A day in the life of Devin- "Breakfast"

I decided to write a series of posts where I walk through a typical day of mine and discuss what I do and the reasons I do them. This is a good way to bring up different health topics and maybe share a few recipes along the way. I am in no way saying I do things perfectly and I'll bring up ways I want to improve as I come across them and would be open to any suggestions people have.

The first thing I do when I wake up is make a cup of bulletproof coffee, a mixture of coffee and fats created by a guy named Dave Asprey. The way to make bulletproof coffee is to blend grass fed butter and coconut and/or MCT oil into your coffee in the morning. The recipe I normally follow is:

-2 cups of brewed coffee (I use an aeropress since it's easy and I'm usually only making one cup for myself so it's better than brewing a whole pot)

-2 tablespoons grass-fed butter

-1 Tablespoon coconut oil

-1 Tablespoon MCT oil

All you have to do is combine the ingredients in a blender and blend for 10-15 seconds. When you're done you should have something similar to a latte and look something like this:

If you don't blend and try to stir instead it won't mix well and will be kind of gross to drink. Also blending forms something called fat micelles which make the fats much easier for your body to absorb. Therefore, the blending is not only important for drinkability but also bioavailability of the healthy fats. When consuming these fats it's important to start slowly. I've been doing this for several months now so I'm used to it, but it's important to slowly work your way up and give your body a chance to get used to digesting so much fat at once.

Lets break down the benefits of each ingredient.

Many know that coffee has health benefits, one of which being high levels of antioxidant polyphenols. Combining coffee with cream is a more common addition of coffee than butter but studies have shown that the protein in milk can bind to the polyphenols in coffee and make them less bioavailable. Butter has very little of these proteins left, so the polyphenols are more absorbable. As a general rule, fat helps you absorb nutrients better, especially the fat soluble vitamins.

Grass fed butter has benefits above regular butter including higher amounts nutrients like the fat soluble vitamins A,D,E and K2 and higher amounts of butyric acid. Butyric acid has been shown to be beneficial in strengthening the immune system and can even heal the lining of the intestines. Grass fed butter has a deeper yellow color due to the greater nutrient density and tastes way better especially when blended into coffee. Just make sure you get the unsalted kind because salt doesn't taste very good in coffee.

Coconut oil has gained popularity as of late, and the reason I like to include it in my coffee is for the high amounts of lauric acid it contains. Lauric acid has been shown to be a strong antimicrobial which can be helpful by getting rid of unwanted bacterial and fungal overgrowth in the body. It is also effective topically which is why some people use it on their skin, in their hair or even as a replacement for deodorant.

MCTs, or medium chain triglycerides, are saturated fatty acids containing 6,8 or 10 carbons in a hydrocarbon chain. Normally fats need to be packaged and processed through lipoproteins like LDL and HDL, but MCTs do not need to go through this process. Therefore, MCTs are absorbed much quicker than longer chain fatty acids and can be used immediately for energy. This can be beneficial to athletes, especially those competing in long distance activities like a marathon who can benefit from staying in a fat burning state during competition. MCTs help stimulate the production of ketone bodies, which are made from fat and are the only energy source utilized by the brain besides glucose. Diabetic patients may benefit from MCTs while consuming a low carb diet to fuel their bodies and brains without releasing insulin.  MCTs have also been shown to aid in appetite regulation and increase thermogenesis. Thermogenesis is just a ramping up of the metabolism to burn more calories through the release of heat. Appetite regulation and thermogenesis leads to decreased food intake and a faster metabolism, which are advantageous in treating metabolic diseases like obesity and diabetes. MCTs have also been proven to have neuroprotective effects, which could help prevent or treat things like epilepsy and Alzheimers. There still needs to be more research on MCTs and their highly concentrated alter ego: MCT oil. The preliminary results are very promising though as they seem to have a big impact on metabolism and the brain and are beneficial for athletes and patients with chronic diseases.

Now that I've scratched the surface of the benefits of the ingredients lets look at the reason behind having such a huge bomb of fat first thing in the morning.

It has been shown through many studies that calorie restriction is able to extend lifespan. Unfortunately, although it's beneficial, chronic calorie restriction is not very enjoyable or practical for most people. The good new is that they have discovered intermittent fasting is able to reap many of the benefits of calorie restriction by a similar manipulation of your hormones and biochemistry but is easier to follow and allows for recovery periods. A common method of intermittent fasting is done by skipping breakfast and then eating all of your meals between an 8 hour window, generally between noon-8pm. Unfortunately this can also be difficult to do especially if you have to perform well at work early in the morning, or you're like me, and you prefer to work out in the mornings. The same guy, Dave Asprey, that invented bulletproof coffee calls replacing breakfast with fatty coffee bulletproof intermittent fasting. Since your body hasn't had any carbs or protein it still thinks it's in the fasting state since the fat you ate didn't cause the release of insulin. Therefore, you still gain the benefits you would gain from normal intermittent fasting, but you have fuel to aid you in your day. You can still take advantage of intermittent fasting and reap the benefits of fat soluble vitamins, butyric acid, lauric acid and MCTs. You also don't experience the same crash you would get from eating a high carbohydrate breakfast that spikes your insulin and leaves you hungry an hour later. For me, the caffeine and MCTs make for a great pre-workout drink to help me crush it at the gym.

