Podcast # 86 from http://www.bengreenfieldfitness.com/2010/03/podcast-

episode-86-find-out-whether-flax-seed-oil-actually-

provides-all-the-fatty-acids-you-need/

Introduction: In this podcast episode: does flax oil actually work? What is

inflammation? Exercise and beta blockers, is magnesium in

your multi-vitamins toxic, hunger levels after biking, the

benefits of cinnamon, when to use fins in a pool, while lamb

is a good meat, when to eat sugar after exercise, crotch pain

on the bicycle, swimming, asthma and much more.

Ben: Hey podcast listeners, it’s Ben Greenfield and let me tell you

something. If you haven’t been to

www.bengreenfieldfitness.com this week, then you’re

missing out on a highly entertaining series of videos by

professional chef Todd Moore, who actually is producing a

bunch of free videos for you to learn more about how to cook

and more specifically how to cook without recipes. So the

cool thing is I’ve actually convinced Dr. Todd to come on to

the www.bengreenfieldfitness.com podcast but it’s not just

going to be any old podcast. This is actually going to be a

video podcast with Dr. Todd demonstrating cooking tips in

his kitchen. Now here’s where you come in, I need you to

actually let me know what you want me to ask Chef Todd to

demonstrate, and the reason for that is I can’t have people on

the show live during that video recording because it’ll use up

a lot of bandwidth and we’ll get real choppy video but if you

ask me the questions that you would like whether it be how

to chop a tomato, how to skim butter to make it less fatty,

how to use a knife properly – whatever you want Doctor... I

keep calling him Dr. Todd – whatever you want Chef Todd to

demonstrate then that is what I will ask him. So go to

www.bengreenfieldfitness.com and leave a comment on any

of the calls in the cooking video series with Chef Todd. Now

in today’s podcast, we’ve got just a few special

announcements. We have a Listener Q and A and then a

really interesting interview with Richard Cohen from

Bioletics who I called after receiving the results of my

essential fatty acids test that I did at home with Bioletics.

Basically, I’ve been taking a flax oil capsule. This is the first

time I’ve actually found out whether or not my fatty acid

levels were good or bad. You get to sit in on the call and

listen in. So stay tuned.

If you have a question for the podcast and if you’re

international, you can just Skype Pacific Fit. That’s Pacific

like the ocean, fit like fitness at Skype. If you are domestic in

the US, you can call toll free to 8772099439, or you can

email ben@bengreenfieldfitness.com. So this week’s first

question is from listener Chris.

Chris asks: I’ve heard from several people that inflammation is bad. I

believe this is true but I don’t really understand what

inflammation is. Could you explain that?

Ben answers: Chris has a follow up question, but let’s address the first part

of his question first. To begin with, Chris, inflammation is

simply a chemical response by the body to some type of

invasion, some type of irritation, some type of injury – it can

be anything from catching a cold to cutting your hand to

even going out and working out real hard and producing

some muscle tears which technically are a form of injury. So,

inflammation is actually – it’s a fantastic process because it’s

how the body heals itself. There’s actually a chemical cascade

that occurs when you’re injured or when you’re cut or when

you’re bruised or when you get a cold and it actually causes

your body’s healing factors to be delivered to the site of

injury. Now we don’t need to get into all the names of the

different chemicals that are involved in the inflammatory

process, but what happens a lot of times is some redness or

some swelling can occur wherever the inflammatory process

is happening because one of the parts of the inflammatory

process is to build almost like a fence around the site of

injury or around the site of illness so that the problem is not

able to spread to the rest of the body. Because when that

happens, your body can become anything from toxic to

chronically inflamed to even experiencing in cases of some

acute injuries something called sepsis, which is a serious

problem and people die from it. So the idea is that some

inflammation is good, but when inflammation spreads or

becomes chronic then it’s bad because essentially it sends

your body spiraling into essentially a mode that is very, very

uncomfortable. Your body simply cannot function when

widespread inflammation is occurring. You experience

everything from fatigue to frequent illness to constant

soreness to just tons of problems and eventually disease,

obesity, diabetes, cancer – all these things that can result

from being chronically inflamed. So the idea is that the type

of inflammation that’s bad – that would be referred to as

chronic inflammation – is typically going to occur when you

are putting things into your body that are contributing to a

net acidic state when you are consuming foods that your

body might be allergic or intolerant to so it has to mount an

inflammatory response against those foods, or when you’re

exposing yourself to a high amount of pollutants or toxins or

chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, things of that nature. So,

there’s actually something called an inflammation-free diet

and Monica Reinagel who’s been on the show before talking

about healthy nutrition for kids – she actually did a big

interview on inflammation. She’s the author of that book,

and I’ll put a link to that interview in the Shownotes to that

podcast, podcast number 86. So you can surf through the

Shownotes and check out the link to that interview with

Monica Reinegal who’s also known as the Nutrition Diva,

because she’s both an opera singer and a nutritionist. But

you can also take some of these tips. When you are eating

your foods, try and eat foods that are going to help you fight

off the inflammation that’s occurring when you’re exercising

or when you’re injured or when you’re breaking down muscle

or when you’re exposed to pollutants. Those types of

inflammation-fighting foods would include some of the cold-

water fish like salmon or herring, mackerel and anchovies –

not a lot of people eat but those also are great in

inflammation fighting compounds. Most seeds and nuts are

real, real great for being anti-inflammatory types of foods as

well as most vegetables and to a limited extent just because

of the sugar content – fruits and whole grains are also good

in containing the types of nutrients that can help you fight

inflammation. Now what types of things would actually cause

inflammation? Anything fried. So everything from

doughnuts to even some baked goods that contain fried

compounds. Fried meats, French fries, things of that nature.

You definitely want to avoid those as you probably would be

doing if you were on a sound diet anyways. A lot of fats like

trans fats and saturated fats can result in inflammation. So

saturated fats mean the real, real marbly cuts of beef, eating

foods that are real, real high in butter or rich creamy sauces.

That would be something to be real careful of. And alcohol

and caffeine are also inflammatory type of foods, so you’d

want to stay away from those and then as far as the food

allergies – the food sensitivities go – we’ll talk about those a

little bit later in this podcast, but dairy products – soy,

peanuts or peanut butter, a lot of times pork or shellfish –

and even tomatoes can all result in an inflammatory reaction

if you happen to be allergic or intolerant to those types of

foods. A couple other things you could do is make sure that

you’re taking in a good amount of probiotics which you can

take in capsule form if you don’t want that dairy paradox

where you’re trying to get probiotics to fight the

inflammation, but getting inflammation from the other

things that are in the dairy. And then even some spices can

help out a little bit. A turmeric is good. Always have some of

that around. You can put it in soups, sandwiches, stir fry,

things of that nature. Garlic and ginger are also great as well.

