Max Lugavere
Appearances
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I realized the power of story halfway through college, and I realized my own aptitude for telling them, not just verbally, but across myriad mediums, whether through design or through I mean, gosh, there's been so many instances of my life where I've dabbled creatively and I've just really enjoyed that process. And music is a form of storytelling.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Obviously, people listening to this who are in the world of marketing recognize that good marketing is really all about story. And That led to me pivoting away from a pre-med track, which I thought wasn't going to lead to my ultimate happiness. And despite having this passion for health and medicine, I ended up double majoring in film and psychology.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And that led to me getting this dream job out of college as a producer and a journalist and a host, a presenter for this television network in the United States called Current TV. So I was a filmmaker in college. And that led to me somehow getting a job where I was reaching 100 million homes every night on this TV channel in the United States called Current TV. And anybody can Google it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It doesn't exist anymore, but it used to. And so I had been a filmmaker in college, and that led to me getting to produce films and short documentaries on this television platform for many years. working with some of the best in the industry.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Now, when my mom became sick, I had actually, at that point, I had left that job and I was essentially unemployed, but I was still a filmmaker by trade, in terms of my skillset, a storyteller. And I, as an artist, I think the plight of the artist in many ways is to take pain and suffering and burden and to transform it into something meaningful.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Obviously, that's not the goal of every artist, but I think in a way that's what art does. It takes an aspect of the human experience, pain or suffering, and turns it into something that allows us to see that pain and that suffering from a different vantage point. in a way that makes it more perhaps meaningful, gives us a different sort of experience of it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And when my mom became sick, that was, as I've mentioned, the most painful, difficult thing I'd ever experienced in my life. And as an artist, I felt compelled just in terms of my own mental fortitude as a way of reconciling what it was that myself and my family going through, I felt compelled to turn that into something meaningful and artful.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And the medium that made the most sense to me at the time was film. Now I'd never made a long form documentary film. I had only worked professionally as a short form documentary filmmaker. But I thought that this was a really powerful opportunity for me to accomplish multiple things at once.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
One was to, again, create a piece of art that would give meaning to me for this experience that was painful and traumatic. But on the other hand, I thought that it was a really effective way of producing a body of work and a calling card that would potentially allow me access to people that wouldn't otherwise pick up the phone, so to speak.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And so in envisioning this documentary, for me, it was a way to actually exploit my media credentials to get to have conversations with researchers and scientists who might actually provide a degree of illumination in terms of what it was that my mom was going through.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And so I had this idea of doing a long form documentary about dementia that centered on my mother and the most important person in my life that was potentially going to give meaning to this experience that we were all going through, but then also professionally give me a reason to reach out via email to some of these researchers who are publishing
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
on the role of diet and lifestyle in brain health so that I can potentially go to their labs and bring a camera crew with me and ask them all of these burning questions that most people don't get to ask to researchers. Because again, most people get 15 minutes with their doctors and then they're sent on their way. But I had the wherewithal to
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And maybe the naivete or a sense of entitlement to actually reach out to some of the researchers who were publishing it in the peer reviewed literature to maybe get to sit with them for 30 minutes to an hour to ask them these kinds of questions about maybe what it was about my mom's diet or lifestyle that may have over the years increased her risk for developing this condition or from a more high level view.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
what it was about the standard American diet and lifestyle that seemed to be increasing risk for so many of us, as you've seen, John, in your family. I mean, we're not alone in this.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So many people today are struggling with cognitive decline or seeing family members be diagnosed with conditions like Alzheimer's disease or even Parkinson's disease, which is now the world's fastest growing brain disease. And I didn't know what I was doing. Again, I attribute the documentary, at least in part, to my own naivete.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I didn't know what it was going to entail to produce, which is part of the reason why Little Empty Boxes took me 10 years to get done. But ultimately, I think it's the most important thing that I've ever done. It's my greatest achievement thus far, and I'm incredibly proud of it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So it's the world's first ever dementia prevention documentary, and it focuses on the science of dementia prevention, focusing on the things that may have gone wrong in terms of policy, public health, that seem to be radically increasing prevalence of these kinds of conditions. But then it's also a deeply humanistic story.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And it follows, first and foremost, a family stuck in the throes of chronic disease. And it's a film that anybody who's ever struggled with this will certainly relate to. And it's about the frustration and it's about the fear that becomes so common when dealing with these kinds of conditions.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And that is, I wouldn't categorize it as unfair. I think it's honest in the sense that I really wasn't able to find anything to save my mom, so to speak, even though that was my intent. Ultimately, my mom's health continued to decline. And that's why I've become so fixated on the notion of prevention, because I learned that these conditions begin decades prior to the onset of symptoms.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And so for me, it's about getting this message out to people who are not yet affected so that they can perhaps steer the ship in a different direction. But yeah, just to go on a brief little tangent, we did a theatrical release for the film in the United States. And we attempted to do a traditional sort of release in which we were going to try to get reviews about the film written up.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And, you know, that was a really interesting experience. And I would say that the reviews, we have a 100% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. And people who watch the film really understand was that I was trying to accomplish that. And on IMDb, the score is, I think it's between 8 and 9 out of 10.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I mean, the vast majority of reviews have been overwhelmingly positive and receptive to the mission of the film. But when you're putting a film on a desk of critics, right, you have no idea how they're going to respond to the film, particularly a film that covers a topic that can be incredibly polarizing, as I've discovered over the past decade of my life, immersed in this space.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And there was a degree of heartbreak that I felt for a very small portion of reviewers who thought that the film was, you know, like a stealth health documentary. And that was really heartbreaking to me because the film really, it's about my mom and it's, we present ideas in the film as the IndieWire review picked up on, but there is no silver bullet that's presented.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
There is no magical diet protocol that's presented to prevent these conditions. I mean, the film explores, I think, really important ideas. And some ideas that are possibly even a little bit outside of the box. But I think that's important because this is a condition where we do need to look for answers, I think, in places that are perhaps less conventional. 99.6% fail rate.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And we see widespread fraud, even within the field of Alzheimer's disease, showing us that a lot of the science that's been put out over the past few decades... has actually been fraudulent, which pains me to say, but this is well-documented, published in the magazine Science, which is a highly credible paper. So there's widespread fraud in the field of Alzheimer's disease.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It takes 17 years on average for just a proportion of what's discovered in science to be put into day-to-day clinical practice. And when the health, the lives of our loved ones are on the line, that's not time that we have to waste. And billions of dollars are being spent potentially going down erroneous paths with regards to these conditions, as we've seen.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And I've talked about this on other podcasts, ad nauseum, the fraud that has permeated the field of Alzheimer's disease. And again, I'm so grateful that the vast majority of reviews that we've had have been overwhelmingly positive. Anybody who's taken the time to see the film has really, I think, appreciated it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
But there has been a tiny proportion of reviews that, honestly, I feel are heartbreaking and don't represent the film at all. But I guess that's just par for the course. For me, it's upsetting because I'm so close to the film. It's a film about my mother that was done with zero commercial intent and has taken me 10 years to complete. But I guess it is what it is.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I'm just grateful that the audience that the film deserves has found the film and that the audience reviews, which are the most important to me, not critic reviews, audience reviews, have been overwhelmingly positive. Again, 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I think there are a few misconceptions. When starting out, I realized that if I could do anything, it was to correct. And these are misconceptions that I identified, at least in part, because they were misconceptions that I myself had harbored. One is that these conditions are genetic, that they're inherited, which I learned very early on was not in fact the case for the vast majority of cases.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
This became viscerally apparent to me when I realized that my maternal grandmother, my mom's mom, lived until 96 and was cognitively intact until the very end. And in fact, my grandmother was living with my mom. And there were a good number of years prior to my grandmother's passing where my grandmother's cognition was better than my mother's. And my grandmother was 30 to 40 years her senior.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And so that was very odd. that my grandmother was cognitively perfectly healthy and sharp, and her daughter was actually the one who was succumbing to dementia, this condition that we often associate with older people. To me, the question became very early on, what changed?
