Sleep Eating, Eating Organs to Fix Certain Organs, Heart Palpitations, 13 Year Old Son’s Keratosis Pilaris, Protein Powder / Collagen
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Show Notes:
News topic du jour:
The missing link: a single unifying mechanism for diabetic complications
1. Sleep Eating [12:38]
Paul says:
Hi Robb,
Long time fan. Been using the electrolytes with great success.
I am a 35 year old, BJJ practitioner and am doing really well on a lower carb diet.
One problem though. I sleep eat: Anything and everything, in the middle of the night, every night.
Let me know if you have any ideas how to solve this, thanks,
Paul
2. Eating Organs to Fix Certain Organs [15:48]
Scotty says:
I was wondering if you have come across any study’s that have taken someone with example a heart condition, and told them to eat beaf heart (or any animal) everyday to see if it had any reaction to their condition. Or a liver disease and they ate a bunch of liver and got better? Nutrition has become overly complicated now in some circles and it seems just so simple for your body to absorb those nutrients to heal itself. Any thoughts about this? Also let me know if you do answer this on one of your podcasts please as I don’t have time to listen to everything all the time as life just seems to get busier and busier.
Thank you so much for everything you have done. You were one of the first voices I found that started my path to fixing my chronic headaches and digestive issues that I had for over 10 years. When massage, chiropractor, acupuncture, TMJ treatments, countless doctor visits all failed me, you pushed me in the right direction.
Thanks again
3. Heart Palpitations [20:23]
Bret says:
Hi, Wolf Pack! Long-time listener (since the Greg Everett days), first-time Rebel and question-asker. I remember a few podcasts ago that Nicki mentioned (in passing) having to quit coffee due to heart palpitations. I’ve been experience palps for about 1 year and have quit coffee multiple times, with nebulous results: Once for 2 weeks, and once for 3 weeks (no significant decrease in palps either time). Now, alongside the 7DCT and Rebel Reset, I’ve given up coffee PLUS alcohol (I like a little red wine – weekends only) for the last 4+ weeks, with palpitation frequency and intensity dropping but certainly not eliminated.
I’m going to keep up the quit (both coffee and alcohol) for a little while longer to see this thing through, but I’m wondering… If the quit doesn’t eliminate the palps, are there any other “usual suspects” that I can bring in for questioning, i.e. other stuff to eliminate or add to my diet/lifestyle?
Stats:
– Age 53; height 6′ 1″; weight 170 lbs; athletic build; very happily married
– EKG and Holter monitor test results – normal; I’m thinking about an echo but they’re pricey
– Strict-but-not-perfect ancestral diet for the last ~9 years (thanks Robb!)
– Active (workout 2 or 3 x / week, plus daily movement and/or mobility work)
– Excellent sleep
– Good community, but could improve
– Recently upped sodium intake since learning about electrolytes from you guys. (I’ll also be starting an LMNT regimen soon).
P.S. – There might be a positional component to my palps (low-grade adult-onset POTS?), but it’s difficult for me to QA/QC my own subjective symptom observations to determine that.
Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated!
Keep up the UBERFANTASTIC work you guys!!!
Bret
4. 13 Year Old Son’s Keratosis Pilaris [26:22]
Lil says:
Hey Robb and Nikki, thanks for all of your great podcasts! I have been a follower of your work for 12+ years. My 13 year old son, Roman, has had quiet the health journey. A year and a half ago he came to me and said he wanted to “get healthier”. At that time he was 5’3 and weighed 186 lbs. Both my husband and I live a primal life. We prioritize sleep, sunlight, movement, whole Paleo foods, social connection, limited screen time etc. At our home that is the norm. I am divorced from Roman’s dad. Although he is aligned with our health values he did not support that in our kids. (Mostly out of convenience) When Roman was with his dad his diet mostly consisted of fast food! Roman’s dad finally got on board when Roman himself showed interest in becoming healthier. We hired a Primal Health coach (we love you Amy Taft). Since working with her Roman is no longer pre-diabetic, has corrected his cholesterol issues, has grown more than 5 inches and has lost 40ish pounds. He feels great about who he is now! He has so much confidence in himself and his abilities! Such a wonderful transformation. Anyhow, since he was 5 or so he has dealt with Keratosis pilaris. We have tried AIP as dietary intervention along with many random suggestions found on-line. (Soaps, scrubs, etc) His bumps haven’t gotten better with anything we have tried. The dermatologist we took him too said there isn’t much to do besides heavy duty pharmaceuticals. I myself have tinkered around with carnivore. What do you think about Roman experimenting with carnivore on a short term basis? Or, do you have any other suggestions? Thank you in advance!
