The Bill Clinton Diet, Saving Your Gonads From Laptops And Bikes, Reasons For Early Puberty And More!

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast, the Bill Clinton Diet. Is sitting on a bike bad for you? What is the best plastic for water bottles? Can you increase growth hormone with fasting? And much more? Welcome to the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast. We provide you with everything you need to know for total performance, fat loss, recovery, digestion, sleep, brain and hormone optimization. So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you just want to shed a few pounds, get ready for non run of the mill cutting edge content from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

Hey there, Ben. How are you feeling there, you old feller? I feel like I've been podcasting for 300 episodes, Brock. 300 episodes built up in me sciatica. I need some podcast Viagra. I'm beginning to go limp. I went limp like a hundred episodes ago. You lucky bugger.

Seriously though, dude, we've made it. We've made it. 300 freaking episodes. And as a matter of fact, for. For those of listening in, we've probably done more than 300 episodes because for every episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast, there's usually a special episode. So we've actually done like, probably close to 600 episodes. It's crazy.

Probably more than 600. Yeah, it's like there were times like when I was away that we didn't put a number on it and we didn't count those. We. Some. We need to hire some. Somebody out there who wants to just like, do it for. For the. The love should count all of our episodes for us.

Well, in 2008, when I was a personal trainer, a fledgling young personal trainer full of. Full of life and vigor.

Yes, we had to walk uphill both.

Directions to the podcasting studio through barbed wire in our bare feet, in the.

Shoes we used two tin cans to communicate.

Anyways, 2008, I remember recording my first podcast and trying to figure out how to upload it. I don't even remember if itunes existed. I think it did, but. Yeah, man, been podcasting for six years. It's nuts. It's almost seven years.

It's good. I've only been. I've been with the show now for about three years. Last week, I think it actually was. So I'm only. I'm only half as. As tired and worn down as you are.

Happy anniversary, Brock. I'll send you a magazine subscription or something.

Sweet news flashes. So your Twitter feed right now is completely overrun by something that we'll talk about a little bit later, but you still managed to squeeze in a few pretty cool Studies this week.

Yes, I accidentally blew up Twitter and I'll tell folks why later on. But in the meantime, let's talk about a few of the things that I tweeted this week over@twitter.com BenGreenfield and this is the latest and the greatest and the best of the best. The first is, is our near and dear ex US President Bill Clinton used to be vegan. And I tweeted that he actually went from vegan to low carb paleo. And there was a very interesting article that appeared about this in the Inquisitor. And it sounds like Bill was actually influenced by Hillary, who introduced him to Dr. Mark Hyman. Hillary introduced Bill to Dr. Mike Hyman. And Mark Hyman actually really wrote a very interesting article recently about. He launched this new diet called the Pegan diet, which he calls a mix between paleo and vegan. But I think it sounds like some kind of a devil worshiping twist. Maybe because it sounds like pagan. Anyways though, Dr. Pagans don't worship the devil.

That's a misnomer.

They do in my special twisted religious head.

Yes, Sir.

So anyways, Dr. Hyman told Bill Clinton that his vegan diet contained too much starch and insufficient good quality protein. And basically Bill Clinton switched to this paleo diet. And the article itself also talks about Anne Hathaway, another celebrity who was not. For those of you who are not familiar with the U.S. a president, she's actually an actress. But Anne Hathaway said that she didn't feel good, she didn't feel healthy on a vegan diet. And I have no clue she was doing it correctly. As we've talked about before, there's a way that you can really f up a vegan diet by doing it incorrectly. But tons of tofurkey. She's also doing eggs and sausage for lunch now anyways though. So I thought it was really interesting how Dr. Hyman is now preparing the Clintons, especially Mrs. Clinton if she decides to run for president, which is somewhat likely. He's having them carry things like macadamia nut butter, walnut butter, turkey jerky, and cans of wild salmon as jet about the globe. So it's interesting. Total switch from vegan to paleo.

That's pretty awesome. Almost as awesome as you guys actually having a legendary funk musician as president.

What? What are you talking about?

Oh, Bill Clinton, not George Clinton. I always get them confused.

You must be Canadian. Okay, anyways, let's talk about.

I'm just old.

Let's talk about diabetes. There was this really interesting study that came out that showed that light, and specifically sunshine, could reduce your risk of developing diabetes. And this was quite interesting. They found that there was a direct link between sun exposure and decreased risk of type 2 diabetes. Decreased fasting glucose, better glucose tolerance, and decreased amounts of fasting insulin. And this is partially linked to vitamin D deficiency and the fact that when you're deficient in vitamin D, you have increased diabetes, diabetes risk. But sunlight specifically was what they looked at in this study, and they found a consistent link between lack of sunlight exposure and type 2 diabetes. The reason I think this is interesting is because a long time ago, I had this lady named T.S. wiley on the podcast, and T.S. wiley wrote this book called something like Sleep, Sex and Survival. I could be butchering the name, but it seems something approximately like that. And if it wasn't named that, it should have been, because I like that name. Anyways, though, she goes into how when it's summer, when you're exposed to a lot of light, when the days are longer, you actually have a better carbohydrate tolerance. In other words, your body is better able to handle carbohydrates with less of a surge in glucose and less of a surge of insulin released by the pancreas. And it turns out that one of the reasons that this may be the case is because as you are exposed to the sun, you get increased vitamin D expression. And that increased vitamin D expression helps you to be able to handle carbohydrates better. So the other interesting thing, though, if you think about this from kind of like an evolutionary, ancestral survival standpoint, is that if you are approaching a time of year when there's less sunlight exposure but still eating carbohydrates, you know, let's say in the fall, you know, a lot of apples and pears, and some of those, you know, fall, fall, winter based carbohydrates, you're eating those, more of them would technically be getting converted into body fat. Right, because you have lower vitamin D levels in the fall and the winter, and that would theoretically prepare you better for surviving the harsh cold in the winter. So it could be a little bit of a survival mechanism.