If you’re really concerned about chronic inflammation, you

can actually go get tested at the doctor. They do something

called a c-reactive protein test. That’s a CRP test, it’s actually

a marker of a risk for heart disease just because heart disease

is highly related to inflammation. Another one that’s a little

less common is called an ESR which stands for erythrocytes

sedimentation rate. Your doc will be able to tell you a little

bit more about that. But if you’re taking care of your body,

eating smart… you really won’t have to risk as much of that

chronic inflammation that really you have complete control

over whether or not that occurs. It’s a little bit different than

like an auto-immune disease where somebody is

experiencing inflammation but has no control over it a lot of

times, just because it’s a genetic factor. So great question,

Chris.

Chuck asks: Lately, I’ve found myself completely unmotivated to work

out. Granted, I’m still getting my workouts in but come 4 or 5

in the afternoon when I’m headed to the pool or gym after

work, I feel completely exhausted. Now and then, I just end

up going home and taking a nap. Are there reasons that

could be adding to this lack of motivation and exhaustion

such as a nutritional deficiency?

Ben answers: Well Chuck, knowing that you’ve written into the show

before and that you’ve told us that you’re getting ready for –

it’s either a half Ironman or Ironman triathlon – and that

type of exhaustion is a pretty common complaint among

people who are preparing for an athletic competition or

maybe trying to lose weight and working out quite a bit. But

the idea is that the later you go in the day – not only do the

stresses of the day, of work, of school – whatever the case

may be, start to add up and begin to slowly drain or exhaust

your body; but you also get some hormonal things going on.

The release – or not the release of cortisol, but kind of the

slight increase in cortisol as the day kind of draws to an end,

and your body is starting to go into shutdown mode. A lot of

times that can happen around 4, 5, 6 in the afternoon and

some of the things you can do about that would be A, try and

prioritize getting your workouts done in the morning when

you can prior to getting that mental and physical stress on

your body. Not only does it help you get it out of the way but

it actually makes you more productive and more focused

later on in the day. So if you’re doing two a day workouts,

pick your hardest workout, the one that’s going to be

mentally the toughest one to do and get that over with in the

morning. I know that kind of contradicts with some of the

things I’ve talked about before in terms of trying to prioritize

doing your hardest things when the body temperature is

highest, just because your body temperature is not highest in

the morning. But if it comes down to you just not being

motivated in the afternoon or evening to work out hard

because you’re not getting enough sleep or because you’re

stressed out – just get the hard stuff over with in the

morning. The other thing that you can do is you can

artificially stimulate your central nervous system. Now, I

wouldn’t recommend that you do this as you get real close to

an event or race like a triathlon because then your body just

gets used to being constantly stimulated. Your adrenal

glands get constantly taxed, but you can pop something like

one of the healthy energy drinks that we’ve talked about on

this show or a little bit of black coffee. The Delta-E is one

that we’ve talked about which is kind of the kick of caffeine

and vitamin B. Another one would be the Tea and Chi that

Roger Drummer came on and talked about a couple of weeks

ago. More kind of the Chinese herb adaptogen route – either

one of those – you would pop about 30 to 45 minutes prior

to an exercise session to get it into your blood stream and get

the kidneys producing that adrenaline to kind of wake you up.

Then the other thing you can do – and this is a trick that

sometimes works, is just start the workout and once you get

about two to five minutes in, your body starts to produce the

hormones and the endorphins that make you want to keep

going and kind of make exercise a little less uncomfortable.

So, try that out. Stimulate the central nervous system, get the

harder stuff done within the morning. Of course make sure

that you’re trying to get enough sleep. But I understand that

sometimes that’s tough for a lot of people to do, and then just

get a couple minutes into the workout and try it out.

Michael asks: I’m a mountain bike racer and I live in the northeast, so I

have trouble training outdoors in the winter. I’m using an

indoor trainer but find that when I do so for over 45 minutes,

I get testicular pain. I try to stand up on the bike a lot to

allow blood flow and alleviate the problem but I still get the

pain. Any ideas?

Ben answers: Well, it’s a great question Michael. A lot of people experience

this and you experience it more when you’re riding on an

indoor bike trainer or spin bike because you tend to shift in

the saddle a lot less than you do when you’re riding outdoors

and having to adapt to corners and changes in elevation and

things of that nature. So the first thing and most obvious

thing you should look at is your bike fit. If your hips are

rocking in the saddle, then your seat could be too high,

putting unnecessary pressure on your crotch or what would

be call your perineal area, which are all those soft tissues

around your crotch. If you’re feeling more than about a 60%

weight distribution on your saddle – maybe 40% of your

weight you should feel on your handlebars, about 60% on

your saddle – that would again be an indication that you

could use a bike fit. A lot of times if the saddle is too far back

then that can put unnecessary pressure on your crotch, and

you’d be surprised, I’ve done hundreds of bike fits on people

and I’m always amazed at how just a tiny adjustment – just a

few millimeters – can make a huge change in the amount of

comfort someone has on the bike. So get a bike fit

professionally done if you haven’t yet. Then the other thing

that you can look into is those saddles with the hole in the

middle of them, as well as the noseless saddles. Those can

help out quite a bit, as can if you are overweight, obese or

just a very large-framed person – a saddle with a little more

padding on it or even the gel padding that you place over the

saddle. All of that can help, but that type of crotch pain is

pretty common and sometimes even if you feel like you’re

not sitting on your meat so to speak, even pressure on the

inner thighs or the perineal area on either side of your

genitals can actually radiate and cause pain, for example, in

the testicles. Then the final thing that I would recommend is

to look into getting a good pair of bike shorts with a nice

thick chamois. If you’re wearing a cheap pair of shorts or

even one of those triathlon shorts with the thin chamois, that

can really not be what you need in order to protect your

jewels. So, that being said, I think this is the first podcast

that I’ve seen jewels, genitals, meat, perineal, crotch and I

managed to avoid saying balls until just now. But great

question and best of luck with that issue. Try out some of my

suggestions.

Sarah asks: I have a question about exercise and beta blockers. For about

a year, I’ve been taking a slow release beta blocker as a

preventive measure against migraines. I wondered what

effect this may have on my heart rate during training

sessions. Both cardio and weight training, but mainly cardio

workouts where more focus is placed on working in training

zones according to heart rate. It is my understanding that

beta blockers are used to lower blood pressure and heart rate

but I’ve never been too sure about what this means for my

training.

