Podcast episode#104 from http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2010/07/episode-104-

plant-based-diets-how-they-actually-work/

Introduction: In this episode: how to eat a plant-based diet, what causes

weight gain after workouts, total immersion singing style,

how to cook for more than one, muscle adhesions, what to do

about motion sickness while swimming, lead in your

supplements, what to look for in a personal trainer, is a

vitamin D test worth it? Getting a broken bone to heal faster,

do you need to gain muscle to lose fat? What is starvation

mode? A supplement called Sport Legs, waist to height

rations, does sugar or fat make you fatter? A bracelet called

C-Prime, a bar called PR, what to pack on a picnic and

training to run downhill.

Ben: Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and I am

podcasting on the road this week which is why the audio

might sound a little differently. If it’s any clue to you, we do

have a ton of questions in today’s podcast as well as an

interview with vegan athlete Brendan Brazier. Whether you

are a pro-athlete, whether you are a weekend warrior,

whether you’re just interested in how to incorporate a vegan

or a vegetarian diet – some of the things that Brendan is

doing is very cutting edge when it comes to eating a plant-

based diet. So listen in to Brendan’s interview which is going

to come after the Q and A and special announcements, and

we are going to have a fantastic, jam-packed podcast today.

So enjoy.

Alright folks, first of all thanks to those of you who have

donated to the podcast to keep this podcast going. You can

do that by scrolling down to any of the episode Shownotes

and at the very bottom there under the comments section,

there’s a little spot where you can donate. You can donate a

buck, you can donate 20 bucks. But anybody who does over

15, I automatically send a bengreenfieldfitness.com T-shirt.

Thanks also to the people who have left a ranking and a

comment at iTunes. That really helps the show out, and I

also put a link in the episode Shownotes to where you can

leave a ranking for the show in iTunes. This is podcast

number 104 if you’re looking for the Shownotes over at

bengreenfieldfitness.com. A few quick special

announcements. First of all, as you may have heard in

previous podcasts, I do have a couple of triathlon adventures

that I’m offering people. One is going to be this November

and December over in Thailand. If you’re interested in a

triathlon in Thailand, let me know. Shoot me an email

ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com. I will be taking a group over

there to race. I know that race is full, but I do have a couple

of waitlisted slots available. The other triathlon

announcement is that I am teaching a triathlon camp in

Austin in January. Actually at the end of January. January

31st through February 7, 2011. You’ll want to get in early if

you’d like to be part of that camp. It’s an all inclusive

triathlon training camp for Half-Ironman and Ironman

triathletes. So go to the episode Shownotes to click, find out

more details on that and to register for it.

Then finally, I have a brand new book out and I know the

special announcements are a bit triathlon heavy, but the

book is called How To Qualify for Kona. It’s based on the fact

that it can be pretty tough to get to the Ironman World

Championships. But this book has everything from

qualification criteria to a list of qualifying races, tips from

coaches and experts on qualifying, qualifying times per age

group broken down so you can see what to expect, how fast

you’ll have to swim, bike and run; tips on racing in Kona

once you get there. What to expect on race day, what to

expect on the race course, race course pacing strategies,

fueling strategies, tons of stuff to help you get to race at the

Ironman World Championships. The book just came out. It’s

only available right now at benfitnessgreenfield.com and

over at the Rock Star Triathlete Academy, but you can get it

by clicking or by going to the episode Shownotes, once again

for episode 104. So we’re going to move on to a special

announcement and then this week’s Listener Q and A.

Lots of questions this week. Remember if you have a

question you can email ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com. You

can call toll free and leave a voice mail question to

8772099439 and I’ll put that number in the episode

Shownotes. Or you can Skype using free conferencing

software at skype.com to Skype me and my user name is

Pacific Fit. The first question from this week is from listener

Brad.

Brad says: Twenty-four to 72 hours after a hard full body workout,

accompanying my muscle soreness and stiffness and the

swollen feeling is a two to six pound weight gain. When my

soreness subsides, my weight returns back to normal. What

is the cause of this weight gain? Is it normal or healthy?

Ben answers: Well Brad first of all, weight gain is normal. The harder you

work out, the more the weight gain is going to occur. When

I’m talking about weight gain, I’m not talking about fat-

based weight gain. I’m talking about inflammatory based

weight gain. Because what happens is – as you may have

heard before – when you lift a load, the stress on a muscle

causes little tears in the muscle fibers. What happens is that

in order to repair those muscle fibers, your body has to

create an inflammatory condition. Specifically, it sends a

bunch of white blood cells into your muscle and the white

blood cells help to clear up a lot of that debris that sits

around in your muscles from the muscle damage that’s

occurred. The other thing that happens is prostaglandins get

produced. Prostaglandins are like hormones and they cause

pain. They cause swelling. But they’re naturally going to be in

any area where white blood cells are filling to help repair

muscle tissue. So you get a lot of other fluids, because you

got to replace your glycogen stores. You got to replace a lot of

the nutrients and the enzymes that you burn through when

you’re working out. So you get a lot of fluids carrying those

rushing into your muscles to help your muscles rebuild. So

along with those fluids and white blood cells and

prostaglandins, you’ve got swelling. With that is weight gain.

Because in order for your body to produce all that

inflammation, it needs to retain some fluid volume. Most of

the physiological processes in your body rely on water. So

you’re going to retain volume in order for that inflammation

and swelling to occur. Now it’s entirely natural. What

happens is it starts about two hours after you finish working

out. It takes about that long for it to kick in. Then it peaks

anywhere from two to four days after. Soreness peaks usually

about two days after. Swelling peaks anywhere from two to

four days after. After a really, really hard workout, believe it

or not especially with body builders, it can take seven to 11

days for swelling to subside. That’s even more true when

you’re doing what are called negatives or e-centric type of

exercises where you’re lowering a load or you’re trying to

slow down a load. It causes a lot more damage to the muscle

fibers when you’re having to work against gravity. So

obviously since it’s normal, you don’t want to completely

shut down the inflammatory process. You don’t want to pop

a bunch of ibuprofen after a workout. Something that I tell

people is you’re actually shutting down your ability to

respond to the workout if you take off inflammation after a

workout. The trick is to manage post-exercise swelling and to

keep those fluids that are going in and out of your muscles

moving as quickly as possible. So you can do things like

compression tights and compression socks for your lower

limbs. If you want, you can go with a full body compression

suit. Some people do that. A lot of professional athletes will

use compression on all their limbs. The thing you can do is

an ice bath which helps to flush out a lot of the swelling. Icy,

hot treatments. For example cold, hot contrasts of 30 to 60

seconds in the shower can help out quite a bit. Making sure

that you rehydrate after a workout. That you take in your

proteins and your carbs after a workout can help with

soreness. It’s not necessarily going to help too much with

swelling. But it will help with blood flow into the areas. The

blood delivers all those nutrients to the tissue. Massage helps.

Self-massage with a foam roller or a stick can help as well. A

good cool down, light stretching are also paramount to help

your muscles really milk a lot of that swelling after them and

keep the fluids moving in and out of the muscle tissue for

repair and recovery. There is a condition called

rabdomyalisis, which is basically excessive muscle damage. A

lot of inflammatory markers occur and it can lead to any

death, but quite a bit of muscle damage. That is a case that

would indicate you are working out way too hard. I doubt

that’s the case with you. You’ve got some normal swelling

going on that’s going to occur after a hard workout. So it is

normal. Just make sure you manage it.

So we have a question from listener Michael.

Michael asks: I was wondering why I don’t see or hear about serious

athletes using the total immersion style of swimming. Do you

know why most athletes just use a standard freestyle stroke

and not total immersion? Do they not know about it? Or do

they just feel freestyle is good enough?

Ben answers: Well Michael, it’s possible that your question is slightly

misinformed. Because total immersion is a style of

swimming that is a freestyle style of swimming. It’s just

basically a technique that’s used with freestyle swimming

and specifically, it’s focused on balancing in the water, on

streamlining your body or swimming long so that you reduce

drag as much as possible and shifting your work forward or

swimming downhill a little bit so your feet stay closer to the

surface of the water. And basically getting a good glide or

holding your place in the water by keeping one arm extended

out in front of your body as a ballast. So you get a nice long

glide. Now total immersion is a great swimming style. It’s a

wonderful way to learn the basic components of freestyle and

believe it or not, a lot of athletes train this way and even

serious and professional athletes started out with total

immersion and made a few modifications to make

themselves better. One modification specifically, what I find

is that people who learn total immersion – when they swim,

they tend to hold their glide a little bit too long and they tend

to not have a high enough swim stroke. Especially for open

water style swimming. If you’re trying to do a triathlon or

something of that nature, you have to have a little bit higher

turnover, a little bit more forceful, almost messy style of

swimming compared to the total immersion swimming. But

the balance that you learn in total immersion and the

streamlining, the ability to move your body through the

water while reducing turbulent flow of the water around your

body is very useful. I would actually encourage you if you’re a

beginning swimmer, look into a technique like total

immersion to form the basis of your swim stroke and then

modify it with a little bit of speed and power as you go to

help you out a little bit. But that’s a great question. And total

immersion swimming is used among professional athletes

and serious athletes. It’s just modified a little bit to make it

more powerful.

So a question over Twitter from Andrea Heaps. Andrew asks

via Twitter… just so you guys know, if you ask me a question

via Twitter, I’m sending a free bengreenfieldfitness.com T-

shirt to the best question asked via Twitter. There were a few

of them this week, and I will be sending out a free T-shirt to

the best question asked via Twitter. You can do that by going

to www.twitter.com/bengreenfield. You follow me on Twitter

by clicking the follow button after you create your free

Twitter account. Then you ask me a question.

Andrew Heaps asks: Hey Ben, any tips for good recipes if cooking for more than

just one?

