Protein Skepticism

Junk food is not health food just because you add “protein” to it

The newest trend in big food is to add protein to processed foods in order to pass them off as healthy, and sell them to people who have been programmed to believe protein = health.

The first product like this that caught my attention was Kudos Protein Popcorn, who has a sponsorship with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Their slogan is: “Snacking shouldn’t have to be a guilty pleasure.” Kudos Popcorn has 23 ingredients. Feels guilty.

The second place I saw it was at my gym. Next to the pre-made protein shakes, a health hazard in their own right, is a shelf stocked with Protein Pop-Tarts and Protein Chips.

Most recently I was at CVS picking up a prescription when I saw a basket full of protein chips manufactured by Quest. I always suspected that Quest bars and Quest as a company were pure trash, and this just confirmed it. Quest “Protein Chips” have 25 listed ingredients.

It’s really regrettable that these companies have decided to latch onto the protein programming we’ve all grown up with. The idea that we need to consume copious amounts of protein (anywhere from .7 grams - 1.5 grams per pound of bodyweight) in order to grow muscle, and maintain muscle mass. It’s conditioning that I’ve bought into for most of my life.

I’ve always had a pantry stocked with whey and casein protein powder. And I’ve always chosen meals rich in protein. But it’s a programming that I’ve become skeptical of recently, and have started to reject.

My skepticism started to grow the more I learned about the Blue Zones populations of people. In these parts of the world where people live the longest and most active lives free of chronic disease, where it’s common to live into your 90s while still tending to your garden, working, and socializing, there is no emphasis on protein consumption.

In fact, in these cultures, protein is the side dish, an after thought, not the focal point of any meal.

Further, protein mainly come in the form of plants, beans, legumes, fish, and fermented foods. Meat is eaten only on occasion.

I think that excess consumption is not only unnecessary, but I think the conditioning to eat more protein is a major contributor to our health epidemic.

Protein in America is often consumed in the form of red meat, which is typically processed into a hamburger, sold sandwiched between an ultra processed white bread bun, with a side of deep fried french fried dripping in vegetable oil, with a side of sugar in the form of a soda.

I think that the pursuit of more protein, attempting to hit the recommended goals mentioned before, leads to overeating, and therefore overconsumption of calories. And I think that for the majority of people consuming a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight is just too much for their level of activity (inactivity). Over 60 percent of people fail to get the minimum daily amount of exercise recommended by the federal government.

Meaning that all of that protein is not being utilized to repair muscles and instead is turning to fat in people’s body’s.

It’s a shame that we’ve been programmed to consume protein in excess. And it’s beyond shameful for companies like Quest to take advantage of this conditioning just to turn a profit, knowing full well that protein in tortilla chip form, is not actually protein. And it’s disgraceful for a company like the UFC, a company that showcases some of the best athletes in the world, to accept sponsorship dollars from a company like Kudos, knowing full well that their viewers are being led to believe that their athletes consume Kudos Protein Popcorn as part of their diet.

It’s sick.

Meals & Recipes: Wild Salmon, Broccoli, Zucchini and Carrots

I try to cook at least one ingredient per meal. I think that the effort of cooking in preparation for eating helps prepare your digestive tract for the meal to come.

In this dish the salmon, broccoli, and zucchini were all cooked in prior days. But I had 3 carrots that were getting soft, so I decided to cook them this morning to add to my breakfast.

I went with a simple recipe.

• 3 chopped carrots

• 1 tbsp of olive oil

• 2 pinches of sea salt

• 1/2 tsp of onion powder

• 1/2 tsp garlic powder

• 1/2 tsp of chili powder

• 2 cloves of garlic chopped

• 1 slice of red onion chopped

Mix everything in a bowl and then add the contents to a pot preheated to lo-med heat. Spread the carrots evenly and cover. Cook for 10 minutes undisturbed.

These carrots came out really tasty and perfectly tender. Add them to any dish.

Two Voices

I have two voices in my head. I refer to them as Voice 1 and Voice 2. Voice 1, true to its name, is the first voice I hear in my head. It tells me what I need. It’s in tune with my intuition. It knows when I’m hungry. When I need to exercise. When I need to eat. And when I need to work. It tells me when I should be loving, compassionated, open, and understanding. It tells me when I need time alone to recharge. When I need to read, write, or disconnect. Voice 1 keeps me on my path.

Voice 2, on the other hand, serves to contradict everything that Voice 1 says, and it fills my head with doubt, fear, and reasons to ignore Voice 1. Voice 2 is my voice of “should.” You should do this. You shouldn’t do that. Voice 2 is the devil on my shoulder, but not because he’s telling me to do anything that’s wrong or bad. But because Voice 2 serves exclusively to knock me off my path.

There is no right or wrong between the two. There’s only the observation that when I follow Voice 1, that when I go with that first thought that pops into my head, my days and life are better.

Breakfast: Sardine Omelette and Lentil Bowl

I’ve really been enjoying putting sardines in my omelette. I love sardines on their own but in an omelette they take on a different flavor and role in my dish.

I also beefed up the omelette this morning with avocado and red onion.

I’ve found lentils to be a food to start my day. They provide such a good balance of protein, fiber, and carbohydrates. I mixed my lentils this morning with roasted brussels sprouts, raw garlic, and ginger (left over from sushi the other night so why not).

I finished the whole dish with olive oil, red wine vinegar, and fig balsamic vinegar.

A great way to start the day.

I’ll vote for whoever will get the bathrooms open

Access to restrooms offers a glimpse into the successes and failures of society. When a store no longer thinks it’s “safe” to keep their restrooms open to the public, to the customers, then we have a problem.

I was just in the grocery store and I had to pee. I went to the bathrooms and found three doors labeled, Men, Women, Family, all required door codes to get in. They all also had signs posted that read “No Public Restrooms.”

Well I had a cart filled with close to $100 worth of groceries. Clearly I’m not the “public” in this sign.

But when I went and asked the cashier for the code so I could use the bathroom, I was told “there are no public restrooms.” I had left my cart by the bathroom and came to the cashier empty handed, so surely she assumed I had just come in off the street.

