If you read some nutrition “gurus”, insulin gets a bad rap. Especially guys who argue that carbohydrates are evil and push low-carb diets, try to point the finger at insulin as one of the main causes of people getting fat. They argue that carbs are bad and insulin is bad by association.

However if you look at their arguments more closely, you can see that they make pretty sketchy connections and their conclusions are pretty much BS.

In order to be able to analyze all the different diets that people are hyping-up and make an informed choice on which is the best for you, you need to know what insulin is and how it works.

Let’s start by listing the main roles of insulin in the body:

1) push glucose into cells, in order for it to be used as energy

2) push other types of nutrients (for example proteins), in order for them to be used by the cells

3) store excess glucose for later use (either as glycogen or fat)

Remember these roles when reading the rest of the article, as this is crucial for understanding the importance of insulin in different bodily processes, and especially in what role it plays in getting bigger muscles and losing fat.

Insulin is one of the most important hormones for your metabolism. The different cells in your body need glucose for energy and insulin promotes the absorption of glucose by them (either for energy or for storage – glycogen, fat).

It is a peptide hormone, which means that it’s a functional protein. It is produced in the pancreas by beta cells and serves many functions in your body. You can think of it as the main regulator of your body.

Insulin is released into the bloodstream when glucose is present, whether due to food getting ingested or due to different stress hormones flooding the body.

What happens is that when you are eating, the food is broken down into its more basic constituent parts, and the pancreas starts releasing insulin into your bloodstream. The insulin then directs the transport of these nutrients either into the cells or for storage. Once the level of these nutrients in the blood drops, then the amount of insulin drops as well.

Let’s use an analogy in order to illustrate how insulin works. Imagine that insulin is a small spaceship that travels through your blood and muscle cells are big space factories. These space factories have docking stations (insulin receptors) that the insulin spaceship periodically visits and docks at them.

In the process, the insulin acts as a sort of key, unlocking the doors to the cells. Once these doors are unlocked, nutrients such as glucose or amino acids can enter the cells, bringing energy and also different building blocks for their internal processes.

When insulin is released, the body gets a signal to stop burning fat for energy and instead use the new food that just came in. At that point, insulin also begins the process of energy storage.

Once again imagine insulin as a small spaceship and fat cells as big storage depots. The insulin spaceship docks at the fat cell and tells it to start the process of storing all the excess energy for later use. This thereby increases body fat.

This role of insulin is why it is often depicted as one of the main reasons that people get fat. However this argument is based on a very simplistic reading of the situation.

Insulin is just a hormone which has a certain role to perform in the body. The way it performs it is based on external factors and especially on the choices that people make with their habits and their food.

High vs. Low-Glycemic foods (fast vs. slow absorbing)

The type of carbs you eat, has an effect on how your body controls insulin. If most of the carbs you ingest are high on the Glycemic Index, then you might have a problem. High-GI foods pass through the blood quickly, which can cause insulin spikes. This can result in reduced insulin sensitivity and higher storage of the excess glucose as fat.

Low-GI foods release their nutrients more slowly, meaning that insulin is released slower as well. Most of these nutrients then go into being used as immediate energy or to replenish glycogen stores, instead of for fat storage.

One problem that can occur through living a bad lifestyle and having bad eating habits is insulin resistance. If insulin is released in large quantities very often, the cells lose their sensitivity to it. This means that more and more insulin is always required to perform its function. At the extreme level, it can lead to a total loss of response and diabetes.

The loss of insulin sensitivity is one of the main culprits of obesity. One way this happens is because your liver loses insulin sensitivity as well.

One important function of insulin is that it tells the liver to increase production of glycogen. It also suppresses the liver’s capacity to produce new sugar. This process is called gluconeogenesis in fancy scientific language.

If the liver loses its ability to respond to insulin, the result is too much glucose (sugar) in the blood. This excess sugar then gets stored as fat and makes people put on more body fat.

