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The Ultimate Nutrition Bible: Easily Create the Perfect Diet that Fits Your Lifestyle, Goals, and Genetics
End the war with your diet by creating an optimized nutrition plan based on your goals, your genes, and your personal needs.
Do you feel overwhelmed by the barrage of diet-related marketing and advertising? Have you gone keto then vegetarian then vegan and still felt lost as to what makes a diet sustainable? Are you part of the 97 percent of people who have failed to lose weight long term?
Matt Gallant and Wade T. Lightheart, founders of BIOptimizers, are here to help you identify the factors that will bring you lasting results by helping you create a nutritional strategy that works for you. This all-in-one, comprehensive guide to the current diet and nutritional landscape will help you establish a personalized sustainable dietary strategy based on your goals, genetics, and unique needs. Matt Gallant and Wade Lightheart, founders of BiOptimizers, provide the data, proven strategies, and hard-earned insights so that you
Gain clarity about nutrition and dieting Lose weight in a healthy way and keep it off for life Tailor a wide variety of nutritional strategies to be effective for you Eat for maximum athletic and mental performance Optimize your nutrition to maximize your life span
In the end, the only person that matters is you, and you deserve all the tools you need for the life you want to live."
Do you feel overwhelmed by the barrage of diet-related marketing and advertising? Have you gone keto then vegetarian then vegan and still felt lost as to what makes a diet sustainable? Are you part of the 97 percent of people who have failed to lose weight long term?
Matt Gallant and Wade T. Lightheart, founders of BIOptimizers, are here to help you identify the factors that will bring you lasting results by helping you create a nutritional strategy that works for you. This all-in-one, comprehensive guide to the current diet and nutritional landscape will help you establish a personalized sustainable dietary strategy based on your goals, genetics, and unique needs. Matt Gallant and Wade Lightheart, founders of BiOptimizers, provide the data, proven strategies, and hard-earned insights so that you
Gain clarity about nutrition and dieting Lose weight in a healthy way and keep it off for life Tailor a wide variety of nutritional strategies to be effective for you Eat for maximum athletic and mental performance Optimize your nutrition to maximize your life span
In the end, the only person that matters is you, and you deserve all the tools you need for the life you want to live."
509 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 26, 2023
33 people are currently reading
38 people want to read
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January 8, 2024
It’s not really about nutrition. It’s more about dieting. It assumes all the readers want to lose weight or gain muscle. The book covers info on several diets, but what they are supposed to do is create a diet personalized to the individual. They provide links to their website to analyze your genetics, but the pages just say “coming soon”:
bioptimizers.com/book/genes/
bioptimizers.com/book/guthealth/
I signed up my email to get updates for when their links would work, but instead they just send me emails trying to sell me products.
The book is made longer than it has to be with unnecessary “you will learn this long list of stuff” and summaries in each chapter. Chapter 33 is heavy on science, basically saying “if you have this gene, then this diet is good/bad for you.” But we only know if we have those genes if we take some special genetic test that a normal doctor probably wouldn’t even know how to order. The book pushes expensive supplements, specialists, and blood and urine tests more than it talks about eating real food. In the chapter on improving mental performance, it has a section on “what should you eat for peak mental performance?” And doesn’t list a single food in it! Then in their summary, they say “We give a 24-hour view of all the activities, foods, and supplements you can use to be in a peak state all day” (241). No, they didn’t list ANY foods! For people looking for a book actually focussing on nutrition, check out The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy.
With all their advice tailored to your individual body and links to figure stuff out, you’d think one of their links would be to a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight, because that info is needed in order to follow their advice on adding or subtracting calories to lose/gain weight. (If you want to lose weight on any or no diet, subtract 300-500 calories from maintenance level. If you want to gain muscle, add 300-500 calories to maintenance level.) But their book doesn’t provide this info, nor any links to find it out. Thankfully the Internet is full of such calculators.
The book had a formula for figuring out BMR (basal metabolic rate), but i calculated mine to be 1336.75 while their bare bones app calculated it to being 1221. By the way, to anyone who wants a good, free calorie counting/tracking app, the best one I’ve found is Lose It. I’ve been using it for years and love it.
Anyway, this book came in handy for learning about the pros and cons of certain diets. It seems that all of them were cutting at least one food group out, and that resulted in nutrient deficiencies. When doing a restrictive diet, it’s essential to test your nutrient levels every 3-6 months (291). This wouldn’t be necessary if you just ate from all the food groups the way humans were intended to do.
