Beef liver and chicken liver are among nature’s most nutrient-packed superfoods. But is pork liver good for you? Let’s take a closer look at pork liver nutrition, benefits, and a pork liver pate recipe.
What is Pork Liver?
Pork liver refers to the liver of a healthy pig, particularly when it’s used as food.
The difference between pork liver and, say, bacon, couldn’t be much greater. Though not consumed as commonly as beef liver, pork liver can be cooked in many of the same ways. Pork liver is probably most commonly enjoyed in the form of paté. Read on for our pork liver pate recipe.
Is Pork Liver Good For You?
Pork liver is far more nutritious than your average piece of bacon or ham. It’s higher in B vitamins, vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K2, and selenium than all other cuts of pork.
Since pork liver is lower in fat than these other cuts, it’s inherently lower in inflammatory PUFAs.
Pork Liver Nutrition
Nutritional analysis shows us that it contains 159 calories, 26 grams of protein, and 4 grams of fat per 100 grams. [3] The fat content is mostly unsaturated.
Nutrition per 100 grams
Nutrient
Amount
Vitamin A
660%
Vitamin B1
20%
Vitamin B2
170%
Vitamin B3
52%
Vitamin B5
94%
Vitamin B6
31%
Vitamin B9
41%
Vitamin B12
774%
Vitamin C
25%
Copper
81%
Iron
99%
Manganese
11%
Phosphorus
20%
Selenium
124%
Zinc
62%
Cholesterol
118%
Compared to other types of liver
Pork liver has slightly less vitamin A than most other types of liver. But that may actually be a good thing. Vitamin A can be difficult for your own liver to dispose of when consumed in excess.
It is also higher in selenium than beef or chicken liver. Selenium is a thyroid-boosting mineral that plays important roles in regulating immunity and facilitating DNA production. [5][6]
Let’s look at some of the top health and nutritional benefits next.
Rich in iron
Just 3.5 ounces of pork liver contains 99% of your RDV for iron. This iron comes in the form called heme iron, meaning it’s ultra-easy for your body to absorb and utilize. [7]
Getting enough iron can go a long way towards promoting fertility and warding off fatigue, poor circulation, or shortness of breath. [8]
Low in Calories
Pork liver is higher in protein, lower in fat, and lower in calories than most types of meat. Why is this important? Because calories still matter for some people — even on a high fat, low carb diet.
You will gain weight no matter what you eat if you’re consuming more calories than your body uses for its energy needs.
Rich in Protein
65% of pork liver’s calories come from protein. This is high-quality whole food protein containing all nine essential amino acids, and it is especially high in lysine. [9]
Loaded with B vitamins
Of all the nutrients in pork liver, its B vitamin content is most impressive. Just 3.5 ounces of pork liver contains 774% of your RDV for vitamin B12.
B12 plays an essential role in red blood cell formation, cell metabolism, nerve function and the production of DNA. It is also responsible for many bodily functions and supporting fetal development, bone health, and mood, while maintaining healthy skin and hair.[10]
Pork Liver Supports Your own Organs
This particular benefit seems to verge on the esoteric, but it’s true nonetheless: eating any particular organ meat can provide health to the very same organ within your body.
Pork liver’s unique combination of selenium, B vitamins, and vitamin A may increase your own liver’s detoxication abilities. Pork liver may benefit other organs including your thymus gland, brain, and heart. [11][12][13]
How to Cook Pork Liver
Pork liver can be cooked much like other organ meats. Follow a few basic principles, and you should be able to turn it into a truly delicious meal:
This recipe is a tad complex — but well worth it, and it all comes out in the flavor!
The ingredients
1 lb ground/minced pork
1 lb of minced pork liver
½ lb of bacon
½ white onion
1 tbsp cognac
1 tbsp sherry
1 cloves garlic
2 spring parsley
½ tsp powdered ginger
Salt and pepper to taste
The instructions
Process pork, bacon, and pork liver in food processor
Add alcohols, garlic, parsley, and spices into food processor
Place layers of bacon and pate mixture into a terrine dish
Layer a terrine dish with bacon and pate mixture
Place pate mixture and its dish into a water bath for several hours
Remove from water bath, then bake (uncovered) at 350 degrees F for 1-2 hours
Remove pate from oven, then place waxed paper over it
Place a weight over the waxed paper to keep the pate’s texture firm
Chill for several hours, then enjoy!
Pork Liver and Onions
This classic dish is simple and tasty.
The ingredients
1 lb pork liver
1 cup whole milk
1 onion (peeled)
½ cup tapioca or coconut flour
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
The instructions
Rinse liver slices under cold water, then place into a large bowl
Pour in enough milk to fully cover the liver slices, then soak for 1-2 hours
Warm olive oil in a large skillet, then add onion rings
Place liver slices into a bowl with salt, pepper, and flour
Remove slices from flour, then place them into the same skillet
Cook liver slices until golden brown, flip, then reduce the heat
Remove from heat once liver is golden brown on both sides
Enjoy your dish while still warm!
How to Source Quality Pork Liver
When it comes to sourcing quality organ meats, local sources are a go-to. See if any farmers in your area provide grass-fed pork products — if they do, they might also have some grass-fed pork liver. Buy in bulk and you should be able to walk away with a great deal.
Pork Liver: The Takeaway
Pork liver’s nutrient profile makes it a great addition to your keto, carnivore, or whole-food diet. Its diverse nutrient content means that pork liver offers numerous health promoting benefits. Here’s a short recap, pork liver is:
rich in iron
low in calories
a complete protein food
loaded with B vitamins
supports your organ/liver health
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Intermittent fasting (IF) is one of the most popular strategies for reclaiming your metabolic health and boosting overall wellness. There are many types of IF, and one of the most straightforward is called OMAD, for One Meal a Day. In this article we’ll explore OMAD benefits and if it’s the right approach for you.
OMAD Lifestyle Benefits
It’s simple
It’s affordable
It boosts productivity
OMAD is simple
The OMAD diet is simple. You eat one meal a day. You can enjoy the meal slowly, and you can eat as much as you want. For the other 20+ hours of the day, you fast.
OMAD’s simplicity means it can free up your day to focus on other things. Just think about how much more efficient you could be if you didn’t have to:
Think about what to have for breakfast each morning
Take a lunch break at work each afternoon
Pack or buy lunch each workday
Shop for, prepare, and clean after multiple meals each day
OMAD promotes mental efficiency, too. Most people find it immensely freeing to not have to think about food.
OMAD essentially provides a condensed form of fasting’s mental benefits. The primary difference is you get to experience these benefits daily, not just monthly or quarterly as you would with a much longer fast.
Many people who try OMAD find that it redefines their entire perspective on food. To put it simply, OMAD is probably the simplest way of eating there is. It allows you to eat to live, instead of living to eat.
OMAD is Affordable
The OMAD diet is surprisingly cheap, even if you pay a premium for grass-fed, pastured foods. There are several reasons for this. Eating just once a day:
Allows you to prepare your meal at home, instead of eating out
Allows you to avoid pricey packaged foods and prepared snacks
Cut out snacking which can add up quickly
Contrast OMAD with the countless small expenses that come with more standard meal frequency, and it’s easy to see why it’s so much cheaper. ‘Normal’ eating typically requires, eating out and buying low-quality and overpriced meal replacements and snacks.
Though this might sound surprising, roughly 80% of the costs of one’s diet come from 20% of its foods in the form of processed, packaged, snack and convenience products.
Cut out these hidden costs and prioritize beef, eggs, and organ meats, and you should be able to save big.
OMAD boosts productivity
Imagine a scenario that’s all too often among white-collar workers: it’s noon at the office (or home office) and you’re fully in the zone. You’re almost done with a big project, but your coworkers (or housemates) are ready to take a lunch break. At the risk of feeling left out you go with them.
You get back to the office around one o-clock and resume your work, but instead of feeling focused, you’re now feeling overly full and groggy. Talk about lost time and efficiency.
OMAD eliminates this all-too-common problem. Instead of necessitating frequent breaks for meals, OMAD provides long, unbroken periods of time where you can focus on creative pursuits, business ideas, and family. Essentially it helps you stay in the flow longer. Just as the fast and feast cycle made space for our hunter-gatherer cavemen ancestors to devote themselves fully to their next hunt, or their next communal ritual art.
Research shows that certain hormonal changes make this fasting-focus connection possible.
During your fasting period, your body produces larger amounts of energizing hormones like adrenaline and norepinephrine. These hormones may boost both mental acuity and overall metabolic function. [1]
Many people choose to practice OMAD cyclically for these very reasons. They might normally eat 3 square meals a day, but then switch to one meal a day if they need to get through a demanding project at work or home.
Proponents of this approach say that occasionally going OMAD helps them process info faster and be more decisive.
Health Benefits
In addition to the lifestyle-related benefits listed above, OMAD can impact your health in several incredibly beneficial ways. It may:
Boost gut health
Induce weight loss
Promote autophagy
Reduce inflammation
Increase hormonal sensitivity
OMAD Boosts Gut Health
Intermittent fasting is one of the best ways to improve gut health by allowing your digestive system time to rest and repair itself.
While we talked about many of OMAD’s health benefits in this article, here’s a gut-related benefit you may not have heard of before: reduced endotoxin levels.
Endotoxin is very rarely talked about, even in the health and wellness/space, but it likely deserves more attention. Also known as LPS (lipopolysaccharides), endotoxin is a large molecule that accompanies gram-negative bacteria. Your gut microbiome synthesizes endotoxin when faced with chronic stress or bacterial infection.
