Just about every standard diet around or that has ever been proposed have all used the same model and construct of calorie reduction and reducing fat.

There have been many clever ways to package this idea from grazing on small meals and snacks all day long, to having a point system that maxes both fat and calories in a day, to constructing blocks designed of food combinations, to straight up calorie and fat gram counting.

This massive effort was promoted by all of our government agencies, stamped with approval by all our many medical associations and institutions, and embraced by the eager food industry to all help us loose weight and get healthy.

What came next was the introduction off modern "health food," labeled as low fat and reduced calories being now called "Diet," "Light," "Lean," and used terms such as "Healthy Portion," "Heart Healthy," and were quickly promoted and partnered by the new industry of weight loss and all their new programs like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Lean Cuisine, all they way up to Slim Fast, Nutrisystem and Medifast and all the other countless shake based meal replacement groups out there.

This new cultural model for eating essentially promoted REDUCTION. The only thing limited was fat and calories. By reducing what you ate by 25% or 500 calories a day you would lose 1 lb of body fat a week. This new fad diet concept, and yes, it is the ultimate fad diet, did not care what you ate with your daily points, blocks, and the 75% of the food you were allowed to eat.....just keep the calories lower and the fat low overall.

The 2 main concepts, the very backbone and rational off this model, low fat and daily calorie restriction are both anecdotal hypotheses, not facts, and not evidence based, AND as it turns out very limiting and actually DANGEROUS.

Calories do not determine metabolism. Fat is essential and when it gets too low it causes part of the chronic stress and malfunction that leads to disease.

Low Fat, Low Calorie dieting may induce short term moderate weight loss but it does so by injuring our metabolism. What we now know from long term EVIDENCE is that it increases your risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and overall causes of death. AND 98% of the weight loss (usually in the form of water, some fat, and some muscle) is regained plus interest (and usually as fat giving us a net gain in fat for our efforts).

Hormones drive metabolism and paint the landscape that our health is resultantly depicted. Hormones determine hunger, satiety, fat loss and gain, muscle mass and atrophy, and even mood, mental clarity, emotions, and quality of life.

Our current Standard American Diet creates imbalances in our hormones that in time can cause our health issues. By simply reducing the frequency and severity in which we imbalance our hormones but continue to imbalance them will not stop the disease process, and doesn't seem to slow them much once started either. To recommend them knowing this is unethical and to utilize these models knowing this is denial.

Elimination is the key to today's weight and chronic disease issues. There simply are behaviors and actions that we much stop if we want to loose weight and get healthy. There are other actions and behaviors we simply have to start for the same reason.

First steps:
1. Eliminate snacking
2. Eliminate sugar

Add in first steps:
1. Eat more healthy fat
2. Mix intensity exercise/training into your physical activity

Bonus musts:
1. Improve your sleep
2. Celebrate silence: meditation and paced breathing
3. Neurological tune up: chiropractic

For more advanced concepts, scroll back on my wall and keep an eye out.

Let me know how it goes!

Dr. Don

Low testosterone.

It is becoming rampant and our men's health is paying the price. It has been estimated that men today have one third of the testosterone that our great grandfathers had. Why?

Diet, stress and inactivity.

First, it is important to know that men have a hormonal cycle as much as women, but not the same. A man's testosterone levels cycle every 15-20 minutes.....that's right, 3-4 times an hour. They also fluctuate daily with the highest levels being in the morning around 8 am and the lowest in the afternoon about 3. Men have a monthly testosterone variance that changes from man to man, and we men have a yearly cycle that is highest in October and lowest in April.

So men, if you think you are not hormonal, your just delusional. In fact when given surveys where female identifier questions are removed men report experiencing PMS symptoms as much as women!

DIET: Insulin resistance is connected with low T. As a man becomes more insulin resistant his testosterone drops. Eating. Each time a man eats his testosterone drops sharply. So frequent (5-7) meals a day on a moderate to high carb diet really hits us men where it hurts. Oh, and soy products, alcohol, licorice, and stevia have all shown to lower a mans T levels. FYI

STRESS: Cortisol and testosterone seem to have an inverse relationship, when one is up, the other is down. So the regular stress response, hyper stress reactions, poor emotional management, sugar and caffeinated drinks, excess belly circumference and body fat will all contribute to a drop in T.

INACTIVITY: Human Growth Hormone and testosterone are tightly connected in the man's body. Weight lifting and High Intensity Interval Training have been shown to boost HGH 2,000% and raise T. Walking, or what I call stress release cardio has shown to drop cortisol levels, lower insulin resistance, and raise T.

