Episode #171: “Living Beyond Organic” – Are Packaged Organic Foods Really Healthy or Just Marketing Hype?

In this episode, the new Ben Greenfield fitness podcast host. Are packaged organic foods really healthy? Is an off season necessary? How hard should you train in the winter? Is aspirin healthy? What kind of calcium should you take? How a gluten free diet affects menstrual cycles, and how to use beet juice for sports performance.

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Hey folks, it's Ben Greenfield and I'm pretty excited right now. Not just, just because Thanksgiving is two days away and I get to eat a lot of turkey, but also because the brand new Ben Greenfield fitness podcast host is with us today. We're changing up the format of the podcast and I am pleased to introduce you to a guy with a pretty long name, Brock. Well, Brock, what's your full name? I'll let you go ahead and spit it out.

This is all because of Facebook. Facebook and its silly policies about making sure that you're using your appropriate name. And when your last name is Skywalker, you have to jump through a lot of hoops to get them to actually recognize the fact that that really is your name. So I ended up being Brock Jason Armstrong Skywalker on Facebook and yeah, it just sort of stuck. Now everybody decides they're going to use my entire name. So that's it.

So everybody meet Brock Jason Skywalker Armstrong. I will be calling him Brock for obvious reasons.

That would be great.

But Brock is going to be really, really involved with the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast. He is unfortunately a Canadian. Right, Brock?

That's true, Ray.

And where are you at up in Canada?

I'm in Toronto. I'm originally from Edmonton, but I live in Toronto now. So not quite as much the Great White north as I used to. But it's still pretty cold up here.

And Brock is intensely interested in all of the topics, the fitness and nutrition and endurance sports and healthy lifestyle topics that we go through in the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show. But Brock, how do you kind of, how do you spend your day? What do you actually do up there in the cold, frigid North?

Well, most of the time. And this is how I pay the bills, I guess. I'm a web developer and an email newsletter developer as well. So I spend pretty much my entire day in front of a computer. Now I stand in front of the computer. That's instead of sitting in front of the computer all day. But I also am a marathon coach. I work with a group called Team and Training. It's part of the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. So we run marathons all over the world and raise money for blood cancer research and patient services and stuff. So it's really fun, really fulfilling, and you get to travel a lot.

You know, folks, if you really want to get infatuated with and stock Brock, he does have a website. I'll put a link to it in the show notes, but it's basically frozen puck.com and he's kind of being humble because he's got a ton of different plates spinning. I noticed, Brock, that you even have your own Wikipedia page. And you're quite the musician up there as well.

I've had several former lives. I just turned 40 this year, and somehow I've managed to gouge and cram a whole bunch of different lives into those 40 years. My first profession being a professional ballet dancer. Then I broke my foot and was rehabbing that and ended up joining a band and traveled with a band called Captain tractor for 10 years and then decided to go back to school. And that's when I started the web development stuff and also got into marathon coaching and triathlon coaching.

Cool.

Yeah, it's been an awesome life so far.

Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you really need to get busy and start accomplishing something with your life. That's why I'm here as the new Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast host. Well, folks, rather than you listening to Brock and I chat about our lives, we'll go ahead and jump into this week's content. And I will tell you in advance that this may not be the smoothest of shows as we go through our first official show with having a host, but I'm pretty excited about it nonetheless. So please forgive Brock and I for any hiccups as we go through this first podcast episode with you.

It'll only get better.

That's right. That is the advantage of being in the state we're in right now. All right, well, we are going to start off with this week's special announcements, and in the future, they will be kind of wrapped up right here at the beginning of the show, as they usually are. And Brock will be helping me along with this, of course. But there have been a few different articles that have come up on Ben Greenfield Fitness this week. Did you. Did you see any of the articles this week, Brock?

I Did I actually sent the the Turkey Trot one out to a bunch of members of my, my running team because it had some awesome stuff, even though Canadian Thanksgiving was about a month ago, so the turkey parts of it didn't, didn't apply. But all the, the actual, the really helpful stuff as far as pre race nutrition, what to do first thing in the morning and warming up and all that kind of stuff is so universal that I just, I took it and sent it out to all my, all my teammates.

Yep. So that appears if you're planning on running a Turkey Trot, a 5K or a 10K or any other holiday run, check that article out. Interestingly, it actually originated from my response to a client who I coach in Dubai who is about to run his first 10k, which is obviously not a Thanksgiving 10k. But my response to him grew so enormous that I decided to turn it into an article for BenGreenfieldFitness.com so you can check that out. And then the other article that came out this week was on the four steps to get a better butt. Part of a seven part series I'm doing as a build up to the upcoming launch of my tri ripped triathlon training program, which is basically something you can check out@triripped.com but in a nutshell, it's a way to get a really nice body and work on making your muscles look good and also get pretty fast at triathlon at the same time.

As a warning to you guys out there, the four steps to getting a better butt. Don't send that link to your girlfriend. Yeah, I, I thought I was being really nice and really helpful and kind and considerate when I sent the link because I know she's been asking about how can I improve parts of me. And that was one of the parts that she was talking about and I thought, oh, hey, great. Four steps to better. But here, baby.

Yeah, always be careful with what you forward and bookmark, especially to a significant other. So yeah, I think the Turkey Trot one is probably safe for her though.

That's safe. Yeah.

So yeah, aside from those two articles which you can check out at BenGreenfieldFitness.com the only other thing I wanted to go over was that you may have noticed if you've got itunes, that the download all podcasts function kind of disappeared for a little while. And if you do use itunes to listen to this podcast and you just want to grab all of the podcasts that we've ever had, update itunes and that button should appear again. The update all button. And if you really want to go get all of the audios that have been put out or surf them a little bit more intensively, I've set up the Ben Greenfield Fitness iPhone and Android apps to allow you to do that a little bit more efficiently in terms of just get instant access to all of the podcasts from 1 up to 171 that we've ever done. So heads up on that for downloading all the podcasts. And really that's about it. So I guess we can jump into the Q and A.

Awesome. Listener. Q and A. Okay, so our first question is an audio question. It comes from Chuck. Let's take a listen.

Hey, Ben, this is Chuck. Congratulations on your win in Jamaica last week, especially after ITU Worlds. Speaking of that, ITU was my last race of the season and my coach, who is an ex Brazilian pro triathlete world champion, wanted me to take 10 days off at least after this race to reset mentally, physically, and all that stuff and then ease back into it. However, I've been doing sort of intermittent workouts, kind of when I feel like it and basically at the same intensity and length that I was doing before itu. And when he and I discussed this, he said, no, you can't do that. I need you to take just the time off completely. And I wanted to see what your take on that was and then additionally, what sort of an off season would look like for you. Then his sort of stance on that was he has to get unfit to get fit. So I wanted to see your take there. And then additionally, as I've been doing these sort of intermittent workouts, even though they're a the same intensity, but they're not as frequently, I feel like I've gained a layer of fat around my stomach, even though my calories have been at what, you know, a very acceptable level for the activity I've been doing. And my thinking was that maybe since my body knows it's going to have to work hard, but doesn't know when it's going to have to do it, it's storing a little bit there. I don't know if that has any validity, but wanted to see why it may be doing that. So I'd love to see your take on some of this, what an off season would look like and what you suggest, if 10 days off is what I need and would love to hear your answer. Thanks, Ben.

All right, so this is an interesting question, Brock. Are you kind of in the off season right now?

I'm not, actually, because I'm actually, I'm gearing up for the Disney World Goofy Marathon and a half, where you do the half marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday, and that's in January. So I don't really have a. I don't have my off season until after that.

Yeah.