A small amount of endotoxin production may not be harmful — but large amounts of endotoxin can transfer into the bloodstream–especially if you have leaky gut— causing problems related to inflammation and cell damage. [2]
Temporary calorie restrictions — such as those produced by OMAD — may directly reduce endotoxin levels.
One animal study found that reducing calories by ~40% led to lower LPS synthesis and reduced LPS leakage into the bloodstream. These calorie-restricted (CR) animals had more lean mass, less fat mass, and better insulin sensitivity than their non-CR counterparts.
Just as important, this study found that animals with already-high LPS levels didn’t benefit from fasting as much as animals with more normal LPS levels. “It may one day become possible to treat obese people with a drug that simulates caloric restriction,” study authors concluded. In the meantime, OMAD presents a great way to simulate calorie restriction while still consuming a normal amount of total calories. [3]
Other types of ‘bad’ bacteria are eliminated by intermittent fasting, too. One study found a clear correlation between fasting’s pro-microbiome and anti-inflammatory effects. This study concluded that intermittent fasting holistically improves gut health. [4]
If you’re experiencing gut-related problems like IBS, Chron’s disease, or SIBO, the OMAD diet may be beneficial.
OMAD Induces Weight Loss
One study of healthy adults found that eating within a daily four-hour window led to far greater fat loss than a calorie restricting diet featuring three meals a day. [5] Another study showed that intermittent fasting burns through visceral fat even more quickly than low-carb diets. [6]
It appears that OMAD activates the metabolic state called ketosis that switches the body to metabolizing fat into energy molecules called ketones.
The hormonal changes described earlier are also responsible for OMAD’s ability to induce speedy weight loss. In addition to promoting mental clarity, the hormone norepinephrine may prevent your metabolic rate from falling during OMAD’s daily fasts. [7]
OMAD promotes autophagy
Like other types of fasting, OMAD promotes a cellular process called autophagy. Autophagy occurs when damaged cells are broken down, recycled, and used to form new cellular components. Autophagy may also allow your liver to remove stored toxins from the body. It’s thought that fasts of 16 hours or more are needed to initially trigger autophagy.
OMAD’s connection to autophagy may grow even stronger when one temporarily restricts their liquid intake. This practice is known as ‘dry fasting.’
Some studies claim that occasional dry fasts can boost mood, activate the immune system, and speed the transition into ketosis. Dry fasting could also upregulate autophagy even further.
The discovery of Autophagy’s benefits was significant enough to have warranted a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2016. These benefits include the prevention of cancer, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases. In addition, autophagy may slow down the degeneration that normally comes with aging. [9]
OMAD may reduce inflammation
Fasting has been used to reduce pain and inflammation for thousands of years. More recent research has confirmed fasting’s anti-inflammatory benefits, finding that it can reduce inflammatory markers like C-reactive protein. [10]
Lower levels of inflammation, in turn, are associated with: [11]
Reduced neurodegeneration
Improved ‘healthspan’
Improved longevity
These benefits are associated with general fasting techniques. It’s likely that OMAD offers these benefits, but additional research is needed before we fully understand OMAD’s exact effects on inflammation. [12]
OMAD Increases Hormonal Sensitivity
The standard American diet can cause several types of hormonal imbalances. One of the most significant hormone imbalances is known as hyperinsulinemia.
Chronic hyperinsulinemia can lead to more severe health problems including:
Hyperinsulinemia triggers a negative feedback loop, meaning it makes itself worse over time — but OMAD might be able to reverse this vicious cycle.
Medical professionals have been using fasting to reduce hyperinsulinemia for over 100 years. [17] Newer research, meanwhile, shows that intermittent fasting may reverse insulin resistance faster than conventional dieting. [18]
Why Food Quality still Matters on OMAD
Some studies imply that OMAD works for weight loss almost regardless of what you choose to eat for your daily meal. [19]
To get the very best results from this way of eating, however, we’d encourage you to combine OMAD’s meal timing with a nutrient-dense, animal-based diet that eliminates plant toxins and antinutrients. These guidelines can help;
Make sure your carb intake matches your activity levels (most people do best on keto)
It’s also a good idea to diversify your diet on OMAD. You might want to eat fish one day, beef the next, and an omelet the day after that. Some experts believe that building some variability into your OMAD diet may provide even better results. Keeping things diverse is also a great way to make OMAD more sustainable.
OMAD Diet Benefits FAQ
What should I eat on OMAD?
While you can technically eat anything on OMAD, this way of eating works best when coupled with animal-based, keto-friendly foods that will fuel ketosis. People with higher activity levels may want to incorporate higher amounts of carbs.
Is OMAD Good for Weight Loss?
It sure is. Most people find that fat simply burns off on OMAD. Water-weight should melt off, too. OMAD is somewhat unique in the sense that it can allow for weight loss without accompanying food cravings and hunger pangs–especially when eating a diet high in satiating animal fats.
That depends in large part on eating well-formulated nutrient-dense meals. With the right food–lots of animal fat and protein–most people find OMAD easy to follow once their body’s hunger hormones have adapted to the reduced meal frequency.
Is OMAD right for me?
If you have any of the following goals, OMAD could be a great fit for you:
Weight loss/fat loss
Greater productivity
Relief from type-II diabetes
Improved body composition
Enhanced focus and mental clarity
OMAD may not be right for you if you are
Pregnant or nursing
Underweight
Have a history of eating disorders
OMAD Benefits: The Takeaway
OMAD is a particularly simple take on intermittent fasting that offers numerous benefits to lifestyle and health. It can boost productivity, increase focus, balance hormones, improve gut health, reduce weight, and promote cellular regeneration.
If you’re looking for a minimalistic path to optimal health, look no further — just be sure to pay close attention to your body as you learn how OMAD affects you. And don’t forget to eat plenty of fatty, nutrient-dense animal foods during that 4-hour eating window. This carnivore diet food list and keto food list can help steer you in the right direction.
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Some people like power naps, while some of history’s most creative people like Salvadore Dali, Thomas Edison, and Richard Wagner, preferred even briefer moments of shut-eye called the micro-nap.
While a power nap can last up to 30 minutes, a micro nap lasts for less than five. Micro naps aren’t nearly long enough to help you catch up on sleep. They’re more of a bio-hack to increase memory and transform mood. Let’s explore.
What is Micro Napping?
According to many sleep experts, any and every nap one takes should be ‘micro’ — or at least shorter than normal.
“An effective nap should not exceed about 20-30 minutes, explains sleep specialist Siavash Panah, MD. “If you’re still groggy after that, you’re not resting well enough during the night.” [1]
Micro naps, however, take this concept to the extreme. They last no more than five minutes, with most practitioners preferring to take even shorter micro naps. Some of history’s luminaries were fans of taking naps lasting less than one second (more on that later).
Micro naps are most useful when it comes to changing your mood. The brief moments of sleep they provide can push your mental reset button and significantly improve “memory performance” once the nap is done. In other words, micro napping today could help you remember things better tomorrow. [2]
How Does Micro Napping Work?
Micronapping is thought to tap into a consciousness ‘gray area’ between the waking and sleeping states. This middle state is called hypnagogia.
According to Professor Andreas Mavromatis, “the ‘newer’ (evolutionarily speaking), rational parts of the brain are inhibited [during hypnagogia], while the ‘older,’ more primitive parts (which think in imagery and symbolism rather than words and well-defined concepts), have freer rein.” [3]
Chances are you’ve already experienced hypnagogia at one point or another. It feels almost like you’re floating over the edge of consciousness; you can sense where your mind is going, but you also realize you’re not in charge of it.
In the hypnagogic state, you may see vivid visuals, hear hallucinatory noises, or feel physical sensations. It’s almost like you’re dreaming when you’re still awake.
Other activities above and beyond micro naps can induce hypnagogia, too. These activities include meditation and psychedelic therapy. All can contribute to the experience of creative reverie known as flow state.
For most of us, hypnagogia isn’t an easily-repeatable experience. It remains elusive, more of an art than a science — unless, of course, you micro nap.
Micro Napping’s top benefits
Alertness
Cognitive flexibility
Enhanced creativity
Alertness
Most people feel much more alert after a micro nap. Interestingly, this newfound alertness can’t be explained by the length of the nap.
Rather, it’s caused by the fact that your brain waves momentarily shifted into other states. [4] You can take micro napping’s energizing effects further by having a cup of coffee or tea just before your nap (more on why this works soon).
Cognitive flexibility
Micro napping is known by its practitioners to make your waking mind more flexible, dynamic, and insightful.
As a way to predictably access the hypnagogic state, micro napping tends to leave you feeling closer to your dreams than you were previously. Many people become tuned into how dream imagery represents aspects of their life they’re not always conscious of.
It can also create a sense of continuity between waking and sleeping states, making all of life more meaningful.
Enhanced creativity
Micro napping’s ability to enhance creativity is best seen in the real-world experiences of many top thinkers and creators.
Poets like William Blake and John Keats described their hypnagogic visions in their poems. Chemist Friedrich August Kekulé credited his elucidation of the benzene molecule to a daydream. [5]
Micro naps fueled incredible innovations in math, science, literature, and the arts. The practice of micro napping was especially popular during the mid-1800s when the Romantic era was in full swing and intuition was highly prized.
Difference Between Micro Naps and Micro Sleep
It’s important to note the big difference between micro naps and micro sleep.
Micro napping refers to an intentional journey in and out of waking consciousness, while micro sleep refers to falling asleep unintentionally.
