Nutrition

Why is it that not a single, viable protein supplement exists? Apparently it's harder than putting a man on the moon!

Isolated proteins do not fit humans, not even animals

Let's talk for a minute about supplemental protein: isolated proteins, the most popular protein source for commercial protein powder products, should never be consumed by themselves. Let me say this clearly: the human species has never adapted to being able to consume an isolated protein by itself. Proteins should never be consumed alone; particularly isolated proteins from plants. Protein is not a good fuel. We as humans have adapted to "whole foods" and in order for protein to be fully bio-available, protein should always be accompanied by either carbohydrate or fat. Ideally if the protein is pared with a carbohydrate, the carb source should be very low glycemic or fibrous. Unfortunately, the health and fitness industry has promoted a "carb-a-phobic" mentality, witness the Atkins diet disaster, etc. Supplement makers created this monster protein, isolated protein, a protein that is totally unfit for human consumption. They pair this monster isolated protein with no fat and no carbohydrate but rather with chemical additives. When we drink this stuff it is poisonous. When the commercial protein powder is heated and processed during manufacturing, the chemical and heat processing destroys many of the valuable amino acids: methionine, cysteine and taurine. These amino acids play critical roles within the human body. Isolation implies acid and heat and these two factors destroy essential amino acids. Processing also destroys another essential amino acid, lysine, a precursor for the amino acid carnitine, which is critical for all fat metabolisms. There can be no fat metabolism without the carnitine-related enzyme, CPT (carnitine palmitoyl transferase). CPT mobilizes fatty acid and brings it into the mitochondria on the "carnitine shuttle." Once inside the mitochondria, fatty acids can be oxidized for utilization. Entry into the mitochondria is regulated by the activity of the carnitine shuttle. Any impairment in this entry severely compromises the body's capacity to metabolize fat. Any impairment has devastating consequences for energy utilization, sex hormone production, neuron protection, immune system integrity and the overall survival of the organism.

When we pick food we need to go back to the three benchmarks; we need to observe our Rule of Three: Low glycemic, all natural, great taste.

It is very frustrating. We can send a man to the moon yet we cannot create a proper protein product. In my opinion, the bodybuilding and fitness supplementation industry produces products that are below the level of expertise and potency contained in pet food products - I kid you not! Isolated protein and soy protein are inexpensive and appeal to the protein maker. The makers of soy protein advertise lots of pseudo science designed to convince you that soy is a superior protein - when it fact it is vastly inferior! They typically point to the Japanese diet and say it is superior to the western diet on account of soy. They want to convince you that soy is incredibly beneficial; soy is a complete protein, they tell us. If you are to believe the soy proponents, soy possesses almost magical powers. They present soy protein as the supplemental protein solution, one particularly applicable and appealing to the vegetarian. Nothing could be further from the truth. Real research shows that continual soy protein consumption can be extremely dangerous for both humans and animals. Apparently even Japanese people suffer the consequences of over-consumption of soy products. There is some evidence that there is a correlation between soy consumption and retardation of growth in children, loss of virility in men, the suppression of certain sex hormones, loss of cognitive function in elderly people, increased risk of breast cancer in women, when you comb through the research on soy protein, it's a horror show.

Soy protein is enriched with massive amounts of estrogen. Why in the hell would we voluntarily agree to inject a toxic cocktail into our bodies? Yet the soy public relation machine rolls on, and so many people want desperately to believe that soy protein is the answer, particularly the vegetarian who thinks eating meat is toxic or criminal or just plain cruel and awful. If they only knew the truth about their favored alternative: the substance they've chosen in order to avoid eating animal flesh may be worse for them than meat! How pathetically ironic! Again, when we pick food we need to go back to the three benchmarks. We need to observe our Rule of Three: low glycemic, all natural, great taste. Avoid sugar and refined starch; so many health food products are loaded with these high glycemic insulin killer substances. Pick up any diet candy bar replacement and read the ingredients. Most have 15 to 40 grams of sugar! Yet they position themselves as a healthy replacement for sweets. The low carb products aren't better. Virtually all of them are loaded with chemical additives, synthetic sugar alcohol and artificial sweeteners. We've never adapted to these liver-destroying bloat-causing substances. Look for sugar alcohol disguised as a carbohydrate; this is a trick supplement makers use to avoid having to list their sweeteners as a sugar. Look at the incredible number of chemicals used to construct these dietary food products. You can go to the shopping mall health food store and start reading all the labels on all the products, trying to find a single all natural product that is low glycemic and tastes great; you can read the ingredients and taste every single product in the store and not find one single product that satisfies our simple Rule of Three! How simple could it be to construct such a product, much less a series of products that satisfies the Rule of Three? Apparently it is harder than putting a man on the moon!

