Carnivore Evolution, Magnesium Sensitivity, Body Cells and Light | THRR054

The Healthy Rebellion Radio

Evolution of The Carnivore Diet, Issues on Keto Diet: Maybe Electrolyte Imbalance?, Weird Reaction To Beef & Lamb?, Do All Cells React to Light?, Electrolyte/Magnesium Sensitivity?

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Show Notes:

News topic du jour:

Obesity and disease tied to dramatic dietary changes

The 'mismatch hypothesis' argues that our bodies evolved to digest the foods that our ancestors ate, and that human bodies will struggle and largely fail to metabolize a radically new set of foods. This intuitive idea is hard to test directly, but the Turkana, a pastoralist population in remote Kenya, present a natural experiment: genetically homogenous populations whose diets stretch across a lifestyle gradient from relatively 'matched' to extremely 'mismatched' with their recent evolutionary history.

Enter the Turkana -- a subsistence-level, pastoralist population from a remote desert in northwest Kenya. In the 1980s, an extreme drought coupled with the discovery of oil nearby led to rapid transformation of the region. Large segments of the population abandoned their nomadic lifestyle, some to live in villages and others in cities. Traditional Turkana still rely on livestock -- dromedary camels, zebu cattle, fat-tailed sheep, goats, and donkeys -- for subsistence, while Turkana living in cities have switched to diets that are much higher in carbohydrates and processed foods . This is a trend that is widely observed across the world, a result of increasing globalization, even in remote communities.

"We realized that we had the opportunity to study the effect of transitioning away from a traditional lifestyle, relying on almost 80% animal byproducts -- a diet extremely protein-rich and rich in fats, with very little to no carbohydrates -- to a mostly carbohydrate diet," said Julien Ayroles, an assistant professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and LSI who is the senior researcher on the new paper. "This presented an unprecedented opportunity: genetically homogenous populations whose diets stretch across a lifestyle gradient from relatively 'matched' to extremely 'mismatched' with their recent evolutionary history."

"But Turkana who had moved to cities exhibited poor cardio-metabolic health, with much higher levels of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular illness and high blood pressure. The health metrics also showed that the longer Turkana had spent living in the city, the less healthy they tended to be, with life-long city dwellers experiencing the greatest risk of cardiovascular disease."

1. Evolution of The Carnivore Diet [15:52]

Bradley says:

I love your podcast, I love the open minded science based approach towards diet and nutrition. I’m a graduate of Mark Sisson’s Primal Health Coaching course and am I huge nutrition nerd. I’ve tried vegetarian, vegan, and finally got amazing results from primal eating. I’ve always leaned more towards the low carb mainly animal product end of the spectrum on Primal and have been listening to carnivore podcasts almost exclusively for the past few months. I do have a comment that maybe you could help me understand. I bought The Carnivore Code by Paul Saladino and I love the book and his points on plant self defense mechanisms and it makes sense. Maybe I missed something but if we evolved to become more animal based wouldn’t it also make sense that we’ve now evolved back to being able to eat some plants? Maybe there hasn’t been enough time for that evolution? Isn’t being able to drink milk without the gassy affects an evolution too though? I appreciate any insights

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactase_persistence#:~:text=The%20first%20identified%20genetic%20variant,C%2FT*%E2%88%9213910.&text=Other%20alleles%20associated%20with%20lactase,T%2FC*3712%20in.

2. Issues on Keto Diet: Maybe Electrolyte Imbalance? [23:53]

James says:

Hello. My name is James and I am a 30 year old male and I live in Charlottesville, VA. I decided to meet with a functional medicine doctor/ nutritionist about 10 weeks ago. During my initial consultation I was at 188lbs with ~24% body fat. I also got my blood work done that I can send for reference. My goals are mainly focused on developing good nutrition habits to feel good and maintain a healthy body composition. I also had consisting gas/bloating issues. For the first 2 weeks I followed a paleo diet focused on getting adequate protein from meat sources (hand sized portion with lunch/dinner). I also followed intermittent fasting M-F eating from 12-8. For the next 6 weeks I practiced intermittent fasting during the week and followed a somewhat ketogenic diet ( 136g protien, 26g carbs, and 146g fat). During this time I was also taking magnesium supplement/ fish oil at night and vitamin D/ floramyces during lunch. I was also practicing CrossFit regularly about 5-6 times a week. At week 6 I did a long workout in the morning in a fasted state. Post workout I felt dizzy/weak and my legs were just cramping constantly. I was at the point where I felt like I was going to faint. My nutritionist said this was likely an electrolyte imbalance. He recommended and electrolyte supplement pre/post workout and increasing magnesium on training days. Also trying to eat low carb vegetables more to get natural sources of potassium. I did this and I am still having some issues. This past week I hav had some hot/cold sensations in legs/feet with some hamstring cramping. Yesterday I was tired of this feelings and I tried eating some fruit through carbs. This seemed to resolve my symptoms fairly quickly. Thinking about introducing carbs back into my diet. Right now down like 8 pounds but just want to feel a little more Normal again.

3. Weird Reaction To Beef & Lamb? [29:32]

Kim says:

Hi Nicki and Robb,

Your podcast and books are life savers. I am so, so grateful for what you do to educate! I had been vegan/vegetarian for years but after processing the grief from suddenly losing my mom I found myself completely depleted, losing my mind, and in extreme physical pain. Through tireless research on my own over the last 3 years I have found my way to thriving health by completely changing what I eat. I believe the years as a vegan almost killed me! From this whole experience I am acutely aware of how my body reacts to different foods. I have had to eliminate all estrogenic foods but now completely enjoy my new diet based on plenty of low carb green leafy vegetables, cruciferous vegetables, some types of seeds and nuts and of course pasture raised meats and eggs and wild caught fish. My question is about a weird reaction I have to beef and lamb. When I eat fish, chicken or pork I do fine but when I eat even the highest quality grass-fed beef or lamb I have the same reaction that I do to highly estrogenic foods, anxiety and hyper awake (sleep issues). Is there anything in the amino acid profile of beef and lamb that is substantially different from that of chicken and pork that could be causing this? Is there something I could eat along with beef and lamb to counteract this reaction in my body? Ideally I would like to eat be able to eat beef and lamb over pork and chicken so I need to figure this out. Any thoughts you have would be most gratefully received.

Thank you again for all that you do.

All the best,

Kim

4. Do All Cells React to Light? [36:25]

Mariessa says:

Hi, Robb!

Regarding the blue light glasses: the book Lights Out noted that all (many? More than just eyes) cells react to the light if I'm remembering correctly. What are your thoughts on this?

Thanks,

Mariessa

Circadian Clocks in Human Red Blood Cells

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3040566/

5. Electrolyte/Magnesium Sensitivity? [41:24]

I have found that if I have more than 1 packet of LMNT a day, I get a bit of digestive trouble probably due to the magnesium. I seem to be fairly sensitive to magnesium in all forms. Any tips?

Thank you for all that you do!

Sponsor:

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