Muscle Intelligence Podcast

So-called health foods that we think are doing something great for us sometimes are leading to the very things we are trying to avoid. Today’s guest is Sally Norton and she joins us to talk about chemical compounds called oxalates that are found in plants and the dangers they pose to our health! Sally grew up veggie-centric and spent 16 years as a vegan and vegetarian, and today she tells us about the many health difficulties she experienced before discovering the dangers of oxalates. We take a deep dive with her into the chemical reactions and physiological processes caused by oxalates in our bodies and she weighs in on how these compounds bind to minerals causing things like gout, stopping damaged tissue from healing properly, and blocking our ability to read warning signals from the body. Sally also gets into which parts of different food groups like brassica, leafy greens, tubers, and grains are high in oxalates and should be avoided. We talk about the damage a vegetarian diet can cause to the gut before getting into a fascinating exchange about the birthplace of moral arguments for avoiding meat, with links to Seventh Day Adventism and societies whose reasons to dissuade populations from an animal diet were originally economic. Other talking points are lost methods of preparing vegetables to make them lower in oxalates, how vegans might decrease oxalates, and how Sally thinks about eating meat sustainably as an environmentalist!

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Timestamps

• Introducing Sally Norton and her work on dangerous oxalates in ‘health foods’. [0:17]
• Sally’s plant diet journey that destroyed her health leading her to a new diet. [4:51]
• How oxalates destroy health and stop your ability to discern the body’s signals. [7:55]
• Health issues Sally faced growing up even while eating a veggie-centric diet. [8:51]
• Sally’s fight with gout as a student and how oxalates can cause gout. [12:45]
• A molecular description of oxalates and how they bond to minerals causing damage. [14:13]
• How oxalates get hung up in injured tissue and interrupt the healing process. [18:06]
• Foods from the leafy green and tuber family that are high in oxalates. [20:37]
• High oxalate indicators and pre-birth/early life causes for Sally’s poor health. [26:00]
• How to lower broccoli oxalates and dangers of brassica vegetables. [29:54]
• Lectin and phytates in vegetables and the damage eating them did to Sally’s gut. [31:08]
• Taking isolated vitamins from vegetable sources and stopping trusting what’s natural. [34:47]
• Grains high in oxalates and the birthplace of linking ‘health foods’ with being moral. [36:05]
• Veganism as an offshoot of Kellogg’s anti-sex Seventh Day Adventism teachings. [39:12]
• Economic reasons for meat avoidance reframed as moral arguments for veganism. [44:08]
• Dangers of soluble fiber, and how we have lost old methods of preparing vegetables. [45:47]
• High oxalates in nuts, and the benign qualities of fermented cabbage. [48:20]
• Healing oxalate problems as a vegan and how meat bioaccumulates toxins too. [50:55]
• The dangers of mono-cropping and Sally’s preference to build sustainable systems. [52:32]
• How Sally eats meat sustainably as an environmentalist. [57:12]

Welcome to this live episode of the Muscle Intelligence Podcast, where Ben and Ash talk about standing together at this moment in history and share some amazing diet and fitness wisdom! We kick things off thinking about all that is happening right now with the backfire against racism, talking about the need for empathy, and how we should use this moment as an opportunity to lend each other support. Ben gets into the core tenets of his workout goals next, speaking about his threefold aims in areas of strength and hypertrophy, mobility and stability, and cardio. In answer to a listener question about beating stiffness, Ben talks about meeting the problem from the inside out by breathing, walking, and meditating. Another listener question encourages some recommendations about what fiber sources to consume while avoiding leaky gut foods and Ben gets into his preference for things that beat inflammation like fermented veg, things from the Cruciferae family, and, of course, avocado and berries! Some other great talking points from today’s show are the potential imminent eruption of the Yellowstone volcano, the pitfalls of social media, how Ben got to where he is by mastering what he initially sucked at, and a whole lot more!

