Real Fit or Fake Fit

Conforming to Your Image

Did you ever notice that you can't lie to or con the person in the mirror?

You can Ponzi your partner, scam your spouse, or maybe even do slim shady your live-in lover but you can't put on or bend the truth a smidgen with the reflexion that's glaring back at you from the aluminum-coated glass you shave in or put your morning makeup on in front of. The image returning your glance knows the real YOU.

And that brings us to the subject of today's post: "Are you Real Fit or Fake Fit?" Do you even really know anymore?

In so many areas of our lives, you and I have to augment our authentic selves to suit someone else or to be the most effective in the situation that we're in regardless of the ultimate cost. Today's social and business arenas oftentimes demands that we give 110% all the time and perform whether or not we're sick, tired, or just burnt out.

We feel constrained to jack ourselves up on quadruple espressos or artificial stimulants just to be that super charged, always positive leader, mentor, or salesperson that's always on the ball. The mega-dose of caffeine we ingest six days out of seven disguises our natural proclivity to get up slowly,  expands our normal attitude to larger than life in order to accomplish the goal that receives our achievement or captures the sale that must be penned, and amplifies our voice tones to a heightened crescendo above their usual evenness.

Might I offer a cautionary warning of "Buyer beware" to those who fake it on more days than they're living authentic self image?

My friend, there's a real danger in conforming to a portrayed or phony persona too often. While trying to please or achieve for ourselves for monetary reasons or for others in order to secure a career advancement, you and I lose our truth and compromise our future health. Our authentic self image blurs and well-being eventually vanishes.

In my area of expertise which is health and fitness, I find myself meeting one person at an initial consultation, hearing all about their personal life, work, dietary habits, exercise routine, and weekend hobbies only to become very well acquainted with someone entirely different after four to six weeks of diet monitoring under my watchful guise and an electronic scale who only tells it like it is.

The individual who originally contacted me for dietary guidance and assistance that described themselves as self disciplined and said that he or she only had one cheat day per week and ate clean on every other day really flip-flopped their real dietary intake. They ate clean just one day a week and filled their bellies with boxed, bagged, and wrapped food almost everyday.

And I don't just get the p.c. answer when it comes to eating, I get flimflammed in the area of exercise too. The man or woman who identified and likened themselves as an athlete, always making it to the gym to do at least 30-60 minutes of fasted cardio on five days out of seven and who rarely had one or at most two alcoholic drinks over the course of a weekend didn't have the cardiovascular capacity to walk up a flight of stairs carrying their daily mail but, strangely, was called by their first name at the neighborhood bar.

It's important to live who we really are most of the time in order to avoid losing ourselves and then, as a result, drown our self loathing in drugs and alcohol, permanently screwing up our metabolisms with weight-loss pills or steroids, and being diagnosed by our GP as having blocked arteries similar to the Hoover Dam, possessing skyscraper high blood pressure, or owning a total cholesterol number that looks more like the Power Ball Jackpot winnings than it does a serum blood fat amount.

So how do you and I stay authentic in the airbrushed, edited world that we find ourselves in?

What works for me and for many of the people I coach is to consistently address on a daily and weekly basis the five areas of our lives that we commonly lie to ourselves and other people about. The five spheres of life that make up who we are.

1.) Nutrition. We are what we consume each and every day. The food and drink that passes through our lips make up the cells, tissues, bones, and organs of our body which is ultimately you and me.  Eat as close to nature as possible at every meal.

2.) Mental Health. Learn to cope with the high stress of life, love, and work by putting yourself to a self-control test regularly, might I suggest weekly, where you can talk yourself down from off the ledge without chemicals. By doing this on a regular basis, you and I learn that in the hard times we can truly stand without bending or breaking. Hot yoga is one of the best ways to test ones mental strength. Putting yourself in a room that's heated to 105 degrees with mirrors reflecting back how unbalanced you are when a single droplet of sweat is about to drip off the tip of your nose while attempting to stand on one foot is a mental test like no other.

3.) Physical Fitness. I'm going to have to say it, "Leg Day." Sorry everybody. No one likes doing wall sits, weighted squats, cheek-to-cheek sprints, or walking lunges but almost everyone needs them and not one of us does enough of them on a regular basis (at least two days per week). Making yourself do the really hard stuff, the garbage you hate to do, defines you and having an awesome butt and set of legs can't hurt either when life goes on the skids.