Ben answers: Well, it’s a great question Sarah, and the idea is that beta

blockers are going to lower your blood pressure and lower

your heart rate. That’s what they were designed to do. That’s

one of the reasons why they can be prescribed for migraines

because migraines can be linked to high blood pressure, but

when you take them what happens is you’re unable to reach

as high a heart rate as you would normally be able to reach if

you were un-medicated. So what that means is if you have

some heart rate zones that you’re training based off or you

have some type of test that you’ve done where you’ve

determined what heart rates you should be at when you’re

doing your cardio exercise, say your fat burning heart rate or

your maximum cardio heart rate – all those heart rates are

going to change. Even a heart rate that you have calculated

based on your age predicted maximum heart rate, that’s

going to change as well. Everything is going to drop by 10 to

20 beats when you’re on a beta blocker. So the best way to go

about figuring out how you should exercise would be when

you’re on the beta blocker, to do any type of test – whether

that be an exercise stress test, a metabolic test or a self-

administered test on a bike where you’re just gradually

increasing intensity and seeing what happens to your heart

rate – do those tests when you’re on the medication. Don’t

use the results of the test that was performed when you were

un-medicated. So yes, they will have an effect on your

exercise heart rate by decreasing the heart rate at which

you’re able to work out during exercise. Then just kind of as

a side note, Sarah, as far as migraines go probably the best

resource that I’ve ever come across in terms of laying out

some real great natural treatments for migraines would be

the chapter in Dr. Caroline Dean’s book The Magnesium

Miracle on migraines. She goes into some stuff that goes way

beyond magnesium in terms of great suggestions for

controlling migraines. I’ve had a lot of clients who’ve read

that book and had wonderful success with some of her

suggestions in that book. So, I have interviewed her on the

podcast before. If you go to www.bengreenfieldfitness.com,

do a search for “The Magnesium Miracle” and you’ll come up

with Dr. Dean and I don’t remember if she talked about

migraines during her interview or not but I’d definitely listen

to some of the stuff that she has to say.

Scott asks: What is your take on magnesium stearate and stearic acid in

multi-vitamins?

Ben answers: That is an awesome question because this is something that a

lot of people don’t take into consideration when they’re

taking a multi-vitamin capsule or pill. Basically magnesium

stearate is something that shows up in a bunch of

supplements and the reason for that is because some

supplement companies use machines that are lubricated with

essentially a magnesium stearate or stearic acid derivative.

And the stearic acid is made from a hydrogenated oil and the

hydrogenated oil that lubricates the machinery tends to

accumulate metals. So you get these oils that are saturated

with metals ending up in the pills and I read an article that

Scott actually forwarded to me that suggested that this could

make up as much as 5% of a 1000 milligram capsule. So,

what I would do is make sure that any multi-vitamin or any

supplement that you’re taking – if you’re concerned about

the magnesium stearate or stearic acid toxin that could end

up in them – would be to check and see that the lab that’s

producing these is a certified good manufacturing practice

laboratory and anything you buy that’s real, real cheap –

clearance, inexpensive – I’d be careful with. I’d be careful

getting supplements from some fringe corner of the super

supplements outlet, versus looking into – Cosco for example

– some of their multi-vitamins are a waste of money but they

at least do good research on the stuff that they sell. So be

careful when you’re purchasing pills and vitamins and don’t

just get them from anywhere. I will absolutely vouch for the

quality of anything that you find over on my coaching Web

site where I also feature all the supplements I recommend to

the clients and athletes that I work with. www.pacificfit.net,

any of the liquid vitamins over there, any of the EnerPrime

multi-vitamins or any of those capsules, I will vouch for

those 100%. They’re all produced by certified good

manufacturing practice laboratories and they’re high quality

supplements. Yes, I will absolutely agree that they’re not the

cheapest supplements on the market but man, you can at

least be confident that you’re putting good stuff into your

body that’s not saturated with stuff like the magnesium

stearate or the stearic acid. So, great question.

Robert asks: I alternate my early morning sprint workouts between

running and biking. When I run I have no problem with

appetite control throughout the day, but when I bike I seem

to be famished the rest of the day. I’ve tried adding a few

more calories to breakfast and morning snacks as well as

adding more protein and carbs with limited results. I just

want to eat all day after I bike. Obviously, I’m missing

something.

Ben answers: That’s an interesting question. And the idea is that when you

weightlift – like when you do squats, lunges, bench press,

things of that nature – when you bicycle, when you climb

stairs, when you do a lot of these things that are force

generating activities more than they are energy impact type

of activities, you tend to use more storage muscle

carbohydrate. You tend to use more glycogen. That’s the

reason why you can actually cycle your diet and you can have

a higher carbohydrate intake on the days that you weightlift

and on the days that you bicycle. Now the reason for that is

when you run, a lot of the force you produce when you’re

running is simply force that you’ve collected from the ground

that when you land on the ground gets stored in your

tendons, ligaments and released in a spring based motion. So

you’re going to tend to use a little less glycogen when you run

versus when you lift or when you bike. So what I would do is

really focus on higher carbohydrate intake on those days that

you’re cycling. And I would also make sure that you fuel

before, during and after that bike ride if you’re really

experiencing appetite cravings and that you fuel with a little

bit more carbohydrate. That doesn’t mean you have to go out

and eat bagels and scones and biscotti and drink a bunch of

OJ. You can do sweet potatoes, yams, carrots, parsnips,

sprouted whole grain bread, quinoa, amaranth, millet – any

number of dense carbohydrates that tend to have a little bit

of protein or tend to be real low in gluten and actually still

have your carbohydrates and eat a healthy diet. So I would

just go a little higher carbs on those bike days and especially

hit the carbohydrate intake that’s a little bit less damaging to

your insulin levels before, during or immediately after the

workout. So I think there’s a question a little bit later in this

podcast about the timing of those sessions so I’ll get to that

in a second.

Joel asks: I have a question about a friend of mine who has had to give

up swimming in the pool due to breathing problems which

happen after a pool session. The way he describes it sounds

almost like an asthmatic or an allergic type of reaction with

pain and difficulty on the inhalation and shortness of breath

a short while after finishing the workout. I’m just wondering

if you have ever heard of such a thing happening and if it

could be something as simple as some sort late onset allergy

to one or more of the chemicals in this pool.

Ben answers: Joel, on the podcast before, we have talked about something

called chloramines in the pool. You can go do a search at

www.bengreenfieldfitness.com for “swim pool chlorine

chloramines” any of that. And essentially the consensus from

various studies that have been done on professional to

recreational swimmers is that there’s a direct correlation

between the amount of time that you spend in the pool and

the type of asthmatic symptoms that can occur, and the fact

is that many professional swimmers and even children on

swimming teams tend to have asthma symptoms due to the

chloramines in the water which is basically a reaction

between the chlorine and the proteins from things as simple

as dead skin cells that are floating in the water creating this

inflammatory response in your lungs and these asthma like

symptoms, the broncho constriction or the closing down of

some of the airway tubes and vessels. Now, you look at some

professional swimmers and they’ve dealt with this. Grant

Hackett who was the 1500 meter champion at the Olympics

– that guy struggled with asthma and the only way that he’s

able to do what he does is because he does use an asthma

medication and a steroidal inhaler to actually keep his

airways open during and after the time that he swims. Now if

your friend is tending to have that type of response to the

chloramines in the pool, then if they want to keep swimming

this might be something they need to do. The same approach

that professional swimmers take – that steroidal inhaler.

