In search of answers and proof for the doubts I had, I followed several courses. At the Wageningen University and Research I followed a MOOC entitled “Plant Based Diets – Food for a Sustainable Future”. At the European Academy for Natural Healthcare in Antwerp I became a food coach. With the online courses of PNI Europe and Natura Foundation I delved into the evolution of Homo sapiens, explored the insights provided by orthomolecular medicine and by clinical psycho neuro immunology (cPNI). Today I present the conclusions I reached after this journey.

The Evolutionary Perspective

The most important insight I developed the past year is to take an evolutionary perspective to understand how we should live. The modern human arose about 300,000 years ago in Africa. Our DNA has not evolved much since then. To comprehend our dietary requirements, we must look at our evolutionary roots. Throughout our history, animal proteins have played a crucial role in shaping our physiology and cognitive development. As hunter-gatherers, our ancestors relied on animal sources for sustenance, which provided essential nutrients, such as complete proteins, long-chain omega-3 fatty acids, iron, and vitamin B12, that were vital for our survival and flourishing. Red meat became only relatively recently a frequent source of protein. This also applies to grain-based foods like bread.

Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine emphasizes the significance of optimal nutrition for achieving and maintaining good health. It recognizes that everyone has unique biochemical needs so a one-size-fits-all approach does not suffice. The Natura Foundation also promotes an evolution-based approach in which animal proteins offer a highly bioavailable and complete source of essential amino acids. Proteins are the building blocks of life, enabling numerous vital functions in the body, including tissue repair, hormone synthesis, and enzyme production. The course I followed strongly encourages the consumption of vegetables and fruit in combination with fish and other seafood as well as of eggs and poultry.

Clinical Psycho Neuro Immunology

Clinical PNI (or “KPNI” in Dutch) explores the intricate interplay between the mind, body, and immune system. I love the holistic approach of this school of thought and its strong basis in science. It highlights the impact of psychological and emotional well-being on overall health. While plant-based diets can certainly provide adequate nutrition, it is crucial to consider the potential psychological and emotional effects of dietary choices. cPNI highlights several potential health risks associated with the consumption of soy and legumes (e.g. Anti-nutrients and digestive issues). For some individuals, the inclusion of animal proteins in their diet may positively influence their mental health and overall well-being.

Stay Off Mammals

Both cPNI and orthomolecular medicine raise concerns regarding the consumption of red meat and dairy because of Neu5Gc (N-Glycolylneuraminic acid). This is a type of sugar molecule found in these animal products. Neu5Gc is considered a non-human antigen as our bodies do not naturally produce it. When you consume red meat and dairy products containing Neu5Gc, your immune system may recognize it as a foreign substance, potentially leading to chronic inflammation and triggering autoimmune responses. Red meat and dairy are also known for increasing other health risks. For one I’ve chosen to stay off red meat and considerably limit my consumption of dairy… even cheese !

Ethical Dilemmas and Considerations

I have great respect for those who live a vegan life. Ethical concerns surrounding animal welfare have prompted many to adopt this lifestyle. The ethical argument against the consumption of animal proteins is compelling, as factory farming practices often involve cruelty and environmental harm. Acknowledging these concerns, it is essential to promote ethical and sustainable farming practices that prioritize animal welfare, such as free-range, grass-fed, and organic farming.

Striking a Balance: A Healthy and Sustainable Approach

While acknowledging the ethical dilemmas surrounding animal protein consumption, and the implications on the environment, it is in my opinion realistic to consider the negative health aspects of veganism. A healthy and sustainable approach to diet should consider individual biochemistry, cultural diversity, as well as the environmental impact of our choices. Incorporating a variety of protein sources, including both plant-based and animal options, can provide the necessary nutrients for optimal health while minimising ecological impact.

Conclusion

The question of whether the human diet needs to include animal proteins is multifaceted and requires careful consideration. Exploring the evolutionary perspective, orthomolecular medicine, and clinical psycho neuro immunology reveals the significant role that animal proteins have played in our development as a species.

To achieve optimal health while fostering a more sustainable future, my recommendation is to embrace a diverse diet that focuses on the following basic rules:

• Eat natural: steer away from processed foods.
• Eat the rainbow: consume mostly foods that are alkaline (ph > 7), veggies and fruits.
• Mind your proteins: limit your consumption of acidic foods (ph < 7) but make sure you get enough proteins.
• If you eat animal proteins, ensure the inclusion of ethically sourced produce, preferring fish, eggs and poultry.
• Minimise dairy, avoid eating red meat altogether (for many reasons, more than mentioned above).