Here is a bonus: Sleep. Sleep is when our hormones do most of their action, build us up, repair, recovery, and reset. No sleep, no hope at stable hormones or T levels.

Fasting: Fasting has been shown to raise T levels 180% in just a short term (one day) fast and keep them high and even higher after the 3rd day of a fast.

Sharp T fluctuations and overall reduced T levels in men have been connected to irritability, anger issues, moodiness, and even depression. Take this seriously.

So there you go my brethren, you have the info, now take the action!

Dr. Don

Yes, you read that right.

And yes, I have repeatedly written to you about how dangerous and disease promoting visceral fat is to our health and quality of life. And now, today, I have to modify that stance.

Let me first start by making an apology. In this learning process, trying to make sense of some very complicated physiology and pathologies that are plaguing the American public, there are new discoveries and perspectives that change along the way. That can be frustrating, I get it. It is frustrating for me too. I do not like having to change my position or edit my protocols and programs due to new information but I feel I must. I want the best for myself and my family. I want the best most accurate and effective understanding of what is really going on in this body of mine so that I can make the best, educated, informed decision on how to best engage in this crazy world of ours so I can live as healthy, happy, and stress resilient a life that I possibly can and pass that knowledge on to my children. Hence, I course correct often, and this is one of those moments, I hope you understand.

Often I have described visceral fat as the fat that accumulates in our gut, in the abdomen, under and behind the fat that lines our waist. In doing so I usually grouped together the fat that accumulates around the organs in our trunk with the fat that accumulates within the organs in the same area. Yes, there is fat in both locations, yes, both are indicators of problems and can raise health risks, but they are distinctly different and so are the health implications.

As it turns out, visceral fat, as in the fat around the organs in our gut is just marginally more dangerous than the fat on the outside of our body that upsets us when we see it in the mirror. Organ fat on the other hand, specifically liver fat or the fat that accumulated inside the liver itself due to diet, is the real threat. There is a real eye opening study that I will write about and include later that shows that in reality when isolated and tested it is not the visceral fat that cause our metabolic dysfunction and raises all of our health risks, it is the liver fat.

I have been working on diagrams and pictographics on how this process exactly works and I should have more info and specifics with a visual very soon…..but this is rather complicated stuff, but I think I can get it to make not only sense but give us some immediate direction to avoid or improve it naturally and through lifestyle. At least that is my intention.

What this new information does is to reinforce the liver-centric and hormonal emphasis of how we have been looking at this whole health equation and basing our lifestyle modifications and nutritional and stress resilience protocols on. The bottom line is we have been on the right track and this new info and distinction only supports what we have been doing in our research, work and programs both in my one on one custom programs and in the larger population based programs we are running through Aduro.

All that said, and not jumping into the specifics too prematurely, I can tell you that the number one CAUSE, not correlation, but CAUSE of liver fat is sugar. There simply is no way around it, no way to sugar-coat it, and definitely no way to deny it. Sugar IS what is driving major metabolic dysfunction that leads to metabolic syndrome which sets the stage for weight gain and obesity, diabetes, heart disease, accelerated aging, premature death, and is implicated in cancer and Alzheimer’s as well.

So, what can I do today?

Step One: No added sugar of any kind. Especially in liquid forms.

Step Two: Live the insulin friendly lifestyle (see my blog)

Step Three: Exercise, it promotes fat clearance from the liver.

Step Four: Prioritize Sleep

Step Five: Sit as little as possible….sitting squishes the liver and pisses it off!

More to come my friends.

Here’s to a lovely liver!

Dr. Don

The human body has no trouble making all the sugar it needs on a daily basis. Within our liver we have a very efficient mechanism for making sugar, or glucose on demand and in the absolute perfect proportion that the body requires at any given moment in time. The liver can make sugar from lactate, the byproduct of muscle contraction from exercise, it can make it from the glycerol it gets from breaking down triglycerides when we burn fat, it can make it from surplus ketones from fat burning, and it can make it from some of the amino acids found in protein from our diet, from the damaged proteins due to exercising, or from muscle in extreme cases. This process is called gluconeogenesis.

So basically protein from our diet, body, or through recycling is essentially time released sugar. When sugar is made through this process of gluconeogenesis in a healthy person there are never blood sugar issues, not high or low, but just right, all the time, every time. Pretty amazing huh?

What then happens when we eat sugar? Basically we halt this process and start a whole new and potentially dangerous disease producing cascade.