Now the interesting thing and I mentioned this in the

podcast that we did on swimming pools and chloramines is

that when a professional swimmer finishes their career, a lot

of these symptoms tend to go away. So, it’s not like your

friend would have to be on a steroidal inhaler for life but

maybe just on the days that they swim to actually cause a

little bit of that dilation. And the other thing is that –

something that we’ll talk about a little later on in the day –

something that has been used before to help control asthma,

to help control some of those symptoms is fish oil. So you

could look into – if he’s not already – some type of Omega 3

fish oil supplementation. I’m not prescribing that as a

diagnosis for disease or as a treatment for asthma. I’m just

saying it has helped traditionally in some cases, people who

experience that type of allergenic response in lung tissue.

Chuck asks: What is an ideal macronutrient balance for an athlete for

optimum performance? Or how does it differ for someone

looking to gain strength, someone training for an Olympic

distance triathlon, someone training for an Ironman

triathlon, etc.

Ben answers: Then he has a follow up question. We’ll address the first part

of that question first. What you want to look into, Chuck, is

something called nutrition periodization. And what that

refers to is the fact that rather than just going with a set

percentage of carbohydrates, proteins and fats; you actually

change the percentage that you’re taking in based off of how

your exercise sessions look throughout the year. So during a

time if you’re doing a lot of weightlifting, a lot of sprint type

of activity, a lot of things that break down the muscle tissue –

you’ll generally skew a little bit more towards the

carbohydrate and protein intake as you’re doing a lot more of

the aerobic, easy type of efforts, you can get a little bit more

of the higher fat intake, definitely a little bit lower high

glycemic index or high sugar type of carbohydrate intake.

You essentially adjust these things as you go throughout the

training year. Now as far as a general balance? Most of the

meal plans that I write out start out with anywhere from 50

to 60% carbohydrate, 20 to 30% protein, 2o to 30% fat and

kind of work from there. My book “Holistic Fueling for

Ironman Triathletes” changes based on whether you’re in

what’s called the Base, the Build, the Taper or the Peak phase

of your triathlon. But the idea is that it’s not the same

throughout the entire year. So ideal balance is going to

change depending on where you’re at but that 5o to 60, 2o to

30, 20 to 30 blend tends to work pretty well. And yeah, if

you’re exercising you can get away with a little bit higher

carbohydrate intake. I mean, heck, during race week of an

Ironman triathlon – I’m on 80% carbohydrate intake, just to

fill up the muscles with that extra little bit of carbs. So again

depends on where you’re at in the year.

Then the follow up question.

Chuck asks: I’ve been following (speak of the devil) your Holistic Fueling

for Triathletes and you often call for meals with lamb. I don’t

know much about lamb but why lamb over chicken or beef?

Does it have some nutritional qualities that I’m not aware of?

Ben answers: Yeah absolutely. When you’re looking at lamb, not only is it

kind of a younger meat that tends to be a little bit lower in

toxins or potential allergens, but there’s been a lot of studies

done on something called conjugated linoleic acid, which is

kind of a great anti-carcinogen, anti-oxidant, healthy fatty

acid that you can take in that’s primarily found in a meat-

based diet. And the meat from lambs tends to have a lot

higher levels of that conjugated linoleic acid than the meat

from say like a beef or a pork. Now the other thing is that

lambs tend to traditionally be grass fed, and yeah you can get

grass fed beef as well, but when you get lamb you’re typically

not going to have as much of an issue with the grain fed type

of meat that you would consume from a beef source. So grass

fed animals – it’s actually about 500% more conjugated

linoleic acid – that good fat that’s found in the grass fed

meats – you’ve got about 400% more vitamin A, 300% more

vitamin E, a ton more of the Omega 3 fatty acids, which we’ll

talk about later but basically you just get – like you asked me,

are there any nutritional benefits? Yeah, you just get better

nutritional density from the lamb. Now there’s been some

anecdotal talk about lamb being something that could be

more of a hypo-allergenic meat, meaning that people tend to

have less of an inflammatory response to lamb versus beef,

especially a grain fed beef. I haven’t seen a lot of studies to

back that up. But for example, not only in Holistic Fueling

For Ironman Triathletes, but also in my book Shape 21, the

idea is that you switch to a completely clean diet. You

creatively are eliminating most sources of egg, wheat, in a lot

of cases whey, the grain fed beef, just a ton of things that

could be potential allergenic triggers that could either slow

down performance or affect your ability to lose weight or

maybe even make you gain fat. And the idea is that yeah, you

might not be allergic to grain fed beef or have a big problem

with it, you might not have a problem with dairy, you might

not have a problem with wheat, but my approach with Shape

21 was basically to just totally clean up your diet. It’s like you

may not need it, but it’s going to be super good for you

anyways to try it out. So Shape 21 is the closest you can get to

a cleanse without doing a cleanse. It’s a 21 day plan that I’ve

had people go through three or four times. Some people go

through it all year long and just kind of repeat and move

through the various phases of the 21 days from beginner to

intermediate to advanced. Works out very well. That’s the

reason lamb is in that book as an alternative to chicken or

beef. There’s a lot of lamb and a lot of salmon in that book

actually. And I actually – I just got a shipment of Shape 21 in.

We had to reorder a ton of those books. They were selling

like hotcakes. I actually had a big box arrive last week full of

Shape 21 books and DVDs. So here’s what I’m going to do for

those of you listening in to the podcast today. I will totally

write off shipping – completely free shipping for anybody

that’s listening – if you want to get your hands on Shape 21,

I’ll put a link in the Shownotes. I’m not going to say this or

print this anywhere else, but here is the coupon code that

you can use if you want totally free shipping on Shape 21.

Use this. Just write it down or commit it to memory. Either

one. Podcast 86. Podcast 86. That will get you free shipping

on Shape 21. I’ll give you a little tip. I listen to podcasts

sometimes when I’m running or when I’m bicycling or

exercising. If something comes up that I want to remember

then what I do is I picture it in my mind’s eye 10 times when

I hear it. So I just said podcast 86. I would picture that 10

times and then keep going and then after the workout, I

remember it just like that. It’s a cool little trick you can use.

So alright, that’s how you can get the free shipping on Shape

21. We’re going to move on to a question from listener

Melinda.

Melinda asks: Is any form of cinnamon fully beneficial or is there an

advantage to using cinnamon bark versus powdered

cinnamon?