All of these are necessary for optimal health (437):
Carbs/grains for energy & speed
Fruits and vegetables for fiber, vitamins, minerals, & the immune system
Protein for muscles/strength, nails, & bones
Fat for endurance, hormones, fertility, skin, intelligence, & brain health
—
The book divides people into different categories to help you understand yourself better, which diet may be best for you, and strategies for how to make the best of your body makeup:
There are three types of bodies: the skinny ectomorph (5-10%), the muscular mesomorph (1-2%), and the fat endomorph (170, 181). (If the remaining percentage are all endomorphs, it’s no wonder 70% of people in the US are overweight!) The book says that you can push your body to being a different type with exercise and nutrition (181). Those with faster metabolisms need more calories to maintain their weight and to gain any.
Perhaps the best diet for each would be high everything (but mostly grains) for the ecto to help them gain weight, vegetarian for the endo to help them lose weight, and high protein for the meso for their muscles. (These are my conclusions, not the book’s.) Thinking burns calories (up to 1,500!) (P.74), which made me wonder if the reason why intellectuals tend to be the thin ectomorphs is because they burn calories by thinking so much. If that’s the case, then we can kind of assume that fat people aren’t very smart. Not only because their lack of thinking means less calorie burn, but also they probably lack discipline to refrain from overeating or to make an effort to exercise (so we can also assume they’re P types, and F types also, to a lesser degree). No wonder the poorest people tend to be the fattest despite having little money; poor people tend to be dumb too.
Discipline style (114-115): cyborg (high self-discipline), purpose-driven (only acts when there’s a goal), nurture-driven (only acts when participating in a group), necessity-driven (only acts when an extreme life event motivates them). The book provides tips to increase motivation for each type.
Moderators and Abstainers (115): Moderators can have a little sweets and control themselves, while abstainers have to swear off a food completely otherwise they will go crazy with eating too much of it. If you can’t control yourself, then you’ll obviously have to swear it off completely.
People who crave novelty vs. familiarity: do you prefer to have the same meals everyday or do you prefer to try new things (116)? This is like S & N in MBTI. If you like to try new things, then you probably shouldn’t do a strict diet which makes you swear off certain food groups. The people who prefer familiarity will have an easier time dieting, once they get used to the foods required for the diet.
How do you comply with expectations? (117) The upholders are the self-disciplined enneatypes 1, 3, & 8; obligers are the ones who follow through with other people’s expectations but not their own goals like enneatype 6, 2, & 9; questioners only comply when they understand the reason why like enneatype 5; and rebels defy both their own and other people’s expectations, probably most like enneatype 4. (I didn’t include enneatype 7 because I think 7 would only comply if the task was fun, although the type 7 I know is an obliger.)
Then there’s the neurotransmitter types (118-119) which I also matched with enneatypes! So maybe personality can be explained by our levels of neurotransmitters!
Dopamine (type 1, 8) - those high in it are confident, rational, dominant, logical, productive, and strong-willed. They are best suited for weight lifting. Those low in it are depressed, lazy, and prone to being overweight.
Acetylcholine (type 4, 5) - those high in it are creative, focussed, have a good memory, like learning, thinking, & exploring. They are best suited for speed sports. Those low in it are forgetful, disorganized, fatigued, and have poor attention. Treat ADD with choline (eggs and liver)!
GABA (type 2, 9) - Those high in it are calm, relaxed, consistent, nurturing, & social. They are best suited for yoga, team sports, and rock climbing. Those low in it are anxious, nervous, irritable, and prone to headaches, dizziness, insomnia, and clammy hands.
Serotonin (type 3, 7) - Those high in it are happy, playful, social, practical, & extraverted. They are best suited for yoga, team sports, and rock climbing. Those low in it may have insomnia, introversion, emotional eating, carb cravings, sexual dysfunction, and lack of confidence.
Oxytocin (type 6) - social, the obliger type. The book didn’t say much else about this type.
The book said that each type makes up 17% of the population, except for GABA people who make up 50% of the population, and for Oxytocin people whose percentage wasn’t mentioned.
The neurotransmitter test was one of the few weblinks in this book that actually had a working page (www.nootopia.com/quiz).
Chronotypes (230):
Lions: morning people
Wolves: night people
Bears: people in the middle
Dolphins: light sleepers who struggle to get a good night’s sleep
Nervous system types:
“People who are stuck in parasympathetic could be in sloth mode. It’s hard for them to wake up and get going, whereas some people are stuck in sympathetic hypervigilance. They are usually aggressive and stressed out, which leads to burnout” (437).