Apart from all this: relax, take enough rest, sleep well (check out “the healthy big five“)!

1. Live healthier by following a 100% plant-based lifestyle
2. Reduce in the process our impact on the planet’s resources
3. Eliminate animals’ suffering and stop the huge scale production of animal protein. 

The win-win-win is ideal in multiple ways. For instance, by cutting our consumption of animal proteins, we reduce the impact of massive meat production on the environment such as deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions AND we improve our health e.g. lower the risks of heart-related diseases and cancer. Also, by reducing the massive scale of animal farms, we reduce the risks of pandemics for humans AND we improve animal welfare.

Hence, my reasoning has been: “let me demonstrate that I become healthier on a plant-based diet and hopefully in the process I’ll inspire others to contribute to the triple win.” 

To validate this reasoning I went back to school, graduated as a food coach in June 2022, and followed a course from PNI Europe (introduction in “clinical psycho neuro immunology”, “KPNI” in Dutch). Both courses have convinced me to revise my standpoint to some extent.

I still do not eat meat!

However, I have reintroduced animal protein in my regimen. This is a departure from my idealistic win-win-win standpoint, so I feel the need to explain what and why I changed.

What Has Not Changed: A Solid Plant-Based Foundation

I still believe that a mostly plant-based approach to life is the way to go. From a human health point of view, our menu should be based on 80% alkaline ingredients, vegetables and fruits! This still needs to form the bulk of man’s diet. Why is explained here.

Considering the amount of unhealthy crap (sorry!) in processed food, I still believe that organic, pure, non-processed food is the way to go. Please read the ingredients of what you buy before you put in your mouth. Wheat? Avoid – see why here. 

Vegetable oils, like sunflower and peanut oil, beware! They contain Omega 6 fats which are responsible for low-grade inflammation.

To lower the logistics impact of the food system, I still go for mostly seasonal and local produce. That’s why I’m a customer of Boerschappen.

Still No Steak For Me!

Red meat like beef, pork, lamb… are still on my black (or red) list. I strongly advise against eating these foods. The biggest issue: they contain a molecule, Neug5Gc, which humans cannot synthesize, and that presents many issues. The largest risk is that Neu5Gc results in low-grade inflammation. See for instance “A red meat-derived glycan promotes inflammation and cancer progression”. Or just Google “Neu5Gc”.

Additionally, the molecule resembles the human Neu5Ga and that means that pathogens (viruses and bacteria) can sneak in our bodies and make us sick.

Bottom-line: red meat lowers your immune defences. 

Not Fake Meat Either!

I occasionally order a veggie hamburger in a restaurant but I don’t buy the fake meat products you find in supermarket. That’s 100% processed food, and the ingredients are most often unhealthy. 

Only exception: tempeh because it’s mostly pure and it is fermented. Fermented vegetables contain bacteria that are good for one’s microbiome.

What Has Changed: Some Animal Protein

This has been months in the making but here it is… I am no longer a vegetarian. Let alone that I have adopted a vegan lifestyle. I have not joined the dark side completely either. I still don’t buy meat and I very rarely eat it. However, I am back eating animal protein: a bit of cheese, eggs, fish, and seafood. 

Note, by the way, that the awful Neug5Gc molecule is also present in milk and cheese, in high quantities in goat cheese. Eating that from time to time is a risk I’m willing to take occasionally. Cheese 🧀 and wine 🍷remain my drug of choice. Oh yes, and chocolate 🍫 as well.

What Happened?

Let’s go back to the beginning. When I engaged on my “French Food Philosopher” journey I was convinced that going vegan was THE solution for the sustainability challenges our planet is facing. A great win-win-win was the ideal that motivated me: better human health through good food, much lower impact on natural resources, far less animal suffering.  

Doubt however was gnawing at me. My professors made it clear that vegans do not get enough vitamin B12 and Omega 3 fatty acids. And as I’m against industrial, processed products, I found it weird that one of the “wins” meant compromising with an important principle: having to eat processed foods. 

Furthermore, I found that eating legumes (beans, lentils, chickpeas) to get to my daily intake of proteins felt unpleasant. After all, flatulence is not only socially awkward, but also a sign that your body is struggling to digest something. And in my case, there is a clear indication that I struggle to digest legumes. One of the reasons for that can be found here.

