The Latest Research On Longevity, Ketones, Caffeine, Creatine, Sleep, Plant Vs. Animal Protein Intake, My New Book Boundless & Much More!

On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast, there are certain physiological parameters that I target in the routines that I write. Everything from peptides to bioidentical hormones to a lot of these foods that one can consume, powders you can put in your smoothie to enhance stem cell mobilization. This is just not a book that they wanted to put some airport bookstore or some little 250 page paperback that you read in a week and it's gone. The same network of physicians that I personally use, I've just pretty much unleashed them upon world health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show. All right, big episode coming at you today. This is another solo sod with yours truly. All sorts of cool stuff in here about protein and creatine and ketones and new longevity research. You're going to dig this, I think. And I wanted to bring you up to speed on the latest and the greatest in health and wellness research. Okay, so the first thing I wanted to dive into was protein. There was actually a study in the National Journal of Endocrinology very recently came out January 2020, pretty much this month, saying a word of caution against excessive protein intake. And the abstract goes on to say that many people consider the protein content when purchasing foods and beverages and report open quote, trying to eat more protein. And the journal then goes in to caution against protein enriched diets. And of course we also see this in the longevity sector. Many people talking about MTOR and switching on MTOR as being something that could fly in the face of actual longevity. Now the thing is, that is true to a certain extent, but especially in active people. I stand by my recommendations to a get about 0.55 to 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight, erring towards the higher side of that if you are an active individual, b make sure that if that protein especially is coming from meat based sources, that you're getting adequate amounts of glycine in the diet to balance out the methionine. So we're talking about bone broth and organ meats and even glycine powder supplementation because that's going to be very important at opposing a lot of what methionine is going to do to mtor. And this would be a scenario you see in the traditional having red meat for every day of the week or chicken or salmon and not really having any bone broth or organ meats or glycine, leucine in the diet. The other thing to control would be leucine which is something you'd find in branched chain amino acid supplements, but which also is present in a lot of protein sources. And this is also something that you would want to be careful with consistently elevated levels of, which would be yet another reason to, if you're eating meat based protein, to choose from a variety of organ based sources. And if you're eating plant based protein, the same would apply. Not to focus on just say like a pea protein powder powder or something like a rice protein powder or a hemp protein powder, but to inspect instead spread your protein around so you're not getting high unopposed doses of leucine. Now these type of strategies combined with certain periods of the year, very similar to what we see, like the Mediterranean diet and the Orthodox church that uses that diet, doing, using protein restriction, this is something that is prudent. For example, five days in a row for four times a year. I'm doing one right now. Winter, fall, spring and summer. I eat about 40% of the number of calories I would normally consume. And I restrict protein. And I do, you know, some lightweight training or non explosive metabolic conditioning. I do walking, I do sauna, I do yoga. But those are kind of like protein cleanups that help to elevate autophagy and downregulate mtor just a few times a year. Now, no discussion of protein would be complete without addressing something regarding protein quality. This whole idea of basically animal versus vegetable protein, and it is quite interesting, I want to use legumes as an example. Common belief would dictate that legumes, if you were going to eat a plant based protein, are far superior or would be the best alternative to animal based protein. And it is true that legumes have a high, high protein percentage when they are dry. So they're about 20% protein when they are dry. But if you think about cooking the actual protein to turn it into an edible state, like legumes have to be cooked. Nobody's going to stick their hand in a bag of lentils and just crunch down on them. You'll gut distress and it won't be a tasty meal. Once you cook and hydrate a legume, the reduction in protein percentage is pretty significant. It goes down to about 7% protein content in a legume. So you reduce the protein percentage of legumes around three to four fold when you cook it. Now when you cook animal protein, you see the exact opposite occur. And when you cook animal protein, you can actually see a doubling, a tripling and sometimes a quadrupling of bioavailable protein because of the breakdown or the hydrolysis of the proteins in the meat. And that simply does not occur from a plant based protein such as a legume. So that's one thing to think about when it comes to protein quality. And another thing to think about would be digestibility of the protein. Right? We know that there are various antinutritional factors present in all vegetables that reduce digestion and absorption. That would be fiber, it would be hemagglutinin, it would be proteolytic enzyme inhibitors. And so the low digestibility of legumes or other vegetable proteins is something that can be an issue. And that's where, you know, vegetable based protein supplements and powders and the things you see, you know, folks having to eat huge amounts of in movies such as Game Changers to increase the digestibility or at least concentrate the protein and get it isolated away from some of those antinutrients. However, protein quality doesn't just depend upon rendering a protein digestible, but it also depends on the amino acid profile, particularly how many essential amino acids are present. So vegetable proteins have a much lower percentage of essential amino acids than animal based protein. You know, legumes, for example, they're extremely deficient in sulfurated amino acids like methionine or cysteine, two different amino acids that contain sulfur group. And that's why you say in a plant based diet you would combine that with, you know, cereal grains, for example, which would have more of the sulfur based amino acids. But the problem is for the body to maintain a pool of indispensable amino acids which are basically, you know, stored and cycled within the gut. Even that type of protein combining does not here to actually overcome the issue in active individuals of the limiting essential amino acids. And really only exception to this would be soy protein, which does have a decent essential amino acid content. But the problem is that soy you need to be careful with, you need to make sure you're using a lot of fermented versions like miso and natto and tempeh and you still have to eat copious amounts of it to actually get an equivalent amount of animal based protein, due to the fact that that soy protein has been shown to stimulate far less muscle protein synthesis compared to whey protein or beef protein or milk. And it also of course, contains a certain amount of phytoestrogens in it, which really wouldn't be an issue unless you're relying upon soy protein as a primary protein source to fill in all of your protein gaps, in which case you may actually find that you are getting too many of these isoflavones, which may have potential as being carcinogenic or being, for example, endocrine disruptors. So a few things to think about when it comes to proteins and, you know, and ultimately there's a lot more we can unpack