Fast COMT (a gene) “makes you a warrior—someone who recovers from stress quickly because you break down stress neurotransmitters faster. On the other hand, slow COMT makes you a worrier because you break down catecholamine more slowly. B vitamins and magnesium are especially important to support healthy COMT function” (451). “Low MAO-A gene can cause aggression” (451).
—
Weight can be lost on any diet or no diet at all as long as calories in are lower than the amount it takes to maintain your current weight (14). When you’re trying a new diet, for the first 1-3 weeks you might have cravings for the foods you cut out, but the cravings will stop and you will begin craving the new foods you’re eating (380). No foods are bad as long as you don’t consume too many of them (15). Grains are the highest calorie with the least nutrients, so it makes sense to cut back on them if trying to lose weight IMO. It can be beneficial to increase fat and protein because they make a person feel fuller for longer (17). However, IMO grains shouldnt be cut entirely unless one has a medical problem like diabetes or epilepsy. Some people lose weight and feel great on one diet, while other people don’t. There is no one diet which is best for everyone (25).
But I think the Blue Zone diet (which wasn’t covered in this book) comes close to being healthiest for most people, because it has a proven track record of long term health. It is primarily vegetable based but doesnt completely eliminate meat or any other food group. The book also didn’t cover the pescatarian diet or the Mediterranean diet, the diets closest to the blue zones diet. The book probably didn’t talk about these diets because they are more for general good health than for losing weight or gaining muscle. Interesting that the book says carbs are not a necessary macronutrient unlike protein and fat (69), and yet the people who live longest eat more carbs than protein or fat.
Carnivore diet (just meat): good for bodybuilders/muscle growth (but even better is high protein, high carb, and low fat) (282). Eating a lot of cholesterol helps with muscle building because high-cholesterol foods tend to contain a lot of arachidonic acid, which is required for muscle building (174). Some people can lose body fat on this diet because it cuts out all carbs. Doing so can reduce food cravings. Some people get inflammation, gut biome problems, or immune system triggers from plants, so the carnivore diet can help these people. Potential cons of this diet: kidney stones, gallbladder issues, digestive problems, constipation, nutrient deficiencies (vitamin C), too low blood pressure, may throw off blood lipids, increased SHBD (sex-hormone-binding globulin) and increased free testosterone (affects overall well-being and exercise response) (282).
Keto (high fat, moderate protein, low carb): It trains the body to get energy from fat instead of carbs (266). It’s good for endurance sports (282, 284), reducing pain, food cravings, and blood pressure (266-267, 436), epileptics, and those prone to Alzheimer’s, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis (266, 284). Bad for muscle building, sports that require speed, agility, or strength (282). Deficient in vitamin C, fiber (16, 275). Tips: Make sure you consume potassium and sodium 3:1 (267). The meat with the highest fat percentage: beef ribs, prime rib, lamb burger (269-270). A good tea for keto: dandelion root (371). If trying to gain muscle or work out on the keto diet, take 40-80 carbs during a workout; the book claims you’ll stay in ketosis (223). After following a keto diet for more than a year, you can eat carbs while still being in ketosis (89). It was normal for humans throughout history to eat more carbs in summer and more fat in winter, but “there isn’t one documented culture that thrives year-round in ketosis” (89). “If you stay on keto nonstop, you may experience a stall in fat loss and some survival mechanisms kicking in” (271). “Very high-fat meals can reduce the protective mucus that coats your gut barrier and reduce gut bacteria diversity, which may compromise the barrier” (276). Keto isn’t right for everyone; 30-40% of people won’t do well on it (265). Some people on keto develop obesity, fatty liver, or insulin resistance, while other people reverse those problems by going on keto (474). People with a weak CPT1A enzyme variant (81% Canadians, 54% Greenland Inuits, 68% Northeast Siberian) have trouble entering ketosis (453). “It’s important to do carb refeeds. Otherwise, the glycolytic pathways (carb-burning capabilities) get very weak. Many people report that their sex-hormone-binding globulins (SHBG) become very elevated during extended keto cycles, which means less free testosterone” (89). Other adverse effects some people experience with keto: diarrhea, constipation, belching, acid reflux, reduced thyroid hormone, reduced free active thyroid hormone, which causes a feeling of coldness and lethargy (275).
