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Fellas – Why Red Wine is Manlier than Beer

Bad news guys – beer makes you less manly.

Not only are men experiencing record-lows in testosterone levels, but it turns out our most beloved beverage, beer, may be a big culprit.

Testosterone is a critical hormone, for both men and women, but it clearly has a bigger impact on males – it’s not just responsible for muscle growth and a healthy libido, it’s responsible for decreasing male stress levels, warding off depression and cognitive decline, keeping us lean and even delaying death.

Why the record lows in T levels? I suspect a huge factor is the overwhelming presence of xenoestrogens – foreign substances that act as estrogen does in the body. Where do these xenoestrogens come from? Plenty of foods, PCB, BPA, phthalates and other plastic chemicals, as well as many pesticides and herbicides. In a nut shell, they’re everywhere. Add to this a general lack of healthy, testosterone boosting foods, lack of exercise, and sedentary, stressful lifestyle, and you’ve got a great prescription for excess estrogen and lowered testosterone levels.

So how does beer come into play? Beer is made out of just four ingredients – barley, hops, yeast and water. Unfortunately, those lovely, delectable hops are loaded with what appear to be pretty potent phytoestrogens, or plant-derived chemicals that act as estrogen would in the body.

It seems that in Germany, women with gynecological disorders would bathe in “brewery sludge baths”, which contained up to 30% hop extracts. Sounds fun. A 1953 study reported that young girls who came to pick hops off the vine in hop gardens regularly began menstruating two days after arrival. The authors of the study concluded that hops contain “the equivalent of 20–300 μg estradiol/g”. Estradiol is the main form of estrogen within the human body, and the average levels of estradiol within the blood stream of women are 30 to 400 TRILLIONTHS of a gram per milliliter. Hops contain 20-30 millionths of a gram of estradiol per gram of hops – that’s quite a lot.

In Europe a condition called “brewers droop” is widely known; it refers to the lack of ability some beer brewers have in being able to “get it up”.

I’ll be the first to admit that I love a good hoppy beer; more than a few IPAs come to mind, and with the explosion of craft brewing and turning away from watered down, adjunct lagers (BUDWEISER), beers are becoming more and more hoppy. But with the rampant exposure to xenoestrogens, should us men be going out of our way to consume a potent liquid estrogenic cocktail?

Luckily, we have red wine to the rescue.

Red wine is one of the richest sources of a lovely little antioxidant called resveratrol. Resveratrol has many interesting health boosting properties, among them improved heart health, increased endurance and possibly increasing lifespan. But as it relates to this discussion, resveratrol just so happens to be an aromatase-inhibitor. Aromatase is this enzyme in our bodies that goes around converting testosterone into estrogen. Anything that inhibits this enzyme therefor increases testosterone and lowers estrogen, a boon for the modern man. And don’t worry ladies, you need some help too as you’re getting exposed to just as many xenoestrogens as men are.

Now, this isn’t going to be some massive effect. It won’t get you “jacked” or give you ‘roid rage, but it will help to balance your hormones in this xenoestrogen-laden world. If you’re a guy who frequently experiences low libido, depression, that “spare tire” around your belly, lack of drive and motivation, and just generally feel less “you”, I recommend giving the beer a nice month or two break and switching to some red wine. You can thank me later.

I haven’t given up my beer – in fact I drank one while finishing this article, a stout called Old Engine Oil. I have cut back on beer, however, and begun to use certain foods and supplements to detox my body of excess estrogens and prevent the hormonal disturbances caused by hops. If you’re interested in knowing how you can do the same, or how to balance your hormone levels in general, we should talk.

The Perfect Diet – Is It a Myth?

Let’s face it – we live in a world where we like to have things nice and tidy, where things can be cut and dry. We like our lives to be simple, clear cut, black and white, yes or no, and we want answers, dammit. This way of living has its uses, but we have to remember that while our outlooks may be black and white, the real world isn’t.

“The map is not the territory.” – Alfred Korzybski

No where is this more evident than in the world of nutrition. I chose a really contradictory and confusing field to immerse myself in (or maybe it chose me). Point is, while we all want there to be a perfect, one-size-fits-all approach to health, and particularly diets, this is just not the case.

