April 12, 2018

The Joe Rogan Experience – Chris and Mark Bell

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Intro

• Chris Bell (@BigStrongFast) is the producer and creator of Bigger, Stronger, Faster
  • He made a documentary on kratom, called A Leaf of Faith, due out May 29th
  • He’s in the process of making a new one on nutrition
• Mark Bell (@MarkSmellyBell) is a world class bodybuilder
  • He is the creator of the sling shot – I highly recommend this, it’s a great tool to add to your benching routine 
  • Mark owns a gym, which is free to the public, in Sacramento, California

Fake Hips

• Chris had both hips replaced at once, and is currently deadlifting around 400lbs.
• Ed Coan, one of the greatest power lifters of all time, has two artificial hips and can squat 600 lbs.
• Chris recommends getting one hip replaced at a time
• Chris and Mark recently got DEXA scans done, and their bone mineral densities were off the charts

The Carnivore Diet

• Both Chris and Mark have been on this diet for quite some time, you can only eat meat
  • Mark eats about 2 meals a day
• Chris recalls a study on around 200,000 people that went on for 14 years, and it was found that “vegetables are more neutral that beneficial” – The Pure Study
  • The study found that saturated fat, cholesterol, and even salt are more protective of the heart than vegetables
• Shawn Baker is a big proponent of the carnivore diet
• Mark was doing a ketogenic diet previously
  • One of his complaints of the ketogenic diet was that he couldn’t eat enough protein, and it was hard to put on muscle – for more on a ketogenic diet, check out these Podcast Notes with Dom D’Agostino on The Joe Rogan Experience
• The carnivore diet forces you to utilize intermittent fasting, as you don’t always have a hamburger or steak on hand
• The diet does allow for some fruit – Mark recalls a study which showed fruit, when eaten with red meat, actually lowered blood glucose levels
  • Mark eats about 2 apples a day
  • There are certain nutrients and fiber in fruit which help you digest the fat in red meat
  • The fiber in fruit reduces blood glucose spikes – Dr. Oz talked about this in these Podcast Notes
• They’ve both monitored blood work – their lipid panels have improved, but C-reactive protein has gone up (a marker of inflammation)
  • Mark thinks this might be from working out prior to taking the blood tests – you should never do this
  • Mark’s HDL went up on a carnviore diet, going previously from keto
• A steak is 65-75% fat
• They eat both corn, grain, and grass-fed meat
  • Grass-fed beef has 5x the amount of omega 3s
  • Chris says the best tasting meat is at Costco – he pays $19.99 a pound for grass fed fillets
    • At Whole Foods, he pays $35.95 a pound – Chris says it tastes horrilbe
  • Chris prefers grass fed beef patties as opposed to the fillets
• Mark considers eating burger pattys with cheese as “cheating on the carnivore diet”

Nutrition

• The fight America faces is against cravings – against the convenient foods that taste so good, the processed carbohydrates and sugar
• Saturated fat is only harmful when eaten in combination with high levels of refined carbohydrates and sugars
  • There’s lots of debate around this topic
• In Asian cultures, they have low levels of obesity, and high levels of carbohydrate intake BUT they have high rates of diabetes
  • “You don’t have to be fat to be diabetic” 
  • Japan has higher diabetes rates that the US
• Americans really do eat like shit
  • “The only two species that get fat are humans, and things we feed”
• Carbs after a work out?
  • The post workout carb window has had some debate – but people are shifting away from this, we just don’t know at this point
• It’s important to remember everybody’s body is different
  • Humans differ in eye color, hair color, AND dietary needs
• What general suggestions can we make? – Stop eating refined carbohydrates and sugar
• We can only store around 2,000 calories of carbohydrates in the body at one time
  • The average person has 40,000 calories of fat on their body – hence, the argument for doing ketogenic diet if you’re along distance cyclist
• For Joe, eating a high carbohydrate based diet leads to inflammation
  • When he eats a high fat, low carb diet – he feels much better
  • Eat good, and you’ll be much more productive throughout the day
  • Stop eating f*cking sandwitches for lunch
• Buy things that don’t have nutrition labels on them

The Ketogenic Diet

• The ketogenic diet helps because it gets rid of cravings
• When our body goes into fat-burning mode, our hunger goes away – there must be a link between ketone production and ghrelin
• Mark had around 200 grams of fat a day while eating keto
• Try a cyclical ketogenic diet – take one day off per week to refuel on carbs
• Try keto-bread by Know Foods
  • They also make a pancake mix
  • The carbohydrates are high fiber, and hardly raise your blood sugar

The Health Decline of Americans

• The 5 scurges of health – obesity, cancer, cognitive decilne, heart disease, and diabetes
  • These are all metabolic – controlled in a sense by what we eat
  • Over half the people in hospitals in the US are there for metabolic issues (so caused by what we ate)
• Inflammation is slowly killing us all
• The average American isn’t eating for nutrition, they’re eating to cure their hunger