A big criticism of bulletproof coffee is that it displaces what could be a nutrient dense breakfast with just fat. I have argued that the fats in bulletproof coffee are beneficial to your health, but also mimicking intermittent fasting in a way that's easier on the body is another reason to do it. Therefore, bulletproof coffee shouldn't be compared to a nutrient dense breakfast, it should be compared to eating nothing at all. If you can eat a large, nutrient dense breakfast high in fat and protein daily and don't have aspirations of trying intermittent fasting, then bulletproof coffee probably won't be your thing. Unfortunately most people don't eat a large nutrient dense rich in protein and healthy fats but instead things like cereal, donuts, pastries or bagels. Also some people want to try intermittent fasting but have struggled with it in the past. In those cases it might be beneficial to give bulletproof coffee a try and see if it helps you feel and perform better.

Stay healthy San Diego,

-Devin

The Paleo starting point

I wanted to write this post to talk a little about the Paleo diet. There are some misconceptions out there so I wanted to give my take on the diet and why I think it is a useful stepping stone towards optimal health.

The first rule of the Paleo diet I want to stress before talking about anything else is eating mostly unprocessed and whole foods. People often times get distracted by other parts of the Paleo diet but I want to talk about food quality first because I think it is most important. For some reason, whenever talking about dieting there is alway so much discussion on quantity. It's always "eat less calories to lose weight" or "eat more protein if you want to gain muscle" or "go on a low carb diet, they're the enemy" or "go on a low fat diet, it's the enemy." Instead of talking about quantity there should be more discussion on food quality. I'm going to start talking like a food hippie here for a second but hang in there with me. Eating is actually quite an intimate process that should be respected, not abused. We should be grateful to the food for giving us life and energy, not fearing that it will make us fat or demanding simple pleasure from it. When you eat, you are taking that thing into your own body and it gives you life and actually quite literally becomes the new you. What do you want to become the new you? High quality foods that were prepared with care or processed foods made and packaged in factories that only exist to make money?

The Paleo diet was born out of the idea that humans should be eating foods that we are well adapted to eat and that our ancestors have been eating for well over 10,000 years. Many people get lost on this point and try to make Paleo more about a historical reenactment but the fact is this is just the starting point and a way to help make a roadmap for the diet. You don't needs to use anthropological data to justify eating something, if it's something that's good for you that you tolerate well, then go for it. Two examples of pleasure foods in the Paleo community that were not eaten by our ancestors are coffee and chocolate. Neither were eaten in the Paleolithic era but, if tolerated by the individual, they can have many benefits so they don't need to be excluded just on the basis that they're relatively new foods.

The food groups generally omitted from the Paleo diet are: grains, legumes and dairy. These foods may seem like they've been around for awhile but in actuality, not nearly as long as other foods like meat, nuts and berries. Now because of agricultural practices, processing, genetic modification and many other reasons these food groups (there are others, but these ones especially) seem to be even more troublesome and inflammatory to the human biology today. Cutting out grains, legumes and dairy is only a starting point and from there you can decide what works best for you and what doesn't. There will be some people who tolerate these different foods better than others but once you cut them out for a couple weeks to a month and then start reintroducing them into your diet, it will become clear which cause distress and which do not. Dairy can be very problematic to some that have allergic reactions to it, but very beneficial to others. Of course there is a spectrum and you ultimately have to be the judge of whether it's beneficial for you or not. In Paleo fashion, though, you should look for high quality, minimally processed dairy that will be the most beneficial and the least offensive. Many people respond better to goat's milk than cow's milk. The assumption is that we are more biologically similar to goats than cows in many ways so we tolerate their milk better. If dairy has bothered you in the past, switching to goat milk may have some positive benefits, but the only way to find out is to give it a try. Grains and legumes, unfortunately, have built in defense mechanisms in order to prevent animals from eating them so that they can continue to grow and survive. Some people, however, can benefit from grains and legumes as long as they are prepared correctly via fermentation, sprouting, soaking, cooking and other methods. It can often times be difficult to find properly prepared and handled grains and legumes that haven't been highly processed and modified, which is why many in the Paleo community just avoid them, but if you do the self experimenting and can find high quality grains and legumes that don't bother you it might not be a bad idea to include in your diet.

One of the reasons I like the Paleo diet is that health and self experimentation are at the heart of the diet. The Paleo diet doesn't need to be low carb or high fat or low fat or high meat, but it can be any of those things if you design it that way and decide that's the best model for you and your goals. It's just a starting point to finding out what is the diet that's going to help you feel, look and perform the best. It's about finding a diet that meets your needs and can help to correct: digestive distress, food cravings, blood sugar swings, autoimmune conditions, inflammatory diseases and many more. I'm not guaranteeing the Paleo diet will fix all of those conditions, but finding the ideal diet for YOU can have the potential to do many powerful things and greatly affect your health and well being.  There's a program called Whole30 that's a great place to start with the Paleo diet that walks you through the month long challenge and gives you the rationale behind it and tips to succeed. If you're thinking of starting the Paleo diet I suggested visiting that site first.

I hope this was a good introduction/clarification and wasn't too long and confusing. In later posts I hope to give more tips and suggestions on how to make the Paleo diet work for you but for now this is just an overview. And seriously, check out Whole30 for more info and give their 30 day challenge a try.

Stay healthy San Diego,

-Devin