If you follow the mass media, you may be under the impression that the only way to avoid getting sick is to hide under your bed and pray. While limiting your exposure is a smart first step to keep yourself safe from any contagion, don’t forget that your body knows how to protect itself. The better you care for your immune system, the greater your chances of weathering any germ storm that blows through. The solution to avoiding illness, then, isn’t purely to stow away until it’s safe to come out, but to take an active role in supporting the system that prevents it.

First we’ll look at how your immune system functions, and then we’ll show you the steps to take to keep it online, and running without defects.

How The Immune System Works

Your body is constantly on the lookout for anything that tries to enter it and shouldn’t. Be it an allergen, bacteria, a virus, or a wood splinter you got from sanding your deck, when your body senses an invader, the immune system is going to kick in to try to get rid of it ASAP.

The first series of defense mechanisms it uses to do that are no doubt familiar to you, and you already think of them as warning signs that you may be getting sick. You start sneezing and coughing. Your eyes water and your nose runs. You find yourself needing to use the toilet more often. Your finger swells up around the site of the splinter, a sign that white blood cells are rushing to the area in an effort to kill any germs that may have come with the particle.

If those initial mechanisms don’t stop the threat, the invading substance can start to get a foothold in your body—and that’s when it can make your life miserable. Viruses bind with healthy cells, using them as hosts to replicate themselves and multiply. Bacteria divide inside the body and take up space that crowds out healthy cells, disrupting their normal functions and potentially killing tissue.

At this point, your immune system knows it needs to take drastic measures, so it turns up the heat—literally. It produces fever-inducing cytokines, the proteins interleukin-1 and interleukin-6, which cross over the blood-brain barrier to signal the brain’s hypothalamus that the body’s thermal set point needs to be raised. This is when your forehead gets hot, and the chills set in—an effort to raise the body temperature by contracting muscles. (You feel cold because your body is colder than the level your immune system is trying to raise it to.) These symptoms make you feel terrible, and they’re sure signs that you’re sick as a dog, but they’re actually playing a vital role in turning the tide of battle. The heat from the fever helps to stop bacteria and viruses from spreading, and can start killing them outright—in effect, cooking them to death. (“The enemy deserves no mercy…”)

The body is mounting its counter-attack. It mobilizes white blood cells—specifically, phagocytes—that engulf the offending bacteria or virus and destroy it. Some of these blood cells develop antibodies, cells that remember the DNA of the invaders so that the body can recognize them and stop them sooner if they should ever come back. This is why it’s difficult to come down with the same virus again if you’ve already had it (e.g., chicken pox). Your body sees the enemy coming from a mile away this time, so it won’t get ambushed like it did before.

Your immune system is an army that will win many wars over your lifetime. But like any army, it is most effective if it has adequate resources, and doesn’t have to fight wars on multiple fronts. Therefore, keeping it fit and well-supplied should always be a priority.

Ways To Help Keep Your Immune System Strong

There are three strategies to promote immune health. None of them—individually or altogether—can guarantee that you’ll never feel badly again, but they’ll do the most possible to keep your army alert and on the field.

#1 Reduce The Workload On Your System

This boils down to simply avoiding stress of any kind, and that includes the type you get from hard workouts as much as it does the grief caused by your boss, your kids, or the flat tire you got driving to work this morning. Of course, exercise is generally helpful in keeping you healthy (more on this in point #3), but if you feel that you’ve been exposed to someone who’s sick, or you’re starting to notice the first symptoms of an illness, lighten up on your workouts or stay home and rest. Hard training promotes an immune response, and if the system is already working to battle back viruses and bacteria, you’re only dividing your forces.

The danger with stress, on the molecular level, comes from a boost of free radicals. These are byproducts of chemical reactions in your body that leave molecules that are missing electrons. Now highly unstable as a result, these molecules are capable of damaging lipids, proteins, and DNA. At normal levels, they serve a helpful role, warning the immune system of incoming invaders, but when they grow out of control, they create mutations in cells, or kill them. Accumulation of free radicals is thought to be a harbinger of serious health problems.

Free radicals accumulate when you consume alcohol, cook food (particularly at high heats with unstable polyunsaturated oils), exercise to excess, are exposed to pollution or radiation (including from sunlight), and suffer any degree of mental stress. Naturally, many of these things are hard or impossible to avoid, so don’t think you have to live like a hermit. Simply limit your exposure to them in large doses.

While you’re trying to evade stress in the short term, you can simultaneously practice methods that help you control it in the long term. As simple as it sounds, spending more time in nature (forest bathing) has been shown to have extremely powerful effects on stress, and may even reduce your risk for specific diseases. Meditation may do likewise.

But there may be nothing so restorative to your immune system as getting more sleep. A review in Frontiers in Bioscience concluded that sleep attenuates oxidative stress (a result of free-radical buildup) that can cause problems in the brain, heart, liver, and more. And just because you may be young and healthy already doesn’t mean you can afford to stay up all night. A 2018 study found that active physical education students—average age 21—undergoing a short-term survival training course that deprived them of sleep suffered substantial increases in oxidative stress levels. Fortunately, the study also showed that catching up on their sleep afterward helped the subjects return to normal.

#2 Stay Clean

This is an extension of tip #1, but it warrants its own category. Avoid people who are sick and touching things that might be contaminated, and practice good hygiene to reduce the chance of microbes clinging to your skin (and eventually getting through it).

This is where hand-washing comes in. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say it’s still one of the top ways to avoid coming down with something. And as simple as hand-washing is, you’re probably not doing it the way the government wants you to. Here are the correct steps, according to the CDC.

1. Wet your hands with clean running water. It doesn’t matter if it’s warm or cold.

2. Apply soap. Contrary to popular belief, antibacterial soaps are no better than the conventional kind, so any soap will do.

3. Turn off the tap (to save water).

4. Rub your hands together to lather the soap on them. Don’t neglect the back of your hands or the space between your fingers, and be sure to soap under your nails. Work for at least 20 seconds (about the time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice).

5. Turn the tap back on and rinse your hands. Yes, you’ll have to touch the faucet handle again to do it, but the CDC says there’s little reason to worry about contamination from that.

6. Dry your hands with a clean towel (paper or cloth), or air dry them.

Hand sanitizers are another option, but the CDC says they’re only your best chance if you can’t get to a sink. There isn’t much research pitting hand washing against hand sanitizing, but a 2019 study found that simple washing removed the flu virus from hands better than using an alcohol-based gel did. However, the subjects using the sanitizer merely placed it on their skin—they didn’t rub it in, as most sanitizer brands instruct you to do.

Although they’re extreme examples, and mostly relevant when dealing with pandemics, social distancing and quarantine are other effective methods of staying germ-free as well. Surgical masks have been found to be helpful as a barrier, lessening the spread of germs to others when the wearer is sick, but they won’t do much to prevent you from breathing particles in, or contacting them by touch. The U.S. Surgeon General warns not to use them, so that they can be reserved for healthcare providers.

#3 Stimulate Immune Health

What you eat and supplement can make a big difference in your immune responses. For optimal immune health, fruits, vegetables, grains, and mushrooms should be staples in your diet, and the more different colors you can include on your plate, the better. Colorful produce is rich in phytonutrients—plant compounds that have antioxidants (such as Vitamins A, C, and E) or antioxidant-like properties, both of which fight free radicals.

In particular, pay attention to citrus fruits, which are loaded with Vitamin C. One of the best researched and most potent antioxidants, Vitamin C helps maintain cellular integrity—that is, aiding the cell membranes in keeping foreign bodies out. The vitamin is also an important component of blood vessels, ligaments, and bone, helps the body synthesize carnitine (an energy-producing amino acid), and supports the production of neurotransmitters (the body’s chemical messengers).

One type of food you’re almost certainly not getting enough of is mushrooms. Packed with a variety of beneficial compounds, they’re an underrated immune-supporting resource. Mushrooms also offer polysaccharides, compounds that serve as a prebiotic, acting as food for the good bacteria in your gut that eat the bad kind that can get you sick. One polysaccharide in particular, beta-glucan, helps the immune system through another mechanism as well.

Your body doesn’t recognize beta-glucan as food when you consume it. It’s safe to ingest, but your system assumes it’s dangerous. This promotes an immune system response in an attempt to protect you from beta-glucan, just like it was a foreign invader. As a result, your immune defenses go on high alert, and can help neutralize other potential threats to your body before they run you down.

Chaga is a type of mushroom, usually found as a tea or supplement, that should be on your shopping list. It has been shown to be particularly helpful for maintaining cell integrity.

Don’t neglect foods that come as a side, or seasoning for your main dish. Research shows that two commonly used spices, ginger and turmeric, can be beneficial when eaten or supplemented. A review in the International Journal of Preventive Medicine showed ginger helps the body clear away oxidative stress, while a Journal of Clinical Immunology review indicated that, thanks to its curcumin content, turmeric’s ability to promote immune system function is “beyond doubt.”

The way you prepare your food can greatly impact its health potential. Vegetable oils consisting of polyunsaturated fats are not stable at high temperatures, and will oxidize when you cook with them, creating free radicals. Saturated fat sources, such as coconut oil, MCT oil, and butter, remain stable at high heat, and are therefore better choices (1, 2, 3). Furthermore, coconut oil and MCT oil contain antimicrobial and antifungal properties that may help support immune resistance as well.

This isn’t to say that all microbes need to be killed off. Remember that there’s good bacteria too, and the type that live in your gut have a major say in how your immune system works. As a matter of fact, some 70% of the body’s immunity-supporting cells reside in the gut. Called probiotics, you can boost their number by eating more fermented foods, like yogurt, or taking probiotic supplements. Probiotics help maintain immune health by gobbling up pathogenic bacteria and enhancing the quality of your body’s mucus, in effect, creating a better trap for invaders to get caught in, and then flushed out by. One powerful probiotic technically isn’t a probiotic at all, but functions like one. Saccharomyces boulardii is a yeast found in lychee fruit and mangosteen, but is more readily available in supplement form. It helps the body produce antibodies (the cells that prevent you from getting sick again from the same invaders), and supports communication between cells in the immune system, allowing for a better-orchestrated immune response.

Lastly, working out—in addition to all the good it does your muscles, heart, bones, and connective tissues for overall longevity—plays several roles in keeping you out of a sick bed. Though not conclusively proven, scientists at the National Institutes of Health theorize that physical activity may help flush bacteria out of the lungs and airways, cause white blood cells to circulate more rapidly, and slow down the release of stress hormones. The brief but significant rise in body temperature you get from exercise may also help prevent bacteria from multiplying—similar to a fever.

So, unless you’re already sick, keep exercising!

The post How To Support A Strong Immune System appeared first on Onnit Academy.

But beef has another opponent to contend with, and it’s been here for centuries: bison.

Similar to beef both nutritionally and in terms of flavor, buffalo meat is an alternative to the cow (incidentally, “bison” is technically the correct term for the animal, but it’s come to be used interchangeably with “buffalo”).

Both bison and beef can be part of a healthy diet. But if you had to pick one big animal to take a bite out of, which one should you choose?

We compared beef and buffalo in every important category to determine the alpha protein on the range.

Is Bison Better than Beef?

*There are many cuts of both bison and beef available. To equate them as closely as possible, we chose top sirloin—a very lean cut preferred by athletes—for the macronutrients in the table. Also, as bison is mainly raised on pasture, we went with grass-fed beef in the example to match it. In other words, the table compares buffalo to the very best the beef world has to offer. More commonly found conventional beef would have approximately 230 calories, 23g protein, and 15g fat per four-ounce serving.

WINNER: Bison

Why Bison Wins (By A Horn)

Buffalo Meat is Better Quality

Across all cuts, buffalo meat is lower in calories and fat than beef is, and higher in protein. A three to four-ounce serving of bison ribeye has 177 calories, 6 grams fat, and 30 grams protein compared to a typical beef ribeye, which contains 265 calories, 17 grams fat, and 27 grams protein. According to the USDA, bison burgers have 152 calories and 7 grams fat, which is less than even a 90% lean beef burger (184 calories and 10 grams fat) and a 93% lean turkey burger (176 calories and 10 grams fat). Bison offers more omega-3 fats than beef, and a better omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.

Bison doesn’t give up any micronutrition to beef either. It’s higher in B vitamins than beef—critical nutrients that support energy levels, memory, and mood—as well as copper, potassium, and zinc. Reader’s Digest even recommended it as one of the best sources of iron for pregnant women, who tend to be anemic more often than men due to menstruation.

Research supports bison as being heart-healthier too. A study published in Nutrition Research in 2013 compared the effects of consuming bison versus beef. Ten healthy men ate 12 ounces of either beef or bison per day, six days per week, for seven weeks. Then, after a 30-day “washout” to clear their systems, the bison-eaters switched to beef and vice versa for another seven weeks. Researchers concluded that “in terms of vascular health, bison meat appears to provide a healthier alternative to red meat.” In fact, after a single beef meal, harmful oxidized LDL cholesterol levels were elevated. The same changes did not occur after eating buffalo.

If you’re concerned about how your meat was raised (and you should be), bison is the safer choice every time. “All bison spend the majority of their life grazing on pasture,” says Dave Carter, Executive Director of the National Bison Association, a non-profit organization of bison producers. “Some are finished with grain, sometimes in a feedlot,” meaning that they’ll eat grain feed just as most cows do to fatten them up a bit in the last few months before slaughter so they yield more meat. But Carter says that, even if the bison are forced to spend some time fenced in, they get a lot more space than cows do. Bison aren’t as easily controlled as cattle, so it’s much harder for ranchers to keep them in confined quarters like cows are where they can be mistreated and develop diseases.