The PNI course has made it clear to me that lectins, one of the substances contained in legumes, are not a human’s friend. See for instance “The Problem With Lectins” in this article.  

As always, it’s not an “all of nothing” law. The point is that we cannot rely on legumes, grains, seeds and nuts to live healthy lives. We also need some intake of animal protein.

Changed Menu

Long story short: everyone’s body is unique. It’s up to you to find out what best works for your health. I won’t deny that animal proteins can be needed in a human’s diet. In my case I eat fish or seafood twice a week. Poultry? I’m still seating on the fence.  

Additionally, I use ghee (clarified butter) to cook – next to coconut and olive oil. And you’ll find butter, a bit of cheese and a little dairy on my menu. Not a humongous change, but a departure from my ideal “win” based on a 100% plant-based lifestyle. 

Should you want more information, scientific sources or otherwise, please drop me a note.

Luckily relatively new bodies of science show us that what once seemed inevitable is not. As you grow old you don’t have to get sick. Epigenetics for instance even tells us that heredity does not equal fate: “Your genes play an important role in your health, but so do your behaviours and environment, such as what you eat and how physically active you are.” Another example: research around Alzheimer clearly indicates what the main risk factors are of this disease (later more on this topic). You can do a lot of things to prevent many health hazards. 

To prevent is better than to cure

Add more life to your years

For me the benefit is not so much adding years to my life but much more adding life to my years. This last sentence is based on a quote I came across during my reading about the Blue Zones. Reminder: the concept of “blue zones” is based on five areas (in Italy, Greece, South America, North America and Japan) where people live significantly longer than in the rest of the world. 

It turns out one of the well-known users of the quote “exercise not only adds years to your life but life to your years” is Ralph Paffenbarger Jr. “Paff” was an epidemiologist who taught at the Harvard School of Public Health from the 1960s to the 1990s. His research demonstrated that “every hour of vigorous physical activity earns the exerciser an extra two or three hours of life.”

My aim to stay healthy as long as possible led me to make changes to my lifestyle. As you know if you read my blog eating healthier is top of my list. Another change I made was to exercise more. In turn I challenged myself to run long distance races and take part in walking events such as “the walk of the world”.

Do not do like me!

That’s where you can draw the line. Hence the “do not do like me”. What I do is not necessary to stay healthy. I wrote “Do not do like me, not quite” because, as mentioned, earlier it is demonstrated that exercise is good for you. A question you may have: how much exercise do I need, and what kind of exercise?

… Not quite!

These are tough questions to answer. For one thing: your metabolism is not the next person’s. And there are many factors that come into play. Unfortunately, scientific research is rarely conclusive where it comes to complex, holistic behavior changes. In any case, it is clear that “Leading a physically active lifestyle can have a significant impact on the wellbeing of people with dementia.” Even better: “regular physical exercise can reduce your risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease by up to a stunning 50%.”   

Setting Alzheimer aside and looking at your immune system in general it is clear that regular physical activity plays a role in preventing illnesses.

Sitting is the new smoking

Evolutionary speaking, we have been designed for movement to survive as hunters and gathers. Progress unfortunately is not always good: in the Western world our living environment has changed so that many of us often find ourselves sitting for hours on end. One you wake up, you make your breakfast and sit to eat it, or do that while sitting in your car. You sit behind your desk or at meetings. Drive of commute back home sitting. Sit for dinner. Sit on your couch to watch the latest series on Netflix of whatever, then you go to bed. 

Facts:

• The Dutch have been European sitting champions for a few years in a row (Note: unfortunately less than a third of all countries report sitting time)  
• Sitting increases the risks for cardiovascular disease, lowering HDL (Good Cholesterol) Cholesterol, insulin issues which could lead to type 2 diabetes, obesity and a variety of cancers.

In other words: get out of your lazy chair!

So, how much exercise do you need?

All the sources I consulted give different answers to the question “how much exercise does one need?” My advice: 

• Do 1 hour of moderate-intensive aerobic exercise (walking, cycling, slow jogging, yoga);
• Spread those sixty minutes over two of three times twenty minutes;
• Do that at least 5 times a week. 

Sounds like a lot? Come on! Be honest and face the truth: if you’re an average person you probably spend 2 or 3 hours per day on your butt watching TV, scrolling your social media feed, talking to friends on the phone… And you really can’t find 20 minutes for a quick walkabout? 

