You are on page 1of 62

www.180degreehealth.

com 1

Rrarf!
An Introduction to
180DegreeHealth
By Matt Stone
A proud presentation of:

www.180degreehealth.com

Copyright © 2010 180DegreeHealth, LLC. All rights reserved worldwide. This publication and content is protected
by law, and all rights are reserved, including resale rights: you are not allowed to sell this E-Book to anyone else.
Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by Section 107 or 108 of the 1976
United States Copyright Act without permission of the copyright owner is unlawful.
www.180degreehealth.com 2

Disclaimer

The material provided here is for educational and informational purposes


only and is not intended as medical advice. The information contained in
this eBook should not be used to diagnose or treat any illness, metabolic
disorder, disease, or health problem. If you have developed a serious
illness of some kind, the complexities of dealing with that disorder are
best handled by your physician or health care provider, whom you should
also consult with before beginning any nutrition or exercise program. Use
of the programs, advice, and other information contained in this eBook is
at the sole choice and risk of the reader.
www.180degreehealth.com 3

Table of Contents
About Matt Stone 4
Introduction 7
A Few Words About My Research Style 13
HED First – How the High-Everything Diet was Born 17
The Real Meat of the HED 23

Confirmation 27
RRARF is Rehabilitative Rest & Aggressive Re-Feeding 33
The Specifics of the High-Everything Diet 40
Conclusion 46
Appendix I 49
Appendix II 51
References 56
www.180degreehealth.com 4

About Matt Stone

Hi, I’m Matt Stone. Despite having graduated from the same university, I’m
not the co-creator of South Park. That’s a different Matt Stone. I’m also not
the Matt Stone that plays Neil Diamond tribute concerts, even though I’m
known amongst friends for singing Neil classics while driving past his
Colorado home (I also can only play Diamond classics on guitar and little
else). I’m the other, other Matt Stone, the author and independent health
researcher.

Health, the culinary arts, traditional agriculture, exercise, and nutrition have
been interests, hobbies, and/or professions of mine my entire life. In 2005;
however, I decided to “kick it up a notch.”

I launched a full-scale independent investigation into human health,


sticking my nose into a wide spectrum of authors over the past century,
cutting-edge scientific discoveries in the field of endocrinology, and many
more disciplines and “-ologies” as diverse as paleopathology and
psychoneuroendocrinology. Hoping to find something good – really learn
and discover something important, I was not disappointed.

Very distinct themes emerged amongst nearly all of the avenues I explored.
It became abundantly clear, we’re talking absolute crystal clarity here, that
www.180degreehealth.com 5

the typical ideas that the mainstream has about health don’t make much
sense, are not congruent with history or even the most basic logic, and are
more incorrect than you can imagine.

In fact, when trying to come up with a simple name to summarize the


discoveries that I had unearthed, the first thing that came to mind were the
numbers 1-8-0. When the dramatic and exponential rise of obesity, type II
diabetes, tooth decay, crooked teeth, mental disorders of all kinds,
autoimmune disease, allergies and asthma, heart disease, cancer, early
puberty, and even nearsightedness are all taken into consideration – current
widespread health information falls into a category somewhere between
comical and diabolical. The exact opposite information is much more
capable of halting and even reversing these alarming health trends. In
more ways than one, we, as a species, are in desperate need of a
180-degree turnaround.

Although I might have an odd sense of humor and make way too many
obscure references to pop culture, do not be fooled. My pursuit of
knowledge and comprehension of the field of human health exceeds that of
all others in its scope, vision, and enthusiasm. This is not just a hobby of
mine, nor is it a capital venture that is gearing up for the release of pills,
powders, and triple chocolate almond fudge brownie “health” bars. This is a
tireless, lifelong pursuit of genuine human vitality – fueled by an agonizing
desire to understand how and why human health is declining and how that
process can be turned around.

I, Matt Stone, and www.180degreehealth.com, make this pledge to you:

To provide the most logical, unbiased, worthwhile, effective, and


accurate discourse on human health in existence.

Follow along with me and my life’s work, and together we will build the
foundation of knowledge and understanding required to improve our own
www.180degreehealth.com 6

health while insuring the well-being of many generations to come – and we


might even have some fun while we’re at it.

-Matt Stone; December 2008


www.180degreehealth.com 7

Introduction
Crikey! I’ve been wanting to write this free eBook – an introduction to 180DegreeHealth for a
long, long time.

People often have a hard time grasping what 180DegreeHealth is. There’s no real manual out
there saying what 180 is and what 180 is all about. Misconceptions, internet gossip, and more
have greatly contorted the general message and beliefs that are a culmination of my research.
Some have actually been led to believe that 180DegreeHealth is dedicated to eating as much junk
food as possible kind of like what Morgan Spurlock did in the movie Supersize Me.

Uh, not so much. In fact, 180 is one of the strongest proponents of wholesome, nutritious,
unprocessed, and unadulterated foods on the face of the planet – within reason. Sure, you’ll find
all kinds of nutritional religions out there that are, well, out there. Their beliefs in quality food
are fine and dandy, but cannot be integrated into a lifestyle that is functional in today’s society
without some pretty extreme measures. 180 is about living life too, which is just as important to
health as adhering to organic, grassfed, biodynamic, gluten-free, localvore food Fascism I assure
you.

So yes, 180 believes in taking some dietary liberties and dining with the rest of society from time
to time as well – having the bun with the burger. Junk food bingers though? That’s a stretch.

Anyway, wanted to clear that up right away. I don’t eat every meal at McDonald’s. I might
have a little bit of a comedic fetish for Don Gorske, that one guy from Wisconsin that’s eaten
over 20,000 Big Macs, but I don’t condone such practices.

180 first began with my early adventures in diet – long before I ever conjured up the name
180DegreeHealth. As early as my teens I began actively trying to eat less and exercise more. I
wasn’t overweight or anything, but had that general mindset about me. Unlike Barf, the half-
man, half-dog character from the movie Spaceballs who described himself as his “own best
friend,” I was more like my own Drill Sergeant. I constantly tried to beat myself up for being
weak in the face of laziness and fatigue, and not having the willpower to keep my hands outta the
cookie jar.

I even came across an old calendar of mine from age 14. I was already making unreasonable
goals for myself then. “Do a jillion pushups with one hand tied behind your back every day for a
month while subsisting on only raisins and lint (paraphrased).” When I failed to prove myself
superhuman by meeting any of these goals, I wrote “YOU SUCK” in large letters on the last
page of the calendar. This first attempt and more importantly – mindset toward obtaining health,
has left quite a taste in my mouth. Praise Allah that I didn’t stay stuck there forever (just 12
years or so), but I see people all around me that haven’t moved a mental inch from that state of
www.180degreehealth.com 8

mind, and they are screwing themselves up big time. That’s where the new and improved me
comes in to regulate, but it took a while to get there. Many more forks, follies, and fumbles.

Crap. You know where this is headed next.

I read one book by John Robbins, vegetarian racketeer, and thought that I knew everything about
everything. I jumped on a vegetarian diet and instantly began trying to convince myself that I
was healthier on such fare and began telling everyone in my family that their arteries were gonna
get clogged if they so much as looked at a steak.

But I wasn’t just your average run-o-the-mill vegetarian. I mean I did it right! I ate homecooked
beans, peas, or lentils with nearly every meal. Whole grains? I got ‘em. Whole grain cereal
with soymilk? Every morning! Smoothies with some kind of desiccated pond scum in it that I
paid a quadrillion dollars an ounce for? Hell yes! Raw date and nut bars? By the kilo. I ate
enough fruit to feed the entire cast of Project X with enough leftover for Clyde the Orangutan.

Sorry about all the movie references, but I soaked up movies – mostly 80’s pop culture, the same
way I soaked up nutrition and health information in my later years. I mean, I don’t have to look
up the name of the actor that played Johnny in The Karate Kid. I just know that it was William
Zabka.

Of course, I exercised (exorcised) 40 hours per week, sometimes going on 135-mile bike rides
pulling a 50 pound cart behind my bike up Rocky Mountain passes, so my vegetarian diet was
supplemented with huge Krispy Kreme binges as well. I did, after all, have a huge wave of sugar
cravings sweep over me every 43.8 seconds.

So anyway, I had that experience going for me. Still playing Drill Sergeant to myself.

What next? Oh yeah. I finally broke myself. I went on a long backpacking trip into the Wind
River Mountains of Wyoming with insufficient food supplies for 44 days. I achieved sub 5%
body fat levels, had one of those six-packs with veins popping out of it, and could count each of
my vertebrae. It was by far the most unhealthy I’ve ever been, and the pile of fallen hair I woke
up to each morning for months afterward, or the 40 pieces of candy or 10 cups of caffeinated tea
that I was compelled to consume every day spoke volumes about just how much damage was
done. Funny thing was, I did this all, at least partially, in the name of health. I thought it would
be purifying or something. Turned out to be “or something.” I purified myself of thick hair, sex
drive, sanity, and being warm at normal temperatures – among other things.

Anyway, that was that. I was done with fighting against myself to be healthy. I started relaxing
more. Eating more. Loving myself1. Trying not to judge my food choices but just enjoy

1
That’s not what I mean you pervert!
www.180degreehealth.com 9

everything I ate. Before long, I was eating healthier than I ever had before. It was automatic. I
didn’t want to eat junk. I stopped having those Krispy Kreme binges.

In fact, I called such a truce with ME that I started actually thinking of myself as being “sacred.”
Okay fine, I was a little TOO into Eckhart Tolle, Wayne Dyer, and other new-agey nonsense
back then, but it was an important stepping stone in learning to really trust my body, and be at
total harmony with it.

At the same time I really began to catch on, finally, to the fact that health and nutrition was my
true calling. Little clues popped up, like the fact that I couldn’t read two pages of a novel
without my mind wandering – but when I read a book about diet, health, nutrition, and related
topics I would rip through them in two days and be able to recall nearly every word in vivid
detail years later. Hmmm.

So finally I took the plunge. I ordered 25 books, hoping to read them all in a year, and polished
them all off in a few months, thirstier for knowledge than I had ever been in my life. Instead of
continually bombarding my friends and family members with the latest interesting nutritional
controversy du jour, I decided to start a blog. I called it “Sacred Self.”

The idea was to include people on my health knowledge quest, and share with them some of the
real truths that I had already arrived at – such as what happens when you end the war with your
appetite and energy levels and just “obey” or “trust” your body instead. I once thought about
calling it “The Body Trust” as well.

Finally, after all the research I had done, it became increasingly clear that what I had discovered
was really 180 degrees to not just mainstream health, but many alternative beliefs as well. I was
paving new ground, and some unique ideas not shared by anyone else in the health and nutrition
arena began to surface. So in 2008, the big name change occurred. Sacred Self became a relic,
and 180DegreeHealth became the future direction of my work, starting with the launch of
www.180degreehealth.com on New Year’s Day of 2009, which also saw the release of version 1
of my first eBook: 180 Degree Metabolism: The Smart Strategy for Fat Loss (this was a pretty
piss poor book overall compared to version 2 which was released in April of 2010).

Anyway, what is 180DegreeHealth?

180 is an ongoing health and nutrition exploration into the whole, comprehensive portrait of
what could be called Western Disease. How can it be prevented? How can the rising rates of
numerous degenerative diseases be reversed – turned 180 degrees? How can individual illnesses
be reversed?

I do not possess all the answers to all things, nor will I ever. But I am looking, I am unbiased
more so than any other health advisor, educator, or theorist, and this is an actively evolving
health community determined to find the most correct answers to the big questions. Everything I
www.180degreehealth.com 10

believe is constantly being fine-tuned, refined, and updated based on the avalanche of new
information, testimonials, personal experience, and debate that I am constantly immersed in.

Because of this, 180DegreeHealth has not only become an interesting place to snoop around, it
has become an exciting place to snoop around. Wild ideas like using overfeeding as a tool to
conquer health problems presumed to be caused by overfeeding tops the list of 180’s biggest
breakthrough discovery to date. With the discovery, nearly every mainstream and alternative
belief about nutrition and “metabolic syndrome” has been formidably challenged.

I actually used overfeeding to bring my blood glucose levels down 26% in 30 days eating lots of
fat (thought by one side of mainstream medicine to cause high blood sugars), lots of calories
(thought by another camp to cause high blood sugars), gaining weight (thought by another camp
to cause high blood sugars), not exercising (thought by another camp to cause high blood
sugars), and eating lots of high-glycemic carbohydrates (thought by another camp to cause high
blood sugars). Fasting levels dropped to 67 mg/dl, with 1-hour postprandial readings after a full
meal containing nearly 100 grams of high-glycemic index carbohydrate (baked potato with skin)
of 75 mg/dl. This is a massive affront to five of the most major theories on insulin resistance
taking place simultaneously.

Few 180 followers track their blood sugars, but given sufficient time, about a half dozen others
have reported verifiable increases in insulin sensitivity as well, with blood sugars dropping
substantially. I received a testimonial just today via e-mail from a young man in Belgium,
Martin, that dropped his 2-hour postmeal blood sugars from 120 mg/dl to 95 mg/dl since the
beginning of the year. This is not an uncommon report, even amongst those who notice a rise in
blood sugar when they first begin.

Another great distinguishing aspect of 180DegreeHealth is its focus. Other sites put certain
foods into healthy and unhealthy categories. Some go so far as to take pride in helping their
devotees develop food intolerances. “You might not have an adverse reaction to grains yet
young Skywalker, but eat Paleo for a few months, try some grains, and you will become ill the
moment they cross your lips.”

180DegreeHealth is about increasing dietary freedoms, and increasing food tolerances. The ideal
end goal for everyone is to be able to eat the greatest variety of foods, properly digest the
greatest variety of foods, properly metabolize the greatest variety of foods, and experience great
health with the absolute minimum number of dietary restrictions and limitations.

