testosterone reduction, and an increased risk of infertility. It also harms physical strength and performance, especially when the reduction in calories is excessive.

You may be fooling the scale (and yourself) in the short-term, but you will not sustain the weight loss, and in the long-run you’re harming your health.  The muscle loss, hormone disruption (for fat storage and appetite), and decreased metabolic rate from calorie restriction diets make maintenance and future performance in body composition more challenging than it has to be.

“Vegan and vegetarian children often fail to grow as well as their omnivorous cohorts despite apparently adequate intakes of amino acids and nitrogen.”

― Dr. Loren Cordain

Mistake #2

Limiting or Avoiding Animal Protein

Generally, the foods highest in calories are the ones that provide the highest benefit. When you put nutrient dense food in your body, you get superior performance throughout the day.  Similar to premium fuel in an engine, you also prevent future repair in the long-term.  On the other hand, while cheap low-calorie, or low nutrient, foods may get you through the day, they increase your risk of future breakdown.  To best illustrate the consequences of restricting or avoiding a premium fuel like animal protein, we’ll take a look at vegetarians.  Seeking only plant-based protein alternatives leaves non-meat eaters malnourished, with inadequate amounts of essential fatty acids (omega-3), vitamins (D, B12, E, A) and several essential amino acids.  When foods are ‘essential’ it means they can only be acquired in the diet.  Therefore, if you’re not eating foods that have them, you’re not getting them!

This lack of adequate nutrition from animal source foods leads to less muscle mass and an increased risk of degenerative disease.  As mentioned in Mistake #1, our muscle mass determines our metabolic rate, but it also influences our long-term health.  Limiting animal protein may only lead to minor deficiencies (like anemia) in the short-term, but this can quickly develop into osteoporosis, and Alzheimer’s as we age.

Humans Need Animal Protein

Although I will make my points using history, science, and anthropology, I prefer to start this section by simplifying the subject and thinking logically.

Could you kill an animal with a knife,
rock, or even your bare hands?

The truth is, not a lot of us could.  Not only because we’ve never had to but because we know it would be challenging, phys
ically and psychologically.  So, if we are perfectly capable of surviving on roots, shoots, nuts and berries:

W
hat drove the human beings before us to track and kill an animal?

What gave them the desire to make a spear and r
isk their life battling a saber-toothed tiger or wooly mammoth?

I’d say the innate need
for the essential nutrients, amino acids, and fats from animal flesh. They recognized that this food source was a necessity in providing their family with the essentials of life. Failure to consume meat leads to nutritional deficiencies just like it did 1.5 million years ago in our hominoid ancestors.

My research and experience has taught me that the decision to eliminate or replace animal protein is the biggest mistake one can make in an effort to improve their physique or long-term health. There are ‘other protein options,’ but they are incomplete, and lack the essential vitamins, fatty-acids, minerals, and amino acids required to remain strong, energized, and disease-free.  There are many that will survive without eating meat, but they definitely will not thrive.  Sadly, those surviving without animal protein may not recognize the negative effects for 3 months, 3 years, or until it’s already too late.

Plant Protein Does NOT = Animal Protein

There’s an endless supply of books from former vegans sharing their personal story of a slow decline in health, and their plea to confused vegetarians to change their ways.  It may be difficult to open your mind to a carnivore like me, so if you’re looking for more in depth information take a look at two of my favorite reads:

The Vegetarian
Myth and The Whole Soy Story.

Surprisingly, a lot of the nut
rition experts of today, are former vegetarians, like Chris Masterjohn and Robb Wolf, who have the desire to share their story to make sure others don’t make the same mistakes.