A serendipitous event: a week or so prior to Valid’s Vitality week I had the pleasure to follow a lecture by Ekaterina Griga. Ekaterina is among other things a therapist and teacher in “Healing Food”. She discussed the Big 5 of healthy living. The bottom-line is: being healthy is a holistic endeavour. These Big 5 summarise what can do to remain vital: Breath, Hydrate, Eat,  Exercise, Rest. These Big 5 resonated in my mind during the whole Valid’s Vitality week.

Below follow some tips based on each of the Big 5. 

Breath!

Obviously the biggest of the 5 is ensuring that you keep breathing! In our modern life we are surrounded by a lot of stressors: all sorts of alerts from our smartphones – instant messages, social media messages, e-mails, breaking news… – loud urban noises, a never-ending list of things to do, etc.

Stress and breathing are very strongly interconnected. As your brain sends stress signals to your body, your heart starts pounding and your breathing becomes more superficial. This in turns triggers the production of hormones that prepare your body for a flight of fight situation. We are not usually involved in life-threatening situations, so stress-induced shallow breathing takes energy away from more important processes like digesting.

An interesting concept in relation to breathing is cardiac coherence: you can control your heart rate variability by controlling your breathing. Here is a simple article about this: “What is Heart Coherence, and Why is it so Powerful?”.  This piece contains more scientific explanations: “Cardiac coherence, self-regulation, autonomic stability, and psychosocial well-being”.

Hydrate your Body

What your body mostly need next to oxygen is water. Hence, make sure you drink enough of it! As your body needs to remain PH-neutral (see the topic acidic-alkaline balance under “Eat”), stick to water, fresh herb infusions and smoothies of fruit or vegetables. Basically, everything else is acidic. Do not worry too much about how much you drink. Drink when you are thirsty … or feel hungry! I learned that a light hunger feeling in fact is a cry for water. You are truly hungry when your stomach rumbles.

Eat Healthily

Most of my blogs are about this topic. Suffice to say here that the essence of healthy eating is about balancing the alkalinity in your food: you body needs 80% alkaline (veggies and fruit) and 20% acidic (protein-rich) foods. The older you get the more important it is to respect this basic (pun intended) premise.  See here for more information on this topic. As we explained during Valid’s vitality week, one can combine eating AND drinking healthily thanks to smoothies: there is a lot of water in fruit and vegetables so don’t hesitate to make a smoothie to get enough greens.

Exercise Brain and Heart

This is straightforward: as a species we are made to move. Our whole body needs exercise to stay in shape. Ideally, you should be active for 30 minutes every day. Walking is particularly recommended. Split those 30 minutes in 3 times 10-15 minutes if that suits you better, early in the morning, at lunch and after dinner for instance. During Valid’s week we introduced the “Ommetjes” (take a stroll) app which added a competitive incentive. Any kind of nudge helps adopting a new behaviour. That’s why we also introduced BJ Fogg’s Tiny Habits concept during Valid’s vitality week.

Rest – At Least Sleep

When we rest, sleep at least, our body resets itself. Rest is vital for better mental health, increased concentration and memory, a healthier immune system, reduced stress, improved mood and even a better metabolism. Intermittent fasting is one of the ways to give your body a rest. Here’s a nice article about “The Benefits Of Resting And How To Unplug In A Busy World”. Here’s a good article – especially for students – about “The importance of rest for academic success” which explains the difference kinds of rest that you need. Do at least one thing every day to remain healthy: leave your smartphone or computer alone one hour before going to bed and get enough sleep.

Remain healthy? As easy as one through five.

Alternative Plant-Based Burgers OK?

So what to do as a vegetarian or vegan? I have tried a couple of alternatives from the supermarket but can’t say their taste blew my sock off. On top of that: I looked at the ingredients’ labels… That too did not please me. Those “fake meat burgers” contain a rather long list of vague ingredients like flours and E numbers.

Why stop eating meat and choose an alternative that is unhealthy and has a unnecessary high carbon footprint?

Let’s take advantage of the protein transition to create a “eat healthier” transition!

Should you know of a healthy, carbon-neutral and tasty alternative, please let me know!

Home-Made Mushroom-Lentils Burgers

In the meantime, here is a good solution in case you crave a good burger: make one yourself.

Inspired by a delicious lentils meal earlier this week I looked for a recipe that combined those with mushrooms, one of my preferred Umami ingredients. Below is my version of De Hippe Vegetariër’s mushrooms-lentils burger.