I told her my cart was by the bathroom. She said “I understand, but there’s no public restrooms. I’ll call the manager.”

The manager came out of the back to greet me. “I’m sorry we don’t have public restrooms,” she said. To which I replied I’m not the public, I’m shopping here, and you very clearly have three restrooms that could be used.

“I’m sorry,” she reiterated, “it’s for our safety.”

I’ll save you the rest of the story other than to say I was fucking pissed and I didn’t get to go pee.

All across the country now you’ll see signs that read “No Public Restrooms,” the last like of defense for store owners looking to keep homeless drug addicts from soiling their bathrooms or camping out in there.

Rather than addressing the issue, that more and more people in this country find themselves addicted to drugs and living on the streets, we do things like close the bathrooms.

Now this might seem like a trivial thing, or something that only “privileged” people get to complain about, but the truth is it’s a symptom of a much bigger issue in our society. An issue that NO ONE in any position of leadership cares to address. It doesn’t impact them, so why fix it?

It’s the same type of symptom that forces working class people who take the bus to their job to stand and wait at the bus stop because some homeless drug addict decided that bench would be their new home.

It’s the same type of symptom that allows 40 percent of food in this country to go to waste, while 44 million people suffer food insecurity, millions more suffer nutrition insecurity, and families are forced to wait outside inline just to get food.

It’s the same symptom that actually forces whole stores to shut down in communities.

I’m so sick of the nonsense battles that politicians play. Abortion. Gun rights. The border. They pretend like those are the battles they’re taking on and they do a good job of recruiting people to argue for them. Meanwhile those “issues” never get resolved, and the population is distracted as the country rots from the inside out.

When I was in high school I remember the platform that the student president often ran on was: getting paper towels in the bathroom and getting rid of those paltry hand dryers (this is before Dyson got into the hand drying business).

It’s the little things that matter. That’s why I’ll vote for the candidate who says they will get the bathrooms open. Because to get the bathrooms open means addressing the growing incidence of homelessness and drug addiction, as well as safety for people working in the stores.

Everything else is just nonsense.

Lunch: Chicken and Berry Arugula Salad

I had a big bowl of fiber last night. A lot of beets and brussels sprouts. Too much of anything is a bad thing and so I woke up with an aversion to fibrous vegetables. Instead my body craved something light.

I put together this salad for lunch: arugula, sautéed mushrooms, chicken, blueberries, raspberries, avocado, tofu, red onion, almonds and walnuts.

These ingredients still pack a fiber punch, but it’s much milder than what a bowl of beets and brussels sprouts will do to your stomach. The nuts and arugula are more gut clearing than gut filling.

I finished the dish with 1 tbsp of olive oil, red wine vinegar, fig balsamic vinegar, apple cider vinegar, and a few pinches of sea salt.

I did an intense leg workout right before, so the little bit of fructose from the berries is enough to stem that sugar/carbohydrate craving my depleted body is feeling. Cheers.

There’s No Way to Guarantee Success

But you can give yourself the best shot.

A few years ago a buddy invited me to attempt a summit of Mt. Rainier in Washinngton State. I said yes without hesitation. But I knew nothing about the adventure that lied ahead.

It turns out that at 14,410 ft Mt. Rainier is one of the highest mountains in the lower 48 states, is the most glaciated peak in the contiguous U.S., and it is therefore one of the more technically difficult to climb.

One of our guides said that she thinks it’s more challenging than Mt. Everest which stands at over 29,000 ft. I knew none of this.

When I agreed to join my assumption was that we would be doing something akin to the backpacking trip that my buddy and I had met on a couple of years earlier. That was a 7-day trek around Torres del Paine national park in Patagonia. I found out quickly that this trip would not be at all like that.

When you’re attempting to summit a mountain peak like Mt. Rainier there’s a lot you need to know. You need to understand how to walk in crampons over glacier crevasses. You need to know proper ice axe arrest technique to prevent yourself from falling off the mountain cliff, and dragging down everyone with you in the process. And you need to understand how to hike through glacier, ice, and rock while tethered to other people, with a pack on.

That’s the real life saving stuff, and speaks nothing to the challenge of hiking at elevation with 30 - 40 lbs on your back. Proper nutrition and hydration. Sleeping in a tent in freezing cold conditions. Pooping in a bag for two days while your privates are exposed to snow and the cold. 

This is all a long way of saying that success, getting to the peak, relies on a lot going right. And it relies heavily on having the proper mindset.

After the challenge in front of us became clear, my buddy and I were talking about it a couple of nights before over dinner. He said something to the effect of “do you think we’ll make it to the top?” To which I replied, “what other choice do we have?”

A few days later I was one of two people from the group who made it to the top. A lot had to go right. In addition to everything mentioned above I was lucky to be coming off a 6 week cycling challenge that put me in some of the best shape of my life. That challenge, along with a couple of years of endurance racing experience, had taught me about nutrition and hydration, and how to push past physical limitations.

But I can’t help but think that having the mindset of “what other choice do we have?” played the most important role for me. Climbing Mt. Rainier was one of the most challenging things I have ever done in my life, and there were many instances where I stopped and asked myself “what the fuck am I doing here?” But each time I made sure to follow it up with “getting to the top.”

It’s not that I didn’t have doubt, pains, fears, or concerns, because I had all of those in spades. But I never allowed them to take a permanent or even long term residence in my mind. All of these doubts and feelings were quickly cast aside by the positive thought of having no choice but making it to the top.

Fish for Breakfast

This meal goes out to my buddy Darren. We were having a conversation about breakfast, prompted by his suspicion that Kashi might not be as healthy as they told him and might actually be processed food. I sent him this picture and told him that’s what I eat for breakfast. His response was “the fish is a little much for breakfast.” Maybe. But it doesn’t mean it’s not delicious!

Ingredients:

Vegetable soup (carrots, celery, onions, garlic, crushed tomato, white beans, green lentils, zucchini, in homemade vegetable broth), with wild sockeye salmon, almonds, walnuts, and beets, topped with sriracha and salt.