I’m not about figuring out what you do and don’t digest and what you do and don’t “tolerate” for
example, but helping you overcome those obstacles. Easier said than done, and I certainly can
appreciate the need to make a few dietary deletions and restrictions here and there – especially
when it comes to modern, non-nutritive, refined and processed junk foods. But the very fact that
180’s goal is such makes it a pretty unique place to hang out.
www.180degreehealth.com 11

The goal, in simplest terms, is to help people achieve the best and most resilient level of day-to-
day health that they are capable of achieving. I think this level of health was best described by
legendary physician Henry Bieler when he described the amazing health of what he called “the
adrenal type.” I want to do whatever I can to take as many people as possible to that state of
being. That’s what we all want. That is true health. That is liberation. In Food is Your Best
Medicine Bieler writes:

p. 85

“The physical energy of the adrenal type is seemingly inexhaustible, as is the nervous response
of the sympathetic system, a result of perfect oxidation of phosphorous in the nerve tissue.
Oxidation of carbon in the muscular system gives the adrenal type his great warmth. Thus, the
temperature of his body is scarcely ever below 98.8, with hands and feet always pleasantly
warm. As digestion and detoxication of food poisons depend greatly upon oxidation in the liver
and intestines, it follows that the typical adrenal type, with his perfect oxidation, has thorough
digestion. In fact, he may and often does boast that he can eat any and all kinds of food without
discomfort. The exogenous uric acid products as well as the indoxyl compounds are completely
detoxicated in the liver, do not accumulate in the blood, nor are they found in the urine.”

“The skeletal muscles are well developed and have splendid tone. Fatigue is practically
unknown to the adrenal type. His muscular endurance is spectacular. And the perfect tone of
the involuntary muscles is evidenced by complete and rapid peristalsis, resulting in several
bowel evacuations daily. He can dine on the most impossible food combinations imaginable
with no evil results…”

“The quality of the blood is characteristic. A slight to marked polycythemia (more red cells than
usual) occurs; leucopenia, or abnormal white cell count on the low side, is never noted. The
blood, which is of a rich, red color, clots quickly. Fatal hemorrhage seldom occurs. The
immunity against bacterial invasion is spectacular. The typical adrenal type hardly ever
becomes infected, even with venereal diseases…”

“A member of the adrenal-type group has a phlegmatic disposition – easygoing, jolly, slow to
anger, never bothered with insomnia, fear or “cold feet.” He will often go out of his way to
avoid a quarrel. Customarily, he has a wide circle of friends because he is warm-hearted and
surrounded by an ‘aura’ of kindly sympathy.”

“Splendid circulation gives him warm, magnetic hands…”

p. 95

“He never worries…His digestion is good and he is seldom constipated. It is possible for him to
stand more treatments, operations and even more lung hemorrhages than any other type of
www.180degreehealth.com 12

patient. He is the patient most often discharged as arrested or cured. All the treatment
necessary for his recovery is supplied by bed rest and fresh air.”

I don’t know of a more perfect representation of what the true health experience is than that.

Of course, it’s not a matter of mimicking those that have this level of health. That has never
been the solution. Many people make great progress when it comes to mimicking the dietary or
lifestyle patterns of healthy cultures and traditions, for many reasons. Still, it’s not the diet or
lifestyle of our ancestors that we all want to be experiencing if it doesn’t come with the
metabolic state a healthy person is in as well. That’s really the key. How does someone in a
healthy metabolic state maintain that state, and what are some strategies a person in an unhealthy
metabolic state can deploy to get to a better place.

That’s what 180DegreeHealth, and my research and information is all about. I – no wait, WE are
a community of curious people with an interest in health – looking for ways, both new and old,
of experiencing real health breakthroughs and helping others get there.

Glad we connected. Welcome to a health fad hotter than Richard Simmons in Spandex after a
grueling routine with a Thigh Master.

Now let’s get on with the book already. I hope to make you laugh, make you think to the point
of having a headache, show you some new things you’ve never come across, make you realize
that the big questions about health and diet have not been answered yet, and give you a great
foundation to enter into the ongoing 180 adventure in the pages ahead.

-Independent Health Researcher Matt Stone

www.180degreehealth.com

May 2010
www.180degreehealth.com 13

A Few Words About My Research Style


I am often challenged about my research style, and called “unscientific” by the naysayers, of
which there are many – to be expected when the ideas you promote, if true, would debunk nearly
every major health/medical/nutrition movement on earth.

Today’s standard for writing about health and nutrition, more than any other field of science, has
become pitiful. It is expected that any claim you make must have a clinical trial to back it up or
else it is as good as a pile of dog feces. It is assumed that clinical trials actually have some real
basis, are reliable, and the conclusions that stem from such studies are totally infallible. In short,
they convince the less educated, who don’t understand the whole picture.

I think of using studies to back claims or hypotheses as being cheap – cheap to an almost infinite
degree. I’ve perused all kinds of things on Pubmed and other databases of scientific studies and
papers. I’ve also experienced the psychology of coming up with an idea, doing a Google search,
and finding my suspicion confirmed by umpteen different “credible” sources. It’s awesome.
Nothing feels more validating, and when you bring that idea to the public in a paragraph or
article you’re packing heat – heavy artillery that no one can argue against.

But over time as my thoughts and opinions have changed and been fine-tuned, I’ve seen that
basically any thought that pops into my head can be confirmed by a long list of studies – from
your industry standard double-blind, placebo-controlled, peer-reviewed golden boy to large,
correlative epidemiological studies like The China Study (which concluded that animal protein is
the most vile offender in the diet – ha ha!).

Actually, let’s look at the China Study, as that’s a good example. The China Study was
spearheaded by a strong vegetarian advocate – T. Colin Campbell. In the study, he looked at
numerous Chinese provinces to find out what factor correlated most strongly with rates of heart
disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer, etc. In this study, the strongest correlation between rising rates
of degenerative disease was an increased intake of animal-source protein.

A bad researcher, and god-awful scientist, would see this correlation, jump for joy since it lined
up with his preconceived beliefs, and shortly thereafter appear on a pedestal before the whole
world to tell them of this great discovery while vehemently defending his position against those
challenging him with contradictory ideas and data. That’s exactly what T. Colin Campbell has
done, gathering up other vegetarian-minded doctors and researchers as his wing men, and going
on an anti-meat crusade. He’s not interested in contradictory ideas, but instead fights off threats
to the conclusion of the China Study (threats like, oh I don’t know, the fact that nearly every
society on earth eats lots of animal protein and several of those societies have no degenerative
disease while others, eating the same amount of animal protein, have the highest rates of
degenerative disease on earth) by saying something like (paraphrasing again):
www.180degreehealth.com 14

“China Study… Bitches!”

These kind of cheap tactics are used on all sides of the great health debate. Everyone is saying,
“This study PROVES I’m right… Bitches!” Funny thing is, everyone is saying something
different – some in complete opposition to one another, and each has a vast assortment of studies
that they use as confirmation/ammunition against the infidels.

This same tragedy befell Ancel Keys, an excellent laboratory researcher, who looked at some
rudimentary correlative data showing that countries that eat more fat had more heart disease than
countries that eat less fat. This is what spawned the entire “fat causes heart disease” movement.
To Keys it appeared simple, and he jumped to premature conclusions. There was cholesterol in
the arteries of people who died of heart attacks, fat was shown in a few studies to raise
cholesterol levels in the blood, and the citizens of Japan on a low-fat diet had less heart disease
than other nations eating more fat.

The rest is history. Never mind that several of the countries that Keys deleted from that
correlative study ate lots of fat and had fewer heart attacks than people eating far less fat (like
France). Never mind that there are cultures eating an average of 355 grams of fat per day with
no heart disease at all – far less than the Japanese, who happen to suffer from high levels of
stroke, a disease with an almost identical pathology to heart disease.

Low-carbers? Well, don’t even get me started with that. They’ve done a fantastic job at
showing that insulin resistance and rising insulin levels are a key biomarker for virtually all
degenerative diseases. I’ll give them that. Their belief that carbohydrate ingestion causes that is
one of the most easily-refuted hypotheses on earth. Traditional cultures eating very high
carbohydrate diets had phenomenally low blood sugar and insulin levels – far lower than anyone
on a low-carb diet, which is probably why those cultures had no heart disease, diabetes, obesity,
and so on.

Confused yet? Good. If you are not confused, then you have been seduced by one of the various
cookie-cutter theories on Western disease, and the horrendous, evangelistic scientists that head
up these religions. My own beliefs on macronutrients and disease is best described by this old
saying of mine: “Fat causes disease? Carbs? What next, air?”

I on the other hand, am an excellent scientist, and I know of no other source of health
information that is taking a more purist scientific approach to unlocking the mysteries of
nutrition and human health. My approach is not isolated, but broad, all-inclusive, and totally
comprehensive. If I come to one conclusion, then I hold this conclusion’s toes to the fire. I
challenge it with every angle I can come up with. I am willing and eager to radically change my
thoughts about something if I encounter information that gives me a more sophisticated
viewpoint on the matter – or reveals variables that I had yet to take into consideration
www.180degreehealth.com 15

For example, if a study shows that people with the highest salt intakes have a 30% greater risk of
developing hypertension, I make note. However, if the Kuna Indians living on islands outside of
Panama eat tons of salt, and have absolutely ZERO cases of hypertension in every member of
their population at any age, then the search deepens. Salt may be somehow involved in
developing hypertension, but clearly, given that insight, it is not the primary causal factor behind
developing high blood pressure. A more reasonable theory that could be birthed from such
insights is that something in the Western diet screws up kidney function, and when Westerners
eat salt, they are more likely to develop hypertension from it. And so the search continues.

Or let’s say that the Pima Indians of Arizona have higher blood sugar and insulin levels the more
carbohydrates they ingest – thus aging them faster and putting them at greater risk of developing
diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and other ailments. Yet, diabetes and obesity was completely
unknown to them when they were eating a diet consisting of 70% of their calories as
carbohydrate in the form of wheat, corn, potatoes, squash, and beans – far more carbohydrates
than they eat now. Clearly, this adds complexity, and telling them all to eat fewer carbohydrates
lacks true scientific integrity and real, causal insight. For a theory to really be validated, it must
pass through ALL of the many scientific fitness tests. It must not be refuted by history,
epidemiology, observation, personal experience, common sense, and more.

My research style was best summarized by a long-time follower who did jump on board my
choo-choo train of thought – to discover that yes, in fact, I really do pass everything I believe
through a rigorous set of scrutiny and continue to seek out formidable challenges against those
beliefs. Timmy writes:

“Matt Stone is not your run-of-the-mill health [writer]. Although he may sound rigid in
his views, he is not only receptive to, but actually seeks out cognitive dissonance. His
concern is not with maintaining and spreading blind faith in an idealized diet/lifestyle.
Rather, he operates like a scientist, constantly updating and revising his theories in order
that they conform more closely with reality. In line with his goal, his research has been
expansive and open-ended. Although Matt does not have a medical degree — and
therefore may not be able to wade through dense published medical articles with the same
facility or level of comprehension as, say, Stephen at wholehealthsource — he probably
has developed a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying
nutritional/metabolic theories advanced by nutritionists and doctors alike in the past
century than just about any credentialed “expert” you will ever meet. He does this
because it’s his passion. He only charges money for some of his work because, huge dork
that he is, this passion of his has kind of taken over his life. Guy’s gotta make a living
somehow.

Over the past three years, as he has gobbled through tombs of nutrition literature, his
views have radically evolved. At each stage, he spoke as if he had finally attained
nutritional enlightenment, only to change his mind a few months later upon exposure to
conflicting information or new perspectives on old information. Some would view his
www.180degreehealth.com 16

inability to stick rigidly to a specific set of internally consistent dietary stipulations as


vice, but I see this as his strongest virtue; it has enabled him to avoid the confirmation
bias pitfall most nutrition researchers fall into. Over the past couple of years, his principal
theories HAVE grown more stable, suggesting he has refined his ideas to the point where
they are internally consistent with the preponderance of legitimate research…

…I’m no evangelist for the 180 crusade. Matt Stone certainly doesn’t have all the
answers, nor do I expect he ever will, but he is a passionate researcher, a powerful
thinker, and, in my opinion, a man of high integrity. I’d sooner take his advice than my
doctor’s any day.”

Anyway, I thought it was important to address this before you go snooping around for
unsubstantiated claims, and why you would give any of my conclusions the time of day when
Gary Taubes has over 100 pages of specific references to back up his claims while my references
can be packed into just a few pages – and are mostly books, some dating back over a century.

Because those tactics are cheap, remove human logic and critical thinking and analysis from the
picture, and dis-empower the reader. It’s how people fall head over heels for short-lived, dead-
end, dangerous, and narrow-minded health beliefs and approaches. If anything, I hope to educate
and empower readers, not brainwash them into total agreement.

Or, more simply, this is what I’m trying to say – a comment I left on the 180 blog the morning of
writing this:

“I don't rely on "cheap" tactics like using scientific studies to prove a pre-asserted
hypothesis. Instead, I incorporate reasoning, logic, history, observation, and more.

That's what makes [180degreehealth] superior to other [health information] that


relies on isolated studies that are fully citable….

…Anyone can prove whatever they want. It's easy. I could "prove," via those
mechanisms that carbs are the devil, fat is the devil, protein is the devil, grains are
the devil, fruit is the devil, fruit is the salvation of mankind, dairy is the perfect food,
dairy is atherogenic, dairy causes autoimmune disease, dairy cures autoimmune
disease, fat makes you fat, fat makes you thin...

No wonder everyone else is so confused. I would be too if this is what I primarily


relied upon to investigate the vast topic of human health.”
www.180degreehealth.com 17

HED First – How the High-Everything Diet was Born


Like a lot of people, I was easily excited by a lot of the low-carb biased research that I came
across in the first couple of years of my health and nutrition research. I’m a natural contrarian,
and with my background as a butter and foie gras-slingin’ chef at some of the most absurdly
expensive and over the top restaurants on earth, I fell right into the low-carb lair. I loved Weston
A. Price’s “butter is a health food” message. I couldn’t wait, after eating a primarily vegetarian
diet for years, to dig into some monster steaks and untrimmed pork chops. Some days I would
just drink cream straight out of the container. Wow. I was in heaven.