So I’ll come clean and stand in direct opposition to many health gurus out there. Is there a perfect diet for people to follow?

No.

There is not, never was and never will be a perfect, one-size-fits-all diet that every person can abide by. Humans are just too complex and varied, and that’s a good thing! That’s what has allowed us to survive this long, our adaptability. We can live on an Atkins, meat-based diet or we can live on a raw vegan diet.

However, there are definitely some rules to abide by when designing your ideal diet, and I don’t think these are negotiable. So without further adieu, I’d like to present to you my

8 Rules for an Ideal Diet

Make sure that your diet is…

Whole-foods based – This one’s a no-brainer folks! If you’re eating highly-processed denatured foodstuffs, aka the Standard American Diet, aka SAD, aka garbage, you’re not only denying your body the nutrients it needs, but draining it of further nutrients as your body attempts to digest and assimilate it. Whole foods come with all the necessary nutrients within, in the proper ratios, and with all the necessary cofactors needed for absorption and assimilation. Nature’s no dummy, so stick to whole foods.
Organic – Again, so simple and obvious yet still overlooked. The pesticides, herbicides and fungicides used on crops are absolutely terrible for our health! They make us fat, tired, depressed, give us cancer, ruin our moods and energy levels, lead to birth defects and fetal death, and throw our hormones out of balance. But hey, if you’re into that kinda stuff…
Plant-based – I’m not saying you have to be a vegan, (I’m certainly not one), but you do want plants to be the backbone, the foundation, of your diet. Why? Plants are loaded with powerful phytochemicals (phyto=plant) that have amazing effects on our bodies. That nice buzz you get from your morning cup o’ joe? From the phytochemical known as caffeine. How is it that turmeric is such a powerfully healing plant, able to reduce inflammation, boost brain power, fight off dementia, Alzheimer’s and depression, improve skin conditions, beat cancer to a pulp, diminish pain and boost digestion? Cuz it’s loaded with phytochemicals! If you’re looking for disease prevention, enhanced cognition, energy and mood, and faster weight loss, get some phytochemicals in your life right now.
Nutrient Dense – Your food’s doing nothing for you if it’s devoid of nutrients. You want to make sure the foods you eat are as nutrient dense as possible, so that your body is supplied with all the goodies it needs to keep you performing at tip top shape. Foods such as liver, kale, collard greens, seaweeds, spirulina, chlorella, bee pollen and cod-liver oil are at the top of the nutrient density list. As just one example of a nutrient you’re probably missing out on… Do you like being stressed? Want brittle bones? Do you love having low energy levels? Make sure you’re getting enough magnesium (highest concentrations found in dark leafy greens, bone broth, pumpkin seeds and dark chocolate), a nutrient the majority of Americans are deficient in and one that probably wasn’t on your radar.
Irritant / Toxin-free – Goes without saying, you don’t want to be ingesting any more toxins than you’re already getting from modern day pollution. This means going organic as well as looking for food that comes from clean sources, aka wild-caught fish, pasture-raised animal products, vegetables that aren’t grown in some highly polluted city or coming from China or South America, etc. As for irritants, well.. Some of us know for sure that a food has irritating compounds, as many with celiac disease will tell you. For others, we may not know how awful gluten makes us feel until we go a good month or two without it. I personally handle gluten well, but I get very little in my diet anyway. Experiment around with elimination diets and see if you have any problem foods.
As local as possible – For those of you living in beautiful sunny California, where it’s easy to find local food and the only season is Beautiful, this may be less of an issue. Here in Maryland it’s different. I have to search out local foods at the few local farms in my area or at the one local Co-op. Local is better because it cuts down on pollution and energy waste – it’s “greener”, has a smaller carbon footprint and because there aren’t any long transit times, it retains more nutrients. And of course it helps support your local community.
Seasonally Appropriate – Eating local also keeps your diet seasonally appropriate. Our bodies need certain nutrients or foods in higher quantities depending on the season. Winter usually has us eating heavier and more energy dense foods to offset the diminished sunlight and cold temperatures. Come Spring, nature gives us a fresh bounty of cleansing sprouts and other foods to help detox our bodies after the harsh Winter. In Summer we have more access to fresh leafy greens and berries, lighter foods that don’t weigh us down in the heat. Fall is full of foods to help us transition from lighter foods back to heavier ones.
It Makes You Feel Fantastic – If your current diet doesn’t leave you feeling like a million bucks with energy to spare at the end of the day, you’re not eating your ideal diet. This is where trial and error comes in. It’s also what I do for a living, so if you’re looking to speed up the process and feel better than you ever knew possible, come talk to me.