Arguably the biggest, and most common threat from a reliance on plant source proteins is the risk of B12 deficiency, which can only properly be obtained from animal source foods. B12 can be especially finicky when it comes to absorption, as proper stomach acid (hydrochloric acid and the intrinsic factor) is required for sufficient breakdown and uptake.  It’s not just a lack of B12 containing meat, but rather the continuous decline in stomach acid secretion because of inactivity.  When animal protein is finally consumed, the underactive stomach secretes less acid and can’t effectively break down the food to access the nutrients.  This leaves non-meat-eaters with less absorption of essential nutrients from animal source foods. Sadly, the digestive discomfort experienced when low-mat eaters finally decide to eat meat gives many the false reassurance that they shouldn’t be eating it.  B12 deficiency is an extremely common diagnosis for females, especially young teenage girls, along with iron deficiency, as most of them don’t eat nearly enough animal protein.  Sadly, other than low energy, many won’t recognize the symptoms or negative impact of deficiency until it’s too late. A lack of B12 is associated with a shrinking brain, and accelerated aging rate.

Anemia, or low-iron, is said to be the most common nutritional deficiency in North America.  I believe this is largely influenced by a universal fear of meat.  Heme (or ferrous) is the best iron source available to us as human beings and it’s the most absorbable.  Unfortunately, for those limiting or replacing animal protein, heme iron is only obtainable from meat, and is more absorbable when meat is present in the meal.  This topic is especially important for menstruating females, as they’re experiencing significant monthly blood loss and tend to eat less red meat in general.

Omega-3 essential fatty acids (DHA & EPA) are the third source of deficient nutrition in a diet lacking animal protein.  Plant, or non-meat protein options only contain ALA, which has to be successfully converted to DHA to supply any benefit.  Unfortunately:

A
ttempting to raise blood DHA status with strictly an ALA source is nearly impossible!

Similar to B12, a lack of
DHA is associated with declining cognitive and behavioral performance.  As you’ll learn in Mistake #3 and #5, the flawed advice for North Americans to restrict saturated fat in favor of plant oils (omega-6s), inhibits the ALA conversion even more.  For vegans this is of extreme concern, as most consume no saturated fat and rely heavily on plant protein sources that are high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats.

The
non-meat omega-3, ALA, has been shown to raise prostate cancer, while the animal source variety (DHA & EPA) lowers it!

Believing that tofu, quinoa, soy, pinto beans, and brown rice can give you everything that animal pro
tein provides, is an extremely unwarranted mindset.  This was illustrated in the Rancho Bernardo Study from 2002, that looked at the consumption of different types of protein in 970 men and women between 55 and 92 years of age.  Researchers determined that animal protein sources were positively correlated with bone mineral density, while vegetable sources were negatively correlated.  Another study compared the health of 2 prehistoric populations living in the same area but with very unique diets.  The Hardin Villagers, lived mainly on corn, beans, and squash, and the hunter-gatherers (the Indian Knoll), mostly meat, fish, and wild fruit. After researchers analyzed the health of both populations, this is what they found:

• Longer lifespan and lower infant mortality (from malnutr
  ition) for the hunter-gatherers
  
• Common iron, calcium, and protein deficiencies in the vi
  llagers – none in the hunter-gatherers
  
• No bone malformations or cavities in the hunter-gatherers, versus an average of 7 for the farmers
  

Soy = Toxic

For many years, soy was regarded as the ‘vegetarian a
nswer’ to a diet lacking muscle-building protein.  Everyone loves stats, so here are 4 of my favorites:

Men who consumed the equivalent of one cup of soy milk per day had a 50% lower sperm count than men who had none.

In 1992, the Swiss Health Service estimated that two cups of soy milk per day provides the estrogenic equivalent of one birth control pill.

Infants exclusively fed soy formula receive the estrogenic equi
valent (based on body weight) of at least 5 birth control pills PER DAY!

A Study on the brains of 4000
Hawaiian Men determined that men who ate the most tofu had smaller brains and double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

Those are the statistics for a food regarded as ‘healthy’ and super
ior to animal products for disease prevention.  The reality is, a safe amount of soy is only 36g per day, and despite what you’ve been told, this is higher than the average amount eaten in Japan.  Ask a Japanese person and they’ll tell you they don’t eat much soy, and treat it more like a condiment rather than a protein source.