Ingredients:

• Dry lentils, about 100 gram
• Mushrooms, 250 gram
• Shallot, one
• Garlic cloves, two
• Soja sauce, a couple of teaspoons
• Miso, a teaspoon
• Oats, a tablespoon
• Chia seeds, a tablespoon

Cook the lentils in water in about 30 minutes (follow the instructions on the package).

In the meantime: chop the garlic cloves and heat them up gently in a pan. Blitz the mushrooms together with the shallot and the soja sauce.

Add the mushroom mix to the hot pan with garlic and cook that up. Turn the oven on, around 180 degrees Celsius.

Using the same mixer, chop the oats fine and after about fives minutes add the oats, lentils and chia seeds to the mushrooms in the pan. Season it with salt and pepper. Let this simmer at low heat until the water is absorbed and the mixture feels consistent.

Turn the mix into six or eight paddies, lay them on a baking sheet and set this in the oven.

Turn the paddies after 5 minutes; they’re ready after another five minutes or longer if you prefer them slightly toasted.

Serve your plant-based as you like. Unfortunately I did not have fine bread buns today so I served them together with corn and romanesco with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

Hope you enjoy those! Please let me know what you think.

The final assignment was a bit tricky, the limit on the number of words presenting a challenge:

“Imagine you are now working for an NGO, government department, or for a company. (…). As a new employee, your first project is to formulate your own 500 word proposal about how this entity can address the 3 global challenges: environmental degradation and climate change, emerging zoonotic diseases, and chronic diseases. Briefly explain the 3 global challenges and how they affect your country or region.”

What Do You Think?

You can read my submission below. Apart from being curious about my grade I am also genuinely interested in your feedback and opinion: is it worth expanding on it, add facts, figures and examples? Should I send this as a proposal to Frans Timmermans and his staff?

Assignment Submission

Dear Frans Timmermans, EVP European Commission,

Today is my first day as an advisor for the EC working on your Green Deal. I am stoked to work on your plans such as “to enshrine the 2050 climate-neutrality target into EU law”, “to support those most affected by the ‘green’ transition” and the “‘Farm to Fork’ strategy for sustainable food…”

As an untainted newcomer I am honored to present an ambitious plan, the “Eat Green Protein Transition” to create a virtuous cycle: protect Europeans’ health and reduce healthcare costs, create an inspirational direction for the Common Agriculture Policy toward regenerative ecosystems, achieve the goals of the Paris climate agreement. The outcome: reverse climate change, reduce the risks of zoonotic diseases, drastically lower the human and financial costs of chronic diseases.

The EU protein transition plan is built on actions that work synergistically and must be coordinated by multiple EU commissioners under your leadership. The commissioners needed are those for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, for Health and Food Safety, for Agriculture and for Economy.

1: Educate consumers to adopt plant-based diets.
The plan is based on shifting consumer demand toward more plant-based products. We need to win the hearts and minds of European consumers and entice them to eat more vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. We must be taught that it is healthy to eat less or even no animal products. The plan is to develop and promote Europe-wide Dietary Guidelines akin to Canada’s. Financing vegan athletes and promoting their wins, for instance at Olympic Games, will create understanding that one can live healthily and achieve amazing feats on a plant-based diet.

2: Train medical professionals to prescribe food as medicine.
Universities need to change their programs and teach medical professionals how food can help fight the root causes of chronic diseases such as obesity, allergies, heart conditions, diabetes type 2 and many forms of cancer. This requires a promotion and education campaign targeted towards medical doctors practicing today. The costs of healthcare will eventually decrease drastically.

3: Finance the agricultural sector’s transition to plant-based organic produce.
We find vegetables from Africa, the Middle East and America in our shops. We can produce those in the EU! Let’s help our farmers find new income sources and reduce the carbon footprint of our plates. We must finance farmers in this transition. To reverse from monocultures and chemicals-filled production and produce organic crops will help regenerate our lands’ biodiversity. Stopping with large-scale animal factories will cut armful gas emissions and stop the creation of zoonic diseases.

4: Drive innovation to modernize our food systems.
Our food systems must adopt modern production methods and churn healthier products. European tax systems can be used to do so. Vertical farming technology helps reduce the number of kilometers between farms and consumers’ plates. Municipalities should be rewarded to embrace those. European manufacturers must be helped to fund their R&D efforts. The same applies for food companies who need to develop healthy alternatives to meat products.

Sincerely.

Proposal Summarized

Here’s a summary of the points layed out above:

As always, hoping you’ll find this interesting and keen to read / hear your feedback!