when it comes to that. But I just wanted to get you thinking a little bit about choosing really high quality versions of proteins working in bone, broth and nose to tail meats. If you're eating a plant based diet, understanding that you have to render those foods digestible, you have to eat a wide variety of those plants, and even then you're going to be fighting an uphill battle, so to speak, unless you're supplementing pretty significantly. So those are my thoughts on that recent prote protein article that came out. Now, another interesting one was about coffee. I know a lot of people are putting in their morning beverage like ketones or MCT oil or ghee is fantastic. Ghee, I think, is one of the best things if you're gonna put something in your coffee because of the extremely high butyric acid content. And butyric acid can actually mimic what fiber does for your body in terms of not just amplifying your fatty acid production, but also feeding your bacteria in a way very similar as a prebiotic fiber. If you're trying to limit fiber due to some type of diverticulitis issue or fiber disrupting your gut or causing constipation or anything like that, butyric acid from something like ghee can be very good to include. And of course, ketones themselves, like ketone esters or ketone salts, have pretty appreciable amounts of beta hydroxybutyrate in them, which can do something somewhat similar. But what this recent study did was they looked at whether or not coffee just all by itself could actually increase ketone production without adding MCG and other things to it. And it turns out that in this study in which they had men consume coffee with no MCT, coffee with 28 grams of MCT and coffee with 42 grams of MCT, and then they collected things like HDL cholesterol, glucose, triglycerides, insulin, et cetera, and of course, ketone bodies, they found that even with zero amounts of MCT added to coffee, there was a significant increase in beta hydroxybutyrate levels, showing that if you're in a fasted state and you want to shift yourself even more into ketosis when you're in a fasted state, you don't necessarily have to add things to the coffee. Now, granted, in the study, the addition of 28 grams of MCT, there was no difference in ketone production compared to coffee without any MCT in it. But once they got 42 grams of MCT in there, that did cause a significant shift in ketosis compared to coffee without any mcts in it. But, but that amount of mcts can actually result in some other issues, such as gastric distress. So for me, it was interesting to see that I can feel okay about having that cup of black coffee in the morning, not necessarily adding anything to it, and still getting some of the ketosis shifting benefits of something like coffee ingestion. Now, this is going to lead me to another thing that I wanted to mention to you about ketosis, and that is that when it comes to ketosis, we, especially active people, are in an awkward position of most of the recommendations for nutritional ketosis being based off of diets that would have largely been prescribed for things like cancer and epilepsy. Right? Eat 30, 40, 50 grams of carbohydrates a day, but the fact is that that's not necessary. And there was actually a very interesting article that appeared in the Journal of Nutrition just last month that looked at what would happen with diets that, that differed in carbohydrate restriction in terms of someone's ability to be able to maintain levels of ketosis. And what this study found was that diets that contain 15 to 25% of their energy from carbohydrates, which one could say, if you're an active person eating say 2,000 calories a day or more, that's 500 calories from carbohydrates, over 100 grams of carbohydrates a day. These folks were maintaining very high levels of beta hydroxybutyrate with even that higher energy from carbohydrates. And this just goes to show you that you can't take trickle down information on what a ketogenic diet would be from therapeutic ketosis based diets to manage medical conditions and then immediately plug and play those into your own diet, especially if you are an active person. And if you look at our ancestors right, they would have achieved nutritional ketosis not necessarily, necessarily through severe constant long term carbohydrate restriction, but by low level physical activity during the day, occasional carbohydrate refeeds, and not necessarily using strategies such as heavy amounts of cream, butter, MCT oil, et cetera, which I think especially for some people with genetic predisposition or gallbladder or liver issues, that would dictate lower amounts of fat absorption could be an issue. So ultimately what this comes down to is I think we're being a little bit too carb phobic. And even if the the goal is ketosis, you can maintain high levels of those brain boosting and beneficial ketones even without severe carbohydrate restriction. And again, in this study, which I'll link to in the shownotes over@bengreenfieldfitness.com BoundlessQA we're talking about 25% of the diet calories comprised of carbohydrates. And these folks were still maintaining elevated levels of beta hydroxybutyrate and nutritional ketosis. Now if you want to take that even a step further, if you're an endurance athlete or a heavy exerciser, a crossfit or that might even be higher. There was one study that again just a few months ago, looked at carbohydrate intake and ketosis in ultramarathon runners. And these were folks who were running a pretty hefty amount. They actually measured them during one of their multi stage marathons and found that for these folks who were engaging in pretty significant physical activity during an entire day for multiple days in a row, they were staying in an elevated state of ketosis with levels of what's called beta hydroxybutyrate, one of the markers you'd measure in the blood for ketosis over 1. And they were doing that on what comes out to well over 500 grams of carbohydrates and in some cases up to 600 grams of carbohydrates a day. Right. So the big picture here is that if you want to use ketosis as a health aid or as a cognitive aid or an endurance boosting aid, don't necessarily feel like, especially if you're physically active, you need to to limit your intake of carbs to 30 or 40 or 50 grams a day. And in many cases, you know, the athletes I work with, I've got them on, you know, 150 to 200 gram minimum carbohydrate refeeds in the evening, typically avoiding many carbohydrates most of the day. So they're staying in a state of fat oxidation, then doing these wonderful carb refeeds at night and kind of having their cake and eating it too literally. When it comes to staying in ketosis and also getting enough carbohydrates to maintain what would be necessary for things like metcon workouts or bodybuilding style workouts or things that would be a little Bit more glycolytic or a little bit more glycolytically draining. So I hope that's helpful when it comes to the ketone issue. All right, so what else? There was another interesting kind of like biohacking type of article that I looked up and this was regarding the temperature of your forehead during sleep. And I want to, I want to go into two different sleep studies for you. This was really interesting. What this study looked at was a forehead temperature regulating device. And they found essentially that when you keep the head cool, not only can you get back to sleep better at night when you wake up if you have insomnia, but your latency, how long it takes you to fall asleep is significantly decreased. And it turns out I was even able to hunt down this company called, called EBB Ebb that makes a device you can wear over your head while you're asleep that kind of like that chili pad that circulates cold water under your bed, circulates cold water across your forehead during, during a night of sleep. So you know, as I'm prone to do, I picked one up and I tried it out and my thoughts are as follows. It definitely