And my initial results on a low-carb diet were amazing. In the past I had been one of those
constantly-hungry guys. I had a serious sugar addiction. Those “low blood sugar” episodes
seemed quite common, and I had the typical roller coaster ride that many on a high-carbohydrate
diet report – and which the low-carb diet is powerful medicine for. So yes, low-carb was a life
changer. What a difference. I lost my appetite, spontaneously grew muscle, started getting up at
dawn with tons of energy without setting an alarm clock, had a constant and reliable mood for
the first time in my life, and more. I thought low-carb was the greatest thing since sliced ham
(not bread), at least at first I did (we’re talking low-moderate carb, about 100 grams per day, not
ketogenic low-carb or Atkins low-carb).

So I bit on the low-carb message hook, line, and sinker. It all seemed to make so much sense in
the context of what I was feeling.

In particular, I bought into the low-carb theory on insulin resistance and how it develops.

For the newbies to the health and nutrition discussion, insulin resistance is a hormonal state in
the body in which cells become unresponsive to the hormone insulin. To override the
dysfunction, extra insulin is secreted to do the job. With this chronically-elevated level of
insulin comes greater storage of ingested food into fat cells, and an inhibition of fat release from
the cells to be burned for energy. Eventually, blood glucose levels tend to rise as well,
particularly after meals. These are the baby steps on the yellow-brick-road to type 2 diabetes and
serious weight problems.

The general belief about insulin resistance is that spiking insulin repeatedly, which happens
every time you ingest a large quantity of food – particularly carbohydrates, leads to the cells
closing down and no longer accepting glucose. These big rises, according to the theories, and
the greater the insulin rise, the more the cells become insulin resistant. You hear the phrase
“wears out the insulin system over time” repeated frequently.

But this wasn’t making sense with some of the new information I was reviewing, and my own
personal experience. For starters, it is well known – totally irrefutable in fact, that gaining
weight by force-feeding yourself, whether you are thin or fat, makes it increasingly difficult to
www.180degreehealth.com 18

gain weight the higher your weight gets. This makes no sense according to the low-carb
theories. Their theory is a simple positive feedback system, in which the more you eat, the
higher your insulin goes. The higher your insulin goes, the more insulin resistant you become.
The more insulin resistant you become the hungrier you get and the more efficiently you store
body fat. That’s the theory. When overfeeding; however, whether it’s with lots of carbs, lots of
fat, or a mixture of the two – it doesn’t work this way at all.

In fact, it is unmistakably a negative feedback system, in which the more you eat above your
appetite, and the more sedentary you are to minimize the amount of calories you burn, the more
the body fights back against this surplus by:

• Raising the Metabolism


• Decreasing hunger
• Increasing physical energy
• Increasing the pulse rate
• Increasing body temperature
• Increasing the rate of lipolysis (burning fat for energy)

And the list goes on. These are all the homeostatic feedback mechanisms that regulate body
weight kicking in. Whether thin or fat, virtually all humans share this same physiology. The
more you eat above your level of appetite, the more difficult it becomes to continue gaining
weight.

Coming across this paragraph in Russ Farris’s The Potbelly Syndrome was certainly an eye-
opener as well, as Farris also challenged the belief that overeating and sedentary behavior leads
to insulin resistance:

“…insulin resistance leads to weight gain, but most health professionals believe that the
opposite is true. If obesity does cause insulin resistance, then we would expect people who are
overfed to become more insulin resistant, but that is not the case. Researchers in Indianapolis
overfed six slender, active, young adults for several weeks… Five of the six subjects became
LESS insulin resistant!”

Oh I know what you’re saying now – they were “slender and young.” Old, fat people don’t
respond that way. If you thought that, you’d be wrong. ALL humans tend to respond that way.
In fact, in my experience, the fatter a person is, the MORE difficult it is for them to gain weight
above their weight “set point.” Several overweight people have even begun losing weight
immediately upon attempting to eat as much food as they can – albeit nutritious food.

But let’s back up for a minute.

As I came across more and more information suggesting that the low-carb theory absolutely
couldn’t be right, the more outside of the box I began to think. Think that carbohydrates cause
www.180degreehealth.com 19

insulin resistance? Consider that there are several populations still left on earth today with no
signs of insulin resistance. That means no documented cases of type 2 diabetes, no high blood
sugars, no obesity – not even a single case of heart disease.

This is the health status of the Kitavans living on an isolated island in Papua New Guinea.
Average blood sugar levels run between 60 and 70 mg/dl at any age. Carbohydrate comprises
roughly 70% of their caloric intake. This is just one example. This has also been seen in
relatively modern times amongst rural Zulu’s, Ugandans, and so on.

Low-carbers make this out to be some kind of special adaptation that these people have to
tolerate and metabolize carbs. Sorry Charlie. People of this same genetic lineage, when exposed
to the Western lifestyle and diet, suffer from even MORE diabetes, insulin resistance, heart
disease, and obesity – across the board. Clearly there’s more to the story than the belief that
carbs = insulin = obesity/insulin resistance/diabetes/death. Embarrassingly, it’s whites of
European descent that have the lowest obesity and diabetes rates on Western fare – who are the
best adapted to an “obesigenic” diet, and it’s typically whites of European descent rambling on
and on about how humans are ill-adapted to carbohydrate consumption (with the exception of
those genetic freaks in Kitava of course!).

Another example that I often bring up is the Pima Indians of the American Southwest. There is
much to be learned from the Pima, as they have by far the greatest rate of insulin resistance,
obesity, and type 2 diabetes of any sub-population on earth. The original theory was that they
had “thrifty genes” which made them more susceptible to food abundance. They naturally had a
physiology for fat storage to get through times of famine. This initial theory has been debunked.

Low-carb author Gary Taubes was somehow able, through a Houdini-like act of twisting logic,
to pin this problem on carbohydrates. Carbohydrates eh?

Just across the border there are Pima Indians living in the mountains of Northern Mexico, the
Maycoba, that are lean and healthy – a night and day difference from their genetic twins living in
Arizona. Is it their low-carb diet that saves them? Have the Pimas always subsisted off of a low-
carbohydrate diet until those darn carbs were introduced to them on the Indian Reservation?
Robert Pool reports:

“Researchers at the NIDDK in Phoenix have estimated that the traditional Pima diet took about
70 percent of its calories in the form of carbohydrates, 15 percent in protein, and 15 percent in
fat. By the 1950’s the proportions had changed to 61 percent carbohydrate, 15 percent in
protein, and 24 percent in fat. In 1971 it was 44 percent carbohydrate, 12 percent protein, and
44 percent fat – a tripling of the fat content.”

Don’t worry, this is not a segue into a schpiel on how low-fat diets are awesome. But you can
clearly see it is not the carbohydrate, in and of itself, that is the chief culprit, as the staples of the
www.180degreehealth.com 20

healthy Maycoba and the healthy, obesity and diabetes-free traditional Pima were wheat, corn,
potatoes, beans, and squash.

Let me know if you started eating exclusively these foods in their unrefined state paired with
lean game meats after being weaned off of mother’s milk, continued that diet without deviation,
and developed type 2 diabetes later in life. You’d certainly be the first in human history, to my
knowledge, to do so.

So yes, anyone who hasn’t been seduced by low-carb biased half-truths about insulin, obesity,
type 2 diabetes, and so on knows that carbohydrates are not the cause of insulin resistance and
related health problems. Those that have moved beyond that conclusion usually blame food
abundance and sedentary behavior for causing the diabesity epidemic.

This too, is a joke. Speaking of the Kitavans, Staffan Lindeberg, a Swedish researcher that paid
these people a visit in the 1980’s to thoroughly examine their health, diet, and lifestyle notes:

“It is obvious from our investigations that lack of food is an unknown concept, and that the
surplus of fruits and vegetables regularly rots or is eaten by dogs.”

Hmmm, some scarcity that is. Yet, when people in neighboring islands with virtually identical
genetics are exposed to a Western diet, and the refined, modern foods in it, they develop obesity
at greater rates than people elsewhere and are dubbed as having “thrifty genes.” Makes sense to
me. Wait, no it doesn’t.

But why would one group of people, like the Kitavans, have unlimited food abundance and not
become overweight while people in industrialized nations have obesity rates up to the
stratosphere? That’s really the bigger, more important question in the grand scheme of things.
The main question in search of an answer is what makes one person eat more food than they burn
through metabolic processes and exercise? Clearly there’s something about the Kitavan lifestyle
and diet that prohibits them from eating more than they use – or more precisely - storing more fat
than they burn.

But make no mistake. If you think that the calories in-calories out equation can be consciously-
regulated with willpower and discipline long-term, you’d be wrong. The world’s leading obesity
researcher, Rudy Leibel, hasn’t solved many things in his lifetime of obesity research, but he has
come to one firm conclusion:

“We don’t think body weight can be consciously regulated.”

It can’t. In fact, a 70-year old person with 70 pounds of body fat has stored only one peanut per
day more than they have burned. No one can control a process so precise. It’s like trying to
increase your oxygen levels by breathing more. Losing weight is like trying to hold your breath.
www.180degreehealth.com 21

The longer you do it, the more your body resists it until you finally gasp for air – taking in more
than ever to overcome the short-term deficit you induced.

Fat of course has been another scapegoat of the weight loss community. It has more calories so
it makes you fat! This too, is false – not only as it pertains to weight but certainly as it pertains
to insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

When it comes to modern illnesses, there are no correlations between fat intake, carbohydrate
intake, or protein intake. Just when you think you find a correlation, something comes along to
totally refute the idea.

Like the Chinese for example. They eat lots of carbohydrates, very little fat, and very little
protein. The results of the famous “China Study” performed by vegetarian evangelist T. Colin
Campbell and associates showed strong correlations between protein intake and heart
disease/obesity/cancer/diabetes. The less protein consumed – particularly animal protein, the
fewer the degenerative diseases. Wow! Way to go! Finally the answer!

Oops, travel to Mongolia just to the North and you’ll find very little of any of the above-listed
health problems resulting from their diet of mutton and full-fat milk. Travel even farther away to
Kenya and you will see a tribe of people with ZERO documented cases of diabetes, obesity, or
heart disease also consuming nothing but meat and milk.

Fat intake is also highly variable. This passage by legendary nutritional mind Roger J. Williams
points, once again, to factors far outside of any magical macronutrient ratio as being the root
cause of modern disease. Of course, this passage could easily refer to the variability of
carbohydrate content of the diets of “peoples of the earth free of heart disease (and insulin
resistance, obesity, diabetes, etc.)”:

“In an extensive review of the various peoples of the earth who have little or no atherosclerosis
and are virtually free of heart disease, Lowenstein found that the fat intake ranged from 21
grams per day to as much as 355 grams per day. In both the Somalis and the Samburus of East
Africa, the diet is from 60 to 65 percent fat (animal), and yet they are nearly free from
atherosclerosis and heart attacks. While it might be argued that ethnic differences are involved
here, population groups of wide ethnic variation have been reported who subsist on high fat,
high cholesterol, high caloric diets while remaining virtually free of coronary heart disease.

In the text we have mentioned the report by Mann and his colleagues of the Masai tribe who
subsist on a diet excessively high in butter fat (and cholesterol), the fat constituting as much as
60 percent of the total calories consumed, yet are virtually free of cardiovascular disease. Gsell
and Mayer report that the isolated peoples of the Loetschental valley in the Valaisian Alps of
Switzerland habitually eat a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol, high in calories, but
evidence low serum cholesterol values and little cardiovascular disorders...
www.180degreehealth.com 22

…It is clear, therefore, that adult males of widely differing ethnic stock can subsist on a high fat,
high cholesterol, high caloric diet, and yet remain relatively free of cardiovascular disorders.
Even if prevailing views are to the contrary, I think that the evidence points strongly toward the

the nutritional environment of the


conclusion that

body cells – involving minerals, amino


acids, and vitamins – is crucial, and that the amount of fat
or cholesterol consumed is relatively inconsequential…

A large amount of information, based upon carefully controlled scientific experiments, indicated
very strongly that vitamin B6 is another key nutrient which is often present in inadequate
amounts in the cellular environment of those whose arteriosclerosis is extreme. Experiments
with monkeys have yielded clear-cut results. When they are rendered vitamin B6 deficient, they
develop arteriosclerosis rapidly. When monkeys are fed diets supplemented with vitamin B6,
they have much lower levels of cholesterol in the blood than when these diets are not
supplemented. The animals on the supplemented diet eat much more food than the others, and
since their diet contains cholesterol, they get far more cholesterol into their bodies. This does
not matter, however; the extra vitamin B6 they get allows them to dispose of the surplus, with the
result that their cholesterol blood levels are not as high as in those animals that consume less
cholesterol.”

It is certainly interesting that the Masai tribe mentioned above, engulfing a gallon of whole milk
every day of their lives, have average serum cholesterol levels of roughly 125 mg/dl. Delusional
low-fat biased researchers claim that they must have developed some kind of evolutionary
adaptation to keep from turning that saturated fat into cholesterol. The Masai, as mentioned
above, have no obesity, insulin resistance, or heart disease. Yet, when they move out of rural
areas and into the city where they begin eating “normal” staples like refined grains and sugars,
their cholesterol levels nearly double and they start suffering the same degenerative ills found in
the rest of the world just like everybody else. No special immunity. Sorry. Try again.

Okay, it’s because in the city they don’t exercise as much!

“The usual hypothesis that this may be due to differences in physical activity is doubtful, since
men traditionally stop acting as warriors around the age of 25, and later their wives do most of
the daily work.”

-Staffan Lindeberg; Food and Western Disease (2010)

Crap. I can’t use any of the mainstream or even alternative health and nutrition/lifestyle beliefs
here. Guess we’ll have to ditch them all.
www.180degreehealth.com 23

The Real Meat of the HED


In my exhaustive research, consisting of 200 texts (and growing) spanning multiple centuries of
pioneering work in health and nutrition, there is one clear-cut theme repeated time and time
again when Western disease springs up. It’s not the macronutrient ratio of the diet. It’s not the
introduction of what are termed “Neolithic foods,” such as grains and dairy products. It’s what’s
NOT in the diet of people who do not develop insulin resistance and the many illnesses that stem
from it that counts. And that is, primarily, refined carbohydrates – which contain lots of
metabolically-stimulating carbohydrate without the substances needed for their proper
metabolism. Gary Taubes may have made some glaring errors in coming to the conclusion that a
ketogenic diet (like Atkins) was the ticket to salvation over all things in his remarkable book
Good Calories, Bad Calories, but this quote should be knighted:

“If cavities are caused primarily by eating sugar and white flour, and cavities appear first in a
population no longer eating its traditional diet, followed by obesity, diabetes, and heart disease,
then the assumption, until proved otherwise, should be that the other diseases were also caused
by these carbohydrates.”