4.) Environmental.  You and I are exposed to air toxins that can cause cancer as well as other serious health effects like reproductive and birth defects. We're exposed to toxic chemicals overtime with the air we breathe along with the toxic substances found in our water and soil, therefore, it's important for us to detox as much of these toxins as possible through the largest organ that we have -- our skin. Sweating is one of the best ways in my opinion to accomplish this so get outdoors and burn baby burn.

Hate the heat, then how about getting in subzero temperatures in a cryotherapy chamber. Cryo businesses are opening up in many major cities and their research speaks of reducing systemic inflammation, relieving muscle and arthritic pain, and improving nerve conduction velocity.

5.) Financial. You can't live very long without realizing that money matters. You can't be healthy mentally or physically without a balanced checkbook, credit cards that are max'ed out, or a mortgage payment that's late again. Being in the financial red is taxing on the mind and the body, eventually affecting the health of your brain, organ systems, and heart. Learn to live within your means and you'll feel better I promise.

At the end of our life, you and I wind up leaving this world solo so we might as well start getting familiar and really comfort with who that person truly is since we'll be spending the rest of eternity with them.

Thank you for reading and inspiring me to be genuine.

Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert

Do Energy Drinks Have More Pluses or Minuses?

Are Energy Drinks Helping You or Hurting Your Sports Performance?

Energy drinks have come to replace coffee for some people particularly gym goers, dieters, beginning fasters, and sports enthusiasts. These these get-up-and-go, ergogenic beverages can be a great help when you feel less than inspired to get out of bed early in the morning and off to the gym or out the door on a run. They can be especially useful when you are first attempting to develop a positive a.m. ritual or hoping to re-start a healthier habit.

So what's in these energy drinks that makes it possible for us to climb out from under our warm snuggle blankets and lace up our tennis shoes instead of getting another hour's worth of shut eye or skip a once-important meal or snack.

There's some common ingredients found in virtually all energy drinks. The catalyst that acts as an impetus to open our sleepy eyes and awakens our zombie-like bodies is a chemical stimulant that brings about physical, mental, and sometimes even metabolic excitations. The central nervous stimulant (CNS) can be pharmaceutical caffeine or or a naturally occurring, plant-based pick-me-up like green tea extract, kola nut, Yerba mate, ginseng, guarana, or bitter orange (plant-source ephedra known as synephrine).

Excitatory substances such as the ones I just mentioned can increase mental capacity and concentration, improve athletic performance, boost mood, elevate heart rate, raise blood pressure, and bring about physical fidgetiness which can be considered desirable to someone who's momentarily tired, experiencing brain fog and cognitive sluggishness, or wants a metabolic kick start.

CNS stimulants can also reduce hunger or even eliminate appetite in some individuals which CAN make them useful to someone who is trying to decrease total caloric intake, reduce mealtime portion sizes, hoping to extend the time between food consumption, or is a newby at dietary fasting.

In addition to one or more excitatory stimulants, most energy drinks lure the tired but health-conscious consumer with the added benefit of B vitamins, quickly absorbable simple sugars, and amino acids. Some manufacturers even distract those potential consumers concerned about caffeine with health-promoting anti-oxidants and electrolytes.

When consuming or thinking of utilizing one of the hundreds of energy boosting refreshments on the market today, please remember that caffeine-like stimulants can cause diuretic effects which can lead to dehydration which can negatively impact athletic performance. Drinking a beverage that has a high carbohydrate content before or during exercise or sports performance can bring about GI distress. Carbonated energy drinks consumed pre-workout or post-workout can cause gastric dumping or emptying of stomach content which can hinder macronutrient breakdown and absorption and thereby possibly limiting proper muscle rebuilding and regeneration. Excessive caffeine or stimulant consumption can also disrupt normal sleep times and patterns, cause insomnia, or reduce and/or prevent R.E.M. sleep which can have minor or major effects on athletic recovery.

For those who collegiately or professionally compete in sports, caffeine is also considered by some sports-governing groups as an unfair ergogenic aid if found in large or excessive concentrations in the urine so consuming high amounts of caffeine can get an athlete disqualified from competition.

Thank you for reading my blog. It is my hope that my professional experience and expertise can help those that are outside my physical reach.

