ol, triglyceride levels and blood pressure. I work at a
Bank, and it’s pretty cool that they offer free cholester-
ol screening and all kinds of other nice benefits. Any-
ways, she looked very puzzled. She was comparing my
results from 2 years prior, to my most recent results.
She finally blurted out “what did you do to improve this
profile so much.” My answer nearly floored her.
Well Nancy, I started:
1. Cooking in virgin coconut oil, and grass-fed butter
2. I also switched out all the store bought grain fed beef I was consuming with grass fed beef I procure from a local farmer. I eat 8 ounces every single day.
3. I switched out my 99-cent a dozen eggs with true organic free range eggs, and eat 6 of these whole every single day.
4. Lastly (and probably most importantly), I reduced refined sugars in my diet and foods that contain excessive levels of Omega 6 Polyunsaturated fats (bye bye Tostitos – dang corn oil), as I believe those things create arterial inflammation resulting in increased cholesterol levels. Cholesterol is an anti-oxi- dant and repair agent in your body.
I knew what her next question would be, “but isn’t all that saturated fat bad?” I said well you tell me, my cholesterol went from 212 down to 167. My HDL went up 11 points (something I struggled with for years), and my LDL and Triglyceride levels were at the bottom end of the range. Even my blood pressure was a startling 104/70. She finally asked if I had any reading material I recommended, as these concepts were not taught to her in her days of studying health and nutrition.
So why do I mention that story? Well, the diet that I recommend usually freaks people out initially, but it’s rooted in sound science and facts, and not influenced by flawed studies funded by compa- nies with ulterior motives. Most people have always heard and believe in the “Lipid Hypothesis.” This is the outdated theory that saturated fat and cholesterol intake increases cholesterol levels in the blood, which increase your chance of heart disease. This theory is simply not true, as long as the saturates are of a certain type, and the cholesterol is not oxidized. You have to accept that to fully embrace the Mountain Dog Diet.
I have formulated this diet based on a few things.
1. Mentorship with Dr Eric Serrano. Eric is revered in the athletic community as a top expert in train- ing, nutrition, rehabilitation and many other things. Eric has been a big influence on me and a great mentor.
2. The teachings of the Weston A. Price Foundation. A fantastic resource for correct nutritional informa- tion can be found at the Weston A. Price foundation’s website www.westonaprice.org. It’s a not-for- profit organization with no hidden agendas, and one of the most brilliant Lipid Experts in the coun- try, Mary Enig, has written numerous articles we could all benefit from on it. If you go to this website and spend a few hours on it, you will thank me for recommending it. I’ll be referencing this site many times over in this article.
3. Personal experience. I have competed in 30 bodybuilding contests, that I can remember, won 13 of them, and placed in six of nine pro qualifying national level events. Experience is a great teacher, and you have to know when to make adjustments in diets, and what to do, for the best results. As solid as the Mountain Dog diet is, it can still only take you to a certain point. Only experience can get you past that.
What’s so different about this diet compared to standard fat reduction and competitive bodybuilding diets in general? Number one, this diet will improve your health. You may find that your cholester- ol levels improve, your joints feel better, your skin looks better, you don’t feel as lethargic, or many many other nice side effects that go along with eating this way. You’ll see and become a believer. Will this diet enable you to gain 20 pounds of muscle you otherwise wouldn’t have been able to gain? Clearly no. But the increased focus on fat soluble vitamins will help with gains through better endo- crine function. Remember, the theme here is health, and making better choices regardless of wheth- er you’re trying to gain muscle or lose fat.
The approach itself is a nutrient driven approach. My number one rule is this: Focus on MICRONUTRITION NOT MACRONUTRITION.
This diet emphasizes the following key concepts:
1. The best food comes from animals that have been fed their natural diet. 2. Correct ratio of fats with a special emphasis on saturated fats.
3. Fat soluble vitamins and their role in endocrine function. 4. Keeping your liver healthy.
5. Supplements to manage glucose disposal.
There are actually MANY other key concepts such as carb intake/sources and rotations, veggie and fruit consumption, how to incorporate cardio, what spices and condiments can do for your metabo- lism, etc. but for the sake of this conversation I’m limiting it to these five.
Many of the foods and practices I recommend are in fact not new. Many years ago they were used by some of the more popular bodybuilders, but in today’s world of bodybuilding, the ideas are long forgotten. I highly recommend a book called “Muscle, Smoke and Mirrors” by Randy Roach. He dives deeply into the diets of some of the legends like Armand Tanny, Vince Gironda, John Grimek and Tony Sansone. You’ll see some similarities with what they ate, and what I’m recommending, such as raw milk, liver and copious amounts of whole eggs.
For the purposes of this article, I’m going to cover the approach at a high level, to introduce you to all the concepts, rather than only focusing on a few of them.
• The best food comes from animals that have been fed their natural diet.