Central heating to turn on.

Yeah, exactly. You know, but. But unfortunately we live in it. We live in an era where we've got central heating and air conditioning and probably far, far more carbohydrates than just like the simple fruits that may have been available in the fall and the winter in like an ancestral time. But it's very interesting how sunlight and vitamin D are so linked. And this new study actually shows why that is the case. So as you, as you approach the winter and the fall, you know, in November, at the time this podcast is being recorded, we're going into. One of the things you may want to consider is adding vitamin D in to your diet. Unless you're, you know, I don't know, snowboarding outside with your shirt off or in your bikini, which, you know, all our podcast listeners are bombing down the slopes in bikinis right now.

They better be.

They better be. Start into vitamin D. Use like a liquid vitamin D or, you know, a little bit of extra vitamin D, possibly over and above what you'd normally take, especially if you want to improve your glucose tolerance. So that was a pretty interesting study. And then interestingly, very much related to that, another article that came out about how sleeping naked could also cut your risk of diabetes. And this, this was, was a really interesting article. I'll link to it. But your core temperature is at its highest at about 11pm and it's at its lowest at 4am and if anything prevents that decline in temperature, you can struggle to get to sleep, you can have disturbed sleep, and, and you can also have a lower ability to burn calories as you sleep. So this all comes down to cold thermogenesis. And what these researchers found is that when you're able to drop the skin temperature by sleeping naked, your metabolism goes up and your fasted glucose is decreased when you wake up in the morning. So sleeping naked also, of course, has other benefits that they go into in the article, including giving your love life a boost. And I'm going to assume that that means sleeping naked with someone else in the bed with you. I'm not sure that sleeping naked all by yourself is going to give your love life a boost unless you are simply maybe waking up happier than usual, if you know what I mean. Yeah. And also infections. It says wearing nothing to bed can help women to avoid developing yeast infections because thrush, a form of yeast, loves warm, restricted environments. So wear something loose or preferably nothing at all. So there's another reason to sleep naked, ladies. And that's actually what I'm going to tell my wife tonight before we go to bed, is that I'm concerned about yeast in her warm and moist spots.

And so you don't want to get thrush, baby.

I'd like you to sleep naked. I don't want you to get thrush or diabetes. So take it off, baby. Take it all off. So one other interesting thing that I tweeted, and this was a hilarious Video that was hilarious. Hilarious. It was a TED Talk and the TED talk was actually called Help fight local warming. I first saw this when I was over in Israel because it was delivered by this guy named Yossi Vardy who lives over there in the, in the Middle East. And what he talks about is the link between hot seats, lap laptops, cell phones and sperm. And in this video. And perhaps we will actually play the audio clip of this video for you as you're listening in here in just a second. But it talks about how studies have shown that an increase of just 1 degree Celsius can affect sperm formation and only 15 minutes of laptop use produced that temperature rise in guys laps. And the video goes into more detail. But basically this is why I never ever put a laptop in my lap unless I've got one of those heat blocking EMF blocking pads underneath it. These are like the little pads you can buy off of like Amazon for example. I use one called a harapad, that's H A R A pad. But you should watch this video or listen to the clip that we're about to play for you because it's really quite interesting.

Important health message Blogging may be hazardous to your health, especially if you are a male. This message is given as a public service. Blogging affects your posture. We start with the posture. This is the posture of ladies who are not blogging. This is the posture of ladies who are blogging. This is the natural posture of a man sitting, squatting for ventilation purposes. And this is a natural posture of a standing man. And I think this picture inspired Chris to insert me into the lateral thinking session. This is male blogging posture sitting. And the result is for greater comfort. Men naturally sit with their legs father apart than women when working on laptop. However they will adopt a less natural posture in order to balance it on their laps which result in a significant rise of body heat between their thighs. This is the issue of local warming. This is a very serious newspaper. It's Times of England. Very serious. This is a very. Gentlemen and ladies, be serious. This is a very serious research.

Check it out.

Listener Q and A. Hi, it's Ian.

Here from Auckland, New Zealand. I'd like to thank Ben for his work. It's been fantastic and helped me a huge amount. Last season pair of us did a fundraising girl. We did three of New Zealand's iconic events. We did the swim the harbour which is 3.2km, ride around Taupo which is 160ks or 100 miles and we ran the Auckland marathon. I used the ironman training program because all of these events were done in a one month period. It also set me really nicely up for a half marathon leading up to the events. And then later in the season I did my first half Ironman which took me five and a half hours at 5:28. Nothing special, but I'm an age grouper and that put me fairly well in that field. Mostly I enjoyed the relatively low training hours or the amount of competition hours that I did. And in particular the strength work. The strength work set me up nicely. It helped me prepare myself and keep away from injuries. And I'd like to thank Ben again. And certainly very highly recommended.

Awesome. And Speaking of tri. Ripped.com Brock, I've got you doing some pretty gnarly ripped workouts yourself.

I'm pretty sore. I'm having trouble raising my arms above my shoulders right now.

Yeah, I bring this up because Brock asked me. For those of you who don't know, I coach Brock. And one of the things that we always do in the off season is we introduce a new program for Brock to do and now he's doing a five by five.

And yeah, last winter you had me doing that mass made simple or a variation on Dan John's program. And that was awesome. I didn't get super swole, but I sure got strong.