And I also am not quite in what I would consider to be an off season yet, as I'm going down to race in Phuket, Thailand, for The Asia Pacific 70.3 World Championships down there, which are next weekend. But basically the whole idea behind the off season is to give yourself a mental and physical break. So if you look at something like, like a taper for a race, when you begin to lay off and taper for a race, a bunch of pretty cool things happen to your body. So you basically get an increase in the oxygen carrying capacity of your red blood cells. Basically what's called your hemoglobin that bumps up. The percentage of red blood cells in your blood bumps up, or what's called your hematocrit, and the actual size of your red blood cell or your red blood cells goes up. That's called your r. Your RBC volume, your red blood cell volume. So you've got this increase in all these blood parameters that allow you to carry more blood throughout the body and carry more oxygen throughout the body. When you start to lay off and taper and beat your body up a little less with daily hard workouts, you get a change in your hormones. So basically an increase in what would be considered your anabolic hormones or the hormones that kind of build up and repair tissue, and you get a decrease in the catabolic hormones, which are the slightly more stressful hormones that can cause damage to tissue. There's some pretty cool neuromuscular effects, basically meaning that your muscle contractile properties actually change. They gain the ability to produce more power, more strength. And that's an effect not only of them having more storage carbohydrate in them because you're draining your fuel a little less. More storage carbohydrate, more storage creatine, but you also get kind of a change in the muscle fiber type. You get a little bit of a shift towards what are called the type 2Amuscle fibers, which produce a little bit more power and strength. Your immune system gets stronger, so you're able to produce a lot more, what are called eosinophils, which basically are, you know, the detoxifiers, the inflammation fighters in your body and your lymphocytes or your white blood cells, the cell count for Those goes up. They've even had studies where they've looked at sleep levels during a taper. And sleep quality goes through the roof, you know, up to seven and a half to nine hours of sleep. Just because you're beating your body up less, you tend to sleep a little bit better with these changes that come hormonally. So, you know, you can extrapolate that a little bit and say that an off season, in a way, is kind of like an elongated taper. And that's not to say that you completely stop exercising during what would be considered an off season, but you're taking a break from a lot of the modes of exercise that you've been beating yourself up with. So you're giving your joints a break. You're taking advantage of some of these physiological adaptations that happen when you begin to give your hormones and your immune system and your blood cell break. And you also. And I think this is one of the most important things, is you get that mental break. Because, I mean, frankly, Brock, I don't know how many marathons you've been doing over the past few months, but I was telling my wife two days ago as I was getting ready to do another workout to get ready for this race, I'm doing that. I'm kind of ready to be done swimming, biking, and running for a while.

If I break, I'm totally with you every once in a while. Like, I've been heading out for my. For my runs, like, just getting ready for this. I have only got. I've got less than two months before the. Before these two marathons. And. And as much as the idea of, like, running a half marathon one day and then running a full marathon the next day is a really interesting challenge and something I've been looking forward to. I. Yeah, I really. I'm. I'm pretty tired of running at this point. I've really bumped up my cross training for this portion of the season just because, yeah, running mentally is really getting me down.

Yeah. And, you know, I think that that's the fear of a lot of people who are used to exercising a lot. And especially, you know, we get, you know, endurance athletes, triathletes, marathoners, you kind of get that rat on a wheel, mouse on a wheel type of deal where you get these huge dopamine and serotonin releases that essentially cause you to become addicted to the activities that you're doing. And there's a little bit of a fear there that you're going to lose your fitness and also an actual chemical break in the addictive cycle that you've been going through during the course of, say, the race season. As long as you're staying active and shifting your activities to new activities, for me it's typically tennis, basketball and weightlifting, then your off season is not going to get you, going to get you fat or out of shape. It's simply a shift in your levels of activity. And to more directly answer Chuck's question, yeah, I do highly recommend it if you want to stay injury free and stay really mentally fresh and mentally motivated. But it's just a matter of understanding that it's a shift in your activities and not necessarily a cessation of activity. And even if you look at Ironman world champions, I was listening to a lecture given by Paula Newby Frazier, who won a bunch of world iron championships down in Hawaii. She said they'd cross the finish line at Ironman Hawaii and then basically just like surf for the next two months. And again, they weren't channel surfing, sitting in their living room watching tv. I mean, they were out surfing. For me to surf for a day, it's pretty tough activity. So again, it's just a shift in your activity levels. It's not a complete cessation in your actual activity. And if you approach the off season that way and understand that a lot of these physiological effects that happen during a taper can also happen when you start to take it easy and give your body a break, then that's a great mentality to go into the off season with.

So it's certainly not like Chuck's coach. Chuck had mentioned that his coach said the words, you have to get unfit to get fit again, that sort of scares me. That's not really what you're saying at all.

No, it really isn't. And whereas fitness certainly is a stair stepping effect where you work and work and work and then recover, and then work and work and work again and then recover, you're not getting unfit during the recovery. During the recovery is when you actually increase your fitness. So ideally, best case scenario, you get more and more fit from year to year without an actual decrease in fitness or significant gain in fat during the off season. Just a shift in activity to give yourself a mental break as much as anything else.

Awesome. Awesome. Okay, well. Okay, our next question is from Nadine and she has a great title for her question. She said Intensity Wars. I really like that. It has a nice ring to it. She says if you read the December 2011 Triathlete magazine, they will tell you that you can get fit for faster by including more intensity and less volume over the winter. In velo magazine in December 2011, the long slow zone 1 and 2 is recommended for the whole off season. And then she says, you, Ben, you've talked about more intensity and less volume being more important. And Phil Maffetone on the show here has said that you should keep your heart rate in zone one for the prep and base periods. So all this to say that she's confused and she just wants to know what is the deal with intensity? What's the real deal there?

Totally depends on you.

Let's say that you've got anywhere in.

The range of like 35 to 50 hours a week to train. Not only is the long slow style of aerobic training going to be more beneficial for you in developing endurance and economy and efficiency, but it also is going to ensure that you stay in your sport or in your activity long term because you're not beating your body up for those 35 to 50 hours a week with intense training sessions. But for those of us who are not pro athletes who do not have that type of time to train, we simply have to squeeze more into a shorter period of time. And the only way to do that and actually significantly increase or maintain fitness is to include more intensity and less volume. So maffetone style volume esque training works really well if you've got lots of time on your hand to put in those long slow aerobic sessions. You know, if you look at Mark Allen, who is probably one of the more successful athletes to have adopted the Maffetone philosophy of doing all of your training or almost all of your training at this aerobic heart rate, he was training upwards of 50 hours a week. To prepare for Ironman, you simply need to put in a significant number of hours if most of what you do is aerobic training. And that's simply because it builds fitness more slowly while it does build a really, really big aerobic engine, a big base, a big foundation, especially for something like, like marathoning or ultra running or Ironman triathlon. It takes a lot of time. So, you know, really, you know, both of these magazines are correct when it comes to the type of training that actually works. But you know, even more specifically, the question is kind of, you know, she's asking about the winter and the off season and how you should spend your time during the off season and both camps, whether you're doing kind of like the maffetone style of aerobic training or whether you're kind of more of like the high intensity person. Either way, you should spend A little bit more of your time building up your aerobic base foundation in the winter, simply because you're going to be spending more time when your race approaches, doing intense race pace type of workouts, which will really, really beat you up if you're doing them for long periods of time. So my whole philosophy for the off season is you build your base, you build your aerobic, you build your foundation. This is actually something I went over in a video seminar I did yesterday for the Rockstar Triathlete Academy. But you also include during the off season, a few kind of visits to the pain cave and a few intense sessions that actually keep your muscles responsive and able to build power and strength and maintain some of that intensity. So for me, for example, what that means is that during the off season, I will do one long slow aerobic session each week for each sport. So I'll throw in a long swim to kind of maintain my swim base. That's like 40, 45 minutes of continuous swimming. I'll throw in a long skate, ski session or cycling session and I'll throw in kind of a decently long run, like a 75 to 90 minute run. And then everything else will be playing basketball and tennis and doing some weightlifting and maintaining the intensity. So ultimately it comes down to slightly more volume in the winter, but not a complete neglect of intensity. Especially if you're not somebody who, or if you're somebody who doesn't have, you know, like 40, 50 hours to train.

