Podcast Episode #16: All About Protein, Enzymes & Probiotics!

Podcast episode number 16 from BenGreenfieldFitness.com welcome to the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast. This is your weekly free audio exposure to cutting edge fitness, diet and wellness news. Hey, whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you're just trying to shed a few pounds, this podcast is going to present you with the latest exercise and nutrition content from the nation's top experts. My name is Ben Greenfield. I I'm a personal trainer, certified nutritionist, an exercise, diet and wellness guru. Each week I'm going to be bringing you cutting edge fitness, nutrition and wellness advice. Stay tuned for this Week's podcast from BenGreenfieldFitness.com. In this September 26, 2008 podcast going to be introducing some new content that appeared this this week at BenGreenfieldFitness.com we've got a listener Q and A on creatine supplementation. A fantastic interview today with Joe Stout where we talk about probiotics, whey protein, casein protein, digestive enzymes and colostrum supplementation. A lot of interesting information in that interview. You aren't going to want to miss it. And then finally, I'll be talking a little bit more about the synergy system of fitness and nutrition and and how I apply that to achieve optimum fitness and wellness. So whether you're running, biking, lifting, lounging or driving, sit back and listen in to this Week's episode from BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Just a couple things to mention for this week's new content@BenGreenfieldFitness.com the first is a really interesting post on aqua jogging, and as many of you may know, I've been fighting it band Friction syndrome as I prepare for the Ironman World Championships, which I actually leave for this coming Friday down in Kailua Kona in Hawaii. And I've had a heck of a time training through this injury, but one of the ways that I've maintained my fitness has been through aqua jogging. A lot of people don't do much aqua jogging because they're not really sure how or they don't feel like it gives them a good workout. Or maybe they just don't exactly know what kind of equipment they need. Well, I go through everything from a sample workout to all the different types of equipment that are going to make your experience a lot better while you're aqua jogging. Everything from shoes to the belt to the underwater MP3 player and basically talk about how to maintain your fitness levels through injury with something like aqua jogging. So That's a fantastic post that you can go check out@BenGreenfieldFitness.com the post was on September 23, 2008 if you want to look for it in the archives. The other thing that I've done is adjusted some of the advertisements on the right hand side of the page at Ben Greenfield Fitness so that some of the discount codes that you can use on the product products are there. And I also added a new link to a website that I'm really happy with that I've been using for a lot of my swimming and pool workout type of gear and that's swimoutlet.com not only do they have just a ton of different products for water fitness, but really good deals on shipping. And for example, all the aqua fitness items that I use for aqua jogging I talk about in that aqua jogging post. I got all that stuff from swimoutlet.com it arrived at my house two days after I ordered it. It was free Shipp. So anyways, check out that link. And I've also got a link to one of the other things that I've been using to control the severity of the IT band Friction syndrome. And that is a way that I actually warm up the muscle prior to training. I use like a topical oil that brings blood to the area that this oil is applied to. It's got cayenne pepper and some other things that cause blood vessel wide vessels vasodilation in an area. It's called Greyhound Juice. Put a link to it there on the right hand side of the page@BenGreenfieldFitness.com but that stuff is really interesting. I encourage you to get it and try it out. Just make sure not to rub any of that in your eye or on any other sensitive area as it really does heat up the muscle quite a bit. So it works fantastic though to bring a muscle up to its ideal temperature or exercise. So that's all the new content for this week from BenGreenfieldFitness.com let's move on to this week's listener Q AND A. Listener Q and A. I have a confession. I lied. I did not actually receive this week's question from a listener. I received it from one of the clients that I work with here in Spokane, Washington on a face to face basis. And this client was interested in creatine supplementation and whether or not I personally actually supplement with creatine and if so, what do I use? Now for those of you who are curious about what creatine actually is, well basically there are different energy systems that our body uses to produce ATP or energy. And one of those systems is for periods of long bouts of exercise. It's called beta oxidation, and it's the breakdown of fat for use as energy. Another energy system that we have is called the Krebs cycle. And the Krebs cycle is again, used for longer activities, longer periods of slightly more intense exercise than would be utilized. Beta oxidation, but it's called the Krebs cycle cycle. And the Krebs cycle breaks down carbohydrate and converts it into energy at a somewhat slow rate compared to another energy system called glycolysis. Glycolysis is the breakdown of blood sugar into energy a little bit quicker, usually for bouts of up to about two minutes of more intense exercise. The final energy system that our bodies have is called the phosphogenic and energy system. And the phosphogenic energy system involves breaking down not sugar, not fat, but rather creatine into energy. It's for very, very quick bouts of energy, anywhere from 1 to 30 seconds in length. And so when you supplement with creatine, the idea is that you are giving your body a little bit more power at those ranges where you're producing very quick and very powerful bouts of a muscular contraction. Now, for those of you wondering why myself, an endurance athlete, would be taking something like creatine, well, there is evidence to suggest that creatine supplementation not only will help increase your power or your force application when you're doing something like bicycling or running, but it can also have a little bit of a glycogen