Download a transcript of this episode here
Topics:
- [7:14] Maple Syrup Urine Disease
- [12:20] Lactose Intolerance Caused By Dairy Elimination
- [18:20] Nicotine and Plant Toxicity
- [26:37] Air Fresheners
- [30:17] Testosterone Testing Variation and Error
- [39:58] Training Hypertrophy and Strength
- [48:45] Pressure Cooking, Steam, and Nutrients
- [57:02] Sudden Aversion To Red Meat
- [1:00:40] Strength for Squash
Thanks to Lee Gamble and The Vendettas for our new intro music!
Questions:
1. Aunt Jemima pee
Phil says:
Robb and Greg,
My friends 2 year old daughter was just diagnosed with MSUD, Maple Syrup Urine Disease. Yeah, that’s a real thing, I checked to make sure it was not a joke. MSUD is a branched chain amino acid disease that can be serious and is usually managed by avoiding leucine, isoleucine, and valine according to Dr. Wikipedia. Because of this, i am almost sure the dietician is going to recommend limited meat and plenty of grains. Is there any experiences you’ve had with this somewhat rare disease, and is a paleo diet still something that should be done for this child? Thank you
2. Can you develop lactose intolerance on the paleo diet?
Tiffany says:
Hi Robb,
I am a CrossFit athlete who has been living the Paleo lifestyle since April. I love how eating clean has made me look and feel!
I casually mentioned to our sports nutritionist at school that I was doing the Paleo thing and she said something that bothered me a little bit. She said that even though I have no food allergies or any digestive (lactose, gluten) disorders, there’s a slight chance that eliminating dairy from my diet completely could make me develop a lactose intolerance. Is there any truth to this statement?
I started Paleo because I wanted to get stronger in the gym and feel better about my body…and let me tell you. It’s been working PHENOMENALLY. Truly. But her comment scared me a little though, and I figured what person better to ask than you.
I look forward to hearing back from you. Thanks so much!
3. Of plants and toxicity.
Guillermo says:
Dear Zorg Council:
I’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, and I remember Robb saying that the toxic part of tobacco is the plant, not the nicotine.
Recently Robb has mentioned using nicotine to help with fat reduction (estrogen receptors) and to help with histamine reduction (who knows how).
Other than giving you a wicked buzz and being awesome, what other cool things can nicotine be used for? Who should avoid it?
Robb keeps suggesting nicotine gum, what about vaporizers? You know those cigarettes from the future… You might look like a douche with an e-cig but, man they are tasty.
Thanks guys and keep learning me much.
-Guillermo
(Hopefully Greg is gonna lose it with that last sentence. HA!)
4. My Mother’s Air Freshener Obsession Affecting My Health
James says:
Hi Robb and Greg,
My brother and I are sitting at a computer in his room, where my mother has an exceptionally potent air freshener plugged in. It is supposed to cover up the stench of his football pads. As Paleo adherents, we were wondering if the fumes from such air fresheners had adverse health consequences. Should we consider alternative “Paleo air fresheners” with scents such as “dung”, “rotting animal carcass”, or even “unwashed genitalia”? We are just kidding about the “Paleo scents”, of course, but we would love your input about prolonged exposure to air fresheners.
5. Testosterone Gauge Error – Statistics!
John says:
Robb,
I’m hoping you can help me out with some statistical questions regarding some “self experimentation” I did using Cold Therapy – inspired by Dr. Jack Kruse. I saw him talk at Paleo F(x) and was compelled to have my testosterone tested after listening to several of the speakers at the conference. Some personal info: I’m a 30 year old male, athletic build, eat paleo, crossfit 2-3 times per week; but do no more than 2 Metcons per week. I have a relatively low stress job, and allow 8 hours for sleep every night.
Basically, here’s what I did: I had my Testosterone level measured at 9am in the morning. The results came back a few days later lower then I had hoped for (577 ng/dL). Over the next three weeks I took ice baths 2-3 times per week, for a duration of 20 minutes per bath, at a water temperature in the low 50’s. At the end of the third week I had my Testosterone tested again at 9am; this time it came back at 707 ng/dL.