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Timestamps

• The pitfalls of social media: facades, hateful comments, & the skew fan/host dynamic. [0:20]
• Getting over prejudices and the need for empathy between humans beyond race. [3:30]
• The potential impending eruption of the Yellowstone volcano and what it could mean. [10:00]
• Ben explains his 3 workout aims: strength/hypertrophy, mobility/stability, and cardio. [11:51]
• How Ben builds dynamic movement, a fourth aim, into his existing three already. [17:50]
• Ashleigh’s current workouts focusing on muscle contraction, boxing, and skipping. [18:33]
• People’s tendency not to listen to Ben’s workout advice, to their detriment! [20:01]
• Gut motility; how Ben got so good at certain things: because he used to suck at them. [21:35]
• How far Ben has come since being a skinny guy who knew nothing about exercise. [23:13]
• Improving mobility through breathing, walking, and meditating. [26:00]
• Paying attention to how you walk; the foot’s role in knee, hip, back, and shoulder pain. [29:30]
• A deeper look at Ben’s morning breathing practice and its effects on pain and mobility. [32:41]
• Ben’s thoughts on healthy fiber sources: fermented veg, Cruciferae, berries, avocado. [34:25]
• Quick thoughts on what to eat to manage allergies; avoiding histamine foods. [35:55]
• How to maximize hypertrophy and Ben and Ash’s morning workout styles. [37:43]
• Ben’s thoughts on being a life coach and more on his coaching mentorship. [40:02]
• Looking at identity, beliefs, and habits for attaining your goals. [42:22]
• All the great seafood Ben has been eating from Wild Alaskan Seafood Box! [43:07]

With the general risk of cancer only set to increase during the current generation, we face the hard reality of these dangers lingering in our lives. Dr. Nasha Winters is an expert in the integrative approach to fighting cancer and having successfully warded off multiple bouts with the disease in her own life, is positioned well to speak on the dietary and metabolic ways we can reduce risk and strengthen our resilience to it. Dr. Nasha joins us for this episode of the Muscle Intelligence podcast to share this philosophy, talk a little about her book The Metabolic Approach to Cancer and share a whole lot of wisdom on a number of adjacent and related issues! We start off with some basics, chatting about the building blocks of a good diet and how fasting can fit into this. Dr. Nasha also shares her own story and the difficult challenges she faced before she even became an adult, with a teenage cancer diagnosis. From there we chat about protein in a healthy diet, removing gluten and whether soy is as healthy or unhealthy as we often seem to hear. We also get into the damaging effects of too much exercise and the potential for exercise addiction; Dr. Nasha promotes an individual approach to movement and exertion, as there are many different physical needs that we have in order to flourish. We finish off our chat on the topic of pollution and how to purify our bodies from its harmful effects. Join us to hear it all!

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Timestamps

• Dr. Nasha's early life and health issues from a young age. [4:53]
• Dangerous practices around radiation and cancer screening. [10:30]
• The simple dietary approach that Dr. Nasha takes with her patients. [13:22]
• Starting from a clean, local and high-quality foundation for what you eat. [18:13]
• The varied responses to fasting across different types of metabolic systems. [21:25]
• When to lengthen a fast to three to five days and the effects that start to emerge. [25:19]
• Protein intake amounts and balancing short and long term objectives. [28:53]
• Basics to avoid and the real dangers of modern gluten. [32:40]
• The actual health status of much-debated soy products. [38:18]
• Our addiction to gluten and the answers that are readily available to solve the problem. [41:11]
• The final addiction; over-exercising and the serious damage this can do. [45:07]
• Environmental factors that influence our health and risks of cancer. [47:43]
• Ways to dilute and reduce the pollution we encounter on a daily basis. [53:22]
• Dr. Nasha's sauna practice and the natural methods we can all access to sweat healthily. [58:58]

Today’s guest is Matt Gallant, the savant-like and incredibly successful entrepreneur and CEO of BiOptimizers who has turned his life into a brain and body biohacking experiment! He is here to talk about all his practices and the supplements he uses to perform at a super high level. We begin by considering a theme that plays out through our whole conversation – the fine line between being hyperfocused and neurotically obsessed and the role gratitude plays in this.

From there, we chat with Matt about the value of doubling down on one thing and how doing extensive personality tests can help in this respect. We turn our attention to the meat of our conversation next – neurofeedback, a method of clearing the limbic system of traumas and the central place it occupies in Matt’s biohacking practice. The intensive, days-long neurofeedback challenges Matt embarks on are taxing on the nervous system and we hear about the compounds he uses to help him withstand them, many of which are produced by his own company! He speaks to the extremely positive impact that his biohacking experiments have had on his relationships, well-being, and business.

We are proud to say that BiOptimizers is the sponsor of our show today, and we spend the last moments of our exchange talking about a few more of their products that help to fortify the digestive tract and the benefits of this. BiOptimizers is a leader in supporting a "biologically optimized state of health" through their range of gut-health and digestive support supplements and other related products. Peruse their products at bioptimizers.com and use the code MUSCLE10 for a discount; Ben specifically recommends their MagTech product, since magnesium is a mineral vital to so many health processes that many of us are deficient in - go to magbreakthrough.com/muscle to learn more.