sparing effect or a carbohydrate sparing effect, meaning that when you supplement with creatine, your muscles will use just a little bit less glucose and a little bit more creatine with each muscular contraction. And so it can benefit you in that sense. Now, some of the concerns about creatine have been water weight or water gain. Creatine is something that can draw water into a muscle. And subsequently, another problem that's a related issue with creatine is that with that increased water content of the muscle or the joint, we can experience cramping. Now, weight gain and cramping would obviously be deleterious for most forms of exercise. And so the problem with creatine a lot of times in the past has been that you get that power effect, but you also get some of those damaging effects of the cramping and weight gain. I would also caution you that if you are not exercising frequently, you may not want to take creatine, because you're essentially just dumping a substance into your body that your body isn't going to use, especially if you're not burning through your endogenous stores of creatine or the creatine that your muscles already have on hand. If you're exercising quite a bit, or if you have a need to do quite a bit of powerful muscular contractions over a long or short period of time, you may find that creatine actually offers you quite a bit of benefit. Now, the form of creatine that I take is from a company called Millennium Sports, and it's called Creo 2. And it was designed with endurance athletes in mind, because it's not only a creatine that basically stays intact in the acidic environment, but of the stomach, which is a little bit unique among the creatine supplements that are out there. But it also contains a lot of additional supplements that drastically enhance your VO2 max or your oxygen utilization, as well as your endurance levels, the ability of your capillaries to increase in size for enhanced oxygen delivery. It contains some buffers for lactic acid so that you're able to handle higher levels of lactic acid. And it also contains something called alpha lipoic acid, which is a really powerful antioxidant. And when you're exercising or when you're eating a lot of food, which people who exercise do, then your body creates quite a few free radicals. And so this alpha lipoic acid helps to buffer a lot of the free radicals. Now, some of you are familiar with one of the podcast episodes where I talked about the supplements that I take, for example, in the morning when I wake up. And one of them was Cortagen, which basically is kind of an adrenal support supplement that can increase the adrenal activation of lung tissue. And it also has a very strong effect on your immune system and your stamina. And this creatine supplement also contains pretty high levels of cortison, as well as rhodiola and a couple of other mushroom and fungi based derivatives that have been used for thousands of years in Chinese herbal medicine and are now used in this product. So it's very, very unique in that it contains not just creatine, but also a lot of other supplements that will enhance exercise, whether it be endurance exercise, or, for example, more powerful sprint based exercise like soccer or basketball, or something of that nature. Now, this creatine is something that I do not take year round. I typically will take it leading up to my more important events, just because I like my body to be very, very sensitive to the supplements that I take. And sometimes I feel that it's good for the body to not be taking supplements year round, but to occasionally cycle yourself off of certain supplements if you're not in periods of heavy exercise or preparing for some type of event. So this Creo 2 is something I would highly recommend for an active individual who is doing something like a triathlon or a very, very important athletic event, or trying to max out in the weight room or something of that nature. It's not something that you would take. If you're a sedentary individual who's just wanting basic immune system support, you would want to take something like a multivitamin or fish oil. It's also not something that you would take for weight loss necessarily. Now, this particular creatine, the other reason I like it is I've never experienced weight gain and I've never experienced cramping. And none of my clients that have used it have ever experienced any, anything of that nature. And this is something that I have not observed with other creatine products. So I'm a big fan of the Creo 2, and I'll put a link in the show notes to the Millennium Sports website where you can actually get your hands on this stuff. So we're going to go ahead and move on to a really interesting interview on proteins, probiotics, digestive enzymes and colostrum. So stay tuned for this interview. You're not going to want to miss it. Hey, podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield from BenGreenfieldFitness.com and today I'm very excited about the guy that we're going to be interviewing, because as people learn more about nutrition supplementation, the holistic approach to wellness, there are some nutritional supplements that we hear a little bit more about. And a few of those include things like whey protein. I've had some of my clients ask me about colostrum, digestive enzymes, probiotics. And so I decided to get somebody on the show who is the expert in this stuff. And I'm going to be interviewing Joe Stout today. And Joe studied human nutrition and food science at Washington State University. And he's actually the head of research for Mount Capra Whole Food Nutritionals. Joe's in the research field currently. He's pursuing a master's degree in clinical human nutrition. And he's studying things like the pathophysiologic basis of metabolic disease, the biochemistry of nutrition, clinical biochemistry. He really does know quite a bit about the biochemical side of nutrition, how it can Affect us and our health. He's the editor of a newsletter that I've received several times that actually has a lot of good information in it about the things that we'll talk about today. It's called the High Road to Health newsletter. At the end of this podcast, we'll include some information on how you can find out more about Joe, his newsletter. He does have a website and we'll put all that out at the end of this interview. Joe, I want to thank you for joining us today. You over there.