Another important factor in reducing insulin sensitivity is the modern lifestyle. A bad lifestyle can cause several problems, including insulin resistance.

What many people don’t know, is that insulin can also be released without a person having to eat anything. This takes place when an outside stimuli causes the body to go into reflex mode. When this happens, the body starts releasing stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.

These hormones then command the body to produce more sugars. In evolutionary terms, this was very beneficial, since stress hormones were released due to some dangerous outside stimuli. For example, a lion could be attacking or an enemy force could be heading your way.

In a moment like this you needed to be able to react quickly and with as much power as possible. So that’s why the body developed a mechanism to supply energy to its cells fast. Stress hormones gave a signal to the body, which then quickly released sugars in order to have more energy available to respond to these threats.

However in the modern world, stress is usually due to BS things like pressure at work, which puts the entire system out of whack. The body is constantly releasing sugars, causing the system to become more insulin resistant. The end result is that all that excess glucose gets stored as fat in the body, and people end up looking like Humpty Dumpty.

The Role of Insulin in Muscle Building

Insulin is needed for getting bigger and building muscles. Insulin is anti-catabolic. When it is present in the blood, it slows down the break-down of muscles proteins. Without insulin, muscle protein would start breaking down (in a process called proteolysis).

Insulin is also anabolic in that it aids the building up of muscles. It promotes protein synthesis and helps different nutrients (including amino acids) to get into the cells. In this way, they get different building blocks that they can then use to build bigger and stronger muscles.

Remember glucose is the basic source of energy for your body as well. Insulin helps in getting this energy-source to the right destination. When the different cells get the energy that they need, they can also work harder and longer, further enhancing the effect.

Also let’s not forget one little side-benefit, which has an impact on external aesthetics. Insulin saturates the muscles with amino acids and glycogen, which then gives them a fuller look.

So you see, insulin is incredibly important to how your physique will look like. Another important element that often gets forgotten, but is crucial for any budding Renaissance Man, is the fact that your brain is the biggest user of carbs and so insulin is needed for transporting glucose to the brain, not only to strengthen your willpower, but also to help you do all that thinking.

Read more:
What are carbohydrates?

Which nutrients are needed for your brain to function well?

In a future article, we will explore what types of strategies you can adopt to heighten insulin sensitivity and get a lean body. Stay tuned!

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What is the reason? There are several things that are behind this, but one culprit seems to be the diet. Recent scientific studies point to improper nutrition as one of the main explanations of why there has been such an abrupt rise in mental illnesses among the population in the past few decades.

Nutrients are not only important for growing a big and healthy body, but also promote healthy brain functions, which allows you to do all your mental activities better. Healthy eating is a prerequisite for maintaining a healthy body and is also an important prerequisite for maintaining a healthy and functioning mind.

Unfortunately, many people don’t get their required amount of nutrients for proper brain functioning. In the modern era, the diet of many people has become very unbalanced and does not include many of the important elements that it should. This imbalance can become quite critical for the brain, since it demands around 20% of the total nutrient intake of the body in order to function properly.

Coupled with instant gratification behavior (which is growing stronger partially due to changes in technology) and a loss of values, the lack of a proper diet is another one of the culprits of the decline of mental health, a rise in different mental disorders and also the rise of depression.

A lack of proper nutrition leads to problems in the brain

There are more and more scientific studies which are starting to prove the connection between nutrition and mental health. These studies demonstrate a link between these 9 nutrients and brain health: omega3, B vitamins (especially folate and B12), choline, iron, zinc, magnesium, S-adenosyl methionine (SAMe), vitamin D, and amino acids. This means that if you want to have a healthy, functioning brain, you need to have these nutrients in your diet.

In order to illustrate what is going on, let’s look at some of the things that happen in the brain. Amino acids, which are the building blocks of protein are also involved in the production of such important neurotransmitters as dopamine and serotonin. Enzymes (they are made of proteins) convert the structure of tyrosine (an amino acid) and produce dopamine (a neurotransmitter). Other types of enzymes convert tryptophan (another amino acid) into serotonin (a neurotransmitter).

