The Deadly Truth About Veganism

Welcome to My DoFollow Blog! As a Big Thank You, I'd Like to Give You FREE Access to my "19 Tips to Build Muscle & Gain Weight" Report That Gives You The Key Ingredients For Success in YOUR all your workouts! ~ Marc David; CPT

This is a guest post by Mishka Thomas, a food and beverage blogger

The tragic death of an infant is among the many cases that shed light on the consequences of vegetarianism/veganism, among which are fatal vitamin deficiencies. Sergine and Joel Le Moaligou of France fed their 11-month-old daughter Louise breast milk alone– one day in March 2008 the baby became listless and the couple called emergency services. The baby died of a vitamin deficiency.

According to the autopsy report, the baby suffered from a vitamin A and vitamin B12 deficiency, which experts say raises a child’s vulnerability to infection. The deficiency may have been due to an unbalanced diet, and that the couple did not heed the doctor’s advice for hospitalization when Louise contracted bronchitis and had dropping weight during her nine-month checkup.

While breast milk is a near-perfect food that proves to be the best nourishment you can give your baby, its nutritional value is influenced by the mother diet. Louise’s mother is a vegan, and it apparently created vitamin deficiencies in the breast milk that she was fed on exclusively.

Are you convinced that a strict vegan diet is the healthiest way to go? Read on and be enlightened about the potential deadly dangers of this practice.

The Health Setbacks of Going Strictly Vegan

Many individuals go down the vegetarian/vegan route based on their ethical or spiritual convictions. However, this dietary choice often leads to serious effects, as avoiding all animal foods may deprive you of the critical nutrients needed for optimal health and well-being. Even Angelina Jolie, a vegan for so many years, was quoted as saying “It nearly killed me.”

Vitamin B12 deficiency is thing to watch out for. Vitamin B12, one among the eight B-complex vitamins, is naturally found in animal foods such as meat, fish, milk, milk products, and dairy.

Researcher Michael Donaldson, PhD, of Cornell University reveals his study on the Hallelujah diet, a strict vegan diet:

“Our study revealed early signs of vitamin B12 deficiency in 26 of the 54 people tested, after following the Hallelujah Diet for as little as two to four years…

Based on the published studies and our results, adequate vitamin B12 status of vegans cannot be taken for granted. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants, and small children are particularly vulnerable to B12 shortages. Ensuring adequate B12 is critical for normal neurological development and maintenance, with shortages resulting in permanent damage.”

Another concern: even if vitamin B12 is water-soluble, it does not go out of your body quickly like other water-soluble vitamins do. It is stored in your kidneys, liver, and other bodily tissues. As a result, vitamin B12 deficiency many not manifest until after a number of years.

Saturated fats, animal-based omega-3 fats like krill oil, and vitamin A are other nutrients that a growing child may be missing out on with a strict vegan diet.

Know Your Nutritional Type, Too!

If you are currently following a vegetarian or vegan diet, it may be beneficial for you to add a number of animal-based proteins to your eating choices, like raw organic eggs and dairy. However, its sufficiency largely depends on your Nutritional Type, which determines the ratio of fats, carbohydrates, and protein you need.

Here are the three groups under Nutritional Typing:

1. Protein Type – High amounts of healthy fats and protein, lower amounts of vegetables

2. Carb Type – High amounts of vegetables, lower amounts of protein and fat

3. Mixed Type – somewhere between Protein and Carb Types

Your body needs some of each of these categories above, but individuals require different ratios of each. While some may thrive on large vegetable amounts and very little animal protein, this ratio would spell disaster for some people.

You fare worst on vegetarian and vegan diets if you are a natural Protein Type, as sticking to such diet deprives of your body’s essential fuel, as dictated by your genetic and biochemical makeup. Consider these facts for yourself and your family, and especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.

About the Author

Mishka Thomas is a food and beverage blogger, favoring healthy, organic finds and restaurants found in his hometown in Los Angeles. He was diagnosed with vitamin B12 deficiency a year ago, and this forced him to reevaluate his dietary and lifestyle choices. He is currently living with his partner of five years and their daughter, Belle.

