The provided text explains that body fat accumulation is primarily due to excess energy intake, not specifically dietary fat, and the body stores this excess as fat efficiently. Insulin, a hormone, is essential for fat storage, and consistently high insulin levels, often triggered by frequent consumption of carbohydrates, can lead to insulin resistance and hinder fat burning. Adopting a lifestyle more aligned with our ancestors, including consuming whole, unprocessed foods and engaging in regular movement with occasional high-intensity bursts, can help regulate insulin and promote fat utilization. This ancestral approach emphasizes eating fewer meals and prioritizing nutrient-dense, minimally processed foods, shifting away from the modern prevalence of refined carbohydrates, sugars, and processed items. Managing stress and ensuring adequate electrolyte intake, particularly when making dietary changes, are also highlighted as important aspects of overall metabolic health and fat burning.
Study Guide: The Easiest Way to Burn Fat
Key Concepts
- Energy Storage: Excess energy from food, regardless of the source (carbs, fat, protein), is stored in the body as fat.
- Insulin’s Role: Insulin is a crucial hormone for storing fat. Without insulin, the body cannot effectively store fat, even with high blood glucose levels (as seen in Type 1 diabetes). Insulin acts as a “key” to allow glucose to enter cells for energy use or storage.
- Natural vs. Unnatural Eating Patterns: Natural patterns, based on ancestral hunter-gatherer diets, likely involved fewer, less frequent meals. Modern eating patterns often involve frequent meals and snacks, leading to constant insulin release.
- Insulin Resistance: Chronically elevated insulin levels can lead to insulin resistance, where cells become less responsive to insulin. This results in higher baseline insulin levels and metabolic issues.
- Fat Burning and Insulin: High insulin levels block the body’s ability to burn stored fat. To burn fat, insulin levels need to decrease.
- Carbohydrates and Insulin: Carbohydrates have the most significant impact on raising blood sugar and, consequently, insulin levels, compared to protein and fat.
- Fat Adaptation: Reducing carbohydrate intake allows the body to become “fat-adapted,” meaning it can efficiently use fat for fuel. This leads to more stable energy levels and reduced hunger.
- Ancestral Diet as a Reference: The dietary patterns of early humans (Homo sapiens) are a relevant reference point due to the high degree of genetic similarity and the long evolutionary history adapted to those food sources.
- Modern Processed Foods: Foods high in white flour, sugar, and seed oils are considered “non-foods” as they lack essential nutrients and disrupt metabolic balance.
- The Triad of Health: Optimal health involves three interconnected aspects: eating better (nutrition), moving better (physical activity), and thinking better (stress management).
- Types of Movement: Ancestral movement likely involved significant low-intensity aerobic activity (walking) and brief periods of high-intensity interval training (sprinting). Chronic stress, in contrast, can negatively impact digestion and overall health.
- Electrolyte Balance: As insulin levels drop during dietary changes (like reducing carbs), the body may excrete more electrolytes, potentially leading to temporary symptoms.
Quiz
- Explain why the statement “eating fat makes you fat” is inaccurate according to the source.
- Describe the role of insulin in fat storage and how this is illustrated by the example of Type 1 diabetes.
- Contrast the likely eating patterns of our hunter-gatherer ancestors with typical modern eating habits.
- Explain how frequent blood sugar spikes and consistently high insulin levels can lead to insulin resistance.
- Why does the source suggest that reducing carbohydrate intake is key to promoting fat burning?
- What does it mean to be “fat-adapted,” and what are the benefits of this metabolic state?
- Why are the eating habits of early humans considered a relevant reference point for modern diets?
- According to the source, what are the primary components of “non-foods” that negatively impact metabolic health?
- Briefly describe the three components of the “Triad of Health” as presented in the source.
- Explain why electrolyte supplementation might be necessary when transitioning to a lower-carbohydrate diet or during fasting.
Quiz Answer Key
- The statement is inaccurate because fat itself is a natural fuel for the body. Weight gain occurs due to excess energy from any type of food (carbs, fat, or protein) that is not used by the body and is subsequently stored as fat.
- Insulin is a hormone that enables the body to store fat. It acts as a key that allows glucose from the bloodstream to enter cells, where excess energy can be converted and stored as fat. In Type 1 diabetes, the body cannot produce insulin, so even with high blood sugar, fat storage is severely impaired, leading to weight loss and potential starvation.
- Hunter-gatherer ancestors likely had fewer meals per day, possibly one or two large meals with periods of fasting in between, driven by the availability of hunted or gathered food. Modern eating habits often involve multiple meals and snacks throughout the day, leading to more frequent blood sugar and insulin spikes.
- Frequent consumption of food, especially carbohydrates, leads to repeated spikes in blood sugar and insulin release. Over time, this chronic overstimulation causes cells to become less responsive to insulin, resulting in higher baseline insulin levels and a state of insulin resistance.
- Carbohydrates have the most significant impact on raising blood sugar levels, which in turn triggers a substantial insulin response. Because insulin blocks fat burning, reducing carbohydrate intake lowers insulin levels, allowing the body to access and burn stored fat for energy.
- Being “fat-adapted” means that the body has become efficient at using fat as its primary fuel source due to a lower and more stable carbohydrate intake. The benefits include more stable energy levels, reduced hunger and cravings, and the ability to readily burn stored body fat.
- The eating habits of early humans are a relevant reference point because their DNA is over 99.9% identical to modern human DNA. This means we have the same enzymes designed to digest and utilize the types of foods they consumed for hundreds of thousands of years before the introduction of modern processed foods.
- The primary components of “non-foods” that negatively impact metabolic health are white flour, sugar, and seed oils. These ingredients lack essential nutrients, cause rapid blood sugar spikes, disrupt metabolic balance, and contribute to overeating.
- The Triad of Health consists of three interconnected aspects for achieving optimal health: “eat better,” which focuses on consuming nutrient-dense whole foods; “move better,” emphasizing regular physical activity; and “think better,” addressing emotional well-being and stress reduction.
- When transitioning to a lower-carbohydrate diet or during fasting, insulin levels decrease. High insulin levels tend to cause the body to retain sodium and electrolytes. As insulin drops, the kidneys may excrete more of these electrolytes before the body re-establishes balance, potentially leading to symptoms like fatigue or lightheadedness.
Essay Format Questions
- Discuss the evolutionary perspective presented in the source regarding human dietary needs and the implications for modern eating habits.
- Analyze the relationship between insulin, carbohydrate intake, and fat storage/burning as explained in the source.
- Evaluate the concept of “natural” versus “unnatural” eating patterns and their potential impact on metabolic health, drawing upon the information provided.
- Critically assess the source’s recommendations for dietary and lifestyle changes to promote fat burning and overall health, considering the rationale behind each suggestion.
- Explore the concept of insulin resistance as described in the text, including its causes, consequences, and the proposed strategies for reversing it.
Glossary of Key Terms
- Insulin: A hormone produced by the pancreas that regulates blood sugar levels by allowing glucose to enter cells for energy or storage. It is also a key hormone in fat storage.
- Glucose: A simple sugar that is the primary source of energy for the body. It is derived from the digestion of carbohydrates.
- Metabolic Activity: The chemical processes that occur within a living organism to maintain life, including energy production, nutrient processing, and building of tissues.