Belinda asks: Cinnamon is great. It’s something – I talk about this in 100

Ways To Boost Your Metabolism – awesome for stabilizing

your insulin levels and having a regulatory effect on your

blood sugar levels. So for anybody who’s at risk for diabetes,

who wants to control the conversion of sugar into fat, who

has type 2 diabetes – cinnamon can be a great addition to

your diet. There’s been studies that show that cinnamon can

lower your LDL cholesterol. It can have an effect on your

yeast infections in terms of medication resistant yeast

infections. It can actually help control those. It can reduce

the proliferation of a lot of carcinogenic cells. The leukemia

cells, the lymphoma cancer cells. It can have an anti-clotting

effect on the blood. There’s been studies where patients have

had a reduction in arthritis pain when using cinnamon. It

can be used in food to inhibit some bacterial growth or food

spoilage so it’s kind of a natural food preservative. And

there’s even been a study that found that when you smell it,

it can boost your cognitive function or memory. Now I put a

ton of cinnamon in my morning hot cereal when I do quinoa

or oatmeal in the morning. I actually add cinnamon to every

cup of coffee that I have whether I have coffee at a coffee

shop or at home. So I use a lot of it. I actually put a recipe for

Chai tea up on the podcast a few weeks ago. If you go to

www.bengreenfieldfitness.com and do a search for “Chai tea”

and that recipe uses cinnamon bark as one of the ingredients

that you boil in the tea. That being said, I’m personally not

aware of any studies or any information about cinnamon

bark having more advantages than the cinnamon powder.

The only thing I can think of is that if cinnamon powder was

incredibly outdated, that you might have a problem there.

But again I’m just going off a hunch. Sometimes the more

natural the food is, the more fresh it is, the more potent its

properties. But I can’t say for sure. Either way, cinnamon is

great for you but I’m not actually sure if the powder or the

bark is better. If you’re listening in to this podcast and you

happen to know or you’re aware of a research study, go leave

a comment on the Shownotes. Let me know and we’ll get it

out in the next podcast. So great question Melissa.

Jason asks: As I get into Build 1 and Build 2 of my Triathlon Dominator

plan, I’m increasing my swim time. Swimming is one of my

limiters and I believe one of the reasons is my balance when

rotating from left to right. Along with that, I’m going to start

doing some bilateral breathing. My question is are these

drills made easier by incorporating swim fins and my

thought is I should use the swim fins until my body adapts to

the movement and then slowly take away the fins. Is this a

good use of the fins? And if not, when should fins be used?

Ben answers: That’s a great question, Jason. And you’re kind of on the

right track that a lot of times when you want to get faster in

the pool then you need to focus on that hip roll, on that

balance from side to side. And the nice part about the fins is

A, they make your legs a little more buoyant so you can

worry more about focusing on the hip roll and a little bit less

about focusing on the beat of your kick. The other thing that

the fins do is they increase what would be called the lever

arm, or the length of your leg and so it can make that hip roll

a little bit more pronounced. Now, I personally use a type of

fin called the Zoomer. I’ll put a link to that in the Shownotes,

but the Zoomer is a little bit different than like a generic fin

you might find in your pool. It’s got little blades in it that

actually make your legs work harder without overloading

your leg muscles. And they have this size and shape that

allows you to generate a force on both up phase and the

down phase of your kick. So they’re really good at teaching

you how to kick properly and teaching you how to kick from

the hips and not kick from the knees which is actually one of

the advantages of using fins. The other advantage of using

fins is you swim faster so you train your body to have that

turnover in the arms that’s necessary when you swim faster.

They’re good for using in moderation. Now the problem with

using fins is that they can sometimes make you rely on them

a little bit too much and you almost feel handicapped and

slow when you take them off. That’s why you don’t want to

swim with fins all the time. But I personally do a lot of my

kicking drills with the fins. I actually do a lot of my body

rolling and rotation drills with the fins because I have a

better awareness of what’s going on in my hips when I’ve got

the fins on. They pretty much magnify anything that your

legs and your hips do. I’ve never really felt comfortable in

any fins except those Zoomers that I talked about, just

because they were developed specifically for swimmers who

are training, not for snorkelers. But I would look into those

and yeah, you’re on the right track. You can totally use fins

when you’re doing some of these kicking and body rolling

exercises. Just understand that the goal is not to make you a

better kicker as much as it is to make you a little bit more

aware of what’s going on with your legs and give you a little

bit more mind muscle ability to keep your hips extended. So,

great question Jason and I hope the Triathlon Dominator

plan is going well for you.

Hans asks: Hello, I read your article How Sugar Makes You Fat. I was in

a class called Metabolic and it consisted of continuous squats,

shoulder presses, lunges and pushups with light weights. The

instructor’s parting advice was to avoid sugar or alcoholic

drinks following the workout. Since your body is still burning

up fuel and would use the sugar introduced to you versus

using stored fat. Did I get that right? I know sugar can be

converted into fat, but isn’t the post-workout period a critical

time or is the post-workout period a critical time to avoid

sugar? And does that mean if I went for a Gatorade or

something, my body would attempt to burn the sugar from

the drink before it worked on the fat thus retarding my fat

loss? How long does that effect last after a workout?

Ben answers: Great question. Hans. This tends to be an area of confusion

for a lot of people with the idea being that hey, if you work

out and you burn a bunch of calories and you kind of deplete

your body of all that circulating body sugar or all the sugar in

your muscles, it’s just going to tap into the fat and turn you

into a fat burning machine for a long time after the workout.

But the reality is that not only do you burn fewer calories if

you don’t eat during the workout, but you burn fewer

calories, you recover less fully and you actually do your body

a disservice when you don’t consume calories directly after

the workout. This tends to be even a bigger problem in the

women that I work with. I don’t know why, but they just wait

and wait and wait after they work out because they love that

feeling of getting hungry and maybe a little lightheaded and

they must be burning so much fat. But the idea is that the

cortisol and stress response and the drop in the body’s

metabolism from doing something like that has a very, very

negative effect on your ability to lose fat or lose weight and it

also inhibits your body’s ability to recover properly. So what

I preach to all my clients and people listening to this podcast

or the athletes that I coach is to actually take care of your

body calorically before, during and after exercise and engage

in any caloric restriction apart from exercise. So you actually

eat before you workout. For any workouts longer than an

hour, you eat during the workout. And it’s about a 20 minute

window after that workout during which your body will

actually not take sugar and store it as fat but actually inject

sugar into muscle to be utilized as energy for the next day’s

workout, or later on. Then later on in the day, that’s when

you would engage in caloric restriction. But after a workout,

definitely not. As a matter of fact, I tell people, you know

what if you’re going to have a Snicker’s bar, if you’re going to

have M&Ms, if you’re going to have a bowl of ice cream, any

of that type of stuff – it’d be best to avoid it – but if you’re

going to take it in, take it in after a workout. That’s when

your body is going to be most insulin sensitive and it’s going

to be least damaging to your metabolism to consume those

types of fuels. So, in answering your question Hans, your

instructor had it totally backwards. You’re actually supposed

to eat the sugar after the workout and then avoid the sugar

later on in the day. So, we’re going to finish with a call-in I

guess you would call it like a testimonial from listener

Patrick.

Patrick says: Ben, this is Patrick from Nashville, Tennessee again. Just

wanted to give you a call and let you know that I just finished

my half marathon test at the end of week 12 of the Triathlon

Dominator package. Just wanted to say that I got a PR by 6

minutes at that distance. Right at 6 minutes and just wanted

to say I’m enjoying the plan so far. I really like that I re-test

my vitals every four weeks so I get to see improvement that

way. And I’d also like to say that I recently just underwent a

coaching seminar where they talked a lot about training

theory and just wanted to say that I kept thinking about your

plan and how well it’s laid out and how correctly it’s laid out.