In the wrong situations micro sleep can be dangerous: say if you’re driving home late at night, or caretaking a child when you’re sleepy. The key to taking safe, effective micro naps is their intentionality.
Salvador Dali’s Tips for How to Micro Nap
Instead of providing a set-in-stone guide, we will follow the lead of one of the greats of micro napping, iconoclastic artist Salvador Dali.
Dali practiced micro napping via a technique he called “slumber with a key.” This ultra-short afternoon slumber was designed to last less than one second!
That might sound impossible — but not with Dali’s method. Dali would set himself up for micro napping success by sitting in a chair with sturdy armrests. He’d dangle his hands over the edges of the armrests, with his left hand holding a key. On the floor below him, he’d place an upside-down pan. The moment Dali fell asleep, the key would slip from his grasp, and ping off the pan, waking him up.
According to Dali, “slumber with a key” was essential to his artistic abilities. Dali explained that in his singular moment of sleep he walked “in equilibrium on the taut and invisible wire that separates sleep from waking.” He also claimed that many other famous artists used it.
In his later years Dali recommended a similar practice to anyone who wanted to have their “physical and physic being” completely energized, or “revivified.” If you’d like to try out the practice yourself, here are some helpful tips:
Have some coffee
Having a cup of coffee prior to your micro nap could help you wake up easier and get back into the groove faster. And since caffeine takes roughly 20 minutes to kick in, this practice won’t affect the quality of your nap.
Optimize your Environment
Optimizing your sleeping environment is likely the single best way to have a successful micro nap. Dim the lights, ditch the cell phone, and ask any housemates to keep the noise down for a while.
Have some writing materials handy
You never know when inspiration might strike — and that means it’s a good idea to keep a notebook handy in case the hypnagogic state reveals important and creative insights.
Place a hard dish/pan directly beneath your hand
Place a dish or pan directly beneath where your hand will be while sleeping. Aluminum pie plates work especially well.
Select a hard object to hold
Dali used a key, Thomas Edison used a ball bearing, but you can use whatever you’d like. Try to hold the object loosely between your fingers. You’ll fall asleep easier that way.
Relax
Next up is the simple part: simply relax! Micro-napping just after eating a big meal rich in nourishing meat can help. Close your eyes and imagine your awareness expanding into the sky. As you start to transition, your mind may come alive with visions and colors.
Feel free to document any new ideas or insights that come next, even if they seem trivial at first.
Micro Naps: The Takeaway
Micro naps present a fully natural, time-tested way to boost your creativity and intuition. Their benefits are numerous — and they take only a few minutes, including setup!
Try taking a micro nap the next time you have a quiet afternoon. You may be surprised by the creativity and mood-enhancing benefits, while creating an intriguing continuity between waking life and the images of your dreams.
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The human body, and its most energy-hungry organ, the brain, evolved on a diet of mostly meat for nearly two million years. So it’s no wonder that meat provides an abundance of essential vitamins and nutrients. Though plants also offer various nutrients, meat provides these nutrients in the forms that our bodies absorb and utilize the best–a concept called bioavailability. Among these bioavailable compounds, there are nutrients only found in meat.
The evolutionary importance of meat explains why vegans and vegetarians are susceptible to numerous nutrient deficiencies and often have to use supplements.
In this article, we’ll explore the top ten nutrients that can only be found in appreciable quantities, in meat.
What Nutrients Are in Meat?
Because of an anti-meat trend in mainstream dietary guidelines, meat is often overlooked when people think of nourishing, nutrient-dense foods. Yet the reality is that meat is the most nutrient-dense food on earth.
The chart below illustrates how a small selection of animal products offers an array of nutrients.
Below are ten of the top nutrients found only, or in appreciable quantities, in meat:
D3
B12
Vitamin A (Retinol)
Creatine
Carnitine
Carnosine
Heme iron
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA)
Taurine
D3
Vitamin D3 is both a vitamin and a hormone. In addition to being consumed via foods, your skin can make vitamin D when you get enough sun. This means vitamin D becomes especially important if you live in far northern and southern latitudes, and in areas with cold, cloudy winters.
Dietary vitamin D comes in two different forms: there’s ergocalciferol (D2), from plant foods, and cholecalciferol (D3), from animal foods.
Study’s show that cholecalciferol (D3) from animal foods is much more absorbable than its plant-based counterpart. [1] Nature’s top D3 sources include fatty fish, beef organs, and egg yolks. [2]
Vitamin B12, or cobalamin, is a B vitamin that’s found primarily in animal foods like meat, fish, cheese, and eggs. [6] This makes B12 hard to obtain for vegans or vegetarians who limit their meat intake. [7] The symptoms of B12 deficiency include:
Meat is a proven source of B12 and other B vitamins. Beef liver is nature’s very best source, containing 2,471 percent of your RDA per 100 grams. While chicken liver offers 220% per 100 grams and is more palatable to most people. You can find a full beef liver vs. chicken liver comparison here.
While animal products are the best source of vitamin B12 by far, a select few plant foods also contain some quantities:
Vitamin A in the form of retinol is a fat-soluble vitamin found exclusively in meat and animal products. It is essential for maintaining vision, physical development, immune function, and reproduction.
You may have heard that some plants like carrots are high in vitamin A. However, the vitamin A in carrots is in the form of a caretinoid–a precursor to vitamin A that the body has to convert into vitamin A. Like the zinc and Iron found in Animal foods, vitamin A retinal is far more bioavailable than it’s plant food counterpart.
Studies have found that retinol absorption efficiency was around 30% in 1 hour, but less than 5% for vitamin A carotenoids.
If you don’t get vitamin A from your diet you will be deficient, resulting in hair loss, skin issues, dry eyes, susceptibility to infections, and blindness at night.
As a is fat-soluble vitamin, retinal is absorbed into the blood stream and used by the body when consumed alongside animal fat.
Considering that human physiology evolved on a diet of mostly fatty meat for nearly 2 million years, it’s no surprise that most meats that are high in vitamin A are also high in fat. This is not the case for plant foods high in caretenoids, which is yet another piece of evidence supporting the view that humans are made to thrive on meat.
The highest retinol foods include:
1. Beef Liver — 713% DV per serving
1 slice: 6,421 mcg (713% DV) 100 grams: 9,442 mcg (1,049% DV)
2. Lamb Liver — 236% DV per serving
1 ounce: 2,122 mcg (236% DV) 100 grams: 7,491 mcg (832% DV)
3. Liver Sausage — 166% DV per serving
1 slice: 1,495 mcg (166% DV) 100 grams: 8,384 mcg (923% DV)
4. Cod Liver Oil — 150% DV per serving
1 teaspoon: 1,350 mcg (150% DV) 100 grams: 30,000 mcg (3,333% DV)
5. King Mackerel — 43% DV per serving
Half a fillet: 388 mcg (43% DV) 100 grams: 252 mcg (28% DV)
Creatine
Creatine is a molecule that provides easy-to-access energy to your muscles and brain cells.
Creatine may enhance muscle size, strength, and growth, which has made it one of the most popular bodybuilding supplements over the past several decades. [14]
Small amounts of creatine can be produced by your liver, but it takes much larger amounts of this substance to saturate muscle tissue. [15]
Thankfully you can find these larger amounts in red meat. Some carnivore diet proponents argue that eating several pounds of meat per day is just as effective as supplementing with creatine. Indeed, studies have shown that creatine supplements may not be of use to meat-eaters — implying that these groups already have plenty of creatine. [16]
Eating a vegetarian diet, on the other hand, is shown to reduce one’s creatine levels. Vegetarians who partake in creatine-depleting workouts may have even more trouble maintaining their creatine stores. [17]
Carnitine
L-carnitine is an amino acid found primarily in animal foods. While it’s not technically considered an “essential” amino acid, L-carnitine is nonetheless important. It may turn on ‘fat-burning mode’ enough to slow the decline of Alzheimer’s and increase muscular endurance. [18]
There isn’t yet an established RDA/RDV for L-carnitine, but many groups recommend that dosage in the 2-4 grams/day range is most beneficial. High enough doses may have a cardioprotective effect. [19]
Beef and pork contain the highest amounts of L-carnitine. 3 ounces of beef contains ~80 milligrams, 3 ounces of pork contains ~22 milligrams, and 3 ounces of fish contains ~5 milligrams. f
Carnosine
Carnosine is an important antioxidant that’s found in the muscles and brain. [20] Like creatine, carnosine is directly tied to improved muscular strength and endurance. [21
While carnosine is considered non-essential, these benefits shouldn’t be ignored.
Meat eaters get their carnosine via two pathways: directly from meat and eggs, and indirectly via beta-alanine (which is also found in meat and eggs). Unsurprisingly, vegetarians have lower carnosine levels than carnivores and omnivores do. [22]
Heme Iron
There are two types of iron: non-heme iron from plants, and heme iron from red meat.
If you’ve noticed a trend yet, you can probably deduce that heme iron is better absorbed.
[23] Meat eaters generally have replete iron levels.
Non-heme iron, on the other hand, is poorly absorbed, and its bioavailability is often limited even further by the plant antinutrients that accompany it. These factors make anemia more common in vegans and vegetarians. [24]
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
DHA is an omega-3 fatty acid that protects the brain from inflammation and oxidative stress. [26] DHA deficiency can cause severe mental health challenges, especially in children, as they have such quick-growing brains. [27]
The best sources of DHA include fish, grass-fed beef, pastured eggs, algae, flax seeds, and chia seeds. The healthier an animal was fed and/or raised, the more omega-3’s it tends to have.