So you're talking not changing your routine drastically, but in the off season, skew more towards the long slow and in the on season or especially approaching a race, skew more to the higher intensity.

Yep. Unless you know, and this can be on a case by case basis, if you're somebody who just has no time in the winter or no motivation to train, I mean in that case, even though physiologically it might not on paper be the most ideal thing, you may be better off with just doing high intensity, 20, 30 minute interval training sessions each day and using that to maintain your fitness over the winter. If it's simply a torture for you to get on the indoor trainer, especially if you're like a northern climate athlete when there's snow outside. So it does kind of depend too on what motivates you and what keeps you fit. And that's a big part of this equation too is if long runs and three hour indoor trainer rides, let's say, if you're like a triathlete or long 2 hour treadmill runs, or snowy runs, if you're a marathoner, if that type of stuff doesn't get you excited and get you motivated to stay fit and kind of makes you want to. Want to basically quit your sport in the winter, then you should switch to short, more intense workouts.

Coming from the Great White north, especially in Edmonton and minus 30 degrees Celsius, everything. Intensity is a big helper. You got to keep that core warm. So if you're doing the long, slow stuff, you generally can't do it outside. But if you're doing some, some outdoor runs, the higher intensity the better because it just keeps the frostbite at bay.

Yep.

All right, that's awesome. So our next question is from Craig and he says, hey, Ben, my doctor says everyone should take a baby aspirin every day. What's your opinion on this?

I think whoever's making aspirin is making a lot of money off that recommendation.

Yeah, I've actually had that recommendation from my doctor as well. And it was certainly, I think it was more geared towards a cardiovascular or even just a heart related sort of a thing.

Right, exactly. Because aspirin has kind of a blood thinning effect and so technically it could reduce risk of stroke or reduce risk of, say, like plaque formation on the coronary arteries. But the problem is that the aspirin or salicylic acid that's in something like that, it can basically damage your stomach's lining in the same way that something like ibuprofen can. So you're looking at a big problem with potential for gastrointestinal bleeding or ulcers. There's been a little bit of evidence that it could in a similar way, cause some bleeding in the brain as well. And whereas the bleeding in the brain, I think is less of an issue, there's certainly some big, big gastrointestinal problems that can be created by using aspirin on a regular basis like that. Especially when there's other things you could do that are better for your stomach that can still thin your blood in the same way and improve your cardiovascular health. Probably the most popular thing would simply be an omega 3 fatty acid supplement like flaxseed oil or fish oil, using lots of extra virgin olive oil in, in your nutrition plan, any of those type of fats, as well as eating lots of cold water fish, getting your salmon, your mackerel, those type of things. Super, super good for increasing your levels of omega 3 fatty acids and helping to thin the blood and much tastier.

Oh, yeah, everything you just mentioned, it's like my stomach is growling now. Because that's so much better than taking an aspirin. It all tastes so good.

Exactly. I know for some people, probably an aspirin is more palatable than, you know, a can of sardines. But for me personally, I'm a huge fan of my cold water fish. There's herbs too. You know, a lot of these, like curries and cayennes and anything that would be considered like an anti inflammatory type of supplement. Ginger would be another peppermint, turmeric, these type of things. These are all natural blood thinners as well. So, you know, making sure that you're using a lot of fresh herbs in your cooking and, you know, having a dish that's got a lot of good curries in it at least once a week. You know, my wife and I love Thai food. We usually eat Thai at least once a week. You know, usually like the other day, Jessa made spicy Thai beef salad. And including things like that in your diet, really, really important, especially if you're trying to improve your cardiovascular health or, you know, you have some medical reason for wanting to, to thin your blood. And this isn't to be misconstrued as medical advice. It's just there are things that are smarter out there to use than aspirin. And there's also things that can kind of thicken your blood or lead to a little bit more inflammation in the blood, particularly omega 6 fatty acids like corn oil and vegetable oil and soybean oil and safflower oil, fried foods, and pretty much any trans fatty acids like the spreadable cream cheese, spreadable peanut butter, spreadable margarine, like the thicker versions of mayonnaise, all of that stuff is kind of, kind of fighting against what you'd be trying to achieve with aspirin. So, you know, 1, 2 combo of getting the omega 3 fatty acids and the herbs in and then kind of decreasing some of those other foods that I just mentioned would be way, way better than taking a baby aspirin. And as you mentioned, Brock, in many.

Ways, a lot tastier in so many ways. So when you were saying spreadable, I've heard people refer to that before as anything that doesn' change consistency as it warms up or gets colder. Is that what you're getting at is generally worse for you if it just sort of is always one spreadable consistency?

Exactly. Because that means it's typically been chemically hydrogenated to be in that super duper portable and conveniently spreadable form. But not so convenient for your arteries. Yeah.

Okay, cool. I hope that answers Craig's question for him. Our next one comes from Melanie, and it's not a tasty question. Unfortunately, we won't be talking about any delicious food in this one. Well, maybe. We'll see. Hi, Ben, I have some questions regarding calcium. First, if you're trying to get your calcium from food rather than supplements, how should you count calcium that has been added to food? Is that considered a supplement, and how useful or absorbable is it? So that's the first part of the question, I guess, would be the foods that have sort of been added calcium to it. Is that good? Is that okay? Is that absorbable?

It is absorbable, but I mean, it's not better than food. I mean, they've actually done studies on this. It was a few years ago, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition did a study primarily on women, and they compared women who were getting most of their daily calcium from tablets and pills and supplements with women who were getting most of their calcium from dairy products and other foods. And basically what they found was that the women who were doing the diets and the supplements for their calcium intake were getting far less absorbable calcium and actually had lower bone density compared to the group that was getting it primarily from food. And part of the reason for that is the absorptibility of calcium when it's in its whole food form is a little bit higher. Part of that is because a lot of times if you bump up calcium from like a supplement source, essentially, it can kind of steal the calcium that it needs from the bones. As you metabolize that added calcium, it strips magnesium a little bit, too. And then the other issue is that women who aren't eating a healthy diet, a lot of times they've got some hormonal issues. And estrogen is one of the things that really helps women especially maintain their bone mineral density. So if you have a hormonal imbalance or estrogen is being broken down or not metabolized properly, a lot of times you're going to use your calcium less efficiently as well and have lower bone density. So in most cases, you're going to be better off trying to get as much of your calcium as possible from your organic, healthy dairy sources, your dark leafy greens and that type of thing, and then supplement moderately.

So not necessarily. Melanie added in her question here that she was drinking some almond milk that says it has 50% of her daily value of calcium, but a lot of it was added to that almond milk. So that's not the kind of real food you're talking about. You're talking about the stuff that actually naturally has the high calcium in it right out of the ground.

Yeah. Not like a calcium fortified cereal or a calcium fortified almond milk per se. I mean, almonds do have a little bit of calcium in them. Seeds and nuts do have some minerals. But ultimately the more you can get from real food that's grown in the ground or from a naturally calcium rich food source, like a dairy source is, is going to be better than anything that's been basically calcium fortified or calcium pill.

Okay, so then the second part of the question, now that we've got that sort of explained, she says, also can you clarify the relationship between magnesium and calcium? I'm having some success with my PMS by taking magnesium powder, which you've recommended, and I don't want to interfere with that success by adding, adding in a calcium supplement. So can you explain how that might work together?