I’m very happy with the results but being an engineer with some training in statistics I’m not so sure the change has any meaning. I’m wondering if the change that I observed is statistically significant. What is the gauge error of the testosterone test itself? Also, what is the process error, or said another way, how much does the testosterone level in my blood vary from day to day? I understand that Testosterone fluctuates within each day, but I have hopefully eliminated that variable by having both blood samples drawn at the same time, 9am. One more, assuming that the increase is statistically significant do you think the ice baths had anything to do with it? Or is it more likely that I got a testosterone boost from having a conversation with a pretty girl that morning, or perhaps just getting a great night’s sleep?
6. Training for hypertrophy vs strength
Max says:
Hi Robb,
Training for strength versus training for hypertrophy — does one have to come at the expense of the other?
Ever since adopting the ancestral health lifestyle in September of 2010, I’ve made substantial strength gains and put on a good 20 pounds of lean muscle mass — from 5-foot-10, 155 pounds to 175 pounds.
My delts, upper back and chest have responded favorably to the compound movements I’ve adopted into my training routine — bench press, overhead press, deadlift, weighted pull-ups, weighted dips. In other words, none of that sissy isolation stuff that seemingly every gym-goer prefers. I’m a fan of the Stronglifts 5X5 protocol. That is, five sets of five reps with the heaviest load I can lift. I eat tons of yummy animals and hit my 1g/pound-body-mass number almost every day.
The squat rack at my local (insert big-name gym franchise here) is hardly ever used. Very rarely does anyone attempt to bench press more than 185 pounds. The bros tend to congregate around the EZ Bar rack, performing triceps extensions and bicep curls to their hearts’ content.
What troubles me is that while I’m pound-for-pound stronger than any other gym-goer I’ve encountered, most of the regulars are, to put it one way, far more jacked. Their arms are flat-out bigger. Yet they throw around a lot less weight, preferring higher reps and a lighter load.
Could there be some truth to the widely-held Broscience notions that favor volume lifting for muscle-building? Does that even make sense from an evolutionary perspective? Or am I just doing something wrong?
7. Pressure cooking and steam
Matt says:
Robb and Greg,
Thank you for your diligence and perspicacity in developing the podcast. Here goes for a topic I suspect you haven’t covered:
I’m about to finish an Amazon order for a Kuhn Rikon 3344 7.4-quart pressure cooker. This type of pressure cooker, or PC in culinary lingo, retains flavor, possibly due to the fact that it does not vent steam; see: http://www.cookingissues.com/2009/11/22/pressure-cooked-stocks-we-got-schooled/ . Pressure cooking may not be Paleo, but it sure is faster!
Since my primary use of the PC is to make bone stock/broth for my joint health as a factor in attempting to gain strength via olympic lifting (via Mehdi’s Stronglifts), could you comment on why vented pressure cookers could lose flavor or nutrients vs non-venting. I guess I always believed that steam couldn’t take away anything other than vaporized water (ie. in distillation). Can flavor and nutrients be vaporized and eliminated at super-boiling temperatures or whatnot?
I’m just going on a gut instinct that retaining flavor is somehow related to retaining nutrients.
Also, if Greg could plug his new book regarding how military service members, police and fire-people can benefit, I think he would intrigue a demographic most interested in how basal strength development improves respective career performance measures.
8. Red meat is tasting gross.
Lindsay says:
Hey Robb and Greg,
Long have I longed to ask a question on the podcast, but now that I have a problem, I’m less enthusiastic. Funny how that works.
For the past month or so, red meat has been really grossing me out. I get these delicious grassfed steaks from my CSA, cook them perfectly, and then…ick. Basically, all I want to eat is fucking fruit like some goddamn vegan. What the hell?!
I’m wondering if this is some weird hormonal thing, or maybe because it’s nine million degrees here in Georgia, or maybe I have a parasite, or gods know what. This has also happened to my mom in the past, for what it’s worth.
Do you know of any reason why a ravenous, bloodthirsty honey badger would suddenly have a visceral negative reaction to delicious beef? The badger is a 28 year old female who is fair-to-bad at CrossFit, if that is at all relevant.
Anyway, thanks dudes, keep up the awesome podcast, blah blah blah, and Robb, I look forward to heckling you next month at AHS 2012.
Stay golden.
Squash Strength
Mike says:
Dear Greg and Robb,
Gnarly Podcast.
I’m a 27 year old man-child and a keen amateur squash player for the last seven years. My conditioning for that sport is pretty good but I think my strength could be a lot better. Squash involves a lot of lunging and explosive movements. The racquet aint all that heavy so it requires more core and lower-body strength, speed, power and endurance. Movement should be as smooth and economical as possible, but the need for explosion is ever present.