5. Protein Powder / Collagen [30:19]
Alyssa says:
Hi Robb and Nikki,
Thank you for all the work you do to put out quality content for the healthy rebellion radio podcast. I’ve started listening only within the last few months, and I am hooked. I appreciate your valuable insight on everything from nutrition to politics and Medicare.
I was listening to the March 4th episode and heard Robb say something about protein intake from collagen powder not “counting” toward total protein intake. I had to listen to that a few times…WHAT?! Insert “mind blown” emoji here. I did a little research and think I sort of understand why, but I’m also disappointed because collagen was my go-to protein powder for smoothies, coffee, etc. My question for you is – if collagen isn’t going to do the job, then what is the best, most bioavailable protein powder out there? I realize the protein you chew is the best kind, but I am looking to use it as a supplement to bridge the gap. There’s so much information on the interwebs, so I’m hoping you can help clarify.
I am a 34 year old female, 5’9” and 140 lbs. I teach (hard…not gentle) yoga during the week and I also do a bit of running. I’m generally pretty fit and my meals are typically paleo. I don’t have any adverse reaction to dairy – we’re cool. Since listening to your podcast, I would like to try upping my protein intake and “watch the magic happen,” as you say.
Thanks!
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Transcript:
Download a copy of this transcript here (PDF)
Nicki: It’s time to make your health an act of rebellion. We’re tackling personalized nutrition, metabolic flexibility, resilient aging, and answering your diet and lifestyle questions. This is the only show with the bold aim to help 1 million people liberate themselves from the sick care system. You’re listening to the Healthy Rebellion Radio. Contents of this show are for entertainment and educational purposes only. Nothing in this podcast should be considered medical advice. Please consult your licensed and credentialed functional medicine practitioner before embarking on any health, dietary, or fitness change. Warning, when Robb gets passionate, he’s been known to use the occasional expletive. If foul language is not your thing, if it gets your britches in a bunch, well, there’s always Disney plus.
Robb: Welcome back, wife and everyone else.
Nicki: And all Healthy Rebellion Radio listeners. Gosh, it’s almost the end of March. I feel like this month has sort of gone by in a blur. I know. We’re already pretty much done with the first quarter of 2021.
Robb: Holy smokes.
Nicki: Holy smokes.
Robb: They’ll be throwing dirt on us before you know it.
Nicki: You’ve been doing your accents pretty well lately, actually. I need to just throw that out there. We’ve been listening to a book on Audible, Black Beauty, and the narrator is fabulous, and he does all of the, it’s set in Victorian England. And there’s the master’s voice and the cab driver’s voice.
Robb: Oh, come on now, missus, it’s not all that good.
Nicki: And Robb will go off into that little accent. And then I try to do it and I can’t do it worth a piss. But we’ve been having fun with that. Really good book. Actually. It’s crazy. I never read that as a kid. I feel like it’s such a classic and I…
Robb: It’s really good. It’s really good. There are some amazing, kind of moral stories in there.
Nicki: It just kind of walks you through all the different characters of…
Robb: That you’re going to encounter in life.
Nicki: The different types of men, different types of character of the human, and how they relate to how they treat animals, and how that kind of relates to how they live their life in general. It’s really good. Anyway, I don’t know how we got on that tangent. You were doing an accent or something. I have a friend from Ireland who I haven’t seen in a long time, but very fond memories, both visiting her and her family in Ireland, and also having her out when I was probably 19, 18, 19, and singing Irish songs, and just lots of fun. So anyway, I know I don’t do the Irish accent any justice at all, but…
Robb: There’s hope.
Nicki: I don’t know.
Robb: There’s hope. I’ll practice with you.
Nicki: I’m going on tangents today. Might as well get down to business and get on track.
Robb: Yep.
Nicki: Okay. Let’s see here. We are still cruising along in the rebellion with the comprehensive movement training program with basis. People are loving that. And so that’s humming along. That was week three this week. So moving into our final week, next week.
Robb: Some wins in that. Some people who were unable to do a pistol are now doing pistols, and good, good stuff. Yeah. Yep.