Eicosapentaenoic Acid (EPA)
EPA is another important omega-3 fatty acid found mostly in cold water seafood like salmon, herring, shrimp, eel, and sturgeon.
Some EPA is also found in some grass-fed animal foods, including meats and full-fat dairy.
In the body, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) tare used to produce signaling molecules called eicosanoids. These molecules play various important roles, including reducing inflammation at the root of numerous modern diseases.
Sudies on the effects of fish oil high in both EPA and DHA show reductions in symptoms of depression. A study from 2009 found that EPA was showed superior anti-depressive effects compared with DHA.
For menopausal women, EPA has been shown to reduce hot flashes.
Taurine
Taurine is a sulfur-based compound found throughout the body and its vital organs. The full role of taurine isn’t yet known, but it seems to play major roles in antioxidant production, bile salt production, and muscular function. [28] Its also factors into :
Eye health
Central nervous system function
Immune regulation
Antioxidant effects
Maintaining hydration and balanced electrolytes
Taurine is only found in animal foods like beef, fish, and dairy. Dietary taurine likely contributes to your body’s baseline taurine levels. As you might expect, that means vegans have lower levels of taurine than omnivores do. [29]
Other Nutrients in Meat
In addition to the hard-to-find nutrients above, meat is also rich in several other vitamins and minerals. Here are some of the highlights.
Vitamins in meat
Niacin
Riboflavin
Vitamin A
Vitamin B5
Vitamin B6
Niacin
Niacin works with other B vitamins to promote intracellular energy production.
In addition to obtaining niacin from diet, your body can synthesize it from dietary tryptophan. The best meats, eggs, cheese, and seafood all contain an abundance of niacin and tryptophan — allowing them to boost your body’s levels via both pathways.
Riboflavin
Riboflavin is another pro-metabolic B vitamin. Its top roles include releasing energy from the foods you eat, maintaining good vision, and promoting iron uptake.
The best sources of riboflavin are mostly animal foods: meat, milk, cheese, yogurt, are all right up there in terms of riboflavin content.
Vitamin A
Vitamin A is one of the most important nutrients for eye and skin health. [30] Vitamin A may also prevent degenerative eye problems such as:
Night blindness
Vision loss
Dry eyes
Ulcers
Animal foods, and especially beef liver are nature’s best source of preformed vitamin A. The vitamin A carotenoids in carrots and sweet potatoes are ‘precursors’ that your body must convert into usable vitamin A, making them low bioavailability.
Minerals in Meat
Zinc
Selenium
Phosphorus
Magnesium
Potassium
Zinc
Red meat is among the very best sources of dietary zinc. In addition to having greater amounts of zinc than virtually any plant food, the zinc in red meat is 4 times better absorbed. [31]
Zinc is yet another nutrient that vegans and vegetarians tend to be running low on — it’s hard to hit your zinc RDA solely from plants and grains.
Staying replete in zinc (and copper, which it works closely with) allows your body to carry out several vital functions. In children, zinc promotes motor neuron and cognitive development; in adults, it promotes insulin sensitivity and glycemic control. And it’s crucial to proper immune function for all ages. [32]
Selenium
Selenium is a pro-thyroid nutrient that has indirect effects on several physiological functions. It’s also especially good for your heart. Most cuts of beef contain 20-30 micrograms of selenium per 3 ounces.
Pork is an even better source of selenium: a cup of roast pork contains 122% of your RDV.
Obtaining your selenium from animal sources is likely more important than ever before since our soils are becoming depleted of it. Selenium is so important to immune health that areas with especially low-selenium soil often have higher COVID infection rates. [33]
In the chart of nutrients found in fruits and vegetables below you can see just how depleted our soils have become over decades of intensive agricultural use. Meat, on the other hand, is not as susceptible to soil depletion.
Nutrients Only Found in Meat: The Takeaway
Humans evolved while consuming a carnivorous diet centered on meat. Meat contains a robust combination of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients, some of which are impossible to get from other food groups, while other non-meat nutrients are poorly absorbed by the body.
Red meat, and organ meats in particular, is an exceptional source of:
D3
B12
Taurine
Creatine
Carnitine
Carnosine
Heme iron
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA)
No other food group comes close to providing so many nutrients in their most bioavailable forms.
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_240816433-scaled.jpeg17072560Liam McAuliffehttps://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo-Dr-kiltz.pngLiam McAuliffe2021-11-26 23:32:382023-05-20 17:23:2410 Powerful Nutrients Found Only in Meat
Chicken hearts may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of fine dining or dining at all. But when considering their nutrition benefits, they probably should be. Chicken hearts are good for you, and it’s been known in many parts of the world where Chicken heart is a staple. Now it’s finally making a resurgence in the West as part of the nose-to-tail eating movement. [1]
Let’s take a closer look at what makes chicken heart so exceptionally nutritious. We also provide a couple of chicken heart recipes that are as easy as they are delicious.
What is Chicken Heart?
As you might expect, chicken heart is simply the prepared heart of a chicken. Chicken heart is usually enjoyed well-cooked and heavily spiced, though its flavor is pretty inoffensive compared to beef heart or other more pungent organ meats.
Chicken Heart Nutrition
This meat is rich in copper, zinc, protein, iron, and B vitamins. A 3.5-ounce serving contains all of the following: [2]
NUTRIENT
100g (3.5 oz.)
Calories
183 cal
Fat
8g
Carbohydrates
0.1g
Protein
26g
VITAMINS
B1 (Thiamin)
8.5%
B2 (Riboflavin)
57%
Choline
25%
B5 (Pantothenic acid)
53%
B3 (Niacin)
18%
B6
19%
B9 (Folate)
20%
B12
304%
MINERALS
Magnesium
11%
Potassium
19%
Iron
50%
Copper
56%
Phosphorus
16%
Selenium
15%
Zinc
66%
Of all the nutrients contained in chicken heart, this organ meat shines the brightest when it comes to B vitamins.
Chicken heart pack in an incredible amount of vitamin B12 per serving: 304% per 3.5 ounces. B12 is an essential micronutrient that promotes energy generation, DBN creation, nervous system function while playing a key role in DNA synthesis, red blood cell formation, and nerve health. [3] It is also unusually high in zinc, an earth mineral that plays important roles in wound healing, immune response, and insulin sensitivity. [4]
Chicken Heart Health Benefits
Are chicken hearts good for you? Based on their nutrient profile they sure are! Below are some of chicken heart’s best nutrient-driven benefits.
Muscle Growth
Well over half of the calories in chicken heart come from protein. This protein makes chicken heart great for maintaining muscle mass. But protein does much more than structure muscles — it gives structure to virtually all parts of your body. [5]
Studies show that eating adequate protein sets the hormonal stage for a healthier metabolism, improved body composition, and stronger immune response. Protein may also help you feel full between meals, aiding in weight loss and greater muscle definition. [6][7]
Better Oxygenation
Chicken heart is an incredibly rich source of highly-bioavailable heme iron. This iron, in turn, facilitates a number of important physiological processes: [8]
DNA synthesis
Oxygen transport
Maintaining fertility
Red blood cell (RBC) production
At the heart of these various processes is something called oxygenation. In short, it’s a complex interplay between iron, hemoglobin, oxygen, and carbon dioxide that makes it possible for you to breathe. [9] Considering that not many things are more important than breathing, iron-rich foods like chicken heart and red meat shouldn’t be neglected.
Improved Mood
Chicken heart contains many of the compounds your brain needs to stay firing on all cylinders. Its fatty acids serve as the precursors (cellular building blocks) for feel-good neurotransmitters like anandamide, while its electrolytes play a vital role in reducing stress and regulating your mood. [10][11] These concepts are backed by reams of anecdotal evidence: many people feel bright and uplifted after a meal of chicken heart.
Enhanced Endurance
Chicken heart’s B12 content plays double duty as a prime dietary addition for athletes and other individuals seeking to perpetually increase energy and endurance.
Some studies show that vitamin B12 may directly reduce fatigue — and others show that it may directly enhance endurance. [13][14] Its role in cellular energy generation means it can address the normal rate-limiting factors that hinder endurance.
B12 also plays a role in melatonin production, which means that it may help you sleep better and stay energized throughout the day.
Fights food waste
This last benefit is more of an ethical one. By swapping out some of your ‘normal’ food choices for chicken heart, you’re helping ensure that less food is wasted.
Sourcing Quality Chicken Heart
Sourcing matters when it comes to chicken heart. In general, the fresher the better. See if you can find chicken heart at your local farmer’s market before buying it at the grocery store. You might also shop around at ethnic grocers, as chicken heart is especially popular in Latin and Brazilian cuisine.
Other places to find chicken heart include:
Butcher shops
Specialty stores
Southern restaurants
Chicken Heart Recipes
Chicken hearts are surprisingly easy to cook. Because they’re so small, chicken hearts cook through in mere minutes. They might just become your new go-to for those time-crunched weekday dinners. The easiest way to cook chicken heart is by pan-frying it. From there you can season your chicken heart with whatever spices you desire.
Place all ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then mix by hand.
Heat a large frying pan over high heat for roughly 3 minutes.
Add chicken heart mixture to the pan, stirring often, until hearts are browned and cooked all the way through (this should take 4-5 minutes).
Serve immediately, and enjoy!
Brazilian-style chicken heart skewers
Ingredients
2 packages of chicken hearts
1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic
Olive oil
Half a cup of hot water
Instructions
Wash and dry your chicken hearts.