Hospital Vending Machines Push Poison

My girlfriend found herself in the hospital this week having a procedure done (she’s okay). After her procedure they kicked her out of recovery to wait in the lobby. She snapped these three pictures.

The next time any politician tells you that they’re protecting you by invading another country, killing terrorists, or sending billions of dollars to fight anti democracy forces in the form of say Russia, just remember this.

If they actually cared about you, they would pass immediate and sweeping bans on processed foods and the chemicals and additives that go into them. 

If they cared even a little bit about you, they would pass immediate and sweeping bans on processed foods, like Lunchables, being served for lunch in schools. 

If they cared even a little bit, they would pass immediate and sweeping bans on processed foods being available in hospitals. They would not allow the drug/product/garbage that is the proven cause of most illnesses to be available in the very place where people with such illnesses go to be treated.

But they don’t care, so stop giving them credit like they do. 

If it doesn’t make them money (i.e. war, pharmaceutical drugs, big food and big ag) then they don’t care. They will never ever reign in any of those industries for the precise reason that they line the pockets of every leader in this country and most countries around the world. 

The next time your favorite politician tells you he’s doing something for your safety, something that usually involves stripping away a person in a foreign country’s safety, ask yourself why he/she allows poison to be sold in hospitals?

It’s time to stop believing what you hear and believing what you see.

Artificial Sweeteners II

My unflavored LMNT electrolytes came the other day and they taste like nothing. Which I guess shouldn’t have been surprising but it was. Based on how strong the flavored varieties were, I assumed that the unflavored would still carry something. But it’s got nothing.

It just made it even more apparent to me how powerful artificial sweeteners are. We’re talking about less than a tsp of powdered mix crammed with an overwhelming amount of flavor.

That tells me that the stevia extract they’re using, an artificial sweetener that’s purported to be natural, must be refined down to the most potent parts to achieve such an insane level of taste in such a small amount.

Which tells me, or reaffirms to me, that this shit is not good for you! It’s certainly not good for me.

I always wonder why companies have no balls when it comes to this stuff. I mean LMNT is selling electrolytes. Presumably their market is people who are active, hence why they need to replenish electrolytes, and therefore health conscious. Couldn’t they do away with the “flavor” and sell something that’s actually purely good for you, without the add garbage?

Couldn’t they just stick to selling unflavored? I know why they wouldn’t, money. But it would be nice if one day a company stood up and said, “I don’t give a fuck if our growth is slow, or we never become rich, we’re going to stick to our principles and grind it out.”

Unfortunately that never happens anymore. And I guess I’m asking too much of a company that packages sodium, potassium, and magnesium, and sells them for ~$1.50 per. It just reiterates to me the fact that everything is better when you do it yourself. And in particular when it comes to what you put into your body. Only you can control the contents. Thinking someone else, or a company for that matter, cares as much as you do is pissing into the wind.

Artificial sweeteners can’t be good for you

You know how I know? Because they taste so damn good. When I was buying vanilla whey protein powder, I looked forward to drinking one, sometimes two, shakes everyday. But when I switched to flavorless whey, it became more chore than enjoyment. And now a few months after switching, it’s the rare occasion that I even drink one.

For a brief period I tried to make my shakes taste better by adding pure cocoa, coffee, or even drips of honey, butt nothing compared to the Stevia leaf extract they were adding to the powder.

Recently I’ve been drinking LMNT electrolytes. I bought the chocolate variety box. Chocolate chai, mint, and raspberry. They too contain Stevia leaf extract, which once again has made a powdered drink the highlight of my day, which has also triggered me to switch to unflavored. It just can’t be good for you.

I love food. I love to eat. I eat mostly real foods in their whole natural form. Yet there is not one food that I crave the way I crave these artificial drinks. Medjool dates would be a close second but as delicious as they are they don’t evoke the same visceral obsession as artificial sweeteners. How could that be good?

Whether its Stevia, date sugar, or monkfruit sweetener, I just can’t picture a scenario where it’s benefitting your health.

So I’m sticking to real food, real flavors, and unflavored processed food. I don’t think I can go wrong.

High Fat and Fiber Savory Breakfast

For some reason oatmeal is also served as a sweet dish. But my favorite way to enjoy oatmeal is savory. Like in this dish. I prefer it mostly because I go for savory over sweet normally, and I also don’t think starting the day with a lot of sugar is a good idea.

Plus, in this dish you get the added benefit of protein from eggs and healthy omegas from olive oil to start your day.

Ingredients:

Oatmeal, chia, cocoa nibs, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, peanut butter, two eggs over easy 🍳, topped with salt, olive oil, and sriracha.

Who’s Really in Charge?

Click here: OneSource Health, April 21, 2024

“We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong.  The amount of work is the same.”

Carlos Castaneda

Volunteer Appreciation Party

This past week I went to the We Don’t Waste headquarters for a Speakers Bureau training. We Don’t Waste is a Denver based non-profit that recovers food that would’ve otherwise been sent to the landfill and re-routes it to the public through free mobile food markets, and partnerships with food banks, food pantries, and shelters.

The speaker’s bureau is part of their education program. Volunteers go to schools, businesses, and households, and attend fun events like Slow Food Denver, to talk about food waste, strategies to mitigate it, it’s impact on the planet, food insecurity, and more.

One example I love is food audits that are conducted in school cafeterias, which raises awareness and educates students on ways they can help with fun strategies like share bins. Here students can exchange food they don’t want for something they do, limiting the likelihood of unwanted food going to waste.

Here are a few things I learned that really stood out to me.

• It takes 1 gallon of water to produce 1 almond. Almond fields need to be completely flooded.

  • 21 percent of our water supply is used to grow food.

• “1 bad tomato can ruin the bunch.” If a retailer (i.e. grocery store) finds 1 moldy tomato on a pallet or truck full of tomatoes, they can turn the whole shipment away, relegating it to the landfill.