Bell Gia
Nutrition and Fitness Expert

https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/foods/193114?
https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/caffeine-and-sleep
https://drugs.com/caffeine

Address the Source of Your Performance Weakness

Don't Sleep in Your Weak Spot [Infographic]

As 2016 is drawing to a close, many of us can't seem to stop thinking over our year's past accomplishments and conquered goals. Maybe you nailed a PB in your bench press, mastered the double under, or whipped out a sub six finally. You're feeling pretty darn proud of your performance and your bod. Perhaps you're even thinking you're in the best shape of your life, but are you?

The best trained athletes like Tom Brady, Peter Sagan, Lionel Messi, and Stephen Curry all have something in common besides being the top dog in their respective sports. They all work on their -- weaknesses.

Say what? Yeah, this is usually where the rubber meets the road between the pros we watch and the rest of us. These sports superstars aren't on the field, in the gym, on the track, or in their clips working on their strengths. These talented and gifted individuals spend the bulk of their practice addressing the problem with their game, striving to constantly improve their shortcomings. We've all heard the saying: "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

How about in 2017, you and I stop sleeping in the weak spot of our performance and hit the source of it instead, getting to the root of our performance problem. With the correct diagnosis and approach, we can get faster, stronger, and endure.

Lack of strength in weight training or inadequate speed while cycling or running can mean you have weak biomechanics. If your form is suffering, you'll use more energy and work at a higher work rate when engaging in your favorite sport which will deplete your fuel, increase the acidity of your muscle pH, hinder your lungs from turning over carbon dioxide than someone else who ably and effectively moves the kinetic chain with accuracy, using less effort and muscle glycogen to cross the finish line.

If your thing is weight lifting, check out your movement patterns by watching yourself in the mirror or in a video captured by your phone. Perform an unweighted movement and determine if your basics are spot on from set up to finish. BOLO for knee(s) that shoot out, incorrect foot placement or weight distribution in your shoe or bare foot, eyeball uneven barbell or dumbbell height. These are all signs that you need to dial back on the weight when lifting or lowering.

If you fade in the saddle or fatigue before your journey's end, then endurance is your Achille's heel. If you consistently do shorter, more intense practice like HIIT several times per week instead of going for more frequent and time demanding longer durations or if you fail to follow up your anaerobic push with a lengthy steady-state pace, your body probably goes to higher percentages of MHR sooner rather than later, knocking your muscles out from under you or crippling your lungs. Solution: Add more time onto your workout each week, increasing gradually and consistently until you reach your sport's ultimate length. In generally a month to month and a half of working around or slightly below 70% of your maximum heart rate, your body will adapt and create additional mitochondria or power plants in your muscle cells which will allow you to go longer with greater metabolic vigor, less fatigue, and breathlessness. 

Speed, strength, and endurance are all measurable values. Do what the pros do to improve their sports performance and eliminate the weak spots in your game by charting your workout details. Composing a workout history will help remind you to address your troubled spots in a move in order for you to perfect a flawed movement pattern and provide you with the critical info to work on strengthening all of the muscles that power that move, helping you to strengthen weaker muscle fibers in say maybe your shoulders, low back, hips, or core. Logging your workout times, pace, splits, and distance covered in your phone or on paper consistently without fail will provide you with an accurate recollection of really how much time you are putting into your practice and show you if you are incrementally increasing your quickness and endurance as you should. 

Yes, self improvement takes time but what better investment of your days than spending seconds, minutes, and hours creating the best you that you can be. Right?

Thanks for reading. Your readership encourages me and I appreciate that.

- Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

New Study Shows Leisure-Time Exercising Lowers 13 Common Cancers

Exercise When You Feel Like It and Lower Your Cancer Risk

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society are giving us all some fantastic news about the relationship between greater levels of leisure-time physical activity and a lower risk of developing 13 different types of deadly cancer. The study, conducted by Steven C. Moore, Ph.D., of the NCI and his colleagues, was published in JAMA Internal Medicine on May 16, of this year, confirms that there's evidence supporting the benefit of physical activity in ones pastime to a reduced risk of cancer and emphasizes its role as an integral part of population-wide cancer prevention and control efforts. 

This study looked at hundreds of previous studies, pooling the data from 1.44 million people between the ages of 19 and 98 living in the United States and Europe. Study participants were followed for 11 long years during which time 187,000 new cases of cancer occurred. Among the participants who spent more of their leisure time being physically active than their sedentary counterparts, the study revealed an association with a lower risk of colon, breast, endometrial, liver, kidney, esophageal adenocarcinoma, gastric cardia, rectum, bladder, myeloid leukemia, lung, and cancers of the neck & head. 