Ben answers: Absolutely, Andrew. It’s a good question. I know that a lot of

the meal plans that you’ll see me write and talk about seem

like they’re made for just one person. But the fact is that you

can definitely modify them and eat healthy for more than

just one especially if you have a family. A few things that we

do as a family is we’ll do things that are like tacos. We do a

lot of wraps. We do do tacos sometimes. We do falafel – a

Greek Euro type of wrap where we’ll use whole wheat pita

and some hummus and some chickpeas. We use a little bit of

feta cheese, some tomatoes, some lettuce. Any type of meal

where you’re stuffing either gluten free wraps or pitas or bok

choy or Swiss chard or kale or big leaves of Romaine lettuce.

That works really well because you just put all that stuff out

on the table and people dig in and if you’re trying to eat

healthy, you can pick and choose. If you want to use the

cheese and sour cream or if you’re watching your calories

and you don’t want to use the cheese and sour cream. If

you’re trying to eat gluten free, maybe you wrap ingredients

inside Romaine lettuce rather than a whole wheat wrap but

you have whole wheat wraps there on the table for people

that want to use them. Those work really well. Batch

prepping with dishes like Quinoa based dishes work really

well. Amaranth and millet are another couple of very good,

pseudo grains that are a little bit higher in protein that work

well for larger dishes. A lot of times what we’ll do is we’ll just

take a bunch of fresh ingredients. Fresh produce or fresh

garden ingredients like tomatoes and basil, cilantro, we’ll do

some flax seed, some almonds or pumpkin seeds, a little bit

of olive oil, some type of vinegar or vinaigrette and we’ll just

combine all that stuff together in a salad. A grain based salad

over Quinoa or amaranth or millet. You can put a little feta

cheese or goat cheese in a recipe like that. But that’s very

easy to do. A couple of other things that we’ll do is we’ll do –

we do pizza. We do both a gluten free pizza which you can

buy at any grocery store or gluten free pizza dough. Very easy

to prepare. You put your fresh ingredients on top of pizza.

We tend to keep pizzas very simple. Fresh tomatoes that you

can slice and put on the pizza after you’ve cooked it for a

little while with just a little bit of cheese and there’s a variety

of different pizza sauces out there. I would recommend that

you make your own. There are lots of good, healthy,

homemade pizza sauce recipes out there and for me to go on

and on about cooking for more than just one, obviously

there’s tons of recipes. But the things you want to stay away

from are cream-based recipes, casserole-based recipes.

Typically anything where you’re combining a ton of

ingredients and heating them up or cooking them or baking

them or slow cooking them – usually more often than not,

the ingredients involve lots of salt, lots of butter, lots of

cream, lots of high calorie, low nutrient dense types of foods.

So try and keep it fresh and light when you’re cooking for

more than just one and think about it more as preparing

than cooking. Now I’d really direct you towards Chef Todd.

He’s one of my friends who teaches online Web cooking

classes. If you go to bengreenfieldfitness.com and do a search

for Chef Todd, you’ll find him. Fabulous resource for cooking.

He’s got some really good stuff and it’s well worth it. He’s got

an online cooking membership Web site. He’s actually worth

looking into. You’ll learn a lot from him. He himself is

becoming more and more healthy with his cooking style,

which is awesome.

Allison asks: I am a sports tissue and myofascial release practitioner. I

wanted to ask you two questions. Number one, I have a client

who is a diabetic training for her first marathon. She

struggles with a lot of myofascial adhesions despite using the

foam roller religiously and having a session with me every

two to three weeks. Do you have any suggestions on how to

help her body?

Ben answers: Well, first of all for those of you listening in, myofascial

adhesions are pretty common causes of muscle pain or

musculoskeletal pain. If you feel your neck get real, real tight

sometimes; maybe up in your traps, carry a lot of tension in

your shoulders… it can happen in the hamstrings as well

quite a bit. It can happen in your adductors and your quads.

Any muscle that you tend to use quite a bit. They tend to get

adhesions. The specific area that gets adhesed is an area

underneath the skin called the fascia. There’s a few different

layers of this fascia but essentially you get capillaries and

blood vessels moving this fascia. You get nerves moving

through it and it connects muscles and fat and bone and all

the tissues that move throughout your body. It kind of keeps

them together. You can think of it almost like a spider web. A

real, real thick network of spider webs that hold your body

together. When you injure a body part, scar tissue forms.

What are called adhesions form. Those are all made of fascia.

If that fascia is not really forming in a way that’s parallel or

that follows the route the normal fascia would, it tends to

create these knots and adhesions and feelings of tightness

and what are called cross-linking, haphazard cross-linking

where your collagen and your fiber really isn’t arranged in

the way they’re supposed to. There are some practitioners,

probably similar to Allison who specialize in just helping

people keep their fascia aligned. It’s especially important if

you’ve ever been injured before to keep that area of injury

very mobile and keep the vessels and the nerves feeding that

area very mobile. But it’s important too for injury prevention

to work your fascia with a foam roller or have a massage

therapist work on your fascia to keep all those fibers lined up

the right way. It’s one of the reasons that things like massage

therapy actually works. Now with the diabetes issue, I’m not

a physician but I can tell you and most of you know this that

with diabetics and neuropathy… diabetic neuropathy is

something that is very common, and that’s numbness and

tingling and pain, weakness in the extremities. It stems from

nerve damage as a result of diabetes. While we don’t

necessarily need to get into the cause of how diabetes

actually causes nerve damage, I’m not really familiar with

fascia and muscle damage being a symptom of diabetes but

because nerves move through and weave through the fascia

and the muscle, I would consider looking after some of the

same treatments that you’d use for something like a

neuropathy with this patient or some suggestions for

management of neuropathy. Obviously, they’d want to talk to

their physician about specific pharmaceuticals and things of

that nature that they could use to treat neuropathy. If you

listen to this show for some period of time, you’ll know that

I’m a big fan of and favor natural treatments as much as

possible. A couple of things that can be used or have

traditionally been used is nutrients to manage or to help with

pain related to neuropathy include alpha lipoic acid. Alpha

lipoic acid is a supplement that you can find at your local

health food store. A lot of grocery stores have it now. Acetyl

L- carnitene is another supplement that has been used in the

treatment of diabetic neuropathy. B vitamin dosing is

another thing. Ginko biloba – interestingly, we’ll talk about

ginko biloba a little bit later on in the podcast – but for both

circulation as well as management of pain related to diabetic

neuropathy, it’s something that has been studied and used as

a natural treatment. So I would look into some of the natural

treatments for neuropathy. I would also consider some of the

things that we’re going to be talking about next week with Dr.

David Minkoff. But he talks about managing adhesions and

muscle pain with cold laser, with some vibration based

treatments. I believe he mentions acupuncture in that

interview as well. Again, that’ll be in podcast number 105

which will be coming up. But there are some other things in

addition to just physical manipulation of the fascia that could

help with some of those adhesions and pain. So I would look

after natural treatments of diabetic neuropathy. I would also

look into some things that you’re not doing like the cold laser,

like acupuncture, like vibration based therapy and some of

those treatments. But myofascial pain is definitely something

that can be frustrating especially for people who are

physically active and often requires more than one approach

when it comes to treatment.

The second part of your question.

Allison asks: I am thinking of trying a tri. However each time I go to the

pool to try and swim pools, I suffer from nausea and vertigo.

I have horrible motion sickness on dry land anyways and

often get sick on boats and long car rides. Can you think of

anything I can do to help? Ginger doesn’t work.

Ben answers: That was one of the things I was going to suggest.

Allison asks: And it’s impossible to work out on Dramamine patches.

Ben answers: I would agree with that. It’s tough to exercise when you’re on

Dramamine. There are some other things you can try. I

actually had some clients that I trained who have real trouble.

They get dizzy on everything from a treadmill to the water.

Some of the things that we’ve tried include acupuncture and

acupressure. You can actually get wrist bands with special

acupressure tabs that target the area of your wrists and your

hands associated with motion sickness. So you can look at a

wrist band with acupressure tabs on them. You can also work

on some breathing techniques. Some deep breathing, some

relaxation techniques. I have a hunch you’ve already

experimented with ginger and Dramamine. You’ve probably

tried some breathing techniques but the other thing you can

do is actually train your body to handle the type of issues that

it’s not dealing well with as you begin to get into those wavy

conditions in the water. There’s actually a drill that you can

do. The way that you do this drill is you want to get an 8 and

½ by 11 sheet of paper and you want to draw a bunch of

black and white squares on there in a checkered pattern. In

the middle of that checkered pattern, you want to put an X.

What you do is you shake your head back and forth while

you’re trying to focus on that X in the center of that paper.

You want to be able to work yourself up to the point where

you can shake your head up and down and back and forth

and still focus on that X that’s in the middle of that checker

board pattern. After a while, you’ll find that you can actually

begin to focus on that X without feeling dizzy as you shake

your head. That can help out quite a bit. It’s a drill that

physical therapists use when treating motion sickness. The

other thing you want to do is use the lane lines in the pool.

Make sure you look at the lane lines and only at the lane lines.

Trust the lane lines. Obviously, it doesn’t help in the open

water, but looking at non-moving objects as much as

possible is the other thing that will help out quite a bit. But

don’t feel like you’re stuck with the motion sickness. You can

try and train your brain to deal a little better with it. So best

of luck Allison and great questions.

We’re going to move on to a question from listener Kai. I’ve

gotten a lot of questions about this recently, about the fact

that consumer reports recently published findings of high

levels of lead and other metals in protein drinks and other

supplements including green drinks.

Kai asks: What is your take on this? Are there any certifications we

should look for on supplement labels that provide guidance

as to the quality of the ingredients? And what is your take on

consumerlab.com.