Yeah. And for those of you who don't know what 5x5 is, it's, it's very, very basic. Well, I'll put a link in the show notes to the basic page where you can, it's@stronglifts.com or you can download a basic five by five workout. But it's just a way to get very strong and put on some muscle mass pretty quickly in a very simple way. So essentially you use free weights, not machines. You do compound multi joint exercises, not single joint isolation exercises. And you always add weight, you never add reps. So you're not training for a muscle pump, you're not training for soreness, you're just adding weight. Now, the original 5x5 routine was comprised of three exercises that are put into two full body workouts. And one workout was squat, bench press and a barbell row. And then the other workout was a squat, an overhead press and a deadlift. The 5x5 workout that I've got Brock doing, we're putting all five of those lifts. The squat, the bench, the overhead press, the deadlift, and we're actually doing a clean instead of a row. But you do five sets of five reps of each of those exercises and you do that two to three times a week with very heavy weights. And that's it. It's super simple. All the other workouts, for example, that I've got Brock doing our mobility workout, some fasted morning cardio, a couple of high intensity intervals one day, that's just yoga with some deep breathing and then like kind of like an easy, light type of, type of nature walk where you're just getting out in nature, exploring nature.

And why do you say it like that?

Have you seen the nature videos on YouTube?

No.

Oh, you gotta watch. Go to YouTube and do a search for nature guy. Nature guy. But it's. It's pretty funny. It's pretty hilarious actually. If you're listening in, also go to YouTube and do a search for nature guy. You will laugh your butt off. Anyways, though, the, the 5x5 workout that I've got Brock doing is a little bit of a twist on the traditional 5x5 workout, because rather than just sitting on his butt reading magazines or watching TV as he rests in between each.

Of those, which is what I normally do when I'm working out.

Well, that's actually what you see. A lot of folks who are doing a five by five workout, right, they finish the five reps and they just kind of chill. But instead I've got mobility thrown in between each of the different sets that you do. So for example, if you're going to do five sets of five squats in between each set of the squats, rather than just sitting around, you do, for example, bird dogs, which is where you get down into a crawl position and you extend right arm and left leg, then left arm and right leg 10 times. And then in between your bench press, you'll do something like a foam roller for the back or an abdominal movement or something else that is putting work into your body and making your body better, but still allowing that muscle that you work during the 5 by 5 to recover. So I call it a 5 x 5 workout with mobility. So basically that's what Brock's doing. I've got him sweating a few days a week with the 5x5.

Yeah, well, one of the interesting recovery ones that you have me doing is when I'm doing the deadlifts, you've got me doing like box jumps, which doesn't necessarily seem like a recovery activity. What was the theory there?

I will admit that there are a few of the five by five exercises where I am jacking your heart rate up a little bit. So occasionally, one of the things, there's two exercises that I'll mix with a deadlift. Sometimes I'll mix it with box jumps or I'll mix it with rows on like a concept too. And if you want to make your five by five workout super hard, you do your five sets of heavy deadlifts. But in between each deadlift, you either do 10 box jumps or you do a 250 meter row and it turns it into a little bit more of a suffer festival. So that was just my evil twist, Brock.

I actually, I really enjoyed that one. That was fun. It was. My living room was a disaster area after I finished the workout the other day.

Because you threw up all over it.

Yeah, barfed everywhere. It was awesome. Actually, it smelt really bad too, because I've started using like, I've been following your lead and started using coconut oil as my deodorant just because I'm. I've worked my way through all of the natural, quote unquote deodorants that I can possibly find and they all make me smell worse than if I wear no deodorant at all.

All.

So I thought, I'm going to give the coconut oil a try. And now my living room, and actually right now my office just smells like BO and coconut.

Like a giant stinky cookie. I like it.

Like the cookie that you would not feed your worst enemy.

Hey, Ben and Brock, it's Brian here from South Africa. Thanks for the great show and keep bringing us that awesome content. Recently I was exposed to a term called glycobiology, and I was wondering what your thoughts were on the matter and if you see it as important as some people are saying it is for the future of our health. Thanks a lot. Cheers.

I have never heard the term glycobiology before.

You idiot. I said dumb.

Apparently. I. You know, I don't listen to any podcasts about like, health and fitness and science or anything like that. So really, like, it's not a surprise. Glycobiology, does that have something to do with the Kardashians?

You have to say it as if you're narrating like a 1960s science video.

Glycobiology is one of the most important processes you will come across in scientific history.

Researchers all over the world are now looking into glycobiology as a way to fight the Cold War and stop nuclear disasters forever. Glycobiology. Even the housewives are using glycobiology in all the latest and greatest cooking methods. How was that?

That was awesome.

Okay.

Distortion was appropriate.

Glycobiology, actually. So here's the deal with glycobiology if you define glycobiology, it's just the biology of sugar chains, okay? That's like glycans or what are called sugar chains in biology. You might also know them as saccharides, like monosaccharides or disaccharides or polysaccharides. And there's a lot of different ways that sugars can be stuck together. Now, the deal with glycobiology is that it's a growing field, and I'm going to try and explain this in a way that's not super duper confusing, but there are molecules called glycoconjugates in your body, which are all these different kind of sugars that are stuck together. And typically, when someone is developing a drug or a pharmaceutical or something that's going to act upon one of these sugars, they focus on not the core chain of the sugar. What would be called, if you think of it like a tree with a bunch of branches coming off of it, they're not focusing on the scaffolding on the tree itself, but rather on all of the different branches. That's what a drug or a pharmaceutical would work on. So they're focusing more on the things coming off of the tree than the tree itself or what would be considered the scaffold. So when you look at glycobiology, what science is now finding is that you can actually, you can target the tree itself rather than the branches coming off the tree when you're looking at one of these biomolecules, one of these, what are called glycoconjugates. So what that means is that we all of a sudden can develop a bunch of new potential ways to fight against cancer or potential. For example, vaccinations would be another field where this could come into play. Even ways that we could figure out to fight against chronic diseases like diabetes, for example, by targeting the tree rather than the branches coming off the tree. And that's basically what glycobiology is. I know this is probably super duper boring for those of you who tune into this podcast, that you could burn fat fast or run faster. But the idea here is that they're now developing anti flu drugs, anti cancer drugs, et cetera, that focus on the core of these glycan chains rather than the sugars themselves. And that's basically what glycobiology is. As far as whether or not it's the wave of the future, et cetera, I have no clue. I do know that what they call the glycomics market, which is a market that's focused on drug discovery and development and immunology and oncology and other applications that you can use glycobiology for. It does seem to be exploding. There's a recent article, and I don't know if this is the article that Brian read, but it was a recent article that came out that showed that the glycobiology, or what's called the glycomics market, is going to be exploding to almost a billion dollars by 2019 in terms of all the different types of enzymes and instruments and kits that are being created to allow you to target the core of the sugar rather than the sugar chains themselves. So ultimately, I think it's an interesting question, but considering that in most cases, especially on this podcast, we're looking for natural solutions rather than drugs anyways. I mean, I'm all about preventive living when it comes to cancer and diabetes, so I'm still pretty obsessed with the whole sleeping naked and getting sunshine thing than I am on developing glycobiology based drugs. But if you're an investor looking for a field to invest in, it does seem to be quite promising and explosive when it comes to something that could blow up in the future as far as health research and the development of new drugs.