Mix ground garlic, salt, and hot water into a paste.
Add lemon juice and olive oil to make a lemon sauce.
Place chicken hearts in lemon sauce, then let marinate for 30 minutes.
Soak wooden skewers in cold water for 15 minutes, then place hearts on them.
Paint your grill with olive oil, then turn on the heat.
Place skewers on the grill, turning them frequently.
Continue sprinkling lemon sauce onto skewers as they cook.
After 5-6 minutes, remove chicken hearts from the grill and serve immediately.
Chicken Heart: The Takeaway
“I just find it a very flavourful and underrated piece of meat. All life depends on it, it bombs blood to all the body […] but regardless of that, it is a delicious meat and if it is delicious I feel I have to cook it.”
But these views couldn’t be much further from the truth. In reality, chicken heart nutrition makes it one of the most nutrient-packed affordable foods available. It’s also pretty tasty — just as long as it’s prepared right. Consider adding this underrated organ meat to your carnivore diet food list soon. And if chicken heart strikes your fancy, give pork heart a try.
Leg and muscle cramps on keto are a surprisingly common symptom during the first couple of weeks when transitioning to a keto diet. Thankfully, there’s no need for alarm.
In most cases, leg and muscle cramps on keto can be avoided. In this article, we’ll look at the primary causes of muscle cramps on keto, before looking at top tips and tricks to avoid them.
Causes of Leg and Muscle Cramps on Keto
Most cases of leg and muscle cramps on keto are caused by some combination of the factors listed below:
Loss of electrolytes
Loss of water
Imbalanced pH
Let’s take a closer look at each and how to remedy the issue.
Loss of Electrolytes
Your transition into ketosis may be marked by a loss of electrolytes.
The keto diet is thought to deplete electrolytes for two main reasons: One, most keto-friendly foods are low in electrolytes — particularly magnesium and potassium. Two, the low insulin levels keto promotes can cause the electrolytes you do eat to be excreted faster. [3]
Chronically low electrolyte levels are marked by cramps, lightheadedness, and even heart palpitations. [2] These are all basically symptoms of the cellular short-circuiting that occurs when not enough electrolytes are present to retain proper electrical conductivity.
There are six major electrolytes, and in its initial stages keto may deplete many of them: [1]
Sodium
Calcium
Chloride
Potassium
Magnesium
Phosphorus
Loss of Water
Transitioning to keto is synonymous with flushing, or what’s known as the keto whoosh.
This happens when your body uses up all the glucose in your blood and turn to the glycogen stored in your muscle tissue.
Each gram of glycogen stored in your muscles and liver is connected to four grams of extracellular water which can both reduce water weight in your body, but also make you dehydrated [4]
Imbalanced pH
Nearly all types of keto including Mediterranean, carnivore, and pescatarian versions rely on animal foods for the bulk of their calories. While these animal foods are extremely nutritious, they have one potential problem — their pH is acidic. [5]
Eating an all-animal keto diet may raise some people’s chances of developing metabolic acidosis which can lead to muscle cramps.
How to Prevent and Treat Leg and Muscle Cramps on Keto
With a well-formulated keto diet, it’s fairly easy to take the steps needed for preventing muscle and leg cramps. Below are a few proven strategies you can try today.
Of all the electrolytes to include on a keto diet, magnesium might be the most important.
Magnesium is critical for maintaining normal cellular functions.7 In addition, magnesium plays an important role in preventing and/or treating diabetes, osteoporosis, bronchial asthma, preeclampsia, migraine, and cardiovascular diseases. 8
Magnesium-rich foods that will help you reach your 400 mg RDA include:
Pumpkin seeds: 262mg per 100 grams
Pecans: 121 mg per 100 grams
Swiss chard 86 mg per 100 grams
Mackerel: 60 mg per 100 grams
Avocado: 58 mg per avocado
Oysters: 58 mg per 100 grams fried oysters
Prawns: 51 mg per 100 grams
Skipjack tuna: 44 mg per 100 grams
Adequate Hydration
You may find yourself needing to drink more fluids on a keto diet — sometimes much more. Dr. Kiltz often advises people to drink 2-2.5 liters of water/day during their transition into ketosis. [8]
Be sure to keep close tabs on your body, too: telltale signs of dehydration include muscle cramping, headaches, constipation, and dark yellow urine. [8]
Proper Salt Intake
Equally important when hydrating is maintaining proper salt intake. To rebalance electrolytes many keto-aware doctors recommend 12 grams (2 tsp) of salt per day in the first few days of adapting to keto.
Once your body adapts to ketosis, the recommended salt intake is 5 grams (1 tsp) daily to avoid side effects including muscle and leg cramps, fatigue, keto constipation, and keto diarrhea. [13]
Supplemental Electrolytes
If you wish to cover all electrolyte-related bases, a dedicated electrolyte supplement could be a great choice. Look for one that contains balanced amounts of potassium and magnesium. [9]
We recommend Trace Minerals Keto Electrolyte Drops. They offer the most concentrated amounts of essential electrolytes without any fillers or additives.
pH buffers
Keto dieters can run into problems with acidity (low pH). This was first discovered by doctors administering ketogenic diets to children suffering from epilepsy. 10
Eventually, doctors of that era found a solution, a ‘buffering’ liquid they called Polycitra K. This drink raised pH enough to bring down kidney stone occurrence by a factor of nearly. [11]
Supplementation with plain old potassium citrate may cause a similar improvement, as may drinking plenty of water and eating high alkaline keto-friendly vegetables. Even baking soda is known for its ability to temporarily boost pH.[12]
Reduce Alcohol Consumption
Alcohol is a diuretic, meaning it can cause excess urination and make pre-existing dehydration even worse. Stay away from alcohol entirely if you’re experiencing muscle cramps or other aspects of keto flu. [13]
Last but not least, gentle exercise during your transition into ketosis can reduce muscle and leg cramps. The key is striking a balance between a movement practice that increases blood flow, yet not so intense as to result in lactic acid buildup.
Keep intensity levels in check by making sure you can breathe through your mouth throughout the entirety of your workout — if you can, you’re in fat-burning mode. Stretching, walking, and yoga are all great choices. [14]
Leg and Muscle Cramps on Keto: The Takeaway
Though leg and muscle cramps on keto are relatively common, the good news is that with a few easy to follow strategies they can be avoided and remedied.
Salt your food liberally
Drink plenty of water. Shoot for either 2-2.5 liters/day or half of your body weight in ounces, whichever is more.
Consume keto foods high in magnesium and potassium.
Supplement with electrolytes, particularly the powerful muscle relaxant magnesium.
Exercise moderately
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_48578392-scaled.jpeg17002560Liam McAuliffehttps://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo-Dr-kiltz.pngLiam McAuliffe2021-11-21 05:59:552021-12-31 21:37:10Leg and Muscle Cramps on Keto: Tips to Treat and Prevent
If you’re interested in beginning a carnivore diet you might be wary of how much it will cost. Meat has never been cheap, and along with everything else these days, the price is rising. However, it’s more than possible to go carnivore without breaking the bank. In this article, we’ll explore tips and strategies for doing the carnivore diet on a budget, and offer an inspiring breakdown of carnivore diet cost.
[TOC]
Smart Tips For Carnivore Diet on a Budget
Below are six budget-friendly tips that can dramatically reduce the cost of going carnivore.
Organ meats are among nature’s most underrated superfoods. They are the most nutrient-dense, yet some of the cheapest foods available. Making them the perfect carnivore diet on a budget hack.
Many grocery stores and butcher shops sell beef liver and other organs for $1-2 a pound. Even organic, grass-fed beef liver is relatively affordable compared to muscle meat.
If you’ve tried liver, experienced its impressive benefits and are curious about other organ meats, here are a few more budget-friendly options :
Research suggests that eating a given animal organ may nourish that very same organ within your body. In spite of these uniquely powerful benefits, organ meats remain dirt-cheap. [1]
A great place to shop for high-quality fresh grass-fed organ meats is U.S. wellness meats.
Eggs
Eggs may be the cheapest whole-animal food out there. An egg contains every nutrient needed to produce a future chicken. Eggs are rich in several nutrients that beef is lacking, including vitamin K2 and vitamin E.
Just as with beef liver, even high-quality eggs are pretty affordable. [2]
Tallow and Suet for Budget Carnivore Cooking
Lard and tallow are two of the most carnivore-friendly cooking fats. They’re also two of the cheapest. Both fats go for just $1-2 per pound — less if you befriend your local butcher. Making them one of the cheapest foods per calorie.
Lard and beef tallow are also incredibly satiating. Eating these fats can support you in cutting back on other foods, saving you more money.
As an added plus, the stearic saturated fatty acids in tallow are great for your health. Research shows that their intake promotes mitochondrial fission, a process where mitochondria orient themselves towards burning visceral fat for fuel. [3]
Go for Cheaper, Fattier Cuts of Meat
Low-fat misinformation means that many people today seek leaner cuts of meat. The upside to the faulty diet dogma means that fattier cuts of meat are often surprisingly cheap.
Cheap cuts
Moderate cuts
Expensive cuts
Ground beef
Chuck roast
Stew meat
Top Round
Bottom Round
Eye of Round
Skirt Steak
Ribeye
T-Bone
New York Strip
Filet Mignon
Flank Steak
If push really comes to shove, you can save additional money by selecting lower grades of beef.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, lower-grade beef isn’t necessarily less safe or even lower quality. The USDA’s grading system is based on the marbling, tenderness, and flavor of any given cut. Even the chewiest piece of beef can become melt-in-your-mouth tender if it’s cooked right (low and slow is the way to go).
