Podcast # 90 from http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2010/04/episode-

90-the-crucial-information-that-you-must-know-

before-you-touch-another-advil-or-ibuprofen/

Introduction: In this podcast episode: what you must know about anti-

inflammatory drugs, losing fat with mini fasts, walk/run

protocols during a marathon, exercise during the HCG diet,

is it okay to eat anything you want if you’re staying lean?

Omega 3-6-9 blends, triathlon wetsuits, eating dates during

exercise, sockless shoes, carb cravings at night and some

book recommendations from yours truly.

Ben: Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and I’m going to

start right off by giving you a very cool tip based off some

research that just came out. Now this study was just

published in Medical Hypothesis, and the title of the study

was “A Mini Fast with Exercise Protocol for Fat Loss.” So if

you think you ever might need to shed a few pounds quickly,

this is a good one to listen to. Basically they had 27 subjects

that participated in the study and during every single day,

during every 24 hour period, the subjects were instructed to

have a 12 to 14 hour fast. Now remember the time that you’re

sleeping can be included in those 12 to 14 hours. Now at

some point during that fast, they had to do 45 minutes of

aerobic exercise. Whatever, go to bed at 8 pm – sorry, not 8

pm. Most of us don’t do that. Go to bed at 10 pm, get up at 6

am, so you’ve got eight hours under your belt. You do 45

minutes of exercise and then you wait until about 11:30 noon

to eat. Now the people who did this protocol for 12 weeks,

they saw an amazing 25% reduction in their fat mass. Not

just their weight, but their fat mass. And they also saw a 25%

reduction in their fasting insulin, and for any of you who care

about pre-diabetes, about your insulin levels, about your

hormone levels, that’s pretty huge. And so I am not

recommending that you go out and every single day start

doing this mini fast like the people in the study did. But if

you’re listening in and let’s say you’re one of my clients and

many of you who are on weight loss protocols – you know

that I have you doing this aerobic exercise protocol where

you get up after you’ve slept all night without eating anything

and you do aerobic exercise for 30 to 60 minutes. Based off

the results of this study, it would be okay if you waited a little

while to eat after that aerobic exercise session. If you waited

– let’s say you finished that session at 8am, that might be a

breakfast skipping day. I don’t think that from a long-term

adherence standpoint you could do this all the time, but say

on a Saturday and a Sunday you do an unfed aerobic session

after an overnight fast – great way to shed weight quickly if

you’re trying to lean down for a marathon or triathlon, same

case. You might want to throw in a couple of these sessions.

Now remember it can be hard on the body to constantly be

calorie depleted but ultimately if the results that you’re

looking for have anything to do with weight loss or insulin

stabilization, this looks like a great strategy to throw into the

mix. So there you go.

Now in today’s podcast, really good interview with Dr. Roby

Mitchell who’s been on the podcast before and today he’s

going to talk about a subject I know many of you have asked

me questions about before and that’s anti-inflammatories.

Specifically things like ibuprofen, aspirin, Advil – are they

healthy? Are they unhealthy? Do they really kill thousands of

people a year like some Web sites and publications would

have you to believe? Are they just sort of unhealthy? Should

you take them while you exercise? We’re going to answer all

those questions with Dr. Mitchell. We’re also going to talk

about natural alternatives to things like ibuprofen if you just

don’t want to put that into your body. We’ve also got a bunch

of listener questions. Lot of questions today having to do

with triathloning and marathoning probably because it’s

getting nice outside. It’s spring and people are starting to

amp up for those activities. So we’re going to jump straight

into today’s content after just a couple of special

announcements.

Ben: So last week, you may have – if you listened to podcast

number 89 – noticed that the Body Transformation Club

best question of the week was not actually announced during

the podcast but don’t worry, I have chosen the best question

today. And remember if you have the best question of the

week, you get a free month of membership to the Body

Transformation Club. So the first question for this week

comes from listener Tina.

Tina asks: I’m training for my second Ironman. The run holds the most

challenge for me with my lack of experience and GI issues. I

plan to use the Galloway method. My question is what

distance length versus walk time should I use? Presently I’ve

been training by running one mile and walking two minutes.

Should I always train the same distance versus time on my

long runs or should I change it?

Ben answers: For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Galloway

method, essentially it’s the idea that marathoners can get

good results by incorporating run/walk protocols with the

walks allowing you a little bit of a feeding or drinking

window or an opportunity for your core to cool down. Now

there are various ratios that Galloway actually recommends.

I don’t know if you’ve come across these ratios, Tina, but

basically for someone who’s running an 8 minute mile, you

would run 4 minutes and then walk about 30 seconds. If

you’re running a 9 minute mile you would run four minutes

and then walk about a minute. If you’re running a 10 minute

mile, it’s a 3:1 run/walk ratio. A 12 minute mile is a 2:1

run/walk ratio and as you can guess, the idea is that the

slower you are as a runner, the more time you’re going to

spend on the walking because it assumes that you’re that

much less fit or that much less experienced. Now for some of

the Ironman and half Ironman athletes that I work with, I do

incorporate this protocol. And what we generally do is about

10% or so of the actual day is spent walking. And it’s very,

very fast walking. And basically we do it only during the

feeding cycles. So essentially, if you’re running a half

Ironman, there might be four cycles during that race where

you’re walking quickly for 60 seconds. The core temp comes

down a little bit. Those are also your opportunities to drink a

little bit of water, eat a gel, do the things that you might kind

of choke on or interrupt your breathing pattern if you tried to

do them while you were running and then you just go

straight back into your running gait. Mentally, you really

have to get used to running after you walk because it’s very

easy to just keep on walking just a little bit longer and a little

bit longer and before you know it, you’re losing a lot of time.

So with you running a mile and then walking – I believe you

said that you’re walking 2 minutes – let’s say that you’re

running an 8 minute mile and then walking 2 minutes,

you’ve got a 4:1 run/walk ratio in a case like that and

something like that would be just fine. It kind of does fall

along the lines of Galloway’s run/walk protocol. I think that

the walks are a little bit generous in his protocol for anybody

trying to run a faster marathon. And in my experience, most

people can get away with walking for just about a minute

during a marathon or a half marathon and having that one

minute walk be after anywhere from one and a half to two

miles of running and spaced where the aid station actually

occurs during the event. Regarding the second part of your

question, definitely use in your training whatever ratio you

plan on using during your race. That’s important, that you

see how fast – what pace you’re able to maintain with your

current ratio of running to walking. So great question.