Veganism

• The argument against veganism
  • Dietary cholesterol is necessary, it’s the building block of cell walls
  • The issue is saturated fat in conjunction with processed carbs, not saturated fat alone – vegan diets avoid high levels of saturated fat
  • Many people on vegan diets end up with very high blood sugar levels
  • Humans are not herbivores
    • Look at chimps – chimps are omnivores
  • Animals are going to die anyway – so eat free range chickens
  • The protein in vegetables is not as bioavailable as meat protein
  • If you want some entertainment … LISTEN TO JOE ROGANS RANT ON VEGANISM AROUND 1:08:00
  • What The Health Debunked
    • Joe calls the What the Health documentary a vegan proselytizing movie
    • “These are c*nts in a gang, in the plant gang. If you do anything that’s outside of that, they go after you.” – oh dear
• Some good things
  • They’re not participating in factory farming
  • There are benefits to a vegan diet, but its rare people do it right
    • Joe says you need a vitamin B12 supplement on a vegan diet – this is the supplement brand recommend by Dr. Rhonda Patrick
    • You should gear it more towards a plant-based, vegan diet

Chris and Mark’s New Documentary on Nutrition

• • Chris and Mark are interviewing people in the nutrition world, and seeing on where they stand in terms of diet/nutrition
    • They don’t have any goals with the documentary, and aren’t trying to prove anything – they’re just going to see where it goes
  • At the end of the day, everyone is just trying to help people when they give diet/nutrition advice
  • They wanted to call it The War on Carbs
    • As they are interviewing more people, they are discovering processed carbs and sugar are the big problems
    • Sugar is a refined carb – things like pizza, ice cream
    • Processed vegetable oils are also a problem
      • The omega fatty acids from things like flax seed oil are not as bioavailable as what you get from fish and meat
    • Look at teeth – tooth decay is a relatively new thing, it’s because of the increase in sugar consumption

Food and Food Products

• Joe highly recommends chipotle avacado mayo with low fat cuts of beef
• Travel snacks for Joe
  • He’s a fan of kombucha and almonds
  • Joe likes Wild Planet canned sardines and Crown Prince canned oysters, both in olive oil
    • If you eat these too often, watch out for high arsenic in your blood
• Eat beef liver – it’s very nutrient dense
  • Mark takes desiccated beef liver capsules
    • ** Note from Matt – A doctor I went to recommended these to up my B vitamin levels, which many people are low in
  • To cook beef liver – just sprinkle on a dusting of almond flour, and fry it in butter with onions
• Joe eats Mother in Law’s Kimchi every day

Prescription Thugs

• This was a documentary made by Chris
• The fact of the matter is, many people are addicted to prescription drugs, and it’s causing a lot of harm
• Some people have reported using kratom as a better option to relieve pain
• Ibuprofen can have some very negative side effects
  • Harms gut microbiome, ruins libido and sperm count
  • Your body is not designed for taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents every day

A Leaf of Faith

• Comes out May 29th, all about Chris’ experience with kratom
• The FDA has a bad view of kratom, and classifies it as an opioid
• There’s concerns about kratom and where you get it from – there have been reports of salmonella outbreaks with kratom
  • You have to test it – some people have found fentanyl mixed with kratom
  • Urban Ice Organix – naturalorganix.com – Chris recommends this brand of kratom
• At high doses, kratom is more relaxing, but at low does it acts as a stimulant
• Kratom Benefits
  • It can help people with anxiety and stress
  • Has been found to help people get over opioid addiction
  • Kratom helps Mark with creativity, it gives him a sense of euphoria
  • Mark also sometimes takes it before he works out – it makes him happier  – “When you feel good, you can lift so much better”

Ibogaine

• Has been shown to have remarkable properties when it comes to breaking addicitons to opioids 
• “Ibogaine and kratom are the answers to the opioid epidemic”
• Joe knows several people who have taken it – “It’s so ruthlessly introspective. You examine every single aspect of your life in an alien way, and after it’s over, you can’t imagine being addicted to alcohol/prescription drugs ever again.”
• One a different note, psilocybin is on the ballet to be legalized in Califnronia in 2018

Random

• Chris and Mark’s mom has benched 185
• “Most men live lives of quiet desperation”- Henry David Thoreau
• “I used to think I know everything, now I think I know nothing” – Mark
• If you’re born today, you have a good chance of living to 104
• Chris and Mark recommend using a hip circle band to strengthen outer hip muscles
• Joe uses an Echo Bike by Rogue and likes to warm up before his workouts with an elipitcal machine
  • Joe also does Hindu squats – he does sets of 100 to warm up
• Check out the doumentary Smashing Machine