Nicki: Our book club begins on Monday, which is March 29th, and we’re reading The Unthinkable by Amanda Ripley, and Robb and I have both started reading and it’s…
Robb: It’s a great book. It’s really about the resiliency of surviving catastrophe.
Nicki: And just, gosh, not to spoil anything, but one of the things that really sticks out from the beginning, and what she talks about throughout the book, is how people react during disasters, because it can help. And basically the whole premise is that if we understand how survivors survived and how people react during disasters, then if we ever encounter a situation like that, we might better respond, better manage. But one of the things that really stuck out was just how in many disasters, people move very slowly. They go through this process where they’re sort of in denial and there’s just this delay. You’d think that you would just rush out of the house or rush, if something was occurring, you would act quickly, but some people’s wiring isn’t so.
Robb: Right. And also in the age of COVID, it’s interesting, many other disasters have occurred. And when the government and those who are in positions of power communicate in an ineffective way, and in particular, lie, and treat the populace like children, it is a disaster. It horrifically worsens the situation. Oftentimes it’s like, “Well, we don’t want to scare people,” and this and that. It looks like telling people the truth is probably the best way to go. And sometimes that truth can change. You have an understanding one day, but we’ve seen time and again here where people have been told outright falsehoods trying to avert a panic around masks or whatever, and it has completely backfired and it’s a disaster. So, yeah, it’s interesting in that regard, too, that the way that oftentimes, our disaster management processes also end up getting developed to support the people in the process planning, not the people who are supposed to be served by it.
Nicki: Who are going to be on the ground and responding.
Robb: Yeah. Yeah. So a fascinating book.
Nicki: Yeah. And I think it was written, gosh, four or five years ago.
Robb: Yeah. I’m not sure on that.
Nicki: Anyway, so that starts on Monday, March 29th. Our rebel, Rachel, is going to be leading us through that. And so jump on into the Healthy Rebellion, if you’re interested in joining us with that. And also our next 30 day rebel reset is coming up in just a few weeks. We have our kickoff call on Friday, April 16th, and that is followed by our optional seven day carb test. And then the official start date for the 30 day reset is Monday, April 26th.
Nicki: And I just want to mention that one of our rebels, Greg, just shared a photo this morning of three big black garbage bags on the couch. And he said, “These are three garbage bags of clothes that don’t fit me because of the help of this community in the last 12 months. Thank you all.” So that was pretty cool. Yeah. Very, very cool. So if you want in on this next reset, your deadline to join is April 26th. After that, we close it for good until the next one. And if you want to participate in the optional seven day carb test, you’ll want to join by Friday, April 16th. And that’s all I have for news and announcements, hubs. What do you have for a news topic today?
Robb: Pretty cool paper. It’s called The Missing Link, a single unifying mechanism for diabetic complications, and it really, not surprisingly, it levels the problem at poorly controlled blood glucose levels, and the level at which bad things begin to happen is much, much lower than what people appreciate. And it’s, again, not to dig into this too much or belabor this, but this is, I think, some justification for things like the seven day carb test. Makes a case for some of the people using CGMs to get a little deeper insight into the way that their blood glucose response functions. And I can’t emphasize this enough. There are people that eat high carb diets that have beautiful blood glucose responses. This is something that is completely missed in the low carb scene. They assume everybody gets these really sky high blood glucose levels.
Robb: On the flip side of this in our kind of evidence-based scene, the levels that are ascribed as being normal are injurious. And that’s just for many people. And so again, someone who does well with carbs has a blood and glucose response that looks very, very similar to what my blood glucose response is to a meal when I’m eating little or no carbs. And that’s kind of a big takeaway. And I think that the degree of excursion that is being allowable in this story is way too high and it’s causing a host of problems. And this is kind of reminiscent of blood pressure. I remember you’ve got 140 over 80 as a reading, anything much above 70 is causing some low grade kidney damage. And this is just not well appreciated. And the norm is well above 70, and that is part of the reason why people begin spiraling out. But when we look at neurovascular problems, renal problems, difficulty with vision, wound healing, all of it kind of links back to disordered blood glucose levels.
Nicki: But Krispy Kreme is having a special this here week.
Robb: Get your self vaccinated. You can get yourself a Krispy Kreme. One free one very day of the year.