• “Expiration dates” have nothing to do with safety

  • Sell By = how long the product can be displayed

  • Use By = last day of peak quality

  • Best Before = last date of peak flavor or quality

• The difference between composting and a landfill is oxygen. Compost is regularly mixed allowing oxygen in. A landfill remains stagnant which produces greenhouse gases like methane and CO2.

  • It can take 25 years for a head of lettuce to decompose in a landfill

• Carrots and celery like to be wet. If you store them in water, they could last 2 weeks before wilting and softening.

It’s an exciting company to be a part of. They’re just 15 years old and they’re doing really big and fun things that are driving change.

Cheers to your practice.

James.

Three Headlines That Prove the Point

• The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now

• Lunchables under fire after reports of concerning lead, sodium levels

• How do you create your own ‘Blue Zone’? Here are 6 tips

The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now

If the health epidemic and increasing rate of mortality in America are any indication of the inefficiency of our healthcare system, then perhaps asking physicians to squeeze one more task into their 10-minute office visit isn’t a good idea.

In recent years The White House has called “fire-arm injuries” an epidemic, prompting “leaders” to call on physicians to screen their patients with questions like, “Do you have access to firearms inside or outside of the home?”

In 2021 there were 115,000 non-fatal fire-arm injuries, and 48,830 gun related deaths in America. In the same year deaths from preventable diseases like heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes dwarfed those figures by a 10x multiple.

Fire-arm injuries and deaths are symptoms of an unwell society and should not be taken lightly. Which is exactly why someone with a better track record should be put in charge of this epidemic.

Sources:

The Doctor Will Ask About Your Gun Now

Leading Causes of Death

Fast Facts: Firearm Violence and Injury Prevention

Lunchables under fire after reports of concerning lead, sodium levels

In Metabolical, author Robert Lustig, MD, MSL puts it like this: “It’s not what’s in your food that matters, it’s what’s been done to your food.” Unless your Kraft Heinz’s Lunchables, in which case both matters.

Lunchables is a processed food snack that is marketed towards children as “healthy” because of the “protein / fat / carb ratio” it contains.

Through recent lobbying efforts Kraft Heinz was able to get Lunchables approved by the School Nutrition Association (“SNA”), making it part of the daily lunch offering for 30 million students. Essentially handing Kraft Heinz the keys to our most vulnerable and impressionable market.

In order to get approved, the SNA required Kraft Heinz to add more “protein” and “whole grains” to the Turkey, Cheddar, Cracker Stacker. Here’s the formulation:

“Ingredients: Roast White Turkey Cured - Smoke Flavor Added (White Turkey, Water, Potassium Lactate, Contains Less than 2% of Modified Cornstarch, Salt, Dextrose, Carrageenan, Sodium Phosphates, Sodium Diacetate, Potassium Salts, Sodium Ascorbate, Natural and Artificial Flavor, Sodium Nitrite, Smoke Flavor); Cheddar Pasteurized Prepared Cheese Product (Milk, Water, Milkfat, Milk Protein Concentrate, Whey, Whey Protein Concentrate, Sodium Citrate, Salt, Lactic Acid, Sorbic Acid as a Preservative, Cheese Culture, Oleoresin Paprika [Color], Enzymes, Annatto [Color], with Sunflower Lecithin Added for Slice Separation); Crackers (Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil Shortening Canola Oil and/or Fractionated Palm Oil, and/or Soybean Oil, and/or Palm Oil], Sugar, Contains Less than 2% of Salt, Baking Soda, Soy Lecithin, Natural Type Flavor).”

Sounds healthy, right? How many ingredients did you get through before you stopped reading?

When will we learn that companies like Kraft Heinz and Nestlé, who was recently caught adding sugar to infant formula in poor countries, shouldn’t be allowed around our children. And when will someone in a position of power do something about it?

40 percent of all food in this country gets wasted. Real whole foods like fruit, vegetables, and lean meats are being dumped into landfills every single day. If we wanted to get high quality real food into the hands of every child in this country it could be done in the blink of an eye.

The problem is the people at the highest levels couldn’t give a shit.

Sources:

Lunchables under fire after reports of concerning lead, sodium levels

Metabolical, Robert Lustig, MD, MSL

HOW LUNCHABLES ENDED UP ON SCHOOL LUNCH TRAYS

Nestlé adds sugar to infant milk sold in poorer countries, report finds

How do you create your own ‘Blue Zone’? Here are 6 tips

I just have to rant for a minute on this one because it falls into my newfound skepticism that most of the longevity, healthspan, and lifespan advice is bullshit. I still read and listen to it, but I’m following it less and less recently.

And the reason is because I learned about The Blue Zones.

For people in The Blue Zones, there is no special trick. There’s no special diet. Nobody counts macros or how much they exercised and at what intensity. No one takes supplements or vitamins or follows any special routine.

All they do is live, filling their days with things that bring them joy. Like time with friends and family. Time in the garden growing food and flowers. Maintaining a mindfulness practice, playing board games, and cooking.

To worry about prolonging your life would mean missing out on it.

That’s why recently whenever I see an article or a headline like this one, I chuckle to myself. We think that we can deduce a whole way of life down to “6 Tips,” a new supplement or drug, or a better routine, which misses the whole point.

Accept the present by letting go of the future.

Sources:

How do you create your own ‘Blue Zone’? Here are 6 tips

Chicken Soup for the Soul

Man, I’ve been making my own vegetable broth for a few months now and it has completely changed my soup game. Hopefully you can see from this picture just how rich that broth is. And believe me, it tastes as good as it looks. The best part is how easy it is. You can see how to do it here.

But the thing I love about making a vegetable soup, is that it is really the perfect base for any meal. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner. And you can add anything you want to it, like I did with chicken thighs and garbanzo beans for this dish.

Ingredients:

Baked chicken thighs, homemade vegetable soup (carrots, celery, garlic, onions, white beans, in a homemade broth), topped with olive oil, salt, and sriracha.

