Interview Ori on Coffee Part1

A Special Interview with Ori Hofmekler on Coffee By Dr. Mercola

DM: Dr. Joseph Mercola, DO OH: Ori Hofmekler Introduction: DM: Hello everyone this is Dr. Mercola. Today, I’m here with Ori Hofmekler, who is going to enlighten us about some really important aspects on caffeine. Welcome Ori. OH: I’m glad to talk to you about this important subject Joe. DM: Generally, caffeine isn’t perceived as a healthy supplement. It’s something that typically is avoided, especially the use of coffee, which has other issues. Caffeine specifically should be avoided for women who are pregnant because it has been shown to cause complications of pregnancy. There appears to be a niche or an area where it may have some therapeutic benefit. I’m hoping you can enlighten us on that. OH: I’m a big believer in coffee in principle. I have been raised on coffee. I came from the Mediterranean, you know, from Israel. I don’t know what came in first, having breast milk or coffee. I still don’t remember, but using coffee was a big thing. I simply liked it. Later on, I did my own research for years. Let me tell you, coffee was bashed, and sometimes for a good reason, because caffeine by itself could be potentially a major toxin. However, like other stuff in nature, when you come to the whole food, not the isolated caffeine, things could be exactly the opposite. DM: Let me just interject here. That’s another area that is particularly concerning because my understanding is that most coffee is heavily contaminated with pesticides. It’s one of the most sprayed crops around. So you have to be really diligent. If you choose to use coffee, make sure you’re getting organic sources. I’m wondering if that’s consistent with your information. OH: That is a very good source. That’s very good information. But besides the pesticides, which are a problem basically on all foods today, there are other issues with coffee. From the way they roast it, to the way they sun dry it, to where the coffee material -- where did it come from -- and to the roasting. These are technical. Basically, if you have a quality coffee bean, even the roasted one, you get multiplied nutrients and flavonoids -- antioxidants -- such as in chocolate. You can really detect the quality of the coffee by taste and smell because arancid coffee bean, unlike even rancid meat, can expose itself immediately. A coffee which doesn’t have a good smell or taste, 1

you can tell it, you can immediately detect that that is a stale coffee, so don’t even touch it. We’re going to talk about the benefits of coffee and also the pros and cons of coffee. The first thing people need is to detect and to develop a taste for coffee, to know how to choose the bean and know how to enjoy it and, usually, drink it without any sugar. Yes, you really need to develop a taste for black coffee maybe, with a good meal but without the sugar. It doesn’t work together. Let’s talk a little bit about caffeine in coffee. We’ll start with the bad stuff. Coffee had been bashed, partly, because of good reasons. First of all, most coffee beans today still are unfortunately rancid, beaten, and packed from ground beans that cannot even survive a few weeks before they get stale. The rate of rancidity can go fast once you grind the beans. Basically, what you get is a degraded product with rancid oils inside. All that it gives you is just caffeine. It doesn’t give you the nutritional co-factor that you really desperately need. Second, many products actually contain isolate caffeine -- synthetic caffeine -which is even worse. Caffeine can cause a process in the brain which is called glutamate inhibition. It actually inhibits the re-uptake of glutamate which is basically a transmitter in your brain, an excitoneurotransmitter that you need in order to survive. When the body produces this neurotransmitter, it has a great mechanism to uptake it back into the cell. When coffee or anything else inhibits it, it can cause something which is called glutamate toxicity. Glutamate toxicity has exactly the same kind of toxicity as MSG. MSG, when applied in a large amount, creates glutamate toxicity, which is a terrible excitotoxicity. Actually, you pop your mitochondria inside out. It pops your brain cells and kills them in a rate of billions. This is not a joke. However, let’s not get panicked. Let’s stop here. That’s in theory. So if your body becomes defenseless, and too much caffeine is being injected in synthetic form, not just from coffee but pure isolate, there is a good likelihood that similarly to monosodium glutamate, it could cause glutamate toxicity in certain areas of the brain and cause brain damage. Let’s stop here. That’s what happened in theory, especially with synthetic caffeine. Let’s stop here Joe. DM: What is synthetic coffee? OH: Synthetic caffeine is like any kind of synthetic compound that you isolate from the whole food. For example, vitamin C usually appears in food in a complex. It’s ascorbic acid, always attached with bioflavonoids, always attached with co-factors… DM: So it’s not so much synthetic or artificially made, it’s just purified or extracted. 2

