Hi guys, welcome to the Scott Gooding Project podcast with Body Science. If you've been listening and tuning into my previous podcasts, you've been hearing about my journey and how I sort of sculpted, massaged, and chiselled my approach to nutrition and my approach to health.
In the last episode, I talked about real food, the importance of real food, the importance of cooking in our kitchen - I think that's the lever to health. Nutrition is the lever to health, not necessarily fitness which is kind of the mandate that we all live by here in Australia.
In this episode, I want to talk about a pretty hot topic at the moment and that's ketosis, I'm sure you've probably come across it either in Instagram or bookshelves, in bookstores… whether it's ketogenesis, keto tonic, whatever it is. I just want to give you some broad brushstrokes as to what it is and what are the benefits. So first of all, it's important to sort of touch base on the fact that it's nothing new. We have been able to be in ketosis for periods throughout our evolution. Our ancestors arguably would have been in ketosis much of the year probably dipping in and out based on seasonal food and seasonal carbohydrates. But essentially, it's an innate physiological process or state of metabolism where we're burning fat, either stored fat or dietary fat, as a primary fuel source. So, you can imagine for our ancestors that was probably a state of play most of the time when there was food scarcity or a shortage of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates would have been seasonal, you can imagine that honey would have been seasonal, berries and fruit would have been seasonal - it wouldn't have been even as sweet as it is today - but there would have been seasons and long periods where our ancestors would've been in ketosis. So, I think that's a really important point to make that it is nothing new, it's nothing alarming, we're very capable of being in ketosis for periods. So, I think that's an important part of the message to get across.
So, the mechanics of it - just talking very sort of broad brushstroke here - the mechanics of it… You can get in ketosis by a couple of pathways. I've just sort of touched upon those either through calorie restriction i.e. fasting or starvation or through manipulating your macros to a low carb high-fat diet. Whichever pathway you choose it will initiate this fat burning or fat metabolizing in your liver and your liver will punch out three ketones: acetoacetate, acetone and beta-Hydroxybutyrate. Now those three ketones become readily available for every cell in your body. The ketones aren’t hydrophobic so they can cross your blood-brain barrier and become a medium of fuel for your brain. But being in ketosis will initiate this cascading effect if you like, this life-enhancing cascading effect. So, it will stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis. Mitochondria are our cell’s powerhouses if you like so the more you have of those the better our health. And so it initiates, it kickstarts this sort of biological physiological life-enhancing processes. There is mitochondrial biogenesis, there is neural biogenesis, there's a notion of BDNF which stands for brain-derived neurotrophic factors; it will turn BDNF (I suggest you Google it) on. If you don't Google it, take it from me it's like your brain's fertilizer. So, it will improve the function and capability of existing neurons, it will grow new neurons in your brain's memory centre. So, this notion that we were playing with the cards we've been dealt is sort of an old paradigm. We can turn on genes or off genes according to our diet and lifestyle.
So, through ketosis - and there are several supplements you could use, or exercise is another way we can turn on BDNF - improves the function and quality of our neurons as well as growing new neurons. So, there’s this notion that beyond maturation, where this declining human state is sort of being unpacked a little bit, and we're realizing that we can control what genes are expressed and not. Being in ketosis is neuroprotective, so the myelin sheath that coats a neuron which helps to protect against dementia and Alzheimer’s. So, the benefits of being in ketosis are that it's a very low inflammatory state, so it will inhibit inflammasomes, so I think I touched on this in the first couple of episodes of my podcast.
When you remove all the labels and the tags of diet, it comes down to inflammation and if you can control as best you can inflammation then you're setting yourself up for success and you're setting yourself up for the opportunity to amplify and enhance your health. So, by dipping into ketosis you will go down this pathway where you'll be having a low inflammatory environment in your body. Depending how much protein you're having, depending on how intense your workouts have been, you'll have this opportunity to cleanse this idea around autophagy where your cells get rid of dead cell components and toxins. And so, if you're smart about it you can use diet fats and manipulate your macros to suit a high-fat low carb diet to amplify and enhance your health, and that to me is super exciting.