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Top 49 Things I Learned In 2012

Welcome to My DoFollow Blog! As a Big Thank You, I'd Like to Give You FREE Access to my "19 Tips to Build Muscle & Gain Weight" Report That Gives You The Key Ingredients For Success in YOUR all your workouts! ~ Marc David; CPT

Looking Back at 2012

What’s the lat pull-down machine for?  For people who can’t do pull ups (thanks Vince Girona!)You don’t need a training partner.  You can do this on your own with some support.Don’t let anybody tell you how much muscle you can build.  They don’t freaking know.  We barely know exactly how it’s built, let alone each person’s potential for growth.  No limits!Bicep curls do produce bigger biceps.I’ve yet to see a person with impressive biceps that hasn’t worked them directly with effort at some point in their lifetime.John Keifer’s Carb Backloading theory. Who know you’d eat so many carbs and actually wake up leaner than you went to be?  I’m loving the program.“You can’t out train a bad diet.”  Was true then and is true now.  Nutrition is the key.  You can have a pretty weak-ass training program and look godly if you do the nutrition right.People who derive their income from fitness will always be biased towards whatever it is that keeps the money flowing to pay the bills.  Going with that theory…If you spent 20 years saying the sky is blue and then found evidence to suggest it might be bluish-green, changing your tune could ruin your business and your psyche.I’m smart enough to know I don’t know jack.  Keeping an open mind and trying new things has keep me interested in fitness and I’ve made some incredible gains doing things I previously never would have considered.Feel free to experiment and take notes.  Sometimes science says it doesn’t work but it does.  Building muscle is a mixture of art and science.Keep a list of some fitness and bodybuilding forums (or use Google).  At this juncture, almost everything you are thinking of asking has been answered by somebody somewhere.  Do a little research but don’t fall prey to the paralysis by analysis syndrome.If you are going heavy on the bench, ask for a spot.  The other day as I am writing in my journal I hear “Please help me.”  I look up, a 120 lb kid is stuck under 95 lbs on weight.  I saved him, my Karma is replenished.I hate people who hate people who say they hate guys who do bicep curls in the squat rack.  If you can curl 135 lbs or more, feel free to use the squat rack.  Trust me, nobody is going to approach you and say anything.  Loading up 135 lbs from the floor is annoying anyway.Gym Etiquette is still lacking.  Wiping down machines, putting away weights doing 5 supersets in some huge rotation in a crowded gym just hasn’t changed.  I’ve learned to not bog myself down with other people’s problems.  Do your best to keep the place clean.  Bad gym behavior will never go away.I can’t stand fitness experts who come onto the scene, are under 30 and only preach lifting heavy and pushing hard.  Youth is wasted on the young.  When they get a shoulder injury, I wonder if they’ll still want to push the 90 lb weights?  Yeah, now what dude?Having a good pair of lifting shoes for leg day makes a huge difference.  I use the Adidas Power Trainer recommended to me by Layne Norton.  Stability at all angles is important when using heavy weight.  I don’t want my cushy sneakers going sideways on me when squatting.As Ronnie Coleman said “Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder, but don’t nobody want to lift no heavy-ass weights.”  If you want to change, you have to step outside your comfort zone.The cardio machines are always the go-to anytime people feel “fat” or it’s New Year’s.  With all the information on weight training, nobody has learned that unless you are training for endurance, cardio is not the tool to build slabs of muscle.The Smith Machine is not useless.  Only people who don’t know how to use it would say that.  Doing a single leg banded lunge is one heck of a quad and glute builder done right only on a Smith Machine.The worst critic is yourself.  Nobody will be less impressed with your efforts or your results than you.  If you aren’t happy, any praise feels condescending.  Learn to praise yourself for your efforts and your results and feel the energy from it.  