Autumn asks: My partner and I are considering doing the HGC diet. We

have a naturopath here in Oregon who will work with us,

however she does not work with athletes very often and we

have a few fitness related questions. We’ll be doing Reach the

Beach, a century bike ride on May 15th. We’re both very

active, exercise regularly and eat very healthy foods. This will

be the third time we’ve done this ride. We’re worried about

being able to train for it while doing HGC. I wonder if we

should wait until after the ride to start the protocol. How

much exercise is okay to do while on the protocol?

Ben answers: That’s a great question, Autumn. The HGC protocol stands

for Human Chorionic Gonadotrophin. It’s a hormone you

inject or inhale or spray and it basically puts your body to a

state where it’s able to burn fat far more efficiently with the

idea being that it’s kind of the same thing that mothers make

when they’re pregnant to allow the body to mobilize fat to

grow an infant or to grow a baby. And the same type of

concept applies when you are taking it and you’re depleting

your body of calories, your body ends up mobilizing fats very

efficiently. I’ve actually recommended that to a few of my

clients who have tried many, many things to lose weight and

not been successful. We’ve taken out the big guns before and

gone with the HGC protocol. It’s a 40 day protocol. You take

the HGC almost every day and you combine that with a low

calorie diet typically in the range of 500 to 800 calories. Very,

very few of your calories coming from fat. You essentially

have almost like one serving of a carbohydrate each day, a

couple of apples, some fruits and vegetables, a little bit of

meat. And most people feel pretty tired when they’re doing

that protocol, you can imagine, because of that low number

of calories that you’re taking in. The HGC is a natural

appetite suppressant so it’s not like you’re craving tons of

calories, but you’re definitely unable to exercise to the extent

you would normally be able to. As a matter of fact, if you

tried to exercise just as much as you would if you weren’t on

the HGC and weren’t doing the low calorie diet, you can

really risk overtraining and getting your body to the point

where it’s highly catabolic and breaking down lean muscle.

So you need to be very careful. Limit the amount of exercise

that you do and if you’re not able to limit the amount of

exercise to 20 to 30 minutes per day of light activity, nothing

too difficult – then you’re going to need to modify the actual

diet and skew it by anywhere from 300 and possibly even up

to almost 1000 calories in terms of allowing your body more

of the proteins and even more the carbs. Now one of the

things that you can also do is you could use HGC and simply

just adjust your diet just slightly, not get quite the weight loss

results that the HGC diet promises in 40 days, but still get a

little bit of the weight stabilization and the fat loss just

because you’re exercising. So ultimately if you try to follow

that strict HGC 500 calorie a day diet while you’re training

for a bike century, you’re going to have a hard time of it. So

just be careful and be willing to be flexible with that diet.

Cory asks: I have a question regarding general nutrition. I’m a male, 36

years old, train for Olympic distance triathlon around 15

hours per week. I don’t eat fast food or heavily processed

food and eat meat rarely. Lots of beans and lentils, hardly

any vegetables, lots of bread – four plus loaves a week – and

cereal. I choose grain bread and a wheat-based cereal with

skim milk, protein shake daily, flax seed oil daily, pistachios,

fruit. Lots of energy. I sleep well, I have no health issues. I’ve

got a very low body fat percentage and my question is should

I try and cut down carbohydrate intake and eat more veggies

and meat even though I’ve always eaten this way and it

doesn’t seem to give me any problems?

Ben answers: So it’s a great question. It’s kind of a paradox. It’s like, well

you’re lean, you’re fit, you feel good. Should you really

change your diet? Should you really do some of the things

that people are doing like eliminating gluten, eating lots of

greens, lots of vegetables, skewing the protein intake towards

a lot of the lean proteins, a lot of the allergen free proteins?

You know, you’ll never know until you do it, is the first thing

that I would say. In other words, if you were to say replace

your bread with sweet potatoes and yams and some of the

non-gluten based carbohydrates like the quinoa and the

amaranth and the millet, if you were to cut the skimmed milk

out of your diet in favor of a coconut or a rice or an almond

milk, if you were to actually start to eat vegetables, get lots of

raw spinach and broccoli and cauliflower, maybe do a little

bit of juicing or take a green supplement; if you were to start

to do all those things and your energy levels were even better

than they are now or you felt like you were performing even

better than you are now, that answers your question.

Another red flag, you’re training 15 hours a week for Olympic

distance triathlon. Maybe if you were consuming foods that

did not require so much energy to assimilate, foods that were

a little bit acidic then you’d find that you had a little bit more

energy to burn when it comes to your workouts. And so again

that would mean maybe cutting out a little bit of the dairy,

some of the grains and just assessing how your body recovers.

How much training you need to do to reach the levels that

you were at before. So essentially, even if you’re eating well,

if you make some changes you can maybe perform even

better. And that’s the thing. There are a lot of Ironman

triathletes, there are a lot of pro-athletes. There are a lot of

good athletes who do pretty well on nutritional protocols that

you might consider to be pretty crappy. But I think in a lot of

those cases, those people are naturally talented and they’re

very good at what they do despite their nutrition protocol,

not because of it. It is possible that maybe with respect to the

liver or the kidneys or the blood sugar levels, the diabetic risk,

those types of things could come back to bite you later on in

life. So just be careful and test out some changes in the

nutrition protocol and see what happens. You never know

unless you try it out.

Amy asks: I’m fairly new to triathlons and I’m looking to make a wetsuit

purchase. Do you recommend specific brands? I recently

tried an Aquaman Cell-Gold Wetsuit that boasts of the 40

Neoprene throughout the entire suit – or the number 40

Neoprene throughout the entire suit. It’s a higher priced

wetsuit and I wanted to know if you felt it would be a good

purchase. Being new to the sport I don’t know whether it

really matters if I have a top of the line wetsuit and if it

would make that much of a difference in my swim time.