Ben answers: We’ll start with that last question. www.consumerlab.com, I

don’t have a big issue with. They’re out there to protect

consumers and I appreciate some of the things that they’re

brought to us, specifically this study in which they took some

very popular protein drinks some of you may have heard of:

the ESS Myoplex Shake, the Muscle Milk Chocolate powder,

and another nutritional shake – a chocolate flavored

nutritional shake. What they found was that these shakes

and powders not only contain lead and lead that was over

and above what would be considered to be toxic levels, but

they also contained cadmium, arsenic and mercury. Now

these are of course all toxic heavy metals and exposure to

them can cause neurotoxic damage. It can cause nausea, it

can cause vomiting. Long term exposure to heavy metals has

been linked to cancer. Cadmium is a known human

carcinogen and these things can accumulate in your body

over time especially if you’re that person who’s having a

protein shake every day after your workout or for breakfast

every morning. This is stuff that you should definitely be

concerned about. So here are my thoughts and my take on

this.

The supplement companies that they studied are considered

very big, run of the mill – I don’t want to do any name calling

here – but let’s say GNC. You walk into GNC and those are

the type of things that you would see. GNC being a popular

supplement store here in America, versus the smaller organic

companies that tend to not mass produce as much. Maybe

not go after Chinese-based products quite as much which

tend to be higher in lead. We all know what happened with

the toy fiasco last year and I do know that a lot of the bigger

supplement companies that outsource a lot of their

ingredients overseas. Now you contrast that with organic

based proteins and organic ingredients which has not been

exposed to fertilizers. They haven’t been exposed to a lot of

the modern industrialization and commercialization

practices and so the soil and the area they’re grown in is not

contaminated with heavy metals. That would be a better way

to go. Specifically I’m talking about organic whey protein

because whey is specifically one of the culprits here. Organic

whey protein, or choosing proteins that are not based on

whey at all. That are based on a hemp-base or a pea-base or a

rice-base. But essentially, what we’re talking about doing is

choosing smaller companies that don’t mass produce their

ingredients. They’re not getting their ingredients necessarily

from overseas sources that are focused on quality and

organic in terms of their sources. I have mentioned on this

show a couple of times the organic goat-raised whey that is

cold-pressed, which means that it’s a lot gentler way of

extracting that protein and contains whey protein

concentrate that’s naturally sweetened. It doesn’t have

artificial sweeteners in it. It doesn’t have chemicals added.

There’s no preservatives added, and that’s the Mt. Capra

Double Bonded Whey Protein. Now let’s say that you’re a

vegan or you’re a vegetarian and you’re not into whey protein.

Well you’ve got other options. Brendan Brazier who we’re

interviewing today – his entire nutrition company is based

around ingredients that are high quality, that are organic and

that are not animal-based. So he’s got vegan-based protein

compounds like hemp and pea and rice. There’s another

protein supplement you’ll find over at pacificfit.net. The

Living Fuel Living Protein. I’ll put a link to that in the

Shownotes. Another way to get protein without having to

worry about some of these modern farming techniques that

could be exposing the protein to heavy metals or outsourcing

the ingredients that they’re getting from Chinese-based

facilities. So those are some of the things that I’d think about

when you’re looking at some of the certification levels like

WADA – the World Anti-Doping Association. When you’re

looking at the Certified Good Manufacturing Practices, which

is the CGMP certification. Unfortunately, these same

supplement companies they found the heavy metals in all

have those certifications or those recognitions and they still

had the heavy metals in them. So, the CGMP and the WADA

are more focused on the types of things that would be

considered illegal performance enhancing supplements in

your supplements, not heavy metals. But this is definitely

something that concerns me and makes me even more wary

of the supplements that I’m buying and making sure that I’m

going after high quality supplements. I have also talked with

the Living Fuel – the company that makes the Living Protein

and with Mt. Capra – and I’m waiting back for a statement

with them for their take on this matter and I’ll get that out on

the podcast as soon as I hear back from them as well. If you

have more information. You’re listening in and you want to

leave a comment, as usual leave the comment right on the

episode Shownotes for this podcast number 104.

Now listener Doug Lloyd asks a Twitter question. Another

Twitter question.

Doug Lloyd asks: I’m feeling unmotivated to restart my lifting and running

program. A trainer might help. What should I look for in a

personal trainer?

Ben answers: That is a question I wish more people asked. You guys, I have

been a trainer – I’ve been a personal trainer for over a

decade and I’ve been asked less than a dozen times where I

was educated, how I was certified, what my experience is.

That type of approach would be similar to going into a health

practitioner’s office and not asking if they are a doctor, okay?

Personal training certifications are available for people to get

via an open book, weekend certification from their home.

You pay a company and they’ll send you a test. You fill up

that test using whatever books or Google or Wikipedia or

anything else you want. You send it back in. You pay them

$150 or $200. They send you a certificate that says

“Congratulations John Doe, you’re a personal trainer.” Then

that might be the personal trainer that you’re walking into

your gym and hiring at X dollars an hour to take care of your

body. Wouldn’t do that if they were a brain surgeon

operating on your brain. Why would you do that with

someone if they are taking care of and giving you advice

about your body or your nutrition? That’s why this is a great

question. So, here is what to look for Doug.

The good certifications out there that you need to be asking

your personal trainer if they have, making sure that they can

actually provide proof of certification, of updated

certification because the certifications do expire and I do

know some personal trainers who do not renew them and

still tell people they are certified. The certifications would be

the NSCA, National Strength Conditioning Association. The

only internationally recognized certifying body for personal

trainers. The NSCA is considered to be more of a

performance strength and conditioning… very good for

athletes, very good for the general population, but that’s the

type of certification that is. ACSM, American College of

Sports Medicine, another very good certification. Often used

for people working in a clinical environment such as a heart

attack recovery center in a hospital. Very good for people

who are doing cardiac rehab. If you’re having heart issues or

you’re rehabilitating from something like a cardiac-based

issue, ACSM would be the personal trainer that I would

choose. NASM, the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

I’m not sure if I’m saying that right. The National Academy

of Sports Medicine, NASM. The NASM is very good also for

rehabilitation or muscle work. It has a strong focus on

anatomy and physiology. That’s a great certification as well.

One that’s kind of on the edge for me is called ACE. The ACE

personal training certification. ACE does have a very good

certification program. It’s just some people just go through

the ACE Group Fitness Instructor certification. They’re not

the same as a person who has gone through the ACE

Personal Training Certification System. So you need to make

sure that you know that ACE has varying degrees of

certification, as does the NSCA. As a matter of fact, most of

the certification bodies. But ACE is the only one that I’m

aware of where you may find out that the person who is

trying to teach you how to weight lift is really only certified to

teach group Pilates and yoga and that’s really something you

need to be careful with. So look into the certification. Look

into the experience. How many clients have they worked

with? How long have they worked with them? In the same

way that you would want someone who is going to operate on

your knee to have done hundreds of knee surgeries. I’m not

saying that rookie personal trainers don’t have a place to

start out but if it were me, I’d be looking for a personal

trainer who has worked with lots of people and seen lots of

cases and worked with lots of different body types and

unique needs. If I were choosing a personal trainer, I would

also choose one that is well-versed in nutrition or has access

to a nutritionist or registered dietician or some type of

mentor to help them help you with their nutrition needs. So

make sure that you take into consideration the dietary

knowledge of your personal trainer because there are some

personal trainers that will just tell you to eat before and after

a workout and make sure you eat three times a day or six

times a day. That’s all the advice you’re ever going to get

from them. Make sure that they actually know something

about nutrition or they’re willing to bring someone onto their

team who is able to help you out with nutrition, or they’re

able to refer you out to a nutritionist. If they themselves are

not a nutritionist, make sure that they are willing to work

with one and to help you out by referring you to one.

Finally, make sure that you are choosing a trainer that suits

your personality. There are some trainers that simply are not

going to be the type of person that motivates you, that you

get along with. Some trainers are very soft-spoken. That’s

good for some people, that’s not motivating for some people.

Some trainers are very brash, and that’s also not necessarily

good or agreeable for some types of clients. So make sure

that you get a chance to sit down with your personal trainer.

Any personal trainer should at least be doing a 30 minute

consultation with you and preferably closer to a 50 or 60

minute consultation with you to really get to know you and

for you to get to know them. If you’re going to be hiring them

to reinvent your body, especially for a long term basis. So I

will personally vouch for any of the trainers that work for me

around the nation that you can fine at Pacific Elite Fitness.

That is pacificfit.net. You can find me there. You can find any

of the personal trainers that work for me there and I have

handpicked many of them to be safe and well-certified and

well-versed to help you lose weight or do a triathlon or

whatever it is that you’re trying to accomplish. Great

question Doug. As a matter of fact, you win a free T-shirt for

asking the best question of the week via Twitter. So send me

your address Doug, whether via Twitter or via email and I

will get a T-shirt in the mail for you ASAP. A

bengreenfieldfitness.com T-shirt.

We’re going to move on to a question from listener Gabe.

Gabe asks: I recently have had interest in the Bioletics tests and

protocols that you talk about. I have a limited budget, so I’d

like to start with just the vitamin D test. Do you think the

vitamin D test is the best place to start with Bioletics? How

do I download previous podcast episodes with Dr. Cohen

from Bioletics? I don’t see how to download those episodes

from iTunes.

Ben answers: Alright. Great question. So, first let’s address the second part

of your question Gabe about downloading previous podcasts.

If you’re trying to access those from an iPhone or a mobile

phone and you go to iTunes and you’re not seeing the

previous podcast in there, go to the link that I’m going to put

in the Shownotes for this episode. Now

bengreenfieldfitness.com is accessible via mobile phone. I do

have a piece of software that basically reconverts the code on

my Web site to allow you to comfortably view it on your

phone. Go to the episode Shownotes for this episode.

Episode 104. Underneath your question, I put a link that

shows all the podcasts I’ve ever done. If you click on that link,

you’ll be able to download any of those.