Where's my checkbook?

Hi, my name is Jonas Lebren. I'm biking a mountain bike to work every day and have done so for many years. And I would like to know how my sitting position should be. Not from the point of view of not getting any injuries later on. So not from biking the fastest or anything, but not to have problems with my back or my shoulders or anything else. So how should my shoulders be placed? Should I have a straight back or curved back? How should my saddle be positioned? So just I don't want to wake up 10 years from now and learn that, oh, you should have been sitting like this. That's why you have this bad injury or whatever. So any thoughts on this? Thanks a lot for a great show.

I like Jonas's style. He's not worried about going fast. He's not worried about being maximum efficiency or anything. He just doesn't want to screw himself over.

That's right. So you think he's talking literally about like, like his crotchal function?

I think he's talking about everything.

Like testicles.

Yeah. He doesn't want to have like a broken back and knees and testicles.

Well, I mean, we could start with the, with the big obvious here. And that's the fact that a bike seat for both men and women puts pressure on a bunch of the nerves and the blood vessels that are in your. Your. What's called your perennial area. And for men, it's the back of your scrotum. And that has been shown to cause some pretty big problems, like mountain biking, for example, because the rough terrain can cause some really severe problems. They had one study that showed that 96% of male mountain bikers have what are called scrotal abnormalities. Add that one to your.

Pretty much everybody.

Yeah. Like calcium deposits and what are called sperm containing cysts and twisted veins and all sorts of nasty issues.

Wait, what was it called again?

Scrotal abnormalities.

Yikes.

I think you have a new name for your band.

Yes.

Yes. So there was another study that found that the impact of cycling on the groin could lead to small scars within the scrotum and lower sperm production. Last week, we talked about how being a vegan can lower sperm production.

Being a crappy vegan.

Turns out probably the worst thing you could do is be a crappy vegan mountain biker when it comes to sperm.

That uses a laptop without a pad.

Yeah. Or you could do that and avoid ever having a vasectomy again. So, yeah, low sperm counts and scrotal abnormalities from cycling. And then aside from contact with the bike seat itself, you get a bunch of heat generated in the groin area, and that can also impair your sperm function. So there's that, and then there's also, of course, the potential damage to your testicles and the surrounding area, and that's specifically nerve damage. This is why when I would train for Ironman and I'd do my longer bike days, I'd come home and my wife could have been wearing a negligee, lying on a bed of rose petals with some sexy jazz music, playing some Berry Weiss. Yeah. And I wouldn't have been able to do a thing about it because of the neuropathy, the nerve damage that can occur when you're riding for long periods of time. Essentially, you can get impotent for short periods of time, which I think a lot of guys, for example, have been riding for long periods of time. It can affect women's ability to orgasm or experience pleasure in the nether regions as well, just because of that neuropathy, that nerve damage. So you have what's called the pudendal nerve, and that's between your genitals and your anus, and it's responsible for sending information to your gonads and all the surrounding area. And the bike seat puts direct pressure. A traditional bike seat puts direct pressure on that pudendal nerve. And so you essentially are kind of like turning off all the nerves in that area of your body.

So, excuse me, I'm just gonna go throw my bicycle away right now.

So when it comes to sperm production, you know, impotence, neuropathy, things of that nature, you just go for a noseless saddle. I mean, like, those are. Those are pretty easy to find these days. My favorite is a company called ism. They make a saddle called the Adamo. And it's just a noseless saddle, and it's very, very comfortable. I discovered them a couple of years ago. That's primarily what I use. A lot of other bicycle seat manufacturers are switching to shorter noses now, so that's probably the best bet if you're concerned about this from, like a sexual function standpoint.

So when you're sitting on that one, your weight isn't on your pubic bone. It's on your sit bone, where what are you sitting on?