With that said, I'd like to introduce you to a new Meal Replacement Shake that we've just made available for purchase. It's an all natural, pesticide free, great tasting, low glycemic, high quality protein meal replacement with a fantastic vanilla flavoring. All that - and it didn't even require the use of a space shuttle!

Why is it that not a single, viable protein supplement exists? Apparently it's harder than putting a man on the moon!

Sport, health and diet products

You might as well eat grass clippings from your back yard

Virtually every nutritional supplement on the market today - products ostensibly designed to improve health - are in fact loaded with either massive amounts or sugar or massive amounts of chemicals - or both! In addition these products use cheap, cheap nutrients in order to maximize profit. If, for example, the supplement is supposed to be a protein powder, the protein used is inferior because inferior protein costs dramatically less than high quality protein. If the supplement contains a carbohydrate, the carb source used is inferior. Now on the label required by law these firms will tout how incredible and potent these products are, but in fact when they are manufactured a conscious decision is made by the maker to utilize the cheapest, least effective base ingredients in order to keep the price down and the profit margin high. The goal is not helping well intentioned clients and needy customers; the goal is maximizing profit, period!

When this inferior profit-product lands on the shelf at the local shopping mall health food store, and John Q. Public are earnestly shopping for their meal replacement packets, their protein powder or their Creatine Monohydrate, the price of the bogus product will be low, if not lower, than the worthless product sitting to its immediate left on the shelf, or the equally worthless product sitting to the immediate right on the shelf.

If, on the other hand, you are selling 100% pure protein powder and you use a quality protein as the basis for your product, because you are scrupulous and serious, you pay twice as much for your protein base as the unscrupulous huckster. Your powerful and potent protein powder will yield the highest biological value and will cost $40 for a canister. The huckster next to you sells his worthless protein, Turbo Double X with Nitrous Oxide Booster Factor for 1/3rd your price. His pathetic product is loaded with massive amounts of sugar or all types of horrible filler and chemicals, but he doesn't give a damn because he can sell his product for $15! Why so cheap? There is nothing of value in his product.

His label is flamboyant and colorful and full of eye-catching phrases and promises. He spends more on the catchy labeling and eye-catching advertising than he spends on what is inside the canister. The ignorant buyer picks up your legitimate product, a product that could actually help him. He winces when he sees your 40-dollar price. He picks up Turbo Double X, reads the label proclaiming "Incredible results in less than two weeks or triple your money back!" He sees the 15-dollar price and buys it. He takes it home and tolerates the taste because it has more sugar than a quart of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream. Of course he obtains zero results because he might as well eat grass clippings from his back yard. This is typical of the ridiculous products sold in mall health food stores nationwide. Unfortunately virtually every product in that store is completely and utterly worthless.

Coming next: Part 4 (Final) - Isolated proteins do not fit humans, not even animals

Why is it that not a single, viable protein supplement exists? Apparently it's harder than putting a man on the moon!

Taste and Survival

The concept of "Taste" is widely misunderstood. When we speak of taste as a food determination, taste is not just about pleasure, it is not just about sensual satisfaction, but rather taste is our first line of defense against consuming rancid foods. Once the body is detoxified and chemical free, taste will help us guard against eating degraded or highly processed, chemically-loaded foods. Once the body is used to eating only natural, low glycemic foods, when we take a bite out of a rancid or a highly processed-high glycemic food, our newly heightened sense of taste rejects the rancidity or the chemicals or the excess sugar and every fiber in our being screams, 'Spit it out!'

A heightened sense of taste allows us to appreciate and detect balance. Taste gives us an indication of what's missing what needs to be added, if you suffer from acidity, taste will lead you to alkaline-based foods. If your sense of taste is attuned, you will tend to crave what it is you are missing most. If, for instance, your body is depleted of sodium due to excessive sweating after exercise, you will crave for salty food, and if you won't satisfy this craving, it will haunt you with chronic cravings for "something" until you finally provide your body with the missing salt.