Slow carb/low glycemic diet (no grain, fruit, sugar): Tim Ferriss popularized this diet in his book “The Four-Hour Body.” His rules: eat the same few meals over and over, get 30g protein within 30 minutes of waking; avoid fruit, dairy, drinking calories, white, starchy carbs; use blood sugar supplements; refeed one day a week to enjoy your favorite foods (326). Space meals four hours apart. Take at least 30 minutes to eat each meal. Walk 10 minutes after each meal. Get 30g protein with breakfast and at least 20g per meal after that. Continue protein-filled breakfasts even on refeed days (331). Pros: good for diabetics or those prone to diabetes. Cons: not good for speed/energy; have to live without desserts and pasta; cutting out fruit means you may be deficient in vitamin C. Tips: use a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) to understand your blood sugar responses to different meals (329, 433), because one person’s blood sugar may spike with a certain food while another person’s may not (328). “If certain foods or meals spike your blood sugar or result in extremely low blood sugar within a few hours, then they don’t work for you, and you shouldn’t be eating them on a regular basis” (329).
Paleo (no grains, legumes) - Pros: least deficient in nutrients of the diets this book covers, reduces inflammation, reduced cravings (305-306). Cons: Bad for speed (307). Tips: eat organ meats, don’t eat too much processed food/meat, don’t overdo the fat, don’t eat too many charred foods (309).
Raw (veg and meat, no grains): great for weight loss, improves digestion (315); bad for energy/sports. “When food isn’t heated past 114 degrees (give or take), all of the enzymes in the food are still active. This allows you to maximize your digestive capabilities” (314). If you eat a lot of fiber, you’ll enjoy the following benefits: reduced risk of stroke, diabetes, obesity, cholesterol, and heart disease (289). Cons: too few calories, possible nutrient deficiencies (protein, b12, omega-3, vitamins A & D, amino acids) (316-317). Tips: if you eat raw meat, don’t eat raw poultry or pork because they tend to have parasites and harmful bacteria (319). Soak your nuts to counter the enzyme inhibitors, lectins, and other potential gut health disruptors (318). Soak your seeds to make them produce enzymes and release the anti-nutrients into the water (320). Sprout your seeds, because some like broccoli have 10 times more sulforaphane than mature broccoli, which is being researched for its anticancer properties, heart health benefits, and anti-diabetic effects (320). To make your food more interesting, you can blend it, juice it, dehydrate it, marinate it, pickle it, ferment it, etc. (321-322). To me, all that stuff defeats the purpose of a raw diet, which to me is decreasing the work involved in preparing food.
Vegetarian/vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs): great for weight loss (if carbs are kept low), flexibility (288), preventing/treating aggression, skin conditions, joint inflammation, excessive earwax (287), cancer, endometriosis, osteoporosis, & cataracts (290). If you eat a lot of fiber, you’ll enjoy the following benefits: reduced risk of stroke, diabetes, obesity, cholesterol, and heart disease (289). You consume less toxins on this diet because toxins accumulate more in carnivorous animals (290).
Cons of vegetarianism/veganism: The diet is bad for fertility (it reduces testosterone) and muscle growth (because it lacks meat which is high in cholesterol, protein, and saturated fat) (288). “Studies show that diets low in saturated fats and high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats lead to lower testosterone. This is possibly because such diets reduce blood cholesterol, which provides a backbone for testosterone. The Leydig cells in men’s testicles take cholesterol in your blood and turn it into testosterone” (173). It’s not healthy to have cholesterol levels too low. Besides saturated fat and cholesterol, other common nutrient deficiencies for vegans are protein, vitamins A, D, B, iron, iodine, selenium, choline, creatine, carnitine, zinc, & amino acids (16, 291-293). Arachidonic acid is another important nutrient which is only available from animal products. Most plant based sources of omega 3 are in the short chain form, ALA. You need long chain omega 3, DHA and EPA for brain function, healthy cell and mitochondrial membranes, and balanced inflammatory responses. The conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA is not very effective. Testosterone inhibits this conversion, so men are naturally worse at it than women. Zinc from animal sources tends to be more bioavailable than zinc from plant sources. Zinc deficiencies and lack of meat tend to lower stomach acid, reducing the absorption of key minerals such as iron, magnesium, and vitamin B12. Plant seeds, roots, and tubers have phytates which bind to iron, zinc, and magnesium impairing the absorption of these minerals. Tannins in plants reduce feed intake, growth rate, feed efficiency, net metabolizable energy, and protein digestibility. They neutralize stomach acid and impair the absorption of zinc, magnesium, copper, and iron. Seeds contain enzyme inhibitors which block the function of enzymes. Oxalates in plants can cause kidney stones and pain. They can bind minerals in the gut and prevent absorption. Goitrogens in unfermented soy products can prevent healthy thyroid function by blocking iodine entry, interfering with thyroid peroxidase, or interfering with thyroid-stimulating hormone (291-294). Plant-based proteins are also lower in leucine than animal proteins, so they activate mTOR to a lesser extent. This can make it harder to gain muscle on a plant-based diet (300). Although one of the authors of this book gained a lot of muscle on a raw vegan diet, he only stayed on that diet for two years before switching to vegetarian (313).