OH: It’s usually synthetic. They can today synthesize caffeine artificially in the lab. Totally pure. DM: I didn’t know that. OH: It is also purified, correct. DM: I did not know that. OH: Yes, you can…including caffeine. In any case, you are right. The purified and synthetic are very similar, but the purified have some nutritional co-factors. The point is this, caffeine is supposed to come in tea, or in coffee, or even in chocolate. It’s a naturally occurring compound, in my opinion, highly beneficial. Let’s talk about this again. Every time that a human gets naturally occurring caffeine such as cocoa beans which is chocolate, or in coffee or tea, it’s actually a sign that the food is whole. Every time that you do decaffeinated chocolate, decaffeinated coffee, or decaffeinated tea, you basically cut it out(indiscernible7:17), you castrate the food. A tea without caffeine is useless. It has lost all the bioflavonoids. Same with the coffee, the decaffeinated coffee has zero nutritional value. We’ll talk about the nutritional value in a second. The same thing with chocolate, chocolate that is decaffeinated is worthless. It has no bioflavonoids and nothing inside. The (indiscernible 7:43) caffeinated coffee in this food marks a quality of the whole food. All these foods, especially cocoa beans and coffee beans, contain very similar bioflavonoids which is a powerful antioxidant. The research has shown that both whole cocoa beans and coffee have amazing neuroprotective properties. They did study in South America and they showed that people who drink whole coffee beans, you know, freshly ground coffee do not get Alzheimer’s, do not get Parkinson’s. This is just amazing. Chocolate has a very similar effect. That means the coffee itself and the other nutritional factors have neuroprotective properties. Recent research – we want to talk also about the effect of coffee in sport nutrition. I’m telling you right now that coffee as it is, if controlled and if drank in the right amount from whole freshly ground coffee beans, doesn’t just save your brain from aging. Recent research shows – I think I wrote about it in my new book – that coffee, which actually causes glutamate inhibition, triggers a mechanism in the brain that releases a growth factor which is called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). BDNF is doing something amazing. It actually activates stem cells to convert into new neurons.

3

BDNF is a major subject of scientific research today. It’s just going to revolutionize the whole way that people see the term rejuvenation. I think we talked about it before. The old school still talks about reducing collateral damage. How do we prevent aging? Actually, we don’t want to tear the tissue. We actually want to keep the tissue intact or maybe we want to build tissue to prevent – like in the case of muscle, we want to build the muscle to prevent muscle wasting. [----- 10:00 -----] The new school shows research that the body is much smarter than that. We have a mechanism that can actually destroy all the sick weak cells, fiber, or tumors that are circulating in our system. including the weak muscle fiber and cells and broken protein. Recycled, digested and simultaneously we can activate the mechanism that activates stem cells to rebuild the tissue, and rejuvenate it. The system exists; it’s just that it hardly works and, in many times, it doesn’t work at all. If we just knew how to activate it. Guess what’s in the news. The news is that coffee activates this mechanism in the brain. If you do it correctly, you would keep your brain young by activating these growth factors that recycle your brain tissue and also actually gives neuroprotective benefits on the neurons. But just to sum up this subject, what’s even most stunning is that this neurofactor (BDNF) expresses itself in the muscle as well, and in the connective tissues. It’s just an amazing mechanism that gives you the same rejuvenation on the brain. It somehow supports the muscle in the same way by supporting the neuromotor which is the critical element in the muscle. Without the neuromotor, your muscle cannot function. It doesn’t matter how big it is. It doesn’t matter how strong you think it is. If your neuromotor is weak or about to deteriorate such as during aging, you’re just going to lose your muscle. Your muscle is like an engine without an ignition. This neurofactor that preserve your brain actually preserves your neuromotor. How amazing it is. Guess what? Caffeine helps trigger this mechanism. Coffee was bashed seriously because of the acid that it causes. Acid is a very interesting subject, but it also has amazing benefits that should not be overlooked. What do we do? We need to basically take this, in my opinion, amazing food, and calculate it and use it in a way that benefits us. We want to talk about acid, briefly. Let’s talk about it a little bit. Acidity is a major problem. Metabolic acidosis, anything that acidifies the body chronically, can cause metabolic acidosis, which is a catastrophe to say the least. When the body becomes acidic, it basically shuts down the whole metabolism. Everything goes down. Your testosterone will go down, with muscle wasting. Numerous 4