So just wanted to give you a quick shout out, let you know

how things are going. Appreciate it.

Ben: Well, thanks for the feedback Patrick. I truly appreciate it. If

you’re listening in, Patrick was talking about the Triathlon

Dominator. Probably the triathlon program that I wrote that

I’m most proud of in terms of what it can achieve for you. So

you can check that out at www.triathlondominator.com and

let’s go ahead and move on to this week’s featured topic on

essential fatty acids and fatty acid testing with Dr. Richard

Cohen from Bioletics.

Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and you may

remember that in podcast episode number 85, I mentioned

that I had gotten my essential fatty acid levels tested. The

results that came back appear to be a little bit disturbing. I’ve

mentioned before that I’m supplementing with a flax seed oil,

and I thought I was doing a pretty good job at getting my

Omega 3s in, doing lots of avocados and seeds and nuts, but

the Omega 3 index score that I got back is kind of down in

the red warning zone of about 4.4% and not having a lot of

experience in testing Omega 3 fatty acids or essential fatty

acids and interpreting the results, I have on the other line the

physician from Bioletics who is actually going to explain to

me exactly what these numbers mean. So, Dr. Cohen, how

are you doing?

Dr. Richard Cohen: I’m good, thanks. We meet again.

Ben: Good, so am I going to die?

Dr. Richard Cohen: No, not tomorrow.

Ben: Oh, thanks.

Dr. Richard Cohen: That’s the old doctor joke if someone comes in, you turn

them around. It looks like they’re just coming in.

Ben: Yeah, exactly. So anyways, you sent me a test up to my house.

I tested it in my kitchen, a couple of blood drops, sent it back

in and got this number back that said 4.4%. What’s that

mean?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Okay, so what those blood drops did was they looked for the

fatty acid profile in the red blood cells. There are a lot of

essential fats and we don’t want to go into all of those, but

the most important ones are the Omega 3 fats, the Omega 6

fats and then we also look at saturated fats and the trans fats

and the mono unsaturated fats. So we actually can see

percentages in your red cell of each of these. Based on lots of

research, what we understand is that the higher the

percentage of Omega fatty acids up to a certain point, the

more beneficial it is to the body. With regard from a health

perspective, there’s very good data that’s come out over the

past few years that when the Omega 3 fatty acids are running

between 8 and 10%, which is actually what you see in Japan,

in more… where they’re eating a lot of seafood – there’s

virtually no cardiac sudden death. So that cardiac sudden

death with athletes seems to be enhanced with deficiencies in

essential fatty acids. Not that you’re dropping tomorrow, but

you’re at increased risk. Actually 4% over 8, the risk is 20

times, believe it or not. It can be that strong.

Ben: So with this risk being 20 times greater, how does that even

happen biologically? If I’m low in my Omega 3 fatty acids,

how is that actually happening my heart or my

cardiovascular function? How would that put me at risk?

Dr. Richard Cohen: What’s happening? So, from a real simplistic point, you have

increased inflammation and increased likelihood of blood

clotting. That’s basically the two basic parameters. So it

probably affects rhythm of the heart. The essential fats

control prostaglandins which are these intra-cellular

hormones which have control on vessels, rhythm, hormones

and so forth. So, the lower these Omega 3 fats, the more

imbalanced the prostaglandins become. We can start to look

at the Omega 3 fat percentage and what we’ll also tell from

the results is we get a couple of ratios. We get an Omega 6 to

Omega 3 ratio and when we look at more paleo primitive

ancestral diets, typically that ratio is anywhere from 1 to 4:1,

and yours is running around 9:1. So what does that tell us? It

tells us that your diet is consisting of a higher ratio of Omega

6 to Omega 3 than probably is idea for your body. So a lot of

the nuts and seeds, while naturally okay, you’re not

balancing it off with some of the end-chain fatty acids. End

chain Omega 3 either from the fish oil or hemp oil or algae

oils, etc. or just eating fish or seaweeds that have lots of

Omega 3. Make sense?

Ben: Yeah, that makes sense.

Dr. Richard Cohen: In the conversion… you’re not getting adequate conversion of

these parent chain oils.

Ben: So the issue is not necessarily that I’m not taking the oils

because I am, but it’s the actual conversion of those oils?

Dr. Richard Cohen: That’s correct. And maybe you need – in your case we need

to reduce some of those parent chain oils and add in some

end chain fatty acids.

Ben: Explain to me what a parent chain oil is again?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Parent chain is the linoleic acid which – the base in generally

the Omega 6 in sunflower and nuts and things. The majority

of fats in our current diet are Omega 6 fats. I know in your

case, you’re eating clean food. You’re not eating processed

fats, which is if you’re eating typical American diet – you’re

getting a lot of damaged Omega 6 fats. So I’m less concerned,

knowing how you eat that the Omega 6, although higher than

what they should be – the Omega 6 that you’re getting are

still cleaner. And that’s sort of a little bit of an asterisk on

this ratio for you which I know someone eating an American

diet is getting a lot of processed Omega 6 fats and that would

be processed oils, hydrogenated oils, cooked oils, some from

fast-food chains. They’re just – they’re not healthy. They’re

oxidized and they’re very damaging. The base nuts are not as

problematic but your ratios – so from the 6 to 3 and then

another ratio that we look at is called a arachidonic acid

which is one of these prostaglandins that has a stronger

inflammatory response and we look at that compared to the

EPA and you’re running around 15:1, actually 16.4, which is a

high inflammatory risk just based on the numbers. Again

you’re probably not as… based on how you’re doing… the

number probably isn’t as concerning again, if someone

wasn’t eating a more balanced diet such as you are. Having

said that, we definitely need to figure out a way to get your

Omega 3s increased and that will make a difference. The

other thing that I can tell looking at your trans fats, everyone

has trans fats because it’s present in meat so you’ll get

something called conjugated linoleic acid. Do you take some

CLA?

Ben: No, I don’t.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Okay, anyway typically you see with people who are eating

processed foods, you’ll see that ratio over 2% or if they’re

eating a lot of dairy, which I don’t think you do either,

correct?

Ben: Not a lot. I do probably the equivalent of half a cup to a full

cup of plain fat free yoghurt a day. About that equivalent of

dairy.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Fat free, right?

Ben: Fat free.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Fat free. Because your trans fats are less than 1%. That

means you’re eating very little processed food. You’re

probably not eating a lot of red meat right now.

Ben: Very little.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Are you eating fatted dairy? It’s like… it’s almost like the

dietary fat detective. You can look at someone’s trans fatty

acids and you can catch them. Because if they’ve been eating

a lot of fats – either meats or processed foods – it’ll start

pushing that up. And if you know they’re eating the

processed foods, it will actually go higher than 1 ½ to 2%.