Now to the first part of your question on the vitamin D test

and whether I would say that that would be the best place to

start… if it were me, I wouldn’t. Because so many people are

deficient in vitamin D. You’re almost guaranteed that if you

start taking vitamin D, it’s going to benefit you. You’re also

almost guaranteed that you’re probably deficient in vitamin

D. So I don’t know if I would prioritize that as the top test to

do. If I were in your shoes, I would look after something

that’s a little more diet specific and body type specific. I

would look into the essential amino acids test which was very

eye opening for me and has been one of the life changing

things for me in terms of my performance and my health. I

got tested for the amino acids and I found out that I need to

be eating a high protein diet and I also need to be

supplementing with essential amino acids. For me I thought

I was getting enough protein. I wasn’t. The other one that I

would really look into is the essential fatty acids. In my case

again, I thought I was eating lots of healthy fats. It turns out

I was, but I was eating too many of the Omega 6 type of fats

and I had to readjust my diet to take in more of the Omega 3s.

So I would really recommend with Bioletics, even though all

their tests are obviously highly beneficial, look into the

essential fatty acids or the essential amino acids and we’ll see

if we can get Dr. Cohen to come on and comment on the

episode Shownotes for his take on this. But if it were me and

I were in your shoes, I would look after the essential fatty

acids or the essential amino acids test. You can read about all

those tests over at bioletics.com. They send test kits to your

home to allow you to test things like your magnesium levels,

your vitamin D levels, your fatty acids, your amino acids,

your metabolic type, etc. Make sure you let them know that I

sent you over there because that’s important they know

where you came from and that I am giving them business. I

really believe in that company and what they do and I would

highly recommend that you look into them.

So we have a question from listener Jason next.

Jason asks: I am a cyclist. Last week I was in a crash during a race

resulting in a broken collar bone. My doc says it will be about

four to six weeks until this has healed. I’m wondering if my

nutrition over the next several weeks can help or hinder bone

healing. Are there certain foods or supplements I should be

including in my diet? What would you do for a broken bone?

Ben answers: First of all, listen to your doc. A broken collar bone… listen to

your doc in terms of healing. Make sure that your doc is a

cyclist. I’m serious. Because there’s no reason that you can’t

rig up an indoor bicycle, suspend your arms so you’re not

putting a lot of stress on your collar bone. Ride with that for

the first couple of weeks and then modify your handlebars.

You can take an old handlebar, tape it on top of your existing

handlebar to bring your handlebars up closer to your body

and continue to ride that way as well. These are the types of

things that a doctor who is a cyclist will tell you. A doctor

who doesn’t really care that much about endurance sports or

the fact that you’re going to want to stay fit and on your bike

during your collarbone fracture or break is not going to tell

you that stuff. So make sure that your doctor really is

familiar with cyclists who need to keep riding with broken

collarbones. Because guys finish the Tour de France with

broken collarbones. Totally possible to do.

As far as speeding up healing, I’m going to put a link to a

couple of resources for you Jason, in the episode Shownotes.

One is podcast number 49, which was an interview with a

gentleman about a supplement called Lactoferrin or a

compound called lactoferrin, which has some really

promising research behind it in terms of its ability to speed

up osteoblast activity. Osteoblasts are the parts of your bone

that actually allow new bone cell to get laid down and

lactoferrin is the supplement I’d look into and you can hear

the podcast about that in podcast number 49. I’d also look

into my free resource, How to Recover Like Wolverine from

X-Men. You can get that for free by clicking on the link that

I’ll also put on the Shownotes episodes. A couple of things

that are specifically in that book that I’d look into: one would

be glucosamine chondroitin. It’s necessary for proper joint

lubrication and cartilage regeneration. Your body makes it

but by giving yourself a little bit extra, you’re not going to

hurt yourself. It’s made from ground up goat cartilage and

the stuff that I recommend – as a matter of fact, the same

company I recommended earlier – Mt. Capra, they make that

organic goat-based whey protein, but they also use ground

up chicken cartilage and they make this glucosamine

chondroitin. I’d definitely check that stuff out. It’s called

Capra Flex. It’s something that I would look into. I’d also

look into vitamin C which helps in the production of what’s

called fiber blasts and chondrosites, which are also

responsible for connective tissue fiber and cartilage

formation. So a vitamin C dosing would be very easy to do as

well, and that’s something that I’d look into. In terms of bone

healing and circulatory movement, iron is a key component

of hemoglobin which carries oxygen to your muscles and

carries oxygen to other tissues – and making sure that you

have adequate iron in your food is important. They have

done studies where people recovered faster from surgery and

injuries when they supplemented with iron. Iron isn’t

necessarily a vital component of bone density formation but

it’s definitely something that I always suggest to people who

are injured to help with inflammation and oxygen delivery.

A couple of other things I would look into is making sure that

you’re not leaching calcium from your bones by consuming

an acidic diet. An acidic diet would be something high in

grains, sugars, processed sugars. A diet high in chemicals,

toxins, artificial sweeteners – things of that nature. So try to

avoid cereals, try to avoid grains. I’d avoid a lot of pasta, a lot

of bread. Make sure you eat a lot of alkalotic foods. Dark

skinned fruits, dark vegetables, greens, supplements, cold

water fish is good. Green tea is good. Nuts like walnuts and

almonds, pumpkin seeds. Flax seeds are also good. So I’d

look into taking some of those. I’d also look into a couple of

mineral – well one large mineral and then some mineral co-

factors. I would look into magnesium to take a long with the

calcium. You can take oral magnesium up to the point where

you get loose stool. 500 to 1000 milligrams in that range is

typically what would be about the upper range, what you

could take in terms of a magnesium supplement to help with

that calcium absorption. I’d also look into trace mineral

supplementation. Trace minerals are just small micro

minerals. I actually interviewed – I did an interview on trace

minerals some time back with a lady. You can go to

bengreenfieldfitness.com. Do a search for minerals. This lady

was from a company called Ambia. Ambia Gold. And she was

talking about trace minerals and the role they play in the

body. But if you can get your hands on a good trace mineral

supplement, that would also be something I can recommend.

So few things you can do there. But definitely look into the

glucosamine chondroitin, the vitamin C, iron. Look into trace

minerals, look into magnesium. Continue to of course make

sure you get adequate calcium. That should go without

saying. And also look into an alkalinic diet, a non-acidic diet

and some things you can do to help keep you riding even

though you have a fracture. So good question Gabe, or Jason

rather.

Zach asks: I am a 35 year old marathoner that has decided to become

serious about bike racing. I realize I need to drop some

weight to realize my full potential, I have a theory that I need

to gain some muscle in order to lean out and then I can

worry about cannibalizing some of that muscle when it

comes time to get into racing shape. How would you go

about this?

Ben answers: It’s an interesting theory. The whole idea is you build muscle

so you bump up your metabolism and then you use the

higher metabolism to burn through fat. The only issue is that

because muscle takes about 2500 extra calories of

consumption, it’s tough to gain muscle without at the same

time gaining a little bit of fat. You don’t have to eat

hamburgers and big, fatty steaks and do the whole body

building approach of just putting on a ton of mass and then

shedding fat. You can still put on protein mass without

getting a ton of fat, but be warned that if you go about eating

as much as you’re going to have to eat to gain muscle mass,

you’re probably going to gain some fat in the process because

ultimately what it comes down to is that for even a pound of

extra muscle weight, you’re going to have to eat at least 2500

extra calories per week.

A better way to go would be to focus on fat loss but just make

sure that you include weightlifting or resistance training in

your cycling program so that you are sustaining a healthy

metabolism. You are getting some of the hormonal response

that occurs to weightlifting and that can have a very positive

effect on your ability to lose fat. But you’re not doing the

mass gain type of protocol which can be stressful. It can

cause you to gain extra fat weight and it really isn’t conducive

to getting into good, functional cycling shape.

So if I were you and I were trying to shed some fat to become

a better cyclist but also make sure that I get some muscle in

my body, the way I would do it is rather than thinking of

bulking up muscle and then shedding fat, I would go for

more of a moderate muscle building approach and fat

burning approach. So you’re eating a healthy diet using the

fat loss techniques I talked about on the show in the past.

You’re getting up. You’re exercising on an empty stomach.

Nice and easy, to jumpstart that fat burning. You’re doing

some weight lifting and some interval training later on in the

afternoon. You’re eating at a caloric deficit of no more than

1000 calories a day but in that 500 to 1000 calorie a day

caloric deficit range and believe it or not, studies have shown

that even people who are at a caloric deficit can still maintain

or build a slight amount of lean muscle while weightlifting.

It’s not going to be like bulk gain mode, but you can gain a

little bit of lean muscle even when you’re at a caloric deficit

as long as you’re weightlifting. So I do the caloric deficit, the

fat burning and then moderate weightlifting for a moderate

muscle gain. When I say moderate muscle gain, we’re talking

about probably in the range of .2 to .4 pounds per week. So

good question.

Listener Todd asks kind of a related question.

Todd asks: I was wondering if 1500 calories a day is a good goal for me. I

don’t want it to be too little and slow down my metabolism

too much. I do cardio at least five times a week and if the

machines are accurate, I’m averaging about 700 calories

burned per day. I have a worry in the back of my mind that

my calorie intake will put my body into starvation mode

especially with the huge calories that I used to consume daily.

Ben answers: Todd, the only way to know is to know your metabolic rate.

So there’s lots of ways to find out your metabolic rate. You

can go to a laboratory. You can test your resting metabolic

rate using what’s called an RMR test. Do a Google search for

your area. Type in “resting metabolic rate test” and see what

comes up. There might be a practitioner in your area who

offers that service. You could also look into the local exercise

physiology lab at your university to see if they’re able to offer

you a resting metabolic rate test. You could use an equation.