The mirror can be a powerful motiving force or the worst thing ever! (the scale is the evil twin)Nobody everybody wants to push themselves to the limit or change.  Some people just workout to be healthy.  Many times looking exactly the same as last year is exactly what that person wanted.  It may not be your goal but it is not a bad thing not to change.Take any training advice as just advice until you’ve done some homework to see it’s it’s true.  Advice from trainers who train at a high level who make their living training others at a high level may not be what you want (more often than not, they just want to sell you some bullshit bodybuilding program for booku bucks).The only secret is something that I don’t know.  There’s no magic time under tension.  No magic rep formula.  No magic number of days per week to train or magic supplement.  Is 40 seconds under tension any better than 50?  Or 38?  Seriously.  The gimmick game never ends.  If you lift weights in a smooth, controlled manner, you’ll be fine.  You can use some explosive techniques, rest pause, and other set extensions theories but there is no perfect formula.  It works until it doesn’t.  Your job is to take notes and learn your body and adapt.The last supplement that really broke barriers was Creatine.  That was over 10 years ago!  Nothing has come to the market that is worth it.  Lots of fun stuff to try but you should know how to evaluate any supplement and be cautious.Squats are bad for your knees! (just kidding; wanted to see if you were still reading).  But I know this guy at my gym who tells people that not because he’s misinformed.  Because he doesn’t want the squat rack taken up.Deep Tissue massage from a qualified sports chiropractor is worth it’s weight in gold.  Do not let injuries persist.  Take action ASAP and don’t settle for a cortisone shot unless absolutely the last resort.  Seek professional help from a sports therapist.A full body routine will get you stronger fast but not necessarily bigger.  That being said, everybody should do a 3 month stint of upper and lower full body routines.  You get to train body parts more often and it’s a good change of pace.  You’ll notice growth you may not get otherwise.  Those who do full body routines, try a body part split and focus on individual muscle groups.  The results will speak for themselves.Don’t buy the “70% of supplements on the market have less than 30% absorption rates.”  Nobody has a study showing that.  Only calcium has anywhere close to that and most of us don’t supplement with it anyway.  I say prove it!Ultra-Low Carb diets can get you really lean very fast.  But use with caution as low carb over a long period of time is not the way to build muscle.  It’s fun though done in very short stints.  Low carb bodybuilding is just a waste of time for anybody who’s serious about packing on muscle.  It’s sub-par and should only be used for specific reasons (lean up quick).Carbs are the most anabolic food substance.  They make things grow.  That means fat and muscle.  Used improperly, you put on body fat.  Used correctly, you can seriously pack on muscle mass.  I’ve never known anybody to pack on 20 lbs or more of lean body mass on a high protein, low carb diet.  Carbs are not evil.  But too many of them and the wrong time to really screw you up.If you are lucky enough to be in a gym with a personal trainer who has a binder full of clients with excellent results, consider hiring them.  You should learn a lot, be pushed harder than you might push yourself and it’s an investment that could carry well past the initial consultation and workouts.  Everybody expert has some type of trainer themselves.They say money doesn’t buy happiness but that’s almost always said by somebody who has too much money.  Take care of your financial situation as the stress can ruin your health.  The prolonged cortisol from stress over finances can’t be offset by an hour or so at the gym.Coconut Oil is the bomb!  It’s a great addition to the morning coffee to get your overall fat count higher and being an Medium Chain Triglyceride, (MCT) it can be used as fuel.  I’ve also used coconut oil as an all-natural deodorant.  Strangely enough it seems to work?!Insulin is not a bad guy.  It’s just a turbo charged transport to get whatever is in the system to the cells.  It can be used for good.  