That’s not good. So in your case .6 is very good. And just so

you know, your mono unsaturated, your saturated… those

are all good. It’s just you have a very high percentage of

Omega 6 fats right now. About 40%. If you had less Omega 6

and a little Omega 3, all those ratios would slip really quickly.

Ben: Okay, and my question for you and I know this is something

that a lot of listeners to the show are going to be kind of in

the same boat is I do eat very healthy, and I do take a flax

seed oil supplement and based off of these numbers, it would

indicate that I am either not using the fats that I’m getting

from that supplement or not converting them properly. Or

else, I’m not getting enough Omega 3s in my diet from other

sources, because I know I’m not on Omega 6 overload

necessarily. I’m not doing a lot of Omega 6 fatty acids

sources. That being the case, what would you recommend as

a doctor that I do to actually get these numbers back to

where they’re supposed to be or up to where they’re

supposed to be?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Okay, yeah. So what do we have – and it’s a good point there

– is you were looking at percentages as opposed to direct

quantifying, how much… it’s really a percentage breakdown.

So, even if you’re not – like you say, you’re consuming…

whatever fats you’re consuming right now seems to be more

of the Omega 6 quantity. From what you’re telling me, it’s

not an excessive amount. So we just need to add in your case

some Omega 3 sources. Some of that end chain DHA or EPA

fatty acids. So, a good quality – and there are a few that I like

that haven’t been molecularly distilled and damaged, you

have to be careful with fish oils. Some of the Whole Foods –

there are a few brands out there that I like. We’re carrying

one right now. It’s sort of a continuing investigation on

finding the ones that are the cleanest and the least damaged.

So a good quality fish oil or for people who might be more

vegetarian or don’t like fish oils, you can us algae based fatty

acids now. And it’s primarily sources of DHA which is the

end chain Omega 3 fat. So I would in your case, shoot for

anywhere – probably about four capsules of a good quality

Omega 3 fat. And I can share that with you, and about 2

grams a day.

Ben: What’s your take on having that be from a flax oil versus a

fish oil source? Because that’s a pretty big debate right now.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Oh, it is a very challenging debate. I agree with you there.

And literally a couple of weeks ago I spent half the week just

reading on different points of view, and you can go crazy.

Some people say EPA is important, some say DHA is better.

Others say the parent chains – Udo Erasmus promotes the

parent chain oils and there are people who talk about the

benefits of that and they talk about the EPA and the potential

oxidation to the cellular membranes and then you’ll have

people talk about cruel oil and that’s more effectively… it is a

hornet’s nest. I think my – whenever… and this is my default,

whenever I get into a situation of where we start debating

science, there’s two things. One, let’s look at numbers, okay?

And then how did people used to eat? If we can say okay,

people used to eat grass fed animals and they had EPA, DHA

at a certain amount. People used to eat fish. More fish than

we do now. So, I don’t think people used to eat… while there

is a nice argument for the parent chain oils and I think

there’s a benefit in that especially… and there’s use for that.

People don’t eat tons of parent chain oils. If you went out

into the wild, you wouldn’t be crushing your seeds and eating

a ton of these parent chain oils. You probably would be

getting some nuts and seeds – a balance right? So, some nuts

and seeds, some grass fed meat and fish. Fish is either really

expensive or potentially toxic so I think my default right now

is that until I can be proven convincingly that there’s going to

be one way that’s better. I suspect there’s… it’s really a

question of balance and individualizing that for each person

using these numbers as a guide. So in your case, the numbers

being our guide, you need more end chains. You’ve gone with

the parent chains and that seems to be keeping your ratio

into what the research suggests is ideal. Does that make

sense?

Ben: Yeah, it makes good sense.

Dr. Richard Cohen: So I don’t think… it wouldn’t be like, “Hey don’t go out and

take eight fish oil pills” especially if you don’t know if it’s a

whole food and it’s protected. That’s a whole other

conversation but I wouldn’t do that either. Maybe short term

someone might, but you back off. So there’s a balance there.

And you could – so add some in and if some people say, well

I’ll add a little krill… I’d say in your case I would just go with

a good quality fish oil and then over a period of time you

maybe re-check and you might… since these oils stay in the

system, you could cut back and maybe say I’ll take some

fish… there’s some argument for krill as well as a base. But

we didn’t eat krill either.

Ben: Yeah. Well I guess what I’m thinking then is I should

probably turn myself into a case study and I’ve been taking

the flax oil and if I were to start taking a fish oil supplement

instead and re-test, how long would you recommend I go

before I re-test the essential fatty acids with the Bioletics kit?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Oh probably three to four months is sufficient.

Ben: Okay, so like a 12 week protocol of trying out the fish oil

versus the flax seed oil. Not that the flax seed oil is bad for

me but it basically doesn’t have my Omega 3s where they’re

supposed to be at right now, or at least doesn’t have them

converting as well.

Dr. Richard Cohen: For whatever reason, you’re not converting them efficiently

and we could analyze that forever – particular co-factors and

so forth. Let’s default back on… how you might have received

fats. And even an EPA, DHA is actually – Lorraine Kerdaney

had some great tables on this and wild grass that you eat,

and it’ll vary. So that ratio will vary in nature as well. While

there’s some suggestion that just using your body primarily

using the DHA… I think a mix is good. That’s my sense. So

absolutely. We’ll see how you are in 12 to 16 weeks. We’ll re-

test it.

Ben: While I’ve got you on the line, I tested my vitamin D at the

same time. And for those of you who are listening in, last

time I tested my vitamin D was in the middle of the summer.

I was out in the sun training for half Ironman triathlon,

getting tons of rays and my D was pretty low. It was in the

40s, right?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah, it was in the 40s, which was okay. It was not outright

deficient which we’ll see occasionally under 30. But typical

level you’d see from someone training out in the sun, upper

30s, low 40s. Correct. Ideally you want to be in the 60s.

Ben: And then I re-tested and that was at the same time that I did

the essential fatty acids test and my numbers from re-testing

– I actually didn’t get those back yet but I know you have

them, and would that actually break out to be… well first real

quick, I started taking the sublingual spray, about 4000 to

5000 international units a day to bump up my levels and

now here we are, kind of smack dab in the middle of winter.

Not getting a ton of sun, but where am I at now?

Dr. Richard Cohen: You’re up to 54. And basically, even if you’re out in the sun, it

doesn’t count. You’re not going to get UVB vitamin D

creating rays at all. So were you taking any D before?

Ben: Very little. I was getting like 100 to 300 here and there in a

couple of supplements.

Dr. Richard Cohen: So in the sun, and that’s something you can use to gauge

yourself. In the sun training a lot outside?

Ben: Mm hmm.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Not optimal. Without sun, using the 4000 I use, which I’d

generally recommend I think in your case, that’s at least

1000 IUs per 25 pounds. So you’re probably a little bit low

on your dosing and you’ve got up to 54.

Ben: You said 1000 IU per 25 pounds?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Approximately. You’d probably say you ideally would be

maybe 3 sprays twice a day for you.