There’s an equation out there that’s pretty decent called the

Harris Benedict equation. That equation allows you to

approximate based off your height and your weight and your

age and your sex, your approximate number of calories that

your body needs per day in order to sustain your metabolism.

Now, once you find out what your resting metabolic rate is,

my recommendation is that males not undercut that by more

than 1000 calories and that females not undercut that by

more than 500 calories. So for example, my personal resting

metabolic rate – and I know this from a laboratory test is

about 2900 calories per day. That’s what I burn sitting

around doing nothing. So I never eat fewer than 1900

calories per day because I want my body to have enough

calories so that my metabolism doesn’t slow down as my

body goes into starvation mode. Now, that’s starvation mode.

Starvation mode is not when you skip a meal. Your body

doesn’t go to starvation mode if you eat three meals a day.

Your body goes into starvation mode when you have day

after day after day of undercutting your metabolic rate far

below your resting metabolic rate, or undercutting your

intake far below your resting metabolic rate. That’s

starvation mode. Don’t let anybody tell you that starvation

mode is going to happen if you eat three times a day or you

skip breakfast. That’s not starvation mode. Starvation is

literally starving your body. That’s when your metabolism

begins to slow. So for you, you say you’re 45 years old, 245

pounds. It’s possible that your resting metabolic rate is over

2500 calories. In which case 1500 calories a day would be

really low for you. Getting close to being too low for you.

Now, if you happen ot have a slower metabolism, let’s say it’s

2000 calories a day, you’re going to be fine on 1500 calories

a day. But it’s really tough to say without knowing for sure

your resting metabolic rate. A cookie cutter approach is

really tough in this type of situation. For a while, one of the

things that i’ve done with a lot of my clients is that resting

metabolic rate test to make sure that we’re finding out the

exact resting metabolic rate, if any type of severe caloric

deficit is necessary so we don’t undercut the calories by too

many. So great question.

A question from... I believe this was a Twitter question again.

Anonymous asks: Have you ever used SportLegs. If so, what are your thoughts

about it?

Ben answers: Okay. SportLegs. You know, I did use SportsLegs. I got a few

samples. I think they sent me some samples. I tried them out.

I got interested in them for a little while. Interesting

philosophy – SportLegs, they contain trace amounts of

magnesium and vitamin D. So low that those components

probably aren’t doing much for you. But the main active

component in SportLegs that I’m really interested in is that

it’s basically lactate. A lot of people call it lactic acid. But

basically it’s lactate and the idea is that if you preload your

body prior to exercising with a bunch of lactate, you cause

the enzymes responsible for buffering lactic acid and turning

it back into fuel and shuttling all the acid out of your bones

to work more quickly. So when you finally do begin

exercising, you don’t burn quite as much and you’re able to

achieve a higher intensity faster and get less lactic acid

accumulation in your muscle tissues. Then furthermore, by

having that extra lactate into your body, the idea is that

hydrogen ions which are responsible for the acidic state in

your muscles get buffered or taken up by that extra lactate so

you recover more quickly.

On paper it all looks pretty nice. It’s a really cool philosophy.

Studies have shown that by eating, preloading with that

lactate, you actually can – you can increase the buffering

capacity of your body and increase your ability to convert

that lactic acid into glucose. However, I have yet to see a

single study using SportLegs that shows a direct

performance increase based on that fact. So the question is,

is your body good enough already at buffering lactic acid and

converting lactic acid into energy that you really don’t need

extra lactate dumped down the hatch to make it happen? It

could be. So until I see a definitive study that shows an

improvement in performance, I’m not totally convinced that

SportLegs would be the best bang for your buck. I don’t think

they’re going to hurt you. I took them a bunch. I took them

before on sprint races, some Olympic races. I felt great when

I took them. I’m not certain that I felt a huge difference

between when I did and didn’t take them. Really tough for

me to say. But that’s the idea behind SportsLegs. They’re not

going to hurt you. I wouldn’t be worried about the trace

amounts of lactate that those are putting into your body

compared to what your body is endogenously producing

when you begin exercising. But the idea is I’m not totally

convinced they’re going to help you recover or help you

perform either. But they’re a very interesting and compelling

supplement.

So, the next question is from listener Brad.

Brad asks: Several months ago, I watched a Dr. Oz interview where he

told Jimmy Kimmel that the maximum healthy waist size

should be half the height. Is that true?

Ben answers: Waist-height ratio is basically what that’s called. Many of you

might be familiar with the BMI or body mass index. That’s a

ratio of weight to height and it’s been used for a really long

time to predict your mortality or your cardiovascular risk.

The problem with that test being that it will predict some

people who are actually very fit and who may be heavy

because they have large amounts of lean muscle... it will

predict them to still be unhealthy or have a high

cardiovascular risk which of course is unfortunate if your

BMI is being taken into consideration for something like

your health insurance or your life insurance policy. So, the

BMI has some flaws. Especially for thin people with lots of

lean muscle who are in good shape or thick people who are

built like linebackers who are in relatively good shape but

just happen to be heavier. Not from fat mass but from

muscle mass. So that’s where the waist-height ratio comes in,

that no matter how big or how small you are, if you have a

thin waist compared to your height, you really have a

reduced cardiovascular risk. It’s pretty intuitive really. The

thicker your waist your is, the more likely it is that that

thickness is coming from added adipose tissue and fat and

storage tissue around your waist and compared to your

height, it can give a very clear picture of whether or not your

ratio is in a healthy range. If you just Google “waist to height

ratios”, you can find the ratios published on the Web. They

have a ratio for men and a ratio for women. You specifically

asked me Brad, you said “I’m 74 inches tall and my waist is

35 inches.” So what you would do is you would take the

number 35. You would divide it by 74 and in your case, it’s

going to come out to about 47%. So if you look at a chart, you

would see where 47% lies. A ratio of 47% for men is

considered healthy, normal weight with the caveat that there

are still categories under that. You have a ratio of 43 to 46

being healthy; ratio of 45 to 43 being extremely slim; and a

ratio of less than 35 being abnormally slim to underweight.

So, if you have a desire to be a male model you may want to

shed about 12 percentage points off that waist-height ratio.

Otherwise just make sure you don’t gain too much weight

because that would get you closer to 53% which gets into that

overweight, unhealthy category. But definitely a better

measurement than the BMI.

Bernice asks: I’m curious to know, what is more likely to make you fatter?

Consuming excess fat or excess sugar?

Ben answers: Well the answer to that Bernice is neither. Consuming excess

calories is what’s going to make you fatter. Now, to take that

to a more personal level, what I feel personally – I find that

people who tend to consume excess fats tend to be the type

of people who are consuming steaks, burgers, higher protein

diets. They’re consuming generally not a ton of corn or

wheat-based products. They’re not consuming as much

processed sugar. They’re generally more of the caveman type

eaters. You compare that with people who are the high sugar

eaters who tend to eat lots of packaged and processed foods,

lots of things from the Starbucks bakery case, lots of

Twizzlers and candies and cookies and baked goodies, and

they tend to consume more – shall we say processed foods.

So, if you were to take somebody who was eating 1500

calories per day and 70% of those were coming from

processed sugars and you were to take somebody who was

eating 1500 calories a day and they were eating a diet that

was coming from steak and burgers and things of that nature

– whatever – coconut, avocados, maybe some Trail Mix.

Higher fat in terms of their diet, and high fat would be really

anything above 30%. Let’s say they’re getting 40 to 50% of

their diet from fat. Even though I would consider both of

those diets to be less than ideal, I would consider the higher

carbohydrate, higher sugar diet to be more damaging, more

acidic for the body. More preservatives, more chemicals and

of course any of those excess carbohydrates are not only

doing damage from an overall health standpoint, but they’re

also getting converted into trigylcerides and stored as fat,

just like fat would be. Whereas the person who’s eating the

steak, the nuts, the hamburgers – a lot of the fats that they’re

getting in are A, they could be healthy fats. They could be

some of the healthier, saturated fats, some of the Omega 3

fats, some of the Omega 6 fats. Granted, they’re also getting

some transfat and some vegetable oils and some more acidic

and inflammatory fats in that diet but for the most part, a

higher fat diet tends to be lower in terms of its ability to

produce acidic, inflammatory conditions in the body

compared to a higher carbohydrate diet. So, it is likely that if

you are asking me this question that you are not even at that

stage where you’re thinking, “How could I eat a high fat diet

and have it be an alkalotic, non-inflammatory diet based on

avocadoes and olives and Mediterranean food and that type

of jive. I’m guessing that you’re probably more at the stage

where you’re just trying to lose weight. In which case I would

be focused on the more general recommendation of limiting

the number of calories that you take in, consuming

somewhere in the range of 20 to 30% protein, 20 to 30% fat,

40 to 60% carbohydrates all from real food that you

recognize and that you can easily identify that’s not coming

out of boxes, not coming out of drive-through windows,

packages or containers. If you begin to follow those general

recommendation, I’m thinking that the question of whether

to consume excess fat or excess sugar is going to fall by the

wayside. Now that being said, if you had to choose between a

spoonful of peanut butter or a piece of chocolate cake for

your cheat meal, I’m leaning towards the peanut butter. So,

hopefully that helps you out a little bit. I’m going to put a

link to a previous podcast called “How lowfat diets make you

fat.” It’s called “How lowfat diets make you fat.” I’m going to

put a link to that in the episode Shownotes for episode 104.

Karen asks: I would love to hear your opinion about the C-Prime bracelet.

I’m seeing more and more of these and hearing so many

claims that this bracelet has made the biggest difference in

running, biking, swimming and golf. Sounds too good to be

true. What is your opinion?

