June 13, 2024 • 51 mins
Ever wondered how a simple Sunday workout could turn into a lesson about listening to your body? Join me, Simon DeVere, as I share a personal tale of an upper back injury that underscores the importance of tuning into physical warning signs. We'll explore a study on plant-based ultra-processed foods and their surprising impact on cardiovascular health compared to non-ultra-processed plant-based diets. This episode also cuts through the noise of current protein consumption trends, offering a clear, step-by-step guide to determine your protein needs without falling for fads.
Navigating the complexities of weight fluctuations, we'll discuss how creatine and carbohydrate intake can influence those pesky scale readings. I'll share insights on recognizing when to ease up on workouts to prevent injuries and emphasize the importance of good nutrition for recovery. Through personal anecdotes and scientific studies, we'll also delve into the benefits and challenges of sourcing proteins, especially under dietary restrictions, and how to strike the right balance of macronutrients to meet your health goals.
The conversation takes a serious turn as we address the rising use of performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) facilitated by social media. We'll look at the stark differences between responsible, well-monitored usage by top athletes and the reckless use by the general public, particularly young men misled by influencers. I'll reflect on the importance of transparency within the fitness community and urge for parental involvement to guide impressionable youth. Tune in to understand the critical connection between mind and muscle, encapsulated in our mantra: "There are no gains without brains.
Producer: Thor Benander
Editor: Luke Morey
Intro Theme: Ajax Benander
Intro: Timothy Durant
For more, visit Simon at The Antagonist
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast.
Here's your host, simon DeVere,and welcome back to Mind Muscle
, the place where we study thehistory, science and philosophy
Find everything in health andfitness.
(00:25):
Today, I am Simon Devere andthere is nothing new except all
that has been forgotten.
All right, so, yeah, I justwant to run down quickly.
We're going to get into today alittle bit of self-criticism
right out of the gate.
That's where I want to start.
I saw a cool study onplant-based ultra-processed
(00:47):
foods Good one that I think weshould touch on, Noticing that
protein is becoming a bit of afad.
I want to have some commentsnot only on that, but how to
actually source the right level.
I'm going to give you guys aquick, easy, step-by-step
process to figure out yourprotein requirements, to kind of
sift through the fad.
(01:07):
Protein's important.
So, yeah, I don't want thewaters muddied on something
that's pretty easy, pretty clear.
I see it jumping the shark, solet's nip that in the bud.
And then, yeah, last one, Iactually caught an article in
the Guardian natty or not,actually about kind of how much
more common PED use is becomingwith the internet.
(01:30):
So I'll recap a little bit ofthat and have just some comments
and thoughts on why I thinkthat's an issue.
But yeah, no, no, the firstplace to start.
I'm actually coming to you guysfrom the tall kneeling position
right now.
It's a good spot to work onsome hip stability.
I can do some good hip hingingdrills from there, but that's
(01:52):
not the reason I'm here.
Yeah, so it's funny because Ithink I started one of these
episodes recently talking abouta Sunday workout gone wrong.
I guess this is going to bepart two of that, because, for
completely different reasons, Ihad a Sunday workout lead to an
injury.
So upper back is not feelinggreat sitting in the chair.
(02:14):
It's been getting progressivelybetter throughout the week.
So, yeah, happy to report thata lot of the mobility drills
that I tell my clients to do allthe time are doing a great job
helping my upper back come backaround.
But yeah, anyway, I wake upSunday morning and I've already
confessed I really like that tobe a big workout.
(02:35):
Morning.
Did wake up, though, with justwhat I call bed injuries.
Sometimes, depending on yoursleep position, you might wake
up with a hip that's impinged.
Um, in my case it was kind ofneck and shoulder.
Um drank my coffee and I kindof had that thought that that I
could kind of, you know, warm upand go stretch and go slow
(02:57):
about the morning.
There was no time restriction.
I could just get to it, youknow, when my body felt good.
But, um, yeah, I said, fuck allthat, let's do it right now.
Um, went outside, uh, had agood workout in the sense that I
hit all the numbers you know ofthe day, the, the program was
(03:20):
intact.
But then when I got done, Irealized that my back was
tightening up and so, yeah, no,no, pop, no, no moment that I
could point to, but body justwasn't ready for it.
So, all that just to set up.
Yeah, wound up, getting my, myneck completely restricted where
I couldn't, couldn't look tothe right, no fun being on the
(03:40):
405 when you can't turn yourneck, being on the 405 when you
can't turn your neck, but yeah,so anyway, it's been a
frustrating training week fromthe standpoint of.
It's just been nothing but restand rehab, kind of nothing I
can do but eat well and domobility drills.
(04:01):
But no, it's going okay, thingsare getting better and yeah, so
I know tons of other peopledeal with this stuff all the
time.
So just, these are kind of themantras of things I've been
saying to keep myself going isthat, yeah, since I can't train
and I actually like training Ijust remind myself that my
eating, that that, basically, ismy training.
(04:22):
So I just I hang my hat and Itake pride in eating well.
Food still tastes great, if youknow.
Take the time to prep it up anddo what you need to do.
But that's where I'm putting mypride and hanging my hat, not
on the workouts.
I'm making sure to just get ingood, tasty, healthy food, that
that allows me to kind ofscratch the itch, to feel like
(04:44):
I'm doing something.
But no, it's doubly importantbecause for my body to recover,
I obviously need all of theright nutrients to make that
recovery happen as efficientlyas possible.
I really don't need any extrainflammation, so I don't need to
be.
You know obviously you guysknow you've listened to the show
(05:04):
for a while that I'm notdogmatically against sugar, like
I think the current paradigm is, but like this would be an
obvious time when I'm not goingto be having, you know, added
sugars, that that's normallysomething that I would put after
my workout.
So, yeah, I don't have that.
You know, propensity to processa little better and I don't
(05:26):
need the extra inflammation thatcomes with just sitting around
and eating added sugars.
Um, so yeah, it's annoying onone front, but I can say that,
you know, focusing on nutritiondoes work.
Um, obviously.
But I also recently mentionedhow I've been doing this logging
practice of just logging my badfood choices.
So I was doing that ahead ofthe injury I'd kind of already
(05:49):
removed most of my bad choices.
I'd really gotten it down frombeing multiple bad choices in a
day to maybe one or no badchoices in a day.
So yeah, with literally no goalof weight loss, I've been
training for strength and justeating like an adult, as I tell
myself to.
Yeah, that was actually justdown five pounds on the scale
(06:14):
without even intending weightloss.
So just a little proof ofconcept that even when you can't
train hard, you can actuallymake gains quote unquote you
know, just in the kitchen, justwith some intelligent planning.
It has not been like a Spartanexistence.
I'm not even to the point oflogging calories.
Just removing obvious badthings I was doing is already
(06:36):
making measurable results.
And then actually, just whilewe're on this, I going to open
up a couple other cans of worms,but briefly mentioned nutrients
that are good for recovery.
One of those, um is creatine,and we probably should do a full
, deep dive on just creatinesoon.
(06:57):
But uh, creatine is going to begreat, not only for muscle and
performance, um, it's alsoactually going to help you
recover from injuries faster.
So fortunately I'd already beenon the creatine for the
strength portion of the program,so I've continued that, even
though I'm not training, that'ssomething that's going to be
able to help me recover a littlebit quicker.
(07:18):
But that even just made theweight loss thing a little bit
more interesting, because one ofthe side effects of taking
creatine is actually pullingwater into the muscle fiber.
As that occurs, you typicallygain weight.
So seeing the scale come downwhile my body is holding water
because of the creatine that I'mtaking is even more interesting
(07:42):
.
It's certainly not miraculous.
So the five pounds down to behonest, what we're probably
seeing on the scale has mostlyto do with fluid retention.
Carbohydrates also cause you tostore water.
So when I was eating more ofthe treats and things, it would
be expected that my body wouldbe retaining water.
By simply dropping that.
(08:03):
Um, I have just merely probablyshed some water, just didn't
want to, like you know, put theidea out there that, like, I
lost five pounds of actual bodymass, um, through that.
That's highly unlikely.
What it's probably more likelyto be going on is that my, my
fluids are changing with, uh,getting out the the bad foods,
um, but obviously that's goingto help me again in the context
(08:24):
of the injury, because that'sthat's not the type of
inflammation that I'm going toneed or that's going to help me.
But, yeah, no.
Last one that I will say just onthis whole topic, though.
It's really annoying because Iwoke up, knew my body was not
feeling 100%.
I'm a little bit type A and Iwant to get the workout done.
So something I have to remindmyself in that mindset is
(08:48):
actually that that costs youmore than you gain.
Had I just gone a little bitslower that day but a little bit
more flexible with when thatcould have come in, this entire
injury could have been avoided.
And how many training days hasit been now?
That was Sunday, yeah, so minusthree workouts for me on that
(09:09):
choice to really push it onSunday.
So, yeah, we're going to haveto add this one into the
algorithm and refine, iterate,but I admit to being a work in
progress and sometimes you haveto be honest and self-critical.
So, yeah, there we go.
Don't think it was great.
Uh, you know, feeling like Ihad to push through some obvious
(09:33):
signs that you know neededaddressing.
So, anyway, any any type a guys, girls out there, um, you know,
be forgiving with yourselfevery now and again, uh, it
might actually just cost youmore sessions.
That's the part that I think wecan all connect to if we're
wired that way.
But, uh, yeah.
So study that I saw in the lastweek want to switch gears.
(09:57):
This was a cool one.
So it was, um, a study that wasactually controlling for a
plant-based ultra-processed fooddiet versus a
non-ultra-processed foodplant-based diet.
And you know, I'll admit thisup front.
I guess the reason I'm choosingto highlight this is this was
(10:21):
proof of something that a lot ofus had hypothesized for a long
time.