Keeping your insulin in check, leads to better hunger control.  Constantly spiking it during the day leads to those feelings of “I must eat every 2 hours.”  Having lower but not too low, is a great way to control food cravings.  I’ve had a lot of fun manipulating it.Safety Squats are way more fun than traditional back squats.  The weight is more centered like a front squat but without the weight on your shoulders.  I was lucky enough to use one all year long but prior, I’d never seen one at any gym I’ve ever been to.  What a great tool to build legs without always doing squats with a bar on your back.“The day I die, I will either be fat or hungry.” ~ Barney Frank (I think some old pro football players could have said the same thing!)Things people learn and blog about are mostly overrated.  I’ve gotten this far with just a few mentors, a few good websites and a collection of bodybuilding books but an unlimited supply of dedication.  As long as you keep at it, you will be out anybody who has a better arsenal of tools but lacks the discipline.  You just can’t buy yourself discipline.Relationships matter more than muscles.  Don’t neglect your spouse, girlfriend, boyfriend or kids because of the gym.  You can always do legs tomorrow.Stretch!  Try and stretch half as much as you lift.  While it’s not necessary to stretch before lifting to avoid injury, not stretching at all to maintain flexibility could lead to injury.  It doesn’t take more than 15 minutes a day and you can do it in front of the T.V. but resolve to stretch (or do more of it).Learn how to use resistance bands!  After being shown how to use them for barbell rows, leg presses and leg curls, I found the entire exercise to be smoother and harder in the right locations.  Using bands seems to be more of a powerlifting thing but us bodybuilders can use them with great success.  Buy a set or two and try them out on just one exercise.  This will take practice and it depends on the gym equipment.The release of growth hormone to a specific exercise like the deadlift or squat is way overblown.  Nobody has results on how much GH is released or if it even effects the actual muscle growth.  Keep doing them as they are wonderful exercises for strength and full body development but if you cannot do them, all is not lost.  I’ve seen impressive back width and size on people with lower back issues who don’t deadlift ever.Does anybody really use Google Plus?  I’ve never found it to be useful in any capacity.  It’s full of tech nerds and people who hate Facebook.  But here’s my NoBull Business Page anyway.Tendonitis is nasty!  It’s crisscross scar tissue that needs to be broken up with deep tissue massage.  The fix is painful but the results are worth it.  Once you’ve had it, the chances of it coming back are high.  Find out what’s causing it and quit doing whatever bothers it.  Having loads of alternative exercises is a very good thing.  I had to quit doing any bicep curls for 6 months but still could do weighted closed grip pull ups.  Who knows why but my biceps didn’t suffer and neither did I.TRX is awesome.  After my gym closed, I thought my life was over.  When I joined a  health club that had the worst leg press machine ever, I discovered the TRX.  I started messing with it and within 2 months, took a certification class.  Long story short, body weight training is very worth it.  I ended up putting it up in the garage and kept my size and strength without lifting a weight for 5 months (well except my body weight!).  I forgot how awesome body weight training can be.  The inflammation I had from weight training disappeared.The best time to workout is in the late afternoon.  Everybody will say “whatever works for you” but in reality, the late afternoon is optimal if you can fit that into your schedule.  If you can’t, then workout whenever you can.You don’t have to be bleeding, sweating or crying at the end of your workout.  If you are, I question why you think training harder not smarter is the answer.  Muscle grows when stimulated not annihilated.  Workout hard and with intensity but there is such as thing as going overboard and too much.How come most people who do Crossfit don’t look fit? (at least on my Facebook timeline)A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that fructose may increase hunger levels.  Interesting.I love Carb Back Loading!