studies show that. The acids breaking down (indiscernible 12:52) in muscle and bone wasting is inevitable. The body is prone to this. There is a metabolic shutdown, a cellular congestion that can lead into a high probability of getting degenerative disease. Basically, when your body is acid, you’re going down. There was a good reason or good logic that used to say that anything that causes acidity may cause this and that, including cancer. The two things that cancer actually thrives on are acid and sugar. So we should avoid having too much sugar in the circulation and too much acid. That’s what the logic says. But in real life, it’s not really like this. In real life basically some of the most beneficial foods that we need actually are acidic. All proteins are acid-forming. Does that mean that we cannot eat protein? Absolutely not. Meat, cheese to a lesser degree, eggs, including the best protein, fish, they are all acid-forming but we need to eat protein. As an athlete, we need to eat more. What do we do? The same rule. First of all, eat whole foods. Do not ever eat protein isolate. I’m coming back to the coffee. Do not eat -- ever eat -- protein isolate because protein isolates don’t have the mineral co-factors, the alkalizing co-factors that are so needed to balance the acidity of the protein. That’s another reason to stay away from all whey isolate or hemp isolate or soy isolate, or any isolate. They are extremely acidic. They are acidifying. If you keep using them in large amounts like a serious athlete or bodybuilder, really you are risking metabolic acidosis and everything that I have discussed. So isolate is out. The same thing, once you start to increase your amount of protein, you’ve got to support it with plant food. All plant foods, all of them are alkalizing besides a few nuts and seeds. So the only alkalizing nuts are almonds. If you can get yourself good raw almonds, especially unpasteurized, you’re in good shape. If you support high protein intake with high vegetables and a good selection of nuts like almonds or roots, you cannot go wrong because you’ve got so much alkalizing minerals in the system that you can afford to start eating high protein without in any way acidifying the system. In fact, you may even alkalize the system further. The same rule applies to coffee. If you drink coffee, make sure that your intake of raw fruits or vegetables is high enough. There is nothing wrong about it. It’s a good suggestion anyway. Let’s not get panicked from anything that causes acid. I think it’s wrong. I personally am against vinegar but I have my other reasons. It’s not the subject here but I’ll say any good whole food that is acid-forming, it doesn’t mean that the food is bad. It just needs to be balanced. That’s where the meal balance is coming.