Definitely not alone in this,but anyway, without teasing it
anymore, the results werebasically that the plant-based
ultra-processed food diet hadnone of the benefits of the
non-ultra-processed plant-baseddiet.
So, in more plain English,that's going to be like when you
(10:43):
walk into the freezer aisle andthere are those processed meat
like products, when you go downthe center aisles of the grocery
stores and you see things likemaybe you know, I don't know
fried things in oil that thatsay plant based on the package,
but all of those processed foodsthat you see in the store that
(11:05):
are, you know, touting theirplant-based credentials.
So you know, study was done, twogroups one was getting the
ultra-processed plant-basedfoods.
The other group was actuallyeating plants, as I would say,
but for the sake of the study,this was a non-UPF plant-based
diet group.
(11:25):
And so let's see, I jotted downour results.
So, first, in our so for every10 percentage points increase in
plant-sourced, non-upfconsumption what Simonon calls
plants that was associated witha seven percent lower risk of
(11:48):
cardiovascular disease and a 13percent lower risk of
cardiovascular mortality.
So, conversely, if we went tothe plant-sourced upf that's
what simon usually callsfood-like products in the center
aisles of the grocery stores,so the food-like products that
(12:09):
have plant-based written on thepackage that diet, was actually
associated with a 5% increase incardiovascular disease and a
12% increase in cardiovascularmortality risk.
So anyway, I just found thisinteresting because there are
(12:32):
going to be a lot of people whoare rightly going to be
migrating towards eating moreplant-based diets with the goal
of reducing risk ofcardiovascular disease or
mortality risk exactly what theywere looking at in this
particular study.
I think that's a big driver andif you are achieving that with
(12:53):
processed foods, you actuallymay be achieving the opposite.
I've already seen like theheadline people doing what they
do with this study, so obviouslymany people out there have
priors on these issues.
One that you may see is peoplesaying that plant-based foods
(13:14):
are bad for your heart health.
They're going to not make thatdistinction between the
ultra-processed food group thatwas used and the non-ultra ultra
processed group that actuallyshowed positive benefits.
So anyway, if you do see any ofthose headlines, just you can
kind of file away that.
That's a source with an agenda,um, and but yeah so.
(13:36):
So I think actually the thetldr too long didn't read that.
The takeaway is that processedfoods are bad for your health,
even the ones that have healthclaims printed on the package,
even if that health claim is ontrend with other valid claims.
Uh, in the health and nutritionsphere, processed foods are bad
(13:58):
for your health.
This is exhibit 1 million, um,but yeah, so, even if, if you
are and this was just, I had noproof of this for a long time I
have a number of clients thatwere talking about going
plant-based.
Whenever we had that discussion, my reminder was always this,
and it was just quite simplythat there's two ways you can go
(14:20):
plant-based.
You can do it in the centralaisles of the grocery store.
You can do it on the perimeterand at the farmer's markets, and
I think the latter is the rightway to go plant-based.
You don't need to get aprocessed meat like patty to get
plant-based protein.
Chia seeds exist I love thosein my oats, frankly, a pretty
(14:45):
easy way that you can get someprotein up.
Black beans, lentils, chickpeasall of these things exist and I
think are superior options tothe processed options that have
definitely dominated theconversation and and kind of
quickly do wind up.
You know filling up space inpeople's carts and refrigerators
and and I don't actually thinkthey deserve that space source.
(15:08):
You know the real foods and andyou'll get better results.
No matter what diet you're,you're on, um, same holds true
for, uh, meat eating as well.
Obviously, processed meats aresignificantly worse, um than
they're unprocessed, and thatthat's a whole separate
discussion.
But again, the common principleI think that that's been
(15:30):
demonstrated again and againprocessed foods are not good If
you have the option to get aless processed version of the
same food, it's almost alwaysgoing to be a good idea.
But, yeah, one more study tojust kind of proving that point.
Next thing I want to discuss,though, is kind of piggybacking
(15:51):
on the same idea, because, in asense, this is another fad that
I see in the grocery store,similar to plant-based, and what
plant-based and this fad shareis that they're both actually
good things at their heart thatthat are now being sort of, you
know, sucked up by this, thismarketing apparatus, and the
(16:14):
water's getting muddied, andpeople are just executing good
ideas poorly, if you will.
So, anyway, all that we'regoing to go from plant based
over to protein.
Protein is not a fad in thesense.
It's just a macronutrient andit's super important, but it
seems like people are reallytrying to make it one.
At first, it was cool, becausethere was one time well, it was
(16:38):
cool to see people embracing it,because there was one time like
when I first started drinkingprotein shakes people would
always tell me that it was goingto turn into fat, and I needed
to be careful with that.
So we've come a long way.
That's certainly worthcelebrating.
At the same time, there's a lotof silly things out there,
particularly in your grocerystores, but even just ideas that
(17:00):
I'm seeing float around.
But yeah, no, the grocery storeis wild.
You walk around and there's,you know, the protein balls, the
protein shakes, the bars.
We've always had that.
But now there's protein noodles, bagels, cookies, even coffee.
Literally nothing is safe Nexttime you walk.
You know, just look and see howmany products right now are
(17:23):
proclaiming, uh, protein, uh,even foods that are already rich
in protein cheeses, yogurts,they they come up with, you know
, extra souped up varieties.
Uh, you know, choppers justreally can't get enough protein,
apparently, um, and yeah,actually, just, just, you know,
(17:45):
before I discuss the, the reasonI even just sort of struggle
framing this as a fat is because, again, protein is really
important.
Uh, let's just do a quickhistory.
Um, we have three basicmacronutrients protein,
carbohydrates and fat.
So obviously protein is one ofthem.
You could argue it's the mostimportant because technically,
(18:08):
you can live withoutcarbohydrates.
We've talked about that.
I think the carnivores and theketos and the low carb people
really like that fact.
They like that fact more than alot of other facts that they
don't like to talk about too,facts that they don't like to
talk about too.
Um, but yeah, protein is alsothe only macronutrient
(18:29):
containing nitrogen.
It's probably another fact thatthey like, um, and so you.
So you literally can't havegrowth or reproduction without
it.
We've got the amino acids thatwe get, you know, from, from
food, the essential amino acids,that that without them, no
healthy hair, no nails, no bones, no muscles, no immune system.
Protose this is the Latin, youknow root it actually, you know
(18:59):
it essentially, you know,derives from the idea that, like
, protein is like the one or orthe most important or the least
common denominator.
This was actually just a littlebit of luck when they were
naming it in the 19th century,because it they didn't know that
at the time, but, but it is.
The amino acids are present inall life, so they got kind of
(19:20):
lucky with the name protein.
But again I wanted to back upand say that protein is really
important, and I think that'sagain how it's kind of become a
fad, because that's the halftruth that it is really valuable
, and so saying that on facevalue, that protein is
(19:42):
beneficial isn't surprising.
What makes it surprising is thatin the country I live in, it
really isn't a problem thatpeople are deficient in protein.
There's a lot more pressingissues than people running
around not getting enoughprotein.
The biggest issue here ispeople eating too much food
(20:05):
period.
Um, not that we are deficientin anything, it's, um, just
drastically misunderstanding theproblem that we have in, you
know, western countries.
As long as that term is fine,so if you, at you, at least know
who the hell I'm talking about,the term worked.
But also, fats and carbs have,frankly, just been destroyed,
(20:29):
and protein is kind of allthat's left.
We only got three macronutrients, and fats and carbs in recent
memory have each had their turnbeing made to seem toxic in the
public sphere.
You go back to the 90s, whenpeople were told to cut fat.
The truth is, most people juststarted eating a whole bunch
(20:51):
more sugar and salty snacks withlow fat printed on them.
They went into the same centeraisles of the grocery store I'm
saying not to shop today andbought the products that had the
health claims of the day onthem.
Um, you know, people weren'tjumping into these high carb
diets that were based on wholegrains and lentils.
(21:12):
That never happened.
Um, so when people got fatterfrom low fat, even though they
actually never took on healthy,high carbohydrate diets.
Low carb took hold and thenpeople got scared of
carbohydrates.
Um, even though they actuallynever took on healthy,
high-carbohydrate diets.
Low-carb took hold and thenpeople got scared of
carbohydrates.
(22:04):
No-transcript.
Pollan got it from mariannestle.
That's um.
Yeah, michael pollan just madeit popular.
Marian nestle wrote it first.
Um, but yeah, so whatnutritionism basically pushes is
this idea that the value offood can be reduced down to the
(22:28):
sum of its measurable parts.
Um, what this ultimately leadsto is, you know, fixation on
vitamins, nutrients.
Um, in this context, we aretalking about macronutrients.
Macronutrient fixation has beenan absolute disaster for public
(22:49):
health, just as anymanifestation of nutritionism as
it gets deployed through foodmarketing has similarly been a
disaster for health.
This is why we have this cycleof food fads.
It's to simply increase thenumber of food products and
drive sales.
(23:10):
Every single iteration of this,that's actually been the goal.
For decades now, the foodindustry has gotten people to
adopt this tendency of thinkingabout all the food that they eat
and drink of terms of nutrients, rather than whole foods, whole
ingredients, their wholecomplexity.
(23:31):
In that context, every diet fadthat we've been shouting down
is a marketing campaign that isveiled and disguised as a
scientific breakthrough in thisnutrition paradigm.
As we saw, it didn't matterwhether we focused on low fat or
(23:52):
low carbs or high protein.
We wind up making the same oldmistakes, no matter what form or
thing is popular at any giventime.
If you keep engaging theprocessed foods, like we just
discussed, that can even turn aplant-based diet, which should
be good, into something thatisn't so.
(24:13):
Again, the main story that Iwant to highlight here in in
protein becoming a fad is, to me, this is literally just the
latest iteration of nutritionism, driving a trend that allows
the perpetrators of our publichealth crisis to actually make
(24:37):
even more money.
Perpetuating yet again.
Not another cure.