helped me get back to sleep when I would wake up during the night. And it was actually quite comfortable and almost calming to have that forehead cooling effect as I was falling asleep. However, and this is very similar to another popular sleep device called the Dream Headband, which is a pretty accurate sleep quantifying device that actually measures your brain electrical signals during the night of sleep. Very similar to a sleep lab would do versus like the whoop or the aura which are more measuring like accelerometer data and heart rate data while you're asleep. And the problem for me with the ebb, as was the same problem with me for the dream was that these things move around on your head while you're asleep quite a bit. They shift and they can wake you up sometimes if they kind of like are rubbing against your ears. And I think that's one of the big issues with some of these devices is they're just not practical, especially for side sleepers or for people who might turn while they're asleep. The ebb, what I have found to be useful for is a quick nap because it actually can help to calm you for a nap as well when you put this thing on. And then the other thing that I think it's useful for is getting to sleep at night. But the problem is of course you might wake up and it's moved around a little bit and that would of course further contribute to your nighttime awakening. So I think you could probably get most of what this is giving you by just keeping your room cool and especially being cognizant of the temperature of your head. And I would even consider, you know, what I've recommended before, especially if you're exercising later on in the day, cold shower, cold water, face dunk. Other strategies to keep your head cool, pre sleep, along with, and this is a cool little hack, putting wool socks on before you go to sleep, which can help to cool the rest of the body. If you do that stuff and you already have have something like a chilipad or an ooler, then you've got, you're doing a lot, right. And I don't necessarily think you have to have this ebb. Although if you're a real biohacker and you want to try out some new device, it might be an interesting one for you to look into. And then the other study in sleep. And this just goes to show you why quantifying your sleep data can be pretty effective. This one looked at injury in athletes, specifically in elite soccer. And what they invented investigated was sleep latency, like how long it takes you to fall asleep and injury occurrence. And they found a direct correlation between in the night leading up to an injury, how long it was taking to fall asleep and the actual occurrence of injury. So this is something that's been studied before with heart rate variability, meaning that if you're watching your heart rate variability and it's going down and down and down, you can almost with laser like precision predict that you're going to get injured or get ill. If you don't nip that in the bud and throw in a recovery day or a series of recovery and restoration days, well, it turns out now we can say the same thing for sleep latency. So if you're using an OURA ring or any of these other quantifying devices and you're seeing, man, it was taking me three minutes to fall asleep, now it's five, now it's seven, now it's 12. If you don't nip that in the bud, then it appears that you may actually get injured far more frequently or be at a higher risk of getting injured if you're not actually taking a recovery or a reboot day when you start to see your sleep latency declining. So two metrics you can look at to predict injury or illness would be sleep latency and also hrv. And those are two metrics that I personally track and keep my finger on the pulse of using the Oura ring and then in for my hrv, I even in the morning a few times a week will use the Nature Beat app which gives me even more detailed HRV data. And I think that and sleep latency are really important to keep an eye on. Especially all the more so if you're an athlete or someone who's very concerned about injury or illness, or you just don't want to miss out on your job or family obligations or hobbies, etc. Due to injury or illness. So check out sleep latency and HRV and then a couple of other things I have talked about before. And in the last podcast and article that I did on my own personal supplementation tactics, I mentioned how I'm a big fan of using creatine. I mean it's been shown to be a nootropic, it's been shown to stave off sarcopenia, help to maintain bone density, and this recent study is yet another reason that I'm a big fan of taking about 5 grams of creatine a day. Now remember, you can only absorb about one and a half to two grams at a time, so so you split that into a few portions throughout the day, just stir it into a glass of warm water. The warmth in the water will increase absorption even more. But this latest study found that it has efficacy as an antidepressant agent, meaning that creatine can lift the mood. And this is why I'm surprised I don't see creatine more in some of these nootropic and smart drug supplement blends that I see out there, but every time I come across another study on creatine, not only am I more and more more convinced it's just fine for the kidneys unless you're doing huge amounts like 20 plus grams a day, but it also has this host of benefits that just continue to pile up. Kind of return to the protein issue. It's another reason why including animal based protein in your diet is important because plant based protein has a pretty low amount or non existent amount of creatine. And so if you're vegan or plant based you definitely want to supplement with creatine. But I even think meat eater is a aside from the day that you're having a pretty hefty portion of steak or something like that should include about 5 grams of creatine in their diet. And now it turns out that it has a pretty significant impact on the brain as well. So speaking of aging and sarcopenia, there's one other very interesting article that I wanted to point out to you there's this website called aging.aging-us.com wonderful website for those of you who want to stay on top of the latest anti aging research. I discovered it after I interviewed David Sinclair on my podcast. I think he's involved with the journal that this website put out. But it goes into a lot of the latest in anti aging research and some of the big things coming down the pipeline when it comes to aging. I thought it was incredibly informative. So the website itself, you should check out aging-us.com but a few of the things that I thought were most interesting interesting here. One was that this was a study in rodent models. They found that a decline in the number of neuronal stem cells was something that pretty significantly recurred in response to both aging and inflammation. And where my mind goes is how can we actually target those neuronal stem cells. And we know that there are some practitioners now that will actually administer stem cells via nasal infusion like amniotics or umbilical stem cells that you can almost snort intranasally. But another thing that's incredibly protective for DNA and also for stem cell function is nad. And you can actually get NAD nasal sprays now and simply snort these. And this could really help. And you know, this is again hypothesis by me, but it's where my mind goes when I see stuff like this. You can actually inhale via your nose this intranasal nad. And there's a company called called Alive by Nature I like, they do a compound or not a compound, but a blend of CBD which is anti inflammatory in and of itself along with nad. And that's an intranasal spray. Another thing that I've been messing around with that I think is really useful. And I got this idea from Dr. John Laurence, interesting guy. I've been traveling now with these wonderful melatonin suppositories that he makes. He does like melatonin and glutathione down in CBD suppository. So you're getting this rectal delivery