- Insulin Resistance: A condition in which the body’s cells become less responsive to the effects of insulin, leading to higher blood sugar and insulin levels.
- Dysregulation: A disruption or imbalance in a biological system or process, such as the body’s natural regulation of hunger and satiety.
- Homo sapiens: The species of bipedal primates to which modern humans belong, having evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago.
- Enzymes: Proteins that act as biological catalysts, speeding up chemical reactions in the body, such as the digestion of food.
- Hunter-Gatherers: Societies in which food is obtained by foraging (gathering wild plants) and hunting wild animals, rather than by agriculture.
- Metabolically Healthy: A state in which the body’s metabolic processes, such as blood sugar regulation and energy utilization, are functioning optimally.
- Satiety: The feeling of fullness and satisfaction after eating, which suppresses further hunger.
- Counter-Survival: Behaviors or conditions that act against the body’s natural drive for survival and can lead to negative health outcomes.
- Ketogenic: A very low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that forces the body to produce ketones for energy.
- Ketosis: A metabolic state in which the body breaks down fat into ketones, which are then used as a primary source of energy.
- Low-Carb, High-Fat (LCHF): A dietary approach that restricts carbohydrate intake while increasing the consumption of fats.
- Net Carbohydrates: The total carbohydrates in a food minus the fiber content, as fiber is not significantly digested by the body.
- Satiety: The feeling of fullness and satisfaction after eating.
- Fat Adaptation: The process by which the body becomes more efficient at using fat as its primary source of energy.
- Triad of Health: The interconnected aspects of eating better, moving better, and thinking better for optimal health.
- Whole Foods: Foods in their natural, unprocessed, or minimally processed state.
- Non-Foods: A term used in the source to describe highly processed foods that lack essential nutrients and disrupt metabolic health (e.g., foods high in white flour, sugar, and seed oils).
- Paleo Diet (Ancestral Diet): A dietary approach based on foods believed to have been available to early humans during the Paleolithic era.
- Legumes: Plants in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or their fruits or seeds, such as beans, lentils, and peas.
- Microbiome: The community of microorganisms (such as bacteria, fungi, and viruses) that inhabit a particular environment, especially the gut.
- Aerobic Activity: Physical activity that uses oxygen to fuel the body and is typically low to moderate in intensity and sustained over a longer period.
- High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT): A form of exercise that involves short bursts of intense activity interspersed with periods of rest or lower-intensity activity.
- Chronic Stress: Prolonged or persistent stress that can have negative impacts on physical and mental health.
- Hydrochloric Acid: A strong acid produced in the stomach that aids in digestion.
- Apple Cider Vinegar: A type of vinegar made from fermented apple juice, sometimes used to support digestion.
- Medium-Chain Triglycerides (MCT Oil): A type of fat that is easily digested and absorbed by the body, providing a quick source of energy without significantly raising blood sugar.
- Electrolytes: Minerals in the body that have an electric charge and are important for many bodily functions, including hydration, nerve signaling, and muscle contraction (e.g., sodium, potassium, magnesium).
Briefing Document: “Absolute Easiest Way To Burn Fat”
Source: Excerpts from “01.pdf”
Overview:
This document summarizes the main themes and important ideas presented in the provided excerpts from “01.pdf” regarding fat burning. The central argument revolves around the body’s natural mechanisms for energy storage and utilization, emphasizing the critical role of insulin and the impact of modern dietary and lifestyle habits on these processes. The source advocates for aligning our eating and movement patterns with those of our ancestors to restore metabolic balance and facilitate natural fat burning.
Main Themes and Key Ideas:
- Fat Storage is Primarily Driven by Excess Energy and Insulin, Not Dietary Fat:
- The source refutes the common misconception that eating fat directly leads to body fat. Instead, it asserts that excess energy from any type of food is stored as fat.
- The crucial element for fat storage is the hormone insulin: “The first thing that we need to understand is that you cannot store fat; you cannot make fat without a hormone called insulin. It’s a fat-storing hormone.”
- Type 1 diabetics, who cannot produce insulin, do not gain weight despite high blood sugar, illustrating insulin’s necessity for fat storage.
- Insulin Facilitates Glucose Entry into Cells:
- Insulin acts as a “key” to allow glucose from the bloodstream to enter cells, where it can be used for energy or stored.
- Without sufficient insulin (as in Type 1 diabetes) or in cases of insulin resistance, glucose remains in the bloodstream, leading to energy deprivation at the cellular level.
- Insulin is not inherently “evil” but needs to be in balance for proper metabolic function.
- Modern Lifestyle Disrupts Natural Eating and Movement Patterns:
- Our bodies are designed for periods of eating followed by periods of fasting, allowing for energy storage and subsequent burning.
- Ancestral hunter-gatherer patterns likely involved less frequent eating and more movement to obtain food.
- The modern habit of frequent eating and reduced physical activity disrupts the natural balance of hunger, satiety, and insulin regulation.
- Frequent Eating Leads to Elevated Insulin and Insulin Resistance:
- Every time we eat, blood sugar rises, triggering insulin release. Frequent meals cause frequent and large insulin spikes.
- Chronically elevated insulin levels lead to insulin resistance, where cells become less responsive to insulin’s signals.
- “Whenever something is really high chronically, your cells start resisting it. Your body adapts by creating insulin resistance.”
- High Insulin Blocks Fat Burning:
- Insulin is a fat-storing hormone, and its presence inhibits the body’s ability to access and burn stored fat.
- “High insulin blocks fat burning because insulin is a fat-storing hormone. If there’s no way for us to burn fat while insulin is really high, then in order to burn fat, we must break that insulin cycle.”
- This creates a “vicious cycle” where stored fat remains inaccessible, leading to hunger and further eating.
- Reducing Carbohydrates and Meal Frequency Lowers Insulin and Promotes Fat Burning (Fat Adaptation):
- Carbohydrates elicit the most significant insulin response compared to protein and fat.
- Reducing carbohydrate intake and eating fewer meals are the primary strategies to lower insulin levels.
- “So it’s not about eating fewer calories per se. It’s about eating fewer things that stimulate insulin. So we drop carbs because fat has a very, very slight insulin response.”
- Allowing insulin to drop enables the body to access and burn stored fat, a state known as “fat adaptation.”
- Fat adaptation provides stable energy and reduces hunger.
- The “Triad of Health” for Long-Term Well-being:
- The source emphasizes a holistic approach to health, represented by the “Triad of Health”:
- Eat Better: Consuming whole, nutrient-dense foods that minimize blood sugar and insulin spikes.
- Move Better: Engaging in regular physical activity, including both low-intensity aerobic movement and brief periods of high-intensity activity.
- Think Better: Managing stress through techniques like breathing exercises or meditation.
- Focus on Whole, Unprocessed Foods Similar to Ancestral Diets:
- The dietary recommendation centers on “real food—whole food—the way it came off the planet, with minimal processing.”
- The DNA of modern humans is highly similar to that of early humans (Homo sapiens), suggesting we are best adapted to eating similar types of food.
- Modern processed foods, often high in white flour, sugar, and seed oils, are considered “non-foods” that disrupt metabolic health.
- While a strict “paleo” or “ancestral” diet is a good starting point, the source acknowledges that some individuals may tolerate legumes and certain types of dairy (raw or fermented).
- Importance of Movement and Stress Management:
- Ancestors engaged in significantly more low-intensity movement (steps) and occasional bursts of high-intensity activity.