Symptoms of nutritional deficiencies: anemia, hair loss, frequent virus infections, poor wound healing, dry skin, skin breakouts, brain fog, reduced cognitive function, mood problems, muscle loss, fat gain, joint pain, reduced appetite, bloating, poor digestion, reduced sex drive, poor sleep quality or reduced sleep quality. Tips: get your nutrient levels checked every 3-6 months. Don’t drink coffee or tea with meals since these drinks contain tannins which can impair the absorption of zinc, magnesium, copper, and iron (293). Avoid unfermented soy products because these can block iodine and interfere with thyroid-stimulating hormone (294).
See comments below for my continued review.
bioptimizers.com/book/genes/
bioptimizers.com/book/guthealth/
I signed up my email to get updates for when their links would work, but instead they just send me emails trying to sell me products.
The book is made longer than it has to be with unnecessary “you will learn this long list of stuff” and summaries in each chapter. Chapter 33 is heavy on science, basically saying “if you have this gene, then this diet is good/bad for you.” But we only know if we have those genes if we take some special genetic test that a normal doctor probably wouldn’t even know how to order. The book pushes expensive supplements, specialists, and blood and urine tests more than it talks about eating real food. In the chapter on improving mental performance, it has a section on “what should you eat for peak mental performance?” And doesn’t list a single food in it! Then in their summary, they say “We give a 24-hour view of all the activities, foods, and supplements you can use to be in a peak state all day” (241). No, they didn’t list ANY foods! For people looking for a book actually focussing on nutrition, check out The Edgar Cayce Handbook for Health Through Drugless Therapy.
With all their advice tailored to your individual body and links to figure stuff out, you’d think one of their links would be to a calorie calculator to figure out how many calories you need to maintain your weight, because that info is needed in order to follow their advice on adding or subtracting calories to lose/gain weight. (If you want to lose weight on any or no diet, subtract 300-500 calories from maintenance level. If you want to gain muscle, add 300-500 calories to maintenance level.) But their book doesn’t provide this info, nor any links to find it out. Thankfully the Internet is full of such calculators.
The book had a formula for figuring out BMR (basal metabolic rate), but i calculated mine to be 1336.75 while their bare bones app calculated it to being 1221. By the way, to anyone who wants a good, free calorie counting/tracking app, the best one I’ve found is Lose It. I’ve been using it for years and love it.
Anyway, this book came in handy for learning about the pros and cons of certain diets. It seems that all of them were cutting at least one food group out, and that resulted in nutrient deficiencies. When doing a restrictive diet, it’s essential to test your nutrient levels every 3-6 months (291). This wouldn’t be necessary if you just ate from all the food groups the way humans were intended to do.
All of these are necessary for optimal health (437):
Carbs/grains for energy & speed
Fruits and vegetables for fiber, vitamins, minerals, & the immune system
Protein for muscles/strength, nails, & bones
Fat for endurance, hormones, fertility, skin, intelligence, & brain health
—
The book divides people into different categories to help you understand yourself better, which diet may be best for you, and strategies for how to make the best of your body makeup:
There are three types of bodies: the skinny ectomorph (5-10%), the muscular mesomorph (1-2%), and the fat endomorph (170, 181). (If the remaining percentage are all endomorphs, it’s no wonder 70% of people in the US are overweight!) The book says that you can push your body to being a different type with exercise and nutrition (181). Those with faster metabolisms need more calories to maintain their weight and to gain any.
Perhaps the best diet for each would be high everything (but mostly grains) for the ecto to help them gain weight, vegetarian for the endo to help them lose weight, and high protein for the meso for their muscles. (These are my conclusions, not the book’s.) Thinking burns calories (up to 1,500!) (P.74), which made me wonder if the reason why intellectuals tend to be the thin ectomorphs is because they burn calories by thinking so much. If that’s the case, then we can kind of assume that fat people aren’t very smart. Not only because their lack of thinking means less calorie burn, but also they probably lack discipline to refrain from overeating or to make an effort to exercise (so we can also assume they’re P types, and F types also, to a lesser degree). No wonder the poorest people tend to be the fattest despite having little money; poor people tend to be dumb too.