I know some of you are left with your mouths agape in horror as I never mentioned how many carbs or how much fat you should eat, whether you should count calories or if being vegan is better than being paleo. That’s up to you and your body.

Speaking of vegans and paleo heads, one last word of wisdom – don’t get caught up in the hype of some diet/lifestyle/nutrition dogma. If you’re paleo, cool, be paleo. If you’re a vegan, be a vegan. But remember everyone’s different and throughout the world, many people are thriving on diets that are vastly different from yours. Don’t think you’re special because of the foods you do or don’t eat, and don’t look down on others for the foods they eat, even if they’re eating Big Macs and slurping down gallons of soda. But please, don’t be that McDonalds person…

My Number One Supplement Recommendation

A common mistake I see a lot of people committing is bringing their consumer-driven, “want it now” attitudes to health. This is one of many areas in life where you simply can’t rush things. People want to lose weight, look better, have more energy and a more vibrant life but these don’t just POOF! occur over night. Of course there are ways to speed up this process, which I’m all about, but there still isn’t and never will be any magic pill.

However….

If there were one supplement that gave you the most bang for your buck, the most broad spectrum of benefits, and jumpstarted your way to healthy living, would you take it?

My guess is that you would.

You can’t have all your health goals achieved at once or without any effort, but you can get a jumpstart on the process with Healthforce’s Vitamineral Green.

Vitamineral Green is a nutrient dense, low-calorie blend of some of the most nutritious, healing and protective plants in the world. It contains three blends of herbal substances – From the Land, From the Waters, and From the Oceans, as well as a blend of digestive enzymes and probiotics.

It’s “From the Land” portion of the blend boasts hearty doses of Nettle Leaf, a strong detoxifying and hormone regulating tonic, the concentrated juices of Alfalfa leaf, Dandelion (powerful liver detoxifier), chlorophyll rich barley and wheat grass, as well as oat grass. This portion of the blend also contains silicon-rich horsetail (great for hair, skin and bones), the adaptogenic herb tulsi to help manage with stress, ginger for digestion and it’s anti-inflammatory properties, as well as shilajit, an Ayurvedic substance that not only detoxifies the body but enhances absorption of other compounds consumed with it.

The “From the Waters” blend contains almost 4 grams of Spirulina and Chlorella, two of the most nutrient dense foods available. These two algaes both have more protein by weight than even beef, and it comes in a highly digestible free-amino acid form. They’re both rich in detoxifying chlorophyl as well as the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory blue pigments known as phycocyanins. Chlorella is also rich in nucleic acids, the building blocks of DNA and RNA, and has this cool compound called Chlorella-Growth Factor, all of which combine to make to chlorella one strong rejuvenative substance.

The “From the Oceans” blend is an array of seaweeds, known for being very nutrient dense and high in iodine, a mineral sorely lacking in today’s diets. Iodine is crucial for proper thyroid function, so if you’re looking to have a healthy balance of hormones as well as a metabolism that hums so loud you can hear it, get your iodine, folks.

As mentioned above, it has a hefty dose of digestive enzymes, which not only help your body to absorb the above listed ingredients, but can help to digest food when taken with meals.

It also boasts 10,000,000,000 live probiotic cultures per serving. Probiotics, those lovely little bacteria in our digestive tracts, are proving to be more and more valuable. They help digest and absorb food as well as create new nutrients for us – hunger suppressing butyric acid, anyone? They’re also a nice source of various neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, which play crucial roles in mood and energy levels. You can’t claim to be health conscious without using probiotics, whether as a supplement or in whole food form.