- Chronic stress can negatively impact digestion and overall health. Stress management techniques are recommended.
- Electrolyte Balance During Insulin Correction:
- As insulin levels drop when transitioning to a lower-carb diet or during fasting, the body may excrete more sodium and electrolytes, potentially leading to temporary symptoms. Supplementation may be beneficial.
Key Quotes:
- “The first thing that we need to understand is that you cannot store fat; you cannot make fat without a hormone called insulin. It’s a fat-storing hormone.”
- “It’s a constant back and forth: you have hunger, you eat something, you store the excess, and then when you go without, you can burn that. It’s a beautiful system…”
- “So, if you have a lot of fat on your body, it is simply because you ate too much.”
- “Insulin is the key that opens up that gateway [for glucose to enter the cell].”
- “As long as we eat food from the planet in its original form and we move to get it, now there’s a natural regulation…”
- “High insulin leads to insulin resistance.”
- “High insulin blocks fat burning because insulin is a fat-storing hormone.”
- “So it’s not about eating fewer calories per se. It’s about eating fewer things that stimulate insulin.”
- “The number one absolute easiest way to burn fat is simply to work with your body—to allow the body to do what it’s supposed to do and to provide the resources that it’s supposed to have.”
- “It is any type of food—whole food—that provides nutrients… But at the same time, it doesn’t cause a bunch of blood sugar swings to upset our metabolic balance.”
- “Virtually all processed foods and packaged foods are going to be based primarily on white flour, sugar, and seed oils.”
Conclusion:
The source argues that the “absolute easiest way to burn fat” is not a quick fix but rather a fundamental shift towards a lifestyle that aligns with our biological design. This involves understanding the critical role of insulin, reducing the consumption of foods that cause high insulin spikes (primarily processed carbohydrates), eating whole, unprocessed foods, engaging in regular movement, and managing stress. By working with the body’s natural mechanisms and mimicking ancestral eating and activity patterns, individuals can restore metabolic balance, access stored fat for energy, and achieve sustainable fat burning and overall health.
Fat Burning and Metabolic Health: An Ancestral Perspective
Frequently Asked Questions About Fat Burning and Metabolic Health
1. Why do we store fat in our bodies? Our bodies store excess energy from the food we eat as fat. This is an efficient survival mechanism that allows us to have a reserve of fuel to burn when food is scarce, a process known as fasting. Fat is the most effective way to store a large amount of energy without adding excessive weight to the body.
2. Is eating dietary fat the primary cause of body fat accumulation? No, body fat accumulation is not primarily caused by eating dietary fat. Fat is a natural fuel for the body. Instead, it is the excess energy from any type of food (carbohydrates, proteins, or fats) that, when not used, gets stored as fat. The overconsumption of calories, regardless of their source, leads to fat storage.
3. What role does insulin play in fat storage? Insulin is a crucial hormone that facilitates the storage of fat. Without insulin, the body cannot effectively store fat. Insulin acts as a “key” that allows glucose (derived from food) to enter cells for energy or storage. When there is excess energy, insulin promotes its storage as fat. Chronically elevated insulin levels can lead to insulin resistance, where cells become less responsive to insulin.
4. Why is it important to consider our ancestors’ eating and movement patterns? Comparing ourselves to our early human ancestors (Homo sapiens) is valuable because our DNA is still over 99.9% identical to theirs. This means we have the same enzymes designed to digest and utilize food. Their natural lifestyle involved eating whole, unprocessed foods from the planet and moving frequently to obtain food. This created a natural balance in their metabolism, unlike modern lifestyles characterized by readily available, often processed foods and less movement.
5. How do modern eating habits differ from those of our ancestors, and what are the consequences? Modern eating patterns often involve frequent meals and snacks throughout the day, including processed foods high in carbohydrates, which leads to frequent and large spikes in blood sugar and insulin. In contrast, our ancestors, as hunter-gatherers, likely ate less frequently and consumed whole, unprocessed foods. The constant insulin spikes in modern diets can lead to chronically elevated insulin levels and eventually insulin resistance, hindering fat burning and contributing to metabolic diseases.
6. What are the two primary ways to reduce insulin levels and promote fat burning? The two main strategies to lower insulin levels are: * Reducing carbohydrate intake: Carbohydrates have the most significant impact on raising blood sugar and, consequently, insulin levels. Lowering carbohydrate consumption minimizes these spikes. Fat has a minimal insulin response, while protein has a moderate response. * Reducing the frequency of meals: Every time we eat, insulin is released. Eating fewer meals throughout the day allows insulin levels to drop for longer periods, enabling the body to access and burn stored fat.
7. What does it mean to be “fat-adapted,” and what are the benefits? Being “fat-adapted” means that the body has become efficient at using fat as its primary fuel source. This occurs when carbohydrate intake is reduced consistently, prompting the body to upregulate the metabolic pathways and enzymes needed to burn fat for energy. The benefits of fat adaptation include more stable energy levels (as fat doesn’t cause the rapid fluctuations of blood sugar seen with carbohydrates), reduced hunger (due to a constant supply of energy from fat stores), and the ability to go longer between meals.
8. What are the key components of a healthy lifestyle that aligns with our body’s natural design for optimal fat burning and metabolic health? A healthy lifestyle, often referred to as the “Triad of Health,” encompasses three main aspects: * Eat better (Nutritional/Chemical): Consume whole, unprocessed foods from the planet that provide essential nutrients without causing large blood sugar swings. This generally involves reducing refined carbohydrates, sugars, and processed foods, and including healthy fats and moderate protein. * Move better (Structural/Mechanical): Engage in regular movement, similar to our ancestors, which includes both low-intensity, continuous movement (like walking) and brief periods of high-intensity activity. * Think better (Emotional/Stress Reduction): Manage chronic stress through techniques like breathing exercises or meditation, as chronic stress can negatively impact metabolism and digestion.
Effortless Fat Burning: Understanding Insulin’s Role
The number one absolute easiest way to burn fat, according to the source, is to work with your body by providing the natural conditions and resources it’s designed to have. This means focusing on becoming metabolically healthy.
The source explains that the body stores excess energy as fat, and this process is heavily influenced by the hormone insulin, which is a fat-storing hormone. You cannot store fat without insulin. High levels of insulin also block fat burning. Therefore, the key to easily burning fat lies in reducing insulin levels.
Here are the main strategies discussed in the source to achieve this:
- Reduce carbohydrate intake: Carbohydrates have the most significant impact on raising blood sugar and consequently, insulin levels. Fat has a very slight insulin response, and protein’s response is in the double digits compared to carbohydrates’ triple digits. By eating fewer carbohydrates, you can lower insulin levels.
- Eat fewer meals: Every time you eat, you cause an insulin spike. By reducing the number of meals, you have fewer insulin spikes and longer periods where insulin levels can drop, allowing your body to use fat for energy. Consuming meals within a shorter window of time also facilitates longer periods of fasting.
- Focus on whole, unprocessed foods: The source emphasizes eating “real food—whole food—the way it came off the planet, with minimal processing”. This aligns with the ancestral diet that our bodies are genetically adapted to. Eating unnatural foods, often based on white flour, sugar, and seed oils, disrupts metabolic health and can lead to overeating.