In fact, it’s more advantageous for buffalo ranchers to treat their livestock well. “If there’s stress on the animal, it won’t produce good meat,” says Carter. “One thing you can be sure of with all bison is that it’s produced without growth hormones or antibiotics. It’s illegal to use them. And most of the bison producers have independent auditors come in to test them.”

OK, But How Do I Cook Bison?

Buffalo meat is drier than beef due to its leanness, so it cooks faster. Carter recommends salting it and brushing it with olive oil to lock in the natural juices. Then be careful not to cook it past medium or it will be too tough. “The biggest mistake is that people dump on so many seasonings they lose the great bison taste,” says Carter, so keep it simple. “If you’re going to pay a premium for bison meat, you should taste it.”

Raising Buffalo is Better for the Environment

According to Carter, 30–40% of ecosystems around the world are grasslands. These draw in carbon, taking it out of the atmosphere and producing oxygen, thereby fighting climate change. “Whether it’s the high plains of North America or the Sahara in Africa, they evolved with grazing animals. These animals get a black eye for being so-called terrible carbon producers, but if you didn’t have them, the environment would collapse.”

Carter says grasslands overgrow, creating 30% more matter than can decompose every year. Without bison to chew some of it up, “grassland will essentially choke itself out.” To be fair, buffalo do fart out carbon just as cows do, but there are far fewer of them—there are a mere 500,000 in the U.S. versus nearly 100 million head of cattle. And bison consume less. “It takes 35 acres to support one cow,” says Carter. Bison by nature must eat different grasses at different times of the year, so the animals are cycled through grazing lands, which promotes sustainability.

Furthermore, Carter says bison are better designed by nature to care for the earth. “Bison hooves are more pointed than cattle hooves, so they tend to stir the soil and push seeds down further. Their bodies make depressions in the ground that capture moisture and return it to the soil.” Buffalo drink less water than cattle and are more resistant to extreme weather, so they can forage for their own food even in a harsh winter and don’t require the same amount of resources that cows do.

Buying Bison Can Support Native Americans

 

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the @soilnotoilcoalition International Conference this weekend, @tankafund is focused on putting buffalo and prairie restoration front and center as a solution to climate destabilization. Let’s go beyond organic, grass-fed, beyond local. Let’s re-indigenize our food systems and landscapes! #reindigenize #restoreandrenew #supportthereturn #bringbackbuffalo

A post shared by Tanka Fund (@tankafund) on Aug 2, 2016 at 12:21pm PDT

Bison were the staple food of Native American tribes until the latter half of the 19th century, when their population was decimated by disease (brought over from European cattle, says Carter), reckless over-hunting, and anti-Indian U.S. government policy at the time. As a result, the health, culture, and economy of Native Americans has suffered since. Fortunately, a large contingent of the bison industry supports the restoration of bison on Native American land and the resurgence of their community.

The Tanka Fund, created through a partnership between Native American Natural Foods (NANF) and the Indian Land Tenure Foundation, develops the assets needed to supply land to Native Americans to raise their own bison and bring it to market. Their goal is to convert one million acres of land to Native American buffalo producers in order to benefit tribal nations.  You can make a donation at the link found here

https://tankafund.org/return/

Resources

1. National Bison Association

https://www.bisoncentral.com/

2. Bison edges beef in nutrition study

https://www.research.va.gov/currents/summer2013/summer2013-10.cfm

3. 5 Super Foods For Women

https://www.rd.com/health/healthy-eating/5-super-foods-for-women/

4. Feeding Bison

https://extension.usu.edu/behave/files/uploads/Bison-Choice/Feeding%20bison.pdf

The post Bison vs Beef – Which Red Meat Reigns Supreme? appeared first on Onnit Academy.

– Vitamin D is an unusual vitamin because it acts like a hormone in your body. It helps the bones absorb calcium, supports the immune system and may aid strength gain and fat loss.

– Vitamin D is made in the body when your skin absorbs ultraviolet light, but most people don’t get enough sunlight to reach adequate levels

– Deficiency of vitamin D is common, so consuming a D supplement may be beneficial

– The D3 version of the vitamin is absorbed better than D2, making it a wiser choice for supplementation

What Is Vitamin D?

While classified as a vitamin, D is unique among vitamins in a few different ways. For one thing, your body makes it itself when it’s exposed to sunlight. For another, it behaves like a steroid in the body (no, not that kind of steroid), meaning that it can turn genes on and off. This makes vitamin D an especially powerful nutrient with many potential influences on your health.

When your skin absorbs ultraviolet radiation, a cholesterol precursor in your body is converted to vitamin D3 (one type of D vitamin). However, it’s difficult for most people to get the amount of vitamin D they need from the sun alone. Fortunately, vitamin D is available in food, and many other foods are fortified with it. Nevertheless, vitamin D deficiency is common, and a serious threat to health (see Do I Have A Vitamin D Deficiency? below).

Vitamin D is fat soluble, meaning that it dissolves in fats and oils, and can be stored in the body for long periods. For years, scientists have known that Vitamin D promotes the absorption of calcium and phosphate from the food in your gut, making it a key supporter of bone health. More recently, D has also gotten credit for the role it plays in muscle strength and performance, nerve transmissions, and immune health.

How Do Vitamin D2 and D3 Differ?

There are two main kinds of vitamin D—D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol). D2 is found in plant foods, including fungi like mushrooms and yeasts. D3 is only available in animal foods, and it’s the type of vitamin D your body makes on its own when it’s exposed to UV light.

D2 is inexpensive to produce, so it’s often added to foods—such as milk—to boost their vitamin D content. However, D2 is not as well absorbed by the body as D3. Some studies indicate that D3 may be almost twice as effective at raising levels of vitamin D in the blood as D2 (1, 2, 3). If you supplement with vitamin D to achieve optimal levels, nutrition experts generally recommend choosing vitamin D3 supplements.

According to an American Journal of Clinical Nutrition report, medical literature regarded D2 and D3 “as equivalent and interchangeable” for many years, “yet this presumption of equivalence is based on studies of rickets prevention in infants conducted 70 years ago… 

Despite an emerging body of evidence suggesting several plausible explanations for the greater bioefficacy of vitamin D3, the form of vitamin D used in major preparations of prescriptions in North America is vitamin D2.”

In addition to failing to raise blood levels of the vitamin as well as D3, D2 also has a shorter shelf life. Therefore, the Journal concludes, D2 “should not be regarded as a nutrient suitable for supplementation or fortification.” However, some D2 supplements are oil-based, and may be more shelf-stable and bioavailable as a result. More research is needed to see how they compare to D3, but, in the meantime, D3 supps seem to be the smarter alternative.

What Does Vitamin D Do For the Body?

Due to vitamin D’s ability to act like a hormone in the body, it has the ability to support multiple aspects of health. While it’s long been known to help regulate bone health and growth, D has also been linked to the following.

Strength

A 2015 meta-analysis of seven studies found that vitamin D supplementation significantly aided gains in upper- and lower-limb strength. The subjects ranged from 18 to 40 years of age. 

Weight Management 

A 2014 study in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition followed overweight and obese women on a diet and exercise routine for one year. Half the subjects received a vitamin D supplement, and the other half a placebo. Researchers found that the ones who got up to healthy vitamin D levels lost more weight than the placebo group—by an average of seven pounds.

Meanwhile, another study in Nutrition Journal showed that women who took vitamin D for 12 weeks didn’t lose weight, but their body fat percentages did go down, indicating that D may have helped with recomposition.

Immune Health

Innate immunity is the term used to describe the body’s general defense mechanisms—the ones that turn on when it senses that an unwelcome invader has entered your system. Barriers, such as the skin, and white blood cells—the body’s soldiers in the war against a pathogen—are examples of your innate immune defenses.

Adaptive immunity refers to the immune responses that are specific to a particular antigen (any foreign substance your body wants to get rid of). These include the antibodies you develop when you’re recovering from a cold, so that the same virus doesn’t make you sick again in the future.

Vitamin D has been shown to help modulate both innate and adaptive immune responses (The Journal of Investigative Medicine), supporting a strong immune system. In 2017, a review published in the British Journal of Medicine analyzed 11,321 people from 14 different countries. It concluded that vitamin D supplementation helped promote immunity in both subjects who were deficient in the vitamin, as well as those who had healthy levels.

At the same time, a lack of D in the diet can wreak havoc on health.

One study published in Archives of Internal Medicine followed 19,000 subjects for six years. Those with lower vitamin D levels were more likely to report upper respiratory health issues than those who were getting sufficient D. Meanwhile, a review in the Journal of Investigative Medicine explains that a D deficiency is associated with increased susceptibility to health issues.

Do I Have A Vitamin D Deficiency?

Most people living in first-world countries don’t have many vitamin deficiencies. We can get most of the nutrients we need through food alone, and many foods have vitamins added to them to ensure that we get enough. Vitamin D deficiency, however, is still rampant, even among otherwise healthy people.

The main reason why is lack of sun exposure. Contrary to what you might think, just walking around outside on a sunny day usually isn’t enough, even if you live on a tropical island. Clouds and shade dramatically cut down on ultraviolet light—the stuff that your skin needs to produce vitamin D—and window glass blocks it completely. Furthermore, the National Institutes of Health explain that wearing sunscreen with an SPF of eight or more won’t allow your body to absorb enough light to make D, although it’s obviously important to use some anyway to avoid sunburn and long-term skin damage.

Ethnicity also plays a factor. Melanin is a pigment that darkens the skin, but it also reduces the skin’s ability to absorb vitamin D. African Americans and Hispanics typically have more melanin than white people, so they tend to be more deficient.

A Nutrition Research study concluded that more than 41% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D. African Americans and Hispanics are most at risk, as 82% and 69% are deficient, respectively. The study went on to say that, “deficiency was significantly more common among those who had no college education, were obese, with a poor health status, hypertension, low [HDL] cholesterol level, or not consuming milk daily.”

Looking more closely at obese populations, the National Institutes of Health observe that “obesity does not affect skin’s capacity to synthesize vitamin D, but greater amounts of subcutaneous fat sequester more of the vitamin and alter its release into the circulation.” Even if an obese person gets bypass surgery to aid weight loss, his/her vitamin D levels will still be suspect, as the part of the small intestine that absorbs D is bypassed.

Senior citizens are also in jeopardy. A trial in the American Journal of Geriatric Pharmacotherapy stated that elderly subjects had insufficient D levels, “despite vitamin D intake consistent with national recommendations.”

Just what the recommended D dose should be is a subject of great debate. The current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D is 15 micrograms, or 600 IU, for people up to age 70. (Folks older than that need 20 micrograms, or 800 IU.) A serving or two of fatty fish, such as salmon or trout, should have it covered. However, these recs might be very optimistic. A review of vitamin D studies in Nutrients accuses the current RDA of being flat out inaccurate because of an error in math. It concludes that, “With the current recommendation of 600 IU, bone health objectives and disease and injury prevention targets will not be met.” The appropriate IU, the researchers assert, may be many times more than what is currently advised.

Evidence published in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology agrees, suggesting that significantly higher doses, such as a minimum of 25 micrograms/1000 IU of D is more appropriate. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism also explains that at least 1,500–2,000 IU per day may be necessary for adults, and at least 1,000 IU for children and teens. The Linus Pauling Institute echoes these numbers as well.

If reading all this has sent you scrambling to the cabinet for your multivitamins, your next question may be, “how much vitamin D is too much?” The National Institutes of Health say you can probably get as much as 100 micrograms/4,000 IU before you see side effects, which may include nausea, poor appetite, weakness, and weight loss. Vitamin D toxicity is rare, however, and it mainly comes from overuse of vitamin supplements. (You can’t get too much D from the sun, as your body will shut down production before then.) One review showed that there were no health risks associated with consuming 1,800–4,000 IU of D daily.

Whatever the optimal D dose may be, it seems fair to assume that we should all get our levels tested and, if low, aim to take in more. An article in the Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine calls vitamin D deficiency “pandemic,” noting that health organizations worldwide are refocusing on the importance of D due to the discovery that “vitamin D receptors are present in nearly every tissue and cell in the body and that adequate vitamin D status is essential for optimal functioning of these tissues and cells.” It concludes that it is “imperative that all individuals be encouraged to obtain vitamin D from either sunlight or supplementation.”

What Are The Best Sources of Vitamin D?

It’s hard to get enough vitamin D from sunshine, but it’s even harder to get it from food—at least the way most people eat. The best source of dietary D is from fish livers, such as cod liver oil, but now ask yourself… when was the last time you ate cod liver oil?

Mackerel, salmon, sardines, swordfish, trout, and tuna all offer D, as do mushrooms and eggs. If you eat them regularly, you’ll meet the government-recommended requirement, but if you’re in the camp that thinks 600 IU is too low, you’ll need to be more aggressive to hit your D goals. Dairy products and cereals are fortified with vitamin D, which helps, but one review, and Harvard University, determined that supplementation with a multivitamin or concentrated vitamin D capsule provides a better insurance policy.

Of course, you shouldn’t completely avoid the sun. According to a report in Alternative Medicine Review, “the health benefits accruing from moderate UV irradiation, without erythema [reddening of the skin] or excess tanning, greatly outweigh the health risks, with skin pigmentation (melanin) providing much of the protection.”

The National Institutes of Health note that getting five to 30 minutes of sun on the face, arms, back, or legs—without sunscreen and between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at least twice a week—is usually enough to promote sufficient vitamin D synthesis in the skin. However, sun exposure, especially at these hours, can be difficult to get, and particularly during winter time, or during work weeks with a busy schedule. This is why scientists frequently recommend supplementation.