Yeah. Magnesium is basically a co factor for calcium, meaning that it is essential not only for the uptake and absorption of calcium, but it also balances out calcium in the bone mineral matrix and also balances out calcium in a lot of the enzymatic reactions that take place. For example, like a muscle contraction is dependent on, on enzyme reactions that include both calcium and magnesium. It's a really good point that I've kind of brought up before on the show. And you know that for anybody who's more interested in, I would highly recommend you go listen to the interview I did with Dr. Carolyn Dean entitled the Magnesium Miracle or just go read Carolyn Dean's book the Magnesium Miracle. But in most cases, what studies have found is that your calcium magnesium ratio should be about 2 to 1. So 2 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium. And you're going to get some folks recommending like the Nutritional Magnesium association recommending more of a one to one ratio. But most people are way, way higher than that. I mean, most people are up around a 10 to 1 ratio of calcium to magnesium. So generally about 2 parts calcium to 1 part magnesium is better. And supplementing with magnesium is going to help with everything from sleep to irritability to high blood pressure to your heart function to your muscular performance. So a ton of reasons for including magnesium in the diet. It's really, really tough to get a ton of magnesium from food, especially for like sweating athletes, people who are losing a lot of minerals. I personally take some natural calm before I go to bed at night, which is a magnesium citrate form. And then I use like a topical magnesium spray that I rub into my muscles as well. But you know, that's kind of the deal in terms of including calcium along or including magnesium along with calcium. And it is super important.

Yeah, yeah. I use the topical spray as well and I tried using one of the, I think it was called Cal Mag, a sleep aid that was. That had a balance of calcium and magnesium and I think I took a little too much. Yeah, you'll get some. You'll get loose distress in the morning.

Exactly. Yep. You will get loose stool. And the interesting thing is that you can tolerate more and more magnesium as you supplement with it. So, you know, I can handle about 1,200 milligrams of magnesium a day. And when I first started using magnesium, it was 400. 500 milligrams would have me on the toilet with a good book.

So I think I took 500 and that was me.

Yeah, you can up it as you go.

All right. So that's something to work towards everybody.

And did she actually want to know like the type of calcium was that?

There was part of the question where she was asking which type of calcium supplement would be best if she is going to go with a supplement or one that's been added to a food.

Okay.

Is there a big difference between the different kinds?

Yeah, there's kind of a difference.

Calcium carbonate is the one you're going to see most often like a calcium carbonate or a calcium citrate. And those are pretty decently absorbed. Essentially all that happens is they typically bind to calcium, salt, to carbonate or glucamate or anything else and that allows it to be better absorbed by the body. There's one form that's basically hydroxyl apatite calcium. And you're going to start to find that in a lot more supplements these days. It is a little bit better absorbed than the calcium carbonate and they have found that it's more effective in slowing bone loss. So if you're going to take a calcium supplement, I would actually look at the label and look for the calcium hydroxyl apatite version as one of the better, more absorbable versions of calcium versus a calcium citrate or calcium gluconate or calcium carbonate. So when you're looking at the label, that is something to look for. Typically the hydroxyl versions are going to be slightly more expensive, but if you really are wanting to supplement with calcium, I would choose that version.

Cool. Awesome. I think that covers that question. So we'll move on to Kiyoko And Kyoko asks, how does a gluten free diet affect the menstrual cycle. She wants to know what are those effects and how serious can they be? I guess if they're a negative effect, how serious they may be and what would your advice be? She said that she has no period and no pms, but she feels better. Can't argue with that.

Yeah. And by the way, I'm getting a little bit of feedback from your mic on that question, by the way.

All right, all right, I will with it while you answer.

Okay. Maybe something going on with Canada. I don't know, maybe. Maybe your guys Internet is putzing up there.

There always is.

Yeah, it's still got a lot of feedback. It's really scratchy. I'm not sure what that is.

Okay, okay, let me.

Alright, well, while you're doing that, I'll launch into the answer to this question about gluten free and how that kind of affects the menstrual cycle. Basically they've done studies on folks with with celiac disease and they found that there's a really, really big correlation between celiac disease and what's called endometriosis. Basically a lot of like heavy menstrual bleeding and pain during intercourse and sleep issues and all that means that endometriosis, it basically means that uterine cells are growing outside the uterus. So you get a lot of kind of chronic pelvic pain. The other issue that they found is like dysmenorrhea or severe menstrual cramps that occur again in folks who have celiac disease, which is a really, really extremely sensitive reaction to gluten. And it can result in a lot of issues, but especially in women, reproductive problems. Now they've also found that with the intake of gluten in people with cel celiac disease, you also get some real issues when it comes to the hormonal response to those like a hypogonadism type of deal going on in men and a significant drop in testosterone when men with celiac disease are consuming gluten. And you can also get essentially like a loss of fertility in women that's related to a big change in hormones. But and one of the reasons for that is that when you have celiac and you consume gluten, in addition to the issue with gut inflammation, you get a real, real loss in your ability to absorb vitamins and supplements and minerals. And so when you'rewhen women's sex hormones are at their peak during the cycle, there's a big need for specifically like B vitamins, calcium and magnesium, which we already talked about, vitamin D Zinc and a bunch of other minerals. And so when you have a nutrient deficiency and you're not absorbing those properly, it can tend to throw off your menstrual cycle. Interestingly, in most cases, what you see is this dysmenorrhea, the heavy bleeding, the endometriosis, and sometimes a complete loss in the actual cycle. But in this case, what was being asked was whether actually going gluten free could cause a cessation in the menstrual cycle. It can certainly cause a cessation of pms. And they have done studies where they've shown that people with gluten free experience far fewer PMS symptoms. As far as a complete loss of cycle, I haven't seen any studies that have shown a complete loss of the cycle. But it may be that your body is making a hormonal adjustment as you've gone gluten free. Ultimately, what I would make sure of is that in the change that you've made to your diet, you're getting enough healthy fat, you're supporting your hormones, that you're actually producing estrogens and maintaining your normal reproductive status. Because that's one big issue I see in folks who make significant dietary adjustments. Like going gluten free is the calorie count goes way down, the total fat intake goes way down. And it's the same thing that happens when you start into any diet is you run that risk of not getting enough fuel to make hormones. So I'd make sure that you're including, you know, coconut oil and avocado and olives and olive oil and, you know, a lot of good healthy fats in your diet. And it may even be a good idea to go get like a, like a 24 hour urine sex steroid panel to take a look at, you know, where your estrogens are at and whether or not you've got a good estrogen progesterone balance and whether you've got enough hormones on board. And if you do and you're also going, you know, gluten free and getting in enough vitamins and minerals and supplements, I don't think there' sthere's big reason for worry here.

You know, with all the talk about everybody going gluten free and being able to buy gluten free stuff everywhere, there seems to be a lot of people are just jumping on board as it's like, as if it's some sort of a cure all or is going to make everybody thin or everybody more beautiful, or it seems to be sort of the choice of the day for diets is this rare that you actually. That there is a benefit, like when you're not celiac, that you actually see this kind of benefit from going gluten free?

Yeah, you can certainly see a lot of benefit from going gluten free, primarily because most of the foods out there that contain gluten, they aren't processed the way that our digestive systems have grown used to for literally thousands of years. I mean, in the past century, breads, pastas, grains, everything quit being sprouted and soaked and essentially goes through a much quicker processing and it's exposed to a lot higher temperatures and pressures and it can sit for long periods of time. And the bread that we eat now is not the bread that our great grandparents were eating. So, you know, there can certainly be a bunch of digestive issues that are kind of taken care of when you go gluten free. And those digestive issues can be extremely related to immune system issues and hormonal issues. And so, you know, like what my wife and I do around our house is if we consume any food that, you know, does contain gluten or phytic acids or or digestive system inhibitors, we soak it, we sprout it, and pretty much our rule is if we're going to have a wheat compound or anything like that, it's soaked, it's sprouted, and that massively improves digestibility and can help out quite a bit with the way that you look, you feel, and you perform. So a gluten free diet that basically consists of going out and just choosing gluten free foods at the grocery store that are packaged and still full of anything from artificial sweeteners to high, high glycemic index foods that are going to spike your blood sugars to lots of preservatives is not technically, in my opinion, a healthy gluten free diet. A healthy gluten free diet just involves preparing your food in a way that kind of minimizes the damage that gluten could cause.