- Achieve fat adaptation: By consistently lowering carbohydrate intake, your body can shift to using fat as its primary fuel source. This is called fat adaptation. Once you are fat-adapted, you have more stable energy levels and experience less hunger, making it easier to eat less and burn fat.
- Move more: While the “easiest” way is presented as dietary, the source highlights that our ancestors moved constantly throughout the day (aerobic activity) and also engaged in brief periods of high-intensity movement. This is part of a natural, healthy lifestyle.
- Manage stress: Chronic stress can negatively impact the body in various ways. The source suggests incorporating stress management techniques like breathing exercises or meditation.
The source notes that there is no magic bullet or quick fix for burning fat. It’s about making sustainable changes that align with the body’s natural mechanisms. The “Triad of Health” mentioned includes eating better (nutrition), moving better (structural), and thinking better (emotional/stress reduction).
In summary, the easiest way to burn fat, according to the source, involves adopting dietary patterns that minimize insulin release, primarily by reducing carbohydrate intake and the frequency of meals, and by consuming whole, unprocessed foods. This allows the body to access stored fat for energy and return to a natural metabolic balance.
Insulin’s Role in Fat Storage and Burning
Insulin plays a critical role in how your body stores and burns fat. The source explicitly states that you cannot store fat and you cannot make fat without the hormone insulin. It is identified as a fat-storing hormone.
Here’s a breakdown of insulin’s involvement with fat:
- Fat Storage: When you eat, especially carbohydrates, your blood sugar levels rise. This triggers the release of insulin, which acts as a “key” to allow glucose (from digested carbohydrates) to enter your cells for energy. If there is excess energy that your body doesn’t immediately need, insulin facilitates the storage of this excess energy. The source mentions that while excess energy from any type of food can be stored, carbohydrates have the most significant impact on raising blood sugar and, consequently, insulin levels. Fat has a very slight insulin response, and protein’s response is in the double digits compared to carbohydrates’ triple digits.
- Blocking Fat Burning: The source emphasizes that high insulin blocks fat burning. When insulin levels are elevated, your body is in a state of energy storage and is not readily accessing stored fat for fuel. In fact, high levels of insulin “lock in the fat” and prevent its release. This is why the source argues that to burn fat, you must break the insulin cycle.
- Insulin Resistance: Chronically high levels of insulin, often due to frequent consumption of foods that cause large blood sugar spikes (like high-carbohydrate and processed foods), can lead to insulin resistance. In this state, your cells become less responsive to insulin, and the body produces even more insulin to try to get glucose into the cells. Despite high insulin levels, the glucose may not effectively enter the cells, leading to both elevated blood sugar and a continued blockage of fat burning. Furthermore, insulin resistance increases the tendency to store fat and significantly reduces the body’s ability to burn it.
- The Cycle of Hunger: High insulin levels and insulin resistance can create a vicious cycle. Because insulin blocks access to stored fat, even if you have ample fat reserves, your body can’t readily use it for energy. This leads to feelings of hunger and cravings, prompting you to eat more, often further elevating insulin levels.
- Reducing Insulin to Burn Fat: The source suggests that the key to easily burning fat is to reduce insulin levels. This can be achieved primarily by:
- Reducing carbohydrate intake: Since carbohydrates have the most significant insulin response, lowering their consumption can lead to lower overall insulin levels.
- Eating fewer meals: Every time you eat, insulin is released. Reducing the frequency of meals allows for longer periods where insulin levels can drop, enabling fat burning. Consuming meals within a shorter window also facilitates this.
- Focusing on whole, unprocessed foods: These foods tend to have a more moderate impact on blood sugar and insulin compared to processed foods high in refined carbohydrates and sugar.
- Fat Adaptation: By consistently keeping carbohydrate intake low, the body can become “fat-adapted,” meaning it becomes more efficient at using fat as its primary fuel source. Lower insulin levels allow the metabolic pathways for fat utilization to become more active. Once fat-adapted, the body can access stored fat more readily, leading to more stable energy levels and reduced hunger.
In essence, the source presents insulin as the central regulator of fat storage and burning. High insulin promotes fat storage and actively inhibits fat burning, while lower, more balanced insulin levels allow the body to access its fat reserves for energy. The easiest way to burn fat, according to the source, is to adopt a lifestyle, particularly a dietary pattern, that naturally keeps insulin levels in a healthy range.
Ancestral Eating: Whole Foods and Infrequent Meals
Based on the source, natural eating patterns are closely tied to the lifestyle of our early human ancestors, Homo sapiens, whose DNA is still over 99.9% identical to ours. The source emphasizes that our digestive systems and metabolic processes are adapted to the way they ate.
Here’s a discussion of natural eating patterns as described in the source:
- Infrequent Meals: The source suggests that our hunter-gatherer ancestors likely did not eat very often. While the exact frequency is uncertain (maybe once a day, or grazing followed by a large meal after a successful hunt), it’s fairly certain they did not have breakfast upon waking and did not snack throughout the day. Their calories likely came primarily from hunting. This resulted in their blood sugar staying in a very narrow and healthy range, probably between 65 and 120. Consequently, they were likely very metabolically healthy with very few and slight insulin swings.
- Contrast with Modern Eating: The source contrasts this with the modern, “unnatural pattern” of eating frequent meals and snacks throughout the day, starting with breakfast shortly after waking up and often including mid-morning, afternoon, and evening snacks. This pattern leads to large and frequent blood sugar spikes, resulting in equally large and frequent insulin spikes. Over time, this can lead to chronically elevated insulin levels and insulin resistance, where the baseline insulin level never drops sufficiently. High insulin blocks fat burning because it is a fat-storing hormone.
- Whole, Unprocessed Foods: The source highlights that our ancestors ate food from the planet in its original form, with minimal processing. This aligns with what the source later refers to as “real food—whole food—the way it came off the planet, with minimal processing”. Their diet consisted of things they could hunt (meat, fish, poultry, wild game), gather (leafy greens, non-starchy vegetables, tubers, nuts, and seeds), and cook with natural fats like butter and olive oil. 100% of their diet came from this group because processed foods did not exist.
- Avoidance of Modern “Non-Foods”: The source strongly criticizes modern unnatural foods or non-foods, which it identifies as primarily based on white flour, sugar, and seed oils. These processed and packaged foods contain nothing the body needs and disrupt metabolic health and equilibrium, leading to overeating. The source states that today, as much as 60 to 70% of our calories can come from this category.
- Dysregulation of Natural Systems: By moving away from the natural timing and types of food consumed by our ancestors, we bypass the body’s beautiful and sensitive system that naturally regulates hunger and satiety. This leads to dysregulation, where we can’t tell when we’re hungry, eat for the wrong reasons, eat too much, and lose those natural boundaries that helped our ancestors survive.
In summary, the natural eating pattern, according to the source, involves eating less frequently and consuming whole, unprocessed foods similar to what our ancestors ate. This promotes stable blood sugar levels and low, balanced insulin, allowing the body to effectively burn fat and maintain metabolic health. The modern deviation from this pattern, characterized by frequent meals of processed foods high in carbohydrates, leads to insulin dysregulation and hinders fat burning.
Ancestral Diet vs. Modern Eating: A Metabolic Comparison
Based on the source “01.pdf”, let’s discuss a comparison between the ancestral diet and modern eating patterns. The source emphasizes that our physiology is still very similar to that of our early human ancestors, Homo sapiens, whose DNA is over 99.9% identical to ours. Therefore, comparing our modern diets to theirs can provide insights into what might be more aligned with our natural metabolic functions.