Ben answers: Well, when you’re looking at the rubber in the wetsuits Amy,

you’re looking at the better rubber having better buoyancy,

causing a little less turbulent flow against the water. A lot of

times being easy to move in, in terms of your swim stroke. So

you do get what you pay for to a certain extent with the

wetsuits. A lot of the strategically placed paneling in a

triathlon wetsuit is going to again allow you to move more

freely in it. That’s one of the reasons I use a wetsuit called the

Blue 70. A model called the Helix, because I like the paneling

in that. I really feel that I’m able to move freely in it and

there are wetsuit companies that use good, high quality

rubber and use that paneling method and do have research

and development constantly going on and feedback from

swimmers to see how people move and how people feel in

their wetsuits. Now if you’re a beginner to the sport, you are

going to find that the wetsuit will improve your time no

matter what wetsuit you get. Just being able to float a little

bit better in the water is going to help you to move faster. If

you’re planning on doing anything from half Ironman and

especially up to Ironman or longer, definitely invest in a

wetsuit that you’re going to be comfortable in for a long

period of time. Because swimming in a cheap wetsuit for a

sprint distance triathlon and being in that wetsuit for

whatever 12 minutes or 15 minutes or 20 minutes is a lot

different when you compare it to being in your wetsuit for 60

minutes or 90 minutes or even longer than that. So if you’re

planning on doing long swims, I would invest in a good

wetsuit. We actually did a couple of articles on this recently

over at the Rock Star Triathlete Academy, and it does matter.

It does matter to a certain extent.

Brett asks: What do you suggest (this is a loaded question) I use to fuel

during my Ironman? I’ve been training with power gels,

Perpetuem and Shot Blocks. I noticed that in your 2007

Ironman Kona event, you used Perpetuem but then in 2008

you didn’t. What changed?

Ben answers: Well Brett, what changed between 2007 and 2008 is I picked

up a sponsorship by GU nutrition and so I had a definite

fiduciary incentive to begin using the GU Roctane, and you

know what, I really like that product and the one thing that’s

different between that and something like Perpetuem is not

only are they a gel-based fuel but they don’t have the soy

protein in them that Perpetuem does. Some people do

fantastically on the soy-based protein. I did fine with

Perpetuem and a lot of my clients do great with Perpetuem

made by Hammer Nutrition, but a lot of people don’t burn

that fuel very cleanly, and it flips their stomach. So using

something like a liquid fuel like Perpetuem, you want to

practice that in your training for sure. I did fine with that. I

also do fine with the mix of using the GU gels and the GU

Roctane, but either way you want to experiment with it. Now

what I would caution you against is mixing too many

different types of sugar in your stomach. That can also cause

your stomach to flip. Doing a lot of the long chain type of

sugars that are – you’re going to find the Perpetuem… a lot

of those maltodextrins and then mixing them with the

maltodextrin fructose blend in the power gels. If you’re doing

any dextrose or sucrose blends on top of that. What I like to

do, the rule that I follow is I’ll check out the actual label of

the sugars that I’m using and I try and keep it limited to

maltodextrin and fructose while I’m racing in terms of the

types of sugars that I take in. A certain amount of sugar

blending can help you out during a triathlon in terms of your

sugar assimilation. But throwing too many different

compounds at your stomach, in my experience, can really

cause some GI distress and nowhere have I found that to be

more true than when you mix something like Gatorade or

Powerade with other types of fuel on an Ironman course.

That’s a big no-no, unless you’ve tried it before or you know

you can do it. I’ve found that to be a big problem. People

start to cramp. They grab a cup of Gatorade. They shoot the

whole cup and then their stomach flips and they’re just

screwed. So be careful with that. And as far as what I would

suggest you use to fuel, either go with that Perpetuem if you

know you can handle it and only use that Perpetuem and

then just give yourself a little bit of solid food at the end of

each hour. Like half a banana. With the Perpetuem, just mix

that in a multi-hour bottle. Enough Perpetuem to get you

through about three hours or to get you through to your

special needs station. And then sip on that in dosages that

allow you to take in a little bit of Perpetuem every 10 minutes

or so. So based on the amount of time that you plan on

completing the bike, you’ll have to mix the amount of

Perpetuem that you know you’ll need to actually last you out

there on the course. Also be careful with leaving that stuff

mixed for more than about five hours. It doesn’t have a lot of

preservatives in it which is good, but that also means that it’s

going to spoil in the heat. So plan ahead if you plan on being

out there on the bike for a while. For your second bottle of

Perpetuem that you’d keep in your special needs bag, don’t

mix that beforehand. Have that in powder format and then

add water at the special needs station that you have in a

separate water bottle. And then as far as fueling during the

run, you could switch to gels from a flask, either the Hammer

gels or the GU gels or even the course power gels if you know

you’ll do okay with those. Or you could continue with the

Perpetuem, mix them in a little bit thicker solution, again in

a flask. Now the other way that you could do things is you

could do what I do and that is essentially take in GU Roctane,

preferably a mix of the non-caffeinated stuff with the

caffeinated stuff because too much caffeine over the course

of that race is really going to throw you for a loop. But you

use that on the bike. Or that’s what I do. I use that on the

bike. Usually about three of those GU gels or GU Roctanes

per hour, plus I use the GU Blocks which are essentially kind

of like the Shot Blocks you mentioned except they’re called

GU Chomps and that’s a solid food that I’ll take in at the end

of each hour so I’m getting about 350 to 400 calories per

hour on the bike and then when I start running, I will either

switch to course aid fuels. For half Ironman I’ll just grab

bananas as I go and have the equivalent of about one banana

during the run or I will for an Ironman grab the power gels

that they have there on course, just because I don’t like to

carry my own fuel. I find it to be a little bit annoying so I just

run and kind of grab whatever is on the table. It works for

me. It doesn’t work for a lot of people who maybe can’t

handle the power bar gels or don’t want to use them because

they haven’t used them in training. In that case you just grab

a couple of flasks and you throw your gel into the flask and

take that out there with you and finally, do not ignore the

electrolytes. Those power gels or any gels typically don’t have

enough sodium in them to get you by for an ultra-endurance

event. So you’ll need to supplement those. I’m a big fan of

the Athlytes by Millennium Sports as an electrolyte source

that has a lactic acid buffer in it as well. Endurolytes by

Hammer Gel will also be another option. The Athlytes have

about twice as much sodium in it as the Endurolytes do so

Athlytes, you’d be anywhere from about two to four an hour.

For the Endurolytes, about three to six an hour. So great

question.