Why Take Vitamin D and K?

Vitamin K has similarities with vitamin D. It’s fat-soluble, found in egg yolks and liver, as well as some plant foods, and, like vitamin D, it assists calcium in promoting strong bones. K works with D to make sure calcium gets where it needs to go without causing a problem.

Here’s what we mean: your blood levels of calcium need to stay at a certain level. When you don’t get enough calcium from your diet, one of vitamin D’s functions is to take it from your bones and move it into your bloodstream. Obviously, this isn’t ideal, but if you generally get enough calcium in your diet, it isn’t cause for concern.

While D takes calcium from your bones, it doesn’t control where it ends up in the body. Vitamin K steps in as a protective measure, seeing that the calcium doesn’t accumulate in places that could be dangerous, such as the blood vessels or kidneys. For this reason, some people believe that any vitamin D you take should be supplemented with vitamin K. In cases where vitamin D intake was too high, some subjects ended up with too much calcium in their blood, suggesting that, if taken, vitamin K might have helped to regulate the buildup and prevent the problem.

But to date, there’s no compelling evidence to show that any of the aforementioned recommended doses of vitamin D are harmful with or without vitamin K in tow. If it turns out that the two should be taken together, however, chances are that you’re already covered. Unlike vitamin D, vitamin K is available in large amounts in many commonly eaten foods, such as spinach, parsley, kale, and soft cheeses. And because K is fat-soluble, it will last in your body a while after each serving.

The post Vitamin D Vs. Vitamin D3: What You Should Know appeared first on Onnit Academy.

What Are Probiotics?

Probiotics are often called “good bacteria”. They are living microorganisms that may have positive impacts on various aspects of your health, depending on the type of probiotic strain and the dose taken. 

While your body is made up of millions of bacteria, your digestive system is home to your gut microbiome, a community of bacteria that is unique to you from before birth. Research indicates that your microbiome is altered throughout your life by your lifestyle and personal habits. For instance, the places you spend time, your environmental exposures, your diet, how much you exercise, the medications you take, other health conditions, and even mental stress can influence what your microbiome looks like. As such, your gut bacteria typically looks very different from that of people around you, especially if you lead very different lifestyles. 

The primary reason most people take probiotics is to support their digestive health. For example, many people turn to probiotics in hopes of helping gas and abdominal bloating, diarrhea, or other mild symptoms of an upset stomach. 

Furthermore, the gut-mind connection is a well-researched relationship. It’s often said that health begins in your gut, which means that keeping your digestive system healthy may support your wellbeing in other areas, too. For instance, probiotics have also been studied for their potential to support healthy weight loss. 

Most probiotics contain at least two species of bacteria, which are primarily Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium. It’s likely that different strains can act differently in the body and have different results on health. 

You can find probiotics in several different forms. For example, many probiotic supplements come in a capsule or powder. 

Others can be found in fermented foods and functional beverages, such as: 

• Probiotic juices that have good bacteria strains added to them
• Kefir, made by adding kefir grain cultures of lactic acid bacteria and yeast to milk
• Kombucha, a carbonated, fermented drink made with green or black tea 
• Yogurt, made from dairy or nondairy milk that has been fermented by good bacteria 
• Tempeh, a fermented soybean patty 
• Natto, a sticky fermented soybean product that contains Bacillus subtilis bacteria 
• Pickles, made by cucumbers fermented with their own lactic acid bacteria in a salt and water solution (note that if pickles are made with vinegar, they are not fermented and therefore do not contain probiotics)
• Miso, a fermented soybean paste made with salt and koji fungus 
• Sauerkraut, or shredded cabbage (often with other vegetables) fermented by lactic acid bacteria
• Kimchi, a fermented spicy cabbage product 
• Some cheeses, like cottage cheese, Gouda, cheddar, and mozzarella, which typically maintain their good bacteria through the aging process 

How Can Probiotics Help My Digestive System?

With so many factors potentially altering your digestive bacteria on a daily basis, it can be helpful to keep the good bacteria in your microbiome in top fighting shape. Probiotics are an easy way to add more good bacteria colonies to your gut microbiome. 

Research suggests that probiotics may be helpful for diarrhea often associated with the use of antibiotics prescribed for bacterial infections. Because antibiotics can kill off both bad and good bacteria in your gut, probiotics may act as a buffer, populating your gut with more good bacteria at the same time. The probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii may be particularly helpful for this purpose.

For women specifically, utilizing probiotics (especially L. acidophilus) may also benefit conditions like bacterial vaginosis, complicated vulvovaginal candidiasis, and urinary tract infections caused by imbalances. Much of these imbalances stem from a lack of lactobacilli or an overgrowth of other types of bacteria, and can be worsened by the use of antibiotics typically prescribed for them. Probiotics may target certain imbalances and modify the inner vaginal microbiome for women. 

Regularly adding probiotics to your diet can help maintain a healthy ratio of good bacteria in your gut. This can, in turn, support your immune system, as well as your digestive and mental health. In fact, Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus may positively impact obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and anxiety – again, because of the gut-brain connection.

What is the Most Effective Probiotic?

The most effective probiotic for you can depend on a number of factors, such as the strain of bacteria in the product, how many bacteria it contains, how the probiotic is stored, whether the product contains prebiotics, and what condition you’re looking to target. 

Sources that contain both probiotics and prebiotics can be a good choice, as the latter acts as fuel for the good bacteria. 

A 2018 review published in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology concluded that, based on current evidence, probiotics appear to be most effective for the following conditions:

• Necrotizing enterocolitis, a disease in which bacteria attack (and can ultimately destroy) the intestine of premature infants 
• Acute infectious diarrhea, which can be caused by bacteria, viruses, or sometimes parasites 
• Acute respiratory tract infections, a contagious infection of your upper respiratory tract, such as the common cold or sinusitis
• Antibiotic-associated diarrhea, caused by the use of antibiotics that kill off gut bacteria 
• Infant colic, or periods of fussiness in otherwise healthy and happy babies, likely related at least in part to digestive discomfort

It’s also important to keep in mind that probiotics may work differently for males and females, but more research is needed to determine specifically how much. Some research indicates that probiotics may be more effective in supporting long-term weight loss for females. 

Because there is so much heterogeneity among evidence for probiotic effectiveness, depending on their strain, composition, dosing, and intention, more research is needed specific to probiotics and their applications in women’s health. 

Although more studies are needed, below are some of the strains and digestive complaints they may be most helpful for based on current research:

• Constipation: B. longum, S. cerevisiae and a combination of L. acidophilus, L. reuteri, L. plantarum, L. rhamnosus and B. animalis
• Diarrhea: L. rhamnosus GG, L. acidophilus, and L. bulgaricus

How Often Should I Take Probiotics?

If you’re new to taking probiotics, be aware that they might cause side effects like bloating, gas, or loose stools. These typically go away within a few days. It might help to start with a smaller dose than recommended and slowly increase as tolerated. 

Recommendations for how often to take probiotics vary. Some research suggests that taking a dose of between 5-10 billion colony forming units (CFUs) once per day is more effective than lower doses. 

How long you should take probiotics likely also depends on the condition you’re trying to help. For intermittent issues like constipation, taking probiotics until the issue is resolved is usually recommended. For more chronic conditions like irritable bowel syndrome, your health provider may suggest using probiotics more frequently or for longer durations. 

It may not make sense to take probiotic supplements every single day like you might a multivitamin. However, incorporating probiotic food sources in your routine on a more regular basis, and taking probiotic supplements as needed, may support an overall healthy microbiome. 

If you have an underlying immune condition, illness, or are unsure which strain to try, it’s always best to speak with your healthcare provider before adding anything new to your routine, including probiotics. 

How Do Prebiotics Differ From Probiotics?

Prebiotics can be considered a food or fertilizer for probiotics and gut bacteria. They’re a dietary fiber that your body cannot digest. Prebiotics may specifically benefit your health by supporting normal metabolism and digestion.

While many probiotic supplements also contain prebiotics, prebiotics can also be found naturally in a variety of foods. Some foods that offer prebiotics include garlic, leeks, onions, asparagus, barley, bananas, Jerusalem artichokes, oats, cocoa, apples, flax seed, jicama, and seaweed. Chicory root is often added to probiotic products as a source of prebiotics. 

Best Probiotics for Women’s Health

There’s no evidence that adding probiotics to your regular routine is harmful to your health, and there are many potential benefits they may offer. When it comes to women’s health, probiotics may not only help certain stomach woes, but also support the health and balance of your vaginal microbiome. 

The post The Best Probiotics for Women in 2020 appeared first on Onnit Academy.

The problem is that they don’t get their energy from the right foods. When you follow a carbohydrate-based diet, your blood sugar rises and falls sharply with every meal. When it goes down, so does your energy—this is the crash you feel shortly after lunchtime that makes you want to fall asleep at work in the afternoon.

By reducing the amount of carbs you eat and replacing them with healthy sources of fat, you can stabilize blood sugar and enjoy steady energy and greater mental focus all day. These are two characteristics of a ketogenic diet, the ultimate version of a low-carb approach to nutrition that’s also a great strategy for losing weight, preventing or fighting serious illness, and promoting a myriad of other health benefits.

Let this guide answer all your questions about how to “go keto,” from the original strict diet that started the low-carb craze to the modern, more flexible adaptations that may better serve athletes and people looking to adopt healthier eating habits.

What Is A Ketogenic Diet?

Like the Atkins Diet, a ketogenic diet is very low in carbs, however, the difference is that—in a ketogenic diet—the majority of calories come from fat and protein intake is lower. Here’s how it works: Most people take in the bulk of their calories from carbs, so when you restrict carb intake and increase your fats, you send the body the message that it must switch fuel sources. The liver begins to convert fat—both the fat you eat and the body fat you store—into molecules called ketones. When the number of ketones rises to a certain level in your blood stream, you are officially in a state of “ketosis.” At this point, your body uses fat as its primary energy source.

The medically-defined ketogenic diet has 75% of daily calorie intake come from fat, 20% from protein, and 5% from carbs. However, most of the benefits of ketosis can be achieved with additional, moderate amounts of carbohydrate, taken in post-exercise. The medical model of five percent carbohydrate is unnecessarily restrictive—especially if you exercise.

A modified version where 40–60% of your calories come from fat, 20–40% come from protein, and the remaining 20% from carbs typically works great for most people. (See “I Work Out. Is A Ketogenic Diet Right For Me?”) We call this approach—which appears to be more practical and sustainable for most—Mod Keto, and use that term to refer to those numbers throughout this article. While it may not technically put you into ketosis, you’ll keep insulin low enough to promote fat loss (see below) and mental focus while still having enough energy for hard workouts. Maybe best of all, you’ll enjoy the freedom to eat a wider breadth of food than you could on a classic ketogenic diet.

Where Does The Ketogenic Diet Come From?

People have inadvertently followed ketogenic diets for as long as they’ve walked the earth. Before the advent of agriculture, when humans had to hunt and gather their food, it was common to fast for long periods and then take in mostly fat and protein foods, with only limited carbohydrates coming from berries and vegetables. Avoiding food—particularly carbs—for long periods makes your body think that food is scarce, and it responds by making several adjustments to become more efficient with your energy. You don’t have to fast to make a ketogenic diet effective, but the two are often done in combination for the best results.

Suprisingly, Research has found that ketogenic diets have been formally prescribed to treat epilepsy since before 500 B.C. In the 1920s, they were adopted by Johns Hopkins Medical Center as a means of treating epileptic children, and have been used there ever since. In recent years, ketogenic diets have been investigated for their potential in treating several diseases (see “What Are The Health Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet?”)

How Will a Ketogenic Diet Help Me Lose Weight?

Since you begin to burn more fat for fuel, ketogenic diets make losing pure body fat much easier.

There’s a hormonal component at play too. When you eat carbs, your blood sugar (glucose) rises sharply. It rises when you eat anything, but carbs convert most quickly to glucose. The pancreas releases insulin to take excess sugar out of the bloodstream, storing most of it as fat. Because ketogenic diets minimize carb intake, insulin levels are kept low, limiting the calories that can be stored in your fat cells.

This is often cited as a reason why ketogenic diets tend to outperform low-fat diets in clinical trials. A study in the journal Lipids found that ketogenic dieters lost almost twice as much weight as a group following a low-fat diet over 12 weeks, even though calorie intake in both groups was the same. Incredibly, ketogenic diets often promote weight loss even when calories aren’t controlled. A trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine allowed a keto group to consume as many protein and fat-rich foods as they wanted, while the low-fat dieters had to restrict their calories. After six months, the low-carb eaters enjoyed significantly greater weight loss, and still slightly more after a whole year.

If this makes you question the old adage that “a calorie is a calorie,” and that it’s the overall number of calories you eat that determines whether you gain or lose weight, you’re right to be skeptical. A study from Nutrition & Metabolism had subjects follow either a ketogenic diet or a low-fat diet and then switch diets for the same amount of time (50 days for the men in the study; 30 days for the women). In each case, the participants tried to cut 500 calories from what they had been eating, but in the keto approach, the men ended up eating significantly more. Nevertheless, cutting carbs worked better for losing fat for both men and women across the board. More impressive still is the fact that the men lost three times as much fat directly from around their waists as they did dieting on low fat.

Results are one thing, but no diet will work long-term if it makes you miserable to follow it. You’ll quit, return to your old ways of eating, and regain the weight. But this is where a ketogenic or Mod Keto approach really shines. Fats and proteins are highly satiating; eating them keeps you feeling fuller, so you’re less likely to feel like you’re “starving”—even when your calories are low—and you break your diet to pig out. A study in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association on overweight women found that not only did they lose more weight on keto than they did with a higher-carb, lower-fat plan, they reported feeling less hungry throughout the diet.