Discipline style (114-115): cyborg (high self-discipline), purpose-driven (only acts when there’s a goal), nurture-driven (only acts when participating in a group), necessity-driven (only acts when an extreme life event motivates them). The book provides tips to increase motivation for each type.
Moderators and Abstainers (115): Moderators can have a little sweets and control themselves, while abstainers have to swear off a food completely otherwise they will go crazy with eating too much of it. If you can’t control yourself, then you’ll obviously have to swear it off completely.
People who crave novelty vs. familiarity: do you prefer to have the same meals everyday or do you prefer to try new things (116)? This is like S & N in MBTI. If you like to try new things, then you probably shouldn’t do a strict diet which makes you swear off certain food groups. The people who prefer familiarity will have an easier time dieting, once they get used to the foods required for the diet.
How do you comply with expectations? (117) The upholders are the self-disciplined enneatypes 1, 3, & 8; obligers are the ones who follow through with other people’s expectations but not their own goals like enneatype 6, 2, & 9; questioners only comply when they understand the reason why like enneatype 5; and rebels defy both their own and other people’s expectations, probably most like enneatype 4. (I didn’t include enneatype 7 because I think 7 would only comply if the task was fun, although the type 7 I know is an obliger.)
Then there’s the neurotransmitter types (118-119) which I also matched with enneatypes! So maybe personality can be explained by our levels of neurotransmitters!
Dopamine (type 1, 8) - those high in it are confident, rational, dominant, logical, productive, and strong-willed. They are best suited for weight lifting. Those low in it are depressed, lazy, and prone to being overweight.
Acetylcholine (type 4, 5) - those high in it are creative, focussed, have a good memory, like learning, thinking, & exploring. They are best suited for speed sports. Those low in it are forgetful, disorganized, fatigued, and have poor attention. Treat ADD with choline (eggs and liver)!
GABA (type 2, 9) - Those high in it are calm, relaxed, consistent, nurturing, & social. They are best suited for yoga, team sports, and rock climbing. Those low in it are anxious, nervous, irritable, and prone to headaches, dizziness, insomnia, and clammy hands.
Serotonin (type 3, 7) - Those high in it are happy, playful, social, practical, & extraverted. They are best suited for yoga, team sports, and rock climbing. Those low in it may have insomnia, introversion, emotional eating, carb cravings, sexual dysfunction, and lack of confidence.
Oxytocin (type 6) - social, the obliger type. The book didn’t say much else about this type.
The book said that each type makes up 17% of the population, except for GABA people who make up 50% of the population, and for Oxytocin people whose percentage wasn’t mentioned.
The neurotransmitter test was one of the few weblinks in this book that actually had a working page (www.nootopia.com/quiz).
Chronotypes (230):
Lions: morning people
Wolves: night people
Bears: people in the middle
Dolphins: light sleepers who struggle to get a good night’s sleep
Nervous system types:
“People who are stuck in parasympathetic could be in sloth mode. It’s hard for them to wake up and get going, whereas some people are stuck in sympathetic hypervigilance. They are usually aggressive and stressed out, which leads to burnout” (437).
Fast COMT (a gene) “makes you a warrior—someone who recovers from stress quickly because you break down stress neurotransmitters faster. On the other hand, slow COMT makes you a worrier because you break down catecholamine more slowly. B vitamins and magnesium are especially important to support healthy COMT function” (451). “Low MAO-A gene can cause aggression” (451).
—
Weight can be lost on any diet or no diet at all as long as calories in are lower than the amount it takes to maintain your current weight (14). When you’re trying a new diet, for the first 1-3 weeks you might have cravings for the foods you cut out, but the cravings will stop and you will begin craving the new foods you’re eating (380). No foods are bad as long as you don’t consume too many of them (15). Grains are the highest calorie with the least nutrients, so it makes sense to cut back on them if trying to lose weight IMO. It can be beneficial to increase fat and protein because they make a person feel fuller for longer (17). However, IMO grains shouldnt be cut entirely unless one has a medical problem like diabetes or epilepsy. Some people lose weight and feel great on one diet, while other people don’t. There is no one diet which is best for everyone (25).
But I think the Blue Zone diet (which wasn’t covered in this book) comes close to being healthiest for most people, because it has a proven track record of long term health. It is primarily vegetable based but doesnt completely eliminate meat or any other food group. The book also didn’t cover the pescatarian diet or the Mediterranean diet, the diets closest to the blue zones diet. The book probably didn’t talk about these diets because they are more for general good health than for losing weight or gaining muscle. Interesting that the book says carbs are not a necessary macronutrient unlike protein and fat (69), and yet the people who live longest eat more carbs than protein or fat.