Casey asks: I just read your article in Triathlete magazine on nutrition.

I’ve heard a few times now that Omega 6 oils are a culprit for

inflammation. I often take the Udo oil 3-6-9 Blend. I was

wondering if the anti-inflammation properties of the Omega

6 are somehow counteracted with the Omega 3s. Would I be

better off simply taking a straight up flax oil or the like

instead?

Ben answers: The Omega 3-6-9 oil is a pretty decent product from what I

understand Casey. My only question is that the Omega 9s are

not an essential fatty acid. They’re a non-essential fatty acid.

They’re made by your body and so I’m not convinced that

compared to the essential fatty acids, they’re something that

you need to be taking a huge amount of. I also haven’t seen a

lot of research in terms of the ratio of proper Omega 9s in

relation to the Omega 3s and Omega 6s, but if your body is

already making the Omega 9s, I would be focusing more on

the Omega 3 and Omega 6 ratios which you technically want

to be close to like a 5:1 or maybe a maximum of 10:1 Omega 6

to Omega 3. Even having a 1:1 or a 4:1 in a lot of nutritionists’

eyes really wouldn’t be a problem and I try to get as many

Omega 3s as I can while limiting Omega 6s as much as

possible. So to answer your question, your body does need

both the Omega 3s and the Omega 6s because both contain

the essential elements that you’re going to need for

something like creating the inflammatory process and also

controlling inflammation because what you get in those fats

contributes to both. But I would not necessarily worry about

switching off the 3-6-9 blend to start using a straight up flax

oil. As a matter of fact there was a really interesting podcast

that we did on whether or not flax oil was super effective and

I will put a link to that in the Shownotes to this episode –

episode 90. But I would recommend Casey, that you listen to

podcast number 86 to really get a grasp on the whole Omega

6, Omega 3, fatty acid, flax oil debate.

Deb asks: I know very little about bike power meters except that they’re

ridiculously expensive. I’ve also heard of a power meter

called an Eye Bike which is supposed to be very accurate and

affordable. Because I know so little about power-based

training, I’d like your opinion on the subject as well as your

thoughts on various products out there including the Eye

Bike power meter.

Ben answers: Yeah, power meters obviously… if you haven’t heard about

them before and you’re a cyclist, it’s only a matter of time

before you’re going to hear of them because they’re great for

quantifying the amount of work that you do on a bicycle.

Whereas your heart rate can fluctuate based on your

hydration, based on the temperature, based on any number

of physiological variables, power is power and it’s always

going to tell you exactly what you’re pushing. The Eye Bike

that you ask about, Deb, it is pretty affordable but it also

requires an almost annoyingly amount of calibration. And if

you don’t calibrate it correctly then it’s not going to give you

the accurate power data. So if you’re willing to maybe work

with your local bike shop or you’re a very technical person

who doesn’t mind calibrating and possible re-calibrating that

Eye Bike as you’re working with it, then it’d be a good way to

go. A couple of other options – you could get a Power Tap

which is a little bit more expensive. It’s not quite as

expensive as some of the other models out there. I’m actually

in the process of getting one myself, but the Power Tap is

something that goes into the hub of your wheel and the only

issue with the Power Tap is that if you’re using a different set

of bike wheels for say a race versus a training session, then

you’d have to get a Power Tap for each wheel or you would

simply have to get a wheel that you can use for both training

and racing and then put the Power Tap on that. Now there’s

another model called the Polar model which uses chain

tension and chain speed to calculate your power. Kind of

similar to the Eye Bike, it’s going to require a very precise

amount of calibration in order for it to be accurate and so

there will be a little bit of an opportunity cost there. But if

you get it calibrated correctly, again a little bit cheaper in

terms of front-end investment. Now the SRM is kind of the

gold standard power meter and it uses a strain gauge. It’s

basically a crank based strain gauge. Those are very accurate.

Not quite as many calibration issues. Obviously a little bit

more expensive. You’re going to be forking over a few grand

for one of those. But ultimately more convenient in the long

run, more dependable. You know, if you can get over the

wheel issue I’d go with the Power Tap. If you’re willing to do

a lot of calibration then the Eye Bike or the Polar model

would be a good brand for you and if you got some money to

burn, go for the SRM. So, good question.

Lorenzo asks: I was just talking to a buddy of mine that is an Ironman

triathlete and he suggested that I find a shoe that allows me

to not wear any socks. What do you think?

Ben answers: Well there are a lot of those these days. Triathlon shoe

companies are coming out with these bare fit types of shoes

or the sockless technology types of shoes. Zoot was one of the

first companies to develop them and the idea is that they use

a material in the shoe that’s like an anti-bacterial but also an

anti-blister, anti-friction type of material so you can slip your

foot in there when you get off your bike ride in a triathlon

and maybe save yourself 20 or 30 seconds with putting your

shoe on. From the reviews that I’ve read on these shoes, even

though I don’t use them myself, the amount to which they

can decrease the formation of blisters during a sprint

distance or an Olympic distance triathlon is pretty

impressive. I actually would be a little bit careful if you take a

little while to run. If you’re taking longer than an hour 20, an

hour 30 to run your half marathon in a half Ironman or

you’re planning on doing an Ironman, I would be careful

with not wearing socks at all. You could wear these sockless

shoes with socks if you wanted to, but during a longer

distance event it’d be nice to have that peace of mind that

you aren’t going to have a blister at all, especially if it gets

wet out, maybe you get a little bit of sand on your feet in

transition or gravel – there are a lot of little issues there. So I

would have socks on hand for a half Ironman or an Ironman.

But these sockless shoes have actually gotten a pretty good

review in most shoe review Web sites and magazines in

terms of their effectiveness. So if you want to save yourself a

few seconds in transition, you can use those sockless shoes.

If you don’t have sockless shoes, you can do a little trick that

I do and that’s the elastic shoelaces combined with smearing

a little bit of a lubricant like Vaseline or Body Glide in the

inside of that shoe so your foot just slips right in there in

transition.

Catherine asks: I have a question about dates. During half marathons, I’ve

eaten organic dates with tremendous results in energy and

endurance. I’m training for my first Ironman and would love

to use dates as the main source of food for the race. They

seem ideal to me. However my coach is worried about their

fiber content leading to gastric issues. I’m wondering what

your thoughts are on this and if you have any advice on the

topic?