As we recently reported in our rebuttal to the Netflix documentary What The Health, two of the earliest studies that compared the effects of carb- and fat-based diets found strikingly different outcomes in how the subjects felt and behaved. Although calories were equal for both groups, the high-carb gang complained of being lethargic and depressed, while the high-fat eaters remained energetic and satiated from their meals.

What Are The Health Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet?

Apart from all the pros that come with dropping body fat, a ketogenic diet can improve several other aspects of health and even treat serious disease. A ketogenic diet can…

1. Increase focus

As we alluded to in the beginning, a carb-rich diet puts your blood sugar on a roller coaster ride all day. When it’s down, so is your ability think clearly and focus, colloquially known as “brain fog.” There hasn’t been much research on the ketogenic diet’s effect on brain fog in healthy people, but the first thing most notice after they cut carbs (even in the first day) is clearer thinking and a better attention span (that is, until they come down with the “keto flu”—see below—which is very temporary).

Ultimately, once you’re in ketosis, the brain can get 70% of its energy from ketones, so pay no attention to rumors you’ve heard that the brain “runs on carbs” and your IQ will drop when you cut them out. In addition, your body is adept at generating any additional glucose necessary through a process called gluconeogenesis.  Some find that they’re so alert on low carbs that they don’t need coffee in the morning.

2. Benefits for Epileptics

Since ketogenic diets promote better thinking, it shouldn’t be surprising to find that they have other positive effects on the brain too. Epilepsy is a brain disease that causes seizures and loss of consciousness. Research has shown that a ketogenic diet can help reduce symptoms in about half of epileptic patients. Furthermore, a study in The Lancet found that children who followed a ketogenic diet for three months—and previously hadn’t responded to medication—saw their seizures decrease by an average of 75%.

3. Benefits to Cancer Therapy

Cancers thrive under high-glucose conditions where there is a lot of sugar in the bloodstream. It stands to reason then that reducing glucose levels would help to combat cancer cells. This is one theory behind why ketogenic diets are effective for treating tumors, particularly in the brain and digestive tract. A 2015 article in the International Journal of Biochemistry and Cell Biology sums up the findings of multiple studies on ketogenic diets and cancer with the following: “there is increasing evidence that the ketogenic diet may also be beneficial as an adjuvant cancer therapy by potentiating the antitumor effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.”

4. Benefits for Cardiovascular Health

Based on mainstream media fear mongering, you might think that a diet high in meat and animal products could damage your heart, but research on ketogenic diets shows the opposite. A review of studies that pitted low-carb and low-fat diets against each other for better heart health found that the low-carb approach was more effective for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease after six months and at least as effective (if not more) after 12 months. A 2012 meta-analysis in Obesity Reviews—23 studies examined; data collected from more than 1,100 subjects—confirmed the favorable effects of keto dieting on major cardiovascular risk factors.

5. Benefits for Skin Health

Remember when your mom would tell you that your zits were caused by all the junk food you ate? She may not have been crazy after all. A 2012 review in Skin Pharmacology and Physiology concluded that a ketogenic diet used as a short-term intervention (30–60 days) can support hormone levels that affect acne.

6. Eliminate Food Allergens From Diet

Many people have allergies or intolerances to the gluten in wheat, as well as beans and sugary foods, without even realizing it. They assume that digestive problems and brain fog are a normal part of life, but they don’t have to be. As these foods aren’t allowed on a ketogenic diet, you may notice near-instant relief upon eliminating them. See “What Can’t I Eat On A Ketogenic Diet” for a full list of banned foods.

What Can I Eat On A Ketogenic Diet?

In short, lots of fat and protein. Many times, when ketogenic diets are prescribed, dieters aren’t asked to restrict their intake of either nutrient in any way—that includes letting people eat as many saturated fats as they like. Although there are exceptions, many people find that relying on fat and protein keeps them satisfied to the point where they don’t feel the need to eat a lot of food. They don’t overeat, so they don’t have to keep close watch of their calories.

One of the great pleasures that a ketogenic diet offers is the liberal consumption of classic “guy foods.” You’re free to eat burgers (as long as they’re without a bun), cheese, and even bacon—provided that you’re sourcing them from high-quality, organic, suppliers. Here’s a list of the main food sources that get the keto stamp of approval.

Meat

Classic ketogenic diets don’t make any distinction about the quality and sourcing of your meats. Most diet researchers who are looking to help people lose weight quickly in a clinical setting don’t care if they eat grass-fed organic beef versus ground chuck that comes from a feedlot—but we do. There are proven nutritional benefits to consuming naturally sourced vs. conventional meats, especially in the long term. Do your best to eat organic, pasture-raised meats: red meat, chicken and turkey, and game meats. The Mod Keto diet we like uses these whenever possible.

Whole eggs

Preferably from pasture-raised hens and high in omega-3 fats (for the same reasons as organic meat).

Fish

Always wild caught if possible and the fattier the better. Salmon, trout, mackerel, and sardines are popular choices, whereas the larger predatory fish like tuna and swordfish are typically high in toxic metals like mercury and should be avoided most of the time.

Dairy

Organic and from grass-fed cows is crucial here. Butter, cream, unprocessed cheese (cheddar, not Velveeta). Note: milk is NOT included due to its carb content.

Avocados

Bring on the guacamole!

Fibrous vegetables

Greens, peppers, onions, garlic, cauliflower, and so on. Although technically a fruit, and fruit intake should be limited (see “What Can’t I Eat on a Ketogenic Diet” below), tomatoes are allowed, as they’re low in carbs.

Unrefined oils

Coconut, avocado, and extra-virgin olive oil, primarily.

Nuts and seeds

Go easy on these. While they’re great sources of fat, nuts and seeds contain small amounts of carbohydrate that can easily add up to something significant because they’re fairly easy to overeat (how many times have you absent-mindedly killed a jar of almond butter or a bag of pistachios?). If you’re following Mod Keto, they’re OK, but watch your portions. Macadamia nuts, pecans, and Brazil nuts are some of the safest choices.

Some condiments

Salt, pepper, salsa, mustard, horseradish, and various herbs and spices.

What Can’t I Eat on a Ketogenic Diet?

Basically, anything high in carbs—no matter how nutritious it is otherwise—should be minimized or banned from your kitchen.

Sugar

This encompasses soda, fruit juice, smoothies, pastries, candy, and desserts, as well as some condiments like ketchup and barbecue sauce.

Alcohol

No smart diet allows you to booze, but in addition to the problematic effects of alcohol by itself, most drinks contain sugar. However, the occasional small serving of dry red wine may not kick you out of ketosis or otherwise spoil your fat-burning efforts.

Processed foods

Crackers, chips, or any snacks labeled as “low-fat,” no matter what other nutritional benefits they may claim. Also included here: foods that contain sugar alcohols (such as sorbitol or xylitol). These are common in “sugar-free” foods and may negatively affect ketone levels.

Fruit

The sugar content is too great. However, small amounts of berries are low in sugar, and can be part of a ketogenic diet.

Grains

Oats, corn, rice, pasta, bread, and other wheat-based products. See “Are There Any Other Exceptions To The Rules?” below.

Beans

Peas, lentils, kidney beans, garbanzos, etc. Again, see our section on exceptions.

Processed fats and oils

Mayonnaise, soybean oil, canola oil, and other vegetable oils.

Are Starchy Vegetables Keto?

On a strict keto diet plan, potatoes, sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, parsnips, and other root vegetables and tubers are blackballed. However, if you’re doing a ketogenic diet and working out, or the Mod Keto diet we like, you may want some extra carbs to support your workouts, and these foods should be your main source. See “I Work Out. Can I Do A Ketogenic Diet?”

Are There Any Other Exceptions To The Rules?

On Mod Keto, you can get away with eating moderate amounts of other carb-based foods such as fermented bread (sourdough), sprouted grains, and chickpeas. This version allows for a broader selection of foods because it recognizes the nutritional benefits of some carb foods regardless of their lack of compliance with a strict keto diet. Sourdough and sprouted grains, for example, contain numerous vitamins and minerals in a highly digestible form, and chickpeas are high in fiber, slowing down your body’s digestion of their carbohydrates and preventing the blood sugar spikes that raise insulin. When these foods are eaten late in the day or after workouts, the small hazards they pose to the effectiveness of ketogenic dieting are greatly offset and don’t outweigh the benefits. See “I Work Out. Can I Do A Ketogenic Diet?”

What Does A Day of Keto Meals Look Like?

Below is a sample day of eating for someone who’s just easing into a ketogenic diet.

Breakfast

Omelet made with (organic) eggs, tomato, and mixed peppers, cooked in coconut oil. Sliced avocado.

Lunch

Grilled (wild caught) salmon, salad dressed with olive oil and vinegar

Snack

Handful of cheese (from grass-fed, organic dairy), handful of almonds

Dinner

(Grass-fed) burger topped with salsa and (organic) bacon, asparagus spears dressed with (organic, grass-fed) butter.

As mentioned earlier, protein can raise insulin just as carbs can. The body actually makes carbs from protein in a process called gluconeogenesis, so it’s important that any high-protein food you eat be paired with fat and fiber sources to slow its digestion and keep insulin in check. Never eat egg whites—go with whole eggs and pair them with avocado. White fish are lean, so cook them in butter or oil, and eat them with vegetables.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, to get better results, consider cutting the number of meals you eat back and combining the diet with long fasts (called intermittent fasting). For example, start by skipping breakfast. Remember that our Paleolithic ancestors discovered ketosis out of necessity—they had to hunt and forage for food, and often went long stretches without any. Scientists believe that many of the benefits of going keto come from its mimicking the early stages of starvation. Your body is in fight-or-flight mode, which helps account for the alertness you experience. To take full advantage of the diet, you can gradually scale back to having one meal per day at night.

This isn’t as severe as it sounds. Without eating, your mind will be sharp and you’ll burn fat at a greater rate. To control hunger, you can drink water and coffee, blended with butter or MCT Oil, as needed (see “What Supplements Can I Take on a Ketogenic Diet?” below). At night, you can eat as much as you want. This strategy works well for people looking to lose weight (especially the very overweight) and improve general health.

Note, however, that if you’re an athlete, you’ll probably need to take in more food to support your activity and muscle mass. See “I Work Out. Is A Ketogenic Diet Right For Me?”

What Is The “Keto Flu?”

As your body switches over from fueling itself with carbohydrate to fat, there is going to be a little bit of a lag. This is what people call the Keto Flu, since at some point during the first two weeks of a ketogenic diet people can feel lethargic, moody, have difficulty sleeping, and even develop bad breath. Stick with it. All of this is normal and will pass as your body adjusts to ketosis. The bad breath is the result of a specific kind of ketone that exits the body through breath; you can mask it with a chlorophyll– or sugar-free mint.

It takes anywhere from three to six months to become fully adapted to using ketones, but the worst should be behind you in a matter of days, and you’ll be feeling better than ever.

Is the Ketogenic Diet Safe?

We listed keto’s numerous health benefits above, but a diet that’s heavy on meat and all but bans fruit and whole grains flies in the face of conventional nutrition dogma, leaving many to wonder if going keto might be dangerous long-term.

For most reasonably healthy adults, there’s no evidence to suggest that it is. Interestingly, our colleagues at Healthline.com unearthed a particularly powerful piece of evidence from the US Institute of Medicine’s Food and Nutrition Board. Their 2005 report clearly states that, “The lower limit of dietary carbohydrates compatible with life apparently is zero, provided that adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed.” While they don’t recommend consuming no carbs at all, and neither do we, it goes to show that extremely low doses are not only safe but natural as well.

How Do I Know If I’m In Ketosis?

The only way to be sure is by testing your blood glucose and ketone levels with a monitor (we like the Precision Xtra, available on amazon.com for $40). But not only is this invasive (you have to prick your finger), it can get expensive, as the monitor requires test strips too which can be five dollars each. Ketosis can also be measured through devices that analyze breath and urine, but these aren’t as accurate.

A low-tech, low-cost way to check that you’re on the right track is look for the telltale signs: keto flu and bad breath in the early stages, and then reduced hunger and fast weight loss. If you’re watching your carbs and staying true to the diet, it’s just a matter of time before you settle into ketosis—or close enough to it (if you’re following the Mod Keto protocol) to see and feel results.

I Work Out. Is a Ketogenic Diet Right For Me?

Sports nutrition science has long preached that carbohydrates are the body’s best and preferred fuel source during exercise, but research is emerging to suggest that they don’t have to be. A study published in Nutrition Metabolism looked at overweight women who weight trained on a ketogenic diet, finding that they lost body fat without significant loss of lean body mass.

Another trial from the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition found that a month of keto dieting didn’t negatively affect performance in gymnasts while decreasing their body fat levels. Furthermore, the researchers determined that muscle was spared specifically due to ketosis. In other words, despite a low-calorie intake, the athletes didn’t lose significant amounts of muscle because their bodies used ketones for fuel—not protein from their muscle tissue.

Other studies have shown that ketogenic diets don’t hurt strength or endurance (once the athlete is fully adapted to them), but if you’re a dedicated gym goer or highly active person, we don’t see a need to take the textbook keto approach. A more moderate, low-carb plan (such as Mod Keto) will work fine. According to Onnit’s Director of Total Human Optimization, Kyle Kingsbury, a former pro athlete who has experimented with low-carb diets for years, getting 40–60% of your calories from fat, 20–40% from protein, and 20% from carbs is a good balance that will give you the weight loss and focus benefits of ketosis without the potential for low energy or slow recovery from exercise.