Yeah, well, thanks a lot for the introduction there. It's good to be here.

Fantastic. Hey, you know, basically I want to jump right into things here and when I, when I go to, for instance, you know, the General Nutrition center to purchase a protein or, you know, I'm shopping for a protein online, there's a lot of different proteins out there and I've talked about some of them on this show. But from what I understand, Mount Capra actually uses a goat based protein. Is that correct?

Yeah, that's correct.

So how does a goat protein differ from other proteins? Like, I'm assuming that most of the other proteins come from a cow protein. I don't know if that's correct, but could you kind of explain that to me?

Sure, absolutely. Well, you know, actually, Ben, there's a wide array of proteins that are out there. There's soy protein, there's bovine protein, which is cow protein, there's rice protein, egg protein, etc. There's a lot of different, different proteins out there, and it's enough to give anybody a headache if they're out there looking for a specific protein for them. How goat protein differs from those other proteins is that for one thing, it's considered whole protein in that it has all of the essential amino acids as well as the other, what is it, 12 other amino acids as well. A goat protein differs from soy protein in that it does not have limiting amino acids. It differs from rice protein in that same way. However, the difference between cow protein and goat protein are a little bit more, they're a little bit more subtle. And I'm sure we'll get into those as our podcast here kind of continues. So the goat protein, cow protein, you kind of probably put those into the same category because they're known as an animal protein. Does that answer your question?

Well, yeah, in a way. And we know that animal proteins are different from vegetable proteins. You know, one of the things that I preach to my clients is, for instance, post workout nutrition, you always want to try for a Whole amino acid source or a complete profile of amino acids, which would mean that you generally want to consume, you know, an animal protein, like a whey protein or some turkey breast or yogurt or whatever the case may be, versus like a soy protein, a whole grain style protein, a nut protein. But from what I understand, even different types of proteins from animals are assimilated in a different way by the body. Is that true when you look at goat protein versus protein from a cow? I mean, does the body actually process those proteins differently?

You know, I think that there's a lot of research out there that indicates that it does. I know one of the benefits of taking a goat protein over a cow protein is that if you've ever talked to somebody who cannot drink cow milk, it's usually a very good chance that they were able to drink goat milk if they tried it. Cow milk and goat milk, although they might appear to be quite similar, goat milk seems to really line up with the human condition, with people's digestive system a lot better. Therefore, it's the logical step that Goprotein would have, would have that same effect on the body. And actually, I wanted to touch on another point there. When you were talking about having the complete amino acid profile, I think one of the things that can be confusing is that proponents of rice proteins or soy proteins will say, hey, we have a complete amino acid assay of all these amino acids. But the hidden message there is actually that amino acids which will compete for digestion. So even though the biological assay of the protein might have every amino acid in it, in all actuality, there are certain amino acids that are competing with each other in those vegetable based proteins, which is another excellent reason to get your protein from animal sources.

How would amino acids compete with one another? How does that work?

You know, as far as the mechanisms behind why they compete, it kind of has to do with where in the small intestine they are absorbed. And if you have, say, high isoleucine content in a particular protein and that competes with. I'm just pulling an example off the top of my head. If isoleucine really competes with cysteine and you have both really high levels in a vegetable protein, then one of those, then they're going to be competing for their one section of the small intestine that is going to be absorbing them. If they're competing for that, then there's no chance for all of it to be absorbed. Not only is it going to waste, but also digestive problems can come into there. If you're not digesting all your food. I don't know. What have you seen in your research as far as competing amino acids? Because I'm sure this is something that you've talked about before.