The amount of sugar in our blood is very tightly controlled by the liver. At any given point the average healthy person has about 5 grams of sugar in their blood stream. That is less than a packet of sugar and if that amount raises by just one single gram then that healthy person now has type 2 diabetes. Two grams extra and retinopathy can occur and three grams too much and you can get neuropathy and four extra grams can cause organ damage and if you get up to 20 extra grams then you can produce a coma.

So, with that said, what happens when a kid eats a bowl of cereal, or a glass of juice, or when an adult drinks a soda, or eats an ice cream? Each of these food choices can have over 40 grams of sugar each. That is WAY too much sugar to go right into your blood stream. If all that sugar did go right into your system you would be rendered unconscious each time you had a cafe mocha. So what happens to it all?

Here is how it works: We eat junk food-like product, it gets broken down by the acid in our stomach to very small bits. These bits then go into the small intestine to be absorbed into the hepatic (liver) capillaries and flow right into the liver where the liver has to sort this mess out. The liver first stops producing and releasing glucose into the blood stream from gluconeogenisis. Then as the blood sugar filters through the liver it is appropriately released into the blood to the heart to be pumped throughout the body. As the sugar keeps coming into the liver it fills its storage containers called glycogen within the liver itself and if then still more sugar keeps coming in it then turns that glucose into glycerol and binds three fatty acids to make a triglyceride and stuffs that into deposits within the liver. This is what causes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and if sugar keeps coming in then that fat gets stored in and around our internal organs and is called visceral fat. Visceral fat is what brings with it all the health risks for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer and more. This is also how body fat is made then sent to our hips, love handles or butt.

Grains turn to sugar within 4 seconds of eating them in your mouth so we call them super sugars. If you eat a diet with the regular consumption of sugars and grains, then over time you will develop some level of fatty liver. If the sugar you consume is mostly fructose, then it will happen sooner and be worse. Eventually this process leads to insulin resistance, weight gain and obesity, pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular (heart) disease, accelerated aging, inflammation, Alzheimer's, premature death and much more.

As this process continues the liver gets a beating and in time our blood sugar regulation will falter and we will see increasing high blood sugar spikes and high residual blood sugar levels. Oh, and if you think insulin will save you, think again. I do not believe insulin was ever designed for blood sugar regulation. Insulin does little to nothing for the utilization of sugar in our body, just the storage of it as glycogen and fat. Relying on insulin to regulate your blood sugar will guarantee chronic disease and your body breaking down one way or another in time and in misery.

Since most Americans eat sugar and grains at every meal, what can we do to help ourselves and stop this process?

First, you got to love your liver. She is the soccer mom of our body, always doing things for everyone else, usually at the expense of her own needs. I firmly believe that humans simply were never exposed to high levels of sugars and grains like we are now and we are not equipped to deal with it so when we do eat it as we do today our bodies simply breaks down.

Step One: Stop eating grains......and yes, even whole grains.....yes, even oats......yes, yes, yes.

Step Two: Stop eating processed sugar....yes, even natural sugar, yes, yes, yes.

Step Three: Stop eating........NO, you don't have to eat 5-7 times a day....give your liver a vacation and just eat 2-3 meals a day, you might even look to skip a day here and there entirely......NO, you will not die, starve, pass out, or waste away.

Step Four: Support your liver. Cruciferous veggies, lots of water, apple cider vinegar, sea salts and healthy fats are great for your liver.....just keep the low eating frequency. Yes, there are some great supplements that can help, I take some every day, but there is no one nutrient, hence why we use protocols.

Step five: Build resilience. Sleep. Walk. Exercise. Breath. Laugh. Love. Touch. Talk. Celebrate silence. Practice gratitude. Keep your nervous system tuned up by a chiropractor. Take a standing core class, yoga, or slow martial arts class. Get a massage once and a while. Take a hot bath. Read. Learn. Help others........REPEAT.

Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is predicted to be the number one disease world-wide in 10 years. This is exactly how it happens and what has been shown to not only reverse the process but how to improve your quality of life and overall health in the process. There are no gimmicks for this or any other chronic health conditions. You have to make it a lifestyle if you want to not suffer or watch your family and kids suffer.

We are here to help. We can do better. There are great options out there, but no one can do it for you, but if you decide this is what you want, then there is way more out there for you than most people think. Go for it!