How much leisure-time physical activity are we talking about? A pretty doable amount in my opinion. The median level of pastime action was approximately 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week. Coincidentally, this same 2 1/2 hour number is the same amount of minutes currently recommended by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention for moderate-intensity exercise. Way to go CDC!

What seems to the mechanism(s) causing this decreased risk of developing cancer? Well, there are numerous mechanisms that could be at play. It's possible that the leisure-time physical activity is causing a reduction in the transit time of waste to pass through the GI tract, a reduction in inflammation & oxidative stress, or increased immune function. It could be that hormones such as insulin, IGF-1, estrogen, and androgens such as DHEA, DHT, androsterone, and testosterone are being positively affected. 

Let's not get hung up too much on the importance of why our cancer risks are being reduced and instead let's stick to what we do know which is we need 150 minutes of off-work bodily movement to keep us off the direct mailing list of Sloan Kettering. 

So how do we apply the encouraging research discovered in this study in our own lives? This week before we go to work or after we get off of working our 9 to 5, it means we need to hit the gym for 30 minutes Monday through Friday without fail, we could throw on our faded shorts & tennis and go run for 50 minutes 3 days this week, or maybe squeeze in a 30-minute hike on Thursday and then swim for an hour two days this weekend. 

Free-style it and mix it up. Remember the study involved leisure-time physical activity and not rigidly scheduled exercise so no freaking out. Throw on your ball cap, throw a little caution to the wind, and just go exercise whenever you feel like it. 

Writing is my "thang" and your reading makes it possible for me to smile. Thank you.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert 

Offsetting Training Stress with Nutrition

Still smiling after a 20 mile run. 

Stress: An Inevitable Component of Achievement

There's a common joke amongst long-distance runners: You don't have to outrun the tiger, you just have to outrun your FRIEND! 

Competition is healthy. It promotes mental and physical growth. It forces us to try harder than we had ever tried before, to persevere longer than we thought possible, and to push beyond ones comfort zone and pain threshold to perform at a level that the athlete did not know that they were capable of reaching, achieving, and surpassing. 

To compete means to perform. Performance competitions like triathlons & ironman triathlons, half & full marathons, as well as expedition & adventure races require professional and amateur athletes alike to push their limits throughout the entire training process in order to improve both their mental and physical condition to emerge victorious. 

The amount of training necessary to compete at a high-performance sport is cognitively and physically demanding. Demanding on ones time, balancing work & family life.  There also exists a continuous tug-of-war and second-guessing game that goes on in the mind and body of a performance athlete as she or he attempts to weigh and assess training intensity with the risk of potential injury, trying to sustain motivation while experiencing physical and mental training fatigue, and struggling to stay hydrated and properly nourished but lean enough to stay competitive during the entire training process up to the day of the race.  

Training is stressful. Stress that is both physical and mental. Performance stress can be physically manifested in swollen joints, sore muscles, lethargy, nutritional deficiency, and weight gain. Mental stress can also be physical in nature, showing up as anxiety, inability to concentrate and sleep at night, depression, and fatigue. 

Initially appearing as weight gain and fatigue, stress, if ignored and unaddressed, can lead to systemic inflammation. Inflammation, now shown in clinical research to be one of the leading causes of acute and chronic illness as well as one of the leading causes of disease. Stress's ability to inflame the body and weaken the immune system is not to be taken lightly. 

So how can an athlete offset the negative physical manifestations of high-level training and speed up recovery? Nutrition and adequate hydration are two effective ways to counteract and mitigate training enervation and fatigue.

A healthy athlete is a well-performing competitor. Health begins with consuming nutrient-dense foods as part of a well-balanced diet that is full of plant-based variety and color.  Correct nutrition and adequate hydration are the legs on which sports conditioning and recovery stand. 

Muscle recovery requires a full range of vitamins and minerals coming from nutritious living foods. High-level training offset with a proper nutrient-dense diet can continually regenerate the athlete's cells by providing both the physical energy as well as the chemical building blocks required to replace lost or injured tissues as well as to rejuvenate and revitalize joints, tendons, ligaments, and muscles necessary to compete on race day. 

Before you sign up for your next race, sit down and look at what you are feeding your body with. Eating sport-specific foods can help enhance the athlete's workout quality and fitness level by providing the correct balance of carbohydrates, fats, and protein as determined by exercise intensity and performance requirement. Ultimately, your body is only as good as the food you feed it and an athlete is only as good as her or his body is on the day of the race.