What approach would you recommend to develop this strength and power? I’m thinking back squats and barbell lunges for strength first, and then plyometric squat jumps for power.
Can too much focus on strength over time reduce power or speed?
Thanks much,
Mike
p.s Here is a video of professional players that shows what I’m aiming for: http://youtu.be/F744p7uoBXM
woa love the intro!!
Man, I was waiting all day for this one to drop. You guys scared me!
I’ve got a pee question. Not like maple syrup but like milk…
Sometimes when I pee it comes out cloudy, almost opaque with and emulsion of white particles in the fluid or a little like if you did a 50/50 mix between pee and milk. Sometimes milkier and sometimes a little grainier
Usually this only happens in the first pee after breakfast; pre-breakfast pees are normal and subsequent ones throughout the typically are too (although I had one around noon today that was still cloudy).
I thought maybe it had to do with the contents of breakfast but I haven’t honed in on any one ingredient yet but here are some typical ones:
Half to one pound of beef (pretty much every day) either ground and cooked in a cast iron skillet or cubed and stewed (cooked from the night before in my slow cooker) occasionally chicken or lamb.
Then a similar volume of any combination of carrots, onions, tomatoes, celery, turnips, or similar veggies cooked in either the slow cooker or in the skillet in either two or three tablespoons of coconut oil or butter.
Many days I also have a cup of coffee with 2-3 ounces full fat coconut milk.
My only guess is that maybe there is just too much fat in my breakfast and that some of that is being expelled in the first post-breakfast pee.
Thanks very much for answering my question about Squash strength. I’ll give it a go…
Robb, whats the link to the other interview you mentioned you recently did in this podcast? the guy who was crazy about bacon and eggs?
Joe Rogan Experience:
http://blog.joerogan.net/archives/5159
sweet thanks
Okay so I remember seeing a link last year from MDA blog to this article. It was on getting more meat into drinks. It mentions adding beef stock to Bloody Mary to get a Bloody Bull. I have thought of the idea of doing a Caesar with beef stock added to it. But anyway, here’s a link to the website:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2011/03/meat_cocktails.php
I just imagine the beef stock and Caesar with a piece of bacon instead of celery.
Oh yeah, I don’t get the soup. Sorry, Rob. Stew I understand but not soup. Soup seems more like a hot beverage than a meal.
However, love the music for the intro, it suits the podcast.
awesome intro!
Robb, Thanks very much for answering my question about testosterone testing. I did not have SHBG checked but Free Testosterone was included. Those numbers are below:
Before: 91.1 pg/mL (Ref range: 35-155)
After: 14.7 pg/mL (Ref range: 8.7-25.1)
Looks pretty weird right? That’s why I didn’t include them in the original question. The reference ranges don’t even overlap even though the reported units are the same. Any idea what’s going on with this? I went to AnyLabTestNow for the blood draws. Unfortunately they sent the the blood draws to different labs. It seems to me that the Before and After tests measured slightly different things for Free Testosterone.
I’m also pretty curious what are reference ranges for free testosterone – I got mine checked recently and got 10,77 pg/ml (and reference 2,6 – 9,79) what would be pretty good if this reference range is right. But it seems to be very strange, compared to others found on pubmed. In your case it looks like in before aFT method was used and in after cFT, for me nothing seems to fit. I’m 25 years old male, fit, BF ~ 8%. I did my tests because I sleep usually about 6h per night and wanted to check how my T levels look (total T 19,36 nmol/l, reference 9,9 – 27,9, so 547 ng/dl). I hoped for something better, because I have no idea how may I change my day to sleep a bit more. But back to reference ranges, I did some pubmed research and this is what I got (I hope I didn’t make a mistake in calculations)
To convert from nmol/l to pg/ml we have to take into consideration molar mass of testosterone which is 288.42 g/mol, so:
1 [nmol/l] = 2.8842*10^-7 [g/l] = 288 [pg/ml]
1 [ng/dl] = 10 [pg/ml]
So, considering this and converting all the stuff to pg/ml (but, AFAIR, Robb preferred measuring molar mass) i did some pubmed search:
[1] mean aFT: 12.2 +/- 5.4 [pg/ml], reference: 2.4-38 [pg/ml]
[1] mean cFT: 94 +/- 45 [pg/ml], reference: 18-278 [pg/ml]
[2] reference cFT: 69.12-198 [pg/ml]
[3] mean cFT: 141.8 +/- 45 [pg/ml], median cFT 134
[4] (no method in abstract): 63.93 +/- 23 [pg/ml]
aFT – analog immunoassay method of measuring free testosterone
cFT – caculaded method
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19732301 – male, 52.3 +/- 14 years
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22582502 – adult healthy male, China, 20-69 years
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21697255 – community-based sample of healthy nonobese young men 19-40
[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21154195 – Healthy overweight men undergoing a weight reduction program
rokko, Thanks for that information. I had never heard of the different test methods used for free testosterone. Unfortunately, what that means is that my before and after numbers for Free T are completely incomparable. They’re apples and oranges. Hopefully that can serve as a warning to others wanting to have Free T measured. If you want to compare two different testosterone measurements make sure that each is sent to the same laboratory and that the same test method is used. Hindsight is always 20/20 – I had no idea that AnyLabTestNow would send my blood draws to different labs.