If the above two amino acids are not present in the brain, there can be serious problems. Deficiency of these two amino acids in the diet has been linked with depression and aggression.

Similarly, diets lacking in omega 3 fatty acids can lead to severe disturbances in the brain. An intake of fatty acids is especially important for the brain, since it contains the highest level of fat in your body (surprise, surprise it’s not your stomach that contains the highest level of fat ) Half of the grey matter that is in your brain consists of polyunsaturated fats, with one third of that being omega 3 fatty acids.

The modern diet is severely deficient in this type of fatty acid, which is considered essential. Several scientific studies have shown that diets lacking in omega 3 fatty acids can lead to severe disturbances in the brain and various mental problems.

In order for your brain to function properly, you also need to fuel it and for that carbohydrates are very important. However recently you have seen carbs being labeled as the work of the devil and many modern fad diets call for severe restrictions in the consumption of them.

That can be disastrous for your brain. Consumption of diets low in carbohydrates tends to precipitate depression. For example, the production of brain chemicals serotonin and tryptophan is triggered by carb rich foods and if your brain doesn’t get these carbs, then it cannot start producing these brain chemicals.

A lack of any of the nutrients above can lead to a variety of mental problems. Recently we have seen a huge rise in people diagnosed with depression. Many scientists have studied this phenomenon and some of their studies point out that depression is not only due to emotional factors, but nutrition also plays a role in its onset and duration. So if you want to prevent depression, you not only need to avoid emotional triggers, but also eat properly.

What to do in order to have a healthy brain?

What do you need to do in order to have a healthy and functioning brain? The authors of one of the studies give some tips: “A traditional whole-food diet, consisting of higher intakes of foods such as vegetables, fruits, seafood, whole grains, lean meat, nuts, and legumes, with avoidance of processed foods, is more likely to provide the nutrients that afford resiliency against the pathogenesis of mental disorders.”

They also state that it is also possible to supplement your diet with supplements if you are not getting enough of the right nutrients. However the primary source of your nutrients should always be a proper diet.

How is your diet? Do you get all the nutrients needed in order for you to have a healthy brain and a healthy body? If not, try to change it up and include foods that are sources of the above nutrients. Fish are very good sources of omega 3 fatty acids, seafood such as oysters and also spinach are good sources of zinc, sunflower seeds, pistachio nuts and dried fruits are good sources of B vitamins, while magnesium is found in dark leafy greens and different types of nuts. Ensure that you get a good mix of foods and try to avoid anything processed.

Read more:
The lack of omega 3 fatty acids in your modern diet.
The omega 6 to omega 3 fatty acids imbalance in our diets

Instant gratification behavior in the modern society.
The end of the world is near, the selfie stick is here

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Is there a difference between drinking a 400 calorie milkshake and thinking it contains less calories, or drinking the same milkshake and being aware of the fact that it contains 400 calories?

A study from 2011, set out to measure exactly that. The participants were divided into two groups and given milkshakes of 380 calories. One group was told that their milkshake was 620 calories and “indulgent”, while the other group was told that their milkshake contained 140 calories and was “sensible”.

After they had drunk the milkshakes, the ghrelin levels of the participants were periodically monitored. Ghrelin is sometimes called the “hunger hormone”, as it is secreted when the stomach is empty. Its secretion stimulates the feeling of hunger, so the more of it is released, the hungrier you feel.

The results of the monitoring were pretty interesting. The ghrelin levels of the people who drank the supposed 620 calorie milkshake dropped and they reportedly felt more full, while the ones who drank the 140 calories reported feeling hungrier and had higher levels of ghrelin.

The only difference here was perception. Both groups drank exactly the same milkshake, but the physiological reactions in their bodies were different.

How can this be? “Mind over matter”. The brain is a powerful organ in your body and can do many incredible things. What is happening here is akin to the placebo effect.