Misc Thoughts on Macros, Diet, Exercise and the Blue Zones

Instead of thinking about everyday, think about your diet in terms of the week. This way if you mess up one meal in a day, you don’t beat yourself up for it. Instead you can tell yourself that you’ll make it up by staying consistent with your next meal and the one after that.

We put too much emphasis on getting every macro right that the whole project becomes overwhelming and we crash. Not every meal needs to be the exact right ratios or types of food. It’s more important that in the long term you’re successful. One wrong meal doesn’t have to spell disaster.

The same is true of exercise. We don’t need every workout to be our best. We just need to keep moving. The accumulation of movement over time is what spells change. If you’re emptying the tank at every workout, or getting so sore that it makes the next day too painful to workout, then you’re setting yourself back. Long term gains requires a lot of consistent hours.

I’m starting to fade on the idea that we need as much protein as some nutritionists and longevity experts say we do. The skepticism comes from watching and learning about people in the Blue Zones, the areas of the world where people live the longest, most active and fulfilled lives in the world.

In these parts of the world, it’s not uncommon for people to live past the age of 100, and being active into your 90’s is the norm. In all of these distinct cultures there are a number of things they do that they have in common. Like keeping close relationships and emphasizing community. Like maintaining a vegetable garden as the source of most of their food. And being active throughout their whole lives.

There’s also a lot of things they don’t do. They don’t work jobs they hate. They don’t do high intensity aerobic exercise. They don’t eat processed food. And they don’t obsess over the nutrients and macros they’re putting into their body. Protein included.

Their diets consist of a modest amount of proteins from a wide array of sources. Beans, legumes, dairy, plants, eggs, and some meat and fish.

If we want to explain part of the obesity epidemic I think we need to look at the way protein is forced on us. Eating too much protein while being inactive will lead to weight gain and other possible health issues. Because unused protein is stored as fat, and a lot of times in places you don’t want it, like the liver. 

If you are a bodybuilder, a high level athlete, or extremely active, then you are the exception. But considering that 60 percent of the adult population doesn’t get the recommended amount of daily exercise (20 minutes of moderate intensity aerobic exercise per day, 2 strength training sessions per week), than the overconsumption of protein is surely part of the issue.

The second thing I think the protein messaging does it cause overeating. Not only are we programmed to reach for protein at every meal, we’re also told hitting your daily protein goals (anywhere from 0.7 - 1.5 grams per lb of bodyweight) is hard to do in one day. Hm, I wonder why? Because it’s too much protein.

But in a subconscious effort to hit our goals we reach for calories hoping it gets us closer to the target.

During stretches when I’m really dialed into my training and my diet I can sense the difference from day to day of what my body is asking for. On days when I train hard, I can’t get enough protein and carbs. But on my rest days, it’s mainly carbs and a normal amount of protein (70 - 90 grams).

There’s a lot that’s influencing the changes we’re seeing in our health. None bigger than our outside environment, the one we cannot control. Things like the type of food that populates 90 percent of grocery stores, and the relentless marketing and messaging that’s everywhere. 

Don’t worry about the nutrients and macros you’re getting. Instead focus on eating real food and spending 70 - 80 percent of your day on your feet. I think that just those two changes can offer dramatic results.

Why supporting local is difficult but necessary.

Two recent examples.

Spell Books - “Because a good book puts a Spell on you!”

My girlfriend and I were in downtown Littleton recently when we stumbled upon Spell Books, a small locally owned bookstore. We are both avid readers and when it comes to buying a book, we both prefer the in-store experience over the online one. So, it’s exciting for us when we find a local bookstore.

I went in looking for Greg McKeown’s second book, Effortless. I read his first book, Essentialism, back in 2019 when I first left my job and began overhauling my whole way of life. Essentialism completely shifted my perspective of productivity and allocation of time, and got me to start focusing on what was essential and eliminating what wasn’t. It had a big impact on me and I was hoping Effortless would be the same.

Unfortunately, they didn’t have it in stock, but the owner offered to order it for me. She said it would arrive in 5 - 7 days.

Almost three weeks went by, and I still hadn’t heard from them. So, Jen decided to call and find out what was going on. I assumed it came in and they just forgot to notify me or had misplaced my contact information which I had written on a sticky note. 

But it turns out that they didn’t forget, the book just hadn’t come in yet. Effortless was on back order from the distributor and they didn’t know when it was coming in. She offered to cancel my order so I could buy it somewhere else. On Amazon it would have been at my doorstep in a matter of days or maybe hours. I decided to continue to wait.

Last week I got an email from Spell Books notifying me that the book had come in. When we went in to pick it up it was sitting there waiting for me with the same sticky note I had written my contact information on almost four weeks prior. 

Overall, choosing to buy my book locally cost time waiting and driving to the store, and probably 10 percent on the purchase price, but it was worth it.

Chicken and the Egg

I’ve been getting my chickens and eggs from a local farm. They pasture raise hogs and poultry, treat their animals humanely, and use high quality, diverse, and organic feed when needed to supplement their diet. All characteristics of small farms that you won’t see in grocery store bought meat.

When I order, I have two options. For $5 they’ll deliver my order to a locally owned retail store that’s a 30-minute drive from my home, or for $10 they deliver it to my door. Orders are placed bi-weekly. If you miss the order deadline then you wait (although they’ll make every effort to squeeze an order in), or, conceivably, you could drive the 2.5 hours (one-way) to the farm.

A couple of weeks ago I placed an order for 3 whole chickens, 1 dozen eggs and 1 package of bacon (it was on sale 😀) and paid the $10 to have it all delivered to my house. I ordered on a Sunday with a Tuesday delivery date.

Tuesday morning, I got an email letting me know that the delivery driver wasn’t available to make deliveries, so my order would be delayed to the following week. At the time I had been in the habit of slow-cooking a whole chicken every week, and I had timed my cooking schedule to align with this delivery. So, when it didn’t come I drove 5 minutes to the grocery store and picked out the best organic free range bird I could find, knowing that it was mostly lies and I’d be eating an inferior and sickly bird. But I didn’t want to wait.