Now, you're essentially spread across what would be called your ischial tuberosities, or kind of like the outside bones of your pelvic bone. And you're not on your perineum or the soft area of your crotch. So essentially your entire weight is supported by your pelvic bone, which makes sense, you know, as far as other issues with the bike, obviously, when you're sitting for long periods of time hunched over a computer, for example, right, your shoulders are hunched forward, you are leaning forward, your hip flexors are shortened, and if you think about it, you are replicating that position when you're on a bike, especially if you're like a triathlete, for example, riding in a time trial position hunched over your aero bars for a long period of time, I think that the benefit, especially from a cardiovascular and happiness and getting out in nature and getting the wind in your face and the sun on your skin, standpoint, I think all those pros outweigh the cons of, like, not biking. But I do think that from a biomechanical standpoint, you have to do things to reverse some of the potential muscle imbalances that can build up when you're riding, doing things like seated rows so that you're pulling your shoulders back after they've been hunched over on a bicycle, doing things like some really, really good lunging hip flexor openers, or better yet, using, for example, this is something I really like. The Core foundation book by Dr. Eric Goodman, or the core foundation DVDs by Dr. Eric Goodman. I think every cyclist and every runner should be doing those as part of their program at least once a week. I personally do them two to three times a week. So I alternate every morning between doing yoga one morning for 10 to 15 minutes and doing these core foundation exercises by Dr. Eric Goodman two to three times a week. And that's a really, really good way to open up all the muscles that tend to get shortened when you're either riding a bike or you're hunched over computer. Two things that are part of my life and so I do those in addition to making sure to do a lot of pulling so seated rows, pull ups, things of that nature. And then I'll stop every once in a while and do like a standing hip flexor stretch. So those would be the two main things that come to mind would be muscle imbalances and then some, some potential danger to the, to the crotches of our dear listeners. So what I'll do in the show notes for people who want them over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com 300 I'll put a link to the ISM Adamo saddle page where you can go kind of peruse some of their noseless saddles. And then also the Core foundation book that I was just talking about if you want some resources and you're a bicyclist who doesn't want to be impotent with an ugly body.

Hi Ben and Brock, Mark from Philadelphia. I ride lots of miles on my bicycle and I always have water bottles. I've seen some articles recently suggesting that even non BPA plastics are dangerous to your health. I'm wondering if you have any recommendations about what water bottles to use. Thank you and hope to hear from you soon.

So I guess first of all, why is BPA bad? Why are we concerned about that in the first place?

Well, BPA is essentially it's like an estrogen mimicker in the body. And that's something that we've known for a long time that BPA or bisphenol A is basically a hormonal disruptor. And it, you know, they've done a huge, huge number of studies in terms of like cell culture studies as well as in vivo studies in humans and epidemiological studies. And they've certainly found out that from an endocrinology standpoint that BPA disrupts hormone production and can also cause for example, estrogen dominance in both men and women. That would be like man boobs in men and weight gain in women, potential autoimmune issues basically creating a hyper reactive immune system. So you've Got increased risk for things like asthma and acne and things of that nature and even like this combination of diabetes and obesity called diabesity. And there's a whole number of environmental toxins and chemicals and plastic that can contribute to obesity. Because when you are a kid exposed to plastics toxins, things that your body can't metabolize, you tend to store that in fat tissue. So your body creates new fat cells to store that. So a huge number of issues when it comes to non BPA based plastic. And that's why there are certain plastics that you should avoid. So if you look at like a plastic bottle, there are typically, there's typically seven different numbers that you could see and each of those numbers reflect something different. Like plastic number one is what you'd see in like the bottom big like 2 liter soda bottles or like peanut butter jars. Like it's a thicker plastic, it's kind of rigid, but it's relatively lightweight. The problem is that that can break down when it gets exposed to heat or when it gets exposed to light. So plastic number one is one that can be dangerous if you've got like, you know, you leave a water bottle in your car and it gets hot, for example, and that's plastic number one, not such a great thing. That's one that can break down and build up in your body. And that would be one non BPA based plastic. Plastic number two would be like the type of plastic you'd find in like a detergent bottle or like a milk jug. It's a really sturdy plastic, it's a little bit less leaching. So technically from a plastic standpoint, it is a safer plastic than number one. So number two, it's called high density polyethylene, you still get some leaching, but it's not bad for beverage and food storage. And it's a little bit more dishwasher safe, it's a little bit more able to withstand high temperatures. I'm still going to give you some alternatives to plastics that we personally use in our house. But if you had to choose, plastics like number two isn't that bad. Plastic number three is what you'd find in plastic pipes. You find it in shrink wrap, you find it in salad dressing containers. It's called polyvinyl chloride and that one's a pretty bad one. It contains phthalates and those mimic human hormones and are pretty bad. And if they wash out into the water, they affect fish, they affect like ocean life. It's kind of a nasty one. So that's polyvinyl Chloride.

Isn't PVC what we make, what we use for plumbing in houses?

Yep, exactly.

So that's not cool.

Yeah, not such a, not such a great solution, you know, especially if it gets heated up. So another one is plastic number four and that's called low density polyethylene. You'll find that in like trash can liners, like garbage can liners, stuff like that. It's pretty flexible, it's relatively microwave proof, relatively dishwasher safe, relatively heat stable and kind of like plastic number two, one of the least damaging of the plastics. So number two and number four are two okay. Numbers. Number five is another one. It's called polypropylene and you're going to find that in like bottle caps, drinking straws, stuff like that. That's also pretty resistant to heat and a decent option. So 2, 4 and 5 so far are the decent ones. 1 and 3, especially if you're going to drink out of them or eat out of them, would be ones to avoid. Number six is polystyrene and that's like Styrofoam basically. So you're going to find that like in Styrofoam peanuts and in some plastic tableware and like those to go containers that you get from the Chinese restaurant that is a major component of plastic debris in the ocean where it gets pretty toxic for marine life. It's hard to recycle. It's not one that I'm a fan of using just for the consideration of our planet. So plastic number six, basically. Styrofoam, not a good one. Plastic number seven is basically anything else. It's like food containers made out of something called Lexan Tupperware. Pretty much any other plastic that's not number one through number six. Polycarbonate is probably the most well known one and it leaches a lot of BPA. Most plastic number 7s are not all that great. So 2, 4 and 5 would be kind of the better plastics to use if you were going to use a plastic. But then there was this relatively new form of plastic that popped up in the past decade, considered to be a safe plastic, a BPA free plastic that was supposed to be really heat stable, really chemical resistant, really resistant to plastic degradation. And it was made by, well, it's branded as something called Tritan T R I T A N and it's also known as Copolyester. And Tritan is something that you'll find used by like Nalgene and chemicals, Camelbak and a lot of these other companies that are making BPA free products. One of the problems, though, is that there was a recent study that found that BPA is not free of what's called estrogenic activity, which means that it can actually be a hormonal disruptor. And what we thought BPA free plastics specifically were safe. They are indeed potentially harmful and can leach and aren't necessarily the safest thing on the face of the planet if you want every advantage possible. There is even some evidence that some of these BPA free plastics might be even more estrogenic than BPA itself, especially if they get heated. So it really is kind of an issue, especially if you're putting these BPA free plastic into the microwave or into a dishwasher or leave them out in the dashboard of your car in the sun. They actually did a bunch of tests on these and found that just like normal contact with food or water in slightly heated situations was enough for the chemicals to leach into the food and into the water. So it's kind of ironic that, for example, we've all been led to believe that Nalgene bottles are the ones to buy, when in fact that may not be the case. So as far as what we do in our house when we pack lunch for our kids, for example, a couple of things we do, we use something called Lunchbox, which are stainless steel containers that we put their food into. So Jessa, when she sends the kids off to school, puts like, she makes like little sushi rolls a lot of times, like carrots and celeries, some flaxseed crackers, sometimes like some, some hummus or some type of like a goat cheese.