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
What changed in between my grandmother's generation and my mother's that led to my mom developing this condition, and yet my grandmother was seemingly inoculated against it? Another misconception that I had was that these conditions were diseases of aging, that they were a natural part of the aging process, which again, you know, using my own grandmother as an anecdote didn't seem to be the case.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And my mom was very young. And then finally, I think I learned that one of the things that makes these conditions so hard to treat once they've set in is that they begin years, if not decades prior to the onset of symptoms. Similar to heart disease, cancer. I mean, these conditions don't begin overnight. They're simmering under the surface preclinically for decades.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And so that gives us a really powerful window of opportunity to change the course of our cognitive destiny. And I realized that I was only interested in these topics because I was seeing it up close and personal with a loved one who had the condition.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
But the fact that I could start to implement whether dietary or lifestyle interventions in my own life that might not with 100% certainty prevent me from ever developing a condition like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, but could
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
according to the best available evidence lower or minimize my risk for these conditions well that was a really powerful call to action for me but the only reason why i was interested in in taking those steps was because i had a loved one with the condition but what if i could get this information out to the public at large that hey these conditions which we
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
tend to assume are inevitable, natural, dare I say natural aspects of aging or inherited. If none of those are in fact the case, and we can actually take steps today to improve our odds 10, 20, 30 years down the line of having a better fighting chance against these kinds of conditions for which there is no effective pharmaceutical treatment.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Well, then that was something that I felt really inspired to do. And so those were some of the misconceptions that I realized I had been harboring and that were in fact misconceptions. And so a lot of my work has been about debunking that. We really do have a lot of agency when it comes to our brain health. There's a lot that we can do. And diet, I love to talk about diet.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Anybody who finds me on social media, I'm a big nutrition nerd, but diet is just one thin slice of the pie. There are so many other factors, variables that fall within our control. And so being a sort of walking meta-analysis for this topic has become one of my missions.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And all that is to say that there is a lot that we can do, whether it's diet, whether it's lifestyle, whether it's various medical risk factors that we can attend to. There is a ton that we can do. And I just don't want anybody to feel helpless or hopeless about these conditions.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
The fact that I could start to implement whether dietary or lifestyle interventions in my own life that might not with 100% certainty prevent me from ever developing a condition like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, but could, according to the best available evidence, lower or minimize my risk for these conditions. Well, that was a really powerful call to action for me.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
One of the things that I think is really important to wrap your head around is that these are conditions of midlife with symptoms that appear in late life. And this was actually one of the reasons why I decided to undertake writing a book. My first book, Genius Foods, really was...
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
a project that was undertaken when I came to the realization that the same steps that you might take to batten down the hatches and reduce your risk for these conditions 10, 20, 30 years down the line also seem to improve the way that your brain works in the here and now. So while I would understand why a 20 or 30 year old might not be all that concerned with dementia during this phase of life,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
There's now a burgeoning field of science known as nutritional psychiatry, which makes the connection between our diets and our lifestyles, well, specifically our diets, and the way that our brains work, our ability to show up in the world, our ability to focus, pay attention, tune out impulses, to have better mental health with regards to anxiety and depression.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
this field of nutritional psychiatry is incredibly exciting because depression, I think for many people, we tend to feel a sense of depression happening to us or a sense of perhaps moral failure around depression, but depression is natural. And there are many aspects of, I think, modern life that are pulling the trigger for so many of us with regards to these kinds of mental health conditions.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I mean, today, so many of us are suffering from diseases of despair.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
and certainly there are aspects of life that will lead to depression i was certainly very depressed during a lot of the time that my mom was suffering with this condition particularly at the onset and as well as at the end of her life but also much of how we treat ourselves today whether we're talking about overly sedentary lifestyles or diets that are replete with ultra processed foods i mean for many maybe not all but for many people do actually
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
illicit feelings of dour mood of anxiety and so to me that was the real value add for younger people in their 20s and 30s who are really maybe just beginning their careers or are starting to see repercussions their diets and their lifestyles in terms of their mental health that there really is an empowering story here and that the same steps that you might take to
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
reduce your risk for these kinds of conditions in midlife actually also seem to improve quality of life when young. And so that's why I actually named my first book, Genius Foods, as opposed to the dementia prevention foods, because eating foods like, for example, avocado actually improve cognitive function.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I mean, for example, avocado consumers seem to have better cognitive function across myriad cognitive domains than avocado non-consumers. And that's an observational study, but mechanistically, it makes perfect sense when you consider the micronutrients and the phytonutrients that avocados contain. And that's just one example.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Blueberries are another example of a food that we know directly supports cognitive health. There's a bounty of data linking blueberries to better cognitive performance. Dark chocolate, cacao flavanols are another food that can potentially boost brain function. And this is something that should appeal to anybody across the age spectrum.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So to me, that's the empowering message is that this is not just about preventing a condition. It would be worth taking these steps and eating these foods to prevent these kinds of conditions that we're talking about. I think the exciting part of the story is that this is not just an investment. This is not just like a long-term investment.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
This is an investment that pays dividends, like serious dividends in the here and now. And that to me is part of the value add for younger people.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Well, I would say today, the hierarchy that I use these days, and I try to remain open to changing my perspective as new data presents itself or as my own thinking about diet and nutrition shifts. But today I would say that my sort of food pyramid, it's a three rung pyramid, and I The first rung of the pyramid really is about prioritizing minimally processed whole foods.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So today, 60% of the calories that your average adult ingests comes from what are called ultra processed foods. And these are the kinds of foods that are now being linked to myriad chronic diseases, whether we're talking cancer, heart disease, type two diabetes, obesity, also Alzheimer's disease and dementia and worse mental health.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
What if I could get this information out to the public at large that, hey, these conditions, which we tend to assume are inevitable, dare I say, natural aspects of aging or inherited, if none of those are in fact the case, and we can actually take steps today to improve our odds 10, 20, 30 years down the line, well, then that was something that I felt really inspired to do.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
These are the kinds of foods that tend to line our supermarket aisles. Now your average supermarket today, 73% of the items are characterized as being ultra processed. And when I use the term ultra processed, I mean, this is a very low resolution term at this stage. We don't yet have the data to know exactly what types of ultra processed foods are the most nefarious.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Although that picture is starting to emerge, we are starting to see that sugar sweetened beverages, for example, are among the worst. like sodas and things like that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