A Plate Full of Knowledge

Those three items are keeping me intellectually busy:

• Two students in Nutrition & Health from the Wageningen University & Research, Eva Everloo and Ella Stephens, have produced an excellent online course on EdX – “Plant Based Diets: Food for a Sustainable Future”. I will share some of their wisdom and insights later. The course is now closed for enrollment but I reckon it will reopen one day.
• The new book “The Plant Based Athlete” finally reached my home. I’m on chapter 3, “It’s time to have the protein talk”. This book is well written, I highly recommend it already. It’s exciting as it promises to help you make a personalized choice, regardless of what your motivation and fitness levels are.
• I picked up a new hobby: reading labels on packages in the supermarket. The webinar “Food as Medicine”, in Dutch (“Voeding als Medicijn”) organized by Ivo Houben of How2BeHealthy, among other things, how to recognize healthy ingredients on food labels.

Glass Half Full: Protein Transition

Whether it’s DNA, karma or education, I have had to train myself to take a positive outlook on life. It is sometimes challenging to discover a silver lining in the flow of negative messages surrounding us. I choose to see the three aforementioned nuggets of knowledge as anecdotal evidence that the world is warming up (no, not talking about the climate) to the idea of a protein transition.

We need to eat less meat and adopt a plant-based diet. For the sake of our health, that of our planet and – yes, these are big words – the survival of the human race. Obviously I suffer, like everyone else, a condition called “confirmation bias”: I look for evidence that reinforces my convictions.

Hence my pledge to back my standpoint with objective evidence. Thanks to the sources I mentioned before I will come back to that!

Orange Dish

In the spirit of the European Football Championship (Soccer) and as the Netherlands are playing tonight I’m happy to close this piece with an orange dish. Thanks to Boerschappen for this “Oranje AVG”, it’s delicious. It is yummy and it is based on locally sourced ingredients, as always with Boerschappen.

• Just mix small potatoes with oil, pepper, salt and paprika powder and bake them in your oven for 30 minutes.
• Grill orange cauliflower (it’s extra full of vitamin A) for a few minutes in a pan and add them to the potatoes for the last 10 minutes and put a little (Dutch) cheese on top to melt.
• In a pan saute some garlic and onions and bake mushrooms and/or a vegetarian burger in a bit of butter (learned from Ivo: to bake, real butter is beter than olive oil).

Voilà: an orange potatoe-vegetable-burger dish. Full of healthy carbohydrates, proteins and fat and micronutrients. My photograph doesn’t do the dish justice. It really is delicious!

Based on a this dish, here is a reminder of what constitutes healthy foods, based on the Canadian government’s food guide.

Source: https://food-guide.canada.ca/en/

Enjoy, and stay tuned!

This week I underwent a sports medical examination. The reason: I picked running as a hobby just three years ago and, well in my fifties, can I push my body further, continue to run marathons or more? The doctor uncovered no health risks and declared me good to go. She also gave me a good tip to improve my form: do like the tortoise.

Heart Rate Training

She pointed me to a TED Talk by Stephen Seiler, “How “normal people” can train like the world’s best endurance athletes”. Seiler, an exercise physiologist, professor and former consultant of the Norwegian Olympic Federation, debunks the “no pain, no gain” myth. His bottom-line: the most effective way to train is to do so at a low intensity heart rate. He calls it “polarized training”.

If you’re not familiar with the concept of training on heart rates, it works as follows: you use a heart rate monitor, a breast band or a sport watch, for instance by Fitbit, Garmin or Polar. You can easily program these devices and the manufacturer (Garmin at least) offers standard training plans based on heart rate which you upload to your device or smartphone. While exercising you follow the feedback given by the device. Maintain the pace, go slower or faster, depending on the heart rate measured.

These plans are based on five training zones. Seiler’s research finds a three-zone model to be more effective. Below Zone 1 your efforts, for instance walking, are too low to make an impact. In Zone 1, the green “Very Easy” low intensity zone, you feel like you’re exercising too easily, it’s almost boring. The yellow Zone 2 is “Somewhat Hard” but it feels like you could go forever at this rate. Zone 3 is the “Hard to Very Hard” one, you feel the burn! Beware going above zone 3 as you are then exhausting your system.

The five zones are well explained in this article. I mention them because your device will probably be based on those.