of these compounds, which is pretty dramatic. But then he also is a big fan of nebulizing glutathione. Nebulizing glutathione. So you can buy a nebulizer off of Amazon. I keep this next to my reading chair and I put this nebulizer over my face and I can nebulize glutathione. So it's getting neural delivery. It's doing things like fighting biofilm in the nasal cavities It's a very potent anti inflammatory and I think that could have an effect as well on the neuronal stem cells. So two little biohacks to look into would be the use of intranasal nad and also the use of something like a glutathione nebulizer where you're literally just breathing this stuff while you're sitting and reading, you know, 15 to 20 minutes a couple of times a week. And it's also fantastic as well for just your immune function, especially if you have upper respiratory tract infections or anything like that. And I'll link to Dr. John's website website in the show notes and I'll be, I think he's flying up to my house at some point in May and I'm going to interview him more about this stuff. But that was one interesting thing was this idea of paying attention to the health of your neuronal stem cells. And then another study and there are many of them in this paper. But David Rubenstein, who's a fantastic longevity researcher who studies mtor, what he looked at was leucine signaling and he specifically, specifically was looking at different drugs that would be able to induce autophagy by down regulating leucine and also have kind of a neuroprotective effect. And it's interesting, he actually found calcium channel blockers which would actually be used for blood pressure regulation or for hypertension to be useful as an inducer of autophagy. Which got me thinking a little bit because we know that we. One of the main things that causes an influx, a significant influx of calcium into the cell is and I have an upcoming podcast with Dr. Mercola about this exposure to non native EMF, WiFi, large appliances, 5G and other signals coming from the phone, et cetera. And so I would imagine that if blocking calcium channels will downregulate the MTOR response to, to leucine and also stimulate autophagy, it would also, you would think, be smart to be cognizant of your overall exposure to these signals, especially if you're in a state of fasting or trying to enhance autophagy or during a night of sleep when you could unplug your WiFi router and to also consider other ways that you could maintain normal levels of calcium across the cell. One of the best ways to do that would be magnesium. Like I use one supplement called Mag srt. It's a few different forms of magnesium that I take before I go to bed at night. And I think that being cognizant of overall calcium Intake into the cells is something that you should be aware of, especially from a longevity and an autophagy standpoint. And I would say use of magnesium and limiting your exposure to non native EMF would be two ways that you could do that without say, like you know, taking a drug such as a calcium channel blocker. So those are just a few of the little highlights that I came across in the Aging Journal and the Latest Advances in aging Research and drug discovery was the name of this paper. And again, I'll link to that in the show notes or you can go to aging-us.com all right, so that tackled some what I want to tell you about longevity and ketones and caffeine and creatine and sleep and protein. And so what I'd like to do next is to turn to some of the questions that I have specifically gotten about my book Boundless and answer your burning questions to that. Okay, well now let's jump into some boundless specific questions, shall we? Let's begin with this. Are there workout routines or training plans? And these are questions submitted on Facebook. By the way, I left that important part out. Are there workout routines or training plans for putting on muscle and or losing fat? Well, a short answer is yes, Longer, more involved answer is, you know, the code, so to speak, or the blueprint that I use with many of my clients and that I wove into particularly chapter 9 and 10 of Boundless. Chapter 9 is called Sexy Forever how to build functional muscle for life. Chapter 10 is entitled the ultimate blueprint for a perfect body. And also chapter eight is entitled Lean and mean how to burn fat fast without destroying your body. Chapter 11 is also relevant science, gear and tools for building the perfect human. You know, what I generally operate on from a physiological standpoint is there are certain physiological parameters that I target in the routines that I write. Specifically, let's say you want to stay fit for life, build mitochondria, maintain muscle, lose fat, kind of like be a Batman of fitness, so to speak. Kind of have a little bit of everything. And the areas that I target for that are specifically mitochondrial density achieved with short intense intervals with long recovery periods, lactic acid tolerance, which I think is underrated and is much marked by short intense efforts followed by shorter recovery periods. Like a classic Tabata set, so to speak, right? 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for for eight times through third would be VO2 max or maximum oxygen utilization, which is generally trained with longer four to six minute efforts with about a one to one work to rest ratio. Right. Four to six minutes or so recovery between each of those four to six minute efforts, with about four to six as the total number of efforts that you do for VO2 max. Next would be fat burning or metabolic efficiency, which is generally achieved with shorter aerobic bouts. Usually I program those in a fasted state generally and I provide information for this in the book, performed in what would be called your fat burning zone which technically and I don't have time to get into the detail today, but you get your lactate threshold via a 20 minute maximum sustainable effort on a bike track. Your heart rate during that subtract about 20 beats and that's your maximum fat burning zone for achieving metabolic efficiency. For some of these fasted workouts such as a morning walk for example, the fourth component in addition to mitochondrial density, lactic acid tolerance, VO2 max and metabolic efficiency is strength. And I generally program that with an eye on again longevity, especially in Boundless because compared to beyond training my my title that I finished, I guess that that came out about seven years ago and was was really focused on performance. But one distinct difference and I guess this kind of replies to another question I get often, often is the difference between Boundless and Beyond Training. Well, among other things Boundless is really focused on longevity, on anti aging, on maintaining energy for life versus say performance at all costs. And because of that the strength training that I recommend is controlled loaded lifting, meaning almost like a super slow type of routine, one to two times a week, single set to failure, very very easy on the joints. But then in addition to that I also program power workouts that are more explosive but not under load like you would see in say a CrossFit routine, but rather more body weight explosive workouts. Right. So there's two components of strength explosiveness that I target in the book. One is kind of more the super slow controlled strength and the other is the lighter body weight explosive sets and then finally mobility. I have a whole chapter on beauty, symmetry, mobility, everything from the skin to desk place, ergonomics to different poses to do during the day, on airplanes, at your office, etc. And when I weave all those together right, mitochondrial density, lactate tolerance, VO2 max, fat burning efficiency, strength, explosiveness and mobility that results in the type of routine that I have within the pages of the book. And I also include in the book instructions for how to access a special section of the BoundlessBook.com