The next Tuesday rolled in and with it came a huge snow storm. I knew immediately more delivery delays would be in my future. I got an email from the farm that morning informing me that the winter storm had shut down the roads out of the mountains and they wouldn’t be able to deliver.

On Thursday my order was delivered to my doorstep.

The Impact.

Since local shops and farms have been pushed out by big box retail and mega farms, it’s made buying local inaccessible and expensive when compared to the big boys. The big box stores have swallowed up all the convenient locations, and their large purchasing power has driven down their cost of goods (which allows them to undercut small business owners) and allowed them to stockpile inventory, while local shops struggle with back orders.

Our neighbor told us that when she first moved into her home more than 20 years ago, she was surrounded by ranches on every corner. Now, those same corners are occupied by a gas station, a Costco, and a parking lot. She said when Costco was first built, she was so mad that she boycotted them for 2 years. But she eventually caved when she got a coupon in the mail. She’s been shopping there ever since.

The book experience came a couple of weeks on the heels of a similar one my buddy and I had when we went into a local gaming shop looking for two board games. We were told the games were on back order from his distributor. Two days later Amazon delivered the games to my buddy’s doorstep.

Mega farms jam hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions) of animals into factories to reduce the cost of raising meat. Pasture raised chickens (like the ones I’ve been ordering) cost 100 percent more per pound to raise than a factory farmed chicken you’ll find in the grocery store ($3-$4 per pound versus $8-$11). If we can agree that pasture raising animals is the right way, then what kind of conditions must the factory farmed chickens who are half the price be living in?

In the last 20 years the only contribution to society by big business is cheap, low quality, and fast. That’s the business model for Amazon, Walmart, Costco, McDonalds, Starbucks that has allowed them to accumulate insane amounts of wealth (collectively worth almost $3 trn) and power and control nearly every market.

But cheap, low quality, and fast is the reason that our health and local economies continue to decline at a rapid rate.

Whenever a Costco opens where a ranch used to be. Whenever an Amazon warehouse stocks books to the ceiling. When McDonalds and Starbucks open in your neighborhood selling fake food and artificially sweetened beverages, it is a sign of societal decline. The long term impact of these stores is what we’re seeing play out all over the country. Millions of people suffering from chronic disease and mental health issues that are the results of poison in our food and low paying and unfulfilling jobs.

Not everyone I understand has the time, capacity, resources, or accessibility to choose local over big business. But, for those amongst us who do, then we really need to do a better job of spending our dollars appropriately.

Mid-term elections are every two years. Presidential elections every four. But everyday we can vote with our dollars. And the more we can re-direct dollars into our local economies, the more accessible and affordable we will make it for everyone. 

Let us practice patience and be willing to spend a little more money to support our local farmer, grower, baker, and shop owner. 

Intuition

I’ve had this belief for a while now that the comforts of modern society are disrupting our ability to listen to or even hear our intuition. And it’s for that reason that we are both sick and divided. Let me explain.

Food I think is the easiest one to understand. Food today we know is not the food we ate 100 hundred or more years ago. Maybe not even 50 years ago. And most of it isn’t even really food.

The food that many of us consume today is engineered to be extremely tasty (I won’t say delicious), palatable (easy to eat), and therefore addictive (you want to keep coming back for more). And our body doesn’t know how to handle that.

So even if we’re not hungry, we want to eat. Even if we’re trying not to have sweets, we reach for the candy. Our intuition is saying we don’t want it, but it’s been engineered so perfectly that it disrupts what our gut is telling us.

And it’s not just what food we put in our body that determines what and how much we’re going to eat. It’s the advertisements that we see all around us. It’s the grocery store filled with these manufactured foods.

When we walk into the grocery store we might know what we’re going in for, but the second we see the shelves lined with treats that all changes. All of a sudden what we need (our intuition) gets hijacked by what we want.

Social media is another easy example to understand. How many times do you open your Instagram when you’ve told yourself that you’re not going to? I know that happened to me all the time until I deleted my account for a period of time.

How often are you scrolling through your feed while thinking “what am I looking at?” Again, that used to always happen to me too.

Developers have figured out how to override that voice in your head. They’ve figured out the formula, much like the food companies, that tricks your brain into coming back for more when you know you shouldn’t. It’s the same feedback loop that drugs play off of.

This is true of the 24 hour news cycle. It’s true of streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Prime.

So for many of us the majority of our daily interactions with food and technology are getting between us and our intuition and the result is we’re out of touch with what we want and are therefore unknowingly being conformed to what they want.

That’s why when you talk to someone face to face or on the phone the conversation is a much different one than the one you have online. You can tap into what you want and most people want the same thing.

It’s the reason why when you eat real food you don’t over indulge. Your body is able to signal to you and say “hey, we’re good.”

I think for most of human civilization people have been able to listen to their intuition and now there is so much noise and poison in our environment that we’re having a tough time tapping in. If we can eliminate the noise and limit the poison I think we’ll all see a big change in our health and more people come together.

Time Restricted Eating as a Tool and Bird Flu

Click here: OneSource Health, April 14, 2024

“If there is no solution there is no problem.”

Metabolical

Photo by Pushpak Dsilva on Unsplash

A few weeks ago, I shared my thoughts on time-restricted eating (“TRE”). In that newsletter I stated that while I used to practice TRE regularly, I stopped when I learned that fasting can negatively impact testosterone levels in healthy males. Well, the last two weeks have made a liar of me.

Over the last two weeks I’ve been staying up later than usual. On top of that I’ve also been snacking on sweet treats like brownies, ice cream, and my favorite of all, medjool dates stuffed with peanut butter. If you know me well and are shocked, you can blame it on The Great British Baking Show. It’s the reason I don’t want to go to bed and it’s convinced me to eat more sweets.

I’ve been rationalizing it by telling myself if they’re homemade (like the brownies) or made locally (like the ice cream), than I’m good. 🤷‍♂️

Regardless, as a result I’ve been waking up without an appetite and feeling like my GI tract needs a break before having breakfast. So, to counter my late night eating I’ve gone back to TRE.