This is really the most fundamental truth out there, a conclusion that Taubes parrots from the
work of T.L. Cleave, author of the catchy-titled Diabetes, Coronary Thrombosis, and the
Saccharine Disease. You can certainly see the similarities in the following statement by Cleave:

“…there is no doubt, from an evolutionary point of view, that, in any disease in man due to
alterations in his food from the natural state, the refined carbohydrates, both on account of the
magnitude and the recentness of the alterations, are always the foods most likely to be at
fault…”

If there is one theme across the world – one correlation that reigns supreme, it’s that refined
carbohydrates are consumed by all peoples of the earth that suffer from metabolic syndrome – a
condition that arises from insulin resistance. Those who do not suffer from metabolic syndrome
do not consume refined carbohydrates, or at least haven’t for more than a short time period –
such as one generation.

Metabolic syndrome, a disorder or “syndrome of the metabolism” I like to call it, is entirely a
result of being resistant to the hormone insulin on a cellular level. This causes insulin levels to
rise to compensate for the fact that this insulin isn’t getting into the cells. The elevation in
insulin levels is where nearly all health problems begin.

Metabolic syndrome is defined, according to its supposed “discoverer” Gerald Reaven of


Stanford, as being characterized by high triglyceride levels, low HDL levels, hypertension,
abdominal obesity, and high blood sugars – for the most part. These are really late
manifestations of metabolic syndrome. The real metabolic syndrome was identified 20 years
www.180degreehealth.com 24

earlier by T.L. Cleave, and was dubbed “the saccharine disease (pronounced – sack-a-rhine).”
The saccharine disease was not something that could be summarized by a few lab numbers, but a
much broader constellation of health problems that is, “for all practical purposes… [never] seen
in races who do not consume refined carbohydrates.”

“The saccharine disease includes dental decay and pyorrhea; gastric and duodenal ulcer and
other forms of indigestion; obesity, diabetes, and coronary disease; constipation, with its
complications of varicose veins and hemorrhoids; and primary Escherichia coli infections, like
appendicitis, cholecystitis (with or without gall-stones), and primary infections of the urinary
tract. The same applies to certain skin conditions.”

John Yudkin identified something similar during the same time period. Yudkin strongly
believed that the chief single culprit behind the core metabolic disturbance was the excessive
consumption of refined sugar. Cleave felt the same, stating:

“The chief problem in the present diet, however, concerns how to avoid eating ordinary sugar,
and all the sweet things containing it.”

Insulin resistance leading to high insulin levels had been discovered long ago, and was written
about extensively as early as the 1940’s by Dr. Seale Harris. He had a novel approach to fixing
the problem as well, and can be summarized by “don’t eat sugar.” He didn’t have much to say
about refined grains like white flour and white rice. These other refined carbohydrates are
certainly much lower in essential nutrients needed for them to be properly metabolized than their
whole counterparts, but they are ultimately metabolized in a much different manner than the type
of carbohydrate found in white sugar – which is 50% fructose. Refined starches break down to
glucose almost exclusively.

The work of Harris was cataloged in a breakthrough book published in 1951 – Body, Mind, and
Sugar by Abrahamson and Pezet. This was way ahead of its time, and again pointed to refined
carbohydrates, sugar in particular, as being the primary cause of the metabolic syndrome that
leads to countless health problems – both physical and mental.

“Persons who at last were found to be suffering from hyperinsulinism have been treated for
coronary thrombosis and other heart ailments, brain tumor, epilepsy, gall bladder disease,
appendicitis, hysteria, and every sort of neurosis. They have been told repeatedly that their
trouble is ‘all in the mind’ and sent to the psychoanalyst.”

“There is no glamorous cure for hyperinsulinism that can be bought in a package. Its diagnosis
and treatment demand pains from the physician and sacrifices from the patient, who must give
up candy, sugar, pies, alcohol, coffee, and sometimes smoking… This means no sugar, candy, or
other sweets, no cake with icing, no pies or other pastry, no ice cream, no honey, no syrup, no
grape juice or prune juice. And regrettably, our string of ‘no’s’ includes cocktails, wines,
www.180degreehealth.com 25

cordials, and beer. Finally, if you have hyperinsulinism, you must avoid caffeine as you would
the pest.”

Modern researchers who have delved in to understand what role fructose plays in the onset of
metabolic syndrome include prominent researchers like Robert Lustig and Richard Johnson.
Specifically, they have identified fructose’s primary role in disrupting the body’s metabolic
function. The modus operandi is primarily through causing resistance to the hormone leptin.

Oh crap, there I go again talking about resistance to yet another hormone. It was confusing
enough of a concept the first time around.

In my eBook 180 Degree Metabolism, I talk at length about fructose and at even greater length
about leptin resistance. I’ll summarize it here by saying, simply, that leptin is the hormone that
controls body weight via controlling the appetite, metabolism, rate of fat burning, and so on.
When the body is unresponsive to it, metabolic syndrome arises, which, more often than not,
begins with the accumulation of excess body fat. This often happens due to the lowered cellular
mitochondrial activity – a.k.a. metabolic rate/body temperature.

All of these changes are triggered as part of the human famine response, including insulin
resistance, which the body employs to help it preferentially store fat in lieu of burning it as
energy. The elevated insulin levels resulting from insulin resistance are chronic, and remain
elevated 24 hours per day – prohibiting the release of fat from the fat cells. Slowly, it
accumulates, and insulin levels parallel body weight – and are often accompanied by rising blood
pressure, rising triglycerides (which increase insulin resistance – thus a chicken or egg kinda
question), altered lipoprotein levels (HDL and LDL ratios), and other laboratory signs of
metabolic syndrome.

The most important aspect of leptin resistance; however, is what I believe to be the reduction in
metabolism – lowering the mitochondrial activity of all the body’s cells. This too is part of the
famine response of the human body in response to low functional leptin.

With lowered mitochondrial activity food passes through the gut more slowly, which can lead to
constipation and gas and bloating from excessive fermentation and putrefaction of the food that
is crawling, at a snail’s pace, through the digestive tract. This problem, stemming from lowered
mitochondrial activity, can lead to a whole assortment of health problems.

With lowered mitochondrial activity, the body temperature remains lower. Just as a fever fights
infection, a lowered body temperature fosters infection, particularly chronic infections like
Chlamydia pneumonia known to eat away at arterial lining causing raised lesions and heart
disease. Bacterial overgrowth of the small intestine is also something I believe can arise from a
low body temperature, leading to other digestive problems, leaky gut syndrome, allergies,
autoimmunity, mental/emotional disturbances, etc. Infection is actually one of the most
www.180degreehealth.com 26

overlooked causes of disease. There are very close ties between infection of various sorts and
every single form of degenerative illness – something I’m still in the early stages of exploring.

Lowered mitochondrial activity most certainly leads to lowered lipolysis or fat burning. This is
hugely important, as it leads to both excessive body fat accumulation, difficulty losing it, and an
elevation of free fatty acids in the blood which has obvious implications in heart disease, stroke,
dementia, type 2 diabetes, and other of the most common Western diseases.

This is just the tip of the iceberg as it pertains to diseases arising from lowered mitochondrial
activity. For example, Mark Starr, a Phoenix doctor who has reported excellent success with
treating chronic disease via increasing mitochondrial activity/body temperature in his patients,
wrote a chapter that spanned 85 pages entitled “Symptoms,” – all based on the many symptoms
that can arise when the metabolism is lower than optimal.

Thus was born the “high everything diet,” a multi-faceted approach to increasing mitochondrial
activity and the metabolism in general – for disease prevention and reversal, greater infectious
disease resistance, better digestion, greater overall vitality, and on and on and on.
www.180degreehealth.com 27

Confirmation
There has been some pretty strong confirmation of the fact that mitochondrial
activity/metabolism is really the kingpin in modern disease. Consider, for example, what was
written by Stephan Guyenet, the driving force behind the truly groundbreaking blog:
www.wholehealthsource.blogspot.com. Pay particular attention to the fact that butyric acid sped
up metabolism, and therefore got these little rat bastards out of starvation mode – which had an
appetite-suppressing effect, increased physical activity, and increased body heat production as all
signs of their metabolic syndrome reversed itself:

Susceptible strains of rodents fed high-fat diets overeat, gain fat and
become profoundly insulin resistant. Dr. Jianping Ye's group recently
published a paper showing that the harmful metabolic effects of a high-fat
diet (lard and soybean oil) on mice can be prevented, and even reversed,
using a short-chain saturated fatty acid called butyric acid (hereafter,
butyrate). Here's a graph of the percent body fat over time of the two
groups:

The butyrate-fed mice remained lean and avoided metabolic problems.


Butyrate increased their energy expenditure by increasing body heat
production and modestly increasing physical activity. It also massively
increased the function of their mitochondria, the tiny power plants of the
cell.

Butyrate lowered their blood cholesterol by approximately 25 percent, and


their triglycerides by nearly 50 percent. It lowered their fasting insulin by
www.180degreehealth.com 28

nearly 50 percent, and increased their insulin sensitivity by nearly 300


percent*. The investigators concluded:

“Butyrate and its derivatives may have potential application in the


prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome in humans.”

There's one caveat, however: the butyrate group at less food. Something
about the butyrate treatment caused their food intake to decline after 3
weeks, dropping roughly 20% by 10 weeks. The investigators cleverly tried
to hide this by normalizing food intake to body weight, making it look like
the food intake of the comparison group was dropping as well (when actually
it was staying the same as this group was gaining weight).

Thanks to Stephan for this excellent post. It is without question the best blog post I read on the
internet in 2009. To read the whole post, google: “Guyenet butyric acid.”

Worth mentioning is the fact that, in traditional diets, butyric acid is supplied in greatest
abundance by the fermentation of fiber (and what’s called resistant starch) in the digestive tract –
the very fiber that is removed from refined grain and refined sugar, hypothesized by Hugh
Trowell and Denis Burkitt to be the predominant cause of most Western diseases. Like others,
these men observed Africans with perfect health, completely free of the saccharine disease just
like Cleave witnessed in the rural Zulu tribe, eating very high-carbohydrate diets built around
unrefined plant foods such as grains, legumes, root vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and vegetables.

The other primary source of butyric acid is butterfat – the staple of a saccharine disease-free
people that consume no fiber whatsoever – the Masai tribe of Kenya. George Mann of
Vanderbilt University found these people to be 100% free of heart attacks and obesity, even
when consuming 3-4 sticks worth of butterfat daily.

Next in the confirmation lineup is the work of Broda Barnes and others that monitored body
temperature, and treated patients with an endless array of health problems with great success
solely by increasing body temperature to the ideal level. This is really the best evidence of the
central role played by the metabolism/mitochondrial activity as a whole. By simply overriding
the low metabolisms of their patients, with no other means of treatment, many health problems
fell into place. Most promising is the huge drop in heart disease.

In fact, Broda Barnes, who closely monitored over 2,000 patients over 20 years, only had four
patients have a heart attack. Of those four, each was unique. One had just recently begun
seeking treatment from Dr. Barnes. Another was no longer under his care. This represented a
decrease in heart attack incidence of well over 90% versus the rest of the U.S. population at the
time. Barnes, comparing his figures to people in the Framingham Heart Study, the largest and
most comprehensive study ever done, noted that those in the study were 75 times more likely to
www.180degreehealth.com 29

have a heart attack than one of his patients. He noticed this by accident, as he was hearing from
other doctors and reading about the increased prevalence of heart disease in medical journals, but
as a practicing doctor, he had only seen one cardiac event amongst his patients. This is what led
him to start keeping close track.

This is a huge revelatory breakthrough, and the results of modern-day practitioners of Barnes’s
methods, although not flawless, echo those fantastic results.

This is what the High-Everything Diet is all about. It arose in response to the belief that,
through raising the body temperature and thus the mitochondrial activity of every cell, a
great deal of minor and major health problems could be eliminated, prevented, and in
some cases reversed.

Has every stone been overturned? Have I managed to create a foolproof and systematic
approach that works with flying colors for every human being willing to try it? Hell frickin’ no!
But 180DegreeHealth has taken some big leaps and bounds towards that end, and I’m working
every day (and I literally mean every day), along with hundreds of loyal followers, to
increasingly improve and refine our collective understanding of what the causes and cures for a
low body temperature may be.

Generally speaking, it is quite clear, for reasons not entirely known to modern science or me for
that matter, that the primary cause of the entire degenerative process is the refined carbohydrate.
Of the refined carbohydrates, refined sugar seems to be far more sinister than refined starches,
although white, wheat flour can certainly be problematic as well. White rice appears to be the
most benign, but heart disease and stroke is still widely prevalent in rice-eating cultures.

Of the refined sugars, high-fructose corn syrup appears to be the most sinister. A low body
temperature, in most cases, is most likely induced by leptin resistance, and while starches
generally decrease leptin resistance, refined fructose seems uniquely capable of inducing leptin
resistance. It’s been known for ages that refined sugar, but not starch (even refined starch) is the
primary driver of having a greater appetite and a lower metabolism – in other words it is the root
cause of consuming more energy than you burn. In the words of Denis Burkitt:

“…consumption of fibre-free sucrose does considerably inflate energy intake and promotes
weight gain. Fibre-depleted starch seems to have little or no effect on energy intake.”

Or as Richard J. Johnson puts it:

“…we have powerful direct evidence to show that consuming too much fructose-rich sugar and
HFCS causes the toxic brew of conditions known as metabolic syndrome. Moreover, this same
body of research suggests that starchy foods do not induce metabolic syndrome.”
www.180degreehealth.com 30

“This much is not open to debate: Consuming sugar can trigger all of the conditions that make
up metabolic syndrome. And the element in sugar that contributes to weight gain, raises blood
pressure, elevates blood fats, and causes other dangerous symptoms appears to be fructose…
Studies directly comparing fructose and glucose show that fructose produces symptoms of
metabolic syndrome, while glucose generally does not.”