Ben: And you wouldn’t be concerned about toxicity with that level?

6000 to 7000 international units a day?

Dr. Richard Cohen: No.

Ben: Because I mean obviously for people listening in… what does

the FDA recommend? Isn’t it way, way lower than that?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Right. But you have to remember that the FDA

recommendations are broad based recommendations to

avoid rickets which actually I have to tell you the other day,

is making a comeback believe it or not.

Ben: Rickets is making a comeback?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Rickets.

Ben: Really, interesting.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Which is the outright vitamin D deficiency disease as

opposed to insufficiency which is a more global issue. But it’s

becoming so much a global problem that this problem is re-

occurring where bones in kids are so brittle that they’re

breaking. Unbelievable. But no, it’s not an issue and we know

it’s not an issue because we can monitor you. And you’d have

to go… to run into toxicity, you’d have to push your levels

into the upper hundreds for months and months and months

to have any issue. So not a problem, considering your skin

will maintain up to 20,000 IUs of vitamin D on a summer

day in 20 minutes… so that’s a good threshold there. So it’s

not a problem and again these global recommendations are

set just to avoid rickets. And that’s not even happening. Not

to optimize your levels, and as we discussed optimization of

performance based on the literature and research seems to

be at least over 50. I think somewhere between 65 and 75 is

where we’re advising people… over 70 is there’s virtually no

MS. So, that’s where you start seeing some of these

immunological diseases just completely disappear.

Ben: Gotcha, okay.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah so…

Ben: Ultimately…

Dr. Richard Cohen: So take it up to 6000, three sprays twice a day. And then if

you’re – in a couple months you start coming into the sun,

you can cut it back a little bit and maybe you stay at 3000 or

4000 at that point with the sun, and then somewhere late

summer or early fall, we’ll test you again.

Ben: Right. Right.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Once you get that sense and the nice thing about the spray is

its reliably dosing. You don’t have to worry about absorption.

So once you’re aware of how much you’re out, you’ll say okay,

maybe I need 6 to 8 in winter and I can cut back to 3 or 4 in

the summer. That’s probably my guess of where you’ll be.

Ben: Okay. Well cool. Obviously some adjustments to make but I

appreciate the time and the knowledge and I’m looking

forward to kind of making some switches and seeing what

my numbers re-test at. For those of you listening in, one of

the things that Dr. Cohen and I are really going after is

getting my body finely tuned enough to be able to not only

qualify for but do real well at the Kona Ironman Triathlon

this year. So that’s really the goal of all this nitpickiness

when it comes to my performance factors.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Hey Ben, I’ve got two points to make. One is that’s exactly

what we’re doing, is really the process – what we’re trying to

share is fine tune yourself. Fine tune your performance. Get

a sense of where you are and don’t just randomly take things.

Supplement based on your needs, not based on marketing.

So that’s important. And then follow up with certain

parameters so you can get them dialed in. And then once

you’ve done that, you’re good. That’s really the key

component that is missing in the nutritional arena. That’s

why it’s sort of fun.

Ben: Yeah. Cool.

Dr. Richard Cohen: I guess how are you feeling? How are you doing?

Ben: Oh yeah.

Dr. Richard Cohen: It’s more than numbers. That’s the other thing. Numbers are

one thing. It’s the feedback. It’s “Hey I’m feeling good, I’m

recovering, etc.” So how are you doing?

Ben: First of all the most important thing is it has been a very long

time since I’ve gotten injured. I was kind of thinking about

this the other day. I really haven’t gotten hurt, even though

I’ve been training fairly consistently with good intensity for a

long time. We’re talking like – what’s it bee now? 11, 12

months? Something like that, which for an Ironman

triathlete is kind of unheard of – to really not experience any

issues. So I’m not completely sure if it’s because I’ve got less

inflammation going on. If it’s because I’m recovering more

quickly because of better amino acid levels, better protein

rebuilding, but basically I’ve experienced very little injury

and that’s been the biggest thing for me. My intensity has

gone up. I’ve been able to bounce back day after day with

higher intensity exercise than I’ve done in the past. So those

are the two main things that I’ve noticed.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Did you avoid any flus and viruses the whole… I bet you

didn’t get… if you got sick it was real quick.

Ben: Yeah, I pretty much had one issue one time and that was

because I did a hard workout and then went on a drinking

binge for about two days. And I think that would probably

make anybody a little bit sick. So, I think that was over the

holidays. I don’t remember. That might have been New

Year’s. But that was the only time I really felt my immune

system take a hit. And then ultimately, I think the most

important thing is going to be in the next couple of months

here when I start racing and I start being able to compare my

splits to last year’s splits.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Got it. Well that’s great. That’s exactly – what you said is

exactly the goal. Nutrition and biologically balancing your

body allows it to now take your training and perform at your

best. You’re going to be able to push yourself. You’re going to

be able to recover a little quicker and ultimately that’s going

to give you the results that you’re looking for. Certainly it’s

going to give you the foundation of the results and now your

training can take a greater role and not keep breaking down

and not feel tired and not recover.

Ben: Oh the last thing I was going to ask you for the audience is

how much did that essential fatty acids test cost?

Dr. Richard Cohen: Oh gosh. I think it’s 115 alone. It may be a little less.

Ben: That covers the cost of the test to your house, the shipping,

the results interpretation, that type of stuff.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Correct, correct, correct. Right. It’s part of the whole

performance profile as a baseline, but that’s a newer test. We

didn’t have that available when we ran the complete profile

on you the first go-around.

Ben: Okay, cool. Well Dr. Cohen from Bioletics, thank you for

coming on the line and looking forward to talking to you a

little bit more in the future as I track my results.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah, cool. We have… just working on some sort of side

might be interesting. We continue to look at new things.

We’re looking at a potential – we do metabolic typing. I think

we’ve talked about that, but there’s a newer test out that that

actually looks at some of the genetic variations. You can do a

cotton swab, you can determine genetically as well what your

best fuel would be. So whether you truly are a protein type or

a carb type or a low fat or a high fat. So something else to add

a little more science to the parameters.

Ben: Is that the one that’s based on limb length and stuff like that?

Dr. Richard Cohen: No, it actually looks at certain genome characteristics.

Ben: Really. Okay.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Yeah I’m going to be doing it – something I just stumbled

across recently. And I’m going to be doing some sample

testing and comparing it to our surveys so we can truly get

some hard data and say, hey you know what? You really need

to be eating this way and then the metabolic typing allows

you to refine that even further. So yeah, sort of exciting.

Ben: Cool. I’m looking forward to hearing more about that. So,

alright. Well, I guess that wraps it up. So thanks for your

time and I’ll be in touch.

Dr. Richard Cohen: Thanks take care.

Ben: Okay, bye.

For personal nutrition, fitness or triathlon consulting, supplements, books or DVD’s

from Ben Greenfield, please visit Pacific Elite Fitness at

http://www.pacificfit.net