But in general, as a general screening tool, shelf-stable, packaged, processed foods, the kinds of foods that you might see in a hospital vending machine, unfortunately, these are the kinds of foods that are now being linked very strongly to chronic disease. So you want to avoid those to the best of your ability, which isn't to say that you can't have some here and there and be totally OK. You can.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
But again, today, your average adult, 60% of the calories are coming from ultra processed foods. I'd like to see that. I mean, I think 0%, it doesn't need to be 0%. It can be 10%. It could be maybe 20%. You'd still be doing a lot better off than your average adult today.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Yeah, on the periphery. Yes, exactly. And ultra-processed foods, I mean, these are the cakes, the chips, the crackers, the confectionery products, even commercial breads these days. Frozen foods. I'm not talking about frozen fruits and vegetables. I'm talking about mixed dishes and essentially convenience foods that are loaded with preservatives that are usually nutrient depleted.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Fried foods are a good example of ultra-processed foods that you want to typically avoid unless you're frying them yourself. And a good heuristic for an ultra-processed food is a food that you couldn't possibly make in your own kitchen if you tried.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So these are foods that need to be made at commercial scale and couldn't be replicated at home unless you try to use additives that are not typically found in an average kitchen. You want to prioritize the minimally processed foods. I don't think that we should be extremists about our food choices.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Now, obviously there are a lot of people today that have adopted carnivore style diets and many people are on for various reasons, plant only diets, vegan diets and things like that. I don't think that either extreme approach is ideal. And I think there's value to be gained from both sides of the aisle, so to speak.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And so for me, integrating both animal source foods like grass fed, grass finished beef, free range eggs, free range chicken, there are lots of benefits to integrating those kinds of foods. But even if the foods with those specific characteristics are off limits to you, any lean red meat is going to be a health food when compared to its ultra processed alternatives.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I don't like to let perfect be the enemy of the good. you don't have access to the most pristine grass-fed, grass-finished beef, I still think it's really important to underscore the nutritional value of red meat, despite it maybe coming from a more conventional farming system. Eggs. Any egg is a cognitive multivitamin.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
An egg yolk is literally a care package devised by nature to provide a little bit of everything required to grow a brain. And eggs are the top source of choline, for example. In the standard American diet, 90% of adults consume inadequate amounts of, and yet it's one of the most important nutrients for good brain health. Eating eggs, eating wild fatty fish provides DHA fat.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It's an incredibly important nutrient for good brain health. So I'm a huge fan of animal source foods and I advocate for them unapologetically, but I also think that plant foods are incredibly important as well. I've already talked about avocados, blueberries, dark chocolate are incredible. Dark leafy greens are amazing. They have very low calorie density and they're very nutrient dense.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Integrating both foods of plant and animal origin, I think is incredibly important. And then the top rung of my food pyramid to really get granular is to prioritize protein. And that's something that I might not have said five years ago, but I do think that there is tremendous value from the standpoint of aging and longevity and also of brain health specifically. Now data is starting to show
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Of prioritizing protein in your diet. It's the best way to maintain muscle as we get older, which becomes increasingly difficult. And when we prioritize protein in our diets, protein rich foods like red meat and eggs, they're not just valuable for the protein that they contain. They also contain myriad essential micronutrients again, choline, which I've mentioned, but zinc like vitamin B12.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Iron, for example, creatine, which is concentrated in red meat and fish. And and so I think that by prioritizing protein, I think it's a fantastic strategy and there are a lot there's essentially no downside to even over consuming protein because it's in part one of the reasons why it's I think valuable to prioritize protein is because it's so satiating.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It's the most satiating macronutrient and we live in a time now where two-thirds of adults are either overweight or obese. So this ultimately comes down to a satiety problem, that our diets are predominated by foods that are minimally satiating.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So by prioritizing protein, you're not only prioritizing the most satiating macronutrient, it's going to fill you up more effectively carbohydrate and fat predominant foods. These foods also tend to
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
bring along with the protein the amino acids really important micronutrients that directly support healthy aging so i think that's a fantastic strategy and there's no downside to over consuming it for somebody with healthy kidneys there's no negative impact on kidney health the potential downside of under consuming it while there are a lot you will tend to under consume
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
protein, which is a very important micronutrient, of course, but also the micronutrients that come alongside of it, or this is known as the protein leverage hypothesis, which gives a rationale for that phenomena. And yeah, that's just scratching the surface, but those are the three rungs of my food permit, so to speak.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
That's a great question. I attribute the impact that I've had, which to me is the primary indicator of success that I use. How many people am I impacting? Is that impact a positive one? What kinds of feedback do I get? And I attribute my success in that regard to the fact that I am aligned with my purpose. And it took me a couple of decades to figure out what my purpose was.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And my purpose obviously is something that I discovered by way of real personal tragedy, which is sometimes what it takes. But I feel aligned in the sense that you have to do what you can't not do.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And I couldn't just sit back idly when I saw the most important person in my life suffering with this kind of awful condition, America's most feared condition, and being given 15 minutes in each doctor's office, at which point, after which a doctor would scribble a few notes on a prescription pad for a drug that had minimal effect, no disease modifying treatment, no disease modifying impact, and then send us on our way.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
left to our own devices. And I realized at that point that I couldn't sit idly. I had to speak up. I had to stand up and learn all that I could, despite the fact that I didn't have a formal training in this regard. At that point, I was able to do an inventory of my skills as a storyteller, as a communicator. I wasn't an academic, but I realized that I had spent the past six years communicating
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
delicate and important topics to a mass audience. And so that I knew that I was really good at thinking on the fly and on my feet and communicating responsibly because words are powerful. So when communicating topics such as health literacy to be really intentional about your word choice, which is something that I was very adept at.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I realized that I was good at what it was that I was doing and that I enjoyed what I was doing, despite the fact that this was all rooted in something that was very tragic for me. I knew, as I mentioned earlier in our conversation, John, that I love nutrition and health and talking about this stuff.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Hey, John. It's great to be here.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
This is something that I would be interested in learning about had my mom not developed this condition. I mean, I would probably be interested in learning about it from a different vantage point, more from a fitness standpoint. But all of these things had to align for me to realize that I was aligned with my purpose.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
After I had that realization and I just simply proceeded to do what felt most natural to me, things really started to accelerate in terms of my professional opportunities. And I think it's really important for people to understand that you don't need to apologize for achieving a degree of commercial success, which I'm very grateful that I've been able to.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
My first book, Genius Foods, was a bestseller. And then my subsequent books have all been bestsellers. But I wouldn't be able to dedicate the time in my life to learning, the amount of time that I allocate to learning about this topic every single day, I'm not able to pay my rent what it is that I'm doing.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