website where I've got about 500 pages of information that the editor cut from the book because we only have so many pages to work with. But I didn't want those to get completely sacrificed so I put them in a special section of the website and then I also put a huge number of training plans and also nutrition plans on the website as well. And there are sample plans throughout the book. But there is even a deeper dive and more information if you go to the website for the book with the special access that you get when you get the book. So long answer. But yes, I weave all of this physiology together into putting together programs for more longevity anti aging with simultaneous muscle gain and fat loss within the book. Which kind of leads to another question I get about the nutrition plans within the book. And there are a variety of nutrition plans and the way that I write out the nutrition plans in Boundless is it's not necessarily a one size fits all diet. There's two different chapters on self quarantine quantification, on which blood tests, which lab tests, which DNA tests, which stool tests, etc to get to determine the type of diet and supplement approach that would be perfect for you. So I kind of wrote the book as a, as a way to teach you how to fish rather than say like handing you a fish. But then I took a deep deep dive into the PubMed research and laboratory biomarkers for a variety of different diets. So what I have woven within the book are instructions for the autoimmune Paleo diet, the specific carbohydrate diet, what's called a Swiss Detox diet, a Colorado Cleanse diet, the Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet or GAPS diet, an elemental diet, what I call an advanced biohacking diet for those busy travel days, Wahls protocol, kind of a modification of Stephen Gundry's Plant Paradox diet, a lower carb version of the Mediterranean diet, a modification of the carnivore diet, some adaptations of the Paleo diet, the Wesson A Price diet, and then finally an ancestral diet. And every single diet has a whole list of the urine markers, blood markers, stool markers, genetic markers, symptomatic factors as well as lifestyle goes for choosing which of those diets would be appropriate for you. And I also give instructions on how to stack like some people need to start with like two weeks on the Colorado Cleanse diet and then go into say 12 weeks on a Paleo autoimmune diet to heal the gut and then progress into like the biohack diet or the bastardized version of the carnivore diet or the Weston A. Price diet. And I include all of that within chapter 21 of the book where I talk about about routines and rituals I give a sample day of eating for each diet, breakfast, if that's a word, lunches, dinners, snacks. And then on the website I have a robust amount of recipes that I have collected and modified to be appropriate for each of those diets. So the training plans and the nutrition plans, I really wanted to be extremely dynamic for everyone from the total athlete. Again, even though beyond training training, my original book, I would say is an appropriate, like, addition to this book if you're really, you know, going after like hardcore Spartan, Crossfit, you know, more advanced marathoning, triathlon competition, things like that. But then Boundless has some of that stuff woven in, but really is even more focused on longevity, anti aging and staying fit for life. Someone also asked if there will be specific eating choice choices for specific gene variations. And that's something I'm very proud about with Boundless because not only does it tell you which diet to choose based on your genetic factors, but also your urinary markers, blood markers, stool markers, etc, I would imagine. And I'm not a doctor, I don't want this to be misconstrued as medical advice. I'm anything but a doctor. However, I would imagine that a lot of physicians might wind up using this as a resource for their patients as well. Because, you know, three years of research into this thing in terms of determine which of these, you know, kind of popular diets that you can easily grab cookbooks for and extra resources for on Amazon are going to be right for you. And that's probably kind of a drawback to Boundless is I read so much. I read almost a book a day that I wove like information from hundreds of books, books, as well as recommendations for additional reading, additional podcasts, additional videos, etc within the book. So every single chapter, we worked tirelessly on not only all the hundreds of scientific references for each chapter, but all the additional podcasts, all the additional books, all the additional resources that allow you to take an even deeper dive into that section that you're reading, right? So if you read the Beauty and Symmetry chapter and then you go to the webpage for that chapter, there's a host of additional information that you can take an even deeper dive into. Someone says, I've battled with stomach issues my whole life, 24 years, and have not found a routine that works for me. I'm wondering if Boundless has information on gut intestinal health. So the answer, as you would have guessed, is an undeniable yes. So chapter three 13, I'm super proud of it is an entire chapter on pretty much Decoding your gut start to finish, I go into a deep dive on gluten and gliadin sensitivities, how to determine if you have those and how to heal from those using specific dietary parameters. You know, how to use everything from peptidases to pre digesting gluten, to how to repair the intestinal villi, to certain things that can reduce the sensitivity to glyphosate, which is often co consumed with a lot of these gluten rich foods and can be a bigger issue than the gluten itself. I get into fodmap sensitivity and how much that goes hand in hand often with the symptoms of gluten intolerance and then how you can actually work in like a lower FODMAP protocol. But also because I know a lot of my readers are active, get enough calories into your diet, which is kind of a, kind of a notorious issue with that diet is difficult to get enough calories when you can't eat, you know, fructans, oligosaccharides, monosaccharides, disaccharides, polyols. When you restrict a lot of that stuff, it's difficult. That's one thing I did in the book was, you know, a lot of books they'll tell you don't do this or do that, but it's not written from in the trenches. It doesn't talk about you lay in bed hungry at night because you didn't get enough calories in. And you know, I really address that quite a bit in the gut. That chapter I get into insufficient digestive enzymes and low enzyme activity, a common cause of gas and bloating and poor stool. And what you can do about that, how to enhance the health of your liver and your gallbladder. You know, everything from digestif some bitters to how to use sauerkraut strategically to ox bile extract, which kind of flies under the radar and some different gallbladder drainage homeopathic remedies as well that can assist with digestive enzyme production. The gut chapter also goes into what to do if you have too much or too little gut bacteria. Two different issues that go hand in hand. I get into everything from probiotic enemas and suppositories that can help to seed the gut, to what to do about too much, like an actual step by step system for eradicating small intestine bacterial overgrowth and eradicating fun fungus and some of these issues with overgrowths in the gut. And then I also get into what to do about Issues where the gut does not have enough bacteria. Pretty big section on yeast and parasites and some of the ways that you can blast those out of the system. Some of the more popular. The book is just ripe with recipes, diagrams, charts, tables. That's why I think if you're going to get the audiobook, which is going to come out shortly after the book is released, the audiobook will come out. But I think in an ideal scenario, if you can foot the bill, which, you know, most