Before. We actually haven't talked too much about competing amino acids on the show and this is a new concept for me. Okay, so what you're saying is that basically an animal based protein is not only better for the body because it is a more complete source of amino acids, but also because it is a more balanced source of amino acids.

Exactly. And you find some of these balances in nature. If you were to like for example, pa. If you were to justif all you ate for your protein was say beans. Beans have a good amount of protein in them, then you would be really severely limiting yourself a couple amino acids because they're competing with each other. I don't remember the exact amino acids off the top of my head. There's this concept of synergy amongst your amino acids. Since our bodies are made up of human, since our human bodies are made up of the same type of amino acids as other animals, then it makes sense that we would get our best protein sources from animal sources, if that makes sense.

Okay. And when we're getting them from animal sources, what you're saying is that there's even a difference between like a goat animal source or a cow animal source, for example.

Oh, absolutely. If you take a look at a cow and you take a look at a goat, a cow is a gigantic animal and the milk of the mother cow raising up her calf, her calf is from the time it's born, about as big as some small adults. Whereas if you look at a baby that's taking mother's milk and you look at a kid, a baby kid from a goat, they're about the same size. So there's obviously some energy requirements for a baby goat that would mean it would not do well on cow's milk because the cow's milk was meant to to build up a huge animal, whereas the goat was made to build a more human sized animal. It's kind of a rough comparison, but it gives one of the reasons why so many people struggle with cow's milk and not with goat's milk.

So could this tie into the idea that a greater amount of hormones in the proteins that we're getting from the modern dairy industry could be responsible for, for some of the metabolic diseases and some of the early development in children and some of those other things that we hear about?

Yeah, that's certainly a concern. For many. And I certainly would share in those concerns because certain government organizations want to tell us that there is no problem with it. And yet there's also that part of us that says, well, there's not a ton of research in this area and just because there's no immediate indications that this is bad really does not convince me at all. So I would definitely agree with those who are maybe a little bit nervous about the hormones found in milk and in the subsequent proteins.

Okay, now, when we're talking about protein, one of the terms that is brought up quite consistently is whey protein. I think a lot of people, including maybe some of our listeners, might not exactly understand how we get from a goat or a cow or whatever the case may be. You know, I don't think there's much chicken protein out there. Maybe there is, but how do you get from the cow to the powdered whey protein that we're getting from a canister or a packet?

Right. No, I hear you. That's a great question. In fact, that was a question that I actually received quite a lot. The reason for that is because if you go into any health food store, like you were saying, any GNC out there, you're going to just see so many different types of proteins. And what exactly is a whey protein? Well, basically, whey protein is somewhat of a byproduct of the cheese making industry. So you've got these big dairies out there that are making loads and loads of cheese. Fifty years ago, they would take the byproduct of the cheese making and they'd just pour it down the drain because there was no market for it. But if you make cheese from milk, you get the curds, which actually end up being the cheese that's called casein protein. And you also get this yellowish liquid substance that comes off of it, which is called the whey protein. That whey protein is then concentrated down and it's usually spray dried and it's packaged and sold to consumers. So what was once just a byproduct that was poured down the drain is now a multimillion dollar industry because whey protein has become so popular. One of the big differences between whey protein and what's known as a whole protein is that there is no casein protein in a whey protein concentrate or whey protein isolate. And that is one of the things that Mount Capra has done with their cap protein supplement, with the guill protein supplement, is they've incorporated both the casein and the whey protein together. So Mount Capra does not make our protein supplement is not a byproduct of the cheese making process because our milk is destined to become the protein. We have both the casein and we also have the whey, which is known as a whole protein. And we can get into that a little bit more later on in the podcast because there are some really exciting research out there just indicating whole protein superiority over just isolated proteins like whey proteins. Does that answer your question, Ben?

Yeah, it does. There was a podcast a couple of weeks ago, I think it was podcast episode 13 or 14 where I answered a listener's question who was asking about a good type of protein to take prior to bed. And I mentioned that casein, because it is a slower release protein that basically sends amino acids out into your bloodstream over a six to an eight hour time span, would be something favorable to take for repair or recovery prior to bed. But what I found is that I've received some follow up questions from people who are looking for, you know, like a, like the best of both worlds, like the casein whey protein combination. And I've kinda had a hard time basically finding a lot of sources for that. But you mentioned that there's, there's some research right now that some exciting research on whole proteins. What exactly is that?