Train Like A Champ

The good news: you can train endurance like an Olympian or world champion and this method is also effective for you – that is if you’re an amateur, like me. The efficiency of training is higher when training in different training zones, possibly because by doing so you use and thus train all energy systems (fat, carbohydrate and anaerobic combustion).

The 80/20 rule of polarized training is: spend 80% of your training time just below the aerobic threshold and 20% above the anaerobic threshold. Roughly speaking, for every hour of training you should train 6-12 minutes above the anaerobic threshold. This is depicted below:

In Practice

By the way, the other good news is that this method burns fat. You can easily train in the low-intensity zone on an empty stomach it fits well with an intermittent fasting diet. When you do fitness exercises you’ll probably stay in this zone.

When you train in the high-intensity zone you need glucose as you are burning carbohydrates. I have experienced training in high intensity when fasted and, while the training went well, I was exhausted afterwards. Don’t make this mistake, this is not effective!

I tried today to combine both the low and high zones in a one-hour training. That did not work well. See the picture below.

You need some time to get into the high heart rate zone. My experience is that if you start with a long low-intensity period, it’s difficult to reach and maintain the high-intensity zone. As a result you’re stuck in the yellow, “no-pain, no-gain” zone. You then need to be like the hare: go fast! The better method is to alternate long low-intensity sessions with short high-intensity sessions, e.g. interval trainings.

In summary, if you want to improve your condition, want to burn fat or train for endurance: measure your heart rate and follow the 80/20 rule of polarized training. Go for a long bike ride, a quick walk or a slow run. Treat this like a medidation exercise… and don’t be afraid to look like a tortoise.

During the last NMA episode I heard about his new book coming up, The Plant-Based Athlete. If you, like me, pre-order it before June 15 you’ll get some nice digital goodies! This is free publicity, I don’t get any kickback or other kind of advantage.

In the process of looking at those goodies I stumbled across a video of Matt giving a lecture. This is an introduction to Matt’s Stress-Free Plant-Based Plan. Also known as the No Meat Athlete’s Perfect Day. Subtitle: “How to thrive without worrying about nutrients or following a meal plan.”

Let me describe how Matt’s perfect meal day looks like. I will later explain why it is so perfect!

1. Smoothie or Oatmeal

Matt starts the day with an oatmeal or a smoothie. This breakfast’s ingredients:

• Berries or other fruit
• Flaxseeds or other nut
• Greens, like spinach or broccoli
• Green/White Tea Leaves or matcha powder
• Turmeric

And of course oats if you rather have something more to fill your stomach

You can find many of Matt’s recipes here. You get many more if you pre-order his book ;-).

2. Giant salad with beans & nut-based dressing

For lunch, Matt has a big bowl of greens, throws in beans, other veggies, and tops it off with a nut-based dressing such as tahini with garlic and onions. To make this more filling Matt might add whole grains like rice, quinoa or whole wheat bread. For dessert? Fruit!

3. A grain, a green, and a bean

For the last meal of the day Matt makes a burrito, tacos, soup, pasta or curry, and tries to always work in onions or garlic. This dinner is based on the following ingredients:

• Whole grains
• Cruciferous and other (green) vegetables
• Beans
• Mushrooms
• Turmeric
• Nuts or seeds (topping or dressing)

Snacks are allowed in Matt’s diet. Think fruit, hummus with veggies or whole grains (crackers, bread). And let me add that Matt, as a 100% vegan adds supplements to his diet. Whole-food, plant-based diets, while very high in many micronutrients, typically don’t provide enough vitamins B12, D3, and DHA/EPA.

No Meat Athlete Framework

So, have you discovered a pattern in this perfect meal day? Well, there is a one!

Matt Frazier developed a framework based on reading two books: How Not to Die (Michael Greger, M.D. and Gene Stone. New York: Flatiron Books, 2015) and Super Immunity (Joel Fuhrman, M.D. New York: HarperOne, 2011). The common denominator is that to remain healthy there are eight food groups that you basically need to eat every day.

These “8 foods to eat every day” are:

1. Greens (leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables). Eat them often, raw and cooked!
2. Other vegetables, mushrooms and whole grains.
3. Berries and other fruits. Quoting Matt: “the most vibrantly colored fruits because of their strong anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, and anti-cancer properties. Buy them organic if possible.”
4. Flaxseeds and other nuts and seeds. These natural fats are high in Omega-3s among other good stuff.
5. Beans, that includes lentils, chick peas and other legumes. They are a food common to the world’s longest-lived cultures (see my piece on the Blue Zones).
6. Onions and garlic. Not because they taste great but because of their positive effect on reducing cancer risks.
7. Turmeric / curcumin. Thanks largely to its pigment it protect against heart disease & cancer. Others spices are beneficial as well.
8. Tea, green, white or herbal. Because it’s high in antioxidants.