If you’re a more passive exerciser and not doing aggressive workouts like high-intensity interval training (HIIT), which is characterized by short bursts of all-out work efforts interspersed with short rest periods, you won’t need as many carbs and can therefore increase your fats even more. In that case, a diet closer to 65% fat, 25% protein, and 10% carbs may be more appropriate.

Dominic D’Agostino, one of the world’s foremost researchers of ketogenic diets—and an amateur bodybuilder—has said that he personally takes in 65%–70% of his calories from fat and 20–30% from protein.

Try timing the carbs you do take in strategically. Carbing up at night after you’ve trained will make your liver and muscles soak up the carbs they need to recover from the workout and fuel your next one. Starchy, slow-releasing carbs like potatoes and other tubers would be perfect. Do NOT eat carbs before you train, as they will replace fat as your fuel source for the workout.

How Do I Set Up A Diet?

The beauty of a low-carb/ketogenic diet is its simplicity. For most people, eating more fat in place of carbs will prevent overeating and lower insulin levels so you lose weight quickly and without having to track calories or macros. Start with that.

However, if you’re an athlete or regular exerciser, or you find you’ve hit a plateau with your diet, you need to start reading labels and recording what you eat. Above, we gave you percentages of total calories to follow, which begs the question, “how many calories should I be eating?” The answer depends on your goals.

If you want to lose weight, multiply your current body weight by 10–12. If you’re very overweight, choose the body weight you’d like to have and times that by 10–12. This isn’t an exact science; you just need a starting point. You can adjust your calories from there as things progress.

If your goal is to maintain your weight but change your body composition (a little more muscle, a little less fat), multiply your body weight by 13–15.

For example, a highly active 180-pound man who wants to lose weight doing Mod Keto would set his calories at 2,200 (180 x 12 = 2160). Fat will make up 60% of his diet, which is 1,320 calories (0.60 x 2200). Since there are nine calories per gram of fat, he’ll eat about 150 grams of fat daily.

Twenty percent of 2,200 is 440 calories, or 110 grams each of protein and carbohydrate (as protein and carbs both contain four calories per gram).

So, in short, this 180-pounder should aim for 2,200 calories consisting of 150 grams fat, 110 grams protein, and 110 grams carbs to diet down.

Whether you work out or not, do your best to consume the bulk of your carbs in the evening with dinner. Not only will this keep your mind sharp during the day when you most need it to be, it will further help your body adapt to using fat for fuel.

What Supplements Can I Take on a Ketogenic Diet?

Going keto is much easier than it used to be. Products now exist that can help you reach ketosis sooner and bring you back into it after a cheat meal here and there. Exogenous ketones—including beta-hydroxybutarate—are ketones made in a lab that function just like the ones your body makes from fat. They’re particularly beneficial in combating the keto flu, helping you think more clearly while your body makes the adjustment.

MCT oil is another go-to for ketogenic dieters. A study in the journal Diabetes found that medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs)—a type of saturated fat—improve cognitive function when blood sugar is low, encouraging the body to generate more ketones for the brain to run on. And, as we reported in our defense of coconut oil last summer, MCT’s are burned quickly for energy. A Journal of Nutrition study comparing subjects who consumed MCT’s or the same amount of long-chain fats lost significantly greater body fat after 12 weeks. Meanwhile, research from 2015 in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that subjects who consumed supplemental MCT’s ate less at meals afterward than those who were given processed corn oil. Their glucose raised less after a meal and their leptin, a hormone that promotes satiety, was higher.

Remember that proteins can raise insulin levels just as carbs do, potentially pushing you out of ketosis or preventing you from reaching it. The ever-popular whey protein is one such offender. In its place, you can supplement with an essential amino acid product. Take a look at products like NatureAminos, which you can pick up HERE. Amino acids do act on insulin, but not to the same extent as whey. You’ll get the muscle-building components of protein in an even more digestible form without threatening your ketogenic diet.

The post The Ketogenic Diet For Weight Loss, Energy, and Better Health appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Rice is a seed coming from the grass species Oryza. However, it’s technically classified as a grain. There are over 40,000 types of rice in the world. As varied as rice is, you’ll probably only come across a few types.

Short grain: Short grain rice is soft when it cooks. The starch in it makes it sticky, so it’s used in dishes such as sushi.

Long grain: Long grain rice cooks drier than short grain. It’s generally used as a side dish or in meals with sauce.

White rice: White rice can be found as long or short grain. Long grain white rice is lower on the glycemic index than short grain. The most popular long-grain white rice options are Basmati and Jasmine. Both Basmati and Jasmine rice are fragrant and come from Asia.

Brown rice: Brown rice can be found in short and long grain varieties. It’s generally thought to be healthier than white rice.

Wild rice: Wild rice is four different types of seed from four different plants. Those plants make up the genus Zizania. Wild rice is native to North America.

Is Rice Healthy?

Rice is incredibly healthy! Unfortunately for rice, it’s gotten mixed up in the low-carb, Ketogenic diet craze. People in Asian countries, such as Japan, eat a lot of rice. The longevity of their lives and obesity rates are much better than those in the United States.

Just like anything, rice can be made unhealthy if you prepare it with calorie-heavy ingredients and overeat.

What’s the Best Rice for Weight Loss?

The truth is losing weight has much more to do with the amount of calories you eat than the type of rice you’re consuming. Eating too many calories for your activity level means you’ll probably gain weight. Eating fewer calories than you burn means you’ll lose weight. 

There are various types of rice, each of which has its merits. Although there isn’t any particular type of rice that would help you lose weight, you can be smart about how much rice you’re making and eating, and what nutrients it contains.

It may also be helpful to look at the calories.

White Rice: 204 calories in 1 cooked cup
Brown Rice: 216 calories in 1 cooked cup
Jasmine Rice: 180 calories in 1 cooked cup
Wild Rice: 166 calories in 1 cooked cup

In general, rice is high in carbohydrates. If you’re following a low-carb or Keto diet, chances are rice will rarely be on your menu. If you’re not, however, rice is a great way to get carbohydrates without any fat or additives. The grain is inexpensive, is easy to cook, and tastes great.

As you’re out shopping for rice, pay attention to how much protein and fiber are in each serving. You can also look at some of the other micronutrients rice contains. Some are high in B vitamins and antioxidant flavonoids.

In general, science tells us that whole grains are better for your health. So, while eating brown or wild rice may not cause you to lose weight, it can certainly help keep you feeling healthy and well.

White Rice vs. Brown Rice

Brown Rice still has a protective coating called the hull. The hull actually contains a surprising amount of nutrients. Although brown rice and white rice are similar in the number of carbohydrates they contain, brown rice is richer in fiber and protein.

The fiber and protein in brown rice help keep you feeling full, and brown rice also has less of an impact on your blood sugar. So, if you have diabetes or a blood sugar issue, brown rice may be a better choice.

Amazing Foods that Pair Well with Rice and Grains

Grains are an excellent, heart-healthy addition to your meal plan. If you’re trying to eat less meat, a great choice to pair with your rice is beans! Together, rice and beans make a complete protein, which means you’re getting all the essential amino acids your body needs to function at its best.

Rice also pairs well with just about any meat—you can mix in chicken, ground beef, or even fish.

Healthy Rice Recipe #1: Chicken and Rice Recipe

Our favorite chicken and rice recipe is simple as it comes but tastes GREAT. We suggest using brown rice.

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs
• 2 cups brown rice, cooked
• 2 cups broccoli, cooked as desired
• Olive oil
• Fresh rosemary
• Salt
• Pepper
• Juice from 1 lemon
• Butter or ghee (if desired)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

2. Place chicken thighs in a baking dish, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt, pepper, rosemary, and ½ lemon juice.

3. Cover and bake for about 15 minutes, uncover and cook for an additional 5, or until chicken is cooked through.

4. Season rice with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

5. Plate with chicken thighs and broccoli.

Healthy Rice Recipe #2: Beans and Rice (Vegan)

Beans and rice go together well on their own, but this recipe really helps spice things up! If you’re not vegan and want to use this recipe as a side dish, add some meat to the top!

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 ½ tsp ground cumin
• 2 cups uncooked jasmine rice
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 2 14-ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 4 tbsp lime juice
• 4 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped

Directions:

1. Heat oil in a saucepan. Add onion and sauté until onion is soft. Add garlic and sauté for another minute. Add cumin and rice, mix together for one more minute.

2. Pour in broth and black beans and bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes or until tender.

3. Remove from heat and drizzle with a little olive oil and lime juice. Mix in cilantro.

Healthy Rice Recipe #3: Wild Rice and Vegetable Pilaf

Ingredients:

• 1 cup wild rice, rinsed
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 1 cup grated carrots
• ½ bell pepper, diced
• ½ red onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 1 apple, diced
• 6 radishes, diced
• ½ cup parsley, chopped
• ½ tsp salt
• Ground pepper, to taste
• 1 medium lemon, juiced
• 3 tbsp olive oil1/8 tsp sea salt

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, bring the vegetable stock to a boil. Add rice, stir, and cover. Reduce the heat to simmer and cook for 55 minutes, or until the rice is tender and the broth is gone. Leave covered and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine rice and veggies. Dress with your favorite dressing and toss to coat.

The post 3 Healthy & Easy Rice Recipes For Weight Loss appeared first on Onnit Academy.

So, if you’re interested in being vegan and keto, here’s how to do it.

The Complete Vegan Keto Diet and Food List

What Is A Vegan Keto Diet?

First, let’s be clear about what these terms “vegan” and “keto” really mean.

Vegans consume no animal products. Like vegetarians, they don’t eat meat, poultry, or fish, but they also avoid dairy, eggs, and other foods that contain even trace amounts of animal ingredients. Most vegans won’t eat gelatin (made from bones), casein (a milk protein), and fish oil supplements, or refined sugar (some brands of which use cow bones as a whitening agent).

There are many benefits to a vegan diet, including some that affect health and longevity. The authors of a 2016 study found evidence that reducing animal-based foods (when they’re conventionally raised on factory farms, that is, not organic) may reduce the incidence of diabetes, obesity, cataracts, and heart disease. Other people go vegan for ethical reasons, believing animal consumption to be cruel and harmful to the environment.

Now, what about those keto guys and gals?

Ketogenic diets originated in the 1920s as a treatment for epilepsy, but they’ve since been credited for promoting a number of health benefits ranging from improved insulin sensitivity to everyday mental clarity, in addition to fast weight loss. Strict ketogenic—or “keto”—dieters limit carbohydrate intake to about 5% of their daily calories while keeping protein intake at around 20%. Fats, then, make up close to 75% of their calories. (For more details on setting up various ketogenic diets, see our guide HERE.)

Restricting carbs and relying on dietary fat causes the liver to convert fat into molecules called ketones, which are used as fuel. When ketones show up above a certain threshold in your urine or in a breath test, you’re officially in what’s known as ketosis, and your body is running on ketones.

One big reason people go keto is sustained energy. When you don’t eat copious amounts of carbs, levels of insulin—the hormone that controls blood sugar—remain much steadier than they do on the carbohydrate-based diet most people are used to. When your blood sugar is stable, you don’t have afternoon energy crashes that make you want to fall asleep at your desk. A study in the Annals of Internal Medicine showed that a ketogenic diet controlled blood sugar more effectively than a more standard, low-calorie diet that was high in carbs.

Keto diets may also make it easier to burn extra fat off your waistline. Research from 2013 in the British Journal of Nutrition found that keto dieters lost more weight long-term than those who ate a low-fat diet.

Of course, one of the big complaints about a keto diet is that—like a vegan approach—it’s very restrictive and can be hard to stick to. That’s why we like to make people aware of a slightly less rigid approach we call Mod Keto that offers much of the same benefits as a strict keto diet but is much easier to follow long-term. With Mod Keto, carbs are raised to about 20% of your total caloric intake, protein to 20–40%, and fat is reduced to 40–60%. While not technically ketogenic (your body will probably not produce appreciable ketones at these levels), the higher protein and carb allowance supports workouts and activity better while still stabilizing blood sugar and promoting fat burning.

So we’ve got vegan and we’ve got keto… Put them together and you’ve got a plan that has you eating a higher-fat, lower-carb menu that is also devoid of animal products.

It sounds simple enough in theory, but the two approaches can be contradictory. Low-carb, high-fat meat, fish, and poultry are staples for keto dieters, but they don’t work at all for vegans. Meanwhile, high-protein legumes and meat substitutes are go-to’s for vegans, but their carb content makes them verboten for keto adherents.

How, then, does a person balance the two?

The Vegan Keto Food List

The goal for the vegan keto-dieter is to eat:

• plenty of plant-based fats
• some plant-based proteins
• as few carbs possible

Below are some foods that fit the vegan-keto bill nicely, courtesy of Liz MacDowell, N.C., founder of meatfreeketo.com. “This is basically every vegan keto-friendly whole food in your typical North American grocery store,” she says, “which can help take care of the what-can-you-eat-on-vegan-keto question.”

Good protein sources are marked with a “p”, while foods that have a higher-carb content (and should, therefore, be eaten sparingly) are marked with an asterisk (*).