Gotcha. Okay, good to know. Okay, so the next question comes from Erin, and she says she's a big fan of the show. I heard you talk about the use of beet juice for improved endurance performance a few times on the podcast now. And Aaron, you have me to thank for at least two of those questions about beet juice. I'm just curious to know if you've been. If you've actually tried drinking 16 ounces of beet juice. Juice. She tried drinking 8 ounces of at once and was very quickly. It made her very nauseous. She had to pull over the car because she thought she was going to toss her cookies. She's great with other vegetable juices, but she cannot do straight beet juice. And she's wondering if. If other people out there have the same problem.

Yeah, I mean, the. The studies that they've done on beet juice, like, there's the one in. In the. In the Professional Cyclist where they drank, like, 16 ounces of beet juice and they went out and they. They rode in kind of like a simulated competition and they shaved significant seconds off of their finishing time. And then they did another study where they found that it also enhanced performance in endurance athletes and lowered blood pressure and had a lot of these effects.

They were based off the fact that.

Beetroot juice kind of works in the same way that, like, something called nitric oxide does. It can cause vasodilation and better blood delivery to muscles during a workout. The issue is that it is kind of hard for you to digest 16 ounces taken all at once. And that's primarily because the digestion of beet juice requires quite a bit of saliva. What happens is when you drink the beet juice, you get a conversion of a lot of the nitrites to nitrates. I'm sorry, the nitrates to nitrites. What happens is it does require a lot of amylases, a lot of digestive enzymes, and a lot of digestive will and power to do that, as well as the ability to kind of stomach the taste of the stuff. I've never actually drank 16 ounces before. I've gone out and done a workout because I'm not a huge fan of that taste. And you could do a little bit better if you drank it more slowly and also took digestive enzymes along with it, like, particularly something that contains amylases to help with the digestion a little bit. That'll help with the nausea a little bit. And you could also look into using, like, a beet juice capsule or a beet juice powder as well to see if that helps out a bit more. But ultimately, in these studies, if you look at the actual studies themselves, they did have some folks who just dropped out of the study or didn't complete the ride due to some gastrointestinal issues that were probably related to their inability to digest that 16 ounces of beet juice or inability to stomach it. So I would take digestive enzymes, try and sip it slowly. If you can kind of drink your 16 ounces of beet juice over the course of 30 to 60 minutes and that should help out a little bit.

Yeah, I can tell you what, I actually tried this about three weeks ago. I did a marathon. And what I did was the night before, actually the day before the marathon, I started just drinking the odd, like just taking a good swig of beet juice sort of periodically throughout the entire day. Then the night before the race I drank quite a bit of it. I also, when I made my sweet potatoes and quinoa and stuff, I mixed in some, some actual boiled beets. So I got some, some more beat that way and then just before bed drank a little bit more. First thing in the morning, I was all prepared to drink 500 milliliters of the stuff. That was my plan was to drink it two hours before the, before the race and then and be good to go. But yeah, I got about halfway through it and I just couldn't take the flavor anymore. So I actually bailed out after about 200 milliliters. But I did set a personal best by 20 minutes in that race.

Nice. Nice. And I should mention that I actually stayed at a friend's house before my recent ITU World Championships race where I won the gold medal for the USA and had a bunch of beets the night before. During that, a bunch of like, you know, he cooked up some beets and somei think it was beets and we had some salmon and some dark leafy greens. But you know, I ate a fair share of beets the night before that as well. So, you know, I agree there's certainly something to be said for beets. And you know, it's a great, we talked about gluten free, great gluten free carbohydrate source as well. So you know, I was kind of watching, watching the time here as we were talking Brock, and we actually have an appointment with Dr. Josh Axe here in just a couple minutes. So I guess that'll, that'll probably be it for this week's Q and A. Although folks, if you're listening in, keep listening because the upcoming call with Dr. Josh Axe I think is going to be really, really cool. We're going to be talking about organic products and like packaged organic products, whether or not they're healthy, what kind of options there are out there. And I will put a bunch of links in the show notes as well to a lot of the stuff that we talk about with Dr. Josh Axe. If you like him, go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com and do a search for Josh Axe because I've interviewed him before I've got his cookbook. I love his cookbook. I love the stuff he puts out. Brock, you listen to him as well, don't you?

Yeah, he's got a fantastic podcast. He basically turns his radio program into a podcast and it's available on itunes. I've to been listening, listening to it for quite a while. He's got some really great ideas and some of them are quite revolutionary too, as far as I'm concerned. Cool.

Well, we will be right back with the call on organic products with Dr. Josh Axe.

Featured topic.

Hey folks, it's Ben Greenfield and we've got Josh Axe on the call. And the reason that I have Dr. Axe on the call is because he is kind of the expert when it comes to these new organic products that I've been seeing online. You may have seen them too. They kind of started showing up a few weeks ago. They're called Beyond Organic and it's basically this range of packaged organic food. And what I wanted to kind of explore today was whether packaged organic foods can even be healthy and if they're really just marketing hype or if there's anything to be said here when it comes to organic foods. So Josh, first of all, thank you for coming on the call and we've got Brock on the call too, by the way. And second, tell me a little bit about this whole Beyond Organic thing before we delve into me asking you all of my criticisms about what I see in these products.

Sure. Well, I heard about Beyond Organic about a year ago. I'm good friends with Jordan Rubin who's the founder of the company. I actually just let you know a little bit about Jordan too. Jordan Rubin is the author of the Maker's Diet New York Times best selling book. He's the founder and CEO, currently the second largest whole food based nutritional company in the world. It's called Garden of Life. And anyway, he's had a lot of success and these food products that we're now sharing with people Beyond Organic actually helped save his life. Jordan had ulcerative colitis, was went to a visit to the doctor and they told him they were going to have to remove his intestines and it got so bad. He lost about 50 pounds bleeding in his stool, very sick. And then he stumbled upon a natural doctor who told him he needed to change his diet, start changing what he was eating, doing fermented dairy products like kefir, doing a lot of raw foods and he started changing his diet and his body was healed from ulcerative colitis. And these food Literally saved his life. And so that's why he went on to start Garden of Life, why now he started the Beyond Organic company. Really, the mission of Beyond Organic is to create the world's healthiest food. And I can tell you, I'm a big foodist myself. I've got my own cookbook. I've got a. I'm big into health food. And these foods are basically ideally what, you know, what I want to be putting my body on a daily basis. So, again, the mission is creating the healthiest foods in the world, and that's just what they're doing.

Cool.

So, of course, I'll put a link for people listening in some of the stuff I'm going to go through with you here, Josh. But I guess I just want to launch into these products. And the first thing that I noticed when I got on the site was there's beverages. And of course, I always kind of have my eyebrow raised whenever I see healthy beverages for two reasons. I get a little bit concerned about whatever sugar, artificial sweetener content might be in them. But second, when it's beverages like these on this site that are claiming probiotic activity and, you know, living bacteria, living healthy bacteria in the actual products, you know, I always wonder what's going on, because most of the stuff out there, it's pasteurized, it's exposed to a lot of. A lot of high temperatures, and most of the time the bacteria is pretty much dead from, like, the. Like the kombucha and a lot of the kefirs and stuff that you find out there. So first thing I noticed was, and this is probably because my wife and I make and drink our own kefir. Was this cultured dairy product, I think you pronounce it Onasai, but it's a cultured dairy product. It's supposed to have a bunch of probiotics in it. Tell me a little bit about this and also tell me how you actually keep probiotics alive in drink form and still are able to ship it to somebody's house.