Basically what thiswhat this research is discovering is that is exactly kind of what you just touched on is this is the, the concept of combining slow proteins, which are casein proteins, and fast proteins, which are known as whey proteins. Basically, if you just take in whey protein, if you just take your whey protein shake, it's going to sit in your stomach for a very short amount of time and it's going to empty into your small intestine very quickly. What happens is you develop a condition known as amino acidemia. That's a very high level of amino acids in the blood all at once. That has some negative side effects that we don't necessarily need to get into right now. But one of the things that happens is you have a low postprandial protein gain. Postprandial meaning after you've taken your protein supplement, if you take away protein, it's going to come into your body, it's going to be absorbed so quickly into your body that your body can't absorb it, that can't actually gain the protein onto its own. Transfer the protein into human protein fast enough before it's digested into the body. Whereas with the casein protein, or if you do what's known as a whole Protein, which is casein plus whey. It coagulates in the stomach and it's slowly released into the bloodstream, which allows for the body to deal with it in kind of a more neutral way and keeps the amino acid level in your blood from spiking too high and allows the postprandial protein gain to actually be higher. In the studies that I'm referring to.

Now, are you aware of any research currently that looks into using a whole protein supplement during exercise?

You know, one of the things that I think the research was indicating kind of along the lines that you had mentioned in that in the previous podcast, whey protein actually does have the benefit of if you're doing it right in the midst of exercise. But the whole protein is the best way to finish exercise because your body is able to slowly gain that protein onto the muscle, turn it into muscle mass.

Yeah. The reason I ask is, you know, protein does become, for endurance athletes who are exercising for a long period of time, one of the necessary supplements that we have to take, because as the body breaks down, your needs for protein increase during exercise. And I'm usually more along the lines of a branched chain amino acid when I'm exercising for that quick release into the bloodstream. But I was just curious if they'd ever done any studies, you know, comparing, you know, whether it be the amount of blood that's diverted into the stomach or the performance that's affected when someone takes like a casein versus a, versus a whey during exercise.

Yeah, exactly.

I think.

I definitely see the logic in that, because the branched chains do, you know, they're excellent at being absorbed quicker, but with the whole protein concept there, it's really kind of a new field because this is all research that's just been done in the past few years, whereas there's been a ton of wafering research to choose from. So it's an exciting field because it is kind of on the cutting edge right now. And I'm sure that new science will. Will show some things that we previously weren't aware of for sure.

Okay, I have another question, and this is about colostrum, because I personally haven't studied bovine colostrum too much or goat colostrum as a supplement. I do know that some athletes are taking it to, I believe, enhance growth hormone release or enhance performance. For example, I. I think that Chris McCormick, who won Ironman Hawaii last year, is taking some form of a colostrum. But what exactly is a colostrum, Joe?

Well, first of all, colostrum is Produced by any type of mammal. And it's known as kind of the first milk. Milk, technically it's not milk, it's just the first. It's the first secretion by a mammal. What happens is after a mammal gives birth, postpartum, right after birth, colostrum is really high in the milk. Colostrum is high in immunoglobulins, it's high in antibodies which serve as natural ways that the mother of the newly born mammal transfers immunity to her child. So this happens in humans, this happens in goats, in cows, in any mammal you can think of. There's always colostrum in there. For the most part. The colostrum that you see out there on the mall is once again bovine colostrum. It's cal colostrum. But there are other supplements like the Capra. Colostrum that Capra sells is obviously from our goats. It's from the goats. But yeah, you're exactly right. Colostrum supplementation has been done by a lot of athletes, but it's not just athletes. The biological role that colostrum plays is that it enhances cytokine and immunoglobulin activity. Cytokines are part of our systemic immune system and the hormones kind of keep the communication between the immune cells and our bodies active. And so the colostrum stimulates those cytokines to continue working. It also increases lactoferrin. And the biggest thing that a lot of these athletes are interested in is the way it stimulates growth factors like IGF1, IGF2 and EGF, as well as growth hormones. And they boost those levels and allow those athletes to obtain higher than what they could have without it results in whatever they're competing with.

So it sounds like for the average individual who's not exercising to the extent of professional athletics or ultra endurance athletics, probably the benefits of colostrum would be more along the lines of immune system support.

Absolutely. If you're not an endurance athlete, I would still recommend colostrum, but it would be more for the immune benefits. Absolutely.