Even more money perpetuatingyet again not another cure Again
.
Even think, like we were justtalking a second ago about some
of the good plant-based proteinsources that I actually like,
and I just mentioned beans andlentils but now beans and
(24:58):
lentils also have a significantamount of carbohydrates, and
I've actually seen this become areally big block for people
when they're trying to puttogether diets.
If they've been in a certaindiet camp in the past, a bean
might be a carb to them bright,there's carbohydrates in there,
(25:23):
but again, this is the problemwhen we start thinking in terms
of macronutrients, nutrients,any of that is that you start
labeling and you really do losethe nuance, complexity and the
context of foods.
You know, one other challengethat's actually quite easy to
address if you can understandthe context of foods or the
plant based diet you know getsback again to the protein, where
we're talking about proteinhere as well, but not all of
(25:46):
this is something that's easier.
Sourcing proteins from meat isthat you have the full amino
acid spectrum available If youhave that option open to you.
If you don't, now you have tostart blending.
But this is where now you needto understand context.
One one blend that works reallygreat to get a full amino acid
spectrum would simply be pea andrice.
But again, if you're doing yourmacronutrient focus and you
(26:10):
have been told to avoidcarbohydrates, you're actually
going to have to now exclude oneof the best pairings of
plant-based proteins.
And then peas are also notpaleo consistent because that's
Neolithic.
I remember when I was down inthat rabbit hole.
So again, you buy into any oneof these ideas and now what
(26:30):
actually is a really great wayto get a really solid
plant-based protein becomesforbidden to you.
I think a lot of other peoplewould have a hard time with you
know, if they were being reallyfollowing their diets.
Black beans and corn that'sanother way that you can also
get a full amino acid spectrumfrom you know.
Plant-based pairing Both ofthose, you know, depending on a
(26:55):
lot of diets, are, you know,forbidden, and again, I think
most people think of them ascarbs.
You know, forbidden, and againI think most people think of
them as carbs.
It might not occur to them thatactually pairing them together
could get you a full amino acidspectrum.
So again, it really issimplistic and reductive to
think about foods in the waythat the food marketers try to
(27:17):
get us thinking about them.
So, all that being said, proteinis important.
A lot of people are worried.
If they are getting enough, youprobably are.
But no, I'll stop with thejokes, but I actually want to
tell you guys a step-by-step wayto really figure out how much
(27:39):
protein you actually need.
The joke, by the way, was justthat, again, in the Western
world, everybody's gettingenough protein.
It's not really an issue.
So that's why I was just sayingif you're worried about getting
enough, you probably are.
That's something only peoplethat are doing pretty well, are
(27:59):
worried about.
So the answer is almost alwaysyes if you are worried about it.
But I can do better than that,and I can also admit that having
enough quote unquote protein inyour diet isn't the same as
having the optimal amount ofprotein in your diet for either
your health or training goals.
Obviously, I'm more qualifiedto talk the training side of it.
(28:24):
So, from my standpoint, proteinconsumption is tied to your
body mass and your activitylevel.
Two things.
So our step-by-step process.
Step one weigh yourself, so youget on the scale.
You've got a number.
Great, step one done.
(28:44):
Step two get your activitylevel modifier.
So your protein requirement isgoing to be based, after your
body weight, on how muchactivity you're getting.
We could be more complex, but Ireally wanted to make this
simple today, so I'm not evengoing to justify these numbers.
I'm just going to tell you ifyou're doing no training, 0.4,.
(29:06):
That's your multiplier.
If you're doing some lighttraining 0.6.
If you're doing hard training,1.
For the sake of people who likedetail, extremely hard training
may require more, but thepeople who require more than one
gram really rare.
I don't think that we need toaddress that today.
(29:27):
So, anyway, step three.
Take that number from the scale, take your activity level
modifier, multiply them.
That is your daily proteinrequirement for you.
That's the best number for youto work from, an optional step
you can do after that.
If we need to add a fourth step, you can divide that by the
number of meals that you likeeating in a day and boom,
(29:49):
there's how much protein youshould have or shoot for each
meal.
This is really easy to do and Ithink this is just kind of the
best way for people to figureout what their protein needs are
.
Um, we can actually do theexact same thing with what your
caloric needs are.
So this is actually how youfigure out what diet quote
(30:13):
unquote you should be on isthink about your goals.
You know, take your somemeasurements and then we're just
basically going to set up.
You know, first, first thing weset up is your protein
requirement.
So, and if you really likeplanning this stuff out, then
obviously now you just take yourprotein requirement, multiply
(30:34):
that by four.
That tells you how manycalories are going to be coming
from protein every day, and thenthat number is going to be
lower than the number ofcalories that you can be eating
in the total day, the totalnumber of calories you can have
in a day.
Let me see if I can say thatcleaner, because that just
seemed.
Obviously the calories that youneed from protein are going to
(30:57):
be less than the totaleverything you eat.
So figure out the calories thatyou have coming from protein,
subtract that from your totalcalories and that's kind of what
you have to play with carbs andfat, contrary to most fitness
influencers, it really doesn'tmatter as much as people tell
(31:20):
you what that ratio is.
It's really important that youhave your protein needs down and
then what that split that'sleft over between protein and
fat or, sorry, um, between fatand carbohydrates, that is also
going to, you know, slightly bean individualized choice.
But but this idea that it'salways best to be low carb or
it's always best to be, um, youknow, any macro set, is just
(31:47):
flat out not true.
It's gonna again be way betterfor you to run this yourself,
individualize your goals,instead of taking cookie cutter
diets from other people.
The only thing that not the onlything we're all humans, but the
main principle that overlapsfor every single person really
is the part we focused on andspent the most time on is the
protein requirement, figure outyour protein requirements.
(32:08):
What happens with the carbs andthe fat?
Obviously we're doing in theleftover calories, but it is
nowhere near as important, um,and I can't speak as broadly on
it as I can.
The protein requirement, um,but yeah, I do think that people
think that ratio and how muchwe're putting in from fats or
(32:29):
carbohydrates is way moreimportant than it is.
Um, and again, what I mean bythat is I.
In that vein, I, I've prettymuch seen everything work and
yeah, so it's, it's.
It really is hard for me to bedogmatic and argue very hard for
anyone approach when you getthe protein right and you get
(32:50):
people dialed in with theircalories.
Now we're kind of down topsychology, and which one is
easiest in your mind to maintainand stay consistent on and
that's the one that wins.
And there's so many factorsthat influence that that I that
I can't really tell you whichone it's going to be.
That that's, that's your part,um, but anyway, guys, that's it
(33:11):
on protein, I think it's goingto be really easy to figure out
your, your ideal level all onyour own.
See yourself out of the fad.
Protein is important.
Just hop on the scale, multiplythat by your activity monitor.
There you go, that's all youneed to do.
That's how much protein youneed each day.
(33:34):
So last one I want to touch ontoday there was a good piece
that ran in the Guardian.
It was titled Natty or Not.
The main thing that I learnedfrom it was just kind of how
PEDs are getting out there today.
And you know, like so manythings in the world, this is
changing with the internet.
When I was coming up, it wasactually kind of hard not real
(33:57):
hard, but you at least had tolike know a guy at a gym when I
first came to LA there was likethis bouncer that was offering
it to me and didn't go down thatrabbit hole at that time.
Probably jump into thatdecision later.
But the point in this wasbasically that how people get
(34:17):
access to steroids is reallychanging.
It used to be in the back ofthe gym or you know that, that
one tough guy that you knew.
Um with internet access, nowthere are countless places that
people are able to get um anynumber of different peds, also
way more available um, and frombasically any major social media
(34:39):
platform.
Um, you can do it in less than20 minutes on Instagram, tiktok,
any one of them.
If you want to get Tren D-BallSarms and they're actually not,
even I didn't buy any, but thesearen't sketchy vendors
necessarily You'll typically getdirected from a public platform
(35:03):
page like over to a discordchannel or something.
A lot of times you can see thatthere are thousands of reviews.
It really is, you know, drugdealing in plain sight, um, and
you know, since I seem to bethrowing out some accusations or
check it out for yourself,cause it really is, it's just,
um, people are just openlyselling them, um, in ways that,
(35:30):
uh, yeah, it just.
If you were used to an older gymculture, it might be shocking,
um, just to see how open it hasbecome.
And you know, I think I'vespoken on this.
I'm not even dogmaticallyagainst it, it's just it's grown
quite a lot.
So the other thing I foundinteresting and this was coming
from the Guardian piece, andthen I want to get into my
thoughts so the main group whois getting into it is mostly
(35:57):
young men.
Obviously, steroids have had arelatively and PEDs steroids is
too pointlessly limiting.
So let's just say PEDs Steroidsare like the
testosterone-affiliatedprecursors and PED is a much
broader branch and we're talkingabout PEDs, but yeah, so it
used to just be restricted tolike athletes and bodybuilders,
(36:21):
people that were very, veryserious about training.
What we're seeing now is thatit's actually getting into a
much more recreational athlete,if you will.
They tend to be younger and,admittedly, they tend to be men.
For women, interest in PEDs isstill pretty much restricted to
the dedicated athletes andbodybuilders.
(36:42):
With this rise on the internet,we're seeing it really is
mostly young men, and so this iskind of where I want to get
into my thoughts on this.
I have seen some of the contentthat's out there now and there's
a set of influencers that arereally open and honest about
(37:03):
their use of PEDs and I do likethat and the transparency I
think is really important.
But I admit now I do think thatthere is a flip side to this
and I think a lot of thesethings are just getting
normalized to where, again, Iappreciate all the people that
are honest and transparent.
(37:25):
But my issue again I guess justgets back to when you just look
at who's buying this stuff.
One of the strongest defensesthat I have heard from
intelligent people that areusing PEDs is how you can
monitor things and, with theright testing.
If you do this, you can do that, and so I get that how, in the
(37:50):
proper context and with theproper monitoring and the proper
blood work, how many of thenegative factors can be
mitigated or handled?