Cheapest option: Select grade
Moderate option: Choice grade
Priciest option: Prime grade
Opt for Bone-in Cuts
Bone-in beef is almost always cheaper than boneless, even when you factor in the weight of the bones you’re not able to eat.
And these marrow bones are nutritiously valuable when it comes to making homemade bone broth.
Eat One or Two Meals a Day
Perhaps the simplest way to do the carnivore diet on a budget is to eat less often.
By incorporating intermittent fasting and eating one or two big, carnivorous meals a day, you’ll be able to stay satiated while saving big. The Omad Diet plan outlines the way to eat once a day, while 16/8 fasting is often the best method for people just starting out.
The high fat and protein content of a carnivore diet is so satiating that many people fall into this type of meal frequency naturally.
Shop Around
It pays to buy in bulk for most items, and carnivore-friendly foods are no exception. Apps like Instacart are great for searching bulk deals, allowing you to compare prices of similar items across different stores.
Below are several more places to find volume deals:
Costco
Local farms
Your local butcher
Many farms and butcher shops allow you to buy anywhere from a quarter-cow to a whole cow at a time, often for a steep discount.
Once acquired you can then piece your cow, store in a chest freezer, and thaw what you need each week. Whole cows can be expensive up-front, sure — but some people have found a workaround by combining their buying power with like-minded family or friends.
Top 8 Budget-Friendly Carnivore Diet Foods
These 8 excellent animal-based foods will keep you on budget while increasing your intake of vital nutrients.
1. Beef Liver
Beef liver can be found at many major grocery stores for less than $3/lb. Local farms are often willing to give you an even better deal.
The nutrients per cost become pretty astounding. For 100 grams, or $.39 cents, you can nourish your body with:
BASED ON 100 GRAMS
Calories
135
Fat
3.6g
Protein
20.4g
VITAMINS
%Daily Value
Vitamin A
Folate
Niacin
Riboflavin
Vitamin B6
Vitamin B12
Vitamin D
MINERALS
Iron
Phosphorus
Zinc
Copper
Manganese
Selenium
Choline
4968μg
290μg
13.2mg
2.8mg
1mg
59.3μg
1.2μg
4.9mg
387mg
4mg
9.8mg
0.3mg
39.7μg
333.3mg
552%73%
66%
163%
84%
2471%
8%
62%
39%
27%
488%
16%
57%
61%
Affordable carnivore diet food
Price
Total Calories
Calories per dollar
Protein Per dollar
Fat per dollar
Fresh Beef Liver (1 lb)
$1.79
863
482
74.5g
13.4g
Desiccated liver supplements are pretty affordable, too and often sourced from grass-fed New Zealand cattle–the healthiest and most nutritious beef on the planet. Another perk of supplements is that they save you time and costs by not cooking.
2. Ground Beef
Many carnivore proponents, including Dr. Shawn Baker, say that a cheap carnivore diet of mostly ground beef and eggs is still far better than conventional eating.
Even ‘average’-quality ground beef contains a variety of heart-healthy compounds, including creatine, carnitine, taurine, and heme iron. [4]
Here are some words of wisdom from 5-year carnivore Reanna Percifield:
“Buy on sale and freeze. Don’t buy dairy. Buy ground beef. Buy less expensive cuts of beef like a roast. Chicken and pork are inexpensive, but I wouldn’t recommend eating it so much that you aren’t eating red meats like beef, lamb, and bison. I feel red meats are the most nutritious.”
Reanna supplements this simple diet with a select few supplements, including electrolyte water, ox bile, and grass-fed organ supplements. She only spends $250 a month on food. [5]
Sardines are fatty fish that’s cheap, convenient, and ultra-nutritious keto/car. They’re one of the few commonly-available foods that contain edible bones, which also makes them a great source of calcium.
Sardines get precisely half of their calories from fat and half from protein. Just be sure to select a sardines brand that doesn’t infuse their products with inflammatory industrial seed oils.
Mackerel is one of the most nutrient-dense fish you can eat, rich in vitamin D, omega 3’s, and highly-bioavailable protein. It’s also one of the most affordable seafoods available.
As we explained earlier, eggs balance out the nutritional profile of ruminant animals almost perfectly. While not necessarily recommended, a diet composed solely of eggs and beef would cover many of one’s nutritional bases.
Affordable carnivore diet food
Price
Calories per dollar
Protein Per dollar
Fat per dollar
Costco Eggs (60 count )
$11.68
224
19.2g
16g
6. Beef Tallow
Tallow is loaded with healthy fats and fat soluble vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K, and vitamin E. Together they play a key roll in growth, immune support, antioxidant protection. [9]
Cream cheese is a tasty, nutrient-dense keto cheese. It’s also among the cheapest cheeses out there.
A budget-friendly 3lb tub of Philadelphia cream cheese provides 432 grams of whole food dairy fat — and 5,280 calories — for less than ten dollars
Affordable carnivore diet food
Price
Calories per dollar
Protein Per dollar
Fat per dollar
Philadelphia Cream Cheese (3lb tub)
$9.94
531
9.7g
43.4g
Carnivore Diet Cost: One week of Carnivore Diet on a Budget
Here’s a sample breakdown of a weekly carnivore diet on a budget shopping list. You can get a nutrition-packed 2700 calories per day for less than $12 a day.
Food
Calorie content
Price
Ground Beef
5738
$37.98
Pork Belly (2lb)
4640
$9.99
Cream cheese
2600
$4.97
Eggs
2598
$11.68
Tallow (½ lb)
1840
$3.12
Beef liver
863
$1.79
Sardines
510
$6.90
Mackerel
478
$2.78
19267 total calories
$79.21 total cost
2,752 calories/day
$11.28/day
Carnivore Diet on a Budget: The Bottomline
Many meats and animal products are expensive, yet with a budget-conscious strategy an affordable carnivore lifestyle is surprisingly easy to achieve. Inexpensive carnivore staples like liver, eggs, ground beef, and tallow are loaded with highly bioavailable nutrients that your body needs to for optimal health. And they all come in at less than $10 a pound.
Carnivore tips and tricks include:
Buying in bulk
Using beef fats for cooking
Opting for fatty, bone-in cuts
Practicing intermittent fasting
Finding the best deals
When following these guidelines it is rather easy to achieve impressive values:
An average of $4 per 1,000 calories
Between $50-100/week for 2500 daily calories.
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_207805312-scaled.jpeg17082560Liam McAuliffehttps://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo-Dr-kiltz.pngLiam McAuliffe2021-11-19 23:40:262023-04-19 23:13:28Carnivore Diet on a Budget: Smart Tips For Saving $
While the standard ketogenic diet offers most people the results they’re looking for, there’s a time and place for more intensive approaches. Speed keto, also known as OMAD keto, is one such approach that’s quickly gaining in popularity.
Speed keto is a new type of ketogenic diet that purports to enhance and speed up the benefits of keto. The diet was created by health coach Harlan Kilstein and calls for eating (feasting!) just one keto-friendly meal per day.
Speed keto focuses on getting your body into the fat-burning mode called ketosis. Once your body enters ketosis, it begins breaking down fat stores and the fat from your food into energy-rich molecules called ketones. Ketones provide most of the cells in your body and brain with optimal fuel. They nourish new cells and starve old and cancerous cells. [1]
Speed keto achieves these goals more quickly by combining high-fat low-carb eating with daily 20-hour fasts.
While it normally takes 2-4 days to enter ketosis, speed keto dieters can enter ketosis after a single fasting period.
OMAD Keto
Speed keto is sometimes also called one meal a day keto, or OMAD keto. You can probably intuit why: it only allows for one meal per day. As you might expect, this will be a very large meal.
Ancient Origins of OMAD/Speed Keto?
While speed keto’s popularity has grown in modern times, the ideas behind it are ancestral.
The ancient Romans were eating just one large meal per day over a thousand years ago. They ate this meal around 4 pm, which would also make them practitioners of circadian rhythm fasting. [2] The Romans believed that OMAD benefitted their digestion, complexion, and sharpness of thought.
For our distant ancestors, when a hunt was successful we feasted–eating as much as we could in a short period of time before the meat spoiled. If it was a failure, we fasted until the next successful hunt/feast.
Over time the people whose brains and bodies worked the best in fasted states also excelled at hunting. And when you’re better at getting you’d you’re ultimately better at surviving and reproducing. What this means for today’s humans is that the genes that shape our metabolism were passed down to us through the generations of people who were really good at fasting and feasting.
There is evidence for these evolved traits in the way we humans:
store fat easily. This fat is our fuel supply between hunts and feasts
enter ketosis quickly: Ketosis is the way our bodies convert fat into fuel. [3]
experience reduced cognitive ability (i.e. we get dumber) when not fasting. Our brains are hard-wired to function best in times of food scarcity when we need to hunt. [4]
Benefits of Speed Keto
To date, there haven’t been clinical studies on speed keto. For this reason, the benefits listed in this section are based on user experiences and extrapolated from studies looking at other forms of IF and keto.
Weight Loss
The most impressive benefit of speed keto appears to be fast, immediate, and noticeable weight loss.
This is likely due to how difficult it is to overdo the calories when you’re only eating one meal a day. 2000 calories is A LOT, to fit in with one meal. This makes speed keto a good option for people who don’t want to count calories and portion food.