Nuts

• Almonds*
• Brazil nuts
• Hazelnuts/filberts
• Macadamia nuts
• Pecans
• Peanuts*
• Pine nuts*
• Walnuts

Seeds

• Chia
• Hemp
• Pumpkin
• Sunflower

Nut & Seed Butters

• Almond butter
• Coconut butter/coconut manna (“meat” of the coconut)
• Hazelnut butter
• Macadamia nut butter
• Peanut butter
• Pecan butter
• Sunflower seed butter
• Tahini Walnut butter

Other Whole-Food Fat Sources

• • • Avocados
    • Coconuts
    • Olives

Healthy Oils

• • • Almond oil
    • Avocado oil
    • Cacao butter
    • Coconut oil
    • Flaxseed oil
    • Hazelnut oil
    • Macadamia nut oil
    • MCT oil
    • Olive oil

Vegetables

• • • Artichoke hearts
    • Arugula
    • Asparagus
    • Bell peppers
    • Beets*
    • Bok choy
    • Broccoli
    • Brussels sprouts*
    • Cabbage
    • Carrots*
    • Cauliflower
    • Celery
    • Celeriac*
    • Chard
    • Collards
    • Cucumbers
    • Daikon radish
    • Dandelion greens
    • Eggplant
    • Endive
    • Fennel
    • Fiddleheads
    • Garlic
    • Jicama*
    • Kale*
    • Kohlrabi
    • Lettuce (all types)
    • Mushrooms
    • Mustard greens
    • Okra
    • Onion
    • Radishes
    • Rhubarb
    • Rutabaga*
    • Shallots
    • Spinach
    • Squash—winter*
    • Squash—summer
    • Swiss chard
    • Turnips
    • Zucchini

Fruits

• • • Avocados
    • Blueberries*
    • Coconuts
    • Cranberries
    • Lemons
    • Limes
    • Olives
    • Raspberries
    • Strawberries
    • Tomatoes
    • Watermelon

Sauces & Condiments

• • • Chili sauce
    • Hot sauce
    • Hummus*
    • Mustard
    • Soy sauce/tamari
    • Salsa
    • Tomato sauce
    • Vinegar

Vegan Keto Fridge Staples

• • • Apple cider vinegar
    • Dairy-free yogurt*
    • Dairy-free cheese*
    • Pickles
    • Micro-greens
    • Sauerkraut
    • Seitan*(p)
    • Sprouts (all kinds)
    • Tempeh (p)
    • Tofu (p)

Vegan Keto Pantry Staples

• • • Almond flour
    • Artichoke hearts
    • Baking powder
    • Baking soda
    • Coconut flour
    • Coconut milk (canned, full fat)
    • Cocoa or cacao powder
    • Dark chocolate (85% and up)
    • Glucomannan powder
    • Hearts of palm
    • Jackfruit (green, canned in brine)
    • Psyllium Husk
    • Nutritional yeast
    • Vanilla extract (most brands OK, but check for sugar)

Other Vegan Keto Meal Staples

• • • Herbs and spices
    • Edamame
    • Kelp noodles
    • Kelp flakes
    • Lupini beans*(p)
    • Shirataki noodles
    • Nori sheets
    • Roasted seaweed

Foods You CAN’T EAT On A Vegan Keto Diet

• • • Meat, fish, poultry, dairy, eggs, other animal products
    • Gelatin
    • Sugar (refined, cane, honey, corn syrup, and all other forms)
    • Grains (wheat, pasta, rice)Legumes (beans)
    • Starchy vegetables (yams, potatoes)
    • High-carb nuts (chestnuts, cashews, pistachios)
    • Partially-hydrogenated oils (trans fats)
    • Refined vegetable oils**

**Even though they’re not derived from animals and are high in fat, oils such as canola, corn, rapeseed, and margarine are highly processed and have a poor ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids. They promote inflammation in the body. Because they have low smoke points, these oils are also terrible choices for cooking. High heat will turn the fats in the oil rancid, and make it even more unhealthy, causing damage to your heart, neurological problems, and other health woes. Always cook with saturated fats, such as those found in coconut and red palm oil.

How Do I Limit Carbs on a Ketogenic Vegan Diet?

In our sandwich-with-a-side-of-bread culture, cutting carbs down to the wire trips many people up. “Exact numbers vary person to person, but in general, strict keto dieters need to consume less than 50 grams of carbs a day,” says exercise physiologist Michael T. Nelson, Ph.D. (miketnelson.com). “Some people need to go as low as 30 grams.” The Mod Keto approach allows two to three times as many, but it’s still very low-carb compared to the diet of the average American. (For reference, one banana, one apple, or a single slice of bread would put you over your daily carb allowance on a strict keto diet.)

Cutting out grains, rice, bread, and pasta will reduce your carb intake substantially, but you’ll also have to cut way back on nearly all fruits (exceptions are in the food list above, though even those should be eaten sparingly). Starchy vegetables like potatoes and yams are out, too. And the sugary dressings and sauces you may be so accustomed to that you don’t even question them anymore… well, start questioning them.

If you’re longing for carbs so badly that you feel your resolve to stay on the diet is breaking, it’s possible to trick your brain that you’re eating them by making approved foods look more like your starchy favorites. Cauliflower can be grated into “rice,” or boiled and mashed like potatoes. You can slice zucchini into noodles to (sort of) replicate pasta. See “Vegan Substitutions for the Keto Diet” below.
But by and large, you’ll simply have to develop a taste for fattier foods and rely on them to supply energy in place of carbs. Avocados, coconut oil, and nuts are all filling, flavorful options that can also power your workouts.

And speaking of working out, if you’re a gym rat or avid runner, prepare for your workouts to suck for a while until your body fully adapts to the diet. If you’re cutting out carbs for the first time, your body will need two weeks or more (and sometimes months) to fully support the demands of exercise with ketones. And if you’ve been relying on animal products, you may find it difficult to recover without the full array of amino acids that every serving of animal protein provides. You’ve chosen a hard road to travel, nutritionally, but don’t lose heart. Time and persistence will force your body to accommodate just about any regimen you subject it to, and there are plenty of people whose performance has thrived on unconventional diets.

A 2012 study found that gymnasts on a strict ketogenic diet for only 30 days lost weight without losing strength. The researchers concluded that keto eating may actually prove advantageous to athletes in weight-class sports since it could allow them to keep their strength up when competing at lighter body weights.

How Do I Get Enough Protein on the Ketogenic Vegan Diet?

For anyone following any vegan diet, and athletes especially, the question always comes up: “How do you get enough protein?” Nelson recommends about 0.7g of protein per pound of your goal body weight as a baseline daily intake for active people—and most nutritionists recommend up to one gram per pound if you’re weight training. (Goal body weight means the amount you want to weigh—not the number that currently comes up on the scale. So, if you weigh 205 pounds but remember looking and feeling your best when you weighed 175, eat 0.7g of protein x 175, or about 120 grams daily.)

Your main challenge will be to find plant-based protein sources to hit that number that isn’t also high in carbs.

To get an idea of what that entails, consider that an average-sized person who eats about 2,000 calories a day will need 100–200g protein daily (on the lower end for strict keto dieters, and on the higher side for those going the Mod Keto route). A three-quarter cup serving of sunflower seeds nets you 25–30g protein, but also costs you 10g of carbs. Almonds have a similar protein-to-carb ratio at 30g to 15g per cup. The key is to accumulate enough protein from vegan sources without letting your carbs creep up too high.

Your best bet for low-carb vegan protein may be hemp seeds, which provides 30g protein and 8g fiber (NOT counted as carbs) in a mere half cup. Seitan, which is made from wheat, is another good choice and offers about 18g protein and 2g carbs every three ounces. Tofu and tempeh rank high as well (tofu has an 8:1 ratio of protein to carbs; tempeh is about 6:1).

If you’re willing to go the supplement route, hemp and other vegan-sourced protein powders such as rice and pea, which have about a 5:1 protein-to-carb ratio, are the best choices and may be indispensable for athletes and workout fiends.

If you were doing a more conventional ketogenic diet previously and relying on animal foods, you may have only counted the protein in those foods toward your allotment for the day because they are complete sources. In other words, the protein in animal products contains all the essential amino acids that your body needs from food and in substantial amounts. This is a rare find in plant foods, and the reason that bodybuilders have historically kept track of the protein they eat from chicken, beef, and fish, but don’t consider the amount they take in from vegetables, grains, and nuts. The thing is, though, while they may be less bioavailable than animal foods, plant proteins are still usable by your body and still count toward your total—and if you’re going to forgo animal products entirely, you’ll need to get them in to support muscle, performance, and general health. Otherwise, you’ll be protein deficient.

Vegans have long known that they can’t get all the amino acids they need from one source of plant protein, so they make an effort to eat a diverse selection of them and often combine foods in the same meal to get a complimentary assortment of aminos. You don’t need to do this at every meal—your body can hold on to the aminos from one food a few hours until you eat another food with aminos that complement them and form a complete protein. But don’t get in the habit of basing your meals around only tofu or only hemp. Eat as broad a menu as you can to ensure the richest nutritional intake you can. (See more reasons to limit tofu under the vegan substitutes list below.)

Vegan Substitutes for the Keto Diet

If you’re already a keto eater used to animal products, the list below will give you ideas on how to switch to zero-cruelty food options while keeping carbs low. (Likewise, it will help vegans find lower-carb alternatives to their starchy or sugary favorites.) As always, be extra sure you’re staying faithful to the diet by checking labels for the presence of added sugar, carbs, and hydrogenated oils (harmful, processed fats that have no place in any healthy diet).

Replace the foods you’re currently eating in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand one.

Dairy foods

Grains and starches

Snacks

Desserts

Processed soy-based meat substitutes (such as Boca Burgers) and protein powders are major go-to’s for people transitioning to vegan diets, but they come with a catch. A 2016 position paper published by Virginia State University explains that soy contains isoflavones, a kind of plant estrogen that can act like the female hormone in humans. While typical serving sizes (one to three of soy foods, or less than 25g of soy protein from non-concentrated sources like tofu) have not been shown to be problematic, amounts more than that (totaling around 100mg isoflavones or greater daily) could negatively impact testosterone. To our thinking, why take the risk? It may be best for a keto dieter to get the majority of his/her protein from nuts, seeds, vegetables, and supplements and less from soy products, apart from the occasional slice of tofu.

Dominic D’Agostino, Ph.D., one of the world’s foremost ketogenic diet researchers and founder of ketonutrition.org, agrees. “I generally avoid soy isolate and soy milk,” he says. “But I don’t think this is a major concern unless you are consuming large amounts of soy.” Note that fermented soy products—such as soy sauce and tempeh—don’t pose the same risk, and can, therefore, be eaten more liberally.

Vegan Keto Diet Sample Meal Plan

The following menu, courtesy of Dr. Nelson, will give you an idea of how a day of eating on a vegan keto diet could look (with a Mod Keto carb allowance). One thing’s for sure: you can eat a high volume of food without having to worry about taking in too many calories, so you’re unlikely to gain weight by accident with this style of eating. It’s easy to stay satiated due to the fat content and the abundance of fresh vegetables makes this diet rich in phytonutrients and fiber. On the downside, it’s very tough to get enough protein in. As you can see, aiming for the bare minimum amount—20% of calories—almost certainly requires supplementation.

Breakfast

Smoothie made with:
Rice protein powder (30g protein)
½ cup mixed berries
1 tbsp MCT oil***
1 ½ tbsp almond butter
1 cup chaga tea

Lunch

3 servings tofu (300g)
2 cups asparagus, baked
2 tbsp MCT oil, as dressing

Snack

Salad with:
1 green bell pepper
2 cups cremini mushrooms
4 oz chopped onion
1 serving tempeh (100g)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 oz vegan teriyaki sauce

Dinner

Salad with:
2 cups spinach
4 oz cucumber
4 oz tomato
1 cup red cabbage, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup walnuts

Totals: 1,728 calories, 86g protein, 78g carbs, and 125g fat

***Whether you go full or Mod Keto, supplementing with MCT oil can help support ketosis by providing a quick-burning fat for fuel, says D’Agostino. Other helpful strategies for making a keto diet more user-friendly, he says, include “eating in a time-restricted window [such as 16 hours of fasting followed by an eight-hour period in which you get all your food in], and breaking the fast with a ketone supplement. You can have a whole-food vegan keto meal a few hours later.”

While it hasn’t been formally studied, “it is generally observed that, if you are keto-adapted,” says D’Agostino, “it is easy to fast for prolonged periods of time. This has practical benefits for occupations where stopping to eat would be an inconvenience—such as for military personnel—and jobs where you do not want to lose the flow of productivity.” If you do get hungry during a fast, D’Agostino recommends taking a supplement that provides ketones (known as exogenous ketones), which will help sustain ketosis and energy. “I typically take a ketone supplement late afternoon and follow up with a whole-food meal in the evening,” he says.

Common Vegan Keto Deficiencies (And How to Fix Them)

OK, you’ve banished nearly all carbs from your diet, kicked out the animal products, found a way to get all your protein in, and have fallen in love with avocados. You’ve pulled off the triple-Axel of diets… or have you?

In your admirable pursuit of both personal and planetary health, there’s still a good chance you may become deficient in one or more key nutrients essential for long-term health. These nutrients include:

Vitamin B12 (aka cobalamin)

It’s essential for your skin, eyes, hair, and nervous system, Metabolically, it helps you digest protein, fats, and carbs. Unfortunately, B12 is hard to come by in plant foods. Some decent vegan, lower-carb food sources include nutritional yeast, fortified almond milk (which only has 1g carbs/serving) and nori (purple seaweed, 0.5g carbs)
Still, most plant foods that offer B12 pack a lot of carbs at the same time (you’ll blow through 5g carbs getting your B12 RDA in nutritional yeast), so Nelson suggests getting the vitamin via a vegan supplement. Look for one that provides 6–10mcg of methylcobalamin (a form of B12), as opposed to cyanocobalamin, which is absorbed more readily

DHA and EPA

These omega-3 fats provide building blocks for cellular structures throughout the body and aid in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Fish oil is the most common source of DHA and EPA, but a good vegan source—and one that, arguably, offers a better concentration of DHA—is algae (which is where those oily fish get their omega-3s from anyway). By supplementing with algae oil, you’re effectively cutting out the middle-fish. Aim for about 300mg/day.