Ben answers: Catherine, the dates are a great source of high glycemic index,

fast releasing types of sugars. Most of the dates have a

glucose fructose mix and like I mentioned earlier, a blend of

sugars to a certain extent – as long as you’re not mixing too

many fuels actually allows for a little bit better sugar

absorption than just a single isolated sugar source like a

glucose. Now a Medjool date which is kind of the most

popular form of dates that you see at say the grocery store,

that’s got about 60 to 70 calories in it per serving and so

you’d be eating… for most females for an Ironman bike ride

about five of those per hour. The issue is that your coach is

correct in that too much fiber intake can draw a lot of water

into the lower digestive tract especially in the colon. You get

the diarrhea going on, you get the gas. You get the bloating

and even if you can handle it on the bike, it might come back

to bite you six or seven hours later while you’re out on the

run. I would definitely use these training, and you can train

your body to assimilate higher fiber foods more efficiently

the more that you use them. But I’d be very careful. A date is

something that I’d use for example as a little bit of a solid

food fix at the end of each hour, like for a six hour bike ride

one or two dates at the end of each hour, and going with a

lower fiber food during the rest of the time. So yeah, you do

want to be careful with that amount of fiber. Figs, dates,

bananas, any of that stuff. Great solid food source for a small

amount of your intake, but I wouldn’t make it your primary

food source during the Ironman. Then you also had a

question about the sweet potatoes and do I advise eating

sweet potatoes on the bike in some way? I do recommend

that you use baby potatoes or sweet potatoes or small yams

that you can wrap in aluminum foil. Take those on some long

training rides, have them available if you want to use those

as one of your sources of carbohydrates. But on race day, it’s

logistically going to be a little bit tough to carry and a little

bit messy to eat any of those options. So if you’re really going

after aerodynamics and speed and convenience of fueling, I

wouldn’t rely on those as a primary fuel source. They are a

little bit lower in fiber than the dates and so they’d have a

little bit fewer of those issues, especially the baby potatoes.

Like a salted baby potato wrapped in aluminum fuel. But it

depends. If you’re just out there to cross the finish line, have

a good day of it and enjoy yourself, yeah absolutely. Take

some baby potatoes out there. Put those in your bike jersey.

Have a couple of dates at the end of each hour or go with real

food. If you’re just trying to go fast, sometimes you do have

to go with the engineered stuff though. It’s designed for

speed.

Cindy asks: I have been (this is kind of a long question)… I’ve been trying

your holistic fueling plan. My problem is that I have extreme

evening hunger. (And she goes on and lists everything that

she eats during the day. I’m not going to eat this all to you

guys because it’s kind of long, but basically she’s eating very

well.) Is my body just in carb withdrawal? I feel better, I’ve

been sleeping better but I hate this evening hunger. It’s been

about two weeks since I cut back on the evening carbs.

Ben answers: Well Cindy, you do go through a phase – typically it’s about

five to seven days where you feel kind of blah. Your body is

beginning to learn how to utilize fats as a fuel. You’re having

to get used to not having your blood sugar levels constantly

elevated. You feel a little bit the same way as you’d feel if you

hit the wall during a marathon and you were running and

you just ran out of sugar and that’s your body burning fat.

Fat is not necessarily burned all that quickly as a fuel and so

your body doesn’t turn it into energy at quite the level that it

does sugar and carbs and you don’t get the same type of

feeling. You also don’t get the same amount of dopamine

released when you cut out the carbs because you don’t have

the same amount of serotonin and dopamine signals going to

your brain. So you do feel a little less satiated. I get hungry a

lot in the evenings and what I find is that if I have a protein

based snack, it helps out tremendously especially if I do that

and I hydrate that at the same time or after. So what’s a

protein based snack that I use? I’ll take the Mt. Capra Whey

Protein, or for those of you who want a vegan alternative, the

Living Protein by Living Fuel is also a good blend. And I’ll

mix that with a little bit of water and I’ll throw in a few

almonds, walnuts, pecans. Sometimes a few cherub chips

which are technically a legume but they give you that late

night chocolate fix. You mix that with just a little bit of water

or possibly a little bit of almond milk, a little bit of rice milk.

I usually do water. You stir that up and a couple of

tablespoons of that, you’re looking at 100 to 150 calories for

a protein based evening meal. It works very well and satiates

the appetite. The other old standby is just a tablespoon of

almond butter. Still a little bit of an insulin spike, a little bit

of a blood sugar spike but nowhere near the levels of

throwing down an Eggo waffle or a couple pieces of toast or a

bowl of cereal of something of that nature. So, what I would

focus on is giving yourself something after dinner – an hour

or an hour and a half before bedtime – that’s more that

protein based fuel. If you go over to www.pacificfit.net, you

can find that Living Protein Fuel at www.pacificfit.net, along

with a bar that’s also primarily a fat based bar. Caution with

that, it does have some agave nectar in it and so again right

before bed, probably not the best thing as far as protein. You

could definitely go with a protein powder, that Living Protein

protein powder. And Cindy, I’m nominating you – even

though I didn’t read your whole question – I’m nominating

you as the top question for this week’s podcast and giving

you a free month of membership to the Body Transformation

Club, just email me and I’ll hook you up with that because

based off of your description it sounds like you in terms of

some of the nutrition direction that you need, maybe some of

the exercise tips are going to benefit the most out of that free

membership to the Body Transformation Club. So Cindy, if

you’re listening, email me and I’ll hook you up. And then we

have a final question from Paul.

Paul asks: Ben, in previous podcasts, you mentioned books that you’ve

been reading. What books do you recommend for training or

just a day at the beach and how do you choose which books

to read?

Ben answers: Well, I got to tell you Paul, we don’t get too many days at the

beach out here in the Pacific Northwest, specifically the

inland northwest. However I do engage in quite a bit of

reading. I listen to a lot of books. I also read physically a lot

of books. I typically go through about three or four books a

week, and that’s just essentially keeping a book in the

bathroom and a book on the nightstand and I just go through

them and I happen to be privileged enough to have the free

shipping from Amazon.com as well as a library card for a

nearby library so between the two I get my books. But I’m

going to tell you some of the books that I’ve read recently so

you can get an idea of the types of books that I read, the

types of books I recommend and some of the books that will

help you to become a better person and a better athlete. So in

the time since March 1st, these are the books that I’ve read.