Thank you for your readership. I definitely appreciate your support as I live out my passion in words.

- Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

BellGia.com

Are Juice Cleanses Nonsense

Is the Juice Cleansing Movement All Hype or Are There Real Health Benefits

The impetus to juice is to enjoy the health benefits associated with the consumption of additional vegetables, herbs, roots, and fruit. Juicing, if done correctly, will allow "the juicer" to get many more plant-sourced vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals into their body than would otherwise not be possible if consumed by traditional mastication (chewing up and swallowing).

Juicing is NOT about getting an additional source of fiber into the diet. It's the exact opposite. Juicing extracts and disposes of the fiber from the produce being juiced, thereby, leaving the liquid portion devoid of time-consuming, need-to-be-digested fiber, in the juicer's catch-cup for speedier digestion upon swallowing. The liquid dispelled by the juice extraction machine contains all of the vitamins, minerals, and beneficial plant compounds of those juiced vegetables, herbs, roots, and fruits. Vitamins, minerals, and plant compounds that would otherwise be missing from a diet that's based upon lean animal-sourced protein and under 50 grams of carbohydrates (the amount of carbs found in 1 cup of long-grain brown rice or ~1 cup of baked sweet potatoes) like the Paleo, Ketogenic, and Atkins-type diets. 

Juicing experts and educated juice advocates recommend juicing primarily green vegetables, a few  root vegetables for their dense mineral content, and very little low-sugar fruit. Most American diets are not lacking in fruit. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is reported in clinical research as being low in green vegetables like broccoli, cabbage, kale, spinach, and Brussel sprouts. Dietary questionnaires and patient interviews show that the majority of Americans are able to eat an apple, an orange, a tomato, or a banana daily, but the average American has difficulty trying to find the time to make a pot of green beans, steam a pan of asparagus, or boil turnip greens for a nutritious side item at mealtime. 

Dark green vegetables are high in protein (though many uninformed critics of juicing say otherwise), vitamins, and minerals and low in glucose unlike root vegetables and fruit which can contain as much sugar as a 1/2 can of Coke to the shock of many a store-bought juice lover (1 cup of green grapes contains 21grams of sugar minus the fiber versus 19.5grams of sugar in a 1/2 can of coke). A ketogenic dieter or a paleo adventure lover wanting to add a clean-burning plant-based protein to their diet could make a green juice that contains 1 bunch of broccoli with its 17.15grams of protein and 1 head of cauliflower with its 16.13grams of protein and wind up with a glass of vegetable juice that contains 33.28grams of total protein which is equivalent to ~4.5 ounces of cooked 93% lean ground beef without the added cholesterol and naturally derived animal hormones. 

There is a science to juicing just as there is a science or method to cooking. Cooking requires some know how and so does juicing. To create a vegetable juice that is nutritious and well balanced, it is advisable to read a few good books on the subject written by dietary chefs who have been educated in juicing or by professional juice therapists. There is a plethora of misinformation on the internet and books published which have been written by overnight authors who do not know the subject matter which they are writing about. There is also an equal number of juice critics that for one reason or another want to put the kibosh on juicing by suggesting that those who juice will become protein deficient. As you can see for yourself from the above-referenced example, adequate protein can be easily had in one glass of vegetable juice if one juices protein-dense vegetables and not primarily sugary fruits that are low in protein. 

Protein, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, and carbohydrates can all be found in a big glass of green juice. Governmental research shows Americans just aren't getting enough vegetables in their daily diet so why not try to consume a single glass of vegetable juice each day. An easy way to do this is to make a glass of vegetable juice for breakfast. A morning glass of green juice will contain just as much protein without the added cholesterol as eating a breakfast egg, sausage, and cheese omelet with the exact same amount of fiber as the extracted vegetable juice -- ZERO.  An egg and sausage or egg and bacon breakfast contains no fiber as does a glass of extracted vegetable juice. Therefore, why are pundits arguing against juicing not realizing that the standard American breakfast is oftentimes devoid of fiber as well is beyond me. 

In conclusion, juicing can be incorporated into ones diet in order to get the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals. Juicing can also add a clean-burning source of plant-based protein to someone's diet whose percentage of dietary protein maybe too rich in animal meat. Juicing can be low in sugar if the amount of juiced fruit is kept to a minimum -- just enough fruit to make a juice palatable for consumption. And, lastly, a great rule of thumb I tell my clients who are about to embark on a juicing program is "juice your vegetables and eat your fruit." 