Nicki: Okay. Let’s move on. All right. Our iTunes review winner, t-shirt winner for this week, goes to Northland Jared. He says, “The show is refreshing. The Wolf Fam has been going hard on the podcast scene for a long time, and it’s been cool to watch their transformation over the years. Robb is also one of the few people out there in the nutrition world who will completely change his former positions based on new evidence, knowledge, and experience. This is rare. But back to the show, great content, honest opinions, and the Healthy Rebellion is helping plenty of folks figure out how to make positive changes in their lives.” Awesome. Northland Jared, thank you so much for your review. Send us an email to [email protected] with your t-shirt size and your mailing address, and we’ll send you a Healthy Rebellion Radio t-shirt.
Robb: Cool.
Nicki: And as always, this year 2021, the Healthy Rebellion Radio is sponsored by our Salty AF electrolyte company, LMNT. And since we’ve moved here to…
Robb: The frozen north?
Nicki: The frozen north, which is starting to thaw, but it’s definitely much colder than it was in New Braunfels, but I’ve been drinking my LMNT hot. So I’ve mentioned before, but I absolutely loved the lemon habanero in hot water, as well as the hot chocolate salt. So chocolate salt in hot water, and Sagan is always wanting to sidle up to me on the couch and-
Robb: If we watch a little TV and watch some Secrets of the Zoo. Yeah. She’s all over that.
Nicki: Yep. Yep. And we’re gearing up to release our newest flavor in LMNT land. That’s coming in just two and a half weeks and we’ve had lots of people guessing inside the Healthy Rebellion community what that flavor might be. And I guess the only hint that I’ll give is that it’s…
Robb: It speaks of summer, it has notes of summer.
Nicki: It has notes of summer. Yes. Summer is coming. Yeah. And LMNT’s been becoming widely received by a lot of people in the professional sports communities as well.
Robb: We have folks in every professional sport, seemingly, using it at the team level down to the individual level, have had some great conversations with coaches and strength and conditioning and nutritional staff for different Olympic teams, Paralympic teams. So, yeah, it’s really cool. And we started all this mainly wanting to support people on their health journey, particularly in this kind of low carb environment. But it’s pretty cool that we’re seeing really broad application within the kind of elite performance scene. So our center of the bullseye and my main interest is health and to helping people live a healthier life. But if you’re healthier, sometimes you have better performance too. Who would have thunk it?
Nicki: Who would have thunk it? If you haven’t yet tried LMNT, you can still try all of the flavors for just the cost of shipping. You’ll get a sample pack that includes a stick pack of citrus salt, raspberry salt, orange salt, chocolate salt, mango chili, my favorite, lemon habanero, and the raw unflavored. Just pay shipping. Comes to $5 if you live in the US. If you go to drinkLMNT.com/robb, you will find that offer. Again, that URL is drinkLMNT.com/robb. You ready for questions?
Robb: Let’s do it. There’s a few wacky ones in this one.
Nicki: Wacky ones? Okay. Well the first one is on sleep eating from Paul. He says, “Hi, Robb, long time fan. Have been using the electrolytes with great success. I’m 35 years old, BJJ practitioner, and I’m doing really well on a lower carb diet. One problem though. I sleep eat. Anything and everything in the middle of the night, every night. Let me know if you have any ideas, how to solve this. Thanks.” So when I read this, I’m unclear. He’s sleepwalking where he’s not aware of what he’s doing? Is he asleep and rating the fridge? Or is he getting up in the night and he’s aware?
Robb: This is where the call-in show would be kind of cool, because I have just a laundry list of follow up questions on this, but that’s how I’m envisioning this.
Nicki: So he’s not aware that he’s doing this? He just wakes up in the morning and sees the aftermath on the kitchen counter or something?
Robb: I guess so.
Nicki: Okay. So that’s what we’re assuming as we answer this question.
Robb: That’s what we’re running with. Yeah. And I had a couple, I mean, a few thoughts, but it just kind of takes the basics of our pantry prep. Don’t have anything dodgy around. I mean, this may be a deal of, you just have no food prepared that you can go raid. What’s that thing, people look in the refrigerator and they’ve got meat and this and that and the other, and they’re like, “I have nothing to eat. There’s just food that needs to be prepared.” And so that could be an option.
Nicki: Raw hamburger, raw meat.