The placebo effect has been reported in certain clinical trials, where the test subjects were given a placebo, but their body reacted as if it had been given a real medicine. One possible explanation of this is based on expectations. Possibly, if the patient is expecting something to happen, he can subconsciously will his body to produce similar effects as that of a medication. The mind can produce its own cure.

The brain can also play other little neat tricks, which result in actual physiological processes. Some people actually experience the feel of being touched, when they see others being touched. This is called mirror touch synesthesia and is due to the activity of mirror neurons. Not all people experience this, but many do and maybe you are one of them.

What about the placebo effect directly in working out? Another study was carried out with a group of power lifters. Each member of the group was given placebos (saccharine) and told that they were getting steroids.

After a period of training, these lifters were told to try to do a one rep max test. All of them lifted heavier than ever before and created new personal records in all the lifts tested.

After that the group was divided into two, with one group being told that they had in fact been given placebos, while the other group continued on believing that they were taking steroids. The results were interesting. The group that was told they were given placebos, lost all their gains and returned to their pre-placebo levels, while the group that continued on believing that they were taking steroids kept their gains or created even better personal records.

The only difference here was mental.

What does this all mean and how can we tie all this together?

I recently read a book called “Mindset: The new psychology of success”, by Carol S. Dweck, a psychologist at Stanford University. In the book, she discusses what she calls the “growth mindset”. This is basically a belief that your basic qualities are things that you grow through your own efforts. You are not bound by “talent”, “genetics” or any other outside factors, but instead believe that what you achieve is based on your own efforts.

This is opposed to the so-called “fixed mindset”, which is a belief that most things such as talent are pre-determined and you can do very little to change that.

People with the growth mindset are driven and do not recognize boundaries. They are constantly working on improving themselves. People with a fixed mindset can also grow, but when they feel that they have hit a wall, they end up giving up.

They create their own success by not being hemmed in by imaginary boxes. This does not discount the fact that there are some objective factors like genetics, which do play a role, but in most cases the non-gifted man who works hard will outperform the gifted man who slacks off.

In the studies above, people were given psychological boosts, sort of mini-growth mindsets, which resulted in real live physiological changes in the inside of the body and measurable outside outcomes. The exact explanation of what exactly is happening in the body is still unknown, but the effect itself is real and can result in many good things for you.

What practical lessons can we take away and how can we use this in our training?

The main lesson here is that you are your own creator of success. You need to believe that you can change for the better. Not only will this create greater motivation and drive, but the belief itself can be a powerful creator of positive physiological changes in the body.

You can even use some practical mini-strategies based on the lessons from these studies in order to achieve your goals. For example people trying to gain weight should mentally underestimate the amount of calories they are eating, which will boost the ghrelin levels in their bodies, resulting in them feeling hungrier and eating more.

This can break one of the barriers of some underweight people. Many of them get a feeling of being full rather quickly, which then creates a mental barrier for them. Since they feel full, they don’t ingest the amount of food that they need to ingest in order to gain weight.

On the other hand, people trying to lose weight, can use the opposite strategy and overestimate the amount of calories that they are ingesting, thereby lowering their ghrelin levels and feeling less hungry.

Remember, who you are and what you will become is largely dependent on you. Your mind is a powerful tool and so use it in order to succeed. What you believe is what you are. This doesn’t mean that you can slack off and take it easy, you still need to work hard, but having a positive mindset to go with it can greatly benefit you in your quest and drive you to achieving your goals.

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I am above average height for most countries (6’1 or 184cm), however in the Netherlands I was just average (sometimes I felt even below average). I am used to urinals being way below my crotch level, however here it felt like I almost had piss up instead of down.

This is one of the first things that you notice when you arrive in the Netherlands (besides the fact that everything is flat and there are bikes everywhere), the people are much taller than in other places.

They seem to tower above you. They are quite lanky and not too built, but they are tall. I remember my first day at school, sitting down at a table next to one Dutch guy. He seemed pretty thin and not very big, so I did not pay particular attention. Then he stood up from his chair and was almost a full head taller than me! While sitting down he seemed small, but when standing up you had a completely different image of him.