5

So if we resolve the problem, we saw the benefit of coffee, one of the major benefits is actually neuroprotective and neurogenesis. That means regeneration of new neurons in the brain, protection of the muscle and neuromotors. But there are other benefits. Coffee increases your metabolism. They say by up to 20 percent. So taking coffee is the starter. We already discussed the benefit of training on an empty stomach. We already say that training while fasting is extremely beneficial to also trigger mechanisms that rejuvenate the muscle tissues. But at the same time, it accelerates fat loss far beyond any comparison. It really actually makes your body tougher. One substance that can help you a lot doing that is coffee between exercise. It doesn’tjust help you give you the starter energy that you need. It actually increases your metabolism by up to 20 percent. So with 20 percent more energy burned, energy output is pretty good. I always experiment with coffee before training. I can tell you it really works. Where are the cons here? Caffeine also targets the adrenal glands. You really don’t want to over stimulate it. You really want to use coffee tactically at the right time. I really like to use it in… [Start of Part 2] Let’s talk about the other benefits of coffee. It increases metabolism by about 20 percent. That’s a great advantage especially for athletes to be able to spend abruptly 20 percent more energy. The advantage of coffee is that it allows this person to be very fast. For people who train in the morning, I think having coffee in the morning before training is a fantastic opportunity. I’m not a big believer in meals before exercise. We talked about it before, especially meals with carbohydrates. It can really badly affect your insulin. There are studies that show that eating after exercise is actually much more beneficial, and not just for fat burning. Obviously, you’ll burn much more fat when you train while fasting. DM: So your current belief is that exercising while fasting provides a variety of different benefits. OH: It’s amazing benefits. Except for one thing, you can have it a low-glycemic, nosugar-added whey before training that benefits you virtually the same way. Whey protein, the only thing that it does is send a flux of amino acid as a special fuel, but without raising insulin, so all the benefits of fat burning still exists. I would say 20 grams of whey protein does hardly provide you any calories. It just gives you a steady fuel so your training itself can be more intense while you’re still collecting the benefit of virtually the same as training while fasting. It’s just amazing. But any other food, I don’t recommend. Anything that raises insulin before training would really compromise muscle build-up after. 6

Training while fasting or training with a whey protein which is no-sugar-added similar to Miracle Whey could also be a great way to benefit. Here is the thing, when we train completely fasting – you have tried it Joe – there is kind of a compromise in your maximum performance. It’s hard. It’s tough. It’s a good challenge for the body. You’re kind of compromising your maximum performance if you take the whey protein with no sugar added. Good quality whey has to be before training. It’s like a win-win situation. You can still maximize your performance especially for intense – you have tried it yourself, right? You train intensely. But you still collect the benefit of training while fasting or training while under eating. So it’s a win-win situation. The biggest advantage is to eat after exercise. Why do I say all this? I say it because if you don’t eat, if you decide to take advantage of this, here is coffee. Coffee can help you. If you don’t take the whey before, coffee can be the starter. It will give you the ability to knock out maximum performance while you are fasting – a huge advantage. The careful thing is this, coffee is a strong substance. Again, it keeps the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate up. The body can actually handle itself if it’s coming from whole coffee because it doesn’t hit your body massively like synthetic caffeine. But you don’t want to abuse it. You also don’t want to hit your adrenals too much. The coffee does activate the adrenal. I would say for people who are smart, they should have coffee before training and maybe a coffee in the morning and that’s it. Don’t over -- abuse it. Don’t just keep shoving coffee. As far as I did my research, for people who do consume it, the average coffee would give you between 80 to 100 mg of caffeine per cup. You don’t need to finish a cup. A shot of espresso will give about 45 to 50. That would be fine. If you have an equivalent of two shots of espresso per day, you’re going to do very well. Here are the benefits; great starter before exercise, never after. Remember, we want to talk about it, never coffee after exercise. Don’t take coffee after exercise but definitely take it before. So you have it in the morning or in the morning before you exercise or before exercise. Why don’t we want to take coffee after exercise? DM: It’s somewhat counterintuitive too because most people are having like a protein shake before their exercise so they would have fuel for the muscle, but your recommendation is to not do that, to avoid it. But instead, use the coffee for the reasons you’re going to tell us. OH: The coffee before exercise is a great starter. Why not use it after exercise? Coffee affects your muscles similar to exercise. It increases basically the energy expenditure but it inhibits, like I said, it inhibits the mTOR, the mechanism in the muscle that