I think that case has been madeby some of the people who've
used them intelligently.
I think that's insanely naiveto think that's how real people
(38:13):
are using it.
That's how the top athletes inthe world with all the resources
to have it done correctly areusing it, and then a handful of
other people who have thoseresources it, and then a handful
of other people who have thoseresources.
But when we're talking aboutthis group that's hopping on to
TikTok and getting some SARMs, Ihighly doubt that they're doing
all the right things that youhave to do whenever you put in a
(38:36):
substance like that and none ofthe intelligent people that
I've heard talking about usingPEDs I don't think any of them
would say it's easy or intuitiveor that for best results, you
don't need to be doing the bloodwork and you don't need to be
following up.
So, yeah, I understand that, inthe right context, that they
(38:59):
actually can be used and thatI'm interested for us to
continue developing ourknowledge in that field, but I
really don't think having abunch of guys on Instagram and
TikTok who are in their 20sjumping on to Trendalone and
SARMs is advancing the type ofknowledge that I'm just striving
(39:21):
to learn from.
Yeah, my own mind is actuallystill relatively open to PEDs.
I personally haven't taken themand that reason, again, did
just come from the fact that,just like I was mentioning, I
kind of understand that you haveto run a lot of tests and you
have to do a lot of things inperpetuity.
(39:41):
The time I got introduced to it, I felt like I was too young to
be doing that for the rest ofmy life.
But yeah, I am well aware thatyou can manage you know the
issues with a little of this anda little of that and yeah, I
just didn't want to start doingthat at that age.
You know, who knows?
Maybe you know and I think I'vebeen pretty transparent about
(40:05):
this, I don't know, you knowmaybe at some point later in the
future I might taketestosterone or growth hormone
or something.
I don't know.
I'm not there, but I admittedlyhaven't crossed that bridge and
part of why I haven't crossedthat bridge was, again, that
just the cost and time testingall of that and maintaining that
(40:25):
, had I started when it wasoffered to me at 23,.
I'm coming up on 40 now, sothat would be coming up on 17
years.
Yeah, everybody makes choices intheir life.
I'm happy to have a stockportfolio.
I'm happy to have some of theother things that I've built in
life.
I'm fine with that choice.
Who knows, maybe one day I'llmake a different one.
(40:48):
But even aside from just that,obviously there are just some of
the common side effects and Iactually feel like at least the
intelligent people that I see inthe PED world, I feel like
they're a little bit sensitivearound this because they keep
highlighting the fact that, oh,if you're smart and you do this,
got it.
Most people aren't.
Thickening of blood can totallyhappen.
(41:09):
Stressing of the heart you canget fatty breast tissue,
decrease your testicle size, youcan reduce your sperm count.
You can have hormonal issueswhen you aren't doing everything
correctly, which there's agreat chance of people doing.
All of those things are commonissues and again, in the pro-PED
world, I do feel like,admittedly, because they get a
(41:31):
little bit sensitive about thatand we are just trying to have
an open and honest discussion.
Those are issues.
There was a study that I wasactually looking over for this
that just got into the healthconsequences of androgenic
anabolic steroid use, and you dohave an increased risk of dying
.
Anybody who's followed prowrestling has probably noticed
(41:53):
that a lot of your favoritewrestlers tend to die early.
This certainly isn't proof, butjust more to the point, if you
go around the world, one of theareas that's the hardest on
steroids is Scandinaviancountries, and the justification
is because they have socializedmedicine and their
determination was that caringfor the long-term effects of
(42:15):
steroid users was too expensive.
So I know this is questionable,but I was reading that actually
, if you're too buff in Sweden,they can actually stop you and
force you to submit to a drugtest.
Anyway, I read some prettyvalid stuff on that, but
somebody fact checked me becausethat one kind of sounds crazy.
(42:36):
But yeah, I do know the partabout Scandinavian countries in
general are the hardest becauseof healthcare costs.
That one is not a potentialinternet rumor, but fact check
me on everything I actually likethat.
And then, yeah, one I didn'teven know if I was going to
(42:58):
touch on this, but I do kind offeel like I should.
The other reality with a lot ofPEDs and anabolic steroids, but
it's that they're technicallyillegal and if you take them you
are assuming that risk.
Simon Devere doesn't think thatthey should be illegal.
(43:20):
But if anything should happento you, that's not going to help
you at all and I had anexperience in my life where
someone else's behavior did thatto me and I can tell you,
nobody's thoughts or feelingscan really help you when you're
locked in a cage.
And that is actually anotherresult of using any PEDs or
(43:45):
anabolic steroids.
And so, yes, in thephilosophical discussion of
should they be legal, I'm onyour side.
But if you get some sent toyour house and something should
happen and they lock you up, mycharacter testimony is not going
to affect the sentencingdecision.
(44:06):
So, yeah, that to me is justanother obvious risk that I
would have to throw out there toany young man who was thinking
that this was something that wasnormal, easy or not a big risk.
I don't know if you really dounderstand all of the risks that
(44:28):
you're taking on board, andSimon isn't looking down on you
in any ethical or moral way.
That doesn't have anything todo with what I'm thinking about,
but I just don't think thatparticularly young men should be
taking this decision as lightlyas it seems that that many are,
(44:49):
and I have compassion for theseguys because I, I was one um
many years ago.
Yeah, I, I was a young man and,yeah, working out is a
generally healthy activity, butthere is just an absolutely
stunning amount of onlineculture surrounding it that is
(45:12):
anything but um.
This, I think, affects everysingle group, but, again, it was
my childhood experience ofbeing a young man.
Um, I am sensitive andreceptive to the things that um
are gonna motivate and what theymight gravitate to and how they
might uh, you know, makechoices around that.
(45:35):
I'm personally not dogmaticallyopposed to PEDs in athletes.
I completely understand humannature and the nature of
competition.
Again, what I don't like iswhen people are promoting
products or ideas that don'thave value with the results of
PEDs.
(45:55):
The use of creators that arenot transparent about their PED
use in the fitness space muddiesthe water about the best
practices, not only aroundprogramming but also around
supplementation and nutrition.
When the default experts becomethe people that are on drugs,
(46:17):
who are not admitting to be ondrugs, to being on drugs, rather
yeah, or like you, you know,because I'll only name somebody
name there is, it's.
I actually think it's one ofthe top channels on youtube now.
But renaissance periodizationthe guy there, mike, is a retell
.
He uses peds and he openlytalks about the downsides.
(46:39):
He openly talks about, um, theissues.
Um, he's going to be one of thepeople I think who well, one.
He's transparent by his own use, but he's most responsible, um,
or in that camp of people thatI think responsibly for the most
part.
Uh, talk about peds, um, and Ionly qualified it.
Other people might have issues,I don't, um, but then there's a
(47:03):
whole different set ofinfluencers who just don't
mention the fact that they're onPEDs and they also sell like,
like, renaissance Periodizationshas a workout app and some
programs and things like that.
But that's what I mean is if,if you tell the people like I'm
on steroids, and then here's theproduct I'm selling, I don't
think that you're a charlatan.
Um, I think you're like, beinghonest about who, who the market
(47:24):
for the product is, and so Idon't think that you're a
charlatan.
I think you're being honestabout who the market for the
product is, and so I don't havean issue.
My issue has been taken care of.
My issue is when an influencergoes out and sells a pre-workout
and they're clearly onsomething way better and more
effective than the pre-workout.
I don't like it when peoplesell workout programs and
(47:45):
they're clearly using somethingthat would alter their
physiology to allow them to dothat particular program or get
the results that they're gettingfrom it, and then I don't
really have any complaints.
But I think people use thevisibility they can get from
(48:08):
marketing themselves as naturalwith freakish results for being
natural, to just push theirbrands.
And again, I don't care.
I understand the precarity ofmodern workers, so go out and
get your money, do what you haveto do, but if you can do it
without misleading other goodpeople that are trying to do the
(48:29):
same damn thing you are, thatwould be great.
Yeah, just to sort of sum it up, my issue is that I think you
know steroids and PEDs areprobably getting pushed into
populations that really aren'tsuited to use them.
That really aren't suited touse them.
If they were staying withinthose groups of people, that
(48:49):
would be just statistically waymore likely to be using them
responsibly and they understandthe risks and have accepted them
out of a context of some largerthing.
Again, thinking athletes, stufflike that.
Sport isn't healthy.
They didn't get into sport forhealth, so I'm never going to
tell a football player somethinglike, hey, you know football
(49:11):
isn't healthy.
Um, I'm pretty sure a lot ofathletes are aware of some of
the risks they assume and andthat changes my, my algorithm
when I'm talking about them.
But, uh, no, anyway, guys, I am, like I said, still nursing an
injury, Happy to be coming backfrom that.
But if you guys are kind oftype A like me, don't listen to
(49:34):
your body, don't push through.
You know when it's screaming atyou.
Very, very happy to see thatstudy backing me up.
Plant-based processed foods arestill processed foods.
Don't buy into that.
Also, don't buy into any otherof the fads that the
nutritionism pushed on us byfood marketers.
(49:55):
You know, I think I see thisright now in the high protein
diets, but I certainly saw thisin the low carb.
I saw this in the low fat.
This is just the latestiteration of that.
Remember your step by stepprocess to sort out your protein
goals for yourself and seeyourself out of this fad.
And yeah, I don't necessarilythink the mind muscle audience
(50:17):
is trolling TikTok to go getsome SARMs or some trend, but
yeah, I know certainly a lot ofparents and stuff.
So I would just say, beconscious.
If you have particularly youngboys around that age floating
around those platforms, payattention to what they are
(50:37):
looking at.
And, yeah, if they're honestlyinterested in getting big,
getting strong, that's awesome.
Um, just just make sure thatyou can point them in the right
direction, because there's a lotof things out there on those
platforms that might make getthem making choices, uh, that
they might regret years down theline.
