Part 44 - Keith Baar, PhD on How to Live Long & Live Strong

Aaand we’re back! Season 4 is coming in hot with some great guests and some more interesting formats. I have some special episodes coming up like the meat-eating heroes panel that we filmed for Food Lies with Mark Sisson, Dr. Shawn Baker, and Dr. Paul Saladino. I also put together a compilation episode that is 6 months in the making with amazing stories from people around America using nutrient dense diets to change their life.

What is a nutrient dense diet you may be asking and who am I? The podcast is growing by the day and I want to give new listeners a quick overview. If you’re not new, be sure to stick around there’s a special event announcement at the end.

I’m Brian Sanders and I’m creating the feature-length documentary Food Lies which covers the entire story on what humans should be eating including an evolutionary history, where we wrong in the last 60 years, and how we can do this sustainably. We’re in the process of editing now and are shooting some of the last segments in Canada in July. We don’t have a release date yet unfortunately.

After years of studying different diets and eating strategies, I’ve landed on what we’re calling the Sapien diet or way of eating or lifestyle. Because it's not a diet - it’s a nutrient dense way to eat for life. I believe you can even dip into non-ideal foods on the weekends or at a special event once you hit your goal weight and if it doesn’t interfere with food intolerances or restrictions. The Sapien diet is based on 3 simple pillars.

1) Nutrient dense whole foods. THis means mostly animal foods which are the most nutrient dense and have the most bioavailable nutrients. This means eating nose to tail and including foods like liver, bone marrow or broth, grass fed butter or tallow, eggs, cold water fish like salmon and sardines, oysters and other mollusks, fermented vegetables, and low sugar fruits like avocados and olives.

2) is for each meal focus on protein, embrace fat, and minimize carbs. The animal protein should be the base of each meal but make sure it comes with enough fat and don’t be scared of it. Most carbs are nutrient poor and really don't provide much to you other than getting in the way of your body burning the fat from your meal or better yet, from your body. And the last pillar is

3) don’t eat all the time. You could call this a condensed eating window or intermittent fasting. Try to eat within an 8-10 hour window each day and let your body rest from constantly having to digest food. There’s a lot more to this so please listen back from episode 1, check out http://sapien.org/diet that’s sapien.org/diet, and we’ll continue to put out more details on the Sapien framework in the future.

Ok so onto this episode - I’m starting off the new season with a bang. Maybe you haven't heard of Keith Baar? You should have. I hope to get some of these researchers doing groundbreaking and valuable work into the spotlight

Keith is a brilliant researcher who has done great work in his career and published a ton of papers. Much of this work around mTor, muscle protein synthesis (AKA building muscle), collagen synthesis (AKA building all the other tissues that are so important in your body), and so much more.

He’s a professor of Molecular Exercise Physiology at UC Davis and works in the

Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences and the

Department of Physiology and Membrane Biology, School of Medicine. He has a bachelors degree in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan, a masters in Human Biodynamics from UC Berkeley, and a PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Illinois.

You’ll learn a ton about how to live long and live strong. He only goes to the gym for 10-12 minutes two times per week yet is still getting stronger each year. We talk about how to live a long healthy life and if eating too much meat is going to help or hurt that.

I love talking about the benefits of eating meat so much that I started a grass fed meat company called Nose to Tail which can be found at http://NoseToTail.org We ship nutrient dense boxes of meat to all 48 contiguous US states. We have ground beef with liver, kidney, heart, and spleen mixed in so you get all the nutrients and none of the hassle and barely any of the livery taste. We have so many other things like bone broth, marrow bones, tallow, suet, and all the normal cuts as well.

You can also support my work at http://Patreon.com/peakhuman This is where we keep the podcast ad-free so I don’t have to take anyone else’s money to talk about (or be influenced by) their products. This is also where you get the amazing extended show notes put together by Kristi with all the studies and further details included. This is valuable stuff. I’d say better than most nutrition colleges. Definitely better than most nutrition programs teaching all this whole grain nonsense actually.