Robb: Yeah. And so at a minimum, I guess maybe you’re eating carrots and an apple, but then, I don’t know, then you keep jerky around for snacks. So then you go raid the jerky.
Nicki: Is sleep walking something that is treated with something? Or is that just something that kids outgrow?
Robb: That would be a good Doc Parsley question. I don’t know.
Nicki: Yeah. Because I’m wondering how related these two things are.
Robb: Yeah. I’m not sure. I had the thought of the weighted blanket and you do six of those, so you need the jaws of life to get you out of bed, but that seems dangerous from a fire or earthquake perspective. So when I read this one, I’m like, “I’m not entirely sure what I’ve got to offer here, other than provide yourself fewer options.” Maybe it’s even to the tune that you lock up, put a slide bolt deal on the pantry or whatever it is that you’re normally going after. I’m assuming Paul gets up in the morning and he walks into the kitchen and it’s like the Incredible Mr. Fox. And he’s just been in there eating and there’s food particles flying everywhere. And he’s like, “Oh my God, what happened here Fantastic Mr. Fox?
Nicki: Fantastic Mr. Fox.
Robb: Fantastic, Mr. Fox. And so limiting that, but I’m really kind of at a loss on this one. Limiting access is my main thought with all of this.
Nicki: Okay. Well, Paul, let us know how that goes if you try that, or if we missed it and you are actually awake, but I don’t see how that would be.
Robb: Then I don’t know why he would call it sleep eating.
Nicki: Right, right, right. Okay. Our next question is from Scotty. He wants to know about eating organs to fix certain organs.
Robb: This one was another wacky one.
Nicki: A little bit wacky. And I hope our kids are not being too loud as to be picked up on.
Robb: It is what it is.
Nicki: They’re supposed to be doing their math. Sounds like they’re not. Okay. So Scotty says, “I was wondering if you’ve come across any studies that have taken someone with, an example, heart condition, and told them to eat beef heart or any animal everyday to see if it had any reaction to their condition. Or liver disease and they eat a bunch of liver and got better. Nutrition has become overly complicated now in some circles, and it seems just so simple for your body to absorb those nutrients to heal itself. Any thoughts on this? Also, let me know if you do answer.” Okay, blah, blah, blah. “Thank you for what you’ve done. You were one of the first voices I found when I started my path to fixing my chronic headaches and digestive issues that I had for over 10 years.” Okay.
Robb: So there’s a pretty well-known person, I guess, kind of peripheral to the ancestral health space, that has a book that basically recommends ginger is good for joint pain, because it has pieces that look like legs. And it can look like a little man’s legs, and stuff like that.
Nicki: Okay, I know what you’re talking about now.
Robb: And this kind of comes out of five element theory of Chinese medicine. And to my knowledge, there’s just no scientific basis for this. What’s interesting though, is most of the things that are recommended within the scene are nutrient dense foods. And so just as a baseline, this is another one those correlation, causation things, your astrologer told you not to go swimming this one day and then a comet strikes the lake or something like that. And for me, it’s on par with that stuff.
Robb: Most of our problems today deal with over consuming food. Now, granted, we’re in a situation where people are under-nutritioned and overfed, and this is where eating nutrient dense foods, it’s harder to overeat them and you get more nutritional value. And if you hit that protein leverage hypothesis, hit that protein minimum, then good things happen. I think that’s kind of the extent of it though. What did Einstein say? “Make things as simple as possible, but not simpler than that,” or something to that effect. And you can start creating these kinds of weird, just so stories that are not based in science at all. And it’s more like witchcraft and mysticism and now the pagans are going to come hunting for me, but…
Nicki: Well, and this isn’t addressing the other things too. So according to Scotty, if you had a liver disease, or he’s curious if he had a liver disease and you eat a bunch of liver, would you get better? What else are they eating though? If you just add liver every day to your diet, but you’re eating otherwise.
Robb: Were you drinking a fifth of whiskey and you have alcoholic liver, fatty liver, then that’s not really addressing the real underlying problem. Yeah. Yeah. So Scotty, it’s an interesting idea. Different cultures have kind of played around with this as a way of getting on top of it. But I think just using the basic ancestral health template, and even within that, I’m still kind of on the fence with organ meats and the fiddly bits. And I’m kind of at a spot where I eat the stuff that I like and tastes good. And so I’ll do some tripe in soups, or menudo and things like that.
