How to Improve Health with Dr. Marc Bubbs

The Functional Medicine Radio Show With Dr. Carri

In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Dr. Marc Bubbs talks about how to improve health through diets like the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting.

Dr. Bubbs is a board-certified naturopathic doctor, author, speaker, sports nutrition lead for the Canadian men’s national basketball team and strength coach. He’s been working with athletes, active people and those striving to improve their health for over a decade and is passionate that diet, exercise and lifestyle are the MOST powerful tools for improving your overall health, body composition and performance. He is the author of “The Paleo Project: The 21st Century Guide to Looking Leaner, Getting Stronger, and Living Longer”.

Main Questions Asked:

• Can you explain how to improve health through the different diets that are popular right now?
• What is the ketogenic diet?
• How do you know if you would perform better on a low carb versus a ketogenic diet?
• What is intermittent fasting and how can it help?
• How do you recommend people get through the struggle of early intermittent fasting?
• Are there any reasons why someone would not want to try intermittent fasting?

Key Points Made by Dr. Bubbs:

• Diabetes and obesity are increasing rapidly in places like America and India.
• The hormone leptin controls how hungry we are. High carb meals produce insulin and can interfere with your body’s sensation of hunger.
• Carbohydrates are the macronutrient that produces the highest insulin response.
• A ketogenic diet is an extremely low carb diet, less than 50 grams each day. Protein and fat make up the majority of the macronutrients in a ketogenic diet.
• Reducing carbohydrate intake forces the body to switch into a mode that burns the calories stored within the body rather than the food you would normally consume.
• With a person who is overweight who is wondering how to improve health, it’s best to keep it simple and just reduce the amount of carbs being consumed overall.
• Start with breakfast, and eat something that is low carb like a yogurt with some grains and seeds. You can work on the other meals of the day as you go.
• The first foods you eat in the morning have a major impact on your day.
• Studies have shown that snacking can actually cause you to gain weight as opposed to three square meals a day.
• For those who want to know how to improve health, it’s important to try different approaches to diet and to observe what works best for you.
• Intermittent fasting (IF) is simply shrinking the number of hours you will eat over the course of the day. An example of this would be to fast for 16 hours and have an eating window of 8 hours.
• IF can improve the amount of energy you have while also help your gut biome.
• IF is also in line with human evolution eating patterns.
• IF can reduce triglycerides, an indicator of your cardiovascular health.
• Coffee naturally suppresses hunger and can make a good option for the morning if you’re trying IF for the first time and are having trouble skipping breakfast.
• Drinking herbal tea at night can help you avoid snacking at night. Water and staying hydrated can help with hunger over the course of the day.
• Intermittent fasting is something that comes after you address other issues like sleep duration, stress, and poor eating.
• Intermittent fasting isn’t necessarily the best option for athletes trying to improve performance.
• All three diets, low carb, ketogenic, and intermittent fasting, are great options to lose weight.
• Moving your body correctly is the most important aspect in living a healthy lifestyle.

Resources Mentioned:

Book – The Paleo Project

Dr. Bubb’s website

Dr. Bubb’s twitter

Book – Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again

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