Iron

This mineral is the key ingredient in hemoglobin, which transports oxygen from your lungs to the rest of your body. When levels get low, hemoglobin drops, and energy and vitality take a nosedive. Hair and nails get brittle and weak. If you’ve ever met a vegetarian who looks pale and routinely complains of exhaustion, low iron is often the reason.
Vegetable-sourced iron, known as non-heme iron, is harder to absorb than heme iron, which is found in animal products. This is why iron levels can plummet even when a plant-based dieter eats iron-rich foods like Swiss chard, nuts, and seeds. It’s wise, then, for vegan keto eaters to add a vegan-based iron supplement to their diets. This goes double for women, who lose some iron every month through menstruation. For women 19–50, 18mg of iron per day is recommended.

Vegan Keto Diet Recipes

Being a vegan keto dieter doesn’t have to limit you to salads and smoothies. It is possible to enjoy more gourmet fare by getting a little creative with how you prepare food. Liz MacDowell, a holistic nutrition consultant, and longtime keto dieter herself, offers up the following recipes, also available on her site meatfreeketo.com.

Vegan Chili “Fish” Tacos With Hempseed Sour Cream

For the “fish”:

1 can hearts of palm, drained, rinsed, and chopped
2 tbsp tamari, soy sauce, or liquid aminos
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp Sriracha or chili paste
1 tbsp sesame oil

For the hempseed sour cream:

1 cup hulled hempseeds
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup water
pinch of salt

Fixings

Romaine lettuce boats for taco shells
About a ¼ cup shredded purple cabbage
1 scallion, chopped
kelp flakes to taste (optional)
juice of 1 lime

Directions

1. Add all hempseed sour cream ingredients to a blender and process until smooth. Add water if you want a smoother, creamier texture. Set aside.
2. Place a saucepan over low heat and pour in the sesame oil. Add the hearts of palm mixture from step 1 and sauté until everything is warm and the excess liquid is absorbed (about 5 minutes).
3. Let the hearts cool a bit and then assemble tacos by layering the hearts in the lettuce boats first, then the cabbage, sour cream, and scallions. Sprinkle kelp flakes on top (if desired) and finish with lime juice.

Servings: 2, Calories per serving: 215, Protein per serving: 11g, Carbs per serving: 4g, Fat per serving: 16g

Vegan Keto Protein Brownies

Ingredients

1 ½ cups warm water
½ cup peanut butter
¼ cup sugar substitute
2 scoops plant-based protein powder
¼ cup cocoa powder
2 tbsp coconut flour
2 tsp baking powder

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and coat a baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray. In a bowl, combine the water, peanut butter, and sugar substitute.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together protein powder, cocoa, coconut flour, and baking powder.
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ones. A thick batter with a frosting-like texture will form.
4. Scoop the batter into the pan, smooth the surface, and bake 40–45 minutes (check that it’s done by inserting a knife; it should come out clean). Let cool before serving.

Servings: 8 brownies, Calories per serving: 157, Protein per serving: 12.5g, Carbs per serving: 4.2g, Fat per serving: 9g

Low-Carb Sandwich Bread (Soy-, Grain-, and Gluten-Free)

If going keto has you missing bread, this substitute offers much of the flavor and texture of real dough without the carbs or gluten.

Ingredients

½ cup psyllium husks
3 tbsp ground flax seed
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt (add up to 1 tsp if using unsalted peanut butter)
1 cup water
½ cup peanut butter (almond and sunflower seed butter work too)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add psyllium, ground flax seed, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk until thoroughly combined.
2. Add water to the mixture and continue whisking until all the water has been absorbed. Mix in peanut butter until the mixture forms a uniform dough.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop mounds of the dough onto the paper and flatten them into discs that are about a quarter-inch thick. Bake 60 minutes.

Servings: 4 rolls, Calories per serving: 252, Protein per serving: 9g, Carbs per serving: 4g, Fat per serving: 12.5g

Want even more recipe options? Pick up The Ketogenic Cookbook by Jimmy Moore. It’s the most comprehensive collection of tasty keto-friendly eats we’ve come across yet.

The post The Complete Vegan Keto Diet and Food List appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Before we go any further: if you’re here because of a typo in your Google search, and you really wanted to read about a fizzy soft drink, click the back button and try again.

However, if in fact you want to read about the digestive enzyme pepsin, you’re in the right place. And while it’s perhaps not quite as exciting as Pepsi, pepsin is pretty important—especially if you eat a lot of protein in hopes of building muscle and/or losing fat.

What Is Pepsin?

Pepsin is an enzyme in the stomach that helps break down the protein in your food for digestion. Specifically, it acts on the proteins in meat, eggs, dairy products, nuts, and seeds. It is the first enzyme to attack protein in a group of enzymes known as proteases (you’ll often see this term on digestion supplement labels). Pepsin was the first enzyme to be discovered, and was named by the German physiologist Theodor Schwann—the man who recognized the cell as the most basic unit of animal structure.

Here’s how pepsin works…

Glands in your stomach lining make a protein called pepsinogen. If there is a sufficiently acidic environment (between 1.5 and 3 on the pH scale), the vagus nerve, along with hormone secretions, stimulate the release of pepsinogen into the stomach. Pepsinogen then mixes with hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) and converts to pepsin. Pepsin breaks down the proteins in whatever foods are in your stomach into smaller units called peptides, which are then absorbed by the small intestine. In the intestine, other proteases continue to break the peptides down further into amino acids that your body can use to build new proteins for itself, or to burn for fuel.

Sometimes pepsin can flow backward from the stomach to the esophagus, resulting in acid reflux conditions. For this reason, traces of pepsin in the esophagus can help doctors diagnose reflux events. Drug companies sell products that are intended to inhibit gastric secretion to provide relief; one such product, Pepcid AC®, derives its name from pepsin.

Pepsin can be taken as a supplement to help with digestion. Commercial pepsin is derived from the stomachs of pigs. Due to its acidic nature, pepsin is also used to remove hair and other tissues from animal hides before they are tanned, as well as shells and scales from seafood.

What are the Benefits of Pepsin?

Pepsin does to protein in your food what a six year-old child does to a LEGO building—it dismantles it into smaller pieces. Those pieces can then be absorbed easily by the small intestine.

Pepsin is also responsible for killing bacteria in the stomach and separating vitamin B12 from protein so that the vitamin can be properly utilized. In 2015, Chinese researchers proposed that pepsin may help us digest nucleic acids—components of DNA and RNA that are essential to virtually every aspect of health, from the immune system to muscle growth. This finding suggests that pepsin’s role in nutrient breakdown is greater than previously thought.

Why Take a Pepsin Supplement?

Digestive enzymes can become diluted for a number of reasons, and, as a study in Oncotarget noted, they tend to diminish further as we get older. If the pH of your gut rises, your stomach won’t be able to release sufficient pepsin. Without the enzyme that breaks it down, the body can’t process protein optimally. Therefore, taking a supplement that contains pepsin may be helpful.

Pepsin can be taken alone, paired with an HCl supplement (betaine hydrochloride), or as part of a digestive enzyme blend. Some protein powders are also blended with pepsin and other enzymes to aid the protein’s absorption.

Pepsin For Bodybuilding

If you’re eating extra protein in an effort to put on muscle mass, or to retain muscle while you diet off fat, pepsin can help ensure that the protein you consume gets utilized properly. “While there is no clinical evidence linking pepsin supplementation to muscle building, clients with [digestive problems] often report good results when they start taking a digestive enzyme,” says Marc Bubbs, ND, CISSN, performance nutritionist for the Canadian men’s basketball team and author of the book Peak. “It may lead to restoration of appetite and consumption of the required amount of protein and calories to achieve hypertrophy.”

Another way to boost protein assimilation is to watch what you’re eating. Research published in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition notes that, “Legumes, cereals, potatoes and tomatoes contain inhibitors that reduce protein digestibility by blocking trypsin, pepsin and other gut proteases.” So, if you want to ensure that one component of your meal isn’t sabotaging another, you may need to limit your consumption of these foods when eating protein sources like meat, dairy, and fish. (Thorough cooking can also reduce the inhibitors in foods like beans and potatoes.)

While pepsin doesn’t exist in food, you may be able to boost your body’s own production of it by eating more protein- and fat-rich foods. Research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that high-fat/keto diets may produce greater amounts of pepsin.

The post What to Know About Pepsin: Benefits & Uses appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Think of your blood vessels as little canals that carry oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and shuttle waste products out. If you could somehow open the floodgates, more blood could pass through, and more fuel would be delivered to your muscles while more garbage was flushed out.

This is the theory behind nitric oxide (NO) supplements—compounds that dilate the blood vessels in order to allow greater blood flow and better nutrition to working muscles, thereby promoting performance, recovery, and overall health.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about nitric oxide for sports nutrition.

What Is Nitric Oxide?

NO (sometimes written as NO2) is a naturally-occurring compound that acts as a vasodilator. That is, it relaxes the blood vessels, causing them to widen and allow greater blood flow. The body produces nitric oxide on its own to preserve blood vessel health, and it’s supported by various nutrients in the foods that we eat (see What Foods Contain Nitric Oxide? below).

Nitric oxide supplements have been a popular sports nutrition category for nearly 20 years. However, they technically don’t contain nitric oxide, but rather compounds that promote nitric oxide production in the body. NO is made from the amino acid L-arginine. When L-arginine is converted to nitric oxide, it creates the amino acid L-citrulline as a byproduct. The body can then recycle L-citrulline to create L-arginine again and supply more NO, so supplementing with both aminos can help support the body’s NO levels. (Incidentally, citrulline malate, another form of citrulline, has the same effect as L-citrulline, so both compounds are found in NO supplements.)

What Are The Benefits of Nitric Oxide?

By widening the blood vessels and increasing blood flow, nitric oxide helps get more nutrition and oxygen into muscles while expediting the removal of metabolic wastes. Supplements that support nitric oxide levels in the body have been shown to be beneficial in the following ways.

Promote Greater Work Capacity

A study in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that joggers who supplemented with L-arginine extended their time to exhaustion during exercise by more than two minutes. In 2017, the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition reported that soccer players taking L-arginine significantly boosted their aerobic performance over a placebo.

Meanwhile, a trial in the European Journal of Nutrition concluded that citrulline malate improved weight training performance in women: the subjects’ volume on the leg press increased by 12 reps in a single workout.

Boost Recovery

Dilated blood vessels allow the bloodstream to carry the metabolic byproducts that cause post-workout muscle soreness away more quickly. This is presumably why researchers found that 41 male lifters who took citrulline malate before training were 40% less sore 24—and 48—hours later.

Aid Perceptions of Exertion

L-arginine and L-citrulline may help make hard workouts seem not so hard, so you’ll be able to hit them again sooner with your best intensity and enthusiasm. A 2019 study found that a combination of both ingredients helped boost power significantly in soccer players performing on a bicycle ergometer. Despite putting out a greater effort, the subjects said that their legs didn’t feel as sore afterward, and that the pedaling felt easier than in the past.

A 2016 study had similar findings. Not only did L-citrulline help improve cycling performance, but the cyclists reported feeling significantly less fatigued after their workout.

Support Healthy Blood Pressure

It stands to reason that wider blood vessels would result in lower blood pressure, and that’s just what a 2018 meta-analysis of 15 different L-citrulline studies found. Taking the supplement for six weeks or more significantly aided blood pressure reduction—both systolic and diastolic.

The British Journal of Sports Medicine reported comparable findings for L-arginine. Male cyclists that supplemented daily improved their performance while reducing their muscles’ oxygen consumption, and blood pressure went down.

Help Build Muscle

Glutathione is a compound that supports cellular health. It’s available as a supplement on its own, but consuming whey protein is also thought to boost glutathione levels in the body. Scientists think that glutathione can help slow the breakdown of NO in the body (see “When Should I Take a Nitric Oxide Supplement?” below for more on this.)

A 2018 study looked at the effects of stacking glutathione with L-citrulline. Two groups of subjects weight trained, and after four weeks, muscle gains were significantly greater in the glutathione-plus-L-citrulline crowd than in those taking a placebo.

Furthermore, a 2016 study showed that citrulline malate helped boost explosive power and grip strength in female tennis players.

When Should I Take A Nitric Oxide Supplement?

Unlike with caffeine or whey protein, research doesn’t suggest that there’s an optimal time to ingest L-arginine or citrulline. However, most of the studies that show that these compounds benefitted performance on an exercise test had the subjects take their dosage within an hour of the test time.

“In my opinion, taking any sort of supplement that is intended to increase nitric oxide should be taken prior to a training session,” says Shannon Ehrhardt, RD, CSSD, an EXOS Performance Dietitian, “as most ingredients found in these types of products—for example, arginine and citrulline—have short half-lives where the effects may no longer play a role. Arginine has a half-life of one-and-a-half to two hours, and citrulline has a half-life of about an hour.” So if you want them to work to maximum effect, you better work out soon after ingesting them.

What you supplement along with nitric oxide may have a greater impact on its potency. Two recent studies (1, 2) in Planta Medica indicate that mango fruit powder can help boost circulation, so it may be beneficial to take along with L-arginine and citrulline. As mentioned above, glutathione could help as well.

What Foods Contain Nitric Oxide?