Research on both keto and other types of intermittent fasting implies that speed keto may foster weight loss through several different pathways. High-fat meals may suppress appetite while regulating blood sugar while fasting periods allow you to access the upper limits of fat-burning mode. [5][6]
Anti-Inflammatory
Speed keto also appears effective for reducing inflammation. Simply being in ketosis may reduce inflammation, since fewer carbs burned means fewer free radicals produced. While the ketones your body depends on when in a fasted/ketogenic state are less inflammatory than glucose. [7]
Fasting is also generally renowned for its anti-inflammatory effects. Within the fasting community it is believed that when your digestive tract isn’t busy digesting foods, it can shift energy to repairing leaky gut by sealing up internal junctions and preventing inflammatory particles from escaping into the bloodstream.
It is possible that fasting also reduces inflammation on the cellular level. People who fast during the Muslim holiday of Ramadan have been shown to have lower markers of inflammation than people who do not. [8]
Lower levels of inflammation are associated with a variety of other improvements, too, including reduced risks of cardiovascular disease and cancer. [9][10]
To sum up this section, OMAD keto combines two proven inflammation-reducing tactics: reducing carb intake, and reducing meal frequency.
Drawbacks of Speed Keto
Speed keto has some legitimate health benefits — but they only apply if you’re able to follow it. Therein lies the single biggest drawback of speed keto: some people find it very hard to follow. Below are a few of speed keto’s other potential drawbacks.
May Make it Difficult to Build Muscle
Speed keto is likely not the best diet for people who want to gain weight or build muscle. That’s because muscle growth is an energy-intensive process that also requires lots of protein.
Most people need to consume 0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight (128 grams a day for a 160-pound individual) if they wish to gain muscle consistently. That equates to nearly two pounds of ground beef or 18+ eggs.
Eating this much protein in just one meal can be difficult — virtually impossible for some.
Protein isn’t the only nutrient that’s difficult to get enough of in just one meal. It also takes a concerted effort to get adequate vitamins (A, B1, B12, D, E, C, and K, for starters) and minerals (iron, copper, zinc, etc) and electrolytes when eating so infrequently.
Those who practice speed keto need to ensure that their one meal a day contains plenty of saturated fat, protein, and micronutrients — each and every single day.
Here’s a sample meal plan of what to eat on a speed keto diet. For convenience we added organ meats as supplements, allowing you to focus on more palatable meats when cooking.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
1lb Ribeye Steak and 3 eggs in tallow
Asparagus sauteed in ghee with parmesan cheese
1 Kiwi
Desiccated organ meat supplements
8 oz bone broth
4 scrambled eggs with creme fraiche & ½ avocado
6 oz Bison Burger
½ cup blackberries with 4 tablespoons heavy whipping cream
Desiccated organ meat supplements
8 oz bone broth
12 oz. Lamb chops in ghee
3 eggs fried in ghee
½ cup strawberries with 4 tablespoons of heavy cream
Desiccated organ meat supplements
8 oz bone broth
12 oz. Pork belly pan-fried in ghee
and 2 eggs with creme fraiche
nd 1 avocado
Desiccated organ meat supplements
8 oz bone broth
12 oz. Beef short ribs
butter and 2 eggs
and ½ avocado
4 oz asparagus sauteed in ghee with parmesan cheese
Desiccated organ meat supplements
8 oz bone broth
8 oz bison burger with 4 scrambled eggs with tallow and creme fraiche
Side arugula with 2 oz cheese
Desiccated organ meat supplements
8 oz bone broth
12 oz wild salmon baked with creme fraiche
2 eggs scrambled with 2 tablespoons ghee
1 kiwi
Desiccated organ meat supplements
8 oz bone broth
Is Speed Keto Right for You?
Speed keto’s strictness can be either an upside or a downside depending on your health status and relationship to food. It is likely best to choose more flexible eating patterns if you are struggling with anorexia or orthorexia, or have in the past.
Personality also matters when determining whether or not speed keto is right for you. Do you thrive with systems and consider yourself disciplined?
If so, speed keto could be a great fit. Do you enjoy spontaneity? Then you might thrive with a more intuitive eating approach. Also, it may be best to talk with a doctor or nutritionist before you begin a speed keto routine.
Speed Keto/Omad Keto: The Takeaway
Speed keto, or OMAD keto, is one of the more targeted yet challenging forms of keto dieting. For most people, it may deliver the benefits of keto more quickly.
While for others, especially when just starting out on keto, it can prove too extreme to be sustainable. Consider easing into speed keto by combining keto with less restrictive forms of intermittent fasting.
Though ketogenic diets and intermittent fasting have both been shown to offer numerous benefits, more research needs to be done on speed keto specifically in order to determine exactly how it affects health.
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_402599691-scaled.jpeg12802560Liam McAuliffehttps://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo-Dr-kiltz.pngLiam McAuliffe2021-11-18 20:16:222022-01-03 23:00:43Speed Keto: Combining OMAD with Keto
Going from the Standard American Diet to a keto diet creates major changes to digestion. A common side effect is keto diet diarrhea, part of the famous keto “whoosh” effect.
The keto diet presents your digestive system with more fat than it’s used to while changing your gut microbiome. Though fat is a premium fuel, and unhealthy gut flora is dying off, these positive changes can require a digestive adjustment period.
What is the Keto Diet Diarrhea Whoosh?
The keto diarrhea “whoosh,” is a term used for the flushing of fluids from the body that many people experience when they begin the transition into ketosis.
Diarrhea is characterized by unexpectedly loose, runny stools. Normally, diarrhea indicates some sort of problem — say food poisoning or parasitic infection — but not in the case of the keto diarrhea “whoosh.” [1]
This whoosh carries water weight, inflammatory substances, and digestive fluids with it. It’s not uncommon for keto dieters to lose 5-10 pounds in their first week on the diet.
Most of this weight is classic ‘water weight’ from lost glycogen, but some of it is from your small intestine and/or colon. Don’t be too surprised if your body resorts to diarrhea in a quest to shed excess water as quickly as possible.
Reasons for Keto Flu Diarrhea
You might say that diarrhea is part of the classic ‘keto flu’ that so many people undergo in their first week on keto.
Keto flu diarrhea, in fact, is roughly as common as keto diet constipation when it comes to side effects. Keto diet diarrhea usually happens when your digestive tract experiences unusually fast changes, including:
Changing gut bacteria
Increased fat intake
Bile acid malabsorption
Nutrient deficiencies
Excess protein
Excess inflammation
Changing gut bacteria
The keto diet tends to have a cleansing effect on the gut. When you ditch fiber and processed sugar, you’re starving gut bacteria of their primary source of fuel.
This is especially true considering that a Standard American Diet (SAD) tends to overload your intestinal tract with far more fiber and sugar than it was designed to handle, resulting in problems like SIBO and leaky gut. [2]
Cutting out carbs will probably result in ‘die-off’ symptoms as carb-loving bacteria begin to die out and lose ground to fat-loving ones.
When these unhelpful microbes dissipate, they need to be expelled somehow — and they may very well be expelled via unexpected diarrhea. [3]
Increased Fat Intake
The keto diet is, above all, a high-fat diet. These healthy keto fats are among the best fuel sources for your brain, heart, and muscle tissues. But it may take some time for your body to regain its digestive balance..
While most dietary fats may lubricate the digestive tract and provide a mild laxative effect, some ultra-saturated fats (like MCT-rich coconut oil) can speed transit time even further. Diarrhea is a common side effect of ‘overdoing’ MCTs. .
Two things must happen for your digestive tract to make the leap from high-carb to high-fat: both bile production and digestive enzyme activity need to increase.
Lack of Bile
Bile is essentially your gut’s internal emulsifier. It’s released from your gallbladder by a hormone called cholecystokinin (CCK) whenever you eat fat, and once released it goes to work mixing up fats and preparing them for absorption. [4]
The more fat you eat, the more bile your gallbladder needs to produce — and this shift from low production to high production can be a big leap.
If your body is struggling to adjust to higher fat intake, consider supplementing with ox bile. This supplemental bile can assist with fat digestion until your gallbladder has time to adjust.
Certain digestive enzymes also assist with assimilating the fat you eat. Amylase and lipase are two of the primary digestive enzymes that can lag behind after you’ve upped your dietary fat. Supplement with them if you need to. [5]
Bile Malabsorption
Bile acid production is a costly process, both in terms of how long it takes and the materials it requires.
Between 95 and 97% of the bile in one’s body has been produced from old bile, meaning there’s not a whole lot of extra reservoirs of the substance just floating around. [6]
Bile acid is a perfect match for tough-to-break-down lipids. Image from biologydictionary.net
Your body’s bile supplies can be stretched even thinner when old bile isn’t correctly reabsorbed. This old bile can easily cause diarrhea if it lingers in your small intestine instead of being recycled.
Bile problems are most common if you have pre-existing digestive ailments like IBS, IBD, Chron’s disease, celiac disease, or SIBO. [7]
If you’re experiencing bile malabsorption — or want to prevent it in the first place — then you might consider trying the carnivore adjacent diet or the cyclical ketogenic diet. These modified keto diets allow for small amounts of fruits and root veggies. If done right, the carnivore adjacent diet can prevent deeply ketogenic states and reduce your dietary fat requirements.