Did you learn how to say that when you're in Israel?

Yes, hummus. And then tahini is tahina. So yes. Nice. Or falafel anyways, though. So Jessa usually makes the kids a lunch the night before they go to school and she puts them into these lunchboxes which are stainless steel. And you can get those off of like Amazon. I'll put links in the show notes if you want to go to like the Lunchbox page on, on Amazon. And that's one thing that we use them for their water. We use a stainless steel container for them called Klean Kanteen.

I've seen those all over the place.

Yeah, and Klean Kanteen makes water bottles too, not just for kids, but also for adults. And that's again a stainless steel container. And that, or like drinking out of glass mason jars or glass jars or glass cups is a much, much better bet than plastic. We use pyrex containers in our house for storing food. And those are just glass containers. The lid itself is plastic. But when you think about it, that's not as big of a deal because typically the lid isn't coming in contact with the food. Unless you're like me and you put way, way too much food in these glass containers. And then you shove the lid on and of course the lid.

So then you just have to avoid the top layer.

Yeah, just don't lick the lid. But Pyrex glass containers are really good for storing food along with glass mason jars and then clean canteens, the stainless steel version for drinking fluids and water. And you can use those on a bicycle, too, by the way. And then lunchbox for actually packing food for, again, for kids or adults, you know, if you're going to the office or whatever with packed lunch, those lunchboxes work pretty well. So those are some of the better alternatives. It's still one of those things where it's really, really tough, especially if you're like an athlete who's competing in events where they're going to be handing you a plastic bottle. No matter what, you got to grab that, you got to drink out of it and you got to kind of roll with the punches. Right. You can't live life in a bubble. But try as much as possible, especially when you're at home and you can control the environment to use glass and so stainless steel. And that's what we do. Hello.

My question is rather complicated. One regarding hormones. The positive effects related to fasting seems to be quite evident. You have an effect, for instance, with human growth hormone as well as, for instance, you're boosting your immune systems, possibly rebooting completely your immune system after 24 hours of fasting. So the question is, if you're doing this fasting 24 hours and training, and by training getting positive effects via testosterone, that seems to be a really powerful way of combining health and training. Is that the case, first of all? And secondly, is there a reason to suspect that that could be a good thing also for kids? Maybe they instead need to really get into fat burning mode, thus reducing also insulin growth factor 1. That seems to be a very, very negative aspect of carbs loading and carbs diets. And for kids, it seems like insulin growth factor is one contributor factor for them entering into puberty too early, reduced height and so forth.

All right, everybody go into your closet and find your propeller hat. I feel that this one's going to get sciency.

No, I'll, I'll, I'll actually I'll. I'll try and keep this. This rel. Well, no, I won't. Actually, I lied. I'm not going to keep it that simple. Okay, so go for it. So here's the deal. There was recently a research study that was released by Brad Schoenfeld, I think it was in the National Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, and it talked about how both fasted and non fasted exercise can improve body composition and that both of them are relatively equal when it comes to burning body fat. I actually tweeted about this, and I noted that it would have been interesting to see some of the biohacks that I use and that I encourage my clients, clients and our listeners to use when they're doing facet exercise. Right? Like doing your facet exercise after a cold shower so that you increase your activity of brown adipose tissue, or doing your facet exercise with caffeine in your system so that you get a slight upregulation of fatty acid oxidation. Right? So you like, you take a cold shower, you have a cup of coffee, and then you do like your facet exercise after that. So some of those little biohacks weren't taken into consideration in that study. But the other thing that wasn't taken into consideration was that fasted exercise goes way above and beyond, just like trying to burn a little extra body fat. And there's a lot of cool things that happen when you exercise in a fasted state. So one of the things that does indeed happen when we look at this from a potential body composition standpoint is when you fast, you get improved insulin sensitivity. So as most of us know, when you eat, your body releases insulin, which is a hormone which helps you absorb the nutrients from your food, which helps you, for example, shove glucose into muscle tissue or into liver, or even sometimes into fat cells to be used as energy later on. And your amount of insulin sensitivity that you have and the need for more or less insulin is affected by fasting. And fasting specifically improves insulin sensitivity. The other thing that it does, though, is that it increases production of human growth hormone. And there was one study that showed that 24 hours without food increased growth hormone production by 2000% in men. Holy crap. And by 1300% in women.

Wow.