The fact that I have a commercially successful podcast, for example, I wouldn't be able to dedicate such a significant proportion of my life to learning about this topic and the rigor that I dedicate to investigating nutrition science as a non-academic had I not been able to, from early on, start to make money with what it is that I do.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So you have to find a way to identify what your passions are, but it's not enough to just be passionate. You have to also identify what your purpose is. And my purpose obviously had something to do with storytelling and communication. I recognized that early on.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
But then you also have to be able to find a way to commercialize it in a way that is responsible and doesn't involve selling your soul and compromising your integrity and your values in doing so. Because money is, in a way, a form of energy.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And because I'm able to keep a roof over my head, doing what it is that I do, not distracting myself with other things, it's made me better at what it is that I do. A lot of documentary filmmakers, for example, They have their one documentary passion project and they'll produce ads. They'll do marketing to pay their rent.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I had the idea of doing this long form documentary about dementia prevention, which is not something that has ever been undertaken before. And rather than go and try to make films for hire for other people, I just continued to learn about this topic that I was filming during the day. But then I started writing about it and I started creating social media content about it.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And then I started having broader conversations about it on my podcast, The Genius Life. And all of that sort of created this pie that at first, wasn't very profitable, but there were signs that this might be profitable, which just further cemented the initiatives that I was taking to dedicate time to these various different arms of my business.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And then ultimately it became something that allowed me to focus full time on health science communication. And I'm so incredibly grateful that I've been able to do that as a result. But yeah, it all comes back to purpose and passion.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And the fact that I wake up every single day excited to read new science, to read a new paper, to get better at understanding science and to get better at assessing scientific literature, which is something that it's a skill that you're always improving on. And I attribute it all to really getting to focus on this full time.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And part of that has to do with recognizing my purpose and not just being focused on the passion side of things, but also the purpose and being able to do a self inventory of things that I know that I'm capable of, knowing where I could use a little bit of help and so on and so forth.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I think it's important to remain open-minded and to never let go of that student mindset, to always be learning and seeking out answers and better answers, and to always be willing to pivot when new data presents itself. Just to always be learning, sharing and improving and having a growth mindset about things. I think that's really important.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
When my mom became sick, I didn't sit idly on my hands and take a passive approach. I took an active approach in her health. And in so doing, I learned more than I ever thought I would about these kinds of conditions, which so many people seem to be suffering from. The mindset... That I credit, despite the fact that I hadn't gone down this traditional path, I felt entitled to answers.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And that entitlement compelled me forward to ask questions that I might have felt I wasn't able to ask had I had a different mindset about them of exclusion where I'm not a medical doctor or an academic scientist. I should... just assume that these questions are being asked by the so-called experts. But no, I think we should all, there's a degree of entitlement that I think you have to have.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in his book, I believe it was Outliers, where he talks about the value of having a sort of entitled mindset. And yeah, it's been the world to me and it's helped my family immensely, not always in the ways that I would hope it to have helped. But I think my family's better off for it and I'm certainly better off for it. And
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
getting to have conversations with you to such a large audience, John, I think in a small way, it's made the world better off for it as well. I'm just grateful.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Well, first and foremost, I would love for people to watch Little Empty Boxes. It's now available on Amazon Prime in the U.S., on Apple TV, and for anybody who is outside of the U.S., it's at littleemptyboxes.com. And yeah, it's a real movie, so people can watch it tonight if they so choose.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
For a real deep dive into any of these topics from a scientific standpoint, my first book, Genius Foods, is a great starting place. It's a literal owner's manual for the human brain. And then I cover a lot of these topics regularly on my own podcast, which is called The Genius Life.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Yeah, absolutely, John. That's a great place to start. People often ask me my why. What is the purpose, the mission behind this? everything that I seem to put out into the world. And it really all comes back to my mother. Now I was raised in a very small family, oldest child. I've got two younger siblings and I don't have much of an extended family.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It was really just me, my mom, my dad, and my two younger brothers. And I had always been interested in health and nutrition. That was an interest that began in high school for me. But it was very much one that was rooted in, I think,
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Vanity, fitness, performance, all the kinds of things that a young, insecure high schooler gets interested in as a way of alleviating some of the social pressures that we all feel growing up. And that led to me starting college on a path to go into medicine.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
But ultimately I realized that I was a storyteller and I had creative chops and I really appreciated learning that about myself halfway through college. And that led to me getting a job as a journalist working for a TV network in the United States called Current TV for many years. I did that straight out of college and that took me up until around 2011.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And then it was then in my personal life where my mom, somebody who meant the world to me, the most important person in my life by a long shot started to display the earliest symptoms of what would ultimately be diagnosed as a rare and incurable form of dementia called Lewy body dementia. She was 58 years old at the time. She, you know, was still very much in the prime of her life.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
She was a woman who ran a business and who raised three kids. and really was an incredible matriarch. And at 58, she started to complain of brain fog. She started to experience and express confusion when articulating seemingly simple ideas and thoughts. And in tandem with that, there was a change to her gait. She started to have movement symptoms.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And for me, somebody who's a non-academic, not a medical doctor, it took me completely off guard, but ultimately I chalked up what I was seeing and what I was hearing to aging, just as simple as that, just par for the course of getting older.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
But it became increasingly serious and it became something that was increasingly talked about around the dinner table or when I would call my mom to catch up with her because I had been living in Los Angeles at the time. And ultimately I realized that I needed to step in and start accompanying my mom to her doctor's appointments to try to better understand what it was that she was experiencing.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And part of this was because when I was growing up, if I had so much as a cough, within moments, seemingly, I would be sitting in a pediatrician's office with my mom. My mom was very hands-on with my childhood. She always took an active interest in my health, how I was feeling.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
When my mom became sick, I was the only person really in my family with this background interest in health and nutrition to the degree that when I started college, I was on a pre-med track. I realized that I really needed to be there with her because, I mean, as anybody who's ever experienced chronic illness knows, disease is a very frustrating and alienating place. It can be confusing.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It can be scary. And it becomes difficult given all those emotions to advocate for yourself when you're in that doctor's office physicians typically give you 10 to 15 minutes these days if you're lucky and so i flew back to new york and i started going with my mom to doctors visits and ultimately we had to take a trip to the cleveland clinic in ohio
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