Whenever people ask me about various diets, whether they’re vegan/vegetarian, keto/low carb, or fasting/TRE, I try to advise using them more like tools than diets. In the long run, none of those diets (IMO) are sustainable. But in the short term, they can have huge benefits. And that’s what incorporating TRE for me right now is doing.

I know that this recent habit of staying up late and indulging in sweets won’t last, but while it does, I’m going to enjoy it. But I’m also going to counter the effects of it as best as I can. And right now that means fasting through the morning and getting a workout in before eating.

As an example, today I took a 1 hour kickboxing at 11 am and ate my first meal at 1 pm.

There’s going to be certain times when your lifestyle easily lends to staying balanced and on track with your health and fitness goals. And there’s going to be other times when it won’t. It’s in those latter times that you want to implore the tools you’ve learned to ride out whatever it is that’s getting in the way of your routine.

We have 5 seasons left of The Great British Baking Show. Eight episodes per season, 1 - 1.5 episodes each night, means I can expect to continue my morning fasts for about another month.

Cheers to your practice.

James.

Susan’s Coop

Avian Flu in the News

Avian flu or “bird flu” was in the news again last week. If you’re anything like me, you probably read the headline, thought something along the lines of “that’s scary,” and kept it moving. At least that’s what I’ve always done in the past, but recently I’ve been trying to educate myself more on what it means.

One of the benefits of knowing your farmer is you get access to their wealth of knowledge. This week when I decided I wanted to learn more about bird flu and write about it, I emailed Aila Holley, owner of Sisu Farms where I buy my meat from, to find out what she had to say on the topic.

Perhaps the most important thing I learned was that the number of birds lost during each outbreak does not actually represent the number of birds that were infected. Rather it represents the number of chickens that came in contact with an infected bird.

“The number of birds that were' affected' [by] avian flu is really very artificial,” Aila said. “It’s not actually birds that died of the virus but rather the birds in close proximity to those that died. The way the USDA handled compensation to producers, was they would be paid for any birds that had to be ‘depopulated’ due to being housed with birds that died and tested positive. So, in reality we don’t actually know how deadly the virus is because it was not allowed to run its natural course. When producers had a bird test positive for the flu, in most cases they would kill all the birds in that barn, sometimes to the count of 100’s of thousands.”

So, when Cal-Maine Foods, the largest egg producer in the country, recently reported the “culling” of almost 2 million chickens at one of their Texas facilities, we don’t actually know how many were infected nor how many actually died from the virus.

With that said, we can assume that due to the environment that factory raised chickens are forced to live in “without sunshine, fresh air, soil and grass,” and fed commodity grown grains, they really wouldn’t stand a chance. They lack access to all the resources needed to build a robust immune system, one of the reasons why antibiotics have become so prevalent in factory “farming.”

Roughly 80 percent of all antibiotics worldwide are given to factory raised animals.

As Aila put it, a robust and resilient immune system “is one of the key differences in animals raised like that vs pasture-based producers” like her.  

Aila and many other pasture-based producers, like Will Harris of White Oak Pastures and Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, agree that the virus should be allowed to run its course to take out the weak birds and breed the survivors. But that’s not something the government is intent on doing.

Instead, they’re worried about containing the problem, not solving it. Which is why the health of the birds, is left out of the conversation.

This is the fifth outbreak since 1924 and in the 100 years since chicken factories have only grown larger and more crowded. Government’s only intervention has been to require the killing of all birds in proximity to an infected one. During the 2005 outbreak “experts” also suggested that all animals, including the ones raised on pasture, should be sent indoors. A virus fighting strategy we’ve all recently had the pleasure of experiencing.

It’s also the first time in history that a virus that causes high mortality in birds was detected in cows.

The 2 million chickens slaughtered by Cal-Maine Foods only represents 3.6 percent of their total flock. Doing the math, that means they have over 50 million birds under their care. That’s a number that scared me and should scare you too.

But once I learned how big these factories are, the numbers started to make sense. In the two most recent outbreaks combined, in 2005 and 2022, nearly 200 million chickens were exterminated worldwide. 200 million chickens could feed a lot of people.

How could one company possibly care for that many lives without compromising their health and welfare? They can’t. Raising healthy animals cuts into profit margins and would require a total revamp of their systems. They’re not concerned with the health of the animal we eat, which means that they are not concerned with our health either.

The CEO of Tyson isn’t eating Tyson chicken. And the CEO of Kelloggs isn’t feeding his children cereal for dinner (even though he’s suggesting you should).

What’s the alternative? By my count there are three.

Find, Befriend, or Become a Backyard Chicken Farmer

My mom is a backyard chicken farmer. She has around 30 egg laying chickens (hens) and one rooster that keeps the order. She feeds her chickens the highest quality feed she can find, filled with appropriate amounts of quality protein and nutrients vital for egg production. In the summer she gives them special treats like frozen watermelon and strawberries. She also hangs heads of cabbage and ears of corn for the chickens to peck at and enjoy.

Recently she’s even been supplementing their food with oregano and red pepper flakes to help their digestive tract (they don’t feel the heat from the pepper, but the last dozen eggs she sent me were a little too spicy… just joking).

Their coop receives an abundant amount of sunshine and fresh air, is cleaned regularly so they aren’t walking around in their own waste, and the chickens have regular human interactions.

Find a Local Farm like Sisu Farms (search on: eatwild.com)

Sisu Farms is a family-owned farm 2 hours outside of Denver, CO. They pasture raise all their meat, which includes chickens, turkeys, cattle, and hogs (best bacon I’ve ever tasted).

I asked Aila, how they raise their birds.

“We raise our laying hens in flocks of 400-500,” she said, “and our meat birds in batches of 200-400 and then when they are on pasture each 10x12 pen has 75-100 birds in it. Turkeys are in flocks of 75-100.”

The mobile pen, which is mainly there for protection, has no floor, so the chickens can eat, peck, and scratch the ground beneath them.