Here’s a comparison of key aspects:
- Frequency of Eating:
- Ancestral Diet: Our hunter-gatherer ancestors likely ate infrequently. The majority of their calories probably came from hunting, meaning they might have had one or two meals a day, or perhaps grazed with a larger meal after a successful hunt. They most likely did not have breakfast upon waking or snack throughout the day. This likely resulted in stable blood sugar levels within a narrow range and very few and slight insulin swings.
- Modern Diet: In contrast, modern eating patterns often involve frequent meals and snacks throughout the day, starting with breakfast soon after waking up and often including mid-morning, afternoon, and evening snacks. This “unnatural pattern” leads to large and frequent blood sugar spikes, resulting in similarly large and frequent insulin spikes. Chronically elevated insulin levels can eventually lead to insulin resistance.
- Type of Food:
- Ancestral Diet: Our ancestors consumed whole, unprocessed foods that they could hunt (meat, fish, poultry, wild game) and gather (leafy greens, non-starchy vegetables, tubers, nuts, and seeds). Their diet consisted of food “from the planet in its original form”. 100% of their diet came from these natural sources because processed foods did not exist.
- Modern Diet: A significant portion of modern diets consists of unnatural foods or non-foods, primarily based on white flour, sugar, and seed oils found in processed and packaged items. The source suggests that as much as 60 to 70% of our calories can come from this category, which lacks essential nutrients and disrupts metabolic health.
- Macronutrient Composition:
- Ancestral Diet: While the exact macronutrient ratios are debated, the source suggests that our ancestors likely did not get 65% of their calories from carbohydrates, which is common in many modern diets that include a lot of grains and processed foods. They were likely in a state of ketosis for long periods, especially during winter when plant foods were scarce. A low-carb, high-fat diet might be closer to their typical intake for significant parts of the year.
- Modern Diet: Many standard Western diets are high in carbohydrates, often from refined sources, which significantly impacts blood sugar and insulin levels.
- Impact on Insulin:
- Ancestral Diet: The infrequent consumption of whole, unprocessed foods likely led to stable and low baseline insulin levels with only slight fluctuations. This allowed their bodies to efficiently store and burn fat.
- Modern Diet: Frequent consumption of high-carbohydrate and processed foods leads to chronically elevated insulin levels and insulin resistance, where the body’s cells become less responsive to insulin. High insulin blocks fat burning.
- Metabolic Health:
- Ancestral Diet: The source infers that our ancestors were likely very metabolically healthy due to their natural eating and movement patterns. Their bodies had a balanced system for storing and burning fat.
- Modern Diet: The shift towards frequent meals of processed foods has led to widespread metabolic dysregulation, including insulin resistance, weight gain, and other health issues. The natural regulation of hunger and satiety is bypassed.
In essence, the source argues that our bodies are still adapted to the eating patterns of our ancestors, which involved less frequent consumption of whole, unprocessed foods. The modern deviation from this, with frequent meals high in refined carbohydrates and processed ingredients, disrupts our natural metabolic balance, particularly concerning insulin regulation and fat burning. The “number one absolute easiest way to burn fat” according to the source is to align our lifestyle, especially our diet, with these natural, ancestral patterns to promote metabolic health and healthy insulin levels.
The Necessity of Movement: An Ancestral Perspective
The importance of movement is discussed in the sources, highlighting its role in our ancestral past and contrasting it with modern lifestyles. According to the source, our ancestors, Homo sapiens, had a lifestyle where they had to move to get food. This movement was integral to their survival, and our bodies are designed for it.
The source points out that animals move so that they can go and find food, and if you don’t have roots like plants to extract energy, nutrients, and water, then you need to be moving. Unfortunately, modern society allows us to obtain food without significant physical exertion, which is identified as a problem.
The source contrasts the constant movement of our ancestors, who likely took around 30,000 steps a day, with our often sedentary modern lives where many people take far fewer steps. This ancestral movement was primarily aerobic activity, characterized by low intensity where the body primarily burns fat.
Furthermore, the source mentions that our ancestors also engaged in brief periods of high-intensity interval training naturally, such as sprinting while hunting or evading danger. This type of short-term, high stress followed by relaxation is considered healthy for the body, helping it stay sharp and adapt, in contrast to chronic stress.
The source also notes a connection between activity levels and hunger. When people are active and focused, they tend to feel less hungry compared to when they are sedentary, which can lead to boredom-induced cravings and snacking.
In the context of fat burning, while the source primarily emphasizes diet and insulin regulation as the “number one absolute easiest way to burn fat”, it also implicitly connects movement to overall metabolic health. The ancestral lifestyle of eating whole foods and moving to obtain them led to a “natural regulation” and a “beautiful system” for maintaining metabolic balance.
In summary, the source underscores the importance of movement by:
- Highlighting that movement was a fundamental aspect of our ancestors’ lives, directly linked to obtaining food and survival.
- Contrasting the high activity levels of our ancestors with the often sedentary nature of modern life.
- Identifying the benefit of both low-intensity, sustained movement (aerobic) and brief bursts of high-intensity activity in our natural movement patterns.
- Suggesting that staying active can help regulate hunger and reduce cravings.
- Implying that movement, alongside diet, contributes to the natural regulation and metabolic health that characterized our ancestors.
The source encourages incorporating more movement into our lives, even suggesting aiming for a higher step count and acknowledging the benefits of activities beyond just structured exercise. It positions movement as a crucial component of aligning with our body’s natural design and promoting overall health.