where for the first time my mom was prescribed drugs for both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Because Lewy body dementia, for anybody who's unfamiliar with it, it's like having both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease at the same time.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And that moment to me when my mom was given that initial diagnosis, murky as it was even in those early days, Googling those drugs and reading their phrases would stand out to me like no disease modifying effect.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And that these conditions, whether Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease, that they were terminal conditions, ultimately incurable conditions, progressive neurodegenerative conditions. That was the first time in my life that I'd ever had a panic attack. And I've always been a pretty even killed guy, very rational, very reasonable. That was like an atom bomb going off in my world.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And I was in my late 20s at the time, mid to late 20s. And I had other career interests, I had other passions, but in one fell swoop for me, everything, my entire purpose I felt on this planet was to understand to the best of my ability why my mom developed what she had developed, to understand, to wrap my head around what might be done to help her from a holistic standpoint, because
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I mean, from day one, I had the recognition that these drugs had no disease modifying effect. And then ultimately to do what I could to prevent this from ever happening to me, because I realized for the first time that I had a risk factor now. And so the more I would learn, the more I would feel compelled to share. Really, I mean, at its core, it was about self-interest.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It was about how to improve my mom's life. how to potentially slow or stop this from progressing in her, which I unfortunately wasn't able to do, but then also to prevent this from happening to others that I care about. And the more I would learn, the more I felt compelled to share in part, because the best way to learn anything is to teach.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And I realized very early on that I was talking about something that really nobody else was talking about. And it started to snowball and gather traction.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And the more I would learn, the more I would share and the more people would be interested in what I had to say about this topic, which I was discussing through a lens that, again, nobody else was talking about dementia through the lens of prevention. And it really galvanized for me what I feel like is my life's mission and purpose.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And it's obviously led to this body of work, which you've referenced, John, but it all comes back to me to my why. Everything that I do, everything that I put out, I envision in a way somebody on the other end of the screen being like my mom, confused, scared, worried about their cognitive health or the health of their loved ones.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
And it's a really powerful filter through which to view wellness and nutrition and all these things that we now are seemingly inundated with, these topics which now seem to especially now at the public stage, seem to dominate public discourse in many ways. And we've seen the rise of the wellness industry. But for me, it was never about a commercial interest or anything like that.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
It was really about just doing the best that I could do for my mom.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
So Little Empty Boxes is the name of my documentary, which just came out and it documents this. So I, as I mentioned, when I began college, I was on a pre-med track. And then halfway through college, I went to University of Miami, and I sat in on an introduction to motion pictures course.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
I'd always loved movies, but actually music was always the medium to me that was the most visceral and resonant. But nonetheless, I think I became friends with somebody who just had me sit on a class that he was taking, and I just really loved what... The intellectualization of storytelling, which is something that I hadn't previously considered and how story really is historically.
Passion Struck with John R. Miles
Max Lugavere on How to Boost Brain Health Through Diet | EP 556
Being able to tell stories is part of what defines us as human beings. and that I could learn more about this art and ultimately influence people, whether it's to have a certain emotion or emotions or to have a potentially positive impact on the world.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Least healthy foods in the supermarket make the loudest claims. It should be banned that ultra processed foods are allowed to make health claims.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
um, animal source foods, egg yolks and things like that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And so, um, a lot of the observational data on this, like when they'll, when they'll correlate blood levels of linoleic acid, for example, to certain health outcomes, um, you know, it's, it's actually seems positive from, from that perspective, but there are a lot of, of confounding aspects to that observation for one nuts and seeds and other foods, as I've, as I've mentioned that are high in this fat, um, are healthful.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And then also there's what's called healthy user bias where, um, you know, these oils are adorned with the heart healthy logo on them. So a health conscious person might be more inclined to consume canola oil and corn oil and soybean oil. Now, is their health good because of these oils or perhaps in spite of these oils? Because I mean, that's a health conscious consumer, right?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Maybe they're more inclined to take a multivitamin or maybe they're less likely to smoke or drink alcohol excessively.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Well, one effect which they've – so people can look up – there are two – there's a lot of – there are many different researchers, you know, working on this. But there have been some really interesting papers, clinical trials by – a researcher with the last name of Ramsden and then Taha. And there was one paper in particular that I often cite, it's actually a review.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
So it's pretty easy to read by Taha, single author paper published in 2020, looking at linoleic acid and its impact on the brain, which is obviously a topic that I'm incredibly passionate about because my mom had dementia from a young age and I'll never know what caused her dementia.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I don't know if it had anything to do with, you know, her exposure to these, her lifelong exposure to these kinds of fats. But yeah, it doesn't seem that consuming excessive amounts of linoleic acid, which again, predominates these oils in question, linoleic acid has easy access to the brain and it's a fat that's incredibly prone to oxidation because of its polyunsaturated nature.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Wow. Yeah. And now that figure is like, it's less than 15%. I mean, it's way lower. And the bulk of that, of those fats have been replaced by these grain and seed oils. Like most of the, the majority of fats in the human diet today come from soybean oil. Right. And corn oil. Yeah. And canola. Yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. It's like, it's a, it's shocking. So the fact that these, you know, the idea that these fats are benign and not having some kind of physiologic effect. I mean, it's just that that doesn't even pass like logical muster, you know? It's like, of course they're doing something. We just have to figure out what that something is. One thing that they do do,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
and this was actually shown in a paper by Ramsden, I forget which year, but people can look this up, is that they increase in the blood something called oxalams, oxidized linoleic acid metabolites. And these have been associated with Alzheimer's disease. I mean, these compounds.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. I mean, I've said that LDL cholesterol isn't just a biomarker. It's an industry. And it's not just one industry.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I don't know.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. And so like this notion that seed oils are good for you, you know, refined bleach and deodorized seed oils are good for you. It's true that seed oils reduce LDL cholesterol relative to certain saturated fatty acids. And so you have to accept that as being a benefit, because if that's not a benefit, then suddenly animal source foods are not good.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