Sure, yeah. Great question, Ben. The Amasi Jordan stumbled upon this food when he was over in Africa. The dominant tribe in Africa known to have the longest lifespan now is called the Masi tribe. What they did is they fermented milk out of a gourd and they created what they call a mossy. And so Jordan went over there, he tasted it, he loved it. And this is very similar to a Keeper. It tastes more like a drinkable yogurt. And I'll tell you the I consumed it Myself, and I love it. I actually had it at a smoothie this morning for breakfast and it tastes great. But the bigger reason I'm drinking it is the health benefit. You know, today a lot of farmers are getting arrested for giving out raw, for selling raw milk. Actually just saw a recent Omnic farmer who went to jail for it, which, that's a totally another topic that I know we probably both feel strongly for that. Again, we should be able to consume what we want. But when we look at Amazi, typically things have to be pasteurized when they're dairy, specifically when we're talking about milk and yogurt products. However, Jordan kind of found a, I don't want to call it a loophole, but kind of in the system to where. And here's what happens in pasteurization today. And I haven't drank anything that's been pasteurized for years. I don't even get close to it because it gives me severe allergies when I do consume pasteurized dairy. But typically things are flash pasteurized today, well over typically even 200 degrees. Kills off all the vitamins, all the minerals. Also a big problem is it denatures the protein and it basically kills off the good bacteria that we've been talking about here. Now this Amasi product, what they were able to do is they were able to heat it up for a little bit longer period of time. But it's below 140 degrees, it's around 130 degrees. And when it's below 140 degrees, none of the proteins are denatured. Most of the good bacteria is kept intact. And so it's really still a really a superfood and a health food. Now, it's not considered raw by some raw foodists. Some raw foods say, hey, it has to stay below 118 degrees in order to be raw. So this is slightly above that. But overall, again, all the vitamins, all the nutrients, all the proteins are still in. So you're basically getting the same thing you would be getting from the farm. Now here's another thing. Jordan wanted to make sure that this food was high in probiotics and it was cultured for a long time. If you go into a place like Whole Foods today, they culture their top of the line kefir for four hours. This is actually cultured for well over 16 hours in their facilities there in Missouri. And so this product is very, very high in probiotics. Now, legally, they're not allowed to put something on the label, but I can tell you that if you Drink this product just like when. And Ben, you know this feeling. If you drink, well, kefir, even if someone takes a supplement today, you can take a couple billion probiotic units and you don't necessarily feel a lot in your stomach. But when you drink that kefir, you're feeling something happening. You know what I'm talking about there.

Right?

Right. It's not a bad something. It's not I'm going to be stuck.

In the toilet for three hours type of deal.

Exactly. It's a good something. You can feel that bacteria working in your system, and you feel that exact same thing here with the amoxy. And it's just. It's an amazing product. Everything is still intact. And it's legally again, gets through processing, but yet again, still, everything is intact. And there's three flavors now. There's a plain, there's a honey and. And there's a raspberry flavor. They do add some honey to, like, the honey flavor. There is some. I've gotten questions about the sugar. You know, should sugars be a concern? Sugars are a concern specifically when they're isolated. So if you're just out there drinking soda or even some of these kombuchas out there that are pasteurized, basically, it's not a whole lot better than sugar water. And it's a bigger problem when they're isolated. The good thing about this don't eat honey is probably your. Your best form of sugar that you can consume. Also, it's mixed with all the healthy protein in the amasson, all the healthy fat. So it's going to lessen the effect. And the plain has no added sugar at all. It's just, again, it's plain. Just like you have your plain beef or plain yogurt.

Right. Go ahead.

So you said that earlier on, you said that it tasted like yogurt, and now there's some flavors and stuff. So I have to admit, when I hear the words fermented milk, and especially when you were talking about them fermenting in gourds, that doesn't sound that appetizing to me. But it sounds like you're saying that it's quite delicious.

Well, yeah, I'll tell you it's delicious. Now, it depends on. I'd say the person, but if you drink, let's say anyone out there that's done yogurt before, when you eat yogurt plain. Now, I love it. And you guys may love it as well. Oh, yeah. So when I do a flame, I like it. For some people, though, they really want that fruit in there or they need something just to add a little bit of sweetness to it and a little bit of tartness. And it's the same thing here. Again, they added some raspberries into one of the flavors. It's amazing. Added a little bit of honey in the other. And I'll tell you, when they added a little bit of those flavors, it really tastes great. And I do this myself. What I do is I take the plain amasi, typically I'll throw in a handful of blueberries or raspberries just to sweeten it up a bit and it really tastes amazing.

Okay, gotcha. Kind of a concern here for me, Josh. And I don't know if you heard this NPR special, Brock, or Josh, but there was a big deal last month that came out about honey. And I see that you're using honey in this. I see you're using, I think it's honey in the other thing you have that's kind of like kefir that I'll ask you about in a second. But the fact was that a lot of the honey had the pollen removed. And so essentially it didn't have all those health benefits that raw honey is supposed to have in terms of like anti allergenic and immune system boosting properties. And so you basically just get like fructose with none of the positive health benefits. So when it comes to honey, I mean, are you guys kind of. I guess it sounded like it was really, really hard to find raw honey that actually had the pollen still added. Where do you guys stand with that, with, with the beyond organic stuff?

Well, let me say this first off about Jordan Rubin. Of all the people I've ever met, I've never seen anyone who pursued excellence as much as he has. Also all these products are the products that he's consuming and the product I'm consuming. So we tried to make these the top of mind products that we would be giving our own families. And so when we look at the honey, we actually chose a raw organic honey. And so again, I know the honey is organic and raw. All of the pollen is in there still. And so really that's. And I'll tell you, I see the same thing a lot of times. A lot of these companies will promote that they have honey in their product or they'll have berries or things along those lines. But again, they're just marketing gimmicks and marketing tools. Again, the really main goal of the company is we want to create the healthiest foods on the planet because, you know, some of us are able to go to our farmers and we can pick up some of these foods and it's easy to do. But for a lot of people like myself, I live more in the city. It's a little bit harder for us. We got to drive an hour out in the country and try and get stuff under the table of being a city going to black market and worrying about getting arrested to try and get some of these foods. So we really wanted to bypass that and figure out how to get this right into people's head. The great thing that I love is I went on the large site, ordered products, three or four days later, I've got this mossy grass fed beef. All these things shipped right to my home. And that's something that's real exciting. One other thing here to touch on, one of the things that we wanted to do with Beyond Organic is we wanted to support local farmers. One of the things that Beyond Organic is doing is they have something called a healthy living account. If you're purchasing a certain amount of food or if you've referred some people to buy the food, you get something called a healthy living account where you get anywhere from 200 to $800 a month that you get to spend on natural health care practitioners like chiropractors and massage therapists, or you can spend it at your farmer's market. So actually they're really trying to promote partnerships with different farmers markets and local farmers and buying these products.

Wow, that's very unique. I don't think I've ever heard of any kind of program like that before.

Yeah, frankly when I first heard about this packaged organic food that was being sold, I was like, eh, who cares? I don't care because I'm surrounded by all these farms. But there are many, many, many folks who I coach and I work with.

And people that I know listening to.

The show who are really, they really kind of live in like organic food oases or maybe they don't have access to this stuff. Or I want to talk about some of these other foods that are on the website just because some of it's just pretty dang appetizing looking stuff. Let me ask you about this other beverage before we talk about some of the foods that are on here. The other beverage that I see here is, forgive me if I pronounce this incorrectly, but I think it's Suero Viv. And it looks like maybe it's something kind of like kombucha. My wife and I brew our own kombucha. And when I Looked over the ingredients on this, It's. It kind of looks similar, but a little different. What's going on with this cultured beverage?

Well, the Suarez vivre, actually, in French, it means way of life. And so the reason they use it is they fermented the whey as part of what they did. Suarez Viva is actually. It's like a cross between coconut water kombucha. It's full of all the electrolytes you're going to find in something like coconut water actually has seven times the amount of potassium as something like a Gatorade would. So very high in potassium. Also, again, it's like a kombucha. It's permanent. It's very high in probiotics, which is great for digestion. Now, I'll tell you, I'm a triathlete like yourself, Ben. I love working out. We really created this as the ideal workout drink. Also with some of the amino acids in there. There's about 6 to 7 grams of protein per bottle that aids in recovery during workout. And yet it's not too much for your body to handle. This summer, I'll be traveling to London for the 2012 Olympics. I'm actually one of the official physicians for USA Wrestling, USA Judo, and USA Weightlifting. And this is something we really plan on giving to a lot of the Olympic athletes to consume, to give them an edge in training, helping their recovery. And so just to know, a lot of Olympic athletes are going to be drinking the Swear of Eve, I know a lot of the wrestlers already in training are starting to consume it. And so again, this is great for people pre workout, during workout, and post workout.