“Glucose does not cause insulin resistance. Fructose does. Glucose does not trick your body
into persistent hunger. Fructose does.”

From leptin resistance stems a drop in body temperature, an increase in appetite, and well – you
know the rest of the story. From a physiological standpoint, being resistant to leptin plays out no
differently than being in a state of starvation – even if you weigh 500 pounds. High-fructose
corn syrup, which comes in many varieties, is more sinister because it contains a larger
concentration of fructose than regular white sugar. It is in liquid form which is also worse. It is
also sweeter, making it more addictive. And, because of its easy affordability and addictive
nature, it is added to flippin’ everything that has been in any way processed before it made it into
your home.

It is well-known that obesity and diabetes increased wildly upon the switch from sucrose to high-
fructose corn syrup and crystalline fructose in the late 1970’s. It is also well-known that sucrose
vs. high-fructose corn syrup in clinical trials with rats leads to much higher obesity rates on
behalf of the HFCS group. On March 22, 2010, Princeton reported the following:
“A Princeton University research team has demonstrated that all sweeteners are not equal when it
comes to weight gain: Rats with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight
than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

In addition to causing significant weight gain in lab animals, long-term consumption of high-fructose
corn syrup also led to abnormal increases in body fat, especially in the abdomen, and a rise in
circulating blood fats called triglycerides. The researchers say the work sheds light on the factors
contributing to obesity trends in the United States.”

There are more particulars worthy of discussion – such as the fact that fructose in fruit has never
led to obesity, while fruit juice and soda consumption has by far the highest correlation to
obesity and type 2 diabetes of any known substances. Clearly, fructose alone is not capable of
causing this metabolic disease. Youtube’s most entertaining fruitarian dieter, Harley Johnstone,
reports eating up to 70 bananas per day but looks like he was just released from a concentration
camp. Fruit contains plenty of fructose, but it is a quantity issue, and few get beyond their
threshold with fruit and fruit alone. But I certainly find my body fat to increase, my body
temperature to decrease, and my appetite to go nuts when I eat lots of fruit – particularly if it is
part of my typical high-fat fare, so I remain a little hesitant about recommending much fruit
consumption for the purposes of raising the metabolism as we’ll get into in a moment.
www.180degreehealth.com 31

Further down that rabbit hole, fructose is problematic because it is converted to free fatty acids in
the liver via a process called “de novo lipogenesis.” This elevates triglycerides. However, with
a raging metabolism, these triglycerides are rapidly converted to usable energy. So, potentially
there could be another source of a low metabolism, which is merely exacerbated by fructose
because it is converted to fat in the liver. In other words, a low metabolism makes fructose
mismanaged, but fructose may be framed by the low metabolism. This is an unlikely scenario
considering the widespread epidemics of tooth decay, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, allergies,
autoimmune disease, etc. that struck areas upon first exposure to refined carbohydrates – and no
other newly-introduced substance. But it has been hypothesized by some that vegetable oils are
the primary driver of a low metabolism, and that sugar is not problematic once vegetable oils
have been removed.

Interesting, and I do note in 180 Degree Metabolism that there is ample reason to suspect
vegetable oils for causing leptin resistance and a low body temperature – but the fact remains
that not every place in which Western disease arose was exposed to vegetable oils (such as the
urban Zulu observed by Cleave, whose diet consisted of less than 10% calories as fat). ALL
were exposed to refined carbohydrates. With the work of health pioneers like Roger Williams,
Melvin Page, and Weston A. Price – it becomes quite clear how nutrient and fiber-depleted foods
could be the kingpin in metabolic disease with or without the compounding effect of excessive
polyunsaturated fat consumption. Sugar and white flour are certainly the primary causes of
dental decay – the canary in the coal mine of a disturbed metabolism (marked by pronounced
changes in the calcium to phosphorous ratio of the blood, blood and saliva pH, and a rise in
fasting glucose levels).

While low-nutrient foods, excessive fructose ingestion, and potentially omega 6 polyunsaturated
fat overload from vegetable oils are the most likely causes of the root problem – there are
countless other exacerbators of a low metabolism. Considering how common it is for those with
severe insulin resistance to go blind from diabetic complications, it is true that exacerbating can
make you go blind2.

The primary things that seem to exacerbate a low metabolism – what T.L. Cleave might have
referred to as “aggravating factors” while still focusing on the primary contributions of the
refined carbohydrate are:

• Low-carbohydrate dieting
• Low-fat dieting
• Low-calorie dieting
• Other forms of restricted dieting

2
It’s a joke dummy. Like you know, masturbation is supposed to make you go blind. Exacerbate sounds like
masturbate. Haven’t you ever heard that? No? (Author peers at screen through Coke bottle-thick glasses…
blushes).
www.180degreehealth.com 32

• Excessive mental/emotional stress


• Overexercising
• Insufficient sleep
• Consumption of caffeine, alcohol, or other drugs
• Legitimate nutrient deficiency, such as iodine, magnesium, B-vitamins, or vitamin D

There are many others – most of which contribute somehow to either burned out adrenal glands
or hypersecretion of the adrenal hormone cortisol. Those are the basics, and the primary areas of
focus of what later became coined as RRARF! Hey, that’s the title of this book!

RRARF is designed to address the refined carbohydrate and excessive omega 6 issues that lie at
the core of metabolic syndrome/low mitochondrial activity. Many people – especially those who
have never dieted before and have an otherwise well-balanced lifestyle and strong heredity, only
need to address these issues. Adopting a diet built around starches over “sweets” and low omega
6 food sources such as beef, fish, shellfish, vegetables, and dairy products is about all it takes to
get things back in line.

Of course, there are still obstacles that stand in the way of even those most basic
recommendations. For starters, refined sugar is massively addictive. I tried for a decade to eat
less sugar, but always went about it in a dumb way – as part of some health kick that usually
involved eating nothing but salads and hopping up Mt. Everest every day on one leg (or some
physical feat approximating it). This resulted in episode after episode of failure. The other
components of RRARF certainly address this. I haven’t heard of a single person who has NOT
been able to eliminate sugar cravings given sufficient time.

For some, eating “cleanly” just isn’t enough to get that full-on health breakthrough that many are
looking for – that breakthrough that allows them to actually be in the state of metabolic health
that more closely approximates all those healthy, non-refined carbohydrate eating cultures. After
all, that’s really what we’re after. We can mimic what healthy people ate all day long, but it’s
really the metabolic state that they were in that gave them such phenomenal health. If you don’t
get there, you don’t have that health experience.

The goal of RRARF is really to take some big strides in a short amount of time toward that end.
If you get there, great! Maintaining it is easy. Just don’t habitually eat junk. Eat real food.
Getting there is much more difficult, but we can all improve our health and climb up a few rungs
on the metabolic ladder.

So RRARF is not just eating a diet without unhealthy foods in it. It’s more than that. It is a
specific dietary and lifestyle program designed to fundamentally heal the body, and improve
metabolism. Improvements can be made at any age.
www.180degreehealth.com 33

RRARF is Rehabilitative Rest & Aggressive Re-Feeding


Most people crave refined sugars, sweets, junk food, rapidly-absorbed white flour products,
caffeine, alcohol, and other drugs because they are tragically undernourished and their adrenal
glands have been overtaxed by everything from dieting to working too much to experiencing
some major emotional trauma. RRARF attempts to combat all of this in one fell swoop (the
saying ‘fell swoop’ makes no sense, but hopefully you know what it means).

In the rest of this book, I hope to lay out the framework for RRARF in greater specificity than I
have been able to do in the past. Whether you choose to go full-RRARF is up to your discretion.
If not, that’s fine too. A long-term approach is fantastic. All you have to do is eat wholesome,
quality foods to appetite, not make any major dietary restriction such as eating a low-carb or
vegan diet, keep your exercise and workloads within reasonable parameters, and go about living
your life. Over time, you will almost certainly see improvements.

RRARF is definitely not a rite of passage for anyone wishing to participate at 180DegreeHealth.
It is simply an experimental protocol that is lifting people out of the pit of metabolic despair, and
helping lots of people improve digestion, mood, sleep quality, sex life, skin health, appetite
regulation, hypertension, high blood sugars, and all the things that can and often do fall into
place as mitochondrial activity rises. Despite such claims, it is not necessary for many to be so
“aggressive.”
www.180degreehealth.com 34

For others who do want to “try” it, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t believe in “trying it.”
Either do it, or don’t do it, but if you’re going to see what RRARF can do for you I would
strongly suggest committing to it really fully and giving it a solid 30 days before you start to ease
your way back to eating to appetite of predominantly wholesome foods, exercising, and so on.

I have been doing the HED for about 4 months now. And I really went all at it. I ate every time
I even thought about food. It was like I opened the floodgates! I couldn't believe how much
food I wanted to eat. I just ate and ate and ate, but only good foods. I didn't do any exercise,
other than chasing around a 20-month old and breastfeeding a 3-month old. I tried to get as
much sleep as possible. A couple weeks ago I read Jon Gabriel's book and added in some
meditation and relaxation techniques to help me lower my stress levels. I gained about 7
pounds in the past month, which is actually really low considering how much food I was
eating.

My temperatures have gone up and up and up. A couple days ago my oral temperature was
98.9!!! My body has finally gotten to the point where I don't feel like I need as much food. It
was actually a little difficult to break the habit of eating so much but I felt like my body was
telling me that it was time. So, starting about a week ago I started eating less food, and
especially less fat. I started exercising just because I want to. I lost about 4 pounds in the last
10 days and believe it will keep going as long as I don't starve myself.

My advice to anyone is that if you are going to do HED, do it all out. Eat every time you think
of food, cut out all PUFAs, refined grains and sugars. Do as little exercise as possible. Go to
bed early. Do meditation or something to relax. And don't feel guilty! Find someone who will
support you.
-April S.

To be clear, RRARF – Rehabilitative Rest & Aggressive Re-Feeding, is a plan designed to


achieve one primary goal above all others – raise that mitochondrial activity. It does this through
a combination of lowering cortisol levels, restoring the health of the adrenal glands, raising the
hormone leptin, increasing leptin sensitivity, topping off nutritional reserves, and flooding the
www.180degreehealth.com 35

body with a surplus of energy – long known to raise body temperature, increase metabolic rate,
increase lipolysis (using fat as fuel), etc.

Broda Barnes felt that the morning body temperature was the best sign of total metabolic
performance. For starters, you will want to start taking your armpit temperature first thing upon
waking in the morning to see where you are at. Do not be alarmed if it is extremely low. Body
temperatures worldwide are in decline, something that even the New York Times, with no
understanding of the significance of such a thing, has reported on (“Rethinking 98.6” was the
name of their article on it). My personal experience with it tells me that well over 50% of people
have a low body temperature, even if they never feel cold or weigh 300 pounds. In fact, some
overweight people I’ve dealt with have had body temperatures well below 96 degrees F.

A good example of just how prevalent a low body temperature is really hit home a couple weeks
before writing this. My girlfriend had several doctor visits prior to getting jaw surgery, and
when they took her temperature and she hit 98.6 F the nurse said, “Wow. 98.6 - we don’t see
that very often.” And this was an EAR temperature reading, which should run higher than 98.6 F
if a person’s oral temperature is the standard 98.6 F.

Axillary temperature – the armpit temperature, should actually run considerably lower than other
temperatures. Broda Barnes and his modern-day followers suggest that 97.8 degrees F is the
minimum to land within the optimal range, and that the armpit temperature is the most consistent
and reliable place to get a temperature reading (although I’m open to anything giving you
consistent readings – such as them fancy new ear thermometers). Specific instructions for how
to get a reliable reading can be found in the Appendix.

Considering that you are trying to reach such temperatures without the use of desiccated thyroid
hormone like that used by Barnes, it is probably okay to go slightly higher like several
180DegreeHealth followers have. In fact, several pre-menopausal women (who should have
higher temperatures in the 2nd half of the menstrual cycles), have gone all the way up to 99
degrees F, prompting me to start the “180DegreeHealth Hot Chicks Club.” Hee hee. Two of
them began with a temperature below 97 degrees F, so there’s hope for you if yours is low!

At first I announced a free t-shirt involved for the first 180 to join the club. On second thought,
I’m leaning towards taking all the Hot Chicks on a cruise. Yep, just me and 180 hot-blooded
women. Finally, my scheme has been revealed!3

So, okay. The object of the game is to lower cortisol, increase leptin sensitivity, restore adrenal
health, top off nutritional reserves, flood the body with calories, and thus increase mitochondrial
activity for several reasons. To read the whole story behind each of these factors in great detail,

3
Nah, my 98.6 degree girlfriend is already more than I can handle. Love you honey buns. Sorry about that one
time I told everyone you used to have herpes outbreaks without specifying that they were cold sores – not genital
herpes. My bad.
www.180degreehealth.com 36

180 Degree Metabolism is a must read. For the purposes of this book however, we’re just going
to talk practicality. What exactly do you do to bring body temperature up most effectively…?

Rehabilitative Rest & Aggressive Re-Feeding

After about 18 months of exploration into what helps bring body temperature up most
effectively, here’s the best of what I’ve put together so far. Each person has his or her own
subtle unique individuality, digestive function, and health history and status. For this reason, the
details are certainly open to some personal experimentation. I have no interest in being a
dogmatic ruler that tells you everything you’re supposed to do at every waking moment and
exactly what to eat. The customization of this basic template is up to you.

One thing I would discourage is over-thinking it and measuring this program up against what
you think is and is not healthy. I’m not saying it is healthy to eat as much food as you can every
day while sedentary. This is just a temporary strategy to perform one very specific task –
increasing mitochondrial activity, which seems, from my research, to be more healing and more
central to excellent physical function than any other thing one could focus on.