Remember the old saying you are what you eat? It’s NOT true! You are what you eat has eaten!!! Here’s a sample of a few of the mainstays in this diet and a little about why
Grass Fed Beef – This type of beef is from cows that have been fed their normal diet consisting of grass. The only exception would be in winter where hay, root vegetables and silage are ok. Cows are termed ruminant animals, and have a really cool chamber in their stomach called a Rumen. Think of it as a big fermentation vat. This chamber is one of four chambers in the stomach that turns grass into high quality protein, and ensures a great Omega 3 to 6 ratio. This is all dependent on the PH of the rumen.
I cannot recommend “normal” store bought grain fed beef as these cows have been fed grain, and grain feeding depletes all of the things in the fat that make it healthy and magical – namely a perfect balance of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fats, and CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid). The unhealthy Omega 3 to 6 ratio that is heavily skewed toward Omega 6 is very inflammatory to your body, and is thought to increase chances of heart disease and overall bodily inflammation. The PH of the rumen is heavily affected by grain, greatly increasing acidity, thus completely throwing off Omega 3, CLA, and other levels.
In case you are wondering what exactly happens to the cow fed their unnatural diet, www.eatwild. com states “when fed an unnatural diet of grain, acidosis can result and lead to a condition called “rumenitis,” which is an inflammation of the wall of the rumen. Rumenitis then leads to liver ab- scesses as the rumen wall becomes ulcerated, bacteria are able to pass through the walls and enter the bloodstream. Ultimately, the bacteria are transported to the liver where they cause abscesses. From 15 to 30 percent of feedlot cattle have liver abscesses, hence the need for antibiotics and such.” Not pretty.
Going back to Omega-3s, they are most abundant in seafood, but they are also found in animals raised on pasture, usually there is anywhere from two-six times more Omega 3’s in grass-fed
meats. The reason is simple. Omega-3s are formed in the chloroplasts of green leaves and algae. It’s interesting to me that sixty percent of the fatty acids in grass are actually omega-3s. Some of the more hardcore farmers I’ve spent time and talked to believe in basically eating nothing but grass fed beef and vegetables due to the fact that you can source all your nutrients from the chloroplast in the leaf. For ultimate longevity, maybe they’re right?
I’ve been asked about cows that have been “finished” on grain. When cattle are taken off omega-3 rich grass and shipped to a feedlot to be fattened on omega-3 poor grain, they begin losing their store of this beneficial fat as one would suspect. Each day that an animal spends in the feedlot, its supply of omega-3 is diminished. There are some great graphical representations and more detailed info on this process on the very informative website www.eatwild.com that I referenced above.
This food is the No. 1 component of the diet, and doesn’t come out at all, even pre-contest.
Free Range Eggs – Chickens that have been free to roam around, and feast on their natural diet of bugs, insects, and grass lay the highest quality eggs. I’m a staunch believer in natural sources of fat soluble vitamins and you will get four to six times more Vitamin D from a free range egg, as the hens get more sunlight. You also get three times more Vitamin E. In addition, free range eggs give you twice the Omega 3’s (although I have seen as much as 20 times more Omega 3), and seven times more beta carotene. This data was a result of the 2007 Mother Earth News egg testing project. You can read more about this at www.motherearthnews.com. There are many more benefits to free range eggs, as this is only a few. As with the grass fed beef, whole free range eggs never come out of your diet, even pre-contest for those looking to reach the absolute lowest levels of bodyfat.
Wild Caught Salmon – Perhaps no food is better at supplying healthy Omega 3s than wild caught salmon. These salmon have been fed their natural diet of tiny shrimp-like creatures called Krill,
which not only gives them their lovely reddish orange color, it also gives them the big dose of Omega 3 that we all desire. Be careful when you’re shopping to not pick up “Farm-Raised” Salmon. These Salmon have been enclosed in pens and fed a very unnatural diet of corn meal, soy and even chicken
feces pellets. They aren’t even orange until artificial dyes and colors are added, they are grey. There are several different types of wild caught Alaskan salmon for you to choose from. Sockeye Salmon, Chinook/King Salmon, and other varieties, plus you can get the Sockeye or Pink Salmon canned. These are all good, as long as they are wild-caught. You will get around 2.5 – 3 grams of Omega 3 per every 7 ounces.
Raw Grass Fed Dairy – The same things that applied to grass fed beef, applies to grass fed dairy. You get more CLA, and Omega 3s. The Journal of Dairy Science did a study in 1999 on CLA in grass fed dairy, and found that it contains 500 percent more CLA than cows fed grain.
Although this selection comes out the final 16 weeks before a contest my only exception is one ta- blespoon of Grass-Fed butter daily, it’s an absolutely great way to add lean muscle in the off-season. I really don’t like to take it out pre-contest, but I do because experience has taught me dairy does seem to cause most to hold a layer of water under their skin, which isn’t optimal for physique dis- play. The ironic thing is that this is a good result of your skin being healthier! Also notice I said RAW in addition to grass-fed. The nutritional value of milk plummets due to pasteurization, the vitamin A is completely destroyed and the proteins become more difficult to digest often creating strong immune system responses and allergies. The Weston A. Price Foundation has a sister website called www. realmilk.com that is excellent in explaining the benefits of raw milk.