So that's something that we could throw into a water bottle and take out on a. On a long training run for like you're training for a marathon or something like that.

Exactly. Right.

Okay, interesting.

So kind of a weird spin on kombucha. Okay, cool.

That sounds good, actually.

So you also have, and this is something, I guess, that unlike maybe drinks, people might not be so familiar with getting shipped to their house or buying online, but you've got beef on here. So tell me, first of all, what's going on with this beef? Why is this type of organic beef good? And if somebody wanted to get this stuff, how is it shipped to your house and still kept safe and everything?

Sure. Hey, great question, Ben. And this is a question we've gotten fairly often. First off, I want to get into a little bit of. There's several unique things here about the beef. Number one, we have three categories of foods Today we have conventional, you have organic. And then there's also what's called now beyond organic. And really we wanted to raise that standard to the next level. Again, organic foods are great, yet they are not the best they can possibly be. Let me give you an example. Today when you read something that says grass fed beef today the organic standard says in order to be called grass fed, it actually only has to be fed grass 30% of the year. Not 100% of the year, only 30% of the year. And so a lot of these products and grass fed beans today that you're consuming really isn't as high in omega 3s as it should be. Now I can give you an example. I mean if you guys are Brock, I know you're up in Canada, Ben you're up in Washington, there's going to be snow on the ground. And so some of these cows really are only eating grass in the summer. And a lot of times what they do is they do grass finish it on grains. And when they did studies, we looked at studies on conventional beef on organic grass fed. And then the beyond organic conventional, they tested them for two nutrients. One is called cla. This is conjugated linoleic acid. CLA is the number one fat burning supplement on the market right now. And CLA has also been shown to help fight cancer in recent research studies. In fact, there are 35 clinical studies showing that CLA helps in weight loss and burning body fat. Now if you do conventional beef today, it has anywhere from 0-60mg of CLA. If you look at grafts that organic, it has anywhere from 60mg to probably 250mg. If you're looking at this beyond organic beef, it's probably anywhere from 250 to maybe even closer to 500 milligrams of CLA, which helps burn fat and fight cancer. And so that's very, very significant. The other thing we're looking at is omega 3 fats. In fact, the thing about beyond organic is we don't call it grass fed, we call it grain fed because we're making sure that our cows are eating grass 100% of the year, their entire life, in the winter included. And so they're eating this grass and what they did testing for the omega 3 fat in this green fed beef and beyond organic and they found that it has a one to two ratio. Your typical grass that you pick up at your farmer has a 4 to 1 ratio, 1 to 2. So it has double the amount of omega 3 fats that you'll find in traditional green fed beef. The other thing is again, it's fully organic, no vaccines, no antibiotics, no steroids. And also it's killed in a kosher manner. This is really one of the first companies where the cattle is killed biblically and the food and the beef is also fed organically grass through its entire life. And I'll tell you, this is actually a big deal. Most farmers today, even your local farmers, will kill cattle by electrocution or through shooting them in the head. Now when you're killing an animal in that way, it sends a surge of hormones throughout their entire body, especially in electrocution. And it will damage the meat, damage the cells, it will fall. The cow creates basically bad hormones in the body, just like if they were injected with hormones, which is really bad for the cow and it's bad for you. And so that's another thing really. First company, biblically based processing methods and you know, organic as well.

Interesting.

So let me touch on it.

Oh, go ahead.

Let me touch on the shipping too, because that's a question I didn't get to answer. The shipping, everything is done through, it's set in a freeze dried on dry ice. And so Jordan with Garden of Light, he has all his raw food, all his raw supplement products like raw probiotics and raw enzymes. So they've been using that method for years. And so I just got the shipment to my house and it was shipped to my house. It was frozen just like it should have been, even though it shipped over a three day period and again still fully frozen on that dry ice. Very cool.

Now that actually leads me to one of the questions I was going to ask. And that's because I live in Canada and I know there's a lot of listeners out there that aren't in the United States. Do you guys ship to any international destinations or have any of that in plans?

Yeah, we do actually. Canada is going to be the first place we're going to open up shipment to. That'll probably be the beginning of the year 2013. So just over a year away, we'll start offering these products in Canada. After that we're going to expand probably a couple years later into Europe and also in Australia and some other areas. So, you know, Canadians are number one on the list. We're going to get those foods up there to you guys. Now just a side note, with Beyond Organic, people can just buy these foods retail. They can buy as a preferred customer where they get a 20% discount on all foods. It's kind of like having a Sam's Club membership. They just pay $19.95 one time fee and basically, again, they get all the foods at a discount. But also, if people want to, they can refer friends and family and do this as a business. I actually have one friend up in Toronto and he's doing this as a business. Even though he's unable to get the foods himself right now until next year, he's actually still running a beyond organic business, which is pretty cool. But, you know, we're big fans of Canadians here. We really want to help get to foods again. They're number one on the list.

All right, thanks.

So, you know, I've got one other question about this beef and that is the issue with like a one versus A two cattle. Can you kind of explain what that is, Josh, and what kind of cattle you guys actually use?

Yeah, that's a great question. Really. This is a really very important aspect of what Jordan and what Beyond Organic is trying to do. You have two types of cattle. Actually, there's over 100 types of cattle, but species wise, you have a type of cattle called Holstein cattle, which is very prominent here in the United States, in North America and Canada. There's another type of cattle called Bosch cattle that's over in places like the Middle east and Africa. Now, most of our cattle today, just like we have genetically modified corn and soy, most of our cows may have been genetically modified over time to be able to produce a lot of milk. In fact, most Holstein cows today live about seven to nine years because they're injected with so many steroids and antibiotics that they just die early. Basically health these things to death. It's very, very sad process. And again, you look at animal cruelty, any conventional company out there today, for the most part, that's what they're practicing, by the way they treat their cows. Now these Holstein cattle have a type of protein called beta casein A1. So it's known casein A1. And this is a protein that many kids on the autism spectrum are allergic to. I work with a lot of kids with things like Asperger's and they're very allergic to many dairy products. We put them on what's called a gluten free casein free diet. I know myself, I've been allergic to that sort of protein for a long time. So I would do okay with goat's milk or sheep's cheese, but I couldn't do cow's milk. Now I went out to the ranch here in June and Jordan said Hey, I think you're going to do fine with this sort of other cow milk, which is from Boscattle. Its protein is not A1, it's called A2 casein. I went ahead and drank the milk, ate the cheese, did the Amazon, had no allergies whatsoever. This boss cattle is actually a genetically superior type of cattle. Jordan actually, I know, just shipped another 10 cows over from somewhere in the Middle east in Kiskatal. And again, he's basically breeding these super cows that are the healthiest cows possible. Again, you look at most cows today, they are very, very sick in the US and that's where we're getting a lot of our dairy products. And whether it's raw, organic or conventional. Again, a lot of these Holstein cattle have been genetically modified over the years. And there's a great book on the topic called the Devil is in the Milk if you want to read them.

Milk.

The Devil is in the Milk is what the book is called.

Okay, cool. I'll put a link to that in the show notes for folks. I'll have to add that to my reading list as well. That's one I haven't heard of. Devil is in the Milk. Okay, cool. So I noticed that you got this beef, looks like you can get it as a hot dog or a patty, but then you also have these raw cheeses. Are those kind of coming from the same type of cattle?

And what's the deal with those?