Nicki: I really do like chicken liver and onions. It’s amazing.
Robb: Yeah. I do like a well-prepared chicken liver and onions. Beef liver is still kind of tough. It’s going to be a very hungry day that I kidney, and people will say, “Oh no, I’ve got this way of fixing.” And it’s like, “Great. I’ll send my kidney that I get as part of our cow deal to you.” And it’s funny, I’m still kind of on the fence with that. Some people are very adamant that we must eat nose to tail. Maybe we do. Maybe we don’t. I don’t know. Maybe this is just me catering to my own preferences, but yeah, I think it can be reasonably simple, mainly stick within that kind of ancestral health template, focus on protein, figure out if you run better on carbs or fat or a combo, and then just keep your eyes open for immunogenic foods. And I think that that ticks most of the boxes.
Nicki: Okay. Our next question is from Brett on heart palpitations. He says, “Hi, Wolf pack, long time listener, way back since the Greg Everett days. First time rebel and question asker. I remember a few podcasts ago that Nicki mentioned in passing having to quit coffee due to heart palpitations. I have been experiencing palps for about one year and have quit coffee multiple times with nebulous results, once for two weeks, and once for three weeks, but I had no significant decrease in palpitations either time. Now, alongside the seven day carb test and rebel reset, I’ve given up coffee plus alcohol. I like a little red wine, weekends only, for the last four plus weeks, with palpitation frequency and intensity dropping, but certainly not eliminated. I’m going to keep up the quit, both coffee and alcohol, for a little while longer to see this thing through.
Nicki: “But I’m wondering. If the quit doesn’t eliminate the palpitations, are there any other usual suspects that I can bring in for questioning? I.E., other stuff to eliminate or add to my diet and lifestyle?” And he’s 53 years old, 6’1″, 170 pounds, strict, but not perfect, ancestral diet for the last nine years. He’s active, good sleep. And yeah.
Robb: And he mentions that he’s upped his electrolytes recently, but this is maybe one of the first places that folks should look is adequate sodium intake. He said that his sleep is excellent. The two things that I’ve seen, and we’ll see this immediately on either HRV or even just checking morning resting heart rate, is that the variability decreases, the rate increases on the heart rate with poor sleep. But he’s saying his sleep is good. But the if there’s one thing that can bugger your sleep, it’s alcohol, but he said that he’s only doing that on the weekends. So I don’t really see where that would carry through for the whole week. So, I mean, making sure that you’re getting that five grams of sodium per day minimum, I think is really important. Sounds like he’s probably getting the potassium, magnesium, and everything else, because of a generally well composed whole food diet. I would look there first. And if that doesn’t address things, I would definitely go get checked out. He mentions some stuff that he did. I think he did an EKG and that all looked fine, but yeah, yeah.
Nicki: He does mention, he’s questioning whether or not he might have low grade adult onset POTS.
Robb: Which again, it seems to be a sodium issue. We’ve had amazing buy-in and support from the POTS, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome community. And it’s super well known by those folks that they need more sodium, and they’ve oftentimes been challenged to get that. And so there’s been really good LMNT buy-in there. So I would definitely look at the electrolytes specifically.
Nicki: And track it. Track your sodium, just like you would, if you were tracking your macros otherwise.
Robb: That’s what I had to finally do to have Tyler and Louise’s recommendations stay. I was less than half of what they were recommending as a beginning baseline.
Nicki: And a lot of people are like, “Oh, I saw my food all the time, or I use salt liberally,” and then it’s not quite enough.
Robb: It’s just not enough. Yeah.
Nicki: So you’ve probably heard that one too. The kids are having a party instead of doing their school.
Robb: Well, they probably did their math, so.
Nicki: They finished it. Okay, here we go. It’s time for the Healthy Rebellion Radio trivia. Our Healthy Rebellion Radio sponsor drink, LMNT, is giving a box of LMNT recharge electrolytes to three lucky winners selected at random who answer the following question correctly. Robb, so today we are, this is Wednesday, two days before this podcast releases. And today is going to be our first day back at Jiu Jitsu in a couple of months. Yeah, we, given all the craziness with getting ourselves packed up and moving out of Texas, we weren’t making it to the gym consistently, if at all, the last couple of months. So we are now new members at SBG here in Montana. The girls have had two classes and today is our first class. And so Robb put this for his trivia question. Robb, what will happen at your first day back to jujitsu in months?