It wasn’t always so. In fact a few generations ago, the Dutch were one of the shortest people in Europe. Almost all the other countries had on average taller people. This changed rapidly, especially after World War 2.

Height seems to be linked to nutrition and health. The average height of Dutch people started shooting up after World War 1, but declined sharply during World War 2, to again start rising sharply after the end of the conflict. The explanation is that during war times, people don’t really have access to adequate amounts of food and nutrition and their health declines, which means they also end up not growing as much.

Two factors have been linked to the enormous increase in the average height of the Dutch, their nutrition and healthcare, where they have a high standard and expectant mothers even have access to advice on nutrition for their kids.

Their diets are simple, but are heavy on dairy products, such as milk and cheese. This means they have a high supply of protein and calcium, which then helps their bones grow, as well as other parts of their bodies. Sometimes they even drink milk for lunch!

So here is something to be learned. If you want to grow taller, you need to incorporate a lot of dairy products in your diet. Most of you are probably already past the age of growth, but maybe it’s still not too late for any potential kids that you might have.

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In order to gain weight, you need to eat more than your maintenance calories. This is the most important advice that anyone can give you. Most people always want to know what kind of a routine they should do, how many reps, what exercises and stuff like that. It doesn’t matter what type of a routine you are doing, if you are not eating enought. Eating above your maintenance level is the basic prerequisite for any routine to work.

For most beginner and even intermediate lifters, basically any type of routine will help them pack on weight and muscle. Of course some might be better at it than others, however if your routine meets some basic principles, then it will help you. It’s the eating part that will be the main difference maker.

The importance of eating cannot be understated. Most of the time when people failed to gain weight, it is because of the fact that they were not eating enough. If you are lifting hard and still fail to make progress on gaining weight, then you need to reexamine your diet. Track it for a week and see what you are eating and how many calories per day in total it is.

Based on this tracking, you can then prepare your diet plan. Calculate your maintenance calories and try to eat anywhere from 500 to 1000 calories above that one. Start off slow, the first week, maybe add just 250 calories above maintenance and consistently keep adding more, until you reach an optimum level, where you are adding weight, but not too much fat. When packing on weight, you are bound to gain fat as well, however by eating clean, you can minimize this fat gain. You can always lose a lot of this fat in a fat-cutting phase later.

It is amazing how much of a difference your diet makes. I had an ACL surgery back in September of last year and during that month I lost almost 8 kilograms, a lot of it being muscle.

I basically stopped eating the usual amounts and just lay in bed. For some people, the lack of activity causes them to eat more and gain weight. For me, it had the opposite effect. Since I am still in rehabilitation mode, I am concentrating on getting my knee stronger and so am not really watching what I eat. This means I am way below the weight I was before my injury.

During this period I lost a lot of weight, but unfortunately, the fat that I had on my stomach stayed.

Even a lot of skinny (skinny-fat) people, have this layer of fat around their stomach. Some of them even go on cutting diets to try to lose it, which just ends up making them look even thinner, but the fat stays. If you are skinny fat, don’t worry, just go on a gaining routine (with the same nutrition, workout, lifestyle components as a skinny person).

You will gain weight and then can go on a cutting phase where you will lose that extra fat. This cutting routine will have you lift heavy as before, however now you can also incorporate HIIT elements, such as short intense sprints, or hill sprints. This way you will get bigger and lose fat at the end too!

However before any fat-cutting phase can occur, you need to have added a good solid amount of weight and muscle. This means that you have to eat, eat and eat. This is the hardest part for most people.

Many so-called hardgainers are not used to eating that much food. So that’s why when they start eating more, they might feel full quickly and think that they are stuffing themselves. In reality, it’s just their perception that makes them think that they are eating a lot. One strategy that you can adopt to overcome this problem is to eat more smaller meals spaced out evenly throughout the day, instead of 3 big meals as tradition dictates.

