In a world saturated with "anti-aging" products and fad diets, the quest for longevity and optimal health has become increasingly complex. This article delves into the research surrounding the ultimate human diet, drawing upon insights from various scientific disciplines and examining the dietary recommendations of health experts like Gary Brecka. By synthesizing this information, we aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of what constitutes an ideal diet for human health, longevity, and sustainability.
Gary Brecka's Approach to Health and Longevity
Gary Brecka, a human biologist and co-founder of 10X Health System, has gained recognition for his work in optimizing bodily function and potentially extending lifespan. Through personalized dietary and supplement recommendations based on blood and genetic test results, Brecka focuses on helping people achieve peak performance.
The Gary Brecka Diet: A Closer Look
The Gary Brecka diet often emphasizes a low-carb, high-fat, and moderate-protein approach, aiming to induce ketosis. He generally advises reducing the consumption of refined sugars and unhealthy fats.
- Potential Benefits: Followers of Gary Brecka's low-carb, high-fat diet recommendations may experience improved metabolic health, a decreased risk of heart disease, and a reduction in appetite.
- Personalized Adjustments: Gary Brecka encourages personalized dietary adjustments to ensure adequate intake of vitamins and minerals.
- Potential Risks: A ketogenic-style diet may lead to the "keto flu," characterized by fatigue, nausea, constipation, and dizziness. Staying well-hydrated, as recommended on the Gary Brecka diet, can help avoid the symptoms of keto flu, flush out toxins, and support digestion. Ketogenic-style diets can also increase your chance of kidney stones and low blood sugar. For long-term sustainability, it’s important to monitor the food and supplements you are taking to avoid vitamin deficiency.
It's important to note that a ketogenic-style diet is not appropriate for everyone and is not advisable for individuals with chronic kidney disease, an eating disorder, diabetes (unless under medical supervision), or liver failure or pancreatitis.
The 30-30-30 Diet
Gary Brecka promotes the 30-30-30 diet, which involves consuming 30 grams of protein within 30 minutes of waking up, followed by 30 minutes of low-intensity exercise.
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Recommended Protein and Vitamins
For protein shakes, Gary Brecka recommends vegan, vegetable-based, soy-free protein supplements, and advises against whey protein supplements. He emphasizes the importance of Vitamin D3 and suggests personalized vitamin and supplement regimens based on individual bloodwork and biomarkers.
Gary Brecka's Impact on Dana White
Gary Brecka has been credited with increasing Dana White's life expectancy through biomarker testing, dietary and supplement changes, cold plunges, and workout modifications.
The Science of Longevity: Dietary Patterns and Food Groups
While individual approaches like Gary Brecka's offer valuable insights, it's crucial to consider broader scientific research on dietary patterns and their impact on longevity and overall health.
The Importance of Dietary Patterns
A 2022 study in PLOS Medicine identified key aspects of diet that significantly impact lifespan. The study found that an optimal diet includes more legumes, whole grains, fish, and produce, along with a daily handful of nuts. Conversely, it recommends reducing sodium, added sugar, and saturated fat intake, which are prevalent in the traditional American diet.
- Potential Longevity Gains: The study estimated that adopting this optimal diet from young adulthood could add 10.7 years to women's lives and 13 years to men's lives. Even starting at age 60 could add approximately 8 years.
- Similarity to Existing Diets: The study's optimal diet closely resembles the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, both of which are widely recognized for their health benefits.
Key Food Groups for Longevity
- Legumes: Rich in fiber, protein, and nutrients, legumes can help lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels. They also contain antioxidants and aid digestion. Legumes may be great additions to soups, stews, and casseroles. They hold up well during long cooking times, and they add a meaty, filling quality to any dish. You can puree beans to make healthier dips and spreads. You can sprinkle black beans on top of a salad.
- Nuts and Seeds: Packed with protein, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and fiber, nuts and seeds offer numerous health benefits. Some nuts, like walnuts, are high in omega-3 fatty acids, which protect the heart by reducing inflammation. Nuts can be easily added to just about any dish or eaten solo as a snack. Sliced almonds are terrific in oatmeal or mixed into yogurt. One of the easiest ways to work them in: Make a swap. Try replacing a not-so-healthy snack (we’re looking at you, candy bars) with a nut you like, says Kirkpatrick. It will help you feel fuller and more satisfied. Nuts are high in calories, so just be mindful of your portion size.
- Whole Grains: Containing all three parts of the seed (bran, germ, and endosperm), whole grains are more nutritious than refined grains due to their higher vitamin and fiber content. As with nuts, eating whole grains may help you stay fuller longer. When shopping for bread or similar foods, opt for whole grain picks over white. How can you tell? The package will say “100% whole grain” on it. Other healthy swaps include choosing brown rice instead of white, bran flakes instead of sweetened corn flakes, and whole grain pasta over regular pasta.
Foods to Limit
The PLOS Medicine study identified three food groups to consume less of for increased longevity:
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- Sugary Drinks: Replace sugar-laden sodas with seltzers or no-sugar-added teas. Adding fruit to water can also be refreshing and delicious.
- Red and Processed Meats: Gradually reduce your intake of red and processed meats to lower saturated fat consumption and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer.
- Processed Foods: Cut out processed foods and sugar. See how you feel.