Robb: I will poop myself.
Nicki: You’re going to poop yourself.
Robb: It’s going to be like a skunk or a stink bug. That’s going to be my primary self-defense when I’m getting mauled. I’m just going to soil myself. And then I should be left alone after that
Nicki: Instead of tapping, you just excrete.
Robb: Yes. Yes. Just soil myself from head to toe.
Nicki: You mentioned Secrets of the Zoo in passing in an earlier question. And this is a show on National Geographic, right? Nat Geo, that we’ve been really, really enjoying with the kids. It’s all about the Columbus Zoo, and all of the animals, and caretaking them. And it’s really, really great if you have kids, even if you don’t have kids, I think you’ll like it, but lots of the animals do end up soiling themselves when they’re darted or…
Robb: Get in stressed situations, yeah.
Nicki: So Robb, you will probably be like just any other primate. Let’s hope it doesn’t happen. Okay folks, the answer to this week’s trivia, is Robb will poop himself. To play, go to robbwolf.com/trivia and enter your answer, and we’ll randomly select three people with the correct answer to win a box of electrolytes from drink LMNT. The cutoff to answer this week’s trivia and be eligible to win is Thursday, April 1st at midnight. The winners will be notified via email and we’ll announce the winners on Instagram as well. And this is open to residents of the US only.
Robb: Awesome.
Nicki: Okay. So our fourth question this week is from Lil, and she has a question about her 13 year old son’s keratosis pilaris. “Hey Robb and Nicki. Thanks for all of your great podcasts. I’ve been a follower of your work for 12 plus years. My 13 year old son, Roman, has had quite the health journey. A year and a half ago, he came to me and said he wanted to get healthier. At that time, was 5’3” and weighed 186 pounds. Both my husband and I live a primal life and we prioritize sleep, sunlight, movement, whole paleo foods, social connection, limited screen time, et cetera. And at our home, that is the norm. I’m divorced from Roman’s dad, however, and although he is aligned with our health values, he did not support that in our kids, mostly out of convenience.
Nicki: “When Roman was with his dad, his diet mostly consisted of fast food. Roman’s dad finally got on board when Roman himself showed interest in becoming healthier. We hired a primal health coach, and since working with her, Roman is no longer pre-diabetic. He’s corrected his cholesterol issues and has grown more than five inches and has lost 40 or so pounds. He feels great about who he is now and has so much confidence in himself and his abilities. It’s such a wonderful transformation. Anyhow, since he was five or so, he has dealt with keratosis pilaris. We have tried AIP as a dietary intervention, along with many random suggestions found online, soaps, scrubs, et cetera. His bumps haven’t gotten better with anything we’ve tried. The dermatologist we took him to said there isn’t much to do besides heavy duty pharmaceuticals. I, myself, have tinkered around with carnivore. What do you think about Roman experimenting with carnivore on a short-term basis? Or do you have any other suggestions?”
Robb: Everything that I’ve looked at on this suggests a vitamin A deficiency, and Sagan had a little bit of this going on, I mean, when she was maybe two, and then forward, and we started pretty consistently at dinnertime, supplementing with vitamin D3, K2 drops, and then also some vitamin A palmitate, or the retinol. And it seems to have largely gone away. We’re in and out of the consistency with that. But even, there are some dermatology related research papers that suggest that the vitamin A supplementation can help. I think that it’s a really good idea to supplement D and A concurrently. Chris Masterjohn has gone really deep on this and kind of explains the how’s, why’s, and what’s its. If you’re supplementing D, I think it’s also smart to supplement with K2 also. An easy way to get at least the A and the D is to do something like the Carlson’s cod liver oil, the lemon flavored, it tastes great and it’s got a good ratio there, but it doesn’t have the K2 in it. So I’ve opted for the D3, K2 drops, and then also vitamin A drop. And yeah.
Nicki: That might be something to try.
Robb: Yeah. Yeah.
Nicki: I mean, other than it being, is there any issue with having it, other than it just being kind of annoying that you feel these bumps on the backs of your arms?
Robb: I think it’s a sign of stuff, it’s a sign of stuff not being quite dialed in. And I never really answered the question. Would a carnivore experiment be dangerous? I don’t think it would be dangerous. I mean, he’s probably not eating super far off of that right now, if he’s eating more or less kind of primal. But I also, I think that unless you’re doing really significant and consistent amounts of liver, then if vitamin A is the underlying problem here, then you might not hit the levels on that, that you want. So I would kind of try the supplementation route first and see how that goes.