#1 Absolute Easiest Way To Burn Fat
The Original Text
Hello, Health Champions. Today we’re going to talk about the number one absolute easiest way to burn fat. If we want to understand how to burn fat, we need to understand how the body ends up with fat in the first place. The reason is not that you eat too much fat because fat is just a form of fuel—it’s a natural fuel for the body. But so often you hear that you get fat because you eat too many calories and that fat has the most calories, and that’s why you get fat when you eat fat. That is not how it works. It is the excess energy from any type of food, and here’s how that works. When your body needs some resources, then you get something called hunger. Then you can store the excess energy from that. So, if you eat something terribly unhealthy like a 1,000-calorie milkshake, that milkshake is going to be absorbed and work its way through your bloodstream, into the cells, and into storage within two to three hours. If it’s 1,000 calories, but during those two to three hours you only use up 200 or 300 calories, then you’re going to have to store about 700 to 800 calories. That’s what you do with the storage. So then you would have some extra. Again, milkshake is not your best example. I used that kind of as an extreme just to illustrate something, but it’s very practical to store excess energy because then, when you don’t have food and you go without, that’s called fasting. Now you can burn that extra energy. It’s a constant back and forth: you have hunger, you eat something, you store the excess, and then when you go without, you can burn that. It’s a beautiful system, and it’s worked for as long as any living thing has existed on the planet. The reason we store it as fat is that fat is the most effective way to store excess energy. It’s where we can store the most energy without weighing hundreds and hundreds or even thousands of pounds and still have enough energy to last us for weeks or even months if we were to go without food. So, if you have a lot of fat on your body, it is simply because you ate too much. And don’t get me wrong, there’s no judgment here. I’m not trying to say that you’re a glutton or that you have no willpower. There are many, many reasons why you would store extra fat and why you would eat too much, and we’re going to go over a lot of those. The reason I’m bringing this up is that we need to understand why you did that—what sort of circumstances created that behavior. The first thing that we need to understand is that you cannot store fat; you cannot make fat without a hormone called insulin. It’s a fat-storing hormone. If you couldn’t make it, you can’t get fat. That’s what happens with Type 1 diabetics—they can’t make insulin. Therefore, even though their blood sugar is through the roof, they do not gain weight and they actually starve to death in some cases. So we need to understand the difference between having energy in the bloodstream and having energy in the cell. After you eat something, you absorb food and glucose into the bloodstream. This is the bloodstream here, but over here is the cell. The cell is where all your metabolic activity takes place—or the vast majority. That’s where your body manufactures things, that’s where you make energy, and so forth. You make tissues and proteins, and they are going to become body parts. This glucose needs to get into that cell, but it can’t do that without insulin. Insulin is the key that opens up that gateway. Like I said, with Type 1 diabetics, they don’t have that insulin unless we can inject it. Before we had insulin to inject, a lot of Type 1 diabetics—or basically all of them—would die. They could make it for a while with certain diets, but they could not survive in the long run without that insulin. They just need to get the energy from the bloodstream into the cell. If you are a diabetic, if you are insulin resistant, or if you watch some of my videos, you’ve heard a lot about insulin. It’s easy to start thinking that insulin is some evil, some bad substance that we need to fight, but it’s not. Insulin is not evil; it’s not bad. It’s absolutely necessary for life. We just need to get it in the right balance, and it would never become a problem as long as we live in balance with nature. As long as we do what all the other animals on the planet do—which is they eat food from the planet in its original form—they eat it the way they find it. The second thing is that they move to get the food. They move a lot; they move all day long. That’s the purpose of movement. That’s why animals can move: so that they can go and find food. There are living things that don’t move—they’re called plants—and they have roots that they can use to extract energy, nutrients, and water from the soil. But if you don’t have roots, then you need to be moving. Unfortunately, we have a lifestyle today where we can get food without moving, and that’s a problem. So then we need to understand how that affects us and what we can do instead. So, as long as we eat food from the planet in its original form and we move to get it, now there’s a natural regulation—the balance between eating and fasting, the balance between hunger and satiety. There’s a beautiful system in the body that is so sensitive and tells us exactly how much we need to eat and when we’re done. But when we start breaking those rules, when we move outside of that natural lifestyle and we start eating unnatural foods, now we bypass this beautiful system. We bypass that regulation, and we change those set points, and we get what’s called dysregulation. This is where we can’t tell when we’re hungry, we eat for the wrong reasons, we eat too much, and we don’t have those natural boundaries. Normally, that balance helps us survive. This whole system is there for survival, but when we bypass it, now we create something that’s counterproductive, that acts opposite to that survival, and we could call that counter-survival. So when we talk about natural and unnatural regulation and natural foods, then what is that compared to? We need to have a reference, and my reference is the early humans—our ancestors. So, I went to the encyclopedia to figure out what that means, and it’s Homo sapiens. That’s modern humans. Homo sapiens, the species that includes all modern humans, evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago. The reason we compare ourselves to them is that their DNA is 99.9% or more identical to our DNA, and that’s the DNA that codes for all the enzymes that are going to help break down the food. So when you put food in your body, you can’t digest that without enzymes. You can’t use that food without enzymes. And if you have the same DNA, then you have the same enzymes, and you’re supposed to eat the same type of food that they ate. Those are the systems that developed for millions of years prior to Homo sapiens and that have stayed the same for about 300,000 years. So, what does that mean in terms of tolerating modern food? Well, any food introduced in the last 300,000 years that they did not have is basically an experiment. We don’t know. It’s possible that we could tolerate it, that it could even be good for us, but it’s not very likely because these changes occur so slowly. And 300,000 years is thousands of generations, and most of this modern food has been introduced in the last two or three generations. So when we start living differently than what our DNA is asking for, what our DNA is designed for and accustomed to, that’s when we get this dysregulation, this lack of balance. There are two main causes for that. The first one is the timing of food—are we eating more frequently or less often than our ancestors?—and the second is the type of food. So let’s talk about the first one. The natural patterns for how often we should eat is that our ancestors were hunter-gatherers, and they could go around, and they could pick some things. They could pick some berries, some nuts, and whatever edible plants they could find. But for the most part, the vast majority of their calories probably came from hunting. That means they did not eat very often. And here, as an example, I’ve just put in two meals a day and what might happen to their blood sugar. But maybe they just ate once a day, or maybe they grazed a little bit, and then every other day they had a huge meal when they slaughtered a woolly mammoth or something. We don’t know for sure, but one thing is fairly certain: they did not wake up to breakfast, and they did not have snacks throughout the day. They were probably very metabolically healthy, which means that their blood sugar stayed in a very narrow range, probably somewhere between 80 and 120, possibly even a good bit lower—like maybe 65 to 100 or 110 or something. But they didn’t have these huge spikes of blood sugar that we have today. If we compare that with what we do today, I’m going to call that an unnatural pattern. That’s when, if we look at the starting point as midnight, we sleep for several hours, but then as soon as we get up, we have breakfast, whether that’s at 6:00 or 8:00. For a lot of people, for most people probably, it doesn’t pass very many hours. So maybe a couple of hours later, we have a mid-morning snack before lunch, and then an afternoon snack before dinner, and then an evening snack. So we eat throughout the day, and we’re told to eat throughout the day because we believe that blood sugar is what gives us energy and that carbohydrate gives us energy, which is a fallacy. Your body is made to store energy and then to slowly retrieve that energy from a few meals. When we do that, then we have something called insulin, like I said. So every time that you eat something and your blood sugar goes up, we’re going to release a little bit of insulin to bring that foodstuff—the glucose—from the bloodstream into the cell. But if we have very slow and very few blood sugar swings, then we’re going to have very few and very slight insulin swings as well. They’re going to be triggered by the food, so they’re going to be just a little bit behind the glucose curve. Then, in