Timestamps

• Introducing Matt Gallant and his work in biohacking his brain and body! [0:17]
• The benefits of an amazing magnesium product by BiOptimizers! [1:53]
• Managing the line between hyper-focus and obsession by practicing gratitude. [6:35]
• Matt’s gift for ideation and how he has learned the power of focusing on one thing. [9:02]
• How personality tests and experimenting can help you find & focus on your strengths. [14:25]
• Aligning your purpose, passion, and proficiency for optimizing your business. [16:44]
• The thrill of biologically optimized systems, not to be confused with maximized ones. [20:11]
• Healing from trauma and how its legacy has fueled Matt’s drive to optimize. [24:06]
• How these small traumas burn brain RAM and Matt’s ideal RAM level. [29:02]
• Learning to control your state by doing neurofeedback and other training types. [30:50]
• What Matt would tell his younger self at the moment his dad traumatized him. [35:00]
• The double-edged sword of aspirations: achievements at the cost of self-abuse. [36:00]
• Matt’s experiences and lessons learned doing neurofeedback boot camps. [39:09]
• Boosting the nervous system by taking ketone ester, magnesium, and more. [40:40]
• Using lion’s mane and other compounds for neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. [47:02]
• Being cautious when taking compounds that affect receptors like CBD and caffeine. [49:52]
• How to take magnesium for the nervous system and brain function. [51:12]
• Being calm but alert: the optimal alpha state. [52:30]
• Safe neurofeedback cycles ad other brain hacking methods like TMS. [53:38]
• How Matt’s neurofeedback has had positive effects on his life and relationships. [55:38]
• Breathing, mantras, gratitude, visualization: Matt’s meditation practices. [58:48]
• Proteolytic enzymes and products from BiOptimizers that maximize digestion [1:03:03]
• Stress’s effects on the digestive tract and how to fortify it using BiOptimizers. [1:08:19]
• Parasympathetic/sympathetic types of exercise, biohacking, neurotransmitters, emotions, lifestyles, supplements, brainwaves. [1:10:22]
• Where to access BiOptimizers and a special product for days of bad eating! [1:15:10]

Welcome back to another live edition of the Muscle Intelligence show! Today we focus on giving you some new perspectives on your exercise routine and this Q&A session looks at more effective ways, taking inspiration from the strategies of great people as a jumping-off point. We are really aiming to give you a new paradigm for exercise, how it is meant to be, rather than a preconceived notion of what it is! The conversation starts with an exploration of fitness as a more meditative pursuit and how mindfulness and awareness will take you further than a focus on the weight being lifted.

We then move into some talk about methods for improving weaknesses; Ben shares simple and actionable strategies for honing in on the more avoidant parts of your body and routine. Ash raises the question of how much each individual should reasonably know about what the processes are carrying out, noting that clients may have different concerns to a coach. Ultimately, exercise will play a different size role in each of our lives and we do not all have to be world-experts on our routine, but we all need to be present while completing it! The conversation then turns to a contrasting approach to fixing problems, focussing on strengths, and applying these strategies to weaker areas. For all this and a whole lot more on bringing yourself into your body and program, listen in with us today! Do not forget to check out our awesome show sponsors, BLUblox for the finest in healthy eyewear! Get 15% off the best blue-light-blocking glasses at https://blublox.com/muscleintelligence, using the code 'MUSCLE'!

Timestamps

• Getting away from what you think you know and the dogma of exercise. [1:40]
• A more meditative approach to fitness; inside and outside the body. [2:49]
• Shifting the focus of weightlifting away from a number. [9:51]
• Practical ways to improve on the weak parts of your exercises and routine. [14:07]
• Smarter techniques for avoiding injury and making constant progress. [17:02]
• Client concerns versus those of a coach; protocols are not the answer. [21:36]
• The mindful dimension to exercise and the opportunity it provides in this respect. [24:28]
• Prioritizing habits and daily practices over short term willpower. [28:56]
• Awesomeness versus awfulness; the part that attitude plays in setting goals. [31:50]
• Differences between Ben's leg days and back days in the past. [37:13]
• Eye-fatigue, screen time, and the difference that blue-blocking glasses can make. [39:03]