the dietary villain that they're often made out to be. And suddenly statins, their LDL lowering, you know, effect might not necessarily be, you know, of benefit. Statins have pleiotropic effects. They're also anti-inflammatory, but.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, so I mean, the house of cards that you referenced is something that I think it's really important. Like that seed oils are heart healthy is a card in that house of cards. And for us to challenge that assumption, Well, then that might lead to a reassessment of all of these other assumptions that we make about what causes heart disease.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Maybe saturated fat isn't the dietary villain that it's, you know, often for decades made out to have been. So, yeah, that's why I think it's... it's been a real challenge to actually address this stuff because there's so much commerce tied to it. And I'm not saying that LDL cholesterol is unimportant, that ApoB is unimportant, but heart disease is multifactorial.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I know. It was like being in a cryotherapy chamber. Yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I'm happy with products marketing how they've been produced. If it wants to stay organic, great. But it's the health claim. just be a level playing field to inspire consumers to learn for themselves.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. Definitely worth pushing back against because there's so much money that goes into the promotion of plant-based diets, right? Right. But yeah, no, I'm an unapologetic omnivore. I think that people are best suited eating both plants and animals. And, you know, there's like the ethical question that always arises. And I think that's a good, you know, these are important questions.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Animal treatment in this country, particularly in the CAFO system, is like really aberrant and it's not great for the environment either. But From a nutritional value, I think it should not be controversial that animal source foods can play a really important role in the optimized diet. They comprise some of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I know, well, you're constricted, you're wearing a tux.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Red meat in particular, I think it's a repository for not just really high-quality protein, the highest-quality protein, but creatine, carnosine, Um, vitamin E, you got a tiny amount of omega-3s, um, in grass-fed, grass-finished red meat, um, taurine even. There's, there are carna nutrients, nutrients that are found exclusively in animal source foods that, um, I think we shouldn't be neglecting.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And so, yeah, I take a really unapologetic stance. And, you know, the epidemiology surrounding red meat is really terrible.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
It's, you know, most of the time I find can't be trusted, you know, barely scientific uses called food frequency questionnaires where, you know, within the category of red meat, you'll see hamburgers, you know, at the population level, people who are eating more hamburgers or eating more fast food and, It's like, is it the bun? Is it the high fructose corn syrup ketchup on the burger?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Is it the French fries? Right, that came with it.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
The shake that came with it. A hundred percent. So, you know, observational research tends to paint red meat as a dietary boogeyman. You know, those observations, those associations are easy to find. Red meat associated with increased risk of colorectal cancer, you know, all this stuff. But the question, the issue is really diet quality.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Randomized control trials do not bear out those observations. And those observations also, those increase in risks that you tend to see tend to be very small. They're increased, the risks are relative risk, increases in relative risk. Yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Um, you know, they see four, four of those people getting a, you know, a negative, um, health outcome related to a certain variable, like red meat consumption, you know, four of those people out of a hundred. And then, you know, another cohort that, you know, maybe is meat avoidant, you'll see, uh, Three people, you know, have the same health outcome. The headline will be 25%. 25% reduction.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Risk reduction, right? But it's just going from four to three. And it's like red meat, you know, maybe was assessed via these food frequency questionnaires, which are notoriously inaccurate. Yeah. And there's all of these other variables. There's, you know, healthy user bias. There's multi-colinearity. There's like all of these other. Multi what? Colinearity, which I was.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I've been in the industry a long time.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I got into a debate on, yeah, I got into a debate with, uh, with one of these like vegan science communicators, their whole shtick is like promoting, you know, their, their activism around that diet, that lifestyle. And, and, um, you know, there was, uh, They can be so pedantic, you know, and we got into this debate about semantics and healthy user bias versus multicollinearity.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
They're related concepts. Um, but yeah, so that's why those, those kinds of studies I think are, are really not trustworthy. They're, they're useful for generating hypotheses.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
But, um, But the randomized control trials don't really tend to show any negative health effect from the consumption of red meat.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
In fact, one meta-analysis of randomized control trials was just published that found that of all the cardiovascular biomarkers that were assessed across myriad randomized control trials using red meat as an intervention, the only potentially negative effect to come from red meat consumption
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
up to about six ounces of, or on average, six ounces of red meat consumed per day was a tiny, tiny, tiny bump in LDL cholesterol. And it's like, is that bad? No. Probably not.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And great longevity.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, well, actually, that was a review that just came out and it sought to elucidate the five top sports supplements. So the five top sports supplements, according to this new review, was creatine, which was sort of the king.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, it's the bomb. I mean, it has a really long historical track record for safety and efficacy. And they're now starting to, research is starting to mount showing that it has a cognitive benefit, supplemental creatine. It can improve cognition when people are underslept, which is a great thing. Pretty much everybody. Yeah, yeah, right? Yeah. It might have a cardiovascular health benefit.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
So I think creatine is amazing. I take about five grams a day. And it seems to be, I mean, save for people with, you know, kidney disease, you know, and other medical conditions, it seems to be very safe. And what form of creatine?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. Most of the research is on creatine monohydrate. Okay. Yeah. So creatine HCL might be as efficacious and safe, but I don't think we know. And monohydrate is super cheap and it's very easy to find. Yeah. Yeah. Most of the research, you know, centers on that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
That's a good question. I mean, beta alanine is not something that I'm all that familiar with, actually, which is part of the reason why I was like reading that research review, because it's not something that I currently use. But it did seem to make the list. And there is this interesting thing. It does give you tingles when you take it.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
It does feel very similar to that. But yeah, but the fact that it made the top five, I mean, that to me is very interesting.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
So maybe we're coming full circle on the... Well, nitrates basically support your body's nitric oxide pathway, right? which normalizes blood pressure, can reduce blood pressure, and also increase blood flow. So, I mean, everybody's familiar with the certain pharmaceutical that works to increase blood flow in a region of the body.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
That's, you know, facilitative of sex. Right. But interestingly, there have been some reports and actually some research on people taking that same drug, Viagra, if you haven't guessed. Yeah. in the pre-workout setting, and it seems to actually improve muscle protein synthesis on par with one to 200 milligrams of testosterone in a small study.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
So nitrates, yeah, might have a really powerful effect. I mean, not least of which you're gonna probably see a better pump from it, but it might have an enduring impact on muscle protein synthesis.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, vitamin B12, we all know, is most easily obtained from eating animal source foods. Mm-hmm. But if I were going to go vegan, which I won't be anytime soon, but I would say a nice omega-3 supplement, like an algal-based omega-3 for DHA fat, very useful.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I don't think we can rely on plant-based forms of omega-3s to adequately support our needs from an omega-3 standpoint. So I would definitely be supplementing with preformed omega-3 fatty acids. Algae is a great option there. I would also supplement with creatine. You know, at this point, the evidence is pretty strong, strongly in favor of creatine. Yeah. So I would definitely take that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Creatine is found exclusively in animal source foods.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And it's synthesized. So it's vegan. You know, you could take that. Those would be my two, you know, supplemental, I guess, like the high leverage, you know, nutrients that I would look into. There are a lot of other nutrients, though, that I think are valuable that vegans likely under consume. I would put choline in there, which is really important for brain health. Yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