The Ultimate Human: A Holistic Approach
The Ultimate Human movement, led by Gary Brecka, emphasizes a holistic approach to health, combining daily habits, protocols, and products to optimize well-being. This includes practices like:
- Sun Exposure: Getting natural sun rays to boost vitamin D levels and regulate circadian rhythms.
- Earthing: Connecting feet to the earth to discharge built-up stress and restore cellular function.
- Cold Exposure: Engaging in cold plunges to reduce inflammation, sharpen focus, and activate brown fat.
- Breathwork: Utilizing science-backed breathing techniques to boost oxygen levels, lower stress, and activate the nervous system.
The Importance of Gut Health and the Brain-Gut Connection
The foods you eat are converted to fuel for your brain. Like an expensive car, your brain functions best when it gets only premium fuel. Unfortunately, just like an expensive car, your brain can be damaged if you ingest anything other than premium fuel. If substances from "low-premium" fuel (such as what you get from processed or refined foods) get to the brain, it has little ability to get rid of them. Diets high in refined sugars, for example, are harmful to the brain. In addition to worsening your body's regulation of insulin, they also promote inflammation and oxidative stress.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate sleep and appetite, mediate moods, and inhibit pain. Since about 95% of your serotonin is produced in your gastrointestinal tract, and your gastrointestinal tract is lined with a hundred million nerve cells, or neurons, it makes sense that the inner workings of your digestive system don't just help you digest food, but also guide your emotions. What's more, the function of these neurons - and the production of neurotransmitters like serotonin - is highly influenced by the billions of "good" bacteria that make up your intestinal microbiome. These bacteria play an essential role in your health.
Studies have compared "traditional" diets, like the Mediterranean diet and the traditional Japanese diet, to a typical "Western" diet and have shown that the risk of depression is 25% to 35% lower in those who eat a traditional diet. Scientists account for this difference because these traditional diets tend to be high in vegetables, fruits, unprocessed grains, and fish and seafood, and to contain only modest amounts of lean meats and dairy. They are also void of processed and refined foods and sugars, which are staples of the "Western" dietary pattern.
Stanford's Sightlines Project: Addressing Nutritional Inequality
Stanford researchers found that popular movies typically depict food that is not at all in line with federal recommendations. While the movies are often depicting what is “normal” for Americans, they are also perpetuating the idea that eating these rich and indulgent foods is acceptable. Filmmakers have an opportunity to, when unhealthy food is not essential to plot, help shift our norms by portraying healthier food onscreen.
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In order to assess how many Americans are eating a healthy diet, the Stanford Center on Longevity’s Sightlines project uses data from the nationally representative Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), administered by the Centers for Disease Control, which gathers information about Americans’ eating habits. Because there is no one correct way to eat a healthy diet, it was necessary to choose a measure that would be considered integral to health for most people. As discussed in the inaugural 2016 Sightlines report and throughout this report, eating sufficient plant-based foods is generally recognized as being correlated to positive health outcomes. Eating more plant-based foods also implies eating less highly processed food, which is generally viewed as unhealthy.
Ensuring that people have proximal access to healthy, fresh foods, which has been identified as an issue in many low-income neighborhoods, is a necessary part of the equation for reducing nutritional inequality, but the findings indicate that access alone is not sufficient to improve eating habits. There are several other steps we can take as a society to help everyone eat more vegetables and fruits, such as by encouraging food providers to offer more healthy options and use taste-focused labelling, and using a plethora of motivators that target not just health but also environmental issues.
Dietary Patterns and Healthy Aging: A Comprehensive Study
A study examined the association between long-term adherence to eight healthy dietary patterns and healthy aging after 30 years in two large prospective US cohorts. The dietary patterns included the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), Alternative Mediterranean Index (aMED), the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND), the healthful plant-based diet (hPDI), the Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI), the empirically inflammatory dietary pattern (EDIP), the empirical dietary index for hyperinsulinemia (EDIH) and ultraprocessed food (UPF) consumption.
The study found that higher adherence to all dietary patterns was associated with greater odds of healthy aging. The AHEI showed the strongest association, followed by the rEDIH, while the hPDI showed the weakest association. Higher intakes of fruits, whole grains, vegetables, added unsaturated fats, nuts, legumes, and low-fat dairy were associated with greater odds of healthy aging, while higher intakes of trans fats, sodium, total meats, and red and processed meats were associated with lower odds.
Meta-Analyses: Examining the Impact of Food Groups on Mortality and Disease
Meta-analyses were performed to assess the impact of specific food groups on mortality and disease.
- Red Meat Consumption: Consuming red meat significantly increases death probability by about 20% on average compared to not consuming red meat.
- High-Fiber Diet: A high-fiber diet significantly decreases death probability by about 20% on average compared to a non-fiber diet.
- Plant-Based Nutrition: Individuals who maintain a plant-based diet have a decreased risk of diabetes compared to individuals who do not follow this type of diet.
- Vegetarian or Mediterranean Diet: A vegetarian or Mediterranean diet was not found to decrease the probability of heart disease. A vegetarian diet can be healthy or not, depending on the foods consumed in this diet. A vegetarian diet that is rich in processed foods, or a Mediterranean diet that has high quantities of meat…