7

increases protein synthesis. It actually inhibits, similar to exercise, the inherent mechanism in the muscle that builds your muscle. The mTOR cannot be activated when you drink coffee. When you take coffee before exercise, the mTOR is going to be inhibited by exercise anyway but this inhibition, it’s very interesting. This is not a regular inhibition. Fasting also can inhibit mTOR, but what happens? Fasting, exercise and coffee inhibit mTOR similar to the way that a string is being compressed in a close box. DM: When you say it inhibits, that’s mTOR. What is mTOR? OH: It’s mammalian target of rapamycin. It is the technical name of a biological mechanism that when it’s activated, it increases protein synthesis in the muscle. We talk about the amino acid leucine, for example, that triggers that mechanism, the mTOR that increases protein synthesis in the muscle and builds your muscle. Whey protein actually triggers it because of certain amino acids, and especially leucine, that it triggers muscle protein synthesis by triggering this biological mechanism (mTOR). But it is ironic that exercise inhibits and stimulates it at the same time. So when exercise and coffee inhibit the mTOR, as soon as you are off the exercise, mTOR is kicking back in with a vengeance. So now when you eat a recovery meal, your muscle is totally prepared biologically, except for the positive protein, and you gain muscle mass. That’s why the timing of coffee is very important. Before exercise, it will work with the exercise itself. It really inhibits the mTOR but at the same time, it will stimulate energy production, burning fat and increasing performance. After exercise, it’s not time for the coffee. It’s time for a recovery meal which is, obviously, as I always say, good quality whey protein; one or two for a recovery meal. I would say after an hour or two if you want to have another espresso, that’s fine but not right after exercise. You really want to give your muscle the opportunity to build itself up and recover. At that point, right after exercise, coffee is not going to kill you; it’s going to be a stick on the wheel. Again, the best timing of coffee is always before the action not after the action. People who are heavy coffee drinkers, basically, if they don’t train, it’s not going to change so much. But if they do train, they are really compromising their ability to develop their muscle. That’s my opinion about coffee. DM: Thank you for your insights. It’s certainly counterintuitive and not consistent with what many people believe about coffee. It does appear that there is this specific indication where it may actually be therapeutic, especially if one focuses on organic high quality sources and not the refined processed or synthetic versions.

8

OH: Absolutely. I agree with you. I think that the super refined and synthetic versions are just bad for you. The human body never adapted to get isolated nutrients. DM: It is really a whole food. I think similarly we saw a transition occurring on our views of chocolate. I was actually quite surprised in the late ‘90s when some of the research came out primarily funded by Hershey touting the benefits of chocolate. Of course that was with the raw cacao beans and the really important bioflavonoids. It could be a very important whole food, but when it’s highly processed and added with lots of sugar, it’s a completely different product. So when you’re recommending coffee prior to a workout, you’re not recommending a Starbucks with all the sugar and the refinements that they put in. OH: Absolutely. Well, you can get in Starbucks freshly ground black espresso. DM: I have never purchased coffee. Actually, I didn’t have it anywhere because I don’t drink it. So I don’t know the offerings that Starbucks has, and I can’t think of a good analogy, but I’m sure they have good and bad versions. [----- 10:10 -----] OH: The majority of people like sweet stuff. For that matter you’re right. It’s totally correct. Once you combine coffee with sugar, it’s becomes adverse. It spikes your insulin to a level that you don’t want to do. Actually, you can become insulin resistant within minutes. Why would you do something like this to yourself? Coffee by itself will raise blood sugar, but not to the point it will really hurt your insulin. Coffee has other advantages if we talk about it. It’s not really the subject of sport nutrition, but let’s talk about it anyway. We have addictive receptors in our brain. That’s the way the human brain is; we are basically addicted to life. There is a good biological reason why people of today get addicted to food because, initially, the receptor is called the opioid receptor in the brain. The feeling of pleasure and addiction and the whole reward system is built on the idea that in primordial times, if you were going out there in the forest or open grassland, food was scarce. You did not have any grocery available, so you had to find a way to detect the difference between rancid and fresh food. Your best measure beside the eyesight is smell and taste. You really need to develop an ability to do this – primordial men are closer to animals. Like other predators, (early man) they had a very good sense of smell and taste to know the difference between rancid food, and fresh food especially, when it’s coming to nuts and seeds which are staple human foods. What happened is that we developed a very high sensitivity with a very sophisticated reward system, pleasure or pain or disgust, that directs us how to choose food.