Exactly. It's coming from the same type of cattle. Again, it's all the A2 casein. In that fact, the Beyond Organic flock of cattle is the only cattle that's certified in the US to be all A2 cattle, which is pretty awesome. Now the thing about the cheese is, and I did some of this cheese last night, there's a raw cheddar, there's a raw Homarti. Also there's a raw blue cheddar coming out here in about six weeks, which I'm really excited about. But the raw cheese, it's never heated above 101 degrees. So again, it's completely raw. It's been aged over 60 days. Very flavorful inside. I think it's. I know it's the tastiest cheese I've ever had. It's very good. Just some significant health factors about it. The omega 3 to omega 6 content is a one to one ratio, which means this is highly anti inflammatory. You know, most diseases today are inflammatory in nature. Ulcerative colitis, that's inflammation of the intestines. Arthritis, that's inflammation of the Joint heart disease is actually inflammation of the arteries. The number one way to reduce inflammation is by consuming good omega 3 fatty acids. And this cheese is very high in omega 3s. Also, it's very high in cla that we talked about earlier. And 1 ounce of this raw cheese has 7 grams of highly absorbable protein. So if you're looking to burn fat, build muscle, lose weight, the cheese is great. If you're looking for a healthy snack, kids absolutely love this cheese as well. And also it's got probiotics in it, so it aids in digestion. And so, again, the cheese is very, very healthy. And the other great thing about these products, I got a question here recently about shelf life. The shelf life of the amasi is two months or more. The cheese is at least three months. The great thing is you can order these products and you can keep them in the fridge for months. Now, most of the time, I've experienced it when we've had everybody who's tried them already. By the way, there are tens of thousands of people who have already gone on and tried these products. The company just launched about four weeks ago, but I know that I've already ate probably four packs of cheese and I don't know, 12 bottles of mafia. All right.

Wow. Yeah. It's a pity that Thanksgiving is tomorrow.

Because I would have grabbed some.

So we've got the cheese, the beef, these drinks, and then the last thing that I kind of saved for last because it is a little bit desserty and also because kind of surprised me, but there's actually a chocolate on here. And chocolate is not something you often think of as a health food per se. I see that this chocolate has got some probiotics and omega 3s added to it. So what's kind of the deal?

What's going on with the chocolate?

Well, first off, we've got several questions about, well, how can chocolate be healthy? Well, chocolate can be healthy. There's a lot of good nutrients in here. Now, I'll say this. There is some sugar in there, but it's very, very low amount of sugar. And also, the serving size of this is just. It's 35 grams. They didn't do the whole large bar. They did about a third of a bar. And I'll tell you, it's very satisfying. But several things here. One, it's got over 60% cocoa powder in it. Cocoa is one of the top antioxidants on the planet. Very good for anti aging. Also, it's full of flaxseeds. Now, first they added the Flaxseeds because they wanted to add a health benefit.

Really.

The other thing that happened, though, it added more flavor to it and a better texture. I'll tell you, this tastes very similar to, like, a dark chocolate Nestle Crunch, those flax seeds. Actually, one of those bars has 1,000 milligrams of omega 3 fat. And because of the flaxseeds, it's got 4 grams of fiber per serving. And so even if there is, there's only about 12 grams of sugar, which is very minimal. If you look at a Snickers bar, it's got probably 40 or 50 grams of sugar in just that alone. So it's really just 12 grams. High in fiber, high in good, healthy fat, high in antioxidants, and high in omega 3 fats. And so, again, it's a healthy dessert that I know I've loved. I typically am just doing. And it's nice for people. Again, 99% of people here on the line love chocolate. I know there's probably 1% of people who are maybe total freaks, so they do wheatgrass shots for dessert. But for most people here, those dark chocolate bars are a healthy way to satisfy their sweet tooth.

I'm a little concerned that there's probably some people out there listening right now that are thinking, I'm gonna live off of this stuff. It sounds amazing. That would be a little bit dangerous, though, I think.

I don't know.

Everything is not okay.

I could pull it off. All right, well, cool. Like I said, I'm going to put a link to this stuff in the show notes. I had seen it. I was kind of on the fence about whether or not the products were really, truly healthy. But I think after talking to you, it looks like there's the option to go on there and order kind of like a paper sack full of the sampling of all these different things that we talked about. The dairy beverage and the kombucha stuff and the. The beef and the chocolate and the cheese. So I think what I'm going to do is go on there and pick up a bundled package and just try this stuff out now after talking to you. So I'll put a link there for other people as well.

Well, awesome, Ben. Well, let me just kind of close here by saying, you know, I think you're going to love these foods. I would just challenge everybody. Hey, go and try some of them. They're delicious. They're really healthy. Also, you know, we tell people, really, there's three ways to win, and there's three ways to buy. You can just buy retail. So if someone just wants to go on there and buy some of the spring water or buy some of the chocolate or just a few things via mafi, they can buy retail. Also, those people, what they're choosing to do is buy that kind of Sam's Club like membership where they just pay $20 and then they get 20% off of all of the products, which is pretty amazing. Also, people do that if they refer their friends and family members. What they're able to do is actually get points back and potentially get their food for free. Or people can sign up as a mission marketer, do it as a mini business again, refer friends, refer family, and then they have the potential to get that healthy living account where they can spend food not just on beyond organic products, but also at local healthcare providers, farmers markets, whole foods, and places like that as well, which is pretty awesome. So if people follow the link on your site, then they can again look at those three ways to win. Also, there's a great video online. It goes into detail more about beyond Organic. It's a seven minute video. You can check under the opportunity section. It's pretty phenomenal. If people have extra questions, they can run out to my Facebook page. I know Ben and Brock are both very, very, very knowledgeable. So thanks, guys for having me on. I'm really excited about helping the world live beyond organic because that's really what this is about, is changing the world, helping save lives through proper nutrition.

I think you guys did a great thing right on the homepage, having the holy trinity of food, the cheese, the beef and the chocolate. You had me right there.

Boom.

There you go.

I had you at cheese.

Dr. Axe. Thank you, folks. If you're a fan of Josh axe, go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com, do a search for Josh Axe, and you'll find it on.

Interview that I did with him. That was really good.

And while you're there, grab his.

Grab his little cookbook too, because it's pretty cool.

Sign up for his newsletter as well. I'm on the newsletter. It's a fantastic way to get some great information.

Cool.

Well, awesome.

Well, thanks, guys.

All right, thanks, Dr. Axe.

Have a blessed day. Thanks, everybody. See you, Josh.

All right, well, that was pretty interesting.

I actually was kind of salivating for some reason.

The amasai sounded really good to me.

And the chocolate sounded pretty good.

Yeah, it was the cheese that got my stomach growling.

Yeah. Too bad you're up in Canada.

Yeah, I have to pop across the border to Buffalo and find Somebody who.

I don't know, take some across the border.

We've got people doing weed runs nearby here up on the Vancouver border with.

Some of the BC bud. So maybe I'll see if I can get some chocolate up your way.

It's awesome.

Well, that about wraps up everything that we have to go over. So, you know, this was the first podcast with the new host. So, folks, thanks for. Thanks for listening. Listening to us piece it together here.

And listening to me effectively double the length of time that it takes to get through the show.

That's alright.

We'll iron that out. We'll get a little more sleep.

I just gotta get used to the Canadian accent.

So.

Itunes, what are you talking about?

You go to itunes, update your itunes. You can download all the podcasts like I mentioned. Leave a ranking while you're over there.

And of course, you can access the.

Show notes as well as the beyond organic stuff. I'll put a link to all that stuff that we just talked about over in the show notes and leave comments underneath if you have questions. And actually, last time we interviewed Dr.

Ax actually was pretty good about coming over to BenGreenfieldFitness.com and kind of answering people's questions in the comments section there.

Very cool.

All right, well, that about wraps it up for this week. Next week we've got a cool interview coming out with Lance Armstrong's strength condition coach. And we'll be somehow doing that as I'm stringing my way down to Thailand on a series of planes and airports.

But we'll come back you.

Either way, Brock and I will connect.

And we'll get you the next episode.

We'll make it happen.

All right, folks, so until next time.

This is Ben and Brock signing out.

Wow.