And in addition to that, it has an effect on testosterone, meaning it increases testosterone. And that is probably because of that increase in human growth hormone. So the thing is, as far as human growth hormone, that increase in human growth hormone helps to preserve muscle tissue. It's very anabolic. It helps you store more energy and more like nutrient substrates as glycogen rather than as fat. And it helps you engage in lipolysis. So you break down your own fat, you release free fatty acids and glycerol, and then you metabolize those to create energy. And they've seen that human growth hormone will increase even after an overnight fast. But it was something like intermittent fasting, or for example, you stop eating at 7pm and you start eating again at like 8am or 9am 13 hours is the shortest period of time that's been shown to cause a really significant increase in human growth hormone production by your pituitary gland. So you don't have to do a full day fast. You can even do intermittent fasting to increase this human growth hormone. Now so just stepping back here, we know that fasting can increase human growth hormone and testosterone. We also know, and I talk about this quite a bit in my book Beyond Training, that fasting can decrease inflammation, that it can decrease the rate at which telomere shortens. So it has like an anti aging effect. It can help with, with burning fatty acids depending on whether or not you're using, using some of those little biohacks I talked about earlier. And so there's a lot of benefits. But Johan asked a couple interesting questions. First of all, he says if you are fasting and training to get the positive effects of testosterone, is that a powerful way to combine health and training? Now here is the issue. These studies that have shown people to have an increase in human growth hormone when they fast, we're not necessarily looking at hard and heavy training in a fasted state. They were just looking at fasting itself. Once you throw in hard training as a way to increase growth hormone or increase testosterone when fasted, then you're putting your body into a potentially catabolic state. And this is why I'm a fan of if you're going to exercise in a fasted state, keeping things very aerobic. And I actually just wrote an article for quick and dirty tips and about how the best scenario is to find your fat burning zone, which is generally the heart rate at which you start to breathe hard and your muscles start to burn. You take that heart rate and you subtract 20 beats and that's your approximate fat burning zone. And that would be the zone at which you'd exercise when you're in a fasted state if you want to avoid that catabolic effect where you would potentially have a unfavorable testosterone to cortisol ratio. So that's One thing to bear in mind is that combining fasting and training is okay, and you could still get some of the human growth hormone boosting effects of fasting, but you wouldn't want to do lots of hard and heavy training like weight training or high intensity interval training in that fasted state. Now, once we jump into kids and helping to control insulin, like growth factors factor in kids, this is a really interesting consideration is whether or not kids should be fasting to help control IGF1 and to increase their human growth hormone. So here's I'll get into why kids are potentially going through puberty earlier and some of the issues with HGH and IGF1 to kind of step back and give you the big picture for those of you who aren't aware of this problem. Basically, kids are going through puberty much earlier nowadays. Now, as far as what's normal, girls have always developed earlier than boys usually see girls go through puberty like between the age of 8 and 12 and boys somewhere between like 9 and 14 years old. But the new normal, based off studies that they've done, have found that girls are going through puberty close to like 8 or 9 years old and boys are going through puberty a little bit before the age of 10. So it's changed really, really significantly. Like, and if you look at one study, they found that in 1860, the year 1860, the average age of the onset of puberty in girls was 16 years old. And then in 1920 it was 14 years old, and in 1950 it was 13 years old. And in 1980 it was 12 years old. And by 2010 it drops to 10 years old. And so, and then African American girls, like it was going down to eight years old, and for Asian girls, it was dropping down around nine years old. So really, really weird trend in this onset of puberty. As far as why, there's a lot of different speculation as to why they're saying that stress, physical, emotional, relationship and lifestyle stress, based on us living in a more stressful environment, could potentially be one of the reasons for this. They say that light cycles, like longer periods of time spent exposed to artificial light, especially at night, having that body in a constant, basically what would be called a constant summer state, could potentially cause this chemical exposure. Some of the plastics that we talked about earlier, as well as the hormones and chemicals that we're finding in like meats and milks and things of that nature, could also be causing this. It's probably a cluster of symptoms. It's really, really tough to say, but One of the. One of the bigger issues here would likely be endocrine disruptors that we find in a lot of the plastics that I just got done talking about, as well as any environmental chemical pollutant, like herbicides, pesticides. A lot of the plastic preservatives that are found in, like, cosmetic products, plastic toys, hairsprays, deodorants, car fresheners, shampoo, nail polish, perfumes. We just took our kids to Disneyland yesterday. And when I took them there, because we're on vacation in Long beach right now, when we took them there, they gave us a car air freshener. Like, when we came in through the parking lot, and the first thing that I did was pull up and throw it in the garbage can. And my boys are like, why? That smelled nice, dad. And I'm like, yeah, it smelled nice, guys, but actually that nice smell is really, really bad for you. And I just toss in the trash. Like, car air fresheners are one of those things, among others, that are one of these issues when it comes to a lot of these environmental pollutants that could potentially be causing us to go through puberty earlier. There was one really, really interesting study where there was this chemical spill of an insecticide called ddt, which we use as, like, a mosquito spray. And what happened was they had a chemical spill and the alligators, the male alligators living in the lake, started going through puberty earlier. And I have no clue how they studied that or why they studied it, or how you actually were grabbing alligators and seeing how early they went through puberty and somehow correlating that to a chemical spill.

They're just looking in their armpits to see if they had hair yet.