In the 1930’s in China, total soy consumption was 1.5% of calories, while pork was 65%!

A 1998 study in Taka Yama City, Japan, reviewed soy consumption from 1242 men and 3596 women, and determined that the daily intake averaged 3-13g/day for men, and 3-11g/day for women.  A single block of tofu contains 250g of soy, which blows the upper tolerable limit for safety out of the water.

Relying on a toxic substance as your main or dominant protein source can have a highly damaging impact on your health.  Unfortunately, the main argument for consuming soy usually stems from the assumption that the Japanese eat soy instead of beef, and that’s why they have lower heart disease rates than North Americans. What you’ll learn shortly is that saturated fat and red meat are not to blame for heart disease, and promoting soy as a health food because it lowers cholesterol is a misguided message to begin with.  Furthermore, the reason you think eating soy like the Japanese will lower your risk of heart disease is because that’s what you’ve been told by food marketers! Before the end of this book, my hope is that you will understand how backwards and inaccurate this advice really is.

Soy = Disrupted Hormones

Unfortunately for soy, it gets worse.  As perhaps you recognized while reading the 4 stats at the beginning of this chapter, soy has a negative hormonal impact on the body.  Although it’s a typical reaction to think of estrogen as a female hormone, this discussion is applicable to both sexes.  Phytoestrogen is a plant hormone found in soy that mimics the natural human/animal hormone ‘estrogen’ in the body. These phytoestrogens are harmful substances that pretend to be estrogen and bind to estrogen receptor sites.  Arguably, these estrogen mimickers, also found in cosmetics, pesticides, plastics, insecticides, and environmental pollutant, are a contributing factor to the estrogen-dominant cancers that now seem to be dominating our lives in North America.

Our largest intake of phytoestrogens comes from soybeans and other seed oils (sunflower, cottonseed, safflower), which as you’ll discover in Mistake #5, are called polyunsaturated fatty-acids (PUFAs).  They are one of the unfortunate consequences from our direction towards low-fat diets. Sadly, although toxic to humans and livestock, the most common use of soybeans in North America is as a vegetable oil additive in packaged foods and animal feed.

“The estimated per capita consumption of soybean oil increased more than 1000-fold from 1909 to 1999.”

One can see the immediate negative impact this ‘fake estrogen’ can have on men, as it competes with testosterone for receptor sites and can display itself in the form of ‘man-boobs,’ and other ‘non-manly’ reactions.  In women, an estrogen overload may be less obvious, although it has an equally harmful effect on body composition and disease risk.  Over time, excess estrogen can lead to infertility, breast and prostate cancer, and endocrine disruption.  In a nutshell, this toxic substance, that originally evolved in plants as a defense mechanism to inhibits reproductive health, is able to live in your body and cause huge problems.

Isoflavones are also found in soy, and like phytoestrogens they interrupt regular hormone functioning. The production of thyroid hormone, which usually regulates how the body uses energy and grows, is disrupted by isoflavones.  We also see a disturbance in the thyroid’s sensitivity to other hormones.  As Dr. Kaayla Daniels writes in her book, The Whole Soy Story:

“A Japanese study at the Ishizuki Clinic found that just 35mg of isoflavones per day caused thyroid suppression in healthy individ
uals in just three months….a glass of soy milk contains about 45mg.”

What’s most interesting about Dr. Daniels research is that the is
oflavones produce a hyperactive thyroid at first, which means energy levels and metabolic rate elevated.  However, over time the isoflavones facilitated a hypoactive thyroid, which leads to fat storage, hair loss, and poor energy.  This could explain why some mention feeling fantastic when replacing other proteins with soy protein, or adding soy to their diet.  Clearly, the experience is short-lived.