With that, here are the basic guidelines for getting started…

1) Make a general assessment of your overall health. Do you feel good? Is your morning
body temperature at least close to ideal (97.8+ in your armpit first thing upon waking
up)? Do you have digestive problems like bloating or heartburn? Do you get drowsy
throughout the day? Are your emotions erratic and unpredictable? Do you have cravings
that are very strong, and feel uncontrollable at times? Can you make it through the day
without any addictive substances like caffeine, alcohol, or sugar to prop you up or make
you feel at ease? Do you have a lot of belly fat or a big ‘gut’? Do you have allergies?
Trouble sleeping? Acne? High blood pressure? A lot of aches and pains including
frequent headaches? Menstrual problems? Sexual dysfunction? Hair loss? Low
energy? Manic energy? You get the picture.

2) If you suffer few or none of the above problems, continue living your life and remember
to eat quality, nutritious, real food the majority of the time, never starve yourself, do any
extremely restricted diets, and so on. If you suffer from several of those problems, and
your body temperature is considerably lower than normal, it might be time to start giving
more to your body than you ask in return. After all, you are not fully well, and disease
and dysfunction of all kinds is typically not cured through hard work and depriving
yourself but by doing the opposite – flooding your body with the tools it needs to repair
and rehabilitate itself.
www.180degreehealth.com 37

3) The next step is to begin eating better. Eat to appetite three times per day. Meals should
be wholesome and hearty. If you are a long-time sugar and caffeine abuser, now is not
the time to stop. Take it easy on yourself. Nourish yourself well and start cutting back
your exercise to low-exertion activities like walking and stretching. Go to bed earlier if
you can. Take naps if you are tired. Don’t fight yourself. Just listen and obey – more so
than you ever have before. Your body knows what it needs. It is not a lazy pile of junk
that sabotages itself. No more jogging or heavy duty weightlifting. Save that for when
you have recovered. Just chill. Every day is spa day.

4) Once you’ve eaten well for a while, and have been resting up, it may be time to think
about going full-RRARF for a month – explained later. I hate giving a specific window
of time, but I do know that full dedication can’t be given for much longer. I also think
that most of the benefits of this strategy are achieved within those first 30 days. Since it
is legitimately an overfeeding strategy, where you are literally trying to eat more food
than you desire – any more than 30 days of that is pretty much impossible. Plus, I want
to bring special attention to my belief that actively overfeeding is probably not something
to be done for a year or two (but only time will tell). It is a temporary strategy to get
quick gains in what otherwise might’ve taken years to do eating to appetite and
exercising regularly. This is open to a lot of future experimentation. Overfeeding may
be more effective 2-weeks at a time – or 1-week at a time… maybe just three days at a
time. It may be better to overfeed one day per week for 30 weeks than 30 days all at once
(Intermittent Feasting!). It may be best to overfeed only at breakfast, while eating lightly
the rest of the day. The future is an open canvas in this regard.

5) Once you are done and your body temperature has been restored, it’s best to start
incorporating reasonable physical activity back into your program, eating only to appetite
but not actively trying to overfeed, and generally continuing a healthy and “clean” diet
free of most refined foods – without causing yourself some kind of social anxiety over it
or letting it dictate your entire life. Yes, eat the birthday cake – even the kind with
propylene glycol in the frosting.

The guidelines for following RRARF are simple. You are basically trying to create a state of
Nutritional Superabundance within your body. Surplus baby – as described best in my chapter
entitled “Nutritional History” in the eBook, 180 Degree Diabetes: Preventing and Reversing
Insulin Resistance, Metabolic Syndrome, and Type 2 Diabetes.

To follow it properly, the best set of advice that I have devised so far are as follows:

1) Take a month off from exercise. I am not exaggerating when I say that total bed rest
would be ideal. Some light walks that don’t cause you to become overly winded,
stretching, sunbathing, etc. are fine (I am a big fan of getting lots of natural sunlight
www.180degreehealth.com 38

without sunscreen). Just don’t overdo it. This important step is often met with great
resistance by exercise fanatics. I love exercise too, I’ve hiked over 10,000 miles in the
last 14 years, but it can wait. Please rest up. Your physical conditioning can be restored
just as quickly as it is lost. Be prepared, if you are an exerciser, to be tired, groggy,
grouchy, achy, irritable, and perhaps even ill from stopping your exercise routine. These
are all signs of your adrenals commencing their much-needed vacation. Healing doesn’t
always feel good. In fact, really good healing feels kind of like a hangover. Like you
feel when you “oversleep.”

2) Start each day by eating as much food as you can possibly eat within 30 minutes of
waking up in the morning. Many people are not “breakfast eaters.” This can be one
key reason for some people’s entire metabolic problems. Break the fast after sleeping as
quickly as possible. You get far more metabolic mileage out of that first hour after
waking than at any other time of day. Eating a good breakfast can be life changing.
Seriously. I do, however, remain open to some of the ideas of intermittent fasters who
skip breakfast routinely, and will be exploring it in the future.

3) As soon as you feel inclined to eat again – eat again! See how easy this is! Eat until
you do not desire another bite, potentially eating slightly more than you desire. Make
sure each feeding you eat to fullness. No snacking. No light meals. If you eat 3 meals
per day, fine. If you eat 7 meals per day, fine. Eat until you are deeply satisfied each
time though. That is key. You do not have to force lots of unwanted food down your
throat. That will ruin the whole experience. Eat as much as you can enjoy.

4) Get extra sleep. Take naps if you get tired, and go to bed as close to sunset as possible.
In other words, go to bed early. If this doesn’t fit into your schedule somehow, make
sure you get AT LEAST 8 hours of sleep per night. The 180 follower who completely
committed to RRARF and had the quickest and most dramatic response to it claimed,
between naps and sleeping at night, to have slept between 12 and 14 hours per day! She
was coming off of caffeine, cigarettes, tragically undereating of poor foods, and
overexercising all thrown in together. She’s like a new woman now. Clean, strong,
nourished, and “losing weight while still eating more food in one day than I used to have
in three.”

5) Stay well-hydrated. This is often forgotten about, but staying well-hydrated throughout
the day is another helpful tip that shouldn’t be overlooked. Water, herbal tea, and milk -
preferably unpasteurized milk, are the best ways to stay hydrated.

6) Minimize mental and emotional strain, within reason. You probably know yourself
well enough to know what triggers that excessive mental noise. For me, I know I’ll be up
www.180degreehealth.com 39

all night if I go on some vegan or low-carb forum late at night ☺. Most will have to go to
work as usual during this period. That’s okay, but try your best not to take it home with
you or get too bent out of shape with various work crises. This is a good frame of mind
to take to work with you anyway, but really psyche yourself up to be non-reactive and
protective of your emotional energy and stress during this time. Don’t get fired for being
incompetent, but be mindful of your stress levels and know when to back off and let it go.
RRARF is a great time to do relaxing activities such as reading, meditating, getting
massages, listening to music, or whatever gives you peace of mind. Remember – every
day is spa day! Well, let’s call it what it is – spa “month.”
www.180degreehealth.com 40

The Specifics of the High-Everything Diet


I created RRARF to reiterate that this process is not just a diet, but a comprehensive
mind/body/lifestyle protocol. But the “high-everything diet” in its purest form is what is used as
the food component of it. You can eat whatever you like, but I believe that the most important
fundamental aspects of the diet is that it is comprised of at least 99% wholesome, unrefined,
unadulterated foods and contains a lot of fat, a lot of carbohydrates, a lot of calories, and plenty
of protein. In other words, “high in everything.” But quality is huge. Sometimes that is
forgotten. HED is a macronutrient-unrestricted hypercaloric whole foods diet, in precise and
schnazzy-soundin’ terms4.

Certain aspects are worth mentioning in terms of specifically cranking this up to increase
metabolic activity. The reasons for each of the following guidelines is discussed in great detail
in my other books, particularly 180 Degree Metabolism: The Smart Strategy for Fat Loss. Long-
winded reasons aside, I believe the most potent version of the HED to be:

1) Rich in saturated fats, particularly short and medium-chain triglycerides found in


greatest abundance in dairy fats and coconut. Butyric acid, as we discussed earlier,
has great potential to raise the metabolism, and whole, unpasteurized milk would be the
ideal source from the feedback I’ve gathered so far – so long as you have a good
tolerance for it. Half and half is also great, as is butter, cream, and fatty cheeses like my
favorite – Fromager D’Affinois. Coconut is the best source of medium-chain
triglycerides, and coconut milk and refined (NOT extra virgin) coconut oil are my
favorite sources of MCT’s. Beef would be the third choice if you have a dislike or
exhaustively-confirmed intolerance to the above. You don’t have to overdo it on the fats,
and if one had to choose between a very high-fat diet and a very high-starch diet for
raising mitochondrial activity – I’d lean towards high starch. But don’t fear them, and
choose saturated sources over unsaturated fats when possible.

2) Rich in unrefined starches. Starch is probably the greatest single tool in increasing
metabolic activity, as almost all of it metabolizes into glucose – the almighty metabolism
stimulator. Root vegetables tend to be the best tolerated overall. Potatoes are the best
friend of the HED freak, followed by yams. Corn and corn products (cornmeal, popcorn,
corn tortillas) are also fantastic. Brown rice is at the top of the list as well. Amaranth,
quinoa, buckwheat, and other “out there” hippie-ish grains are also top choices. Grains
like whole wheat, oats, barley, and rye are a little more iffy. Gluten sensitivity, although
overblown by a lot of Paleo-oriented nutrition authors and bloggers, is not make-believe.
These grains are also extremely high in insoluble fiber, which can cause a lot of digestive
4
By the way, sorry about my love affair with acronyms like RRARF and HED. I used to work
for the government.
www.180degreehealth.com 41

irritation for those with sensitive digestive tracts. Beans and legumes are acceptable as
well, but also can be a digestive nightmare. Insoluble fiber and complex polysaccharide
molecules are a bitch.

3) High in calories. You don’t have to feed yourself to the point of being uncomfortable
and gagging, but the calorie, assuming it is accompanied by a great deal of nutrients, is a
powerful weapon in the battle to increase metabolic activity. Eating a lot of nutritious
calories, if you are already overweight, is often not as fattening as you would envision
either. Appetite often falls off a cliff with the slightest increase in metabolism – as fat
stores are liberated and flood the body with surplus energy. Some even lose weight
instantly upon eating to appetite or even beyond appetite of exclusively whole, nutritious
foods. If you are underweight – be prepared to gain, which is a good thing. The good
news is that at least 25 percent of those gains will be lean body mass – and not fat.

4) Low in fructose. Fructose, as you will read about in 180 Degree Metabolism as well as
180 Degree Diabetes, is a chief suspect in the causation of leptin resistance and lowered
metabolic activity when consumed in excess. Although your appetite is more likely to
remain high, and your calorie intake may be higher with fructose in your diet, eating a lot
of fructose can definitely backfire – keeping metabolic activity constant as you increase
caloric intake, or even lowering metabolic activity. I was reminded of this recently when
I consumed large amounts of fruit, juice, and sweets for several weeks, only to gain 5
pounds of fat while my body temperature dropped by .5 degrees F. Although I’m open to
other possibilities and complexities surrounding the fructose issue, such as the ideas
promoted by researcher Ray Peat who shares my interest in increasing metabolic activity,
I am MUCH more confident recommending a very low-fructose version of RRARF –
meaning very little fruit or none at all, no fruit juices, and absolutely no sweeteners such
as honey, maple syrup, white sugar, agave nectar, or God forbid high-fructose corn syrup.
For the record, I’m not a fan of ANY non-caloric sweeteners either, and as I discuss in
180 Degree Metabolism, there is some indication, based on the work of weight loss
psychologist Seth Roberts, that the very sweetness of non-caloric sweeteners reduces
metabolic activity.

5) Low in polyunsaturated fat. While I believe that omega 3 polyunsaturated fat like that
found in the greatest abundance in flax seeds and coldwater fish may even have a positive
role to play in increasing the metabolism, I am also aware of the dangers of consuming
too much. But you don’t have to consume a lot of omega 3 to get some of the potential
benefits of these fatty acids, because omega 3 competes with another type of fat – omega
6 polyunsaturated fat. In other words, you can reduce your omega 6 fatty acid
consumption and get more from your omega 3’s, negating the need to supplement your
diet with fish oil or some other nonsense, when doing so has many potential negatives
www.180degreehealth.com 42

such as excessive lipid peroxidation (yes, it’s as bad as it sounds). Then you get the
benefits of omega 3 without the drawbacks of excessive omega 3 intake. Nuts (except for
macadamia nuts), seeds, peanuts/peanut butter, liquid oils (except for macadamia oil),
poultry fat (goose, duck, chicken), and pork fat are the biggest contributors to your daily
omega 6 load. You don’t have to be paranoid about these foods, but eat them very
sparingly. This too, has great potential (over the long-term) to increase metabolic
activity, yet another topic discussed at length in 180 Degree Metabolism: The Smart
Strategy for Fat Loss. A chart of omega 6 content of common foods can be found in
Appendix II. Most of your dietary calories should be coming from sources with less than
2% of calories coming from omega 6 polyunsaturated fat.

6) Devoid of refined carbohydrates, junk food, fast food, and all other packaged and
processed foods. Keep it as wholesome as you can. You want the highest ratio of
nutrients to calories as possible. Once you have repaired your metabolism, then you can
relax a little – having pizza and burgers on occasion, white rice at your favorite Thai
restaurant, an occasional dessert with white sugar in it, etc.

7) Devoid of caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs if possible. Any form of
psychoactive drug or stimulant puts stress on the system, and limits the amount of healing
you can achieve. If this sounds too difficult or impossible, then forget this rule.
“Needing” a cup of coffee shouldn’t be a deterrent to otherwise following this program,
and you may find that your “need” for caffeine diminishes dramatically as you go
through this healing program with otherwise strong dedication.

