Mastering Nutrition

Here's how to take NIACIN 😁… without getting DIABETES. 😔 Alex Leaf and I did a HUGE podcast on niacin, and Alex looked at the data on whether it is safe and effective to use for preventing heart disease. Based on that data, one out of every 18 people who use it for this purpose get saved from heart disease, but for every 7 people saved from heart disease, 3 get diabetes. In this episode I cover...

Should you use niacin to lower your blood lipids? For every seven people that this saves from heart disease, three get diabetes. This episode covers alternative strategies to achieve the same effect of niacin on blood lipids without the risk of diabetes. This episode is brought to you by Vitamins and Minerals 101. This is my new, free, 30-day course that covers the basics of each nutrient, includi...

Here's why the best test for niacin status is HDRI's NADH/NADPH, how to use it to calculate the niacin number, and what numbers you should be aiming for. This episode is brought to you by Vitamins and Minerals 101. This is my new, free, 30-day course that covers the basics of each nutrient, including why it's important, how to get it from food, how to know if you need more, when you should think a...

Here's how to get NIACIN from FOOD. 🍲😋 I recommend getting a half gram to a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight (double this if you measure your weight in kilograms), which contributes to your niacin status, as well as 20 milligrams of preformed niacin from food per day. So, here are your foods, arranged in five tiers. Tier 1 supplies close to 15 mg or more per serving. Fresh yellowfin or sh...

Do women need more niacin than men? The RDA says they need less. But the evidence suggests otherwise. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ of the individual. Ancestral Supplements has a nose-to-tail product line of grass-f...

Are your whole grains and seeds good sources of niacin? That depends on you prepare them! Whole grains have 80-90% of their niacin locked up, and seeds have 40% of their niacin locked up. This episode covers how to free the bound niacin. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal...

COFFEE 😍😍😍 Is it a good source of NIACIN? That depends on how you brew it. This episode has the details on the effect of roasting, coffee strength, and decaffeination. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ of the individ...

Ever wonder if you need more niacin? This episode covers the signs and symptoms of niacin deficiency as well as the reasons you'd be likely to become deficient. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ of the individual. Ances...

Nicotinamide riboside (NR) is the best form of niacin to take for anti-aging benefits. BUT… it could sap your creatine supply, making you weaker, hurting your digestion, or causing you to get depressed. AND it could mess with your dopamine, giving you "sticky brain" syndrome, causing negative thoughts and emotions to get stuck in your mind. How do we protect against this? It all comes down to dose...

Niacin, niacinamide, nicotinamide riboside, nicotinamide mononucleotide, oh my! 🙉 Which form should you take for anti-aging? In this episode, I recommend nicotinamide riboside (NR). It's better at increase NAD+ levels than niacin or niacinamide. It's probably equal to nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN), but NMN hasn't been studied as well. NMN is probably absorbed as NR anyway, and might have lowe...

Should you inject yourself with NAD+ to stay young forever? 💉😮 My buddy Ben and some guys at Onnit are doin' it. 👊 I'm a little less prone to livin' on the edge. 🤓 I like the idea of living forever, but, well, I don't want to wind up 🤕 or 🥴. Tune in for my thoughts on NAD+ injections. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors...

An estimated 70 million Americans have fatty liver disease, and the strongest predictors are obesity and type 1 or type 2 diabetes. The lab I worked in when I completed my PhD specialized in fatty liver disease, so I did a lot of research on this and have published some papers on it. Here's my recommended fix, which I call the "choline-boosting modified fast." It focuses on weight loss that is as...

Fatty liver can hurt your liver's ability to store vitamin A, which could make vitamin A supplements or vitamin A-rich foods toxic. Yet one of the main conditions that causes fatty liver -- obesity -- also makes your cell's deficient in vitamin A, deep down inside. This a big problem! You might need more vitamin A, yet not be able to handle getting it. Tune in for my solution. This episode is brou...

Can vitamin A cause birth defects? Maybe. Here's what I recommend to do with your vitamin A intake when you're expecting, or expecting to maybe be expecting. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ of the individual. Ancestra...

If you have vitamin A toxicity, should you see a doctor? What foods should you stop eating, and are there any supplements you should start taking? Tune in for my suggestions. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ of the ind...

Is vitamin A toxic? It can be! It's a super-important essential nutrient and MANY people need MORE of it, yet it still has the potential to cause problems. Here is a method to use signs and symptoms, the amounts of vitamin A you've been exposed to, and lab tests to determine if you've gotten too much. There are a few symptoms that I neglected to mention in the video that are worth taking note of:...

Does a growing child need a *less* nutritious diet than an adult? You would think so, looking at the RDAs! Yes, some of them are higher during childhood growth phases, such as calcium. But many of them are lower, and not because we know children need less but simply because they were scaled down by bodyweight. Should a child half your size who eats twice as much food as you eat a diet that's only...

Got MTHFR? 😬 Relax! Riboflavin will come to the rescue! 😁 MTHFR is an enzyme that uses folate (vitamin B9) to support your mental and physical health. It does so by using riboflavin (vitamin B2) to make the methyl group of methylfolate. The common polymorphisms that lower MTHFR activity may do so simply by hurting its ability to bind riboflavin, and enough riboflavin may be able to bring that ac...

Feel tanked after your workout? 😫 Well you might feel fine, but you might still be stressing your body too much. How do you know? This is my recommended protocol for using heart rate variability to determine how recovered you are. It covers everything from getting an accurate baseline measurement to discovering and testing things that impact your recovery time. This episode is brought to you by A...

"Low Copper Low Vitamin C BRAIN Syndrome" Ok it's not a medical term. I invented it. But this is the cluster of signs and symptoms that make it sound like your brain needs more vitamin C or copper, based on the neuropeptides we need these nutrients to activate. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the orga...

In part 1 we covered what niacin is and why you need it. Here's part 2, where Alex Leaf and I cover blood tests, foods, and supplements! How much do we need? The RDA has some flaws, including claiming women need less than men, when all the evidence shows women need *more* than men. Why eating enough protein is so essential, yet so unreliable as a way of boosting niacin status. How the niacin in yo...

Here are ten steps to healthy sleep! What has been most game-changing for you? Let me know in the comments! This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ of the individual. Ancestral Supplements has a nose-to-tail product line of g...

Don't you just hate it when you keep waking up in the middle of the night to pee? If this is your biggest sleeping problem, listen up. In this episode I cover how sleeping regular hours is one of the most important ways to combat this, and how nutrients (salt, vitamin C, copper, zinc, glycine, enough calories) and stress management can also help. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplem...

To get good sleep, your brain needs to know when it's daytime and when it's nighttime. How does it know? Vitamin A tells it! So if you don't have enough vitamin A, your brain is going to be clueless. Tune in for how to figure out if vitamin A is at the bottom of your sleeping problems. This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors beli...

Here's how to make your own melatonin. No, not in your basement -- in your brain. We cover the effect of protein, carbs, vitamins, blue-blocking, and sunshine. Tune in for the details! This episode is brought to you by Ancestral Supplements' Grass Fed Beef Brain. Our Native American ancestors believed that eating the organs from a healthy animal would support the health of the corresponding organ...