So the past month in the half, these are the books that I’ve

read: Run Faster From 5K To Marathon. This book is great if

you are a coach or if you are self-coached and you want to

pick up some really great tips from Brad Hudson and Matt

Fitzgerald. It’s one of the best books I’ve read on running,

along with the other running book I’ll talk about in a second.

And especially laying out your run training program. Very

good book, very solid. Highly recommend. The New Psycho-

Cybernetics. If you want to change your lifestyle, if you want

to learn how to do things like visualize and motivate yourself

if you want to learn how to kind of turn your brain onto

overdrive, The New Psycho-Cybernetics is a great book. And

by the way you guys, I’ll put a link to all of these in the

Shownotes. I’ll put a cool Amazon deal where you can just

see all the books right there, and check them out. So The

New Psycho-Cybernetics is another one. How To Win

Friends And Influence People. I actually read that one last

month and it’s good, it’s almost like a good skim book. He

tells you in the beginning to read every chapter twice. I

ended up skimming through every chapter and reading the

last final notes of each chapter very thoroughly. Good book

for your relationships though. It really is. Another book: The

Runner’s Edge. This book is great if you want to learn how to

use technology in your training, whether you’re a triathlete

or a runner or a cyclist, good book for using technology in

your training. It’s called The Runner’s Edge. An audio book I

went through recently by Tony Robbins called Get The Edge.

That’s about a seven day series, that’s a fantastic one for your

productivity, for your lifestyle. Tony Robbins is one of my

favorite speakers. Get The Edge. It’s a CD series. I’ll put a

link to that as well. Small book by Seth Godin called Tribes,

We Need You To Lead Us. If you’re in business, this is a

really good book. Tribes essentially just talks about how we

interact with one another in terms of our group thinking

philosophies, leading philosophies. Great book. Another

book called The Magic Of Thinking Big. If you want to

change your lifestyle, I also recommend this book and the

next book called The Go Giver, another one I read recently.

Good for business. Basically any aspect of business, it’s

essential in my opinion. Good book for you or your children’s

personal finances called Rich Dad, Poor Dad where the rich

teach their kids about money written by one of my favorite

authors Robert Kiyasaki. I highly recommend that if you’ve

got kids that are growing up and you’re wanting to teach

them about finances. Very good book, and then of course the

book Getting Things Done. I’d already read that once. I

actually read it again last month because it’s got some great

tips in there for productivity. I’m also smack dab in the

middle of Brendan Brazier’s book called The Thrive Diet

which is essentially vegan eating for high performance

athletes. How to actually do it and still have energy, and I

love that book. It’s wonderful so far. Great recipes in there

that I’ll be implementing and sharing with you, and a couple

of other books. This is towards the end of February I read

these books but Dean Karnazes wrote a book after he did his

50 marathons in 50 days, packed it full of a bunch of

practical little tips and it’s called 50-50, Secrets from 50

Marathons in 50 Days. I’ll put a link to that in there for you,

as well as the book Chi Running by Danny Dreyer, and he

calls that his revolutionary approach to effortless injury

running. I picked up that book and read that one in March as

I was kind of starting to run a lot again to get ready for

triathlon season. And there are some great tips in there as

well. So, check out all those books. I’ll put a link to all of

them in the Shownotes to this podcast. We’re going to be

moving on to our anti-inflammatory interview with Dr. Roby

Mitchell. And remember if you do have a question, email me

ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com. You can Skype Pacific Fit or

you can call toll free to 8772099439 and in terms of the

upcoming interview you guys really need to listen to it. It’s

fantastic. He talks about some natural alternatives as well.

I’m going to put a link to some of the things he talks about,

particularly one called phenocane which seems like it’s rock

solid as an alternative to aspirin, ibuprofen and Tylenol,

Celebrex, etc. I’ll put a link to all that and more in the

Shownotes to episode number 90.

Ben: Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and I’m back

with one of our most popular and distinguished guests that

we’ve had on the show a couple of times in the past. Dr. Roby

Mitchell, who’s also known as Dr. Fitt. He’s come on before

and talked about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

He’s talked about other natural health topics that are very

interesting and especially relevant to you if you’re trying to

take charge of your health and make educated decisions on

the things that you’re putting into your body and the way

that you’re taking care of your body. Today, Dr. Mitchell is

here to talk to us a little bit about anti-inflammatories, how

to manage inflammation and popular medications like

ibuprofen or Advil. So Dr. Mitchell, thanks for coming on the

call today.

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Hello, glad to be back Ben.

Ben: So you know, I just want to start off with your explanation,

because you’ve done a really good job in the past kind of

explaining things to people of what exactly is the popular

form of anti-inflammatory that people typically take. This

NSAID, what does that stand for and how do those actually

work?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: So the acronym stands for Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory

Drug and the reason for the non steroidal is that initially

when we were using medications to decrease inflammation,

these were steroidal medications. Steroidal just meaning that

these are molecules made from cholesterol, so not to be

confused with the doping steroids, the synthetic steroids that

people use to pump up their muscles. So anytime you hear

the word “steroids” it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s some

chemical that bodybuilders use illegally. So, initially we used

corticosteroids for these chemicals that are derived from

cortisol like prenazone, pregnisilone – those types of drugs

when people had inflammation, we’d give them injections or

pills with those in them. It would calm down the

inflammation. These drugs had some problems, particularly

used on a long term like the synthetic ones in that they could

cause diabetes and elevated blood sugar, cause cataracts, a

whole slew of bad side effects came from these steroidal anti-

inflammatory drugs. So this new class of drugs, non-

steroidal anti-inflammatories were created to address that

problem. Now the way that these non-steroidal anti-

inflammatory drugs work is that they inhibit the production

of these chemical messengers such as prostaglandins,

leukotriads, some of these other things that your immune

system normally produces in an effort to spur healing.