Thank you for your continued literary support. It is heaven to be able to write and your readership provides the clouds on which I pen my prose. 

Sincerest Thanks,

- Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert

No Insulin Secretion Means No Stored Calories

What Foods Do Not Cause Insulin Secretion?

Much to the surprise of what many people believe, protein stimulates insulin's release from the pancreas just as sugar and starch do.

Insulin, if you remember, is the hormone whose main job is clearing excessive glucose from the bloodstream and packaging it in the form of fatty acids called triglycerides into your fat cells for later use. Insulin begins to be secreted by the body BEFORE we take our first bite of food. When we start daydreaming about, looking at, or smelling food, our brains release insulin during a process called Cephalic Phase Insulin Release. The body prepares itself to be fed and gets an early jump of what it thinks will be a sudden flood of glucose by releasing the stored insulin tucked away in your cell's vacuoles. The amount of insulin your body keeps stored in these storage organelles called vacuoles is determined by your previous meals' average macronutrient content. If you've made it a habit of eating sugar or complex carbs at mealtime, your body's got your number and it has stored an appropriate amount of insulin in anticipation. Once we start to eat, our bodies kick up its insulin secretion and produce even more of this hormone. 

Insulin does more than control blood glucose levels. It also stimulates the body to absorb most amino acids. Amino acids, as you know, make up protein. Too much protein, just as too many carbs, will have your pancreas pumping out insulin like a gas station attendant on a rainy day. Therefore, if you consume more protein than your body needs, your pancreas is going to produce insulin, causing your body to store those protein calories as glycogen, a/k/a stored carbs, IF you have room in your liver and muscles for the stuff. If there's no room for anymore glycogen in your liver and muscles, then those protein calories ARE going into your fat cells and can increase your body's percentage of total body fat if you've made it a habit of consuming more protein than your body requires from you on a daily basis.

Dietary fat is the only macronutrient that doesn't cause insulin to be secreted. This means that when you eat foods that are entirely composed of fat, or predominantly made of the stuff, your pancreas is able to relax and kick up its proverbial feet and take a break so to speak.

The foods we eat are divided into three categories or macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrates. The predominant or majority macronutrient contained in a food determines its food-category status. For example, beans contain protein, fiber, fat, and carbohydrates. If you turn over a can of kidney, black, chick peas, or white beans you will find out that beans are a carbohydrate and NOT a protein based upon the beans' predominant macronutrient content which is carbohydrates.  

Steak, chicken breast, salmon, veal, bison, and ostrich are all examples of meat. Meat or animal flesh does NOT contain any carbs, only protein and fat. (Please notice that I did not include dairy. Dairy contains milk sugar which is a carbohydrate.) Avocados, butter, and plant oils (oil is another name for fat) like peanut, olive, coconut, sunflower, and sesame for example, do not cause insulin's release. 

If you trying to keep your insulin release to a minimum, perhaps trying to stick to a ketogenic diet and are striving to get under 50 carbohydrates a day, this means you can put butter in your coffee or on top of your bison and still stay in ketogenesis. 

In addition to avocados, butter, the appropriate amount of animal muscle (flesh), and the plant oils mentioned above, pre-diabetics, those striving to minimize insulin secretion, and ketogenic dieters can enjoy an ounce of macadamia nuts and still be okay when finger-stick time comes around because these Hawaiian nuts contain 21 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and only 4 grams of carbohydrates. These same folks can also have an ounce of full-fat cream cheese melting on top of their broccoli or perfectly cooked ribeye steak with its 9 grams of fat, 2 grams of protein, and measly 1 gram of carbs and still have high levels of BHB or beta-hydroxybutrate, the key parameter to determine if ketones are being produced by the body in response to fasting or extremely low-carbohydrate consumption.

Controlling ones insulin secretion is starting to catch on. Large universities and private research companies are beginning to invest millions of dollars into the subject. Cancer research studies are going on presently with human-test subjects in hopes of fighting the dreaded disease. There has been some terrific research done on longevity and low insulin secretion. 

I think it might be a great idea to keep ones mind open when it comes to low-carbohydrate diets. Sometimes what was once considered common knowledge has been proven wrong. Remember, people used to believe the world was flat and that the devil caused seizures. 

Thank you for your continued support. I live to write.

-Bell Gia

Nutrition and Fitness Expert