between the meals, assuming that we had two meals in a day, it’s going to go down, but it’s not going to go all the way down to the baseline because insulin takes a while to get back. But overall, by eating whole foods and fewer meals, they never leave that average baseline. They have slight fluctuations, but they still stay metabolically healthy at a very low and balanced amount of insulin. But now, if we look at the modern way of eating, where we have large blood sugar spikes many, many times a day, then the corresponding insulin spikes are going to be very large and very frequent also. The biggest problem here is that, over time, if we have our insulin spikes so frequent, then insulin is never really allowed to drop. So for most of the day, we have an elevated level of insulin. What’s going to happen now is that, over time, insulin baselines are going to go up. This is what creates insulin resistance. So, instead of having a level of maybe three, now, over time—5, 10, 15 years later—our baseline never goes below maybe 15. This is where we start getting metabolic disease and insulin resistance. Here’s why this is so critically important to understand: because high insulin leads to insulin resistance. Whenever something is really high chronically, your cells start resisting it. Your body adapts by creating insulin resistance. One thing that happens now is you get hungry—and we’ll talk a little bit more about that. Also, high insulin blocks fat burning because insulin is a fat-storing hormone. If there’s no way for us to burn fat while insulin is really high, then in order to burn fat, we must break that insulin cycle. Here’s what’s happened with this dysregulation: if we are insulin sensitive, if we’re metabolically healthy, now we can store fat—we can store excess energy. That happens at a certain amount; there’s a certain momentum to do that. Then there’s an equal momentum in the other direction for how much our bodies have a tendency to burn this fat again. So, it’s like a revolving door—that’s the way it’s supposed to happen. We eat, we store some, and then we burn it, and we’re back to square one. But if we drive insulin up over time and we become insulin resistant, now this tendency to store is many, many times higher, and our tendency to burn is almost non-existent. Because, remember, we cannot burn fat when insulin levels are high. High levels of insulin lock in the fat. It pushes this equation—this equilibrium—in one direction only. So, it’s not about eating fewer calories per se. It’s about eating fewer things that stimulate insulin. So we drop carbs because fat has a very, very slight insulin response. If you can see that tiny, tiny area—you might have to zoom in. Because if we compare by numbers, then fat—the insulin response of fat—is in single digits. With protein, it’s in double digits, and with carbohydrates, it’s in triple digits. So if carbohydrates are 100, protein is about 10, 15, 20. Fat is single digits, like two or three or four. The second way to reduce insulin is to eat fewer meals—reduce the number of meals. Because every time you eat, you spike insulin. So if you eat fewer meals, then there’s fewer spikes. And if you eat your meals in a shorter period of time—if you only eat one meal a day—then there’s 24 hours to the next one. If you eat two meals and you put them in a six- to eight-hour period, now there are longer periods of no food. That means during that time, we allow insulin to drop. That simply means that your body knows how to use fat for energy, for fuel. So there’s basically two types of fuel. Your body can use protein, but there are so many mechanisms in place to prevent that from happening. So, as long as there’s carbs and fat available, your body is going to burn that for fuel. Your body is very, very adaptive. So, simply put, if you reduce one—like carbs—then your body will tend to increase the dependence on others. You’re more likely to burn fat if you reduce carbs. But there’s a couple of points here because it doesn’t work exactly the same way the other way. For example, if you ate 50% of your calories from carbs and 50% of your calories from fat, would that mean that you were balanced? That you were 50/50 on carb versus fat adaptation? That your body was equally likely to use both types of fuel? And the answer is absolutely not. The reason is that carbs raise blood sugar. Carbohydrates become blood glucose, and therefore, they must be processed first. Your body is not in a hurry to get rid of the fat. If you eat 50/50 and you have half the calories in the bloodstream as fat and half as glucose, your body is in no hurry to get rid of the fat. But it has to get rid of the glucose very, very quickly because it’s so important to keep that glucose in a very narrow range. High glucose and very low glucose are extremely dangerous. The second reason is that the carbohydrates you eat not only have to be processed first, but they also stimulate insulin. And insulin blocks fat burning. Insulin is a fat-storing hormone. So, because carbs increase insulin, now carbs are also going to block the usage of fat. And here’s another key that most people don’t realize: because high insulin levels block fat burning, that means you can’t retrieve those calories—that energy—from fat as readily. This is going to make you very hungry because if you store all that fat but your body can’t get to it, now you have to eat more. So the solution, therefore, would be to reduce the amount of carbohydrate, which will reduce the amount of insulin. This is how you break that vicious cycle. With less insulin, now you can access the fat, and you can start returning to balance. This is what’s called fat adaptation, and it simply means that if you don’t eat so many carbs all the time that have to be processed first, now your body returns, the metabolic pathways upregulate, and the enzymes and pathways to use the fat kick in. That lower insulin allows you to access the fat. So fat-adapted simply means that your body knows how to use fat for fuel again. The reason this works so well is that once you’re fat-adapted, and you can use fat, and you keep the carbohydrates low enough for this to happen, now you have long-lasting fuel. Carbohydrates bounce up and down every couple of hours; fat doesn’t do that. And if you have a reserve of fat on the body, now you can eat some of your food off the plate, and you can eat the rest of the food, in terms of energy, from the body. Because it doesn’t fluctuate all the time, it gives you stable energy, and you therefore have less hunger. If your energy is stable, you don’t need to run and look for food to stimulate your blood sugar and raise your blood sugar all the time. As a result, obviously, now you can go longer between meals, and this helps you eat less and burn fat. It helps you eat less because now you have a resource on your body that can provide energy. So the number one absolute easiest way to burn fat is simply to work with your body—to allow the body to do what it’s supposed to do and to provide the resources that it’s supposed to have. That simply means to get healthy, and that’s the beauty of this. It’s not a short-term fix, it’s not a magic pill, and it’s not something that’s going to rebound three weeks later when you get tired of it. It means that you get healthy by providing the natural conditions, circumstances, and resources that your body is designed to have by natural law. I often call that the Triad of Health, and we illustrate that with a triangle. It simply means eat better, which is the chemical aspect—the nutritional aspect. It means move better, which is the structural or mechanical aspect, meaning we need movement. And then it means think better—that’s the emotional or the stress reduction aspect of it. So then, what is the best diet to accomplish all of this? It’s not a single diet, it’s not a label, it’s not a program. It is any type of food—whole food—that provides nutrients, that gives us the resources we need: the building blocks and the energy, the essential amino acids, the essential fatty acids, the vitamins, and the minerals. But at the same time, it doesn’t cause a bunch of blood sugar swings to upset our metabolic balance. It’s something that satisfies you, something that gets you full with less amount of food than you have been eating if you want to lose weight, and something that normalizes the regulation that we talked about and therefore prevents overeating. I mentioned this a number of times, and obviously, we’re talking about real food—whole food—the way it came off the planet, with minimal processing. Now, if we compare to our ancestors, should it be ketogenic? Should it be so low that our body generates ketones? Well, not necessarily. But for sure, our ancestors were in a state of ketosis for long periods during the year. During the winter, they probably didn’t have many plant foods unless they lived on the equator. So humans, for sure, have been keto-adapted for a large part of our existence. But it doesn’t mean that you have to be ketogenic all the time. Some of the time would be okay. A little less strict than a ketogenic diet would be a low-carb, high-fat diet. This is typically where you eat probably less than 50, maybe less than 30 grams of net carbohydrates per day. You eat moderate protein, and the rest of it is fat. This works for most people because this creates a lot of satiety, especially for people who have become insulin resistant and already sort of moved out of that balanced state. But it’s not a one-size-fits-all because we respond differently to different things. We get satiated and full from different things. So don’t feel like you have to just try one thing and that’s it, because some people respond better to a moderate amount of carbs. They might eat 70, 80, up to 100 grams of carbs, and that might work better for them. But the majority, I believe—from what I get reported back, testimonials, etc.