“We only raise meat chickens and turkeys in the summer months when they can be on pasture. Egg hens are out when weather allows and then in deep bedding hoop-houses in the winter months.”

When egg hens are inside for the winter months, they’re given an organic and diverse array of feed to supplement their diet.

Order from a Large Farm Pasture Based Farm

White Oak Pastures, in Bluffton, Georgia, is a large-scale production farm, but they still pasture raise all of their meat (of which they have 7 or more varieties). It’s not just how they raise their animals, it’s also about how they slaughter them. This is an excerpt from Will Harris’ book, A Bold Return to Giving a Damn.

“Unlike the industrial system’s slaughterhouses, the biggest of which kill four hundred head of cattle per hour, ours handles thirty head of cattle per day, four days a week. On the fifth day, a much smaller number of hogs, or sheep and goats, move through. Our poultry plant can do about a thousand chickens a day, compared to a quarter of a million in an industrial facility.”

I know that access to local food is limited, and sometimes we have no choice. But if we do have a choice, choosing local has repercussions that reverberate through the food system and our communities. And the best way to increase accessibility is to demand it with our dollars.

Where we buy our food from matters. It matters to the animals, farmers, communities, planet, and most important of all, to our health.

Source(s):

Largest U.S. egg producer detects bird flu at Texas plant

Why Are the Chickens So Sick?

Risk of Avian Flu Could Send Poultry Indoors

BEAK MASKS

Will's Wisdom: Avian Influenza & Dairy Cattle

Cal-Maine Foods, Inc. Reports Positive Test Result for Avian Influenza at Texas Facility

Stop using antibiotics in healthy animals to prevent the spread of antibiotic resistance

Breakfast: Salmon Egg Scramble, Lentils, Local Mushrooms

I finally got more than 6 hours of sleep last night and I woke up extra hungry as a result. So I put together this heavy, hearty bowl.

I got my hands on some locally grown shiitake mushrooms from a small market that opened recently near my house, Littleton Meats. They’d been sitting in my refrigerator for a couple of days so decided to cook them this morning.

My bowl consists of, by layer: lentils, tofu, broccoli, and mushrooms, with a salmon, egg, and avocado scramble on top. I finished the dish with chopped raw garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, and fig balsamic vinegar.

I’ll probably be full until dinner.

My Workout Got Stale So I Changed it Up

In the past three weeks I’ve thrown myself into the fire in an effort to change up my fitness game. Just straight strength training was getting boring so I started looking for new training modalities. I had a few in mind that I had been thinking about for months and never acted on. So over the last few weeks as my motivation to go to the gym wained, and I found myself just going through the motions of a workout, I finally decided to change things up. And this week in particular I found myself in 3 very different forms of exercise.

Handstand and mobility 

Hight Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) 

Kickboxing

The handstand class was at a place called ApeCo Movement School. As the name suggests the studio focuses on getting back to your primal roots by focusing on movement through all planes of motion. Classes focus on things like mobility, light acrobatics, and fun things like handstands. They also emphasize building relationships and community. Each class you’re paired up with at least one other person and you help guide each other through the movements. It’s a funky class with a style that’s way out of my comfort zone.

Take this week’s warm up as an example to help explain. The whole class started by laying on the floor. We pretended the floor was covered in paint and we had to twist, turn, and roll our bodies around to make sure that every inch of us was covered in paint.

The HIIT class (called Stations) was at a new gym that opened by me called The EPOC Experience. EPOC, I found out, refers to excess-post exercise oxygen consumption, which is the measurable increase in oxygen consumption and metabolism that happens after a high intensity workout. The class consists of 5 circuits, 2 - 4 exercises per, aimed at jacking up your heart rate (think sprinting on the treadmill for 60 seconds followed by 5 burpees, repeated for 9 minutes). It’s been a long time since I’ve sustained such a high intensity effort for 60 minutes, and this class kicked my ass.

The kickboxing class was at mixed martial arts school called Easton MMA. They teach kickboxing, Muay Thai, and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Entry level people like me can start in kickboxing before moving to more advanced modalities. It’s been years since I’ve hit a bag and it felt so good to unload for an hour. If you’ve never really punched, kicked, kneed, and elbowed a punching bag before, don’t waste anymore time. Find a gym and do it. There is no better way to relieve tension and stress. There is also no better way to build confidence.

So, what’s the point?

I’m always amazed by the nuances of movement whenever I try something new, or revisit something old. Each modality requires something slightly different of your mind and body if you want to be successful. Sometimes the hard part is what you expect it to be, like at the HIIT class at EPOC. I knew walking into that class that I’d been ignoring my cardio for over a year and that this class was going to kick my ass, so I just put my head down and powered through.

But at ApeCo the hard part for me isn’t the physical and mental demands of the handstand exercises (although for sure they are not easy), it’s getting comfortable allowing my body to move freely through space while in the presence of people I don’t know, all without letting my thoughts interrupt and stop me. And at Easton I walked in wondering how I’d fare on the bag in a 60 minute kickboxing class having not hit a bag for over 5 years. But it turns out that wasn’t the difficult part. The challenge was ignoring the rug burn on my knee from glancing blows on the bag and the blister on my foot that developed early in class from pivoting and driving through punches.

I’ve been able to sustain my fitness practice for over 20 years because I’m always looking for something new to jump into when my routine gets stale and never giving into that voice that says “don’t do it.” I look for what’s going to challenge me physically, force me to learn, and make me uncomfortable. Because those are the things that keep interest. And each one of these classes check all of those boxes.

If it doesn’t challenge you it doesn’t change you.

I know that right now my cardio is not where it needs to be if I want to leave HIIT class feeling anything but dead. That if I want to excel at the movement school I need to get over my fear of being uncomfortable moving in unorthodox patterns. And that if I keep kickboxing my toes and knees will form callouses to protect me. I know that while I’m struggling right now, that all of those things will only happen if I just keep going.

I also know that I’ll be able to take pieces of what I learn from each class and incorporate them into my routine going forward, and that the endurance, callouses, and body awareness I develop will serve my practice for years to come.