9

Unfortunately today, we live in a different world, a world that is not built on food or water scarcity, but rather a world of plenty, where food is not just fully available the food that we had before in primordial times was in a whole state(indiscernible 12:26) already. It’s very basic food on the ground like plants, greens, roots, sprouted beans, maybe, and especially nuts and seeds. Today, the food that we are eating is hunger promoting, and mostly based on refined carbohydrates; everywhere, there is high glycemic food and refined sugar. Because of the aggressive taste and high glycemic points, our opioid addictive receptors that are supposed to help us choose food are now becoming addicted to the wrong stuff. Because this stuff is also added with chemical flavorings, people actually got used to the aggressive taste that humans never adapted to before. So what happens now? Our opioid receptors are being occupied by sugary, high glycemic stuff, and that’s how people get addicted to food. But that’s only the first addiction. There are worse addictions than that, in my opinion, like to drugs, crack cocaine, morphine etc. What’s amazing is that crack cocaine, morphine and sugar are competing for the same receptors. Do you know that basically all this stuff binds to the same receptor that makes you more or less addictive, but you are addicted? There are very few compounds which are called opioid receptor antagonists. That means once they occupy the receptors they prohibit you from being addicted. Guess what? Coffee is one of them. Caffeine can bind to opioid receptors, and can at least attenuate the addictive impact of a substance. So if you are addicted to sugar, for example, and you really want to train your body gradually to get out of this addiction – it’s possible, I wrote about it again on my new book – coffee would be a fantastic way to aid yourself. Train yourself to doing black coffee. Put it on an empty stomach and you will see how gradually the addiction will dissipate. It doesn’t matter; do this with any addiction that you have. DM: So you’re saying just unsweetened coffee will help get rid of a sugar addiction. OH: I believe yes. If you train your body over time, it will at least biologically occupy the addictive receptor. If you don’t occupy them, they will haunt you. DM: It probably wouldn’t work if you added stevia then? This benefit wouldn’t occur if you added stevia as a sweetener? OH: I think it would be virtually the same because stevia doesn’t raise insulin as far as I know. Anything, if it’s low on stevia or anything it’s not going to raise insulin. The whole idea is not to raise insulin.

10

The coffee will bond then to receptors. What we’re talking now is that one of the major reasons why most people cannot get into healthy eating habits is because they are addicted to stuff, like junkies are addicted to crack cocaine. It is a very difficult thing. You’re not an addict to food. I don’t believe I am either. So it’s very difficult to judge people who are addicts because they are really in a problem. Coffee will be a fantastic aid. Train yourself like you are exercising in a gym. Train yourself to just obtain the taste for coffee. Train yourself and it will help you tremendously in many levels including that level. It’s funny, you know, they did study, for example, people who smoke. You can see a lot of people who smoke like to smoke, and it sounds terrible. They smoke and drink coffee at the same time. But what they found is that caffeine negated the nicotine effect. DM: It does seem part of a triad, actually, smoking, coffee and alcohol. It is interesting that the caffeine seems to help the body adjust to some of the side effects of smoking. OH: If you know that you can actually manipulate and train your body,(indiscernible 16:50) they are going head to head. Again, don’t have sugar and coffee together because it will never work. It will never work. It’s not going to do the job. DM: When you drink coffee, you never add sugar to it? OH: Never. In fact, I don’t add sugar to anything. DM: Of course that’s the ideal. It’s interesting. The insights that coffee does have benefits as you mentioned, but they seem to be all negated the moment you add sugar, which is what the vast majority of people do. Probably well over 90 percent. OH: Joe, I couldn’t say better. You’re talking about the typical Starbucks, Coffee Bean, anything that’s what they sell. Sweetened coffee beverages -- absolutely not what you want. You see it in energy drinks. You see it in protein drinks. There are protein drinks that put coffee in them, andI can tell you right now they are all negating the benefits. I would say if there is a message on this newsletter, I can tell you, yes, coffee can destroy you or coffee can heal you. It really depends on your knowledge and how you use it. You do not want to mix coffee with any sugar, not at all. DM: In some ways it’s kind of like guns. A lot of people are opposed to them but, certainly, it’s not the gun itself that is the issue; it’s how you use it. It certainly can be used for self defense. Or it can be used to harm or kill someone. OH: It is, and you need to understand that this is a very powerful substance. I would say the same thing, I know it’s to a lesser level, with tea too. Just develop a taste for no sugar. If you want to use stevia or anything else, that’s your choice but develop the taste because sugar is adverse in all possible ways. 11