Ben answers: Well, the C-Prime bracelet is a magnetic bracelet. Lots of

companies are making magnetic bracelets based on the

whole idea behind magnets being able to improve circulation

and help to realign the natural energy fields in your body to

improve performance and improve health. Now, there’s been

several studies on magnets and some have found decent

results in terms of comparison to placebo magnets or non-

active magnets or things that look like magnets and weren’t

magnets in terms of the ability to reduce the person’s

perception of pain and in terms of the ability to improve

performance or specifically reduce the rating of perceived

exertion. Some of the studies were not super elegant in the

way they were designed. Specifically, there was one done at

New York Medical College that was kind of grasping at

straws because even though they noted statistical

improvements, they had the groups divided into so many

different groups that it was really, really tough to see a real

good statistical improvement when using the magnets. Then

the other group had twice as many women as men in the

group that showed the improvement and sex is definitely

something to take into consideration when you’re talking

about a placebo versus a non-placebo effect. So there’s been

a few issues with some of the studies that have been done.

But ultimately what it comes down to... you’re asking me this

question. You’re writing in and asking me and here are my

thoughts on this. I’ve used magnets before on sprains, strains.

I have friends who use magnets and I personally feel less

pain when I wear them. I have not yet noticed any

improvement in performance but I notice that my injuries

tend to feel a little bit better, and I’m also a big believer in

the fact that we have energy fields in our human body;

energy meridians in our human body that can be affected by

magnets. Now, I’m not saying that a C-Prime bracelet is

going to turn you from a 30 minute 5k runner to a 20 minute

5k runner. But let’s just say that even the placebo effect is at

play there, if it helps you run a couple minutes faster or helps

you recover a little bit faster from an ankle sprain; I’m all for

the placebo effect and I’m all for even trying something that

may not have yet been proven by science but if it helps you, it

helps you. So that’s the issue, you know? And case in point,

Dara Torres who had a fantastic Olympics a few years ago

was a 40 plus years old phenom swimmer. She wore the

magnetic bracelet. I have a picture. If you do a Google search

at bengreenfieldfitness.com for Dara Torres, you’ll see that I

have a picture of her there wearing a bracelet and in that

same episode, I interviewed a gentleman about magnets and

exercise and magnetic therapy and it’s an interesting

interview. So I’m personally not totally sold on them but

they’re not going to hurt you. As long as you’re not paying big

bucks for your magnets, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

Rick asks: I have seen advertisements for a bar called the PR Bar in

Competitor magazine. I called and the president of the

company answered and told me how his nutrition program

would get my body burning fat for energy. Have you heard of

this bar? I could not find any nutritional information on it.

Ben answers: Well, here’s what I did. I headed over to the PR Bar Web site

and the PR Bar definitely has a lot of height behind it as

being the cat’s meow when it comes to supplying your body

with all the fast fat burning nutrition that it needs. It did take

a little bit of digging for me to actually find the ingredient

label but I found it. And here it is. The ingredients are the PR

blend. What is in the PR blend, you ask? Soy protein isolate,

whey protein concentrate, soy crisp – which is rice flour,

malt extract, calcium carbonate and soy protein isolate,

fructose, peanuts, sugar, fractionated palm kernel oil,

vegetable oil. That was my injection. Cocoa powder, whey

powder, nonfat milk powder, soy lethosane, corn syrup,

peanut flour, maltodextrin – that’s sugar, natural flavor,

vitamin, mineral blend and everything else from there on out

is vitamins, vitamins, vitamins and salt. Nothing

groundbreaking here. This is basically a meal replacement

bar or a protein bar that actually has more vegetable oil and

more corn syrup and more sugar in it than any of the bars I

have personally recommended. It’s also got potential allergin

triggers in it like milk powder and peanut powder and

peanuts. It’s basically – I guess the defining characteristic of

it is they put some vitamins in it. Nothing special here. Good

advertising. Definitely good advertising. I’ll give them an A

for advertising but the fast burning nutrition technologically

is probably going to do you more harm than good in the long

run. As usual, I would continue to suggest that if you’re going

to use a meal replacement bar, you go with something that is

gluten free, that is 100% organic, that does not contain

things like peanuts, that does not contain corn syrup or

fructose and that preferably is more of a vegan, vegetarian

type of meal replacement bar or is made from entirely

holistic, healthy ingredients. Two examples – CocoChia Bar

made by that company Living Fuel that I talked about. Go to

pacificfit.net, click on supplements. You’ll see the CocoChia

bar there. Bumble Bar from www.bumblebar.com. I love

Bumble Bar. Their factory is three blocks from my house.

They use good ingredients. It’s a gluten free bar. Listen to the

interview with Brendan Brazier. Check out his company.

He’s got an interview on the show today. He’s got a company

called Thrive also dedicated to holistic, real ingredients not

shoving a bunch of protein and high fructose corn syrup

down the hatch and then telling you that you’re going to lose

weight while doing that. That is not the answer. To me, it’s

the same as a Nutrisystem or a packaged meal. Sure, you

might lose a little weight in the short term, but it’s not really

healthy long term. It’s not real food.

So a question from Ecuador and the reason I say Ecuador is

because of the way the question is phrased. It’s in

Ecuadorian from Fernanda. Not that it’s Ecuadorian, I just

wanted to give that clarification.

Fernanda asks: I wanted to ask you if you could give some tips as to what to

bring to a picnic for a maximum of four people. Just food

that gives you energy to run around all over the place. Also,

I’m not sure if bringing much fruit will help because it’s

easily digested and then we’ll be in the query for a near

bathroom. And one last thing, any other tips on activities like

Hit the Ball? Please don’t say hunting or fishing.

Ben answers: I love that question. Picnic for four people. You know, picnic

foods when you see them in the cartoons traditionally you’ve

got the cake and the beer and the sandwiches on the red and

white checkered picnic blanket. That’s not necessarily the

healthiest way to go. I can tell you what we do in my family

when we prepare for a picnic. Usually we’ll do crackers.

There’s actually a great recipe that my wife makes for flax

seed crackers. There’s other recipes for crackers. Again in

Brendan Brazier’s book, and we’ll be interviewing Brendan

pretty soon here, but crackers are very good. Especially a

non-wheat based, gluten free, seed and nut-based cracker is

very good and you can do that along with some type of a

meat. You can do that with a cheese or you can do that with a

spread. One of the things that we’ll do a lot of the time is

we’ll get some nice, plump, organic tomatoes and we’ll slice

those tomatoes. We’ll grind up some chick peas and garlic

and tahini in a blender and make some hummus. We’ll throw

some vegetables in there like some crunchy carrots and

cucumbers. Some jicama strips, and we’ll put all that into a

picnic basket. We’ll get some water. Generally some type of

fresh fruit because you have to eat a lot of fruit to get

diarrhea. We’ll get some watermelon, we’ll get some sliced

up apples, maybe some blueberries. We’ll put all that in a

basket, and you can take the tomatoes and the hummus and

eat those with the crackers. If you do cheese and meats, you

can use the cheese and meats as well and then you can have

the watermelon and the fruit. Then I personally like to do

just a little bit of dark chocolate as a dessert. For me that’s a

great picnic, especially if you throw in some sparkling water,

some Perrier or some Pelligrino. Much better than a ham

and cheese sandwich with a piece of cake. So that’s my

recommendation on the picnic foods. Brendan Brazier’s book

really does have some good on-the-go recipes. It would be

great for a picnic. As far as activities, there are so many

things you can do. You can do frisbee, you can bring your

tennis rackets and the tennis balls and hit those around. But

what I would recommend is you look into this new activity

called Bocce Ball. Bocce Ball is kind of like lawn bowling.

What you do is you take a small bowl and you throw it

somewhere out in the distance. One person throws it, then

the other competitors throw their ball and whoever gets

closest to that ball that was thrown gets a point. There’s

variations on the point-keeping system, but then the ball is

thrown again and everyone throws their ball to try and get

closer to that ball that’s in the business. I actually played

about an hour and a half long game of Bocce Ball on the

beach the other night. It was a blast. So look into this new

game. I don’t even know if it’s new. It’s just new to me. It’s

called Bocce Ball. Check that out, and no hunting or fishing

required. Just Bocce Ball. Try that out. So, great question.

And for those of you down in Sacramento or El Dorado Hills

area, if you’re listening to this podcast when it first comes

out, this Friday and Saturday we’ll be down there teaching at

a special event focused on helping kids to get healthy and get

outdoors. We’ll be doing a bunch of games and fun types of

picnic-based activities out there down in California. So if

you’re listening to this, shoot me an email and I’ll tell you

where to go.

Two more questions. A question from listener Brian.

Brian asks: I will be doing Syracuse Ironman 70.3 in September and

have a question on long distance, downhill running after a

heavy uphill bike course. The Syracuse bike course contains a

lot of climbing and changes in elevation. Then after what I’m

sure will be a tough ride, the run course is all downhill for 13

miles. Can you offer tips on form, position or training for

either the bike or the run that will allow the quads and glutes

to survive this back to back test?

Ben answers: Absolutely. Let’s start with the bike. Don’t stand on the bike.

You’re going to use a lot of your hamstrings and glutes if you

stand on the bike. That’s going to leave those muscles less

able to help you on the run. Stay in a seated position on the

steep hills, get into the arrow position on the shallow hills

and that will help you to spin at your high cadence and

reduce the potential for you to easily fatigue your leg muscles

for the run. As you’re preparing for that bike, make sure that

you’re of course doing lots of hill repeats. That should go

without saying. Ride hills if you’re going to race hills. Now

for the run, you’re definitely going to want to build up some

of your leg muscles which are going to be responsible for

absorbing some of that joint impact and helping you to

stabilize as you engage in your downhill running. Try single

leg lunges and single leg squats. Definitely those single leg

support activities are going to help quite a bit because you’re

going to be braking as that heel strikes the downhill surface

and you’ll be glad for the strong, single leg support muscles

that you build up with those activities. Make sure that you

train your core especially with plank based activities. Make

sure that you train your hamstrings and your glutes and this

is going to go for the next question as well. Things like step-

ups, lunges, hip hikes, fire hydrants. There’s tons of single

leg type activities you can do. Go to my Web site.