Good to know as well: Matt warns that some of these foods may not be good for you. Turmeric may cause pain for people will gall stones. I you’re on blood thinning medication, eating an abundance of greens could require that your doctor up your dosage to prevent blood clots. So as always: there are exceptions and it’s recommended you consult your physician if you suffer specific conditions.

As the subtitle mentioned earlier indicates: if you manage to work these eight food groups in your daily diet, you don’t have to worry about “am I getting enough proteins?” (or other nutrients).

As always, I hope this inspires you. Go for a run and eat healthy!

How it Works

As far as I’m concerned intermittent fasting is a way of life, an eating pattern, not a diet. Intermittent fasting (I.F.) means that you take all your meals within a relatively short period of time, or you eat one day and not the next. There are quite a few models to implement I.F.; this article describes five different methods, with a good analysis of their pros and cons.

My Own Experience

My I.F. pattern is similar to the “Leangains” or 16:8 method: fasting during sixteen hours and taking meals within an eight-hour period. I stick to this pretty strictly every weekday and follow a somewhat looser pattern in the week-ends.

A personal trainer, Marc Raats, introduced me to I.F. about three years ago. I wondered about how to go about eating in combination with exercising. I hated to go for a run with a stomach full with my breakfast (first meal in the morning, hence “break fast”). Marc told me he did not eat before exercising and he mentioned I.F. which I researched and ended up adopting.

My daily pattern looked something like this:

• Sport – Start the day with running or fitness, without eating anything until lunch
• Eat – Enjoy a big lunch at noon, snack with a fruit or vegetable snack around 3pm, have dinner around 6 or 7 pm.
• Fast – until the following day.

It took me about a week to become comfortable with this pattern. For sure, not having breakfast was hard at first. Warm beverages like tea and coffee helped me cope during the first few days.

For a variety of reasons I shifted the timeline and these days I eat a small breakfast around 8am, a large lunch and a light afternoon meal. I love to run in the morning, for up to two hours, on an empty gut. Ending my eight-hour eating cycle around 4pm means I digested well when I go to bed.

Weight Loss Benefits

When you are not eating you give your body time to lower insulin levels and your fat cells can then release their stored sugar, to be used as energy. You lose weight because your body burns fat if you let insulin levels go down.

During the past three years I noticed that whenever my weight goes up, for instance during holiday periods, I find it easy to bring it back to my desired level within a couple of weeks. To be completely transparent: my weight has remained steadily between 76 and 80 kilos.

Health Benefits

Besides losing weight, you may experience improved heart and brain functions because of reduced insulin. Research suggests that intermittent fasting is beneficial for reducing inflammation and improving conditions associated with inflammation, such as Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, asthma, multiple sclerosis and even stroke. It also helps to prevent diabetes type 2.

Another benefit of fasting that is strongly suggested by research is that it induces autophagy. Your body consists of billions of cells. Over time, unwanted molecules can build up inside those cells and sometimes this can damage the cells. Autophagy is the natural process whereby your cells remove these unwanted molecules. Autophagy also seems to play an essential role in the immune system by cleaning out toxins and infectious agents.

Warnings

Skipping meals and limiting calories can be dangerous for you if you suffer from conditions such as type 1 diabetes. Beware also if you take medications for blood pressure or heart disease as you may be more prone to imbalances of minerals during periods of fasting. In short: please consult your doctor before experimenting with IF should you take medicines for a chronic disease.

If you, like me, adopt intermittent fasting, be extra mindful of what you eat. As you may eat less in quantity, the quality of your calories is of more importance than before. Feed your body with healthy food and avoid “useless”, processed foods. As always, I recommend the blue zone guidelines to help you create a balanced menu.

Blue Zones Guidelines

Interesting? Want to know more about intermittent fasting? You can find below a few links of articles I used to prepare this article. I am also keen to hear about your experience, please share your thoughts and feedback!

Links for your information:

• Does Intermittent Fasting Work?
• Intermittent fasting: Surprising update
• Time-restricted eating – a detailed intermittent fasting guide
• 4 intermittent fasting side effects to watch out for
• Intermittent fasting: A path to changing life and fighting cancer
• Autophagy: Everything you need to know