Nicki: Okay. Okay. And our final question this week is from Alyssa on protein powder and collagen, and she says, “Hi Robb and Nicki, thank you for the work you do to put out quality content for the Healthy Rebellion Radio podcast. I’ve started listening only within the last few months and I’m hooked. I appreciate your valuable insight on everything from nutrition to politics and Medicare. I was listening to a recent episode and I heard Robb say something about protein intake from collagen powder not counting toward total protein intake. I had to listen to that a few times. What? Insert mind blown emoji here. I did a little research and I think I sort of understand why, but I’m also disappointed because collagen was my go-to protein powder for smoothies, coffee, et cetera.
Nicki: “My question for you is if collagen isn’t going to do the job, then what is the best, most bioavailable protein powder out there? I realize the protein you chew is the best kind, but I’m looking to use it as a supplement to bridge the gap. There’s so much information on the interwebs, so I’m hoping you can help clarify. I’m 34 years old, female, 5’9″ and 140 pounds, and I teach hard, not gentle, yoga during the week, and I also do a bit of running. Generally pretty fit, my meals are typically paleo. I don’t have any adverse reaction to dairy. We’re cool. Since listening to your podcast, I would like to try upping my protein intake and watch the magic happen, as you say.”
Robb: So, man, how do I want to tackle this? There is a reality that a lot of folks probably would benefit from inclusion of things like bone broth, collagen protein powder, because muscle meat tends to be very high in methionine. And there does seem to be a methionine glycine issue, systemic inflammatory issues, sleep, all kinds of different things are better balanced when we do have a good ratio of both of these. Part of the problem though, is that I’m so concerned about sarcopenia and the need for good amounts of protein on at least kind of a twice a day exposure basis to get that anabolic signaling to grow or maintain protein, that if we’re filling a big chunk of that gap with things like collagen, it balances the glycine that we need, but it doesn’t have enough for the branch chain amino acids to get that anabolic signaling.
Robb: So it’s not that it’s good or bad. It’s just that we’ve got different criteria that we kind of need to tick the box on. A basic whey protein is really good. If she tolerates dairy and all that, definitely very powerful for anabolic signaling. I think she already gets our position that we’re more fans of real whole food. I’ve really become a fan of late of a Greek yogurt, both because of the protein content, but also the fat content. It’s a beefy, and so Greek yogurt could be an option just throwing it in there. It’s a little bit more food-like than just protein powder. Shy of that though, you don’t necessarily have to get rid of the collagen protein, maybe add that to some whey protein post-workout or what have you. And again, drinking your protein should be a tiny fraction of your protein intake. Maybe less than 10% or something.
Nicki: Actually up it in your meals, your dinner, your breakfast, or whatever actual meals you’re eating, as the number one go-to for upping it.
Robb: Yeah. And something that we’ve noticed within the rebellion resets is people will be like, “Oh my God, it’s hard to get this protein.” So we’re recommending that people fix two or three different protein sources and then have a little bit. There’s some chicken, some beef, and some shrimp all in the same plate, and it’s this palate fatigue thing. And so we’re actually using the increasing the options to our benefit in this case. About the time you’re burned out on the chicken, you go to the beef, and what I recommend is you start with your least favorite protein first, and then eat your way towards your most favorite protein.
Nicki: If you’re having a hard time.
Robb: But so if she’s having a hard time getting food based protein, this is a really fantastic way to round this out. Yeah.
Nicki: Okay. Alyssa, let us know how it goes and yeah. Send us an email, let us know how you’re feeling and if the magic happens. Let’s see. I think that is it for this week’s episode of the Healthy Rebellion Radio. Be sure to support our show sponsor and grab your LMNT sample pack. Again, you’ll get one stick pack of all of our seven current flavors, citrus, raspberry, orange, chocolate, mango chili, lemon habanero, and the raw unflavored. Just go to drinkLMNT.com/robb, that’s drinkLMNT.com/robb. Hubs, any final thoughts?
Robb: Go be awesome. Just go be awesome.
Nicki: Go be awesome.
Robb: Yeah, mateys.
Nicki: All right, folks, have a good one.
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