So remember, if you are not gaining weight, the most likely problem is your diet!

Learn more about nutrition:
What are carbohydrates?
What is protein?
What is fat?

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For some reason whenever I read the words “GOMAD“, I tend to think of the guy that transforms himself into the Incredible Hulk. I have a mental picture of a huge green guy growing larger and then ripping off his shirt and screaming. Actually with GOMAD you won’t turn into the Incredible Hulk, but you can come close! GOMAD is not some super secret military program, but instead stands for “gallon of milk a day”. This means drinking a gallon of milk a day in order to gain weight. It’s a simple, yet very effective strategy.

This is actually the strategy that some people (for example Rippetoe) advise for hardgainers who are struggling to gain weight. It means basically to drink a gallon (or around 4 liters for all of you outside the US) of milk a day, in addition to your regular meals and exercise routine. That is a huge amount of calories!

This strategy has its pros and cons. First of all, it will be really hard to force down all that milk. It’s also not really a good strategy for those that are lactose intolerant, but even those that are lactose tolerant might have some side-effects. For example, it might make you feel bloated and gassy! So don’t use this strategy if you plan to be around people too much. We don’t want you to stink up the room.

Milk is a very good source of all kinds of macronutrients and micronutrients. It is made up of carbohydrates, proteins and fats. So you get all your basic macronutrients there. For example both whey and casein protein come from milk and so if you drink a lot of milk, you can get them in that way, instead of buying expensive protein powders. Milk also contains such goodies as vitamin A, vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, iron, calcium, and many other healthy things. It is also a good source of fluids and can keep you hydrated.

So if you are a hardgainer, one strategy you can use to turn into the Incredible Hulk is GOMAD!

More on gaining weight:
How To Gain Weight

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It’s back!

When you think of carrots, immediately the color orange comes to mind. Well guess what, back in the day, all carrots used to be purple! The carrot actually was first cultivated in Afghanistan and was purple. After a while, it got transported to other parts of the world and different types of carrots arose. The orange carrot came to dominate over all the other carrots and in fact this domination was so complete, that when someone hears the word “carrot” today, almost everyone in their mind pictures a long orange thing. Well, purple carrots still exist and they are making a slow, but steady comeback.

Purple carrots are very healthy for you. Not only do they have the vitamin A and beta-carotene of ordinary carrots, but they also have anthocyanins. It is these anthocyanins that give purple carrots their purple color. Purple carrots also contain all kinds of anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals and fibers.

By eating purple carrots, you will get a lot of benefits. They are good for fighting cancer, but also improve memory and vision. They can also strengthen your immune system and help you fight all kinds of germs and bacteria, which want to invade your body and feast on it.

So for your next healthy meal, you should include some purple carrots. Hopefully, the next time that someone mentions the word “carrot”, you won’t immediately think of something orange, but instead come up with all the different colors that carrots can come in, including purple. I will bet that most of the people reading this post had no idea that carrots can be purple. If you did not know this fun fact, then post a like for this article on facebook. Now you know a new fact and maybe it will make you healthier. At the very least you can have a fun little conversation topic to impress people with.

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Most well-known proteins are derived from milk. Cow milk is composed of carbohydrates, but also two main proteins: whey and casein. The percentage of casein in cow milk is 80% and of whey 20% (interestingly in human milk whey protein is the more prevalent protein). When the milk is coagulated, the two different proteins are divided out, with casein becoming a semi-solid clunky lump and whey a liquid.

Whey protein is the by-product of turning milk into cheese. It used to be considered a waste in the process, but later the benefits of whey were discovered. It can be quickly absorbed in the body, which means that the body can break it down and use it quickly. Drinking whey protein causes an increase in the level of amino acids in the blood in about an hour after ingestion. This is very good for recovery after a workout, as it maximizes muscle synthesis and repair, and also decreases the breakdown of muscle.