Carnivore diet (just meat): good for bodybuilders/muscle growth (but even better is high protein, high carb, and low fat) (282). Eating a lot of cholesterol helps with muscle building because high-cholesterol foods tend to contain a lot of arachidonic acid, which is required for muscle building (174). Some people can lose body fat on this diet because it cuts out all carbs. Doing so can reduce food cravings. Some people get inflammation, gut biome problems, or immune system triggers from plants, so the carnivore diet can help these people. Potential cons of this diet: kidney stones, gallbladder issues, digestive problems, constipation, nutrient deficiencies (vitamin C), too low blood pressure, may throw off blood lipids, increased SHBD (sex-hormone-binding globulin) and increased free testosterone (affects overall well-being and exercise response) (282).
Keto (high fat, moderate protein, low carb): It trains the body to get energy from fat instead of carbs (266). It’s good for endurance sports (282, 284), reducing pain, food cravings, and blood pressure (266-267, 436), epileptics, and those prone to Alzheimer’s, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis (266, 284). Bad for muscle building, sports that require speed, agility, or strength (282). Deficient in vitamin C, fiber (16, 275). Tips: Make sure you consume potassium and sodium 3:1 (267). The meat with the highest fat percentage: beef ribs, prime rib, lamb burger (269-270). A good tea for keto: dandelion root (371). If trying to gain muscle or work out on the keto diet, take 40-80 carbs during a workout; the book claims you’ll stay in ketosis (223). After following a keto diet for more than a year, you can eat carbs while still being in ketosis (89). It was normal for humans throughout history to eat more carbs in summer and more fat in winter, but “there isn’t one documented culture that thrives year-round in ketosis” (89). “If you stay on keto nonstop, you may experience a stall in fat loss and some survival mechanisms kicking in” (271). “Very high-fat meals can reduce the protective mucus that coats your gut barrier and reduce gut bacteria diversity, which may compromise the barrier” (276). Keto isn’t right for everyone; 30-40% of people won’t do well on it (265). Some people on keto develop obesity, fatty liver, or insulin resistance, while other people reverse those problems by going on keto (474). People with a weak CPT1A enzyme variant (81% Canadians, 54% Greenland Inuits, 68% Northeast Siberian) have trouble entering ketosis (453). “It’s important to do carb refeeds. Otherwise, the glycolytic pathways (carb-burning capabilities) get very weak. Many people report that their sex-hormone-binding globulins (SHBG) become very elevated during extended keto cycles, which means less free testosterone” (89). Other adverse effects some people experience with keto: diarrhea, constipation, belching, acid reflux, reduced thyroid hormone, reduced free active thyroid hormone, which causes a feeling of coldness and lethargy (275).
Slow carb/low glycemic diet (no grain, fruit, sugar): Tim Ferriss popularized this diet in his book “The Four-Hour Body.” His rules: eat the same few meals over and over, get 30g protein within 30 minutes of waking; avoid fruit, dairy, drinking calories, white, starchy carbs; use blood sugar supplements; refeed one day a week to enjoy your favorite foods (326). Space meals four hours apart. Take at least 30 minutes to eat each meal. Walk 10 minutes after each meal. Get 30g protein with breakfast and at least 20g per meal after that. Continue protein-filled breakfasts even on refeed days (331). Pros: good for diabetics or those prone to diabetes. Cons: not good for speed/energy; have to live without desserts and pasta; cutting out fruit means you may be deficient in vitamin C. Tips: use a CGM (continuous glucose monitor) to understand your blood sugar responses to different meals (329, 433), because one person’s blood sugar may spike with a certain food while another person’s may not (328). “If certain foods or meals spike your blood sugar or result in extremely low blood sugar within a few hours, then they don’t work for you, and you shouldn’t be eating them on a regular basis” (329).
Paleo (no grains, legumes) - Pros: least deficient in nutrients of the diets this book covers, reduces inflammation, reduced cravings (305-306). Cons: Bad for speed (307). Tips: eat organ meats, don’t eat too much processed food/meat, don’t overdo the fat, don’t eat too many charred foods (309).