Yes, exactly. So seeing when they start rebelling against their parents, but basically, really, really interesting. So it's probably very chemical based. Now, one of the things that we know is that when you get increased exposure to hormones, specifically the type of things you would find in some of these endocrine disruptors and endocrine mimickers, and also in, like, meats and, like, milk from commercial dairy and stuff like that, you get an increase in insulin, like growth factor, which is also known as IGF. And this increase in IGF1 can be one of the things that also correlates to an increase in human growth hormone and causes you to go through puberty earlier. So when we step back and look at this, an increase in human growth hormone or an increase in IGF1 brought on by, for example, long periods of time spent fasting would not necessarily be a way to control puberty in kids. If you think about it from a logical standpoint, putting kids through fasted scenarios like that might actually cause an earlier onset of puberty by causing an increased production of human growth hormone and possibly an increase in some of that insulin like growth factor as well. I think that'd be a much, much better idea to just, you know, give your kids lunchbox, stainless steel containers, glass food, you know, detox your house, use natural personal care products and household cleaning chemicals. You know, keep them away from mosquito repellents and herbicides and pesticides by giving them organic fruits and vegetables and all that type of stuff rather than having your kids fast, which I think potentially could cause them to go through puberty earlier. Unless I am, I am confusing Johan's question here. I think this is basically not such a great idea to have your kids fast. Plus they would probably hate you anyways if you have them fast for long periods of time. But yeah, I mean that's, that's the big picture. Does that kind of make sense?

Yeah, yeah. Actually that was remarkably easy to follow, even though it was very science. My propeller hat is working well today.

Well, if you saw my podcasting environment today, you would understand why I am so. Is cogent the word? Cogent.

Cogent, yes.

Cogent, yes. Why I'm so cogent, I'm actually standing right now, which of course we all know that increases your brain derived neurotrophic factor and makes you smarter. But I'm standing in the small bedroom of a rented house in Long beach with my microphone propped up on four pillows, my laptop on a chair with the chair on top of the bed, and then children running around and playing downstairs. It's really, really interesting scenario.

It does sound like you're recording in a kindergarten classroom.

Yes, there are children playing downstairs. So if the podcast audio sounds a little bit different today, that's why it's vacation Disneyland. Vacation Long Beach. That's right. Blame Disneyland. So anyways though, resources for all this stuff, we're gonna put them over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com 300 along with the discount for you can, the discount for Onit, some of the studies that we talked about, the, the Unbeatable Mind retreat, the Getaway in Dubai, my Rev Yourself conference, and all the other things that we talked about during the Q and A. But then also, we are going to send out an official Ben Greenfield fitness gear pack to one lucky listener. As they say in Canada, huzzah. Or as we say here in America, hooray.

Don't you say yahoo.

Happy, happy. Joy. Joy.

Yee haw.

Yee haw. So, anyways, we have a review from. From Bluto, who says how my mornings went from simple to super. What do you think, Brock? You want to take this one? Mm.

It goes like this. Dear Ben and Brock, this podcast seriously revolutionized my life. I never thought I'd go out and buy Himalayan crystal salt lamp and an air purifier until the day you guys rewired my brain to take control of my environment, of the environment I live in. Also, I switched to Dr. Bronner's soap, and I noticed it has relieved my hives that would occasionally break out. That's good. Yeah, nobody wants hives.

Yeah, a little. Little tmi, but.

Okay, he didn't say where. I'm assuming it's a guy that. Yeah, I might be wrong there. I. I learned so much from you guys. I want to thank you guys for an awesome show that I eagerly wait for every Wednesday and Saturday while I eat my morning acai.

Acai bowl.

Acai bowl. What's a cybowl?

It's like a bowl that has, like, acai berries and, like, fruits and stuff in it.

Yeah. Delicious.

Very hippie.

And sit next to the hot oven on a cold fall morning. Thanks.

Wow.

Mateo.

Wow.

Is that a. Is that some sort of a sign off, like. Like, namaste?

No, I think Mateo. That's Mateo's actual name. That's a lot of stuff. A Himalayan crystal salt lamp, an air purifier, Dr. Bronner Soap for your. For your hives. Sorry about those. Your morning acai bowl, and your hot oven on a cold fall morning. Amazing. Wow. This guy's like a walking, talking, like, testimonial for everything that we've ever recommended on the podcast Mateo. So, yeah, Mateo. Write us an email, BenGreenfieldFitness.com send us your address. And we are going to send you a cool tech T shirt, water bottle, and a beanie cap. And so if you're listening in and you also are covered in Dr. Bronner's soap, sitting next to your Himalayan crystal salt lamp and hunched over, eating out of your acai bowl, hopefully with a bamboo spoon, not a full plastic spoon, then you can go leave your review at itunes. And if you hear us read your review, then we will send you a sweet Ben Greenfield fitness gear pack. Or you can just support the show by going to BenGreenfulFitness.com gear and ordering a pack for yourself. So, that being said, I'm gonna start.

Saying that at the end of every yoga class, just be like, mateo, Mateo.

So. BenGreefulFitness.com giveaway. Get in on that biomat contest for our American listeners. Happy Turkey Day slash Thanksgiving for our UK listeners. Sorry that we kicked the Redcoats butt 200 and some odd years ago and we are now, so why we sell? No, no. Was that Fourth of July?

I don't know what you're talking about.

I'm getting my history mixed up. Thanksgiving is when we came over with the Pilgrims, and that's when you brought.

Smallpox and wiped out all the indigenous.

People and ate corn nuts with the Native Americans.

So, yeah, which is a really nice thing to celebrate, but I'm still gonna.

Snub all of our London listeners about how we beat the Red Coats.

I could bring up the time that Canadian. That the Canadians burnt down the White House in the war of 1812.

Yes. And to all of our Native American listeners, thank you for teaching us about.

Popcorn and sorry and.

Sorry for what?

Oh, yeah, everything.

Everything. By the way, I did just find out my wife is, I think, 1 16th Native American, so. No 1 8th Native American kids are 1 16th Native American. Found out her dad's like a quarter Native American.

How did she not know that?

I don't know, but she. She could have gotten so many more, like, college scholarships. So. Yeah. Oh, well, total segue. But anyways, Ben Greenfield Fitness. We gotta end this thing. BenGreenfieldFitness.com 300 Check it out and have a wonderful week. Visit BenGreenfieldFitness.com for even more cutting edge fitness, nutrition and performance advice. Sa.