Okay. And then for the athletes we would be looking at because of that IGF one and the relationship between that and growth hormone, better healing, better recovery, and probably a quicker response to some of the workouts in terms of the muscle breakdown and buildup cycle.

Absolutely. Yeah. It's just going to stimulate all of those processes a little bit better. And I will actually caution some of your athletes here that are listening because these insulin like growth factors, the IGF one found in colostrum is similar. It's actually, it can look in a test similar to hgh, which is an illegal hormone use for athletics. And if you're competing on the Olympic level or something, you're going to want to be careful. You're going to want to be careful supplementing too closely to the race or to whatever your competition might be if you're going to have to take some type of test. Because that IGF1 can sometimes be confused with the HGH, which would get you disqualified. Just be careful. Be careful about that.

Well, I know that Lance Armstrong is a frequent listener to our podcast and so I'm sure that he'll want to take that advice to heart with his new break into professional cycling. Again.

Absolutely.

He wants to be clean on all his tests. Yeah. He actually isn't a listener to this show as far as I know. But you never know, he might be throwing down his Tour de France training sessions and listening to the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast to get him up the hills.

Absolutely.

As far as another thing that kind of ties into the protein and the colostrum, another animal derived product would be things to help digestion. And in particular, I'm thinking about digestive enzymes and probiotics. Are they the same thing?

Actually, you know, digestive enzymes and probiotics are a little bit different. Digestive enzymes are actually specifically just a protein, whereas a probiotic is an active and living beneficial bacteria. So a digestive enzyme specifically is a protein that acts as a catalyst in some type of biological reaction. In the example of a digestive enzyme, he would be a catalyst in the biological activity of breaking down the food that we eat. Does that answer the question, you think?

So when you're supplementing with say, digestive enzyme or probiotic, you're talking about two different supplements. What exactly are. I mean, where do you get digestive enzymes? How do those end up in a bottle full of pills or capsules?

Right. Basically, there's different enzymatic supplements out there and most of them, most of the systemic. There's systemic enzymes and then there's digestive enzymes. Most of the digestive enzymes are aimed mostly at helping you to digest and absorb your food in a superior fashion. For example, if you were to eat a ham and cheese sandwich, all three macronutrients, fats, carbs and protein are in that sandwich. Let's say you're deficient in amylase, which is the enzyme that digests carbohydrates. If you're deficient in amylase, then you're going to really have Trouble digesting those carbohydrates. And that's going to lead to other kinds of diseases or just uncomfortable situations or just disorders. It could be anywhere from irritable bowel syndrome to Crohn's disease to steadorrhea. The list goes on and on for digestive problems. And that's one of the issues that digestive enzymes kind of hope to alleviate.

Now, how about probiotics?

Probiotics are an incredible field that I cannot talk to you enough about, because probiotics, I think, are one of the future's cutting edge of nutrition. Here in the United States, we're not nearly into them as much as other countries. I think we're going to be catching up as far as just general knowledge on the subject. But probiotics are wonderful supplements. The basic premise behind probiotics is that you've got a large intestine that is full of. Of normal flora bacteria, meaning that they're normally there in your large intestine supports your body's immunity in more ways than science even can comprehend. When we have a healthy intestinal gut of probiotics, our immune system generally works quite well. But let's say we get sick and we get put on a bunch of antibiotics. Well, antibiotics are good because they kill the bad bug that's making us sick, but they also literally wipe out the healthy bacteria that were in your stomach. Probiotics are an absolute must if you've just been on an antibiotic regime. Personally, I take probiotics every day because even though I'm not on antibiotics, I think it's a wonderful way of keeping that healthy flora intestinal bacteria in your stomach, or, excuse me, on your stomach, in your large intestine at optimum levels. There's so many different strains of probiotics out there that there's just a little to choose from as well.

So probiotics would be something that you could take every day. I know that some people, when they get onto, for instance, an antibiotic to balance out the good bacteria in the stomach, will become a probiotic regimen simultaneously. But it's something that you could benefit from just by taking on a daily basis.

Absolutely, because what you're basically doing is you're just helping out your immune system do whatever it is that it needs to do. As far as if you especially as probiotics are especially good, if you maybe don't have the best eating habits, because there are certain foods out there that really can wreak havoc on your large intestine and it can wreak havoc on the normal flora in your large intestine. Let's say that you want to have a good diet, but you struggle with the vegetables or whatever it might be. Supplementing with probiotics is a great way of giving your large intestine a helping hand in keeping those normal floral levels at a good level.