You can find choline in plant-based foods. I mean, choline does exist, I believe, in soybeans and cruciferous vegetables, but in much lower concentration than animal source foods.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, there's like... Well, you definitely could get a choline supplement. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah, like citicholine and stuff like that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, so seed oils are obviously very controversial today. Everybody's talking about them. I actually, I think, was very prescient in my, you know, diving into this topic in my book, Genius Foods, which came out in 2018, which the manuscript I wrote around 2016. And there have been other people sort of broaching this issue. I mean, Weston A. Price, I think, was one of the earliest people.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Great question. Yeah, I mean, I'll preface by saying I'm not formally involved in any way in the, you know, the administration or... Right, I'm not formally involved in the administration. Yeah, we're kind of like tangentially, you know, at this point supporting, you know, it's a fantastic initiative. I remain totally optimistic. I know you are as well. But what can they do?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
You know, I think for one, RFK Jr. 's... You know, the motivation is there to uncouple some of the many conflicts of interest with our regulatory agencies, whether that's the FDA. You know, almost 50% of the FDA's budget comes from what are called user fees, which are predominantly from the pharmaceutical industry. So getting the food and drug administration's budget comes from user fees.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
What is a user fee? So user fees are basically the application fees that these, you know, and other forms of fees that the pharmaceutical agencies pay into the FDA to, you know, I believe look at data with regards to drug trials and things like that. So sort of like administrative fees that the pharmaceutical companies pay into the FDA.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
A proportion of that comes from the food industry, but most of it comes from the pharmaceutical industry.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I mean, if you watch the nightly news in America, I mean, most of the ads are for pharmaceutical drugs. You know? Right. So... You know, I don't know the proportion to which the revenue of those companies, those conglomerates come from their advertising.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. And, you know, but the crazy thing is that those ads are not even necessarily there to influence consumer spending, which is what we would, which is what... Even I assumed, you know, prior to Callie coming on to my show and pointing out that, no, they're actually spending that money to influence the platforms.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
You know, if you look at every TV show. Control the narrative. Exactly. As you've said. Yeah. So I think I think, you know, uncoupling that would be amazing. I think getting the conflicts of interest out of the USDA, which, you know, I don't know how that's going to unfold. I mean, it was just announced that, you know, Trump nominated a former CEO.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, Paul Salandino has been big on it. Talk about it. Yeah. Dr. Kate Shanahan. Yeah. You know, the evidence is kind of all over the place. And I think it's a little bit, we have to talk about seed oils, not as a monolith, but with nuance.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I believe she was the CEO of one of the largest seed oil lobbying groups to be the chief of staff for the USDA. So.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
At the point at which we record this, RFK has not been confirmed either. So I feel like there are a lot of moving parts. And once he, you know, if he gets officially confirmed, you know, we might see major sweeping changes, but...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Um, you know, I personally would really love to see as something I would, I would love to see, I think it should be banned that ultra processed foods are allowed to make health claims. I think it's really screwed up that you can, you know, that the least healthy foods in the supermarket make the loudest claims, whereas the healthiest foods in the supermarket are Don't make any claims.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
You know, most of the healthy, the healthiest foods in the supermarket, the grass fed, grass finished red meat, eggs, you know, extra virgin olive oil, like very, very seldom will you see any, even in avocados, like you don't see health claims On those foods, berries, you don't see health claims. Where do you find the health claims?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
On all the ultra-processed garbage foods, the seed oils, the commercial cereals marketed towards children, of course. Yeah.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I'm optimistic that we can raise more awareness around this topic and call for better science.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And, you know, when discussing these kinds of oils, there are the culinary oils like sesame seed oil, which have been used in various traditional cuisines for millennia, which I think can be perfectly healthy and add, you know, great qualities to certain recipes and flavors. And, you know, I think those are fine.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I'm happy with products marketing how they've been produced. I think if it wants to say organic, great. But it's the health claims. And I'm happy to say across the board, no health claims on even foods that I would consider healthy. I think it should just be a level playing field to inspire consumers to learn for themselves, to seek out their own sort of education around this topic.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
But it's like once we start allowing foods to make health claims, that's actually... It sounds like on the surface that would be a good thing, you know, like a ranking system for foods and things like that. But there's just too much money involved. It's like who's to say what's healthy and what's not. Right.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
You know, so I think just across the board, banning health claims, I think that would be great.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. I think it's a, you know, I mean, it's, it's, it's a, it's, it's highly responsive to our diets and our lifestyle. So it's not something that we can, um, that we, that we're, that we're unable to address with our own agency in the world, but it's, I push back, what I push back primarily against is the notion that it's genetic.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
There are certainly genetic influences, but this idea that it's primarily genetic, that's BS. I mean, obesity has tripled over the past 50 years. Our genes have not changed all that much, but our lifestyle, our food environment has dramatically changed.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And so...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
But the oils that are in question, particularly today, are the what are sometimes referred to as RBD oils, which stands for refined, bleached and deodorized oils. These are the highly marketed cooking oils that have only really had a presence in the human food supply for the past couple of decades. And the issue with these and even within the refined bleached and deodorized seed oil category.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Um, nicotine. Yeah. Nicotine is, uh, I mean, I, um, There's no such thing as a free lunch. And I think nicotine has some benefits and it has some definite downsides. The benefits are that it improves cognitive function. I mean, it's a well-studied nootropic. It might benefit mental health. Also with fear extinction and things like that, there are some studies that have shown that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Generally speaking, aside from nicotine, I would say choline is definitely important. I try to prioritize choline in my diet from eggs, red meat, fish, things like that. I think collagen plays an important role in longevity and systemic health. I think brain health probably too.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I forget. I completely forgot how I answered it the first time. I don't know. For some reason, my brain is going to, like, James Bond. To be really good at karate and shooting with a gun. Like, strong in body... And in intention and to, you know, and in values and to be a high integrity person, to be a self-sufficient person.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I think that's, you know, and obviously health I think is a crucial one to embody. Making sure that you're strong, that you're, you know, taking care of your body, that you're prioritizing self-care.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And then I also think it's important to like show up in the world presentable, you know, and to have respect for not just your body and your mind, spiritually, your relationships and all that stuff, but also how you're perceived. Some people scoff at like appearance and things like that. Like it doesn't matter. It's shallow. But, you know, I think like.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
because my mind went to James Bond, I'm also thinking about, well, he's the person who, who dressed really well and he showed up really well and he was, you know, always presentable and, um, and, uh, and I think that's why he's, he's such an iconic character. I happen to be a big James Bond fan.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Correct. Yes. So I mean, we've now, I think many of us in the nutrition community are placing an emphasis on awareness around ultra processed foods, right? We generally want to, you know, minimize our consumption of ultra processed foods, which now make up 60% of the calories of your average adult. But what about ultra-processed food ingredients?