Whey is high in essential amino acids. It is especially high in leucine, which is an amino acid that is key to the activation of protein synthesis. Whey can also reduce stress, because it lowers cortisol levels. There are also several other beneficial properties of whey, some of which are being investigated for potential medical uses.

There are 3 major forms of whey protein :

1. concentrates – this is a concentrated version of whey protein, however still mixed with a lot of other things such as lactose, fat and cholesterol —> percentage levels of whey protein can vary, so check it before buying
2. isolates – are processed to take out the fats, lactose…etc., but still contain trace amounts of other things —> about 90% whey protein
3. hydrolysates – these are whey proteins that are predigested and partially hydrolyzed to ease digestion

The best types of whey protein for post-workout nutrition are either isolates or hydrolysates, however for other parts of the day concentrates are better (since they still contain other nutrients as well).

Casein protein also comes from milk. It is a slowly absorbing protein and it can take the body several hours in order to absorb it. This is because it coagulates or forms a gel in the stomach, which then slowly releases amino acids into the blood stream (can do that for several hours). Casein also contains all the essential amino acids and one of its most beneficial properties is that it is high in glutamine. Glutamine is very important for protein synthesis and also for the release of the growth hormone. Another thing that casein does is that it also slows the process of protein breakdown (there needs to be a balance between protein synthesis and protein breakdown in order to ensure muscle growth).

Casein protein is divided into 2 major types:

1. micellar casein – purest form of casein
2. calcium caseinate

There is a bit of a controversy on whether to take whey and casein together or separately. Some people argue that they should be consumed separately, as casein might slow down the fast absorption of whey, however most scientific studies say that they can be consumed together, and that even when mixed they still keep their unique properties.

For me, what I do is get a liquid whey protein right after my workout when I get home. I usually mix a whey isolate powder together with milk (I sometimes add things like bananas or berries for added carbs). While the powder is whey protein, the fact that it is mixed with milk, also adds some casein in there. This helps me get in some quickly absorbing protein in order to help me build muscle. At night, before going to sleep, on the other hand, I take a casein protein powder and mix it with milk and drink it. This way, when I am sleeping, the body gets a steady supply of amino acids throughout the night in order to help me build muscle.

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However that is not the whole truth. The ratio of these matters and if it’s not in balance, then a lot of bad things can happen. Don’t just take my word for it, but also take a look at the scientific evidence.

So what are fatty acids and what about these omegas? Fatty acids are the building blocks of fats. They are a long chain of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen atoms which is capped by a carboxyl group at one of its ends, and a methyl group at the other end.

Fatty acids are classified on the number of carbon atoms in the chain, and also how many double bonds are in the molecule. So an omega-3 fatty acid has a double bond (C=C) at the third carbon atom from where the carbon chain ends, while an omega-6 fatty acid has a double bond at the sixth position from the end, with the end being the methyl group which caps off the fatty acid chains.

The word omega actually signifies the methyl end, while the word alpha is used for the beginning of the chain, the carboxyl group. So that’s where the word omega comes from in the name.

For some reason, whenever I hear these random Greek letters, I think of the Puff Daddy (the artist later known as P-Diddy) song “Come with Me” from the Godzilla soundtrack, which brings me back to my high school basketball days.

Now back to our discussion of the omegas. The most important omega-3 fatty acids for humans are the alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and the docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Some important examples of omega-6 fatty acids are linoleic acid (LA), and arachidonic acid (sometimes abbreviated as AA or ARA).

Linolenic acid (ALA), which is an omega-3 fatty acid, and linoleic acid (LA), which is an omega-6 fatty acid, are both considered essential for the human body, meaning that the body cannot manufacture them itself and they need to be taken in from outside sources (food).

So what roles do these omegas play in the human body? They have a variety of roles and functions that have a large effect on how healthy the human body is. Omega-3 fatty acids reduce inflammation in the body, keep the blood from clotting excessively, improve the insulin response and also regulate prostaglandin production.

Omega-6 fatty acids, on the other hand, promote an immune response of the body (for example through inflammation), promote the aggregation of platelets (which is good for blood clotting), are good for blood lipids, and also help in the regulation of metabolic functions.

