Is Eating Meat Bad For You? - Nutrition Bodybuilder | Stan Efferding

Duration: 10:24 1948 transcript words EN summary

Video summary

In this discussion regarding red meat consumption, Stan Efferding addresses common concerns about dietary patterns and specific food items often demonized in health circles. He argues that labeling foods like bacon or fatty cuts of beef as inherently harmful depends heavily on overall body composition, exercise habits, fiber intake, and the total quality of one's diet rather than isolated ingredients. While acknowledging valid concerns from experts regarding red meat consumption—such as recommendations to limit it once a month—he distinguishes between acute inflammation caused by protein intake and chronic issues associated with aging. Efferding suggests that for older individuals suffering from anabolic resistance or sarcopenia, the risk of not consuming sufficient protein may pose a greater mortality threat than eating moderate amounts of red meat within a balanced diet. The conversation also shifts to controversial topics like aspartame and cancer risks, where Efferding emphasizes the critical importance of dosage in interpreting scientific studies. He critiques research that relies heavily on mouse models using massive doses of substances, noting that achieving such levels through human consumption would require drinking hundreds of sodas daily or being connected directly to an IV pump. Furthermore, he points out a significant flaw in epidemiological data: healthy user bias, where populations consuming more red meat often engage in other unhealthy behaviors like smoking and sedentary lifestyles. Consequently, Efferding asserts that the weight loss benefits derived from switching sugar-sweetened beverages to diet sodas far outweigh any theoretical risks associated with artificial sweeteners at normal consumption levels. A central theme of the episode is the primacy of weight loss as a driver for health improvements, regardless of the specific dietary method employed. Efferding references studies involving "junk food" diets like the McDonald's or Twinkie diet, where participants who maintained a calorie deficit and lost weight saw significant reductions in biomarkers such as cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure. However, he clarifies that while these short-term metabolic improvements are real, long-term adherence to highly processed, low-satiety foods is unsustainable due to intense hunger caused by the high caloric density of those items. He maintains that weight loss itself reduces cancer risk and improves vitality, making it a more reliable goal than focusing strictly on specific macronutrient ratios or food groups. Efferding outlines three primary paths to achieving a calorie deficit: strict calorie counting with precise tracking, time-restricted eating through intermittent fasting windows like 16/8, and dietary restrictions such as keto, veganism, or Paleo diets. He notes that while trends often favor specific approaches like the one-punch popularity of ketogenic diets, research indicates no single method is superior to others in the long term; success depends entirely on individual adherence. The most effective diet for any person is simply the one they can follow consistently without feeling overly restricted, as sustainability prevents failure caused by hunger and burnout. Ultimately, he advocates for a holistic view where metabolic health is monitored through tools like continuous glucose monitoring to understand real-time impacts of food choices, rather than adhering rigidly to dogmatic rules about specific foods being universally good or bad.