Understand that inflammation is a normal part of the body’s

healing mechanism. When you have fever, chills from the

cold and flu, when you have redness, when you have swelling,

when you have soreness – understand that that is your

body’s healing process trying to take effect. So you may want

to think about sometimes actually the use of these non-

steroidal anti-inflammatory medications, particularly if we’re

talking about things like for fever when your body is trying to

heal itself – think twice about trying to abort that process,

because your body is trying to heal itself. Now the problem

comes when you interrupt that production of those

chemicals in the body, you have to understand that with

these biochemical processes in the body, it’s like when Ben

Greenfield gets on his bike and he spins that front sprocket,

right? That front sprocket is connected to that back sprocket.

So imagine the biochemistry in your body as this whole

system of interconnected sprockets. That when turns, right,

it makes all the others turn. Now Ben Greenfield would be

the enzyme that makes one of those sprockets turn and when

he turns that one then all the rest turn. Now, if Dr. Roby

Mitchell gives Ben Greenfield a medication that slows him

down, then that means that that inhibits his ability to turn

that front sprocket, and that may be the target that we’re

after – slowing down the turning of that front sprocket – but

guess what happens to every other sprocket that’s connected

to that? It slows down also. So that’s what we have to think

about when we give these medications – is that they’re not

only affecting the biochemical process that we’re trying to

slow down. They affect the whole system. So with these non-

steroidal anti-inflammatory products, they affect such a wide

range of biochemistry in the body that they can have lots and

lots of side effects.

Ben: So when you’re talking about the non-steroidal, if people

were to ask which drugs would actually fall into this category,

what are some popular drugs that a lot of people take right

now that would be considered the non-steroidal anti-

inflammatory drugs?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: So in media advertising, probably Advil is one of the more

popular ones that people would hear about advertised.

Ibuprofen is the generic name for Advil, and that will be

right next to it on the counter there at your supermarket at a

lower price. It’s the exact same drug. It’s sold cheaper as a

generic. It is just as effective so no use spending a higher

amount for the brand name product. By prescription there

was Motrin, actually Motrin now is an over the counter non-

steroidal anti-inflammatory drug and it works basically the

same way. Celebrex is one of the more popular prescription

ones. Dextra is another. There was one that infamously was

taken off the market called Vioxx because it caused heart

attacks. Interestingly enough, all of these drugs have that

same capability. They can cause thromboembolisms or blood

clots and they can cause stroke, heart attacks and these other

diseases. But probably the most common and the highest

mortality side effect that they have is causing gastric or GI

bleeding. When I was an emergency room doctor, it was not

uncommon at all for me to have patients who had over a long

period of time taking one of these non-steroidal anti-

inflammatory drugs and developed a bleeding ulcer. And we

would have to take care of him there in the emergency room

to stop the bleeding. Many times it requires surgical

intervention. If people are familiar with the story of Alonzo

Mourning, a very famous basketball player, he’s developed

kidney failure from using these non-steroidal anti-

inflammatory drugs. Another pro-basketball player… I think

he actually had to have a kidney transplant for the same

reason.

Ben: Interesting. Well you know Dr. Mitchell, my grandma takes

three or four Advil before she goes to bed at night. I have

dozens of friends who are popping ibuprofen and Advil after

workouts to manage sprains and strains and even soreness.

People are using this stuff frequently all over the place.

Wouldn’t we kind of know about it if it was that big of an

issue as you’re saying about these pro-athletes having the

kidney failure and the GI bleeding? Why isn’t this stuff

mainstream?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: That’s a good question, but so many of the things here that

are so toxic in the environment, like say these chemicals

which are in plastics that are causing hormonal disruptions

and so forth – not really mainstream information but

certainly it’s there. It tends to gain momentum at some

periods of times or if famous people get hit with it and so

forth. But this is certainly just the tip of the iceberg as far as

the dangerousness of these types of medications. Used

transiently and on an irregular basis, not such a big problem.

It’s when you depend on these things long term over a long

period of time, is when they tend to cause the problem. So

it’s an accumulative, additive effect and there’s also a

synergistic effect when they’re combined with alcohol or

some other things.

Ben: Now how about combining them with exercise? Because a lot

of people will take ibuprofen or Advil prior to going out and

doing Ironman or a difficult training session. I have athletes

who’ve done this before. They tell me that it helps them

manage the pain, that it helps them manage the soreness.

Could that be an issue?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: No, so again for transient use and intermittent use, it’s not

such a bad idea. It’s the chronic use that becomes the

problem. I might take an Advil or an ibuprofen if I go out for

a week skiing, I may take one or two after a hard day of

skiing, but it’s not something I would take on a regular basis.

One of the things that I do prophylactically though when I

know I’m going to be punishing my body like when I ride on

a regular basis or do any type of other traumatic exercise, is I

prophylactically high dose myself with vitamin C. This will

prevent much of that trauma from happening that will spur

the production of these prostaglandins and these other

chemical mediators. So I would recommend prophylaxis

rather than trying to catch the cow after he’s already out of

the barn.

Ben: Interesting, so what about after an injury? You talked a little

bit about the inflammatory process and how you don’t want

to shut it down completely but let’s say I sprained my ankle,

what role would a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug take

in a situation like that?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: So when you have injuries, sprains, strains, that type of thing

normally what we would do in the emergency room is tell

people to use ice and compression. Now for pain, certainly

again, transient use of anti-inflammatory drugs can be – they

can be a Godsend if you’re having pain from trauma, but you

don’t want to use those long term because as I’ve stated in

the article that I wrote, they do inhibit the process of healing.

Again these things can cause microemboli or micro clots.

Small clots. Clots inhibit blood flow. If you don’t have blood

flow then you don’t get healing, right? So we want to

encourage – whenever there’s an injury we want to

encourage blood flow. So it’s better to use some of these

things that have dilating, warming effects, shooting warm

blood to the injury site effect. Things like Tiger Balm is one

of the things that I recommend quite a bit for my patients

and of course it goes directly on the area. Bengay is a more –

one probably my father would use if he had an injury. But

those types of things make a little more sense again for the

long term. Again, short term, initial injury – use an

ibuprofen or whatever. Use the ibuprofen, that’s cheap. It

works just the same. You don’t need to go do the expensive

one, going to a doctor and getting a prescription for Zolobax

or Bextra or even paying the expense of getting something

like Advil. Just get the generic ibuprofen. Now there’s some

alternatives even to those that can work as well, but then not

have the side effects. Bromolin is one that comes to mind off

the top of my head. There’s a product called Wobenzym that

you can get at your health food store. It’s an excellent –

actually it works by a different process. So you don’t have the

process of creating the micro-emboli. So it’s actually pro-

healing even though it’s anti-inflammatory.