One thing I had considered to explain the Free T numbers is if perhaps the Before number was “bioavailable” testosterone. Bioavailable T is the sum of Free T and Albumin bound T. The bond of testosterone to albumin in the blood is very weak and despite being bound is still considered to be bioavailable, unlike that fraction bound to sex hormone binding globulin. However, both before and after test results were labelled as “free T” so I don’t think this is the case.
This as paleo of an air freshener as you’ll find: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2012/07/diy-bacon-fat-candle/
your body makes lactase, the enzyme that digests milk sugar, (aka lactose) based on how much milk sugar (lactose) you have in your diet. So if you don’t consume much/any dairy, your body will stop making much of the enzyme (lactase). However it will start making it again, up to whatever is your natural limit, if you start drinking milk et al, again. Some people can only make so much lactase, so milk on their cereal is all they will ever have, some people can drink milk all day long, some people cannot tolerate any milk, no matter what…
If you decide to start up with milk et all again, start off with the cultured stuff that is naturally tart (contains less milk sugar), like yogurt, sharp cheeses, etc… so your body can ramp up its enzyme production again. The whole process takes a few weeks.
That’s a nicely made answer to a challenging qsuetoin
Robb, you HAVE to go on Adam Carolla’s podcast. Spread the bacon love!
Rob mentioned liking one HCL supplement better than another one that he used to recommend. Anyone know what brand he was talking about?
I seldom leave a response, but i did a few searching and wound up here Testosterone Testing & Error – Episode 143.
And I do have a couple of questions for you if it’s allright. Could it be only me or does it give the impression like some of these remarks look as if they are written by brain dead visitors? 😛 And, if you are writing at other social sites, I’d
like to follow everything fresh you have to post. Would you list of all of your
shared sites like your Facebook page, twitter feed,
or linkedin profile?
The 28 year old woman (Lindsay) with a sudden aversion to meat needs to take a pregnancy test if that is at all a possibility. Meat aversions are classic first trimester symptoms!
I *did* write an article about Paleo air fresheners! (Robb is psychic!)
http://asecondopinionmag.com/archives/616
My $2 (due to inflation) on air fresheners:
Yes, they can make some people very sick. And they are bad for everybody, whether or not you react to it. Multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) is a real thing. Hopefully clean eating will reduce or eliminate those problems in most individuals. But still not good to be inhaling if you can help it. The problem is mostly in artificial/synthetic fragrances and their VOCs, as far as I understand it. So some essential oils would not be the same issue or a problem for most people. I know they drive me nuts, from walking into a public restroom feeling fine and immediately starting to sneeze, to being near someone and inherently disliking them because their laundry softener fragrance or perfume is giving me nausea and a headache, to being unable to ride in some people’s cars or go in their homes. I don’t have a problem being outdoors at any time of the year, only indoor fragrances make me sick. I recommend everyone dial things back and go unscented / fragrance free as often as you can.
As far as gyms go, those automatic fragrance dispensers on the wall can be killer! I know I have heard many people complain about them to me. It really doesn’t make sense to be doing a heavy respiration activity and then have aerosolized puffs of chemicals pumped directly over you. I know nobody wants to be in a room full of sweaty stank, but a combination of cleanliness, fresh air and great ventilation, and perhaps some natural essential oils (citrus oil products are great) might be the best way to go.
http://cleanerindoorair.org/campaigns/choose-friendships-over-fragrances/
http://www.chemicalsensitivityfoundation.org/
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