(50:59):
Um, but yeah, obviously, my, myissue is just if I got any
pro-PED out there.
I feel real different aboutathletes and other folks doing
it than I do kids floatingaround on Instagram and TikTok.
So, anyway, don't take that asa dogmatic shot across the bow
at PEDs.
I would love some morecontrolled studies with you know
(51:26):
, really great sample groups andnice controls, all that stuff.
I think it's a fascinatingissue for more study and it
should be done in the rightpopulations.
That's it.
But anyway, guys, that's all Igot for you this week.
Remember, mind and muscle areinseparably intertwined.
There are no gains withoutbrains.
Keep lifting and learning.
(51:47):
I'll do the same.
Welcome to the Mind Muscle Podcast.
Here's your host, simon DeVere,and welcome back to Mind Muscle
, the place where we study thehistory, science and philosophy
Find everything in health andfitness.
(00:25):
Today, I am Simon Devere andthere is nothing new except all
that has been forgotten.
All right, so, yeah, I justwant to run down quickly.
We're going to get into today alittle bit of self-criticism
right out of the gate.
That's where I want to start.
I saw a cool study onplant-based ultra-processed
(00:47):
foods Good one that I think weshould touch on, Noticing that
protein is becoming a bit of afad.
I want to have some commentsnot only on that, but how to
actually source the right level.
I'm going to give you guys aquick, easy, step-by-step
process to figure out yourprotein requirements, to kind of
sift through the fad.
(01:07):
Protein's important.
So, yeah, I don't want thewaters muddied on something
that's pretty easy, pretty clear.
I see it jumping the shark, solet's nip that in the bud.
And then, yeah, last one, Iactually caught an article in
the Guardian natty or not,actually about kind of how much
more common PED use is becomingwith the internet.
(01:30):
So I'll recap a little bit ofthat and have just some comments
and thoughts on why I thinkthat's an issue.
But yeah, no, no, the firstplace to start.
I'm actually coming to you guysfrom the tall kneeling position
right now.
It's a good spot to work onsome hip stability.
I can do some good hip hingingdrills from there, but that's
(01:52):
not the reason I'm here.
Yeah, so it's funny because Ithink I started one of these
episodes recently talking abouta Sunday workout gone wrong.
I guess this is going to bepart two of that, because, for
completely different reasons, Ihad a Sunday workout lead to an
injury.
So upper back is not feelinggreat sitting in the chair.
(02:14):
It's been getting progressivelybetter throughout the week.
So, yeah, happy to report thata lot of the mobility drills
that I tell my clients to do allthe time are doing a great job
helping my upper back come backaround.
But yeah, anyway, I wake upSunday morning and I've already
confessed I really like that tobe a big workout.
(02:35):
Morning.
Did wake up, though, with justwhat I call bed injuries.
Sometimes, depending on yoursleep position, you might wake
up with a hip that's impinged.
Um, in my case it was kind ofneck and shoulder.
Um drank my coffee and I kindof had that thought that that I
could kind of, you know, warm upand go stretch and go slow
(02:57):
about the morning.
There was no time restriction.
I could just get to it, youknow, when my body felt good.
But, um, yeah, I said, fuck allthat, let's do it right now.
Um, went outside, uh, had agood workout in the sense that I
hit all the numbers you know ofthe day, the, the program was
(03:20):
intact.
But then when I got done, Irealized that my back was
tightening up and so, yeah, no,no, pop, no, no moment that I
could point to, but body justwasn't ready for it.
So, all that just to set up.
Yeah, wound up, getting my, myneck completely restricted where
I couldn't, couldn't look tothe right, no fun being on the
(03:40):
405 when you can't turn yourneck, being on the 405 when you
can't turn your neck, but yeah,so anyway, it's been a
frustrating training week fromthe standpoint of.
It's just been nothing but restand rehab, kind of nothing I
can do but eat well and domobility drills.
(04:01):
But no, it's going okay, thingsare getting better and yeah, so
I know tons of other peopledeal with this stuff all the
time.
So just, these are kind of themantras of things I've been
saying to keep myself going isthat, yeah, since I can't train
and I actually like training Ijust remind myself that my
eating, that that, basically, ismy training.
(04:22):
So I just I hang my hat and Itake pride in eating well.
Food still tastes great, if youknow.
Take the time to prep it up anddo what you need to do.
But that's where I'm putting mypride and hanging my hat, not
on the workouts.
I'm making sure to just get ingood, tasty, healthy food, that
that allows me to kind ofscratch the itch, to feel like
(04:44):
I'm doing something.
But no, it's doubly importantbecause for my body to recover,
I obviously need all of theright nutrients to make that
recovery happen as efficientlyas possible.
I really don't need any extrainflammation, so I don't need to
be.
You know obviously you guysknow you've listened to the show
(05:04):
for a while that I'm notdogmatically against sugar, like
I think the current paradigm is, but like this would be an
obvious time when I'm not goingto be having, you know, added
sugars, that that's normallysomething that I would put after
my workout.
So, yeah, I don't have that.
You know, propensity to processa little better and I don't
(05:26):
need the extra inflammation thatcomes with just sitting around
and eating added sugars.
Um, so yeah, it's annoying onone front, but I can say that,
you know, focusing on nutritiondoes work.
Um, obviously.
But I also recently mentionedhow I've been doing this logging
practice of just logging my badfood choices.
So I was doing that ahead ofthe injury I'd kind of already
(05:49):
removed most of my bad choices.
I'd really gotten it down frombeing multiple bad choices in a
day to maybe one or no badchoices in a day.
So yeah, with literally no goalof weight loss, I've been
training for strength and justeating like an adult, as I tell
myself to.
Yeah, that was actually justdown five pounds on the scale
(06:14):
without even intending weightloss.
So just a little proof ofconcept that even when you can't
train hard, you can actuallymake gains quote unquote you
know, just in the kitchen, justwith some intelligent planning.
It has not been like a Spartanexistence.
I'm not even to the point oflogging calories.
Just removing obvious badthings I was doing is already
(06:36):
making measurable results.
And then actually, just whilewe're on this, I going to open
up a couple other cans of worms,but briefly mentioned nutrients
that are good for recovery.
One of those, um is creatine,and we probably should do a full
, deep dive on just creatinesoon.
(06:57):
But uh, creatine is going to begreat, not only for muscle and
performance, um, it's alsoactually going to help you
recover from injuries faster.
So fortunately I'd already beenon the creatine for the
strength portion of the program,so I've continued that, even
though I'm not training, that'ssomething that's going to be
able to help me recover a littlebit quicker.
(07:18):
But that even just made theweight loss thing a little bit
more interesting, because one ofthe side effects of taking
creatine is actually pullingwater into the muscle fiber.
As that occurs, you typicallygain weight.
So seeing the scale come downwhile my body is holding water
because of the creatine that I'mtaking is even more interesting
(07:42):
.
It's certainly not miraculous.
So the five pounds down to behonest, what we're probably
seeing on the scale has mostlyto do with fluid retention.
Carbohydrates also cause you tostore water.
So when I was eating more ofthe treats and things, it would
be expected that my body wouldbe retaining water.
By simply dropping that.
(08:03):
Um, I have just merely probablyshed some water, just didn't
want to, like you know, put theidea out there that, like, I
lost five pounds of actual bodymass, um, through that.
That's highly unlikely.
What it's probably more likelyto be going on is that my, my
fluids are changing with, uh,getting out the the bad foods,
um, but obviously that's goingto help me again in the context
(08:24):
of the injury, because that'sthat's not the type of
inflammation that I'm going toneed or that's going to help me.
But, yeah, no.
Last one that I will say just onthis whole topic, though.
It's really annoying because Iwoke up, knew my body was not
feeling 100%.
I'm a little bit type A and Iwant to get the workout done.
So something I have to remindmyself in that mindset is
(08:48):
actually that that costs youmore than you gain.
Had I just gone a little bitslower that day but a little bit
more flexible with when thatcould have come in, this entire
injury could have been avoided.
And how many training days hasit been now?
That was Sunday, yeah, so minusthree workouts for me on that
(09:09):
choice to really push it onSunday.
So, yeah, we're going to haveto add this one into the
algorithm and refine, iterate,but I admit to being a work in
progress and sometimes you haveto be honest and self-critical.
So, yeah, there we go.
Don't think it was great.
Uh, you know, feeling like Ihad to push through some obvious
(09:33):
signs that you know neededaddressing.
So, anyway, any any type a guys, girls out there, um, you know,
be forgiving with yourselfevery now and again, uh, it
might actually just cost youmore sessions.
That's the part that I think wecan all connect to if we're
wired that way.
But, uh, yeah.
So study that I saw in the lastweek want to switch gears.
(09:57):
This was a cool one.
So it was, um, a study that wasactually controlling for a
plant-based ultra-processed fooddiet versus a
non-ultra-processed foodplant-based diet.
And you know, I'll admit thisup front.
I guess the reason I'm choosingto highlight this is this was
(10:21):
proof of something that a lot ofus had hypothesized for a long
time.
Definitely not alone in this,but anyway, without teasing it
anymore, the results werebasically that the plant-based
ultra-processed food diet hadnone of the benefits of the
non-ultra-processed plant-baseddiet.
So, in more plain English,that's going to be like when you
(10:43):
walk into the freezer aisle andthere are those processed meat
like products, when you go downthe center aisles of the grocery
stores and you see things likemaybe you know, I don't know
fried things in oil that thatsay plant based on the package,
but all of those processed foodsthat you see in the store that
(11:05):
are, you know, touting theirplant-based credentials.
So you know, study was done, twogroups one was getting the
ultra-processed plant-basedfoods.
The other group was actuallyeating plants, as I would say,
but for the sake of the study,this was a non-UPF plant-based
diet group.
(11:25):
And so let's see, I jotted downour results.