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Daniel Craig for me is the goat. Yeah. Roger Moore? Roger Moore is your favorite Bond. Cool. I'm so interested to know who the next Bond is. Maybe it'll be you, Gary.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, my podcast, The Genius Life, is my pride and joy. So come over and listen to that if you're into podcasts, as I'm sure you are if you listen to this. And I'm also very active on X and Instagram, which I know you are as well. Yeah, very. Okay.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And these refined bleach and deodorized seed oils are ultra-processed. By definition, a food that is ultra-processed is something that you couldn't possibly make in your own kitchen if you tried. Now, you could make sesame seed oil in your kitchen, right? To make sesame seed oil, you press sesame seeds. You could conceivably make extra virgin olive oil in your own kitchen.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I mean, humans have been making and consuming extra virgin olive oil for centuries at this point.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Me as well. I actually start the morning with a shot of it. But you couldn't realistically create one of these RBD oils like soybean oil or corn oil in your kitchen. They often require industrial machinery, chemical solvents. like hexane. So right off the bat, these oils are ultra processed. We know that. The ultra processing designation comes from the Nova paradigm out of Latin America.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And so it's a little bit unclear. I think the technical definition might not necessarily place, you know, corn oil and soybean oil under that, in that category. But they are, there's no question you couldn't make them in your own kitchen. I mean, you would need some serious chemistry to do so.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Obesity has tripled over the past 50 years. Our genes have not changed all that much. Our lifestyle, our food environment has dramatically changed.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Exactly. There's actually a... There was a viral video on Instagram by a really wonderful content creator. And I forget his name, but I'll send it over to you and you can perhaps include it in the show notes. It's actually a guy who seems to, who appears to have a chemistry background, attempts to make a refined bleach and deodorized seed oil in his home kitchen. And it's pretty terrifying.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Really? Actually, yeah, yeah. All the myriad production steps. But it's, you know, nobody's doing that at home for the most part.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah, they're often exposed to high heat. So, but, you know, probably... It should be said that processing doesn't necessarily make a food unhealthy, right? Even within the bucket of ultra-processed foods, ultra-processed foods are not a monolith. Some are better for you than others. So what is it specifically about refined bleach and deodorized seed oils that make them...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
uh, that, that should ought to inspire caution when over consuming them? Well, for one, they are novel fats. So, you know, again, we, these didn't exist in the human food supply prior to 50 to 70 years ago. So right off the bat, I think we should, you know, embrace, um, by default, what's called the precautionary principle. So the last time a food or an ingredient or a product has,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
you know, humans have been exposed to it, the more skepticism, the more caution, the higher the burden of proof should be on that food to prove itself as safe, you know, as opposed to the burden of proof being on the consumer or the researcher to prove it guilty, right? It should be guilty until proven innocent.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And that's what's referred to as a precautionary principle. It's something that actually in the EU, that seems to be the norm for food additives and the like. Here, the burden of proof is usually on the consumer to prove something, to prove that something is unhealthy. And usually that occurs years, if not decades, after many, many people have been exposed to it. And we've seen that.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
with red dye three which was just banned yeah that was a good move after decades just to start we need to go through the other 40 and some of the other ones there you go so i think the precautionary principle is super smart it's something that we don't generally abide by here in the united states and i think that's unfortunate so these ultra process you know oils are they're novel right
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
The motivation is there to uncouple some of the many conflicts of interest. I remain totally optimistic, but what can they do? You know, I think for one,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Now, again, that doesn't necessarily make them bad, right? So we have to peel back the layers of the onion even further, right? The problem with, I think one of the major problems with these oils is that they're predominantly comprised of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are the most chemically unstable.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
So among the fatty acids that predominate our diets, you've got unsaturated fatty acids and you've got saturated fatty acids, right? Those are the two major categories. Saturated fats are the most chemically stable. They tend to be solid at room temperature. And under the bucket of unsaturated fats, you've got your polyunsaturated fatty acids and your monounsaturated fatty acids.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Polyunsaturated fatty acids are very prone to a chemical process known as oxidation, where essentially the oils go bad. They go rancid. And that process is catalyzed by exposure to light, heat, and oxygen. And so these refined bleach and deodorized seed oils, they tend to be predominantly polyunsaturated in nature.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
And that's not the case for all of them because there are seed oils like high oleic sunflower oil, which I actually think is fine because it's mostly monounsaturated fat, which has a degree of chemical protection. It's less prone to this oxidative process. But polyunsaturated fats are essentially naked because...
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
They're the most prone to oxidation and they're extracted from the food matrix, which often coincides with antioxidants that protect those fats. In fact, in nature, where you see higher levels of polyunsaturated fats, you also see higher levels of certain antioxidants like vitamin E. whose role in nature is mainly to guard these polyunsaturated fatty acids against oxidation.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
So in foods where you have higher levels of polyunsaturated fats, you see higher levels of vitamin E, which is why nuts are one of the primary sources of both polyunsaturated fats in the diet, as well as vitamin E. Okay, I didn't know that. Polyunsaturated fats... are not inherently unhealthy, and vitamin E is super important from a brain health standpoint.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
The problem is when we extract these fats from the whole food matrix and we expose them to these caustic chemical solvents like hexane or others, and then we expose them to heat, which often occurs during the deodorization process, And then we further use them to cook with, which ironically is what they're marketed as being ideal for.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Then you're further catalyzing this oxidative process to these polyunsaturated fats, which are very vulnerable. And oxidation occurs when we ingest these fats in us. Right. But it can also occur in the external environment when they're used in the fryer setting, when they're used to, you know, create ultra processed foods. And so that's potentially really harmful. Right.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
The other problem is that there are byproducts of oxidation. So it's not just that the fatty acids themselves become oxidized, but all of these other nasty compounds are generated.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
When a high polyunsaturated fatty acid dominant seed oil is exposed to high heat and reheated in particular, you know, you're not just damaging the fatty acids, but you're generating all of these noxious compounds like acrolein and 4-hydroxynonanol, which have been shown to... be cancer causing and be associated with conditions like Alzheimer's disease for hydroxy non-anol in particular.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
Yeah. Right. It's a bit, it's a, it's a huge problem. And, um, Yeah, you know, I'm optimistic that we can raise more awareness around this topic and call for better science. Because, again, the science is a little bit all over the place. And this is a controversial topic. Not everybody... I mean, it's actually very... This is a very unorthodox perspective that we should be avoiding seed oils.
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
I mean, I'll say with all, you know, transparency that, like, if you were to ask your average dietician, for example, what they think about seed oils, they'll say that they're not only... they're not only benign there and not harmful, but they're actually good for you. And so I think, um,
The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka
141. Max Lugavere: Seed Oils, LDL Cholesterol & Inflammation
know this is something that we're going to need a lot more research to say with certainty but um based on this line of thinking that i've you know at least begun to lay out i think that we should all have a little bit more uh skepticism around them and um you know like linoleic acid which is the form of polyunsaturated fat that dominates these seed oils is also found in extremely healthy foods like again nuts and seeds and things like that and you find linoleic acid in