people have credits on audible. If you want to kind of get through a lot of the mass text of the book via audio, that's the way I'd do it. But I think owning the hard copy for a lot of these recipes, detox, juices, cleanses, diagrams. I mean, the book itself is beautiful. It's a big. I designed it to be almost like an art piece. So it's a big kind of like coffee table friendly book or a boardroom book or an office office book. A lot of people love to kind of thumb through the pages. So I think doing the audio along with the hard copy is superior. I also get into in the Gut chapter, what to do about insufficient stomach acid. Like how to use everything from raw garlic to extra virgin coconut oil to different eating and timing strategies to fermentation, strategies to address insufficient stomach acid. Some of the food intolerances or simply sensitivities, what we call malabsorption issues that tend to fly under the radar. And some of the best tests to identify what those are, some of the best panels, the ones that are not going to be a good use of your money and the ones that will give you a bunch of false positives and the ones that will actually truly identify, you know, immunoglobulin reactions to foods versus, you know, just food intolerance or food sensitivity issues. And I have a massive section in there because I took a deep dive into this. Probably helped that my, my editor kind of struggled with some of these issues as well. So we went back and forth on this and added a lot more into the book about mold and mycotoxin. A huge issue that I didn't address much at all in beyond training, but that I lay out a systematic protocol for eradicating within the pages of Boundless. Okay, next question. Do you have information in it for women specifically to help rebalance balance hormones? Well, what I would reference for this would be my Anti Aging and longevity chapter. I was tempted to actually write a book purely on longevity and anti aging. Everything from peptides to bioidentical Hormones to a lot of these foods that one can consume. Powders you can put in your smoothie to enhance stem cell mobilization or increase cellular autophagy. Wound up having an over 100, 100 page chapter on longevity and anti aging alone, with over 150 additional pages on anti aging and longevity that are on the book website. And certainly a big part of that chapter gets into how to maintain hormones, how to rebalance hormones and how to address the reproductive system. So you know, we know that for women, once the menstrual cycle stops, the ovaries help production of estrogen and progesterone. So I get into how to properly replenish estrogen and progesterone. Everything from bioidenticals to some other nutrient based tactics. Same thing with guys. I get into andropause and the use of everything from, you know, acoustic sound wave therapy to infrared therapy to the right kind of stem cells for staving off hormone decline. And I also get into the hypothalamus, kind of the master regulator of a lot of this and how to take care of everything from a leaky blood brain barrier to a lot of the micronutrients that tend to put a dent in the ability of some of these organs like the gonads to be able to respond to luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone from the brain. And then I basically lay out some of the things that might be a precursor to actually working with an anti aging doc. Now I have an entire page in the book with all the different physician practitioner directories as well as about 15 different docs that I keep in my back back pocket. I put them all in the book as folks that you can reach out to if you need to work with a true hormone specialist or stem cell specialist or beauty specialist or gut specialist like I, I worked all the physicians that I trust and work with into the book so you can reach out to them. But I also get into everything from, you know, maintaining DHEA levels and insulin cell receptor sensitivity, growth hormone receptor sensitivity, even, even the use of peptides prior to hormones. That's all in the book. So yeah, I mean if you read this, you'll be a wizard at rebalancing your hormones as well as having your back pocket. The same network of physicians that I personally use and rely upon, I've just pretty much unleashed them upon the world. Okay, next question. Does Boundless include recipes? Well, I think that I already addressed this, but perhaps I'll just give you a flavor of some of the recipes that are in there. So, for example, we've got everything from spinach, onion and goat cheese omelet, avocado, apple and chicken salad, balsamic dijon glazed beef tenderloin with chimichurri keto, deviled eggs, homemade maple coconut yogurt, lemon garlic chicken drumsticks, Parmesan daikon radish fries, jalapeno bacon and cheese collar, cauliflower muffins, macadamia encrusted mahi with cucumber avocado salsa, chili with beef, beans and chicken liver, salt and vinegar, sweet potato chips. I mean, from desserts to different coffee recipes. I've got like 20 different ways to hack your morning cup of coffee in here. How to make different cacao and tea and mushroom tinctures. Speaking of mushrooms, there's an entire chapter on responsible use of psychedelics, nootropics, if you've ever wondered about how to source those, how to weave them into your routine, how to dose them properly, all that is in there. So, yeah, recipes abound in this book and there's a lot of tasty ones in there. Everything from, you know, my wife's sourdough to some of my crazy kitchen mashups, to a lot of the recipes that I've learned from different practitioners over the years. Even some of the recipes that my boys make, you know, with their podcast Go Greenfields. They do a cooking podcast every two weeks. I don't know if I've mentioned, I probably have mentioned that before on my podcast. They're@gogreenfields.com but my kids are little kitchen wizards and so I've learned a lot from them as well. So, yeah, that's all in the book. Okay, another question, and these are, these are now like some more kind of logistics, Actually, I'm going to answer one routine based question, then get into some of the logistical questions. Which chapter would you recommend as a must for all readers to begin implementing in their lifestyle routine immediately? Well, that's a good question. That's like asking me to choose my favorite child. But I think chapter 20 is pretty interesting because it addresses a lot of stuff that flies under the radar. It's called invisible hidden variables that make or break your mind, body and spirit. And in that chapter, I get into how to basically shield your entire house. Like how to work with a building biologist, how to eliminate non native EMF in your home, how I built my home, how to modify an existing home, what you can do about radiation, what you can do about 5G, what you can do about EMF. So that's all in there, you know, weaving in a lot of the concepts from my original book, how to Biohack a Healthy Home. But it's all updated with all the latest biohacks you can install in your office or in your home. I get into light quite a bit in that chapter, how to use light to hack your circadian rhythm, which type of lighting to install in your home, which light bulbs to choose, and also a lot of the biohacks that can help either inhibit blue light or get red light in front of you. But it's very comprehensive and I've been doing a lot of research lately on the ability of the human body to photosynthesize using a molecule called Melbourne, which in response to light and structured water and mineral intake, can actually push off electrons that can then be used in the electron transport chain. So very similar to how a plant can photosynthesize using chlorophyll and sunlight, a human body can actually photosynthesize to a certain extent. And I include some of that information in Boundless about how to step up your body's own ability to be able to photosynthesize even in the absence of