So, what did I miss? What did you learn this year?

Be Fit, Stay Strong!

Marc David – CPT

50.  Mike Boyle is an excellent bodybuilding chef!  I wish he’d start writing for me again on a regular basis and dish out some delicious recipes.  Maybe if we Tweet Mike he’ll comply?

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How Did We Get Here? Obesity Trends

Welcome to My DoFollow Blog! As a Big Thank You, I'd Like to Give You FREE Access to my "19 Tips to Build Muscle & Gain Weight" Report That Gives You The Key Ingredients For Success in YOUR all your workouts! ~ Marc David; CPT

Is obesity a national problem?

Will it become a global problem?

Here’s the Center for Disease Control (CDC) obesity trends among adults from 1986 to 2010.

The video shows shows the history of United States obesity prevalence from 1985 through 2010.

I Ask You:

Do you have any idea how we got to this situation?

Fast food?Absent parents?Processed food?Bigger portions over decades?Government lobbyists?

What do we do about it?

Tax junk foodSliding scale for health care based on your current lifestyle?

Source:  Center for Disease Control Obesity Data

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

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How to Pig Out This Holiday (and get leaner!)

Welcome to My DoFollow Blog! As a Big Thank You, I'd Like to Give You FREE Access to my "19 Tips to Build Muscle & Gain Weight" Report That Gives You The Key Ingredients For Success in YOUR all your workouts! ~ Marc David; CPT

Thanks to my buddy “Keifer” the author of Carb Backloading (whom I’ve never actually spoken to in any capacity) he put out this video explaining how to time your day as to enjoy Thanksgiving.  Think of this as a carb backloading holiday schedule.

However, you could use this concept to plan any type of event where the food portions might be out of control.  It’s simple to follow.  I’ll let him explain the concept and if you have questions, feel free to post them in the comment box below.

How to Use a Holiday to Get Lean

Does this tip work?  Yes it does.  And I know this because I tested it out for a full 10 days and on the 11th day when I ate 409g of carbs in about 2 hours, I woke up leaner than before.

Marc David – CPT
“The NoBull Muscle Guy”
Author of NoBull Bodybuilding

PS – Here’s my take on the concept of carb backloading

PPS – Here’s the initial carb backloading meal plan I designed and have since tweaked

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Awaken to the Benefits of Natural Food Supplements

If health food supplements are supposed to be natural solutions for dietary deficiencies in human beings, all natural health supplements should come from human food.

After all, fish eat fish food, dogs eat dog food, cats eat cat food, cows eat grass and dung beetles eat dung. That, by the way is how its always been.

Naturally it would be safest for humans to supplement their diet with human natural food supplements. Consider the overall benefits - weight loss, no obesity, natural cures, healthy lifestyle, weight control. What more would one ask for?

When natural really is natural

Carrots and whole grains are natural and healthy for humans that have been proven. So why do so many supplement manufacturers use strange ingredients in their products that have no safe, long-term, non-toxic history of use? The answer is not complex really. There is no other market for this kind of junk, so, as no one else wants it, it's cheap and plentiful.

what scientists don't really know are the long-term detrimental effects of these non-human foods. Who really wants to be a guinea pig? For instance, let's take dunalliela salina thats used as a carotenoid; it grows in stagnant polluted water that no living creature eats. Its use in food supplements is based not on nutrition but on profit margins and hype-marketing.

Natural foods and food supplements are strong marketing expressions. And the majority of marketers have no issues with concocting tales, stretching the truth and misusing these words to promote their "unnatural" products particularly if it increases their profit margin.

Human food chain nutrition

If you want nutritional foods that go way beyond natural, you ought to consider whole food and even organic foods. These natural food supplements use traditional fruits, vegetables and whole grains as their source of ingredients. They are even guaranteed to be free of all toxins and have been proven to work. Hundreds of thousands of satisfied people in dozens of countries around the world have been using natural supplements for over 50 years to look and feel their best - naturally.

Benefits of natural food supplements

They encourage access to key nutrients that prevent disease. Thus they eliminate the population of diseased, malnourished customers.

They make artificial food supplements more expensive, putting their purchase out of reach of more consumers.

With the loss of vitamin sales, a lot of artificial health retailers will be forced out of business. This is good for the health industry at large. The fewer health shops, the less competition there is for prescription drugs.

They set the stage for the future banning of artificial food supplements that prevent disease such as blueberries, broccoli and garlic.

They allow for the arrest and incrimination of key proponents of bad health (drug manufacturers, retailers and consumers), removing them from the public stage so that they no longer have a voice.

They allow natural health critics to use circular logic to attack the drug industry.

Kevin Pederson, a regular writer on Diet Health Club diet explains the necessary food supplements required by our body to encourage access to key nutrients that prevent disease.