Pacificfit.net. I have a huge free database of exercise photos

and videos over there. Go check out some of the single leg

stuff. Just scroll down to the letter S or the letter O for

everything that starts with “one leg” or “single leg”. Check

out some of the exercises that I demonstrate there and begin

to implement those. Do a workout at least once a week that

involves weight lifting or resistance training for the single leg.

As you actually get into your downhill running technique,

you’re going to find that you’ll tighten up in your upper body

quite a bit as you focus on running downhill and focus on

watching where you’re going because you’re generally

travelling at higher speeds. Drop the shoulders, relax the

shoulders, drop the arms. Whereas on steep, rolling courses I

advise athletes to really let it fly on the downhills and go fast

and let gravity take them down and then work really

controlled on the uphills. On a gradual downhill with lots of

elevation loss and longer downhill strips that going with

gravity can actually beat up your body after a while. So I

would go with a slightly shorter cadence. Not slightly shorter

cadence, but a higher cadence and slightly shorter stride

length. Don’t stride out so much that you’re doing a ton of

feel striking. Lean forward because that’s going to help push

you down. Do not lean back. So relax your shoulders. Let

them drop forward just slightly. Don’t rotate your core too

much. So keep your elbows beside your body and bent at 90

degrees and practice running so that your foot runs just

underneath your hips with that slight forward lean. That will

help you out quite a bit. So don’t let it fly and don’t get too

out of control going downhill or you’ll end up really beating

your body up and running downhill very inefficiently. As I

said relax the upper body, lean slightly forward, high cadence,

slightly shorter stride length, keep your feet under your hips

and then just make sure you don’t overutilize those muscles

on the bike and have those muscles ready for the run by

doing some single-leg weight lifting type of activities leading

up to the run. Then we have a call-in question.

Tonya asks: Hey Ben, this is Tonya from Gainesville, Florida. I just

discovered your podcast and I’m loving it. I’m going back

and listening to a bunch of the past ones. A couple of

questions for you. I drive about 1200 miles a week. I’m a

sales rep for a pretty large territory. I am planning on taking

my first vacation in quite a while and going to Telluride,

Colorado and doing some extensive hiking. So a couple of

things, I was wondering if you had any effective exercises for

preparation. I’m in pretty good shape. Anything beneficial to

my hip would probably be good because that’s one area that

takes a toll with all the driving. The other thing I was going

to ask you was I would love it if you had any suggestions,

because there’s quite a bit of altitude difference between

Gainesville, Florida and Telluride, Colorado. I was

wondering if you had any suggestions on supplements. I saw

some anecdotal information on cortaseps and ginko biloba.

Just wondering if you had any input on that? Thank you very

much Ben. Keep up the great work. Excellent, very

educational. Thank you.

Ben answers: Well Tonya, first of all I hope you heard my response to the

gentleman who asked a question about the downhill running

becuase you’re going to need strong butt muscles for hiking.

Any of you who have done steep uphill hiking know that your

butt gets very sore afterwards. So specifically focus on high

knee step ups, focus on side to side preferably deep lunges

that use the side to side butt stabilizing muscles because

you’ll be goat trailing a lot as you hike uphill, going side to

side and pushing off the side of your legs quite a bit. Then

focus on fire hydrants and hip hikes which I mentioned

earlier and check those out over at www.pacificfit.net at the

exercises page over there or just Google those exercises. Hip

hikes and fire hydrants. Now, as far as supplements, I would

definitely recommend that cortaseps supplement. It’s been

used for thousands of years by Sherpas who guide people on

Mt. Everest. I’m not saying that just because something has

been used for thousands of years that it works, but there

have been some promising studies done on cortaseps and its

ability to enhance the adrenal activation of your lung tissue.

The other thing I would look into is ginko biloba. Ginko

biloba which I did mention earlier is something that has

been studied. As a matter of fact they’ve done a couple of

Himalayan studies on it and found that it inhibits your – not

inhibits but decreases your propensity toward altitude

sickness with a likely mechanism being that when you get

altitude sickness, a lot of times that’s due to some swellling

in the brain or some brain edema. A nitric oxide is something

that can cause that blood brain barrier to leak a little bit. The

idea behind ginko biloba is that it has an ingredient in it that

could actually inhibit nitric oxide synthase or the actual

enzyme responsible for the production or conversion of nitric

oxide and ginko could also inhibit something called the

platelet activator factor. So ginko is a little bit of a blood

thinner as well. Now that being said, there are certain things

that you shouldn’t take with ginko, because there’s a blood

thing. That would be something like an anti-coagulant,

vitamin E, you shouldn’t take a lot of aspirin. You shouldn’t

take a lot of ibuprofen with ginko biloba. Anything that thins

your blood is going to enhance the activity of something it’s

taken along with. In some cases that can be dangerous. But

interestingly, ginko is also very good for circulation in your

hands and your feet. So it can help wit cold conditions when

you’re hiking as well. But I’d definitely look into a ginko

biloba supplementation. The amount that was taken in the

studies that showed promise was 120 milligrams twice a day.

Somewhere in that range of 80 to 120 milligrams twice a day

is considered to be the physiological dose that’s necessary to

actually get that good response for ginko biloba. So great

questions. Great questions from everyone. Remember, if you

have a question, you can just email

ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com. You can call to 8772099439

or you can Skype Pacific Fit and we do have a special

announcement and then we’re going to move on to this

week’s interview with Brendan Brazier.

You should know that prior to this interview, I found out that

I was going to need to be recording in a coffee shop so I

apologize for some of the background noise. But it’s a great

interview with Brendan. Listen in.

Hey podcast listeners. This is Ben Greenfield and I am here

today with Brendan Brazier and Brendan is not only a

fantastic athlete. He’s raced as a pro triathlete. He’s raced as

an ultra-endurance athlete. But he also has a very special

type of nutrition program that he both writes about and also

implements himself. I’m going to let him tell you exactly

what he does. But before we even get into what type of

nutrition plan you personally implement Brendan, tell me a

little bit about your training protocol. On a daily or weekly

basis, what type of things are you putting your body through?

Brendan Brazier: Well, right now I’m mostly just kind of training more for fun.

I’m only training probably 90 minutes to two hours a day.

But when I was doing it fulltime, I did it professionaly for

seven years and usually I’d get up pretty early and swim for

about 4 ½ K, then some weights after that. Usually have a

nap and then ride four to five hours and then run 75 minutes

from there. Just trying to get some good volume training in

and just enlarge the engine I guess. The aerobic engine. Yeah,

just putting on the miles for Ironman.

Ben: So for those of us who are mere mortals, 90 minutes to two

hours a day itself is pretty intimidating in terms of workload

and workout protocol, but were you doing things like weight

lifting, running? Things that would tear your muscles up?

Brendan Brazier: Yeah, in the beginning I started off with lots of aerobic

training. I found as my career went on that I could actually

make better gains by also including some strength training.

So I was always afraid of building up bulk and obviously

having my strength-weight ratio drop, but I found if you

implement a properly put together strength training

program, you could increase strength without increasing

bulk. So therefore increasing efficiency which of course is

what the endurance athlete wants. So yeah, I started

including some more weight training as my career went on

and I found out that really helped.

Ben: So tell me about how you came to implement the way that

you’re eating right now, which we haven’t really told people

much about. But I’d like to hear the journey of where you

started and where you are right now in terms of your

nutrition.

Brendan Brazier: Yeah, sure. I started off when I was about 15 years old. I just

got really into running and track in high school and thought

it’d be great if I could make a career out of being an athlete.

So I started looking at what some of the top runners were

doing and then I realized I also like swimming and cycling so

I thought well, okay if I can do triathlon and have a bit of a

professional career with that, that would be ideal. So I looked

at the top athletes’ training programs to find out what they

were doing and it really surprised me. They didn’t really train

differently from the average athlete. It’s pretty much the

same thing. So I figured if the top guys in the world are

getting different results from the same training program

than the average athlete, what’s that factor that separates

them? I found that it has to do with rate of recovery. The rate

at which you get your body to regenerate or renew itself. So

that’s where my focus went because obviously if you recover

faster, you can train more in a shorter amount of time. Of

course that means you’re going to improve quicker. So my

focus went on recovery. So therefore my focus went on

nutrition because I found around 80% of recovery could be

attributed to good nutrition. So that’s what got me into

nutrition in the first place. I tried all different ways of eating.

I tried high carb, low carb, high protein, low protein and

nothing really worked amazingly well. And then I tried

completely plant-based, and at first it didn’t work well. I was

always hungry and tired, not recovering well.

Ben: You just said completely plant-based, right?

Brendan Brazier: Right. So yeah, a completely vegan diet. Didn’t work well at

first. Like I said I got hungry and tired. It wasn’t working

well. Then I found how to do it properly and the things I was

lacking initially which was complete protein, vitamin B12,

iron, salts, Omega 3 fatty acids, and then I started taking a

blender drink with all those nutrients from plant-based

sources. That eventually evolved into what is now called Vega

Whole Food Health Optimizer which is something that’s

available in stores that I had partnered with someone else in

2004 and we brought it out. It started off just me making it

myself.

Ben: So you actually launched an entire nutrition company based

on this concept of eating.

Brendan Brazier: Right, yeah. And it’s really a good, simple, plant-based whole

food nutrition which helps speed recovery which like I say

doesn’t make you a better athlete, but allows you to train

harder and to train more efficiently that will make you a

better athlete.

Ben: So can you walk me through a sample day of what that type

of plant-based eating would look like?