I do want to point out that I don’t support the consumption of pasteurized dairy that you’ll find in most stores at any time, and also that dairy is not a necessity, or required. You’ll get plenty of Omega 3’s from your Salmon, Vitamin D from your eggs and certain fish, Vitamin A from Beef – liver espe- cially, and calcium and minerals from green leafy veggies. I wrestled around with this one for a while, but after having tried raw milk myself for an extended period of time, and seeing what it has done for many others in terms of their well-being, and lean muscle gains,. I think I’d be remiss not adding this. The truth is that I look at raw milk as a very good supplement!
Most diets in the bodybuilding world, even those that are termed “high-fat,” don’t advise the use of saturated fats outside of what normally occurs in the peanutbutter, nuts, avocadoes, etc. that are typically recommended. I think this is a mistake. Saturated fats play an enormous role our in our health and well being. Here are just a few of many reasons to NOT avoid saturated fat:
• Saturated fats make up 50 percent of our cell membranes! They give cells the correct amount of rigidity to allow “messages” in and out.
• Saturates allow the body to use and retain Omega 3’s better!
• They make our immune systems better (see butter and coconut oil!)
• A few specific types of saturates are the best food for the heart. The fat around the heart is highly saturated.
So what are the best sources for saturated fats in the Mountain Dog Diet?
1) Animal fats – Grass fed ground beef contains not only the correct ration of Omega 3 to Ome- ga 6 (1 to 1 or close to it), and CLA, it has the saturated fat you need. Grass fed beef tends to have about half the saturated fat that grain-fed beef has. Leaner cuts like sirloin are ok, but remember, the magic is in the fat. That doesn’t mean you should eat all Ribeyes, just not to fear the fat, and there will be less of it in grass fed. It helps with fat soluble vitamin uptake (which we will get into later in this article). There is a fantastic book called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration written by Dr Weston A. Price that talks in detail about the dietary habits of many non-industrialized tribes/popu- lations. If you read this book, you clearly see what Dr Price’s research showed in terms on health and well-being, and the importance of animal fats. There was also a gentleman named Dr. George Mann who studied a tribe in Africa called the Masai. The tribe had no heart disease of any kind. Their diets consisted of meat, blood, whole milk, and up to 1.5 pounds of butter a day. He is known for a quote that I think is great. He said “the Lipid Hypothesis is the greatest scam in the history of medicine.”
2) Virgin Coconut Oil – Coconut oil does a number of very good things for someone attempting to get lean. Most – 95 percent – of the fat in coconut oil is saturated, and about half is Lauric Acid. The fat is a special type of fat, medium chain triglyceride, that is easily converted to energy by your liver. There are numerous studies out there that corroborate this. Dr. Serrano has been using Coconut Oil for endurance athletes too, mixed with slower burning carbs for immediate and sustained energy. I’ve also seen some claims that I’m still researching in terms of your body’s increased ability to burn long chain fats, when these MCT’s are taken in. Most of these studies are taking place at McGill University in Canada. If this were true, it would be another reason to add this fat into your diet when bodyfat loss is a primary goal. There is another side of coconut oil too that shouldn’t be forgotten and it relates to general health. It’s loaded (more than any other food source) with Lauric acid. This is a fat that is extremely anti-viral and antimicrobial. Lauric acid converts to its active form Monolaurin (much like T-4 converting to active T-3 in your body for those of you who have studied thyroid func- tion). Monolaurin is currently being given to HIV patients and is showing much promise. You can see some of the research at www.lauric.org. It’s also found heavily in breast milk, which is a reason why babies who are breast feed seem to have stronger immune systems. The best thing about Lauric acid in food – it’s in a big dose, in my favorite snack food – Jennie’s Macaroons! I love these tasty treats. You can order these on Amazon.com. They come in packs of 6.
3) Grass Fed Butter – The most frustrating thing to me about having conversations regarding butter is the notion that the fat in butter causes heart disease. The reality is that butter IS HEART HEALTHY! It contains a perfect ratio of Omega 3 to 6. The saturated fats are generally short and me- dium chain for quick and easy digestion and for protection against infection. Lecithin is also a natural component of butter that assists in the proper assimilation and metabolization of cholesterol and other fats. Butter also has this thing called “Wulzen Factor” in it. Researcher Rosalind Wulzen dis- covered that this substance protects humans and animals from calcification of the joints-degenera- tive arthritis. I could go on and on about butter, just know that a little everyday is good for you. What about polyunsaturated fats (Omega 3, 6, Alpha Linolenic Acid)? If you’re thinking these are essential, and you have to get them from your diet, you are correct. The amount needed gets over- blown sometimes though. You’ll get plenty from your diet in the form of Salmon, and also some extra in your beef and dairy due to those sources being grass fed. Mary Enig recommends that your diet contain 1.5 percent of it’s calories in the form of polyunsaturates. Her recommendations are in line with other top lipid experts in the world. This is the same recommendation I use.
If you are taking flax, chia, or other grain type forms of Alpha Linolenic Acid – remember this, your body can only convert a very small amount of it to its usable form in the body of DHA. The DHA/ EPA Omega 3 institute estimates that only 12 percent of ALA converts to DHA and presents stud- ies backing up their data in its website www.dhaomega3.org. I do not recommend these grain type