Anecdote 1
I saw a well written anecdote in the comments section of another blogabout trying the Bulletproof diet and thought I’d paste it here. I had
the exact same experience as this person, with regard to a high fat
diet. I’d also like to mention that Dave Asprey drinks around six cups
of coffee, takes modafinil, uses nicotine lozenges, testosterone and
hundreds of other supplements and devices with his high fat diet. These
are all confounding variables. Also, I heard a talk by Steve Fowkes,
Dave Asprey’s guru, who is also into a high fat diet, speak about how
the blood flow to his brain stopped and he needed to take nattokinase.
Why am I not surprised that this happened to him? People need to be
careful. I criticize Dave Asprey not for the sake of being critical,
but because I think a high fat diet can cause harm and isn’t optimal for
most. Now on to the anecdote:
“I was on the Bulletproof Exec train for a bit. First of all, notice
the absurdity of the name of his company: I’m an executive at a computer
company, so I’m much more trustworthy than a bum. Well, I’m also an
executive in banking, but I wouldn’t start selling cars because I think
I’m smarter than everyone else. He’s conflating being an authority in
computing to being an authority on everything. How smug.
Secondly, he’s gone from offering one product to offering tons of
products. Huge markups (says he doesn’t make much money, but I doubt
it). Says that his products are the best on the market. It’s quickly
turned into a website from giving advice to “buy my products to feel
more bulletproof”.
Anyways, I wanted to feel bulletproof, who wouldn’t? So, I started
doing the BP Coffee routine every morning. I started eating grass-fed
beef or wild salmon with plenty of vegetables on a daily basis. Fruit
was a big no-no. Carbs were evil. I bought his other products like BP
Vanilla and BP whey.
The first few months I lost some fat around my waistline, which was
nice. I had basically a six pack. Energy levels were ok, but I would
often suffer low blood-sugar levels and feel like utter crap. Didn’t
notice any big difference from consuming BP coffee (unlike Joe Rogan,
who said he “wanted to kick an alligator in the dick” after drinking BP
coffee).
My thinking wasn’t much improved, and in fact I started getting brain fog. My performance at work was slipping.
I got blood work done. My cholesterol shot up by 70 points. The other
thing that was disturbing was that my inflammation marker (c-rp) was
way above normal. This corroborated with how I was feeling, which was
achy a lot. I’m 34 and thought that this is what happens when you get
older, but man I was shocked how quickly I was aging.
The thing that did it for me was that I started witnessing shortness
of breath. Like I was about to pass out from shortness of breath. I
first noticed it skiing (which I do a ton of and never had an issue),
but then it began translating into normal everyday routines, like
climbing stairs or riding a bike at a leisurely pace. When I would go to
the gym and do squats and kettlebell swings, I would have to
concentrate on breathing otherwise everything would go white.
I obviously was really concerned I had a heart defect, so I went to
multiple specialists. Pissed away lots of money. They also said that I
was normal. But I just felt awful and basically felt I couldn’t do
strenuous activity anymore, otherwise I’d die. I thought that this was
going to become my new life or non-strenuous activity.
That’s when I started challenging what this “infallible” guru was
saying. The first person who brought it to my attention is the guy who
runs Peak Testosterone, saying that those Paleo diets are great when
you’re young and your body can take the hammering, but there aren’t many
old Paleo guys around. There’s also not much research supporting the
long-term success of the Paleo diet, whereas there is for the
Mediterranean.
A guy over at Roosh’s forum, whose opinion I respect (MikeCF), also
pointed out that health gurus like Asprey or Sisson aren’t “natural”.
Asprey has admitted that he’s on TRT. Sisson looks like he’s taking at
least HGH. What if these guys weren’t on these incredible
pharmaceuticals? Their diets probably wouldn’t do squat and they quickly
would lose that muscle the have.
So, I decided to experiment and actually just eat normally. Muesli
for breakfast with fresh fruit and soy milk. Grains like quinoa, rice,
wheat as a side. Tons of vegetables and fruits, but cut down on the
animal protein. Cut out the butter and other fats.
Lo behold, my shortness of breath has disappeared (it took two
months). My joints aren’t achy, and I can move my right hand again (I
was starting to develop arthritis). Brain fog’s gone. My temperament has
improved. I quickly realized that the BP diet was destroying my health,
even though I thought I was doing a diet to improve my health.
I’ve gained a little fat around the mid-section, but the trade-off in mental and physical well-being is well worth it.
I know that this is a long post, but it’s cathartic for me and a
warning to other guys out there. I know you want to improve your health,
so you do a Google search and quickly stumble upon Bulletproof Exec or
the Paleo Blueprint. These guys are salesmen, selling a dream, but if
you dig a little farther (like D&P did by asking where their blood
tests are), you’ll see that it’s a facade to sell their marked-up
products. And their diets, at least for me, can be dangerous to your
health (your mileage may vary).”