Notice how the roles and effects of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are in many ways opposite to each other. For example, omega-3 reduce inflammation in the body, while omega-6 promote it. Inflammation is good for fighting diseases, however too much of it is harmful for the body.

That’s why the need for a balance between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in your body. These fatty acids have competitive interactions between each other and that’s why a balance between them is needed. Health is about balance.

However the balance in our bodies is out of whack, due to our diets. Sometimes the ratio between omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids is 10:1 or even 20:1. This has very serious effects on our health and is a very large contributing factor to people in the developed world suffering from such diseases as heart disease, cancer and diabetes.

Both omega-3 and omega-6 are important for you body, however they need to be in balance. So how much omega-3 you need to eat is dependent on how much omega-6 you are eating. Because of all the processed foods that are in stores, it is hard to maintain a balance between the two omegas.

Aim for a 1:1 balance, but even a 4:1 omega-6 to omega-3 balance is good.

The ratio between omega-6 and omega-3 used to be much more in balance in prehistory. Even in some recent hunter-gatherer societies the ratio was favorable. For example, before the 20th century among the Greenland Inuit, this ratio was 1:2 (even 1:4 in some cases) in favor of omega-3 fatty acids (because of a diet rich in fish and seafood).

However, throughout the course of human history this ratio changed and this is probably one of the factors that contributed to humans getting sick more often in modern times. The most significant change was during the industrial revolution, when the ratio changed drastically due to the wide availability of vegetable oils produced.

Among developed societies, the ratio is most favorable in Japan, due to their diet, and you can see that that country suffers much less from diseases such as heart diseases.

So what can you do to bring down this ratio towards a better balance? Well you need to start eating foods higher in omega-3 and bring down the amount of food rich in omega-6. The best source of omega-3 are fish, different types of seafood and marine algaes.

We are especially deficient in EPA and DHA. These can be synthesized from ALA (found in foods from plants such as flax, pumpkin seeds and walnuts), however this process is inefficient and limited. This means you need to eat foods that already contain EPA and DHA (such as fish, seafood, marine algae).

The ALA to EPA and DHA conversion is also highly dependent on such things as iron, zinc and pyridoxine. So you need to have these things in your body as well. Iron can be found in different types of animal sources, but also bananas.

Grass-fed meat is also the way to go (as it is high in omega-3 from the different grasses that the animals ate), however most meat today is from animals fed on grain-based feeds and so lacks the omega-3 component. You can also supplement omega-3 by eating fish oil capsules.

The other part of bringing the ratio back into balance is by eating less foods that have large omega-6 components. This doesn’t mean cutting them out all together, as many foods that contain omega-6 fatty acids are very good for you and omega-6 fatty themselves are also needed by the body.

Look at the chart below and try to cut down on the vegetable oils which have a high omega-6 ratio as opposed to other fatty acids.

Remember also to cut down on processed foods, as they are also high in omega-6 fatty acids, and are generally considered less healthy.

Eating more foods with omega-3 fatty acids also has other benefits. For example, they have a positive effect on the eyes and vision. They can also help you in your quest to gain weight and get big. If your body knows how to partition nutrients well, then you can gain a lot of weight and size based on lean muscle, without adding too much fat.

Insulin plays a large role in this. When you have too many omega-6 fatty acids you can have a chronic inflamed state, which is bad for insulin sensitivity.

So you need to bring the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio more into balance in order to increase insulin sensitivity and to get your nutrients to be partitioned better, leading to lean muscle gains without too much extra fat being stored.

Now that I’ve explained to you the potential dangers of a high omega-6 to omega-3 imbalance and the benefits that omega-3 can have for your body, I hope that you examine your diet and try to bring the ratio to a reasonable level.

Your body needs both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, as they both play an important role. However the amount of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids that you take in needs to be in balance. That way, you can get the positive benefits of both and be much more healthy than ever before.

 

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