If you train the body machinery, it will become attuned and in touch with your needs. For example, many people are unknowingly deficient in zinc and if that person takes a zinc lozenge it will taste delicious! Once that same body is loaded with zinc, ingesting zinc goes from tasting delicious to nauseating. This is the definition of being physiologically attuned. The point is we have amazing survival mechanisms that need be tapped into. Of course the attenuation is crushed and destroyed by continual indulgence in processed foods, drinks, or chemically-loaded nutritional supplements. By losing our primordial sense of taste we've lost our first line of defense against consuming rancid and harmful food. Our sense of taste nowadays is completely overused and overwhelmed. We habitually consume overly processed, overly sweetened or overly salted foods. The solution is to exorcise these modern "foods" and return to a diet that is based on consumption of primal, elemental foods low on the food chain, foods that have been around for eons, foods that our primordial ancestors consumed before modern factory foods were invented, foods that fit our genes. In my opinion nothing points out the problems we face more dramatically than looking closely at the so-called sport, health, fitness and diet industry.

Coming next in Part 3: Sport, health and diet products.

Why is it that not a single, viable protein supplement exists? Apparently it's harder than putting a man on the moon!

As a result in a dramatic increase in the consumption of foods with a high glycemic index, diabetes, hypertension and cancer rates have soared in both men and women. Many people dismiss the glycemic index by saying that, "The glycemic index is only valid if foods are eaten one at a time and when we mix foods, the glycemic index goes out the window," and indeed this is a partial truth. However, partial truths are often more dangerous than outright lies. We tend to think in two-dimensional terms and in the human body there are more than two dimensions. We were taught to believe that two and two are four. In a two dimensional world that is correct, but in a real multi-dimensional world, two and two aren't necessarily yielding four, and to loop back around to the glycemic index, yes, when a high glycemic food is mixed with a lower glycemic food the end result in theory will be an overall lowering of the net glycemic effect. But in real life turning "moot" into "bad" isn't good enough and there is simply no way around it: anything that over-spikes insulin is harmful regardless if it is very high glycemic or moderately high glycemic. We see the labeling gimmickry on foods and supplements at every turn...supposed health foods with deceptive labeling... "30% less sugar," (30% of what, 100-grams of sugar) or "low net carbs," or "50% less saturated fat, of course since the product contained 100-grams of saturated fat initially, you still are getting 50-grams and 450-calories of the worst, artery-clogging substance. The bottom line is that in order to sustain a healthy blood glucose/insulin response, put aside all the games and tricks and consume only foods that primarily have a low glycemic index rating.

If you eat a pristine diet consuming mostly foods from the low end of the food chain, foods low on the glycemic index, foods such as vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds, you will be able to cycle once in a while in foods higher on the GI index, potatoes for example, without causing blood sugar to chronically overspike.

Let's simplify the question of what to eat. Insofar as I am concerned, there are three overriding criterion for selecting foods that are appropriate, beneficial and add to the solution rather than amplifying the problem...we want foods that are low glycemic, all natural and taste great.

This is a handy, practical, effective and user-friendly method that anyone truly interested in adhering to my Warrior Diet philosophy can use at anytime to determine if a food is suitable for consumption. Is the food low on the glycemic index? Is the food all natural and not loaded with chemicals? Does the food taste great? If the answer is yes to all three than you don't need to consult a list or call me on the phone and ask, you have your own answer.

Low glycemic food is critical because the human species has never fully adapted to survive on high glycemic foods. The reason we use "all natural" as a guideline prerequisite for food consumption is pretty self-evident; as a species humans have never adapted to chemical additives. There is more and more empirical and scientific evidence that we have no defense mechanisms to defend ourselves from chemical processing. This includes artificial sweeteners, synthetic sugar alcohols and synthetic vitamins.

Coming Next: Part 2 - Taste and Survival

When you compare modern grains to nuts and seeds, you will see that humans as a species are much better adapted to utilizing high fat foods, nuts and seeds, as opposed to utilizing grains. The oils from these primal high fat foods is far more nourishing to the muscular system, far more nourishing to the neural system and the hormonal system, than the nutrients derived from grains. As a species we are genetically far better suited for storing fat and utilizing fat for energy than we are at utilizing carbohydrates. If we were adept as a species at using carbohydrates as a primary source of fuel, we would probably end up looking like carbohydrate-enriched bulbs, we would look like potatoes or yams, like the child's toy, Mister Potato Head. We should not ignore how we evolved and what nutrients we are adept at processing. We should not ignore what nutrients we are inept at processing. Those foods on the bottom of the food chain, fruits, vegetables, roots, legumes, nuts and seeds, are undoubtedly the most beneficial to our survival.