calories. And don't chuckle. I'm not a breatharian. I don't think people can survive on air, nor do I believe people can survive on light or water. However, there's a definite energy uptick that you can experience once you figure out how to up regulate your body's own capability to photosynthesize. And also that book, by the way, for those who want to take a deep dive, this book called the Human Photosynthesis. It's a really great book. That's the one that I read to really get my head wrapped around Melbourne melanin. It's almost like a textbook, but really good. Also in that chapter, I get into my own routines for personal productivity. How I set up my workday, how I set up my office, how I actually manage, you know, from a productivity standpoint, the different software tools that I use, the different phone apps that I use, etc. You know, so for me, you know, for example, some of my biggies would be Iris software on my computer, use Evernote synced between my Kindle, between my smartphone and between my computer quite extensively. I don't use Google Calendar. I use a different calendaring system called BusyCal. I've got a Dragon dictation software on my computer. I've got a few handy apps like a mass cut and paste app called Jump Cut. I've got some different password type of programs that I use, some of which you probably already know about. Things like 1Password, you know, how I use Slack effectively. So a lot of kind of like my tools and little things that I use to enhance productivity are also going to be in there. And also on a lot of the hidden website pages for the book, I get into natural household cleaners, you know, furnitures, mold, mycotoxins, a lot of the things in your personal environment. And then water. Man, I get so many questions on water. So I address everything from how to properly filter a municipal water supply to if you're in in an apartment or a condo, to which things you can travel with that are travel friendly and portable for purifying your water or structuring your water on the go. I get into everything from carbon block filtration to reverse osmosis to remineralization. And so that chapter, along with I guess chapter 21 on routines and rituals from a lifestyle standpoint, it's pretty massive, pretty comprehensive. And so yeah, yeah, there's a lot in there as far as implementing some of these things in your lifestyle routine immediately. So I'd say chapter 20 and chapter 21 would be pretty good for that. So just a couple last things here that I want to go into for you, I want to give you because you've sat through this whole podcast thus far, I want to give you just a few insider tips that I'm going to hand select from the book for you so you can get some good value out of this this even before you actually get your hands on the book itself. Okay, so the first area is gene repair. You hear a lot of people doing these whole genome analysis or 23andMe and exporting those results. But what a lot of people don't do is focus on the genes that really matter. I'm a big fan of the 8020 approach. Like what is the 20% of stuff that's going to give you 80% of the results? And. And in the book I've learned a lot from Dr. Ben Lynch, a fantastic doctor who wrote the really great book called Dirty Genes, and there's about seven that you really need to pay attention to that I outline in the book. So if you were going to sit down with your genetic results and look at any genes to say, okay, do I need more glutathione? Do I need to take a multivitamin with methylation support in it? Do I need to address my nitric oxide levels? So basically those seven genes are the MTHFR gene, the GST gene, which regulates glutathione levels. The COMT gene, which regulates your dopamine, norepinephrine and epinephrine levels. The DAO gene, this one really flies under the radar. It's a histamine response to foods. I'm shocked at the number of people who have a genetic response to foods that can be controlled via something as simple as a histamine blocker without changing any other aspect of the diet. And I show you in the book exactly how to identify that and which antihistamine you can use to control that. The other three genes are the MAOA gene, which also affects dopamine and norepinephrine and serotonin, but especially sleep and what you can do about that one. And then finally the NOS3 gene, which is a nitric oxide related gene related to everything from circulation to erections and orgasms, kind of how to attack that gene. And then the PEMT gene, this one also flies under the radar, but can be associated with gut health, gallstones, liver issues, etc. And I get into how to test that and the type of things that you can do to, to address that gene if you tend to have issues with that specific gene, which is also a common one that tends to fly under the radar. So a lot of the gene stuff in here I'm pretty darn proud of because I took a deep dive into that stuff. Another area that I address that I think kind of flies under the radar is oils, but specifically some of the oils that don't get talked about as much. So, you know, we know that fish are a good source of EPA and dha, but the way that fish create that is they produce this enzyme that converts the plants they eat, particularly the algae that they eat, into DPA or into EPA rather, and dha. Now, now new research that I cite in the book shows that people who consume adequate amounts of those same enzymes or precursors for those enzymes can actually upregulate their conversion of plant based oils into DHA and EPA without necessarily megadosing on fish oil. So I'm talking about things like Omega 5, Omega 7, Omega 9, Omega 11, and then also gamma, linoleic acid, zinc and magnesium. And if you weave those into your diet, then you're actually able to get a really large amount of DHA and EPA just like fish do, without necessarily relying only on say, fish and you know, maybe roe and some algae to get that. So I've got this really handy chart in the book that gets into your different sources of conjugated linoleic acid like, you know, raw dairy products or grass fed lamb. Sources of gamma linoleic acid like spirulina or raw oats or organ meats. Sources of some of the enzyme precursors for the conversion like folate and fermented foods and probiotics. Sources of the omega 5s, the omega 7s and the omega 9s which are also necessary for this. Things like pomegranate seed oil which pops up over and over again in the book. I just fell in love with that one when writing the book. Sea buckthornberry, macadamia nuts, sesame oil, extra virgin olive oil. And then I even get into the Omega 11s which those are a little harder to get, but marine phytoplankton and I give some good sources for that as well as chlorella and spirulina can give you the omega 11 fatty acids. Then I get into some magnesium sources and also some good zinc sources like your oysters and your shellfish for topping up those levels. When you weave those into the diet, if you really want want a properly structured, say Mediterranean diet, or you want to choose from some of the more meat based sources for a little bit more of a carnivore or a paleoish approach, it's really important and I've started to kind of weave some of this stuff into my diet. And I've been testing omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acid balances and I've got really good levels of DHA and EPA without stepping up my dose of fish oil. So that's an interesting section of the book that I think, I think you'll find kind of new and particularly relevant from a nutritional standpoint. Now I also have a really massive chapter on sleep. I mean every chapter is pretty big, but the sleep chapter is really comprehensive. And one thing I really dug into was the literature between exercise and sleep, between exercise and sleep. And there are some interesting takeaways. For example, and here's some things you can weave into your day or think about when it to comes it comes to sleep. Research has shown that about 20 to 