So, first, in our so for every10 percentage points increase in
plant-sourced, non-upfconsumption what Simonon calls
plants that was associated witha seven percent lower risk of
(11:48):
cardiovascular disease and a 13percent lower risk of
cardiovascular mortality.
So, conversely, if we went tothe plant-sourced upf that's
what simon usually callsfood-like products in the center
aisles of the grocery stores,so the food-like products that
(12:09):
have plant-based written on thepackage that diet, was actually
associated with a 5% increase incardiovascular disease and a
12% increase in cardiovascularmortality risk.
So anyway, I just found thisinteresting because there are
(12:32):
going to be a lot of people whoare rightly going to be
migrating towards eating moreplant-based diets with the goal
of reducing risk ofcardiovascular disease or
mortality risk exactly what theywere looking at in this
particular study.
I think that's a big driver andif you are achieving that with
(12:53):
processed foods, you actuallymay be achieving the opposite.
I've already seen like theheadline people doing what they
do with this study, so obviouslymany people out there have
priors on these issues.
One that you may see is peoplesaying that plant-based foods
(13:14):
are bad for your heart health.
They're going to not make thatdistinction between the
ultra-processed food group thatwas used and the non-ultra ultra
processed group that actuallyshowed positive benefits.
So anyway, if you do see any ofthose headlines, just you can
kind of file away that.
That's a source with an agenda,um, and but yeah so.
(13:36):
So I think actually the thetldr too long didn't read that.
The takeaway is that processedfoods are bad for your health,
even the ones that have healthclaims printed on the package,
even if that health claim is ontrend with other valid claims.
Uh, in the health and nutritionsphere, processed foods are bad
(13:58):
for your health.
This is exhibit 1 million, um,but yeah, so, even if, if you
are and this was just, I had noproof of this for a long time I
have a number of clients thatwere talking about going
plant-based.
Whenever we had that discussion, my reminder was always this,
and it was just quite simplythat there's two ways you can go
(14:20):
plant-based.
You can do it in the centralaisles of the grocery store.
You can do it on the perimeterand at the farmer's markets, and
I think the latter is the rightway to go plant-based.
You don't need to get aprocessed meat like patty to get
plant-based protein.
Chia seeds exist I love thosein my oats, frankly, a pretty
(14:45):
easy way that you can get someprotein up.
Black beans, lentils, chickpeasall of these things exist and I
think are superior options tothe processed options that have
definitely dominated theconversation and and kind of
quickly do wind up.
You know filling up space inpeople's carts and refrigerators
and and I don't actually thinkthey deserve that space source.
(15:08):
You know the real foods and andyou'll get better results.
No matter what diet you're,you're on, um, same holds true
for, uh, meat eating as well.
Obviously, processed meats aresignificantly worse, um than
they're unprocessed, and thatthat's a whole separate
discussion.
But again, the common principleI think that that's been
(15:30):
demonstrated again and againprocessed foods are not good If
you have the option to get aless processed version of the
same food, it's almost alwaysgoing to be a good idea.
But, yeah, one more study tojust kind of proving that point.
Next thing I want to discuss,though, is kind of piggybacking
(15:51):
on the same idea, because, in asense, this is another fad that
I see in the grocery store,similar to plant-based, and what
plant-based and this fad shareis that they're both actually
good things at their heart thatthat are now being sort of, you
know, sucked up by this, thismarketing apparatus, and the
(16:14):
water's getting muddied, andpeople are just executing good
ideas poorly, if you will.
So, anyway, all that we'regoing to go from plant based
over to protein.
Protein is not a fad in thesense.
It's just a macronutrient andit's super important, but it
seems like people are reallytrying to make it one.
At first, it was cool, becausethere was one time well, it was
(16:38):
cool to see people embracing it,because there was one time like
when I first started drinkingprotein shakes people would
always tell me that it was goingto turn into fat, and I needed
to be careful with that.
So we've come a long way.
That's certainly worthcelebrating.
At the same time, there's a lotof silly things out there,
particularly in your grocerystores, but even just ideas that
(17:00):
I'm seeing float around.
But yeah, no, the grocery storeis wild.
You walk around and there's,you know, the protein balls, the
protein shakes, the bars.
We've always had that.
But now there's protein noodles, bagels, cookies, even coffee.
Literally nothing is safe Nexttime you walk.
You know, just look and see howmany products right now are
(17:23):
proclaiming, uh, protein, uh,even foods that are already rich
in protein cheeses, yogurts,they they come up with, you know
, extra souped up varieties.
Uh, you know, choppers justreally can't get enough protein,
apparently, um, and yeah,actually, just, just, you know,
(17:45):
before I discuss the, the reasonI even just sort of struggle
framing this as a fat is because, again, protein is really
important.
Uh, let's just do a quickhistory.
Um, we have three basicmacronutrients protein,
carbohydrates and fat.
So obviously protein is one ofthem.
You could argue it's the mostimportant because technically,
(18:08):
you can live withoutcarbohydrates.
We've talked about that.
I think the carnivores and theketos and the low carb people
really like that fact.
They like that fact more than alot of other facts that they
don't like to talk about too,facts that they don't like to
talk about too.
Um, but yeah, protein is alsothe only macronutrient
(18:29):
containing nitrogen.
It's probably another fact thatthey like, um, and so you.
So you literally can't havegrowth or reproduction without
it.
We've got the amino acids thatwe get, you know, from, from
food, the essential amino acids,that that without them, no
healthy hair, no nails, no bones, no muscles, no immune system.
Protose this is the Latin, youknow root it actually, you know
(18:59):
it essentially, you know,derives from the idea that, like
, protein is like the one or orthe most important or the least
common denominator.
This was actually just a littlebit of luck when they were
naming it in the 19th century,because it they didn't know that
at the time, but, but it is.
The amino acids are present inall life, so they got kind of
(19:20):
lucky with the name protein.
But again I wanted to back upand say that protein is really
important, and I think that'sagain how it's kind of become a
fad, because that's the halftruth that it is really valuable
, and so saying that on facevalue, that protein is
(19:42):
beneficial isn't surprising.
What makes it surprising is thatin the country I live in, it
really isn't a problem thatpeople are deficient in protein.
There's a lot more pressingissues than people running
around not getting enoughprotein.
The biggest issue here ispeople eating too much food
(20:05):
period.
Um, not that we are deficientin anything, it's, um, just
drastically misunderstanding theproblem that we have in, you
know, western countries.
As long as that term is fine,so if you, at you, at least know
who the hell I'm talking about,the term worked.
But also, fats and carbs have,frankly, just been destroyed,
(20:29):
and protein is kind of allthat's left.
We only got three macronutrients, and fats and carbs in recent
memory have each had their turnbeing made to seem toxic in the
public sphere.
You go back to the 90s, whenpeople were told to cut fat.
The truth is, most people juststarted eating a whole bunch
(20:51):
more sugar and salty snacks withlow fat printed on them.
They went into the same centeraisles of the grocery store I'm
saying not to shop today andbought the products that had the
health claims of the day onthem.
Um, you know, people weren'tjumping into these high carb
diets that were based on wholegrains and lentils.
(21:12):
That never happened.
Um, so when people got fatterfrom low fat, even though they
actually never took on healthy,high carbohydrate diets.
Low carb took hold and thenpeople got scared of
carbohydrates.
Um, even though they actuallynever took on healthy,
high-carbohydrate diets.
Low-carb took hold and thenpeople got scared of
carbohydrates.
(22:04):
No-transcript.
Pollan got it from mariannestle.
That's um.
Yeah, michael pollan just madeit popular.
Marian nestle wrote it first.
Um, but yeah, so whatnutritionism basically pushes is
this idea that the value offood can be reduced down to the
(22:28):
sum of its measurable parts.
Um, what this ultimately leadsto is, you know, fixation on
vitamins, nutrients.
Um, in this context, we aretalking about macronutrients.
Macronutrient fixation has beenan absolute disaster for public
(22:49):
health, just as anymanifestation of nutritionism as
it gets deployed through foodmarketing has similarly been a
disaster for health.
This is why we have this cycleof food fads.
It's to simply increase thenumber of food products and
drive sales.
(23:10):
Every single iteration of this,that's actually been the goal.
For decades now, the foodindustry has gotten people to
adopt this tendency of thinkingabout all the food that they eat
and drink of terms of nutrients, rather than whole foods, whole
ingredients, their wholecomplexity.
(23:31):
In that context, every diet fadthat we've been shouting down
is a marketing campaign that isveiled and disguised as a
scientific breakthrough in thisnutrition paradigm.
As we saw, it didn't matterwhether we focused on low fat or
(23:52):
low carbs or high protein.
We wind up making the same oldmistakes, no matter what form or
thing is popular at any giventime.
If you keep engaging theprocessed foods, like we just
discussed, that can even turn aplant-based diet, which should
be good, into something thatisn't so.
(24:13):
Again, the main story that Iwant to highlight here in in
protein becoming a fad is, to me, this is literally just the
latest iteration of nutritionism, driving a trend that allows
the perpetrators of our publichealth crisis to actually make
(24:37):
even more money.
Perpetuating yet again.
Not another cure.
Even more money perpetuatingyet again not another cure Again
.
Even think, like we were justtalking a second ago about some
of the good plant-based proteinsources that I actually like,
and I just mentioned beans andlentils but now beans and
(24:58):
lentils also have a significantamount of carbohydrates, and
I've actually seen this become areally big block for people
when they're trying to puttogether diets.
If they've been in a certaindiet camp in the past, a bean
might be a carb to them bright,there's carbohydrates in there,
(25:23):
but again, this is the problemwhen we start thinking in terms
of macronutrients, nutrients,any of that is that you start
labeling and you really do losethe nuance, complexity and the
context of foods.
You know, one other challengethat's actually quite easy to
address if you can understandthe context of foods or the
plant based diet you know getsback again to the protein, where
we're talking about proteinhere as well, but not all of
(25:46):
this is something that's easier.