The human body’s most important hormone is insulin. It is more important than any other hormone… DM: Dr. Rosedale, who was the doctor that enlightened me about insulin 15 years ago, might counter that. He believes that, while insulin is important, that leptin might be even more important. They are real similar. They are cousins almost. OH: I can’t even argue with you about it. Of course leptin is, but leptin means nothing without insulin. Leptin absolutely depends on insulin. If you are insulin-resistant, kiss goodbye to your leptin. It will never work. That’s the importance of insulin. It’s a system. It’s not just a hormone. It’s a pathway. Once it’s intact, rest assured that your leptin will be intact, testosterone is intact. Testosterone without insulin is nothing. All the evidence shows that when you’re insulinsensitive, your testosterone goes up. Your testosterone will not go down. As you become insulin-resistant, testosterone goes down with it. So with growth hormone. [----- 20:00 -----] IGF-1, a growth hormone, cannot be fully activated without insulin interference. The muscle mTOR, the mechanism that builds your muscle cannot be active, it’s part of the insulin system. It cannot be operated if you’re insulin-resistant. That’s why diabetic people waste muscle. So insulin is pivotal. I do agree with you about leptin. Leptin is a critical hormone. I say pound-for-pound it’s probably one of the most beneficial hormones in the body. It doesn’t just make you lean, it controls other functions. We talked about hunger and satiety. It’s one of the most powerful satiety hormones secreted by the fat cells. DM: We’re kind of going into a tangent, but just to finish up on insulin and leptin and not confuse people, you can monitor your insulin levels. You actually can monitor your leptin levels too, although they are a little more costly and not as convenient to do. But realistically, if you’re healthy, it’s not something you have to worry about. If your body weight is ideal, you’re feeling good, you’re gaining muscle, you don’t have to monitor these things. As long as you’re not eating sugar, and you’re exercising, your leptin and insulin levels should be okay. But if you’re not, which is of course the vast majority of people in the country and perhaps even the majority of the people listening to this, then you may want to monitor insulin levels. Typically leptin follows insulin levels. Not always though. I have seen a number of people who have normal insulin levels or no insulin-resistance, and yet have significant elevated leptin levels or leptin resistance.

12

OH: We have to check if these people were ever obese, because what happened if the body fat percentage – Joe, you’re a very lean person but some people start to develop excess,, not just in the level of fat in their belly. The two biggest enemies of leptin is excess body fat and a diet combined with high fat and high sugar together. These two are responsible for leptin resistance. If somebody was ever obese or is substantially overweight, not even obese, there is a high likelihood that he will develop something which is called leptin resistance, which is similar to insulin-resistance. Both are peptide hormones. With leptin in obese people, there is a very high level of leptin circulating, but it’s not active. It cannot bind the way fat does. It cannot act the way it’s supposed to be. Leptin resistance can be caused sometimes, even if your insulin seems to be okay.

13