Brendan Brazier: Sure. It varies, but usually I get up. When I get up I’ll have an

energy bar or half energy bar. There’s recipes in my book. It’s

called Thrive. And you can make recipes from that or a bag of

bars. Same thing. You don’t need to to buy them. You can

make the recipe. So really a bar, it’s uncooked. So it’s raw.

It’s made with (beets) and agave nectar and blueberries and

buckwheat and hemp seeds and a bunch of good things that

digest very easily. So I would have that, go out for a workout.

Usually run. And then I would get back and have a smoothie

that’s got protein, essential fats, fibre, greens, enzymes,

probiotics, all that stuff from plant-based sources. I’d make

that. That helps speed recovery. Then I would pretty much

graze throughout the rest of the day. So lots of fruits, a few

vegetables, a few nuts and seeds. A big salad every night that

has lots of different types of lettuce and spinach and kale and

usually avocado and carrots and beets and cucumbers, things

like that. That’s usually what I finish off the day with.

Ben: Interesting. So obviously this style of eating is a lot different

than what you were doing before. But are you finding that

you’re able to maintain energy levels? Do you find that the

people that you’ve helped with this type of nutrition plan are

able to maintain their energy levels and repair their muscle?

Are you finding they need things to fill in the holes?

Brendan Brazier: Yeah, and I found that you really don’t need as many calories

as you may think. This is a trap I fell into in the beginning. I

thought because calories are a measure of food energy, the

more calories you eat, the more energy you’ll have. It seems

to make sense. But I found that there was a divide there. A

calorie wasn’t necessarily a calorie. If you need to spend a lot

of energy to digest and assimilate some highly processed

food, it’s hard to assimilate, you have less energy. So there’s a

section in my book – I talk about gaining energy through

conservation as opposed to consumption. What I mean by

that is eating foods that use less energy to digest and

assimilate but give you more nutrients in terms of micro

nutrients like phytochemicals, vitamins, minerals, trace

minerals, antioxidants, all that stuff in return. So I shifted

my focus from calories – you eat tons of peanut butter and

bread and fill up on calories – I shifted to eating more fruits

for one thing. So I was getting most of my carbs from fruits

as opposed to starchy refined carbs like pasta or rice or bread.

I would eat whole grains too. Things like amaranth, quinoa,

buckwheat, wild rice. So those digested more easily and gave

more nutrients in return. Things like that made a big

difference. My calorie intake dropped 20 to 30% but I have

far more energy because I wasn’t expending so much to

digest and assimilate it and I was better nourished therefore

I wasn’t hungry. And my weight dropped a little bit therefore

my strength-weight ratio went up. It really works well. So I

eat far fewer calories than what a conventional sports

nutrition book would suggest based on my weight and

activity but it’s the quality that counts.

Ben: That’s interesting. So the reason behind that is that you’re

actually using less calories to require your body to handle the

food you are putting into it, just because it burns cleaner?

Brendan Brazier: Right, yeah. And digestion takes a lot of energy. If you’re

eating highly processed foods, your body has to

(unintelligible) enzymes and break it down and like I said,

that’s work. So if you eat those more natural raw alkaline

forming foods, they will digest more easily and use less

energy to do it, and therefore if you don’t spend it, you’ll still

have it. It’s like with anything. Like with money, if you don’t

spend money, you’ll have more of it. Unless you make a good

investment and you can get a return on that investment. So I

started looking at food as a way of investing. So I would

invest in as little energy as possible and get the most micro

nutrients in return. So, high net gain is what I call that.

Ben: Interesting. Now, in terms of the type of diet that you’re

utilizing as this clean eating plant-based diet, is it any

different than say a traditional vegetarian diet that someone

would stumble across if they Googled “how to be a vegetarian”

and they found a diet. What would be different between that

and what you’re doing?

Brendan Brazier: Yeah, a lot of the vegetarian diets I found are very high in

starchy foods. So a lot of refined carbs, like I was saying

before – the pasta, bread, rice. They’re often based on those.

Mine’s based on greens really. Leafy greens and then fruit for

carbs as opposed to starch for carbs. So that’s one of the big

differences. Also, a lot of meat analog type foods would be in

the typical vegetarian diets. So a lot of tofu hotdogs, tofu

hamburgers, that type of thing. Soy milk and soy ice cream. I

actually don’t have any soy in my diet. It’s all soy free and

wheat free, gluten free. Obviously dairy free. So I eat other

things like hemp and flax and stuff like that.

Ben: Interesting. Like pizza and hamburgers are in your book. But

in a very non-traditional sense. How do those fit in to the

plant-based diet?

Brendan Brazier: Yeah, the pizza recipes in my book. They’re probably the

most popular ones in the book I think. They’re really simple.

There are several of them. But it’s basically made up of just a

few ingredients like lentils and wild rice for example, and

then some herbs would be the pizza crust. So you actually

have the protein in the crust as opposed to the toppings. So

you just put the string beans in the food processor, process it,

bring it out, put it on a bake tray and then put on a marinara

sauce or a pasta sauce. There are recipes in the book. And

then vegetables on the top and then bake it. So it’s really

simple. (Unintelligible) basically any supermarket. It’s gluten

free. Obviously it’s yeast free, wheat free, flour free. So it’s

high in protein and easy to digest and just a really good,

clean source of fuel and it tastes really good too. They’re

pretty good. There’s one also you can make with beets. You

actually make the crust out of beets and sunflower seeds. So,

definitely different to a traditional pizza.

Ben: Interesting, and all these recipes are in your book?

Brendan Brazier: Right.

Ben: I’ll put a link to that in the Shownotes for people. The name

of the book is Thrive, but I’ll make sure that I get it in there.

Now, can you still use this diet and just basically shop at any

old grocery store? Do people have to have access to one of

those super-expensive organic grocery stores that sell fringe

ingredients or can people pull this off at an Albertson’s or

Safeway or Rosauers?

Brendan Brazier: Oh yeah, for sure. A good 90, 95% of the ingredients could be

found in any supermarket. There are a few other ones that I

call max-level ingredients that are not essential but they do

help with things if you do have access to them. So, you can

get them at a place like Whole Foods. There are things like

maca which is a root vegetable powder from Peru. It’s very

high in trace minerals. Something called chorela which is an

algae. Very high in protein and B vitamins. Great for cellular

recovery and for cleansing as well. So really good after a

workout. So things like that are a little harder to come by.

But like I say, they’re just kind of additions to the diet as

opposed to the base of the diet.

Ben: Interesting. So those are the types of things that people

would add in. For example... you talk about maca in your

book for people who are stressed out or need to stabilize

cortisol levels. But those are kind of little extras that people

can add in to a plant-based diet?

Brendan Brazier: Right. Maca is great for that free-building the adrenals. So if

your adrenals get fatigued due to training or any other kind

of stress; it’s pretty common for people to take that. And

high levels of cortisol means that you don’t sleep as deeply

and when you don’t sleep as deep, obviously then you need

to sleep more and also you’re more likely to create coffee and

sugar because it’s higher because you haven’t slept deeply. So

all these things that transpire when your adrenals get burned

out. So eating the high net gain foods that I talked about

before is really going to help with adrenal function too. But if

you need a little extra boost with that, maca works very well.

Maca is not a stimulant, it’s actually the opposite. It helps

rebuild whereas caffeine will give you energy but it’s through

stimulation which is short-term and it’s treating the

symptom. It’s not treating the cause. Whereas maca helps

rebuild the adrenals which will then improve sleep quality

which is going to make you less tired because you’ll be better

rested because you’ll have slept better.

Ben: Now, for people listening in, when you say maca, how are

you spelling that?

Brendan Brazier: M-A-C-A.

Ben: Okay. So are there other resources that you would point

people toward, Brendan, if they want to learn more about

this? Ways that you would suggest that people just get

started in terms of implementing a plant-based diet if they

want to try one or warnings that you would give people?

Brendan Brazier: Yeah, there are a few sites. There’s my own site. There are a

bunch of articles in there and some video and stuff and that’s

www.brendanbrazier.com. And also there’s a Web series that

I put together about a year ago called Thrive in 30. So the

Web site is www.thrivein30.com. That’s like I said a video

series that you get in your email. You get three emails a week

for four weeks and each one is made of video segments that’s

basically just stuff I film myself. Really basic, really simple,

talking about ideas in the book and how you can apply them

to perform better whether for athletic performance or just

general life performance. So that’s a resource that’s free and

available to anyone as well.

Ben: Well folks, we’ll put a link to all this in the Shownotes but

we’re talking to Brendan Brazier right now who was a pro

triathlete, has done ultra-endurance, still trains 90 minutes

to two hours a day. I know that a lot of you are concerned

whether your body can actually get by on a plant-based diet,

and Brendan has a lot of good information. I would highly

recommend that you check his book out. I’m going to put a

link to that in the Shownotes. Brendan, thank you for coming

on the call today and sharing that with us. Thanks for your

time.

Brendan Brazier: Yeah, no problem Ben. Thanks for having me on.

Ben: Alright, folks. This is Ben Greenfield and Brendan Brazier

signing out.

I will put a link to Brendan’s book in the Shownotes as well

as a link to everything else that I talked about in this episode.

This is episode 104. What do I ask from you? Just leave us a

ranking on iTunes. If you want to donate to the podcast, go

to the Shownotes and scroll down to the bottom. There you

can not only donate, but also leave a comment. Let me know

if you have questions or comments on the topics that we

discussed today. Are you a vegan, a vegetarian? Do you eat a

plant-based diet? Do you not agree that a plant-based diet is

the way to go? Whatever it is that you have to say, I’d love to

hear it. So go to www.bengreenfieldfitness.com and leave

your thoughts. Until next week, this is Ben Greenfield

signing out from www.bengreenfieldfitness.com. Have a

healthy week.

For personal nutrition, fitness or triathlon consulting, supplements, books or DVD’s

from Ben Greenfield, please visit Pacific Elite Fitness at

http://www.pacificfit.net