8) High in protein (but not TOO high). Broda Barnes was a firm believer that consuming
too much protein was really draining on the metabolism, particularly if calories were
limited. He stated, “…it has been clearly established that a high protein diet lowers the
metabolic rate, [therefore] symptoms of hypothyroidism will be aggravated…” This may
not be true on a calorically-superabundant diet, but protein is not used for metabolic fuel
in the same way fats and carbohydrates are – making them preferable to protein. As
calorie consumption increases, less protein is needed to maintain muscle mass as well –
as little as 30 grams per day for an adult male. Plus, protein is found in all foods, and the
more overall food you eat, the more protein you get – whether you eat meat, fish, and
eggs or not. For this reason, portions of meat, fish, eggs, cheese, and poultry should
probably be on the small side – 2-5 ounces per meal depending on your body size and
food preferences. If you are drinking lots of milk as part of your approach, you don’t
need any supplemental meat at all, and RRARF can certainly be done as a vegetarian
with whole milk, starches, and vegetables.
www.180degreehealth.com 43

9) High in vegetables. Vegetables are very nutritious, and although they may not contain a
great deal of calories, their nutrient-density is so high on a per-calorie basis that they are
a great asset to someone looking to boost mitochondrial activity. Cooked greens like
spinach and broccoli are my personal favorites from a taste, convenience, and nutritional
standpoint. Try to eat at least a little vegetable matter with each meal, and get into that
habit.

A list of common food choices on a truly purist version of the HED would be something like the
following. I highly recommend combining at least one food from each category at each and
every meal…

Protein

• Salmon; canned, frozen, or fresh


• Halibut
• Shrimp, crab, and lobster
• Oysters, mussels, and clams
• Trout
• Tuna; canned, frozen, or fresh
• Other fish or shellfish
• Skinless chicken
• Skinless duck
• Skinless turkey
• Cottage cheese
• Hard cheese – like cheddar or parmesan
• Rind-ripened cheese – like Brie
• Blue cheese
• Unsweetened yoghurt
• Full-fat milk; prefer raw milk, but am not a raw Nazi
• Jerky without additives
• Sausage without additives
• Bacon without nitrates and other additives
• All cuts of beef
• Pork – preferably on the leaner side
• Ground beef, turkey, or pork
• Lamb
• Game meats
• All beans and legumes – preferably fresh or frozen, not dried (for digestion)
• Eggs
Carbohydrate
• Potatoes; any variety
• Sweet potatoes/yams
• Carrots
• Turnips
• Parsnips
• Beets
• Rutabaga
• Celery root/celeriac
www.180degreehealth.com 44

• Other starchy root vegetables


• Cornmeal porridge/polenta
• Fresh corn
• All beans and legumes, if you can handle ‘em
• Oatmeal
• Hot buckwheat cereal
• Amaranth
• Quinoa
• Brown rice
• Homemade air-popped popcorn with coconut oil
• White rice (sometimes)
• Whole grain bread (sometimes)
• Whole grain burger buns, like Ezekiel buns (sometimes)
• Whole grain crackers
• Whole grain pasta
• White flour or buckwheat pasta (sometimes)
• Corn tortillas
• Tamale dough (Masa)
• Berries and citrus fruits – in moderation
• Milk and yoghurt
Fats
• Coconut oil; preferably expeller-pressed (refined)
• Coconut milk
• Fresh or dried coconut
• Beef fat/tallow/suet
• Butter
• Clarified butter/ghee
• Fatty cheeses
• Full-fat milk
• Half n’ half
• Cream
• Sour cream/crème fraiche
• Macadamia nuts
• Macadamia nut oil
• Olives
• Olive oil (in moderation)
• Bacon, bacon grease, and lard (in moderation)
• Very fatty cuts of beef and ground beef
• Fatty fish (like salmon)
• Bone marrow
• Whale blubber (just kidding – making sure you’re still reading this)
Vegetables
• Spinach
• Salad greens – from arugula to Romaine lettuce
• Dark greens – Kale, Collard Greens, Chard
• Broccoli
• Green beans
• Asparagus
• Boy choy
• Snow peas and snap peas
www.180degreehealth.com 45

• Cabbage
• Veggie-like fruits (tomatoes, cucumber, etc.)
• Onions
• Carrots
• Celery
• Garlic
• Squashes and zucchini (courgette)
• Bell peppers
• Hot peppers
• Fresh herbs
• And a bunch more, please don’t make me list all of them
For extensive recipes and cooking instruction, you will enjoy my book 180 Kitchen: 180 Tips,
Recipes, and More. Other cookbooks are great for either combining unhealthy ingredients in
creative ways or making rabbit food and calling it “health food.” But to actually make health
sustainable and desirable, there’s no way around learning the simple fundamentals of making
amazing, and satisfying food – even just to make it through a month of RRARF-ing. I wouldn’t
eat homecooked food if someone was making dinner for me right down the street that tasted
better and left me feeling more satisfied, and I don’t expect you to either. You’ll be shocked at
how easy and time-efficient it is to make food that greatly exceeds what all but the most
expensive and prestigious restaurants serve. Even your kids will like it, and it can be dirt cheap.
Most importantly, you will actually learn how to cook.

I plan to update 180 Kitchen with a new and improved version immediately upon finishing this
eBook. It should be available no later than July, 2010, and will have an extensive section on the
HED specifically – complete with meal plans for your support. You also have a great kitchen
resource in my cooking blog, www.180kitchen.wordpress.com, which is typically updated on a
weekly basis with cooking videos, tips, recipes, and more good lovin.’

As a former chef at some of the top restaurants in the United States, I take great pleasure and
pride in being the best resource I can be on the kitchen side of things. Consider yourself a sinner
if you don’t make my creamed corn at least once this year.
www.180degreehealth.com 46

Conclusion
If you found some of the ideas brought forward in this book to be new or shocking, you’re not
alone. But really think about how silly it is that someone suggesting that it’s okay to eat when
you’re hungry, rest when you’re tired, and eat all the macronutrients found in food all mixed
together is labeled as an extremist in today’s sick and twisted health and nutrition environment.

Since the dawn of humanity, it’s been well-understood that eating lots of nutritious food,
avoiding overexertion, and getting a good night’s rest were the fundamental keys to obtaining
and maintaining good health. Only recently have we turned our backs on this advice, gone to
war with our appetites and energy levels, and started eating in a way that is totally unnatural to
our instinctual tastes (few humans would have ever chosen to eat a baked potato by itself, or a
stick of butter by itself – but human tastes tell us quite clearly that the two are better together).

And this war has gotten us nowhere except fatter, sicker, more paranoid, more stressed, more
demoralized, more bitter, and more confused. Health is not achieved through willpower,
discipline, restriction, and deprivation. We all instinctually know this, but at the end of the day
we still see that extra layer of fat on us and want to take it off as quickly as possible – and know
that starving ourselves or cutting out macronutrients will take us there long before nourishing
ourselves well ever will.

180DegreeHealth is not just an affront to the barbaric ideas that pass as health and nutrition
advice these days, but a revolt against the entire mindset of Us vs. our supposed self-sabotaging
ways. I believe it was the great Beavis who once said, “funk dat.” Wise words my little cartoon
friend. Wise words.

And don’t worry if you don’t feel you have the courage to attempt RRARF in all its glory. Like
I said, it’s not a rite of passage, and there is certainly a lot more wisdom coming from my
independent health and nutrition exploration that can be of benefit to you and your family. In
fact, if you only received one important lesson in this book, it should be to obey your appetite,
stop struggling with yourself, and make an honest effort to eat high-quality, nutritious food. If
you can do that, you are already well on your way to getting the most you can get out of a
healthy diet, and a balanced life.

If you are perplexed at how I came to some of the conclusions that I’ve come to, you’ll be very
pleased with the work I’ve done in my other eBooks.

180 Degree Metabolism: The Smart Strategy for Fat Loss will re-affirm any desires you may
have to stop dieting forever. I’d like to think of the book as the “dieter’s liberation manual.” It
also discusses some of the tricks of the trade so-to-speak, of achieving leanness once you’ve
restored your metabolism without running into the typical dieting pitfalls. This is an invaluable
www.180degreehealth.com 47

primer, and will give you some of the key tools you need to finally complete your mission of
achieving no-rebound weight loss.

Yeah, no rebound going on there.

180 Kitchen: 180 Tips, Recipes, and More is another priceless asset – and I’m a firm believer
that the culinary knowledge I gained in the 7 years I spent working as a chef at some of the
world’s most premier restaurants was the most valuable information I’ve come across as it
pertains to health. If I’ve come to one firm conclusion in my extensive health and nutrition
exploration, it’s that the battle of health vs. disease is won and lost in the kitchen. There’s no
way to better insure good health for yourself and your family than learning how to make
homecooking:

1) Practical
2) Sustainable
3) And Enjoyable

You’re not going to sit around eating bland food when you can go right down the street and get
better-tasting and more satisfying food that someone else went to the trouble to make for you.
No way. But 180 Kitchen addresses that. It’s not just a collection of exotic and flashy recipes to
impress you, but a comprehensive guide to improve the quality of your food, the healthiness of it
(and no, the book isn’t about 58 different ways to get more alfalfa sprouts and wheatgrass juice
into your diet), and the quickness and simplicity of its preparation.

180 Degree Diabetes is another valuable book, and one that I’m quite proud of, as the ideas in it
are completely original, unique, and truly groundbreaking. Insulin resistance is really one of the
core hallmarks of all degenerative disease in the modern world – everything from
nearsightedness to obesity to cancer to heart disease. Other strategies are short-sighted, just like
the typical recommendation to eat less and exercise more (which induces rebound and
“unwanted consequences” down the line). But in 180 Degree Diabetes you’ll discover that you
can prevent and in some cases even reverse type 2 diabetes without cutting out fats, carbs, meat,
or calories – or relying on unsustainable/unrealistic amounts of exercise. I actually was able to
www.180degreehealth.com 48

lower my blood sugar by 26% in 30 days – able to eat 2 baked potatoes at a meal (high-glycemic
carbohydrates), without my blood sugar ever going above 75 mg/dl. This still manages to baffle
all those who have come across such a feat, but I believe the principles I used to achieve it are
sound, and can apply to anyone with a pancreas that still works. Several people have reported
undeniable increases in insulin sensitivity from following the truly captivating ideas laid out in
that book.

Last but not least is 180 Degree Digestion – a book that discusses many of those controversies
surrounding healthy digestion – such as fiber, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, cleansing and
fasting, several of the most common digestive disorders and more. I also reveal the most
common, but little-known cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Most importantly, the book is
about truly improving your digestion, not just identifying problem foods and relegating yourself
to dietary prison for the rest of your days. It’s a great read as well, and I’m proud to say that I’m
living proof of what 180 Degree Digestion can do. I managed to clear up heartburn that I had
suffered from for years following some of the advice in the book. In fact, it was so severe that I
couldn’t even drink a glass of water without acid reflux. My digestion seems almost superhuman
now. I can eat just about anything and everything without trouble, and I’ve helped many others
reach the same destination.

So that’s that. Don’t feel pressured to pick up any of the eBooks. Those who know me well
know that I’m no salesman, and I give out free information on all my blogs by the truckload
without asking for anything but support. But I did want to let you know what those books are all
about, so you can decide for yourself if it’s worth your time and money to investigate them. I
promise you won’t be let down if you do decide to check them out, and the money I make from
the books will definitely not go towards buying my own jet, Vegas hookers, 2nd homes, or any
other neo-liberal excesses. All the proceeds are used to eat, research, write, and send more
people to 180DegreeHealth.

Thanks again for your time, and I hope you stick around with me for years to come to see where
this health and nutrition investigation leads. It gives me great pleasure and fulfillment to be able
to spend my days bringing it to you, and keeping your minds captivated as the young and
immature sciences of human health and nutrition unfold.

Best of luck to you and your health. And if you ever remember one thing from me, remember to
use whatever health and nutrition information you come across to improve your life overall. I
see far too many people trying too hard, and too paranoid about trying to be perfect. The end
result is a hot mess. Don’t go there.

Actually, if you remember two things remember that. If you only remember one thing, let it
be…

EAT THE FOOD!


www.180degreehealth.com 49

Appendix I
Checking Body Temperature
What is considered the ideal range and what is the official technique for assurance that your
temperature reading is accurate?

Broda Barnes is still the Godfather of what is still considered the optimal range for the axillary
(armpit) temperature. The armpit temp. runs up to a half degree F below the oral temp, and up to
a full degree F of the ear temperature. The rectal temp. is probably very accurate as well, but can
lead to perverse thoughts ☺

Barnes considered the ideal range to be between 97.8 and 98.2 degrees F first thing upon waking
in the morning. He thought that this was truly the best time of day to gauge the level at which
the body runs itself when there is no outer stimuli affecting the temperature. I agree. This is
really the best measurement of whether your thyroid is in hibernation mode or is pumping out the
juice and allowing the body to operate at its highest capacity.

But some have had trouble with the simple technique of getting the temperature readings just
right. Although in no way difficult, here is a standard technique that we can use to monitor it
accurately and consistently…

Barnes used a mercury thermometer and had patients keep it tucked deep into the armpit for 10
minutes. That’s probably a little overkill.

But you do need to make sure that your armpit is at its warmest when taking this temperature.
To do that, make sure you don’t stick an ice cold thermometer in there.

What I do is:

1) Lay with my arms tightly tucked to my side for a few minutes in the morning to make
sure my pits get nice and warm.
2) Warm the thermometer up in my hand for about 30 seconds.
3) Stick the thermometer in my armpit for an additional 30 seconds before I turn it on.
4) Turn the digital thermometer on.
5) Take several readings in both armpits.
6) Call the highest temperature my basal temperature for that morning.

I use a Vicks thermometer. I have used several other thermometers, but other brands seem to run
colder. I have a hunch that the Vicks thermometer is the most accurate. They do actually sell an
armpit thermometer, but I have not used it. For 2 bucks I’m sure I’ll get one someday, but for
now the regular oral thermometer works just fine.
www.180degreehealth.com 50

Using this standard procedure you should be able to at least track your temperature to see if it is
coming up if low – a sign of improvement. Monitoring for a few days every month will give you
a good idea at where your basal metabolism stands while at complete rest and not in the middle
of digesting something.

No matter what though, using diet and lifestyle measures to bring temps. up or desiccated
thyroid, I wouldn’t sit around shrugging off a low body temperature as “no big deal” or
“irrelevant.” The information I’ve come across suggests that it is VERY relevant, and needs to
be taken care of. If you have no pressing health issues, I can see blowing it off, but with any
kind of health problem, there is a very high probability that it will improve or clear up altogether
as your body temperature enters into the ideal range.

Body temp. isn’t everything, but I have never read from any practitioner following Barnes’s
methods that anything short of miraculous results can be expected as body temps enter the ideal
zone from any number of minor and major health problems.