Raw (veg and meat, no grains): great for weight loss, improves digestion (315); bad for energy/sports. “When food isn’t heated past 114 degrees (give or take), all of the enzymes in the food are still active. This allows you to maximize your digestive capabilities” (314). If you eat a lot of fiber, you’ll enjoy the following benefits: reduced risk of stroke, diabetes, obesity, cholesterol, and heart disease (289). Cons: too few calories, possible nutrient deficiencies (protein, b12, omega-3, vitamins A & D, amino acids) (316-317). Tips: if you eat raw meat, don’t eat raw poultry or pork because they tend to have parasites and harmful bacteria (319). Soak your nuts to counter the enzyme inhibitors, lectins, and other potential gut health disruptors (318). Soak your seeds to make them produce enzymes and release the anti-nutrients into the water (320). Sprout your seeds, because some like broccoli have 10 times more sulforaphane than mature broccoli, which is being researched for its anticancer properties, heart health benefits, and anti-diabetic effects (320). To make your food more interesting, you can blend it, juice it, dehydrate it, marinate it, pickle it, ferment it, etc. (321-322). To me, all that stuff defeats the purpose of a raw diet, which to me is decreasing the work involved in preparing food.
Vegetarian/vegan (no meat, dairy, eggs): great for weight loss (if carbs are kept low), flexibility (288), preventing/treating aggression, skin conditions, joint inflammation, excessive earwax (287), cancer, endometriosis, osteoporosis, & cataracts (290). If you eat a lot of fiber, you’ll enjoy the following benefits: reduced risk of stroke, diabetes, obesity, cholesterol, and heart disease (289). You consume less toxins on this diet because toxins accumulate more in carnivorous animals (290).
Cons of vegetarianism/veganism: The diet is bad for fertility (it reduces testosterone) and muscle growth (because it lacks meat which is high in cholesterol, protein, and saturated fat) (288). “Studies show that diets low in saturated fats and high in polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats lead to lower testosterone. This is possibly because such diets reduce blood cholesterol, which provides a backbone for testosterone. The Leydig cells in men’s testicles take cholesterol in your blood and turn it into testosterone” (173). It’s not healthy to have cholesterol levels too low. Besides saturated fat and cholesterol, other common nutrient deficiencies for vegans are protein, vitamins A, D, B, iron, iodine, selenium, choline, creatine, carnitine, zinc, & amino acids (16, 291-293). Arachidonic acid is another important nutrient which is only available from animal products. Most plant based sources of omega 3 are in the short chain form, ALA. You need long chain omega 3, DHA and EPA for brain function, healthy cell and mitochondrial membranes, and balanced inflammatory responses. The conversion of ALA to EPA and DHA is not very effective. Testosterone inhibits this conversion, so men are naturally worse at it than women. Zinc from animal sources tends to be more bioavailable than zinc from plant sources. Zinc deficiencies and lack of meat tend to lower stomach acid, reducing the absorption of key minerals such as iron, magnesium, and vitamin B12. Plant seeds, roots, and tubers have phytates which bind to iron, zinc, and magnesium impairing the absorption of these minerals. Tannins in plants reduce feed intake, growth rate, feed efficiency, net metabolizable energy, and protein digestibility. They neutralize stomach acid and impair the absorption of zinc, magnesium, copper, and iron. Seeds contain enzyme inhibitors which block the function of enzymes. Oxalates in plants can cause kidney stones and pain. They can bind minerals in the gut and prevent absorption. Goitrogens in unfermented soy products can prevent healthy thyroid function by blocking iodine entry, interfering with thyroid peroxidase, or interfering with thyroid-stimulating hormone (291-294). Plant-based proteins are also lower in leucine than animal proteins, so they activate mTOR to a lesser extent. This can make it harder to gain muscle on a plant-based diet (300). Although one of the authors of this book gained a lot of muscle on a raw vegan diet, he only stayed on that diet for two years before switching to vegetarian (313).
Symptoms of nutritional deficiencies: anemia, hair loss, frequent virus infections, poor wound healing, dry skin, skin breakouts, brain fog, reduced cognitive function, mood problems, muscle loss, fat gain, joint pain, reduced appetite, bloating, poor digestion, reduced sex drive, poor sleep quality or reduced sleep quality. Tips: get your nutrient levels checked every 3-6 months. Don’t drink coffee or tea with meals since these drinks contain tannins which can impair the absorption of zinc, magnesium, copper, and iron (293). Avoid unfermented soy products because these can block iodine and interfere with thyroid-stimulating hormone (294).
See comments below for my continued review.
January 28, 2024
I found this book to have some good general nutrition info but nowhere near a Bible on the subject. It seemed to be geared more toward the bodybuilder or extreme athlete with not much for the postmenopausal, sedentary, uninspired woman.
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