Dr. Don

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Coconut Chocolate

From the Kitchen of Dr. Dana

• 1 cup Coconut Oil
• 1 Cup Cocoa Powder
• Stevia – to taste
• Real Maple Syrup – to taste (grade B is the best option)

Combine 1 cup coconut oil* and 1 cup cocoa powder and whisk together until nice and smooth.

Stir in1/4 – 1/2 tsp powdered Stevia extract (you could also use liquid Stevia) and 2 -4 tbsp maple syrup and whisk well. * what you’re going for here is to sweeten the mixture with stevia until its ALMOST sweet enough for you – and then add just enough maple syrup to cut the bitterness of the stevia.

Pour into clean ice cube trays or your favorite Chocolate Molds and place in the freezer to harden.

Once hardened, remove from molds and store in a container in the freezer (or fridge) so they don’t melt!

Coconut oil is liquid above 75 degrees F. (25 C.), and below that it will be a solid fat. It can be stored in either form, and it can be liquefied easily by applying low-level heat.

*In cooler months you may need to do this on the stove. Melt the coconut oil In a small pot over low heat to bring the coconut oil to liquid state, then remove from heat and stir in the remaining ingredients.

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This is a fantastic, dairy free pesto sauce. Toss it with your salad, with Zucchini Noodles, or over you favorite veggies.

Place the following ingredients in a food processor:

• 2 tbsp coconut cream*
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1 cup parsley
• 1/2 cup basil
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 3 scallions
• the juice of half a lemon
• 1/4 tsp sea salt

Begin to process all the ingredients together and then, with the processor running, slowly drizzle in 1/4 cup olive oil until all ingredients make a smooth paste.

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How Your Breath Stokes Your Fat Burning Metabolic Fire!

Did you know your lungs are powerful metabolic organs? Have you ever wondered where your fat goes when you “burn” it off? When I used to ask patients this and I would hear a lot of interesting answers from it evaporates, or it melts in sweat, to we pass it in the bathroom.

Well, here is how it works. Depending on what metabolic fuel you have set your body to run on, whether you are a SUGAR BURNER or a FAT BURNER, the given fuel source as glucose or fat (triglycerides) are liberated from food or stores in your body, or both, and get broken down into a form that can travel through your blood stream and get into your cells to “burn.”

As that fuel “burns,” it gives your cells, tissues, and organs the energy to move, detox, breath, and function. Yes, each individual cell “breathes,” so to speak. Each cell takes in the fuel, breaks it down for energy, and processes out the by-products. Some of those by-products get neutralized and pass through and out of our body in our urine, bowels, and sweat, yet the majority of it passes through our lungs. In fact, 84 percent of the fat that is lost turns into carbon dioxide and leaves the body through the lungs, whereas the remaining 16 percent becomes water.

Here is the point: there is a feedback mechanism that can turn up or slow down your fat burning and expelling process. Believe it or not, it is your rate and efficiency of breathing during a workout. We breathe out carbon dioxide because it is toxic to us, so your body will not let it build up much at all. Therefor the faster you can rid it from your lungs the more the body will be able to process by breaking down more body fat. Oh, and by the way, this process is completely calorie independent….the whole calories in vs. calories out concept……it is just a vague guess, don’t bank on it.

Remember, this is a metabolic process and your metabolism is not run by calories. Hormones control your metabolism, and although specific foods, chemicals, and nutrients will affect your hormonal responses, pure calorie count does not.

So, how can I use this info to help me burn more fat? Breathe! You will expel the most fat with a varied intensity model, or what we call metabolic workouts. Burst, peak, HIIT, all fall into the Variable Output Exercise model that we use and teach.

Here is the key: Pace and anticipate your breathing. When you workout with a high intensity it is not about getting more air in to your lungs that makes you huff and puff as much it is about getting that toxic carbon dioxide out. So, start paced deep breathing during your workout BEFORE you feel you need to. For example, within the first few minute of my workout I will start my paced deep breathing, belly breathing pacing at 3-4 seconds in through the nose and 3-4 out through the mouth.

As your exercise progresses the nose seems to not be able to keep up, that is OK, but keep the belly breathing going the best you can and start to force air out. Think of it like you are forcefully blowing out a candle during your workouts or during your recovery time in-between. I hope this makes sense; we are planning on building a video series on our Variable Output Exercise model and give examples of this technique, so keep your eyes out for it.

So, if you are at the gym, solo, or with workout partners, don’t hold back, start huffing and puffing EARLY and keep it going and you will stimulate more fat to be broken down and liberated from your body. Pretty cool huh?

Try it out; let me know how it goes.

Dr. Don

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