Sourcing proteins from meat isthat you have the full amino
acid spectrum available If youhave that option open to you.
If you don't, now you have tostart blending.
But this is where now you needto understand context.
One one blend that works reallygreat to get a full amino acid
spectrum would simply be pea andrice.
But again, if you're doing yourmacronutrient focus and you
(26:10):
have been told to avoidcarbohydrates, you're actually
going to have to now exclude oneof the best pairings of
plant-based proteins.
And then peas are also notpaleo consistent because that's
Neolithic.
I remember when I was down inthat rabbit hole.
So again, you buy into any oneof these ideas and now what
(26:30):
actually is a really great wayto get a really solid
plant-based protein becomesforbidden to you.
I think a lot of other peoplewould have a hard time with you
know, if they were being reallyfollowing their diets.
Black beans and corn that'sanother way that you can also
get a full amino acid spectrumfrom you know.
Plant-based pairing Both ofthose, you know, depending on a
(26:55):
lot of diets, are, you know,forbidden, and again, I think
most people think of them ascarbs.
You know, forbidden, and againI think most people think of
them as carbs.
It might not occur to them thatactually pairing them together
could get you a full amino acidspectrum.
So again, it really issimplistic and reductive to
think about foods in the waythat the food marketers try to
(27:17):
get us thinking about them.
So, all that being said, proteinis important.
A lot of people are worried.
If they are getting enough, youprobably are.
But no, I'll stop with thejokes, but I actually want to
tell you guys a step-by-step wayto really figure out how much
(27:39):
protein you actually need.
The joke, by the way, was justthat, again, in the Western
world, everybody's gettingenough protein.
It's not really an issue.
So that's why I was just sayingif you're worried about getting
enough, you probably are.
That's something only peoplethat are doing pretty well, are
(27:59):
worried about.
So the answer is almost alwaysyes if you are worried about it.
But I can do better than that,and I can also admit that having
enough quote unquote protein inyour diet isn't the same as
having the optimal amount ofprotein in your diet for either
your health or training goals.
Obviously, I'm more qualifiedto talk the training side of it.
(28:24):
So, from my standpoint, proteinconsumption is tied to your
body mass and your activitylevel.
Two things.
So our step-by-step process.
Step one weigh yourself, so youget on the scale.
You've got a number.
Great, step one done.
(28:44):
Step two get your activitylevel modifier.
So your protein requirement isgoing to be based, after your
body weight, on how muchactivity you're getting.
We could be more complex, but Ireally wanted to make this
simple today, so I'm not evengoing to justify these numbers.
I'm just going to tell you ifyou're doing no training, 0.4,.
(29:06):
That's your multiplier.
If you're doing some lighttraining 0.6.
If you're doing hard training,1.
For the sake of people who likedetail, extremely hard training
may require more, but thepeople who require more than one
gram really rare.
I don't think that we need toaddress that today.
(29:27):
So, anyway, step three.
Take that number from the scale, take your activity level
modifier, multiply them.
That is your daily proteinrequirement for you.
That's the best number for youto work from, an optional step
you can do after that.
If we need to add a fourth step, you can divide that by the
number of meals that you likeeating in a day and boom,
(29:49):
there's how much protein youshould have or shoot for each
meal.
This is really easy to do and Ithink this is just kind of the
best way for people to figureout what their protein needs are
.
Um, we can actually do theexact same thing with what your
caloric needs are.
So this is actually how youfigure out what diet quote
(30:13):
unquote you should be on isthink about your goals.
You know, take your somemeasurements and then we're just
basically going to set up.
You know, first, first thing weset up is your protein
requirement.
So, and if you really likeplanning this stuff out, then
obviously now you just take yourprotein requirement, multiply
(30:34):
that by four.
That tells you how manycalories are going to be coming
from protein every day, and thenthat number is going to be
lower than the number ofcalories that you can be eating
in the total day, the totalnumber of calories you can have
in a day.
Let me see if I can say thatcleaner, because that just
seemed.
Obviously the calories that youneed from protein are going to
(30:57):
be less than the totaleverything you eat.
So figure out the calories thatyou have coming from protein,
subtract that from your totalcalories and that's kind of what
you have to play with carbs andfat, contrary to most fitness
influencers, it really doesn'tmatter as much as people tell
(31:20):
you what that ratio is.
It's really important that youhave your protein needs down and
then what that split that'sleft over between protein and
fat or, sorry, um, between fatand carbohydrates, that is also
going to, you know, slightly bean individualized choice.
But but this idea that it'salways best to be low carb or
it's always best to be, um, youknow, any macro set, is just
(31:47):
flat out not true.
It's gonna again be way betterfor you to run this yourself,
individualize your goals,instead of taking cookie cutter
diets from other people.
The only thing that not the onlything we're all humans, but the
main principle that overlapsfor every single person really
is the part we focused on andspent the most time on is the
protein requirement, figure outyour protein requirements.
(32:08):
What happens with the carbs andthe fat?
Obviously we're doing in theleftover calories, but it is
nowhere near as important, um,and I can't speak as broadly on
it as I can.
The protein requirement, um,but yeah, I do think that people
think that ratio and how muchwe're putting in from fats or
(32:29):
carbohydrates is way moreimportant than it is.
Um, and again, what I mean bythat is I.
In that vein, I, I've prettymuch seen everything work and
yeah, so it's, it's.
It really is hard for me to bedogmatic and argue very hard for
anyone approach when you getthe protein right and you get
(32:50):
people dialed in with theircalories.
Now we're kind of down topsychology, and which one is
easiest in your mind to maintainand stay consistent on and
that's the one that wins.
And there's so many factorsthat influence that that I that
I can't really tell you whichone it's going to be.
That that's, that's your part,um, but anyway, guys, that's it
(33:11):
on protein, I think it's goingto be really easy to figure out
your, your ideal level all onyour own.
See yourself out of the fad.
Protein is important.
Just hop on the scale, multiplythat by your activity monitor.
There you go, that's all youneed to do.
That's how much protein youneed each day.
(33:34):
So last one I want to touch ontoday there was a good piece
that ran in the Guardian.
It was titled Natty or Not.
The main thing that I learnedfrom it was just kind of how
PEDs are getting out there today.
And you know, like so manythings in the world, this is
changing with the internet.
When I was coming up, it wasactually kind of hard not real
(33:57):
hard, but you at least had tolike know a guy at a gym when I
first came to LA there was likethis bouncer that was offering
it to me and didn't go down thatrabbit hole at that time.
Probably jump into thatdecision later.
But the point in this wasbasically that how people get
(34:17):
access to steroids is reallychanging.
It used to be in the back ofthe gym or you know that, that
one tough guy that you knew.
Um with internet access, nowthere are countless places that
people are able to get um anynumber of different peds, also
way more available um, and frombasically any major social media
(34:39):
platform.
Um, you can do it in less than20 minutes on Instagram, tiktok,
any one of them.
If you want to get Tren D-BallSarms and they're actually not,
even I didn't buy any, but thesearen't sketchy vendors
necessarily You'll typically getdirected from a public platform
(35:03):
page like over to a discordchannel or something.
A lot of times you can see thatthere are thousands of reviews.
It really is, you know, drugdealing in plain sight, um, and
you know, since I seem to bethrowing out some accusations or
check it out for yourself,cause it really is, it's just,
um, people are just openlyselling them, um, in ways that,
(35:30):
uh, yeah, it just.
If you were used to an older gymculture, it might be shocking,
um, just to see how open it hasbecome.
And you know, I think I'vespoken on this.
I'm not even dogmaticallyagainst it, it's just it's grown
quite a lot.
So the other thing I foundinteresting and this was coming
from the Guardian piece, andthen I want to get into my
thoughts so the main group whois getting into it is mostly
(35:57):
young men.
Obviously, steroids have had arelatively and PEDs steroids is
too pointlessly limiting.
So let's just say PEDs Steroidsare like the
testosterone-affiliatedprecursors and PED is a much
broader branch and we're talkingabout PEDs, but yeah, so it
used to just be restricted tolike athletes and bodybuilders,
(36:21):
people that were very, veryserious about training.
What we're seeing now is thatit's actually getting into a
much more recreational athlete,if you will.
They tend to be younger and,admittedly, they tend to be men.
For women, interest in PEDs isstill pretty much restricted to
the dedicated athletes andbodybuilders.
(36:42):
With this rise on the internet,we're seeing it really is
mostly young men, and so this iskind of where I want to get
into my thoughts on this.
I have seen some of the contentthat's out there now and there's
a set of influencers that arereally open and honest about
(37:03):
their use of PEDs and I do likethat and the transparency I
think is really important.
But I admit now I do think thatthere is a flip side to this
and I think a lot of thesethings are just getting
normalized to where, again, Iappreciate all the people that
are honest and transparent.
(37:25):
But my issue again I guess justgets back to when you just look
at who's buying this stuff.
One of the strongest defensesthat I have heard from
intelligent people that areusing PEDs is how you can
monitor things and, with theright testing.
If you do this, you can do that, and so I get that how, in the
(37:50):
proper context and with theproper monitoring and the proper
blood work, how many of thenegative factors can be
mitigated or handled?
I think that case has been madeby some of the people who've
used them intelligently.
I think that's insanely naiveto think that's how real people
(38:13):
are using it.
That's how the top athletes inthe world with all the resources
to have it done correctly areusing it, and then a handful of
other people who have thoseresources it, and then a handful
of other people who have thoseresources.
But when we're talking aboutthis group that's hopping on to
TikTok and getting some SARMs, Ihighly doubt that they're doing
all the right things that youhave to do whenever you put in a
(38:36):
substance like that and none ofthe intelligent people that
I've heard talking about usingPEDs I don't think any of them
would say it's easy or intuitiveor that for best results, you
don't need to be doing the bloodwork and you don't need to be
following up.