Nitrates are compounds that exist in many vegetables, and they can convert to nitric oxide in the body. This is one reason why eating vegetables is associated with healthy blood pressure—the nitrates build up nitric oxide in your system, which relaxes the blood vessels and promotes healthy blood flow.

Much research (1, 2) has shown that nitrates from beets can have a positive effect on exercise performance. They’re also found in arugula, celery, and spinach.

However, nitric oxide is unstable, and breaks down quickly in the bloodstream as a result. To keep levels high enough to have positive effects, it needs to be replenished often, or have its breakdown rate reduced, and this is why supplementation is important. Antioxidant-rich foods, such as those that are good sources of vitamin C, help neutralize the free radicals that diminish nitric oxide. For this reason, citrus fruits such as oranges are good diet choices to keep nitric oxide levels topped off. Grass-fed meat and wild seafood are loaded with the compound coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), which helps support healthy cells. CoQ10 is also thought to help preserve nitric oxide levels. Organ meats, such as liver, are especially rich in CoQ10.

Since L-arginine is an amino acid, it can be found in most protein foods, but walnuts are a particularly good source. L-citrulline is found in meat, legumes, and watermelon.

The post The Total Guide To Nitric Oxide Foods & Supplements appeared first on Onnit Academy.

Take it easy, Walter White. We aren’t talking about meth, but something that may be nearly as addictive and dangerous: sugar.

The consumption of excess sugar has been linked to heart disease, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and numerous other health woes (in April, we reported on the latest research). Most people know they need to decrease their sugar intake, but stumble when they start thinking of the foods they’ll have to give up in the process. Without sugar, could life be as sweet?

Relax, because it can be. You don’t have to kick your sugar addiction cold turkey, and low-sugar eating can still provide plenty of treats. If you’ve been Googling a no-sugar diet you can live with, our plan is sustainable, can help you lose weight, and will make you feel better than ever.

How Does Sugar Affect Your Body?

First of all, let’s explain what sugar is. When people hear the word, they immediately think of the white grains in a bowl on the breakfast table. But sugar, technically speaking, is the most basic building block of carbohydrate. With the exception of fiber, all forms of carbs are made up of what are known as simple sugars—glucose, fructose, and galactose. Simple sugars are found in fruits and sweets, for example, and when they bond with each other, they can form complex carbs, such as those in potatoes and grains. But no matter what kind of carbs you’re talking about, when they digest in the body, they’re all broken down into glucose.

“Sugar is absorbed primarily through the small intestine and into the bloodstream,” says Ashley Ortega, Wellness Manager and nutritionist for Victory Medical, a clinic in Austin, TX. “Once in the bloodstream, the pancreas is prompted to release insulin, which allows glucose to be taken into the cells so that it may be utilized to produce ATP molecules—the energy source that we use to do everything from thinking to lifting weights.”

Generally speaking, simple sugars digest very quickly and therefore raise blood sugar levels very sharply, promoting a strong insulin response. Complex carbs take longer to be broken down, and so they raise blood sugar less quickly, providing a longer, steadier supply of energy.

So, while you’ve certainly heard that sugar is “bad” for you, it isn’t inherently unhealthy. Rather, it’s a major source of energy. But when you consume excessive amounts of sugar, you run into problems. If you’re a generally healthy person who limits his/her diet to whole foods, so that your sugar intake comes almost entirely from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, you shouldn’t have to worry about how much sugar you’re eating—it will automatically be held in check. Whole foods are naturally low in sugar, in most cases, and pack plenty of fiber to help slow down sugar’s digestion, which reduces the amount of insulin needed to manage blood sugar levels.

It’s when you eat processed foods that have sugars added to them by manufacturers that you get into trouble.

To be clear, sugar is sugar. No matter what the source, a gram of sugar has the same number of calories (four, just as every carbohydrate but fiber does) and is processed the same way in the body. But, according to Mike Roussell, Ph.D., a nutrition consultant to athletes and celebrities (mikeroussell.com), “There is a difference between eating Skittles™ and wild blueberries.” Candy, soda, and other foods we know to be unhealthy are much higher in sugar than whole foods, because the sweet stuff has been purposely added into the product. And what’s more, Roussell points out, these foods don’t have fiber like whole foods do (apart from lots of other healthy nutrients). This makes them easy to over-consume, and thereby damaging to your health. The poison is in the dose.

Eating too much sugar makes it nearly impossible for insulin to keep your blood sugar in a normal range, and that wreaks havoc on the body. According to a 2016 study, excess sugar consumption can lead to cellular dysfunction and inflammation. Furthermore, a review in the Journal of the American Medical Association found a distinct correlation between increased consumption of added sugars and the risk for cardiovascular disease—and that most adults consume far more added sugar than is recommended by health officials.

For some perspective, the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion recommends people consume no more than 10% of their daily calories from added sugar, and the JAMA research discovered that, between 2005 and 2010, more than 71% of American adults took in greater amounts of the white stuff than that. In fact, 10% of us got 25% or more of our calories from added sugar.

What is the No-Sugar Diet?

The “no-sugar diet” is a popular search term on the Internet. But it’s not a branded eating philosophy; it’s a lifestyle. Also called a sugar-free diet, this way of eating seeks to remove sources of added sugar from your daily food intake. In other words, out with foods like candy and soda. Some people may also choose to limit or remove sources of natural sugar as well, such as fruits and certain vegetables. This means that no-sugar diets often have a lot in common with ketogenic diets, which we’ve been a fan of for a while.

Whether you want to cut back on sugar or cut it out completely, eating less sugar in general is a very healthy decision. A 2017 study discovered that reducing the intake of added sugar by even 20% could cut the number of life years lost through disease, disability, and early death for Americans by 777,000 by the year 2035, and save more than $10 billion in medical costs.

What is the Best Way to Cut Sugar from My Diet?

If you currently eat sugar with the rapaciousness of the average American, start by cutting back gradually, and with the most decadent and obvious sources of added sugar. You don’t necessarily need to follow a low-carb diet yet; start by following a low-crap diet.

Roussell offers a hierarchy of carbohydrates to use as a guide. “It’s based on the fact that since not all carbs are created equal, there is a spectrum in which you can restrict them,” he says. The following is a list of all the major sugar-containing foods. The sugariest among them is at the top, and the sugar content drops the further down you go. The ones at the top are also the most dense in calories while (generally) containing fewer nutrients, and, as you approach the bottom of the list, the nutritional content improves while calories and carbs drop off.

Start by decreasing or eliminating your consumption of the foods in the first category, and work your way down slowly as your sweet tooth lessens.

The Hierarchy of Carbs, from Worst To Best

1. Foods containing added sugar. Sweets such as candy, pastries, sweetened drinks (sodas and high-sugar energy and sports drinks), sweetened foods (such as yogurt with fruit on the bottom).

2. Refined grains. White bread (and other low-fiber breads), white rice, pasta, crackers, bagels, baked goods.

3. Whole grains/starches. Brown rice, oats, whole-grain bread, quinoa.

4. Fruit. Apples, bananas, peaches, pineapples, pears, berries, etc.

5. Starchy vegetables. Carrots, potatoes, pumpkin, squash, beets, etc.

6. Green vegetables. Asparagus, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, Brussels sprouts, etc.

Eliminating sugary foods doesn’t have to mean cutting out all snacks and desserts. You can swap foods from the lower levels of the spectrum in for the ones on the higher rungs to avoid hunger and ease temptation. For example, start substituting strawberries for Starbursts™. If you usually eat cheeseburgers and drink soda at lunch, try switching to burgers in whole-grain buns or lettuce wraps and sip on sparkling water.

If you already eat pretty healthy but want to reduce your sugar intake even further, identify the highest-sugar food category you eat from the most and aim to replace it with more foods from the next category down. Perhaps you’re a regular consumer of vegetables and high-protein foods, but you have a weak spot for refined-grain products such as bagels at breakfast or dinners of pasta made with bleached flour. In this case, you could switch to whole-grain toast at breakfast and whole-grain pasta dinners. Once you get acclimated to the taste of those foods, you can go a step further and try vegetable-based alternatives, such as lettuce wraps instead of tortillas for your tacos, spaghetti squash instead of whole-grain pasta, or cauliflower rice in place of regular rice.

Never remove a carb group from your diet if you are still eating foods from a group above it. For example, don’t cut out apples if you are still gorging on bagels. Apples have plenty of vitamins, minerals, and fiber that bagels don’t, so eliminating them before you do white dough makes no sense.

If you’re still stumped on how to construct a low-sugar meal for yourself, Ortega recommends filling half your plate with non-starchy vegetables, dressed with olive or avocado oil. Fill the rest of the plate with a protein-rich food (such as meat or fish). “Even if you decide to try a dessert afterward,” she says, “you’ll be less likely to indulge if you’ve filled up on low-sugar veggies.”

Another strategy that may help you to replace carbs in your diet without feeling hungry: eat more fat. Not only is fat more satiating than sugar, research suggests it may be a lot healthier to base your diet on long-term. A 2017 study on populations in 18 different countries found that higher-fat diets were not associated with cardiovascular disease, whereas high-carb intakes were associated with a higher risk of all-cause mortality. Researchers went on to say that saturated fat intake seemed to have an inverse association with risk of stroke. So keep organic cheeses and nuts on hand for easy snacks, and don’t be shy about eating pasture-raised beef and wild salmon.

How Long Does it Take to Lose Weight?

To lose weight and keep it off in a healthy manner, you need to create a calorie deficit with your diet and aim to lose one to two pounds per week. Any more than that, and your weight loss won’t be pure fat—it will be water and lean mass, including muscle.

Ortega says that clients who restrict sugar usually see quick weight loss. “Fiber, protein, and fats are more satiating, and provide longer-lasting energy than simple sugars,” she says. “By avoiding blood sugar spikes and drops, you are also able to avoid food cravings that lead to excessive calorie intake and fat storage.”

What Foods Have Zero (or Low) Sugar?

Refer back to the carb hierarchy above and you’ll see that vegetables, particularly greens, have little to no sugar, so they’re always a safe bet when you’re hungry. Of course, the typical keto-friendly foods—meats, fish, eggs, cheeses, avocados, and other foods rich in protein and fat—are sugar-free. Below is a short list of no- to low-sugar options.

• Animal proteins (beef, chicken, turkey, pork, fish, etc.)
• Unrefined oils (avocado, coconut, olive, etc.)
• Butter, ghee, cheese
• Avocado
• Eggplant
• Green beans
• Kelp noodles
• Zucchini noodles
• Mushrooms
• Spinach
• Watercress
• Radish
• Kale
• Celery
• Broccoli
• Bell pepper
• Cucumber
• Asparagus
• Tomato
• Mustard
• Salsa
• Coffee
• Tea
• Watermelon
• Lemons/limes
• Whole milk
• Berries

Remember that sugar/carbs are a big energy source for the body, so, unless you’re ready to commit to a very low-carb or keto diet, you shouldn’t aim to stop eating carbs entirely. The more active you are, the more carbs you should consume to fuel your workouts, recreation, etc. For instructions on how to set up a lower-carb diet that still permits enough sugars to support an active lifestyle (and allows you to enjoy a wide variety of foods), see the Mod Keto eating plan in our FREE ebook on the keto diet.

Are Artificial Sweeteners Dangerous?

Many people try to replace the sugar in their diets with drinks and snack foods that contain artificial sweeteners, which typically contain few or no calories and have little impact on insulin. According to Harvard’s School of Public Health, research is still inconclusive as to whether these sugar substitutes are safe long-term, but they may be useful for weaning people off sugar—that is, if they don’t compensate by eating greater amounts of food overall.

Ortega cautions against consuming artificial sweeteners. “They may prompt you to continue to crave the taste of sugar,” she says, which can lead you to over-consume sweet foods, or just more food, and result in weight gain. “They may also negatively impact your microbiome.” That is, the balance of bacteria in your gut that help you digest and assimilate food properly. The gut biome is also intertwined with your immune system. Instead, Ortega suggests focusing on eating more real foods with lower sugar content.

The No-Sugar Diet Plan

Below is an example of how a person who wants to minimize sugar in his/her diet could eat over the course of a day, courtesy of Ortega.

Breakfast

2 eggs, any style

1/2 avocado

1 cup zucchini, sautéed with olive oil

Snack

8 walnut halves

Lunch

3 oz. grilled chicken (breast or thighs)

1 cup of steamed cauliflower with 1 oz. melted cheese

1 cup steamed green beans

Dinner

3 oz. wild-caught salmon, baked

1 cup asparagus and 1 cup mushrooms, sauteed in 2 tbsp ghee butter

Dessert

8g 100% dark chocolate shavings with 2 tbsp coconut whipped cream

How Do I Look for Sugar on Food Labels?

Shakespeare told us that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. It also holds that sugar by any other name—no matter what manufacturers try to disguise it with on a label—is still sugar. By knowing the different names sugar can be called, you can make better choices when faced with confusing food labels.

According to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, some of the names that added sugars can go by on food labels can include the following. If you see these near the beginning of an ingredients’ list, avoid the product, or at least use small servings.

• anhydrous dextrose
• brown sugar
• confectioners powdered sugar
• corn syrup
• corn syrup solids
• dextrose
• fructose
• high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
• honey
• invert sugar
• lactose
• malt syrup
• maltose
• maple syrup
• molasses
• nectars (e.g., peach nectar, pear nectar)
• pancake syrup
• raw sugar
• sucrose
• white granulated sugar

Remember, sugar is sugar, regardless of what name it goes by. “Whether they are adding coconut sugar or traditional sugar to a product,” says Roussell, “it doesn’t make any difference to your body.”

The post The No-Sugar Diet Plan: Food List & More for Getting Results appeared first on Onnit Academy.