And of course the Food Lies film is still on Indiegogo and needs support. We’re desperately trying to finish it. Check out the “EAT MEAT” shirts there - they are a great way to let people know they can’t blame the steak for what the fries did.

One more big thing! We’re having some incredible events in Toronto on Saturday, July 13th and Friday July 19th. We’ll be having a Food Lies special supporters luncheon at North America’s only meat sommelier’s restaurant Speducci. That’s right - he’s a meat sommelier. They will be serving all you can eat platters of their famous cured meats, Speducci meat kabobs, as well as lamb chops, cheeses, and wine. This is going to be a tremendous event with special guests of honor Mikhaila Peterson (peak human episode 18), Tara Couture from SlowDownFarmstead on Instagram (peak human episode 26), and sustainable farmer and speaker Bryan Gilvesy, who will each say a few words I’ll be there with some of the Food Lies and Sapien team as well.

Would love to see all you beautiful people in Toronto! Get your tickets on http://NoseToTail.org/event

We’ll have another casual one of these in San Diego on July 25th and comment on this podcast post on Instagram if you would like to have an event in your city. Thanks everyone, here’s Keith Baar, PhD.

 

BUY THE MEAT NosetoTail.org

Preorder Food Lies: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post

Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman

 

SHOW NOTES

Keith got into research because he wanted to know how muscles get bigger and stronger at a molecular level

His PhD looked at which genes are turned on in response to resistance training

Why different athletes respond differently to identical training protocols

Responders vs non-responders (for muscle growth)

Why lifting to failure is the best way to increase muscle mass

If you want a strong muscle you just need to lift heavy

If you want a bigger muscle you just need to lift to failure

Research in people getting same muscle growth lifting 90% of their max for less reps vs lifting 30% of max for more reps and how this could be important to protect against injury

One set to failure is just as good as multiple sets

Using isolated exercises in combination with compound exercises

Keith’s workout routine

Lifting every day, whole-body workouts, and “bro-splits”

Leucine rich protein and foods leucine is found in

Leucine in plants is not as bioavailable

Muscle strength is correlated with longevity

There are physical, sociological, and metabolic components to why entering old age with muscle mass and strength is associated with living longer

The role of mTOR in muscle building and cell growth

The difference between using rapamycin and diet to reduce mTOR activity

Why it’s important to cycle in and out of mTOR activation once we have reached mature development

Calorie restriction and longevity

Research Keith was involved in showing the ketogenic diet extended lifespan in mice to the same extent of rapamycin without inhibiting mTOR globally in the body

Three ways to activate mTOR and the overlap between resistance training and insulin/IGF-1 pathway

We need mTOR to for the immune system, learning and memory, building muscle. and many more important processes in the body

Why you don’t need carbohydrates and a spike in insulin to gain muscle

Why we need more protein as we age

Functional proteins (i.e. bioavailable protein sources)

Collagen supplements and what collagen’s role is in the body

You need vitamin C in order to synthesize collagen

Why fat-adapted athletes may not be able to sprint as well but can outperform in endurance events

How fat-adaptation shuts down the ability to properly use glucose for fuel

Dystrophin and its importance in maintaining muscle mass as we age

Study using natural chocolate (rich is epicatechins) to increase dystrophin and muscle function in elderly

Where you can find Dr. Keith Baar:

Twitter: @musclescience

Learn more about his research here: http://fmblab.com/

 

BUY THE MEAT NosetoTail.org

Support me on Patreon! http://patreon.com/peakhuman

 

Preorder the film here: http://indiegogo.com/projects/food-lies-post

 

Film site: http://FoodLies.org

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FoodLies

Sapien Movement: http://SapienMovement.com

 

Follow along:

http://twitter.com/FoodLiesOrg

http://instagram.com/food.lies

http://facebook.com/FoodLiesOrg

 

Theme music by https://kylewardmusic.com/