But this is all over and above this foundation of real food and cooking at home. That must be the foundation. Let's imagine that you're building this beautiful pyramid and around the bottom has to be the foundation - no building or structure will survive the test of time without a thorough foundation, and that needs to be comprised of real food most of which is made at home. As you come up the pyramid you can adjust your macros or go into a fasting state and enjoy the benefits and reap the benefits of being in ketosis. Now that to me is super exciting and alluring and enticing, I can't wrap my head around why you wouldn't want to dip your toe in now and again. And this is the thing about ketosis, that it's not imperative or perhaps impractical to be in ketosis the whole time. But periods throughout the year, dip your toe in, maybe come off intense training for a time, watch how much protein you're having because both of those variables will pull you away from autophagy and that cell cleansing process.
So, imagine that there is sort of two different pathways, 2 energetic pathways and there is like a lever, so one is on, one's off and vice versa. So, through a high-fat diet, through adjusting your intense workouts and just monitoring how much protein you have, you have this opportunity to be in this life-enhancing state. And I'm not just talking about the physical or the cellular I'm talking about cognitive function. Being in a fasting state or ketosis you will feel an elevated mood, you will feel an improved cognitive function, you'll be more alert, more focused, you'll be able to concentrate for longer. It sounds like it's cheap segue but when I was writing my latest book, which I talk about ketosis, I found that I was getting to the library and I would have a window in which I was productive. Beyond that window, my productivity would sort of drop off the edge of a cliff, and to me, that wasn't quite enough. I would train in the morning, get to the library, set myself up and I would only have several hours maybe 4 hours before I would drop off the cliff. And once I dropped off the cliff, I would plummet and I wouldn't have any concentration or focus that would sort of result in you know a decent word count. So, I was like well let's use myself as a case study and let's see if I can blow out this window of focus and concentration and attention and alertness, and through smart supplementation (and Body Science played a big part of this), through caffeine, through being fasted on the days that I was working, I was able to blow out that productive window. Even if I was getting another hour, that's 5 hours a week. When you're writing a book for instance or you're working on a project, that 5 hours of extra productive work can be invaluable. So, not only are you in a better mood, you're feeling elated, you're feeling happy, you're more productive at work and you're treating your cells and your physiology in the best possible way and that to me is super alluring. But it has to start from that foundation, it has to start from real food, cooking in the kitchen, then you can start to manipulate your macros, have the opportunity to jump into ketosis for a while, let that detoxification happen, let that cleansing happen, the mood, the focus all the rest of it that it all starts this cascading effect.
And so, my mission is to communicate that because we all have the right and the opportunity to be as healthy as we can for as long as we can. I want that for me and I want that for you, I want that for my son and my girlfriend and my mom and my sister, I want that for you and we all have this opportunity. So, embrace that with both hands because I just feel like many of us - particularly in the western world - walk around in this sort of this cloud as a consequence of diet predominately I would say diet. And so, you've got this sort of this cloud that affects your mood, affects your physiology, your health, your energy, your vitality but also your focus and your concentration. But there's some really simple, affordable, accessible mechanisms and vehicles to help you get your head out of the clouds and regain control of your vitality, health, immunity, mood, focus, concentration and that to me is super alluring.
So, guys if you have any questions about building your foundation, or as you come up that pyramid around ketosis and ketones. I'm sure some of you have got questions about ketones but for me, nutritional ketosis is by far the easiest, most affordable way to amplify your health. So, if we have any questions about that or the types of fats to cook with, the types of fat to embrace then hit me up, I'm here for you. I want you to be the best version of yourself and once you're the best version of yourself then you inspire your husband, your wife, your son, your daughter and it becomes this ripple effect and that's pretty fucking sexy to me. All right guys hit me up with any questions, stay tuned, speak to you soon.