It is so significant that Mark Starr, a Broda Barnes method follower, is now reporting that in 13
years of practice only 1 patient has developed an autoimmune disease. Considering that
autoimmune disease affects nearly 1 in 10 Americans and is rapidly rising (while average body
temp. is rapidly falling), I find this to be very promising.

As a special note to women:

Basal temperature usually runs about .5 degrees F higher between ovulation and menstruation,
and drops .5 degrees F once you begin menstruating. Take that into consideration when reading
your basal temp.
www.180degreehealth.com 51

Appendix II
Omega 6 content of common foods by percentage of total calories:

Omega 666 – the most Evil omega 6 powerhouses (over 50%)


Grapeseed oil 70.6%!!!

Corn Oil 54.5%

Walnuts 52.5% (oil is 53.9%)

Cottonseed oil 52.4%

Soybean oil 51.4%

Very High Omega 6 sources (20-50%)


Sesame oil 42.0%

Pepitas 34.5%

Margarine 27.9%

Pecans 26.9%

Peanut Butter 22.5%

Pistachios 21.3%

High Omega 6 Sources (10-20%)


Chicken Fat 19.5%

Almonds 19.1%

Canola oil 19.0%

Flaxseed oil 12.9%

Cashews 12.6%

Duck Fat 12.2%


www.180degreehealth.com 52

Bacon Grease 10.2%

Lard 10.2%

Moderate Omega 6 Sources (5-10%)


Olive oil 9.9%

Goose Fat 9.8%

Avocado 9.4%

Chicken with skin 9.0%

Olives 7.4%

Bacon 7.0%

Eggs 6.8%

Pork chops 6.2%

Popcorn (Air Popped) 5.8%

Oats 5.6%

Low Omega 6 Sources (2-5%)


Corn 4.7%

Chicken Liver 3.7%

Sunflower Oil 3.7% (High oleic variety - others are very high in omega 6)

Butter 3.4%

Beef Tallow 3.1%

Cocoa Butter 2.8%

Cooked carrots 2.7%

Macadamia Nut oil ~2.5%

Brown rice 2.5%


www.180degreehealth.com 53

Cream 2.2%

Beef liver 2.1%

Grassfed Beef 2.0%

Whole wheat flour 2.0%

Extremely low Omega 6 Sources (Less than 2%)


Coconut oil 1.9%

Prime rib 1.8%

Whole milk 1.8%

Half and Half 1.8%

Ground Beef 1.6%

Macadamia Nuts 1.6%

Chicken without skin 1.4%

Lamb 1.4%

Cheese/Brie 1.3%

Corn grits 1.2%

Beets 1.2%

Coconut Milk 1.1%

Seal Oil 1.1%

Foie gras 1.1%

Palm Kernel Oil 0.8%

White rice 0.7%

Sockeye Salmon 0.5%

Yams 0.4%
www.180degreehealth.com 54

Potatoes 0.3%

Halibut 0.2%

Shrimp 0.2%

Clams 0.2%

Canned tuna 0.1%

Blue crab 0.1%

Lobster 0.1%

When you look at how much tastier the bottom of the omega 6 chart looks than the top, is it
really a problem to redefine the term “healthy fats” and load up on great seafood, macadamia
nuts, lamb, brie, half and half, prime rib, and potatoes fried in coconut oil?

I assure you I have no problem (non-fiscally-related) trading those foods for peanut butter and
grapeseed oil.

I hope this serves as a great reference for years to come for those interested in lowering their
cellular levels of omega 6 polyunsaturated fat.

And keep in mind that this says nothing of the free radical damage done to our bodies by omega
6 fats, which is a whole other problem with rich omega 6 sources like solvent-extracted
vegetable oil that this doesn't even address.

As you attempt to use this chart, keep in mind that these figures show the % of calories as omega
6. The total, in order to be within a range that can have a significantly positive influence over
your systemic levels of inflammation, your body temperature, and your weight should be no
greater than 2% of calories – ideally about 1%. 2% of calories is roughly 6 grams per day on a
normal diet. 1% is 3 grams. While intentionally eating a super-caloric diet in attempt to
expedite a rise in body temperature, even more diligence is needed, as 2% of calories from
omega 6 on a 4,500 calorie diet is 10 grams of omega 6 – which I think is probably far too much
to expect the best results – although it’s still only about half of the average intake for an
American male (yikes).

You can instantly see, especially considering the likelihood that carbohydrate is the most
metabolically-stimulating type of food (assuming nutritional needs for fat and protein are met),
that a fairly high-carbohydrate diet built around root vegetables and seafood is perhaps the
ultimate low-omega 6 diet. Interestingly, the Kitavans, a group of Melanesians studied by
Swedish researcher Staffan Lindeberg, have been found living to old age without a single case of
heart disease, diabetes, obesity, asthma, acne, or any of the other prevalent diseases found in
www.180degreehealth.com 55

other parts of the world. Their diet contains absolutely nothing that is more than 2% omega 6,
consisting almost solely of fish, yams, coconut, and fruit – oh yeah, and they chain smoke ☺

This is a great testament, in my opinion, of the protective power of a low omega 6 diet built
around whole, unprocessed, and fresh foods. The ultimate human diet? Who knows, but it’s
certainly better than doughnuts, French fries, Coca Cola, and peanut butter. On such fare, even
something as basic, natural, and essential as sunlight is enough to give us skin cancer. The word
unprotective (not an actual word, but you know what I mean) certainly comes to mind. Whaddya
expect when the hot, bright sun hits heat and light-sensitive fatty acids?
www.180degreehealth.com 56

References
The assertions made in RRARF! are a comprehensive culmination of conclusions pieced
together, in part, by a thorough and critical examination of the following books, websites, and
articles:

Abrahamson, E. M. and A. W. Pezet. Body, Mind, and Sugar. Avon Books: New York,
NY, 1951.

Agatston, Arthur. The South Beach Diet. Rodale: New York, NY, 2003.

Allan, Christian B. and Wolfgang Lutz. Life Without Bread. Keats Publishing: Los Angeles,
CA, 2000.

Appleton, Nancy. Stopping Inflammation. Square One Publishers: Garden City Park, NY,
2005.

Appleton, Nancy. Suicide By Sugar. Square One Publishers: Garden City Park, NY,
2009.

Atkins, Robert. Dr. Robert Atkins New Diet Revolution. Avon Books, Inc.: New York,
NY, 1992.

Barnard, Neal. Dr. Neal Barnard’s Program for Reversing Diabetes. Rodale: New
York, NY, 2007.

Barnes, Broda. Hypothyroidism: The Unsuspecting Illness. Harper and Row: New York,
NY, 1976

Barnes, Broda. Solved: The Riddle of Heart Attacks. Robinson Press: Fort Collins, CO,
www.180degreehealth.com 57

1976

Barnes, Broda. Hope for Hypoglycemia. Robinson Press: Fort Collins, CO, 1978

Bennett, Connie. Sugar Shock! Berkley Books: New York, NY, 2007.

Burkitt, Denis, Hugh Trowell, and Kenneth Heaton. Dietary Fibre, Fibre-Depleted
Foods and Disease. Academic Press: London, 1985.

Challem, Jack. The Inflammation Syndrome. John Wiley and Sons, Inc.: Hoboken, NJ, 2003.

Cleave, T. L., The Saccharine Disease. Keats Publishing: New Canaan, CT, 1974.

Cleave, T.L. and G.D. Campbell. Diabetes, Coronary Thrombosis, and the Saccharine
Disease. John Wright & Sons LTD.: Bristol, UK, 1969.

Crook, William G. The Yeast Connection. Vintage Books: New York, NY, 1983.

DesMaisons, Kathleen. Potatoes Not Prozac. Fireside: New York, NY, 1998.

DesMaisons, Kathleen. The Sugar Addict’s Total Recovery Program. Ballantine Books:
New York, NY, 2000.

Douglass, William Campbell. The Milk Book. Rhino Publishing: Panama, 1984.

Dufty, William. Sugar Blues. Warner Books: New York, NY, 1975.

Eades, Michael R. and Mary Dan. Protein Power. Bantam Books: New York, NY,
1996.
www.180degreehealth.com 58

Ellis, Gregory. Dr. Ellis’s Ultimate Diet Secrets Lite. Targeted Body Systems Publishing: Glen
Mills, PA, 2003.

Enig, Mary. Know Your Fats. Bethesda Press: Silver Spring, MD, 2000.

Farris, Russell and Per Marin. The Potbelly Syndrome. Basic Health Publications:
Laguna Beach, CA, 2006.

Fife, Bruce. Eat Fat Look Thin. Healthwise: Colorado Springs, CO, 2002.

Fife, Bruce. The Coconut Oil Miracle. Avery: New York, NY, 1999.

Fuhrman, Joel. Eat to Live. Little, Brown and Company: New York, NY, 2003.

Gabriel, Jon. The Gabriel Method. Atria Books: New York, NY, 2008.

Galland, Leo. The Fat Resistance Diet. Broadway Books: New York, NY, 2005.

Gates, Donna. The Body Ecology Diet. Healthful Communications, Inc.: Juno Beach, FL,
1996.

Gedgaudas, Nora. Primal Body – Primal Mind. Primal Body – Primal Mind Publishing:
Portland, OR, 2009.

Johnson, Richard J. The Sugar Fix. Pocket Books: New York, NY, 2008.

Keys, Ancel et al. The Biology of Human Starvation. The University of Minnesota Press:

Minneapolis, MN, 1950.


www.180degreehealth.com 59

Kolata, Gina. Rethinking Thin. Farrar, Straus and Giroux: New York, NY, 2007.

Langer, Stpehen E. and James F. Scheer. Solved: The Riddle of Illness. McGraw Hill:
New York, NY, 2006.

Lindeberg, Staffan. Food and Western Disease. Wiley-Blackwell: West Sussex, UK, 2010.

Macfadden, Bernarr. The Miracle of Milk. Macfadden Publications: New York, NY,
1924.

McCarrison, Robert. Studies in Deficiency Disease. Henry Frowde and Hodder and
Stoughton: London, England, 1921.

Morris, Richard. A Life Unburdened. New Trends Publishing: Washington, D.C., 2007.

Murray, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods. Atria Books: New York, NY, 2005.

Page, Melvin, and H. Leon Abrams. Health vs. Disease, The Page Foundation, Inc., St.
Petersburg, FL 1960.

Pekarek, Martha L. Freedom from Obesity and Sugar Addiction. Wheatmark: Tucson,
AZ, 2007.

Philpott, William H. Victory Over Diabetes. Keats Publishing: New Canaan, CT, 1983.

Pool, Robert. Fat: Fighting the Obesity Epidemic. Oxford University Press: New York, NY,
2001.
www.180degreehealth.com 60

Porter, Charles Sanford. Milk Diet, as a Remedy for Chronic Disease. Burnett P.O.:
Long Beach, CA, 1916.

Price, Weston A. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Republished by the Price-


Pottenger Nutrition Foundation: La Mesa, CA, originally published in 1939.

Reaven, Gerald. Syndrome X. Fireside: New York, NY, 2000.

Roberts, Seth. The Shangri-La Diet. G. P. Putnam’s Sons: New York, NY, 2006.

Ross, Julia. The Diet Cure. Penguin Books: New York, NY, 1999.

Schmid, Ron. Traditional Foods are Your Best Medicine. Healing Arts Press:
Rochester, VT, 1987.

Schwartz, Bob. Diets Don’t Work! Breakthrough Publishing: Houston, TX, 1982.

Schwarzbein, Diana. The Schwarzbein Principle. Health Communications, Inc.:


Deerfield Beach, FL, 1999.

Schwarzbein, Diana. The Schwarzbein Principle II. Health Communications, Inc.:


Deerfield Beach, FL, 2002.

Schwarzbein, Diana. The Program. Health Communications, Inc.: Deerfield Beach, FL,
2004.

Sears, Barry. Enter the Zone. Regan Books: New York, NY, 1995.

Sears, Barry. The Age-Free Zone. Regan Books: New York, NY, 1999.
www.180degreehealth.com 61

Sears, Barry. The Anti-Inflammation Zone. Collins: New York, NY, 2005.

Sears, Barry. Toxic Fat. Thomas Nelson Inc, 2008.

Sisson, Mark. The Primal Blueprint. Primal Nutrition, Inc.: Malibu, CA, 2009.

Starr, Mark. Hypothyroidism Type II. Mark Starr Trust: Columbia, MO, 2005.

Taubes, Gary. Good Calories, Bad Calories. Alfred A. Knopf: New York, NY, 2007.

Weil, Andrew. Eating Well for Optimum Health. Harper Collins: New York, NY, 2000.

Wiley, T.S. Lights Out: Sleep, Sugar, and Survival. Pocket Books: New York, NY,
2000.

Yudkin, John. Sweet and Dangerous. Bantam Books: New York, NY, 1972.

Websites:
www.raypeat.com
http://nutritionscienceanalyst.blogspot.com/
www.stopthethyroidmadness.com
http://thescientificdebateforum.aimoo.com/
www.wholehealthsource.blogspot.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/WellnessResources
http://www.youtube.com/user/GabrielMethodVideo
www.omega-6-news.org
www.180degreehealth.com 62

Specific Article and video titles with accompanying url’s:


“Why We Gain Weight: Adiposity 101 and the Alternative Hypothesis of Obesity”
http://www.dhslides.org/mgr/mgr060509f/f.htm
“Fructose and Obesity”
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/34669.php
“Fructose Hampers Hormone That Controls Appetite, UF Study Finds”
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/125848.php
“Potential role of sugar (fructose) in the epidemic of hypertension, obesity and the metabolic
syndrome, diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease”
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/86/4/899
“Depressive Symptoms, omega-6:omega-3 Fatty Acids, and Inflammation in Older Adults”
http://www.psychosomaticmedicine.org/cgi/content/abstract/69/3/217
“Suppressor of Cytokine Signaling-3 (SOCS-3), a Potential Mediator of Interleukin-6-dependent
Insulin Resistance in Hepatocytes”

http://www.jbc.org/content/278/16/13740.full.pdf

“Sugar: The Bitter Truth”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

You might also like