As you can see, this is one badass supplement! There are other green blends out there, but with the exception of Green Vibrance, I haven’t found any that pack as strong a punch. If you’re looking for a quick and noticeable boost in health, I strongly recommend you pick up one of these supplements and try it daily for just one month. You’ll be amazed at how great you’ll feel.

Have you used Vitamineral Green or Green Vibrance? If so, what were your results? Leave a comment and let us know.

Why Diets Don’t Work

If you’re one of the millions of people who have ever gone on a diet, you’re likely to have gained the weight back after the diet ended, maybe even ending up weighing more than when you started. This is the unfortunate reality for many people, and it’s not their fault – it’s a problem inherent in the entire dieting mindset.

Let me explain.

Taking freak genetic and metabolic conditions aside, a person is only as overweight or fit as their habits allow them to be. Let me say this again – a person is only as overweight or fit as their habits allow them to be. So when someone “goes on a diet” and temporarily changes their eating and exercising habits, they wind up seeing different results and they lose weight. But as soon as they “go off” their diet, i.e. revert back to their old habits, they gain most of the weight back, and sometimes even more.

This is why it’s crucial to not start a diet that you can only stick with for a month or two, at which point you give it up and go back to your old ways.

So what’s the answer?

Instead you must implement new, healthy habits, and ensure that they stick and take root.

This is as simple as adding one salad a day to your meals.

It’s as simple as jogging one mile three times a week.

It’s as simple as doing 20 body weight squats or 20 push ups before each meal.

As simple as adding more protein and fiber to your meals.

By doing this you won’t lose 20 pounds in 20 days. It may be more like 20 pounds in 2 months. But guess what? You’ll lose the weight enjoyably and it’ll stay off, and because your self-perpetuating habits will prevent you from gaining the weight back, it’ll stay off for good.

Change your habits, change your life.

A New Definition of Health

A lot of people view health as just the absence of disease. “Well there’s nothing wrong with me, I’m not on any medications, so I must be healthy… Right?”

I’m here to tell you otherwise. I got into health not because I was on medications or was overweight, nor for some lofty goal of helping others. It was quite a selfish reason actually – it was because eating healthy made me feel good. Not just good, great. Better than I’d ever felt before. And the further I went down the rabbit hole, the more it felt like I was on some new drug where every day was better than the last – I had nearly limitless energy, colors were brighter, and I was happy for no damn reason at all. I felt like I was cheating life somehow.

Let me back up a second.

It all started when I was working at Starbucks. I’d just moved downtown and just turned 21. Needless to say, I was burning the candles at both ends. It got to the point where I was drinking at least 8 shots of espresso each day, just to feel normal. I realized that that was far from normal, so I decided to cut back on the caffeine and booze and try to eat healthier.

Problem was, I hated vegetables. The plan? Put one leaf of spinach on my turkey/cheese/bacon sandwich. The next sandwich would have two leaves of spinach. Eventually I got to the point where there was a nice level of 10-15 leaves of spinach on my sandwich, and I actually liked it! I was on my way.

Then I progressed to salads, aka some meat and cheese atop a thin layer of baby spinach. Then I cut back on taco bell. Then I started doing yoga. And I realized that with each new addition (or subtraction) to my healthy lifestyle, I felt better and better. I had more confidence, more energy, more zest for life. The rashes that had plagued me since adolescence disappeared. I no longer needed 8 shots of espresso just to feel normal. I came into work chipper and full of energy while those around me went from manic to grumpy and tired in the matter of an hour, day in and day out.

At that point I wondered, “Just how far can I take this?”

That was 5 years ago, and to this day I’m still increasing my energy levels and feeling amazing beyond what I thought possible.

So I’d like to posit a new definition of health, not as merely the absence of disease, but as a dynamic state of vitality which has you thriving on the physical, mental, emotional and even spiritual levels.

In laymen’s terms, feeling freaking great. And yeah, not having any diseases or health issues is important too.

And remember, health is not a destination. It’s a continuous journey.