—low-carb, high-fat seems to work the best for most. But if that doesn’t seem to work for you, try different things. One thing we know for sure that our ancestors did not have is they did not get 65% of their calories from carbohydrates. That means you eat 250, 300, 400 grams of carbohydrates, and that means you have to eat typically a lot of grain and a lot of processed foods. Our ancestors had none of that. Now, I know some of you are thinking that you thought this video was the number one absolute easiest way, and you thought that you were going to get something super easy, and you’re thinking, “This doesn’t sound all that easy. That seems like a lot of work for a long time. I have to change a lot of things.” Well, that’s just the thing. Whatever you’ve been doing, if it’s not working, you have to change it. There is no magic bullet; there is no quick fix. Because there is something called natural law. It’s like gravity—it’s there whether you want it or not. Our bodies respond to natural law. There are principles and mechanisms built in that have been ingrained for hundreds of thousands of years. And if we start breaking those rules, then there are consequences. But it’s not as complicated as people think. It’s just step by step, learning to eat the foods that work and doing simple things in your lifestyle that align more with what your body wants. And it does not mean that you have to eat sawdust and boring things. You can have meat, fish, poultry, wild game, etc. You can have leafy greens. You can have non-starchy vegetables. You can have tubers, and you can have a lot of these. You can have nuts and seeds, and you can cook these things with butter and olive oil. You do not have to be afraid of fat either. What you need to start moving away from, though, are the unnatural foods—or non-foods, as I like to call them—because they’re not food. We talk about them as food; we call it fast food, but it isn’t food. It’s destroyed garbage, with white flour, sugar, and seed oils in it. They have nothing that your body needs, but they upset your metabolic health. They upset your equilibrium and cause overeating. Virtually all processed foods and packaged foods are going to be based primarily on white flour, sugar, and seed oils. So now, if we compare to our ancestors, what our DNA is designed for, 100% of what they ate came from this group because there was nothing else. They didn’t even have the option. So that’s how I like to think about it a lot of times: that this stuff doesn’t exist to me because our ancestors didn’t have it. They couldn’t miss it. They couldn’t have a longing for something that never existed. But today, as much as 60 to 70% of our calories come from this category that has nothing that the body needs. And then there’s a couple of things in a category I call questionable. What I’ve described up here is basically a paleo diet, a caveman diet, the ancestral diet, and I think that’s a great starting point. But I’m not a stickler. I don’t think that you have to be a purist and that there is no possibility of any other food being okay for us. So, legumes and dairy are a couple of things that some people need to stay away from, but for others, it could be okay. Legumes are things like peas, black beans, and other forms of beans as well. Our ancestors didn’t have them, but there are cultures who have done extremely well with them for hundreds of years. In terms of microbiome health and different types of fiber, there are beans that provide a tremendous benefit as long as you can tolerate them. If you don’t have the biome to tolerate them, then you need to make very slow changes. So, I think beans can be okay. Now, remember though, that they’re not extremely high or very low carb—they’re kind of in between. So if you need to keep your carbs very, very low, then you want to keep beans to a minimum also. And then the other thing is dairy because that’s only been around for about 10,000 years, and our ancestors didn’t have it. But we have done well with it for thousands of years in some areas of the world. Scandinavians, for example, tend to do relatively well, whereas Asians tend to do quite poorly. But there’s a difference also between different types of dairy. So if you eat it, I would strongly recommend that you eat it either raw or fermented. The problem for most people comes from the pasteurized and low-fat versions. The skim milk that has been pasteurized creates the biggest amount of problems. But if you eat yogurt or kefir, or if you eat raw milk, then those are generally very well tolerated. I want to compare a couple more things to our ancestors. One thing, of course, is that they moved a lot. They moved constantly throughout the day. They took a lot of steps, which was aerobic activity, meaning very low intensity. You’re not huffing and puffing, and you are burning primarily fat with that aerobic activity. A lot of people ask how many steps should you take. There’s a lot of step counters that people have on their phones and on their watches, and some people aim for 10,000—that’s a number we hear a lot. I think that’s a great number if you can get to it. It’s a whole lot better than 500 steps. But our ancestors and most animals that move to get their food probably get in the neighborhood of 30,000 steps a day. Now, it doesn’t mean that you have to do that, but just realize our ancestors moved a lot. And then they also performed something called very brief periods of high-intensity interval training. Of course, they didn’t call it that—that’s a modern concept. But if you’re a hunter, then there’s going to be brief periods where you do an intense burst of movement, like a sprint running after something, or maybe running away from something. So that’s part of our normal movement pattern. But we also need to understand that high intensity is very stressful, but it’s a very short-term stress that is a good contrast for the body. When we experience high stress and then we get to relax after, that’s very healthy because it helps the body stay sharp, and it helps the body adapt. In contrast, we have what’s called chronic stress. We don’t have these high ups and downs; we have a little bit of stress all the time. That does several things to the body. For one thing, it tends to break us down in so many ways. It raises blood sugar, it breaks down immunity, it breaks down tissues. But one more thing that it does is it reduces the amount of hydrochloric acid, so our digestive systems don’t work as well when we have chronic stress. So, one thing that you can try to compensate is called apple cider vinegar. It’s a very, very nice tool; it’s incredibly inexpensive. You take a tablespoon or two every day. You could take it in the morning, you can take it before a meal, and that’s going to help replace that acidity in your stomach that is reduced by that chronic stress. Another thing that you might want to try is some kind of stress management, like breathing exercises or meditation—whatever you want to call it. It’s just a way of getting away from that chronic stress, of breaking that pattern where your thoughts won’t stop, and you always feel like you’re under pressure. Another thing you have probably noticed is that as long as you stay active, as long as you do something—if you’re out hiking or if you’re super busy with something that you’re focused on—then you tend to not be so hungry. But if you’re just kind of going through the motions and you’re sitting at your desk, or you’re sitting around, then you tend to develop cravings. You tend to want to eat something just to have something to do. And once we get used to it, humans have a tendency to always want to sip on something or bite on something or snack on something. So, a lot of that is just a habit from being bored. The more active you can stay, the better. But if you can’t do that and you feel this need to eat, now you can do things like coffee and tea because that still gives you something to sip on, but it’s not going to change your metabolism. It’s not going to change your insulin or your blood sugar. And if you feel like you really need something, you can try about a teaspoon of MCT oil—medium-chain triglycerides—because they’re a source of fast energy, but they don’t raise blood sugar. It’s a short-chain fat that gets absorbed and metabolized differently, so it can give you that little energy burst without really messing with anything. And one more thing to understand is about electrolytes and insulin resistance. Your ancestors were never insulin resistant; it wasn’t possible with their lifestyle. But if you have been insulin resistant and you start correcting it, now your insulin levels are going to drop. When insulin was too high, then you tended to reabsorb too much sodium and electrolytes, and that’s where we get the high blood pressure with insulin resistance. But once you start correcting it and insulin drops, now you’re going to lose some electrolytes that were sort of artificially maintained in the body. So for a period of time, you’re going to be losing electrolytes. In the long run, it’s a good thing because your blood pressure is going to go down. But before the body has a chance to find that balance again, you might be missing some electrolytes, and you might have some symptoms like lightheadedness, nausea, fatigue, or brain fog. So during the time that you’re fixing this problem, you probably want to supplement with some electrolytes. Especially if you do a longer fast, like over 24 hours, now you want to double up on those electrolytes because you’re not getting any through the food, and your insulin is dropping even faster because you’re fasting. I created a product called euLyte. It’s an electrolyte powder specifically for that purpose, to help support fasting. But it’s a good product for everyday usage as well. I’ll put a link down below if you want to check it out. If you enjoyed this video, you’re going to love that one. And if you truly want to master health by understanding how the body really works, make sure you subscribe, hit that bell, and turn on all the notifications so you never miss a life-saving video.
By Amjad Izhar
Contact: amjad.izhar@gmail.com
https://amjadizhar.blog
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