30 minutes of aerobic activity in that fat burning zone that I was talking about earlier prior to breakfast, can actually enhance deep sleep levels later on at night. And if you do that in the sunlight, you're going to all the more reap the circadian rhythm benefits of that early morning aerobic workout like a brisk 30 minute sunshine walk. The next next is that training hard early in the morning, like a CrossFit workout early in the morning, has been shown to Damage sleep patterns. But it's also been shown that a midday nap that is timed about five to seven hours after you wake can actually negate those sleep disrupting effects of an early hard workout. So if you're one of those early morning people and that's the only time of day you have to work out, you can use one of these, these devices that just shoves you straight into deep sleep mode. I talk about some of these in the book, like the Fisher Wallace Circadia device or the Humo Device or the NuCalm. You flip that on and you just go out for 20 to 40 minutes. At some point, five to seven hours after you've woken up. Like cut lunchtime short and duck away for 20 minutes. If you're an early morning exerciser, it can really help you sleep later on at night. Kind of pair it up that taking a nap during the day can help you sleep at night, but it works. Another study found that for the harder workouts, once you get up to about 80% VO2 max and higher, that you actually reap the most benefits from those from a fitness standpoint if you do them later on in the day. But they have to finish three hours prior to bedtime. So let's say you want to be in bed by, by 10 about the latest you should choose to do like a really high intensity interval session or something like that would be around 6, 6:30pm now that being said, a lot of the sleep deficits that occur in response to a hard later in day workout appear to be related to body temperature. So if you can do, you know, if you got to finish up your workout at 8, you can actually do a cold shower, a quick cold soak and get the body temperature back down and not have that sleep disrupting effect. You can also take something like phosphatidylserine to lower your cortisol levels and get those back in alignment so you can sleep at night and don't worry about cold blunting the hormetic response to exercise. I address this in the book, but you need to be cold for about 10 minutes or longer for that to occur. So you would have to take a pretty hefty ice bath to get the core temperature and the muscle temperature down to where you you decrease the satellite cell response to exercise. So it's kind of a moot point. Like if you're doing a quick cold shower, you don't have to worry about that at all. The longer cold thermogenesis sections, I would time those separately from a hard workout or the Day after a hard workout would be a good time for those. But quick cold shower, if you got to work out hard in the evening, can work wonders for the sleep later on. Another thing is sleep deprivation. And research shows that if you can do a few intense 10 minute bouts throughout the day, rather than a formal exercise session, if you're sleep deprived, it can actually alleviate sleepiness during periods of sleep restriction. So let's say you know, you've just had a new baby or you've just gotten back from a long haul flight and you have a day the next day that you got to get through. Going through a one hour workout is not appealing to you. Well, it turns out that you can do something like, you know, push ups, squats, lunges and some pull ups or kettlebell swings things three times during that day for only about 10 minutes. Which, you know, even if your central nervous system is fatigued and you don't feel like working out and you're sleepy, you know, most folks, once they get through that first two minutes, can polish off the last eight minutes. And that's a perfect strategy for a sleep deprived day. Another thing is that the nervous system, especially the central nervous system, even though it recovers pretty quickly after a workout, sometimes it can be so amped up that it does impact sleep later on in the day. And I also get into a few of the strategies in addition, like phosphatidylserine supplementation or a cold shower that can work with that. And a big one if you're on the go and you're traveling, I swear by this stuff is transdermal magnesium that you slather on the joints that you've worked out that can actually relax those joints a lot more quickly. And then another one, one if you happen to have the ability to use it is like an Epsom salts or a magnesium salts bath. And actually what I've started doing when I do an Epsom salts bath or a magnesium salts bath, is the company Water and Wellness. They actually sell hydrogen tablets so you can absorb hydrogen through your skin at the same time you drop these into the bathtub. And if you have the luxury of being able to take a quick bath one or two times a week, or on the days where you have the harder workouts, you know, slip away into the bath to catch up on a book or a magazine, that can be a really effective strategy for getting better sleep later on. And then one thing if you're doing a magnesium salts bath is try not to shower afterwards, even if you're sweaty from the heat of the bath, just get out light towel wipe. But you want to keep the magnesium on your body so it gets absorbed. What I do because the weather tends to be a little bit cooler where I live is I'll get out of the bath and kind of go outside for about 5 minutes and reply to some emails on my phone. Just stand outside, you know, in my boxers since I live out in the middle of the forest, often less than that and just let my body cool off naturally with the air. If you don't have that, you know, a fan in the room where when you're laying in bed you turn the fan on but lay naked in bed for a little while. That can help to cool the body so you're not kind of clammy or sweaty from that hot magnesium salts bath at night. I'm droning on, but these are a lot of kind of of like the in the trenches stuff that I weave into the book and I've only scratched the surface. I'm not going to read the whole book to you. However, I hope I've given you a pretty good idea of what you'll find within the pages of Boundless. And so Again, it's@boundlessbook.com It's available for pre order right now. If you're listening to this podcast when it comes out. Bunch of book launch parties happening. If you go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com calendar you can find out more about those happening in New York City the week of January 13th and in LA the week of January 24th. A whole bunch of different parties, amazing people, wonderful food, wonderful drinks. I'll be giving keynotes, Q and A signing actually I think, I don't recall. I think I'm signing books at the LA one because people have books. The New York one I think is like right when the book launches. So I'm not sure how much books I'll be signing there, but either way I'll sign body parts. So that all being said, I think that's enough for you today. So the show notes anything I mentioned in the show, including some of the research studies from early on in this podcast you can get over at BenGreenfieldFitness.com Boundless QA get the book. You're going to love it. BoundlessBook.com thanks for listening in and have an amazing week week. Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the show notes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the highly helpful Ben Recommends page, which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormones, sleep digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more. Please also know that all the links, all the promo codes that I mentioned during this and every episode help to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. So when you listen in, be sure to use the links in the show notes. Use the promo codes that I generate because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.