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two different foods that you've touched on there which are often demonized red meat no is it killing everybody well again what's the dietary pattern are you eating a ton of really fatty Meats bacon butter is usually thrown into that group even though it's not a meat but it's commonly uh side of a meat right uh tons of ribbe eyes and are you susceptible you know what's your body composition what's your exercise look like uh are you consuming sufficient fiber well let's say let's say that someone is not a total Renegade with this and they realize that they shouldn't be eating super fatty cuts of meat that they shouldn't be cooking it in tons and tons of butter that they shouldn't be having bags and bags and bags of bacon there is a movement at the moment guys like Brian Johnson who are mtor activating the mtor pathway is a nightmare I avoid meat red meat specifically there is concerns from the FDA there is concerns from all manner of people who are experts in in some circles with regards to diet that say red meat is something that you should have once a month at the absolute most yeah why what is it that you're seeing that they're not uh well you mentioned um was the first one you mentioned oh mtor stimulation well that uh there's a difference between acute and chronic inflammation or mtor stimulation and the acute inflammation or stimulation of mtor doesn't seem to be a problem uh and that would be the same of protein in general wouldn't be specific to red meat any protein would stimulate emor uh and the problem that you get is is that as we age we become uh anabolically resistant at some point or less and less anabolically uh what would just sensitive and a lot of people as they age suffer from they don't eat enough protein and they suffer from sarcopenia and that can be a bigger problem for mortality risk than consuming red meat or any meat there you know for that matter and I think uh if I'm citing the right person I think Kevin Hall has done a lot of research on that uh and is the and opposes that theory that theory that longevity Theory I think that comes a little bit from Sinclair a little bit from um wter Longo those folks uh you know it's a lot of mouse studies you have no human evidence no no human outcome trials showing that that uh is going to uh limit lifespan the problem with a lot of that research is it's usually uh influenced by the healthy user bias people who tend to eat more red meat tend to smoke more drink more weigh more exercise less uh and they eat all the things that are associated with it you know the bacon double cheeseburgers with the bun and the uh soda pop and and the fries um and you know and the dessert with that and maybe a couple of beers that's obviously you know they try and control for that in some of the epidemiology it's imperfect and they try and stratify the risk based on other health markers uh but for the most part again as part of a healthy diet keeping your you know watching your ldls uh I guess the only other concern would be cancer and that you mentioned that World Health Organization you may have mentioned uh anch I find it interesting now we've got this uh this big blowback on aspartame art came out and said that aspartame was associated with cancer risk what's your read on that well my read is that they stud they look at Mouse studies and uh with uh huge Doses and uh it's not their job to look at Doses and so what was the do do you know what the relative how much a human is it would I have had to have consumed three and a half cases of Dr Pepper it was something like 800 Cokes or something a day yeah to get that level of aspartame uh but the point of that story is is that and none of the the nut nurition phds which is the people that I usually uh turn my ear towards when things like this come out none of them consider this to be a concern uh we do have plenty of human trials randomized control trials showing evidence that when you replace sugar sweetened beverages with diet sodas you see weight loss and therefore improved Health outcomes right just let's just dig in this for one second this is something that came up with a bunch of different stories I've heard from you a lot of the time uh people will demonize the thing which is seemingly less natural got a name like aspartame instead of sugar but what they don't realize is that the weight loss from switching from sugar to Aspartame is so significant that tons and tons of Downstream benefits for health come from that and it seems like the concern from aspartame has to be at dosages so insane that you would essentially be hooked up to an IV like like Warren Buffett's nightmare yeah just pumping it into your veins it's nothing for anybody to worry about you had an interesting point there when I I talk about um the importance of of the overall dietary pattern and then your general physical health weight loss I I said this on a podcast not too long ago and it was clipped and thrown onto the internet just a little clip of it and I said that 95% of health benefits are realize strictly from weight loss itself irrespective of diet and I referenced the McDonald's diet we have multiple studies now the McDonald's diet the twinkie diet the 7-Eleven Diet where when when people eat even a lot of quote unquote crappy food junk food fast food when they're able to maintain a calorie deficit and lose weight they see decreases in all of their biomarkers they see lowered cholesterol lowered blood sugar lowered blood blood pressure and weight loss itself we know is associated with decreased cancer risk so that should be the primary goal weight loss obviously those kinds of diets longterm particularly if they're high ins saturated fats and maybe your LDL starts to go up eventually um potentially if you're not exercising or if you lose a significant amount of lean muscle mass because you're not lifting weights so there's a whole host of problems at the end of that I said I would never recommend a McDonald's diet that gets clipped out internet internet please leave that bit in which we've touched on already is satiety being the key of reason for that is is that the best diet is the one you'll follow uh and hunger is the biggest reason why people uh will fail on a diet why I keep going back to satiety when you're looking at the highly processed very calorie dense foods that if you were to do the McDonald's diet and it is possible to lose weight on it I think it was 1,800 calories 1850 something like that you'd be very hungry uh precisely because think about how dense those calories are think about how little food you get for those 1,800 100 calories I mean what it's probably a a medium meal maybe a large meal with a Coke a full fat Coke would be it wouldn't be a lot of food yep it'd be like you say maybe a cheeseburger probably I think he had to eat half of this half of that to get through the day yeah but nonetheless the point is uh that the weight loss is the primary goal and we see this with a lot of diets a lot of diet tribes we see this with keto and and my goal here isn't to on anybody's diet plan there's many paths to the same destination and I believe they're all uh very individualistic and and the the best path is the one that seems the least restrictive so you can adhere to it long term and and some people like to lower their carbs some people like to eliminate I guess we should just say there's there's three paths there's not many path there's three paths to that to to dieting all of them result in a calorie deficit one is uh calorie restriction that's where you're counting calories and you're checking the labels on the and you're weighing and measuring food and you're using your little uh you know your your computer or your phone to track your calories that's that's one method of of controlling calories uh the other one is time restriction uh and that's you're just going to eat like with a 168 or maybe that doesn't work for you you got to go to an 186 or 24 until you just can't eat enough calories in your window to to to gain weight and you start losing weight uh the other ones would be dietary restrictions and that's where you start eliminating foods that would be a keto get rid of carbs that would be a vegan get rid of meats that would be a Paleo get rid of everything that was you know created after 1960 or something like that gravitar and everything that didn't fall to the ground at its own accord yeah so those are your options and you pick one uh if you may or uh you know find something that works or a combination of the two the intermittent fasting keto diet got became real popular as a onew punch for a while uh but how sustainable are they for you and and different people have different long-term results but the research shows none of them are any better than the other longterm this episode is brought to you by levels one of the single biggest predictors of how long you live and how good you'll feel while living is your metabolic Health the single best way to work out how your daily decisions are impacting your longevity and Your vitality is by tracking your glucose this is why I wear a continuous glucose monitor from levels it allows me to understand in real time how the foods that I'm eating are impacting my health and the way that I feel the levels app interprets your glucose data and gives you a score after each meal so that you can see how different meals are impacting you and it will give you personalized diet recommendations that are right for your body glucose is a huge determinant of not only Your vitality and your longevity but of the way that you feel day-to-day using levels means that you take the guesswork out of this it can help you to nudge your diet towards something which is going to be better for you right now and in the long term as well after using levels I realized that if I have a large carbal and I do not go for a walk afterward my blood glucose goes through the roof and I don't feel so good 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