So, yeah, I understand that, inthe right context, that they
(38:59):
actually can be used and thatI'm interested for us to
continue developing ourknowledge in that field, but I
really don't think having abunch of guys on Instagram and
TikTok who are in their 20sjumping on to Trendalone and
SARMs is advancing the type ofknowledge that I'm just striving
(39:21):
to learn from.
Yeah, my own mind is actuallystill relatively open to PEDs.
I personally haven't taken themand that reason, again, did
just come from the fact that,just like I was mentioning, I
kind of understand that you haveto run a lot of tests and you
have to do a lot of things inperpetuity.
(39:41):
The time I got introduced to it, I felt like I was too young to
be doing that for the rest ofmy life.
But yeah, I am well aware thatyou can manage you know the
issues with a little of this anda little of that and yeah, I
just didn't want to start doingthat at that age.
You know, who knows?
Maybe you know and I think I'vebeen pretty transparent about
(40:05):
this, I don't know, you knowmaybe at some point later in the
future I might taketestosterone or growth hormone
or something.
I don't know.
I'm not there, but I admittedlyhaven't crossed that bridge and
part of why I haven't crossedthat bridge was, again, that
just the cost and time testingall of that and maintaining that
(40:25):
, had I started when it wasoffered to me at 23,.
I'm coming up on 40 now, sothat would be coming up on 17
years.
Yeah, everybody makes choices intheir life.
I'm happy to have a stockportfolio.
I'm happy to have some of theother things that I've built in
life.
I'm fine with that choice.
Who knows, maybe one day I'llmake a different one.
(40:48):
But even aside from just that,obviously there are just some of
the common side effects and Iactually feel like at least the
intelligent people that I see inthe PED world, I feel like
they're a little bit sensitivearound this because they keep
highlighting the fact that, oh,if you're smart and you do this,
got it.
Most people aren't.
Thickening of blood can totallyhappen.
(41:09):
Stressing of the heart you canget fatty breast tissue,
decrease your testicle size, youcan reduce your sperm count.
You can have hormonal issueswhen you aren't doing everything
correctly, which there's agreat chance of people doing.
All of those things are commonissues and again, in the pro-PED
world, I do feel like,admittedly, because they get a
(41:31):
little bit sensitive about thatand we are just trying to have
an open and honest discussion.
Those are issues.
There was a study that I wasactually looking over for this
that just got into the healthconsequences of androgenic
anabolic steroid use, and you dohave an increased risk of dying
.
Anybody who's followed prowrestling has probably noticed
(41:53):
that a lot of your favoritewrestlers tend to die early.
This certainly isn't proof, butjust more to the point, if you
go around the world, one of theareas that's the hardest on
steroids is Scandinaviancountries, and the justification
is because they have socializedmedicine and their
determination was that caringfor the long-term effects of
(42:15):
steroid users was too expensive.
So I know this is questionable,but I was reading that actually
, if you're too buff in Sweden,they can actually stop you and
force you to submit to a drugtest.
Anyway, I read some prettyvalid stuff on that, but
somebody fact checked me becausethat one kind of sounds crazy.
(42:36):
But yeah, I do know the partabout Scandinavian countries in
general are the hardest becauseof healthcare costs.
That one is not a potentialinternet rumor, but fact check
me on everything I actually likethat.
And then, yeah, one I didn'teven know if I was going to
(42:58):
touch on this, but I do kind offeel like I should.
The other reality with a lot ofPEDs and anabolic steroids, but
it's that they're technicallyillegal and if you take them you
are assuming that risk.
Simon Devere doesn't think thatthey should be illegal.
(43:20):
But if anything should happento you, that's not going to help
you at all and I had anexperience in my life where
someone else's behavior did thatto me and I can tell you,
nobody's thoughts or feelingscan really help you when you're
locked in a cage.
And that is actually anotherresult of using any PEDs or
(43:45):
anabolic steroids.
And so, yes, in thephilosophical discussion of
should they be legal, I'm onyour side.
But if you get some sent toyour house and something should
happen and they lock you up, mycharacter testimony is not going
to affect the sentencingdecision.
(44:06):
So, yeah, that to me is justanother obvious risk that I
would have to throw out there toany young man who was thinking
that this was something that wasnormal, easy or not a big risk.
I don't know if you really dounderstand all of the risks that
(44:28):
you're taking on board, andSimon isn't looking down on you
in any ethical or moral way.
That doesn't have anything todo with what I'm thinking about,
but I just don't think thatparticularly young men should be
taking this decision as lightlyas it seems that that many are,
(44:49):
and I have compassion for theseguys because I, I was one um
many years ago.
Yeah, I, I was a young man and,yeah, working out is a
generally healthy activity, butthere is just an absolutely
stunning amount of onlineculture surrounding it that is
(45:12):
anything but um.
This, I think, affects everysingle group, but, again, it was
my childhood experience ofbeing a young man.
Um, I am sensitive andreceptive to the things that um
are gonna motivate and what theymight gravitate to and how they
might uh, you know, makechoices around that.
(45:35):
I'm personally not dogmaticallyopposed to PEDs in athletes.
I completely understand humannature and the nature of
competition.
Again, what I don't like iswhen people are promoting
products or ideas that don'thave value with the results of
PEDs.
(45:55):
The use of creators that arenot transparent about their PED
use in the fitness space muddiesthe water about the best
practices, not only aroundprogramming but also around
supplementation and nutrition.
When the default experts becomethe people that are on drugs,
(46:17):
who are not admitting to be ondrugs, to being on drugs, rather
yeah, or like you, you know,because I'll only name somebody
name there is, it's.
I actually think it's one ofthe top channels on youtube now.
But renaissance periodizationthe guy there, mike, is a retell
.
He uses peds and he openlytalks about the downsides.
(46:39):
He openly talks about, um, theissues.
Um, he's going to be one of thepeople I think who well, one.
He's transparent by his own use, but he's most responsible, um,
or in that camp of people thatI think responsibly for the most
part.
Uh, talk about peds, um, and Ionly qualified it.
Other people might have issues,I don't, um, but then there's a
(47:03):
whole different set ofinfluencers who just don't
mention the fact that they're onPEDs and they also sell like,
like, renaissance Periodizationshas a workout app and some
programs and things like that.
But that's what I mean is if,if you tell the people like I'm
on steroids, and then here's theproduct I'm selling, I don't
think that you're a charlatan.
Um, I think you're like, beinghonest about who, who the market
(47:24):
for the product is, and so Idon't think that you're a
charlatan.
I think you're being honestabout who the market for the
product is, and so I don't havean issue.
My issue has been taken care of.
My issue is when an influencergoes out and sells a pre-workout
and they're clearly onsomething way better and more
effective than the pre-workout.
I don't like it when peoplesell workout programs and
(47:45):
they're clearly using somethingthat would alter their
physiology to allow them to dothat particular program or get
the results that they're gettingfrom it, and then I don't
really have any complaints.
But I think people use thevisibility they can get from
(48:08):
marketing themselves as naturalwith freakish results for being
natural, to just push theirbrands.
And again, I don't care.
I understand the precarity ofmodern workers, so go out and
get your money, do what you haveto do, but if you can do it
without misleading other goodpeople that are trying to do the
(48:29):
same damn thing you are, thatwould be great.
Yeah, just to sort of sum it up, my issue is that I think you
know steroids and PEDs areprobably getting pushed into
populations that really aren'tsuited to use them.
That really aren't suited touse them.
If they were staying withinthose groups of people, that
(48:49):
would be just statistically waymore likely to be using them
responsibly and they understandthe risks and have accepted them
out of a context of some largerthing.
Again, thinking athletes, stufflike that.
Sport isn't healthy.
They didn't get into sport forhealth, so I'm never going to
tell a football player somethinglike, hey, you know football
(49:11):
isn't healthy.
Um, I'm pretty sure a lot ofathletes are aware of some of
the risks they assume and andthat changes my, my algorithm
when I'm talking about them.
But, uh, no, anyway, guys, I am, like I said, still nursing an
injury, Happy to be coming backfrom that.
But if you guys are kind oftype A like me, don't listen to
(49:34):
your body, don't push through.
You know when it's screaming atyou.
Very, very happy to see thatstudy backing me up.
Plant-based processed foods arestill processed foods.
Don't buy into that.
Also, don't buy into any otherof the fads that the
nutritionism pushed on us byfood marketers.
(49:55):
You know, I think I see thisright now in the high protein
diets, but I certainly saw thisin the low carb.
I saw this in the low fat.
This is just the latestiteration of that.
Remember your step by stepprocess to sort out your protein
goals for yourself and seeyourself out of this fad.
And yeah, I don't necessarilythink the mind muscle audience
(50:17):
is trolling TikTok to go getsome SARMs or some trend, but
yeah, I know certainly a lot ofparents and stuff.
So I would just say, beconscious.
If you have particularly youngboys around that age floating
around those platforms, payattention to what they are
(50:37):
looking at.
And, yeah, if they're honestlyinterested in getting big,
getting strong, that's awesome.
Um, just just make sure thatyou can point them in the right
direction, because there's a lotof things out there on those
platforms that might make getthem making choices, uh, that
they might regret years down theline.
(50:59):
Um, but yeah, obviously, my, myissue is just if I got any
pro-PED out there.
I feel real different aboutathletes and other folks doing
it than I do kids floatingaround on Instagram and TikTok.
So, anyway, don't take that asa dogmatic shot across the bow
at PEDs.
I would love some morecontrolled studies with you know
(51:26):
, really great sample groups andnice controls, all that stuff.
I think it's a fascinatingissue for more study and it
should be done in the rightpopulations.
That's it.
But anyway, guys, that's all Igot for you this week.
Remember, mind and muscle areinseparably intertwined.
There are no gains withoutbrains.
Keep lifting and learning.
(51:47):
I'll do the same.
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