Ben: That’s a protolytic enzyme right?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Exactly.

Ben: I think we’ve talked about that one before on the show as

well as the one called Recoveries, but yeah same thing. That’s

that enzyme – one of the enzymes found in pineapple. Is that

correct?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Not the Wobenzym. Papain is found in pineapple. Yeah. And

there is a product called phenocane, that is a combination of

bromelaine and I believe di-alph-alanine and metakinase

that works even better. That is just a wonderful natural anti-

inflammatory to be used anytime you would use one of these

non-steroidals.

Ben: What did you call that one?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: It’s called Phenocane.

Ben: Now you said that has the protolytic enzyme in it and what

else did you say that has in it?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: It has nattokinase. Now remember one of the things I said is

the problem with healing in these cases of traumatic injury is

micro-emboli can form sometimes. The nattokinase keeps

those micro-emboli from forming and then the DL-

phenylalanine, that’s an amino acid that works very well as a

pain reliever.

Ben: And that just works in a different way than the non-steroidal

anti-inflammatory drug in terms of the pain relief?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Exactly. So there’s a synergism between all these three

ingredients. So you have one that’s an anti-inflammatory,

one that’s an anti-thromboembolytic agent, one that is an

actual pain-reliever. So this particular amino acid, it works

essentially right in the central nervous system to produce

some of these natural endorphins and so forth that your

body normally uses for pain relief.

Ben: Now, what about like an anti-fungal? I heard you talk about

that before as well.

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Now anti-fungals – again inflammation is the mechanism

that is causing the pain. So the more you can slow down

inflammation in general and the production of these

prostaglandins, leukotrienes, these other chemical

messengers of pain, then the less pain that you have. One of

the big stimulators of chronic inflammation in the body

overall, even without injury is fungi that overgrow in the

body. And of course that comes from this high sugar, high

grain diet that most people eat. So if you use an anti-fungal

on a regular basis then you can systematically cut down on

the amount of the production of these chemical mediators of

inflammation.

Ben: Interesting, so something like phenocane, I know that a lot of

people are probably wondering this because I know they

have relatives or people like myself who has a grandma who’s

taking several Advil every night for months and years

running, would something like Phenocane be something that

someone who is currently taking Advil and ibuprofen

chronically – would that be something that they could try as

an alternative? As a healthy alternative?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Certainly. That or the Wobenzym, but I would back up even

from that. So even with the natural product, you’re still

trying to modulate a symptom, right? Let’s take a few steps

back and try to find out what’s causing it, right? Instead of

trying to keep dragging drowning people out of the water,

let’s go upstream and see who’s throwing them in? So, I

would ask why is she taking so much Advil so chronically,

right? And can we do something to actually get rid of the

cause of that symptom.

Ben: Interesting. So in terms of natural anti-inflammatories, is

there any other advice that you would have for people as far

as controlling inflammation or watching what they put into

their body?

Dr. Roby Mitchell: So again, one of the main causes of chronic systematic

inflammation is this inflammatory diet that we have with all

the high sugar and the high grains. So that would be number

one, is change this diet to this Mediterranean – on my Web

site, it’ll be called a BALI type diet. But a diet that includes

more of these foods that have natural yeast killers in there. I

have a list of them there on my Web site, so that would be

the first step. Particularly if you’re having problems with

chronic pain or depression or any of these things that are

underwritten by this inflammatory process – diabetes, heart

disease, high blood pressure – any of those things. This is the

diet that you need to move to. You need to move to that one

prophylactically. If you expect to not have any of those

diseases. Also people that do have to take or decide to take

one of these non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications on

a regular basis, then you’ll want to take something to kind of

moderate the effect of it. Now you can take something as

simple as baking soda can cut down on the risk of you having

these problems with the GI bleeding. People also want to

make sure that they’re getting regular checkups with their

doctor if they’re being prescribed one of these long-term for

some chronic condition. This GI bleeding can be very silent.

And you might not see redness in your stool which we

usually associate with GI bleeding. You might not see any

change in your stool. It can be so minuscule over a long

period of time that you don’t notice it until you become so

anemic that people start fainting. And that’s what sends

people in to the emergency rooms many times. They would

have one of these fainting episodes and then I would check

their blood count and they’d be dangerously anemic. They

have had this bleeding for such a long time but it’s been

insidious and they haven’t noticed it.

Ben: Interesting. So it sounds like people have quite a few

alternatives when it comes to the traditional method of just

masking the pain by popping Advil or ibuprofen.

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Yes, certainly. Massage – if you have the ability to make that

happen, that’s an excellent thing, particularly after things

like these types of rides that you and I do, doing those on a

regular basis certainly helps. Even a person just rubbing

themselves down with either coconut oil or castor oil. Those

act as excellent anti-inflammatory agents also. So doing

those on a regular basis after a hard workout can help, but

again what I do prophylactically is I load up on about 10,000

milligrams of vitamin C if I’m going to do a really long ride.

That works as well as anything. I don’t have the pain at all.

Ben: Well Dr. Mitchell, thank you for coming on the call today and

sharing this with people. I want to mention your Web site.

It’s www.drfitt.com. And he does have as he mentioned quite

a bit of information in there in terms of stuff that you can

read and immediately utilize. Things in terms of checklists,

diets, things of that nature. So definitely check out

www.drfitt.com and I’ll put a link to that in the Shownotes to

this episode. So, Dr. Fitt, thanks for coming on the call.

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Oh, you’re very welcome. You’ve given me a reminder. I get

so focused on pointing at disease sometimes, I forget about

the athletes. I’m going to have to start putting some

information on there directed at you guys that are out there

being pro-active.

Ben: Well, absolutely. And if you’re listening in and ideas of

questions or things that you’d like to hear from Dr. Mitchell

in terms of natural medicine for athletes and management –

everything from injuries to disease to some of the

prophylactic measures that he talked about – just leave a

comment in the Shownotes to this episode and I’ll make sure

that Dr. Fitt sees your comment. So thanks for coming on the

call, and I’m sure we’ll be in touch.

Dr. Roby Mitchell: Always a pleasure, Ben.

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