So in someone whoand I know a lot of people struggle with this, someone who's very sensitive to wheat and bread and gluten, or maybe very sensitive to milk based products, to lactose sugars, would they benefit more from taking a digestive enzyme or a probiotic?

Well, you know, that would be something that probably they would want to discuss with the doctor. Especially if they're dealing with gluten sensitivities or even like a celiac disease. Just because that can be just such a, such a precarious disease. You definitely want the oversight of your physician. But if you are struggling with something, say you're sensitive to, let's say you're sensitive to beef, but if you really like beef, but it is, you know, you're sensitive to it and it gives you an upset stomach, that would be a spot where a digestive enzyme probably would have a better application because it's going to be supplying you with the needed protein enzymes to digest the protein in the beef. Whereas if you have been just like on a, obviously on an antibiotic regime or if you are just looking to boost overall immunity, that would be a good, that would be a good application for a probiotic.

Okay, that kind of makes sense. We're probably running a little bit short on time, Joe, but I wanted to be able to point people in the right direction if they want to find out more about whey protein, colostrum, digestive enzymes, probiotics, whatever the case may be. Now, Mount Capra, which you are on the research board of, they have a website that's mount capra.com correct?

That's absolutely correct, yeah.

Okay. Now are there any other resources that you would recommend to people?

You know, I would go to, I would Definitely check out mountcapra.com on mountcappra.com we have the newsletter that you're talking about the high road to health. There's a link right on the front page there to the high road to health. And there's several articles that you can read that have been written on the subjects of protein, on the subject of enzymes and colostrum and probiotics. And there's a lot of good resources there to check out. I would definitely suggest that as well as if you're actually looking to purchase some of the products off of mepra, there are links to different actual suppliers of that as well. So yeah, mountcapra.com is a great resource to go to.

Okay, and that's mtcapra.com right?

Yeah, mtcapra.com okay.

Well, Joe, I want to thank you for coming on the show today. I think that was some fabulous information.

All right, well, hey, thanks, Ben. It was a lot of fun. Beyond.

Okay, I'll talk to you later, Joe.

Alright, see you later.

Well, I hope you learned a lot from that interview with Joe Stout. The last thing that I want to talk about in today's podcast is the Synergy System that I'm very excited about. What I've done is I've taken the past decade of work that I've been doing with clients for both weight loss and performance and I've put together a special system, a step by step system of nutrition and an exercise program that changes changes up every four weeks. I've designed each exercise, each workout and each portion of the meal plan to achieve ideal, fast and lasting results. And I've put all this together in a system that I'm now using with all of the individuals that I do online personal training and coaching with at my training and coaching website, pacificfit.net now if you're interested in having me take the Synergy System and apply it to your specific goals and specific needs, what you do is you shoot me an email BenGreenfieldFitness.com or you go to PacificFit.net, click on Personal Training and select the option that you want. I offer the Synergy System as simply a nutrition based system, as an exercise exercise based system, or ideally as a combination of the exercise and the nutrition. If you get the combined exercise nutrition program, I also include a free copy of each of the books that I have written over the past several years. So you not only get a boatload of information, but you also get a customized program. Once you sign up for it, you'll be sent a series of questionnaires that you fill out to identify your unique profile and what you need. And then I actually take the system, I customize it to your needs and your goals and then over the course of a four week period of time, basically get your body completely set up to experience the Synergy system. So I will put a link to pacificfit.net in the show notes so that you can go check that out. You'll want to click on personal training and then it should be pretty obvious from there, but you can always email me if you want. Ben greenfieldfitness.com have a fantastic week. Next week I will be podcasting from Kona, Hawaii. It's possible that I may be able to get some good interviews down there. I will be attending and presenting at the Ironman Medical Conference, which is one of the largest gatherings of medical fitness professionals in the world who are devoted to primarily endurance exercise. And we'll be talking about a lot of things from nutrition to cycling, injury prevention to hyponatremia in athletes, all sorts of really exciting topics. And I'll hopefully get a couple of good interviews for you down there. May even also get an interview with a few of the pro triathletes down there at Ironman Hawaii. So stay tuned in. Next week should be an interesting podcast, and I look forward to releasing that to you next Saturday or Sunday. Until next time, this is Ben Greenfield from BenGreenfieldFitness.com signing out.