Even if the above methods fail, don’t panic. Some pharmaceutical drugs are very effective at treating bile acid-related diarrhea:
Cholestyramine (Questran)
Colesevelam (Welchol)
Colestipol (Colestid)
Nutrient Deficiencies
Fat-soluble vitamins are among the most important nutrients for maintaining gut health. Vitamin A and vitamin D are especially important; they directly regulate bile acid production. [8]
Unfortunately, for those who wish to begin a keto diet, vitamin A and D deficiencies are quite common. In one large study, over 80% of participants with IBS, and over 30% of healthy participants were deficient in vitamin D. [9] Your body might have some difficulty upregulating its bile production if you go into keto with these types of underlying deficiencies.
In fact, any type of nutrient deficiency can increase your chances of experiencing keto diet diarrhea. Zinc and butyrate deficiencies are some of the other top culprits, so look into replenishing your body’s levels of these substances if you’re experiencing diarrhea. [10]
Butter is a great keto-friendly source of butyrate.
Excess protein
Keto is a moderate protein diet, but it can serve as a major increase in protein for many people who have been getting most of their calories from carbs.
Eating more protein than your stomach enzymes can break down may result in a buildup of toxic byproducts like ammonia. [11] After a certain point, the digestive tract may have no choice but to expel extra ammonia via diarrhea or unusually loose stools.
Overcoming this type of diarrhea is simple: just cut back on protein intake a little. Most people don’t need more than a gram of protein per pound of body weight to maintain their muscle mass.
Feel free to check the numbers for yourself with apps like Cronometer. If you weigh 160 pounds, you probably don’t need to be eating over 160 grams of protein per day. Meet your calorie requirements with dietary fats like butter or ghee instead. A truly ketogenic diet should obtain 70-80% of its calories from healthy fats, anyway.
Excess Inflammation
Most people experience reduced inflammation when they make the jump to keto. Just like any other rule, however, there are exceptions to this one. Some people may have allergies to keto-friendly foods that can inflame your gut and cause diarrhea. Common culprits include:
The dairy products in most grocery stores may be animal products, but all too frequently, they contain unhealthy additives. Low-quality milk and cheese are often laced with gums, additives, or synthetic nutrients. [12]
If conventional dairy is giving you problems, consider finding a source of raw and/or A2 milk.
Raw dairy products contain enzymes needed for your body to digest them. At the same time, A2 dairy contains a more digestible form of protein than conventional A1 dairy does. Even if you can’t find A2 cow’s milk, you can always select goat or sheep’s milk instead (these animals are always A2).
You might also try eliminating dairy products from your keto diet for a specified amount of time before adding them back in.
Poultry and Pork
Next up on our list of potentially inflammatory keto foods are chickens and pigs. Neither species are ruminant animals, meaning neither are capable of converting the fats they eat into fats that are beneficial to us. Conventionally-raised chicken and pork is usually far too high in omega 6’s and far too low in omega 3’s — and this imbalance is practically a recipe for inflammation. Prioritize grass-fed meats to prevent these inflammatory problems. The lower you can drive inflammation levels, the lower your chances of experiencing keto diet diarrhea become. [13]
Nuts
Nuts are high in fat, but they are also extremely high in fiber and omega-6 fatty acids, and can contain numerous plant toxins and antinutrients. Often people eat lots of nuts when transitioning to keto. The combination of these compounds in high amounts can be inflammatory, allergenic, and trigger diarrhea.
How to Prevent Diarrhea on the Keto Diet
The following tactics can help you avoid keto diet diarrhea entirely.
Staying hydrated
Drinking bone broth
Taking electrolytes
Staying in motion
Staying hydrated
While proper hydration is always important, it becomes crucial when you first go ketogenic. That’s because this shift from carb-burning mode to fat-burning mode causes your body to flush water that’s attached to the glycogen (extra carbs) stored in your muscles.
As excess water leaves your digestive tract it can drastically speed up transit times — resulting in frequent bouts of diarrhea. (On the plus side, the numbers on the scale should go down just as frequently.)
For these reasons, make an effort to stay hydrated with water, salt, and other electrolytes during your first few weeks on keto. Some experts, Dr. Kiltz included, suggest water intake in the 2-2.5 liter/day range. [14]
Just don’t forget that bone broth counts towards this targeted daily intake. So do coffee and tea. [15] You can also approximate your hydration levels based on the color of your urine — it should be a light yellow color, never dark yellow.
Drinking bone Broth
Bone broth is a time-tested beverage that supplies many of the keto diet’s most crucial elements: water, electrolytes, calcium, glycine, and more.
Even the unique blend of amino acids present in bone broth (glycine is the primary amino) may prevent diarrhea. Studies show that glycine can ‘seal up’ otherwise-leaky gut junctions, allowing digested food to pass through your system without causing inflammation or irritation. The verdict from animal studies is even clearer: they show that glycine-rich gelatin can heal the gut’s sensitive microbe lining. [16][17]
Taking electrolytes
Yet another keto-specific change occurs within your kidneys; they excrete much more sodium once you’ve made the transition into ketosis. You may need up to 5 grams of salt per day to maintain adequate electrolyte status during this transitory phase.
Other electrolytes may help prevent dehydration — and accompanying keto diet diarrhea — too. Here are some guidelines: [18]
Sodium: 2-7 grams/day
Potassium: 500-3,500 milligrams/day
Magnesium: 250-500 milligrams/day
Staying in motion
Gentle exercises like yoga play a surprising role in regulating your bowel health and frequency. Taking short, brisk walks after your meals may prevent keto diet diarrhea, too. There’s also a practical plus here: staying in motion could help you access deeper levels of ketosis faster, resulting in a shorter transition period with fewer unwanted symptoms.
keto diet Diarrhea: The Takeaway
keto diet diarrhea is a common side effect when making the transition into ketosis. But unlike other types of diarrhea, it is not a signal that anything is wrong.
Straegies to stay hydrated, bile and enzyme supplements, bone broth, and low-impact movement can prevent and alleviate keto diarrhea. t
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_352598723-scaled.jpeg17082560Liam McAuliffehttps://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo-Dr-kiltz.pngLiam McAuliffe2021-11-15 16:23:552023-08-28 00:54:16Keto Diet Diarrhea — and How to Fix It
What do Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, and Winston Churchill have in common? They all loved taking afternoon naps. Fast forward to modern times, and organizations like NASA, Nike, and Google are turning to power naps to supercharge productivity. Many companies are even investing in nap pods and other sleep-specific products. [1]
But napping has one major downside: it can be impractical. Most people don’t have 60-90 minutes to sleep away each day. That’s where the value of power napping comes in. In this article, we’ll take a comprehensive look at power naps, the best power nap lengths, and their benefits.
What is Power Napping?
A power nap is a short-term sleeping technique that can benefit your energy and wellness.
While normal naps last anywhere from 30-90+ minutes, power naps last for under 30. Most people schedule their power naps in the early afternoon.
Power napping also shines when it comes to its versatility. Napping isn’t just for preschoolers and seniors. A growing body of research shows that power naps may reduce stress and enhance awareness across age groups. [2]
How Long is a Power Nap?
How long is a power nap? A power nap is intended to be short, sweet, and effective. Try to keep your power nap’s duration in the 10-25 minutes range, and pay close attention to how the duration of a power nap affects how you feel when you wake up. [3]
The very best power nap length has long been up for debate. A NASA-funded study done in 1995 determined that 26-minute power naps provided the best of both worlds, improving performance at work (by 34%) and alertness (by 54%). [4]
For best results, power naps should last no longer than 30 minutes. Sleep any longer and you may wake up groggy and ‘out of it.’
Set an alarm before you begin your nap to make sure you don’t over-nap. [5]
In case you’re wondering, there is a reason timing matters so much: sleep occurs in predictable cycles. A healthy sleep cycle begins with non-REM sleep (stage 1) and hits true REM sleep (stage 3) later on.
The key to power napping’s energizing effects is waking up right during the transition into stage 2. This stage features light sleep and relaxed muscles. It’s also fairly easy to wake up out of. [6]
Sleep too long and you might inadvertently enter stage 3 REM sleep. While REM sleep has many of its own health benefits, it’s also a very deep type of sleep that’s hard to wake up from. If you’ve ever woken up from a nap and felt groggier than before you went to sleep, it’s probably because you woke up from stage 3.
20 Minute Power Nap
20-minute power naps may enhance your memory and boost your creativity.
The slow-wave sleep that occurs during 20-minute naps may also improve your executive function — your ability to learn on the fly and make big decisions.
20-minute power naps can also enhance your fine motor skills, making them great for athletes. [7] If you’re hoping to take up yoga or learn blues guitar, don’t discount the helpful role of the 20-minute power nap.
5 Minute Power Nap
One 2008 study found that even “ultra-short” sleep sessions can be “enough to significantly boost memory performance,” particularly when it comes to long-term memory formation.
How short are we talking? Six minutes. It’s likely that five-minute power naps provide access to these benefits, too. [8]
While these benefits are very real, don’t think that a five-minute nap is enough to make up for a poor night’s rest. Opt for a 20-30 minute power nap if you’re feeling sleep-deprived.
Benefits of Power Naps
The functional value of power naps has grown in recent years. That’s because sleeplessness rates have risen higher than ever: today more than 33% of Americans don’t get the 7+ hours of nightly sleep that experts recommend.
If you fall asleep looking at your phone and wake up with the prodding of said phone’s alarm clock, your sleep schedule is probably a long way from what it could be. [9]
We’re also busier than ever before. While generations’ past may have been able to take the phone off the hook and leave the letter unopened, most of us have to be ‘on’ all the time.
Power naps might be capable of solving both of these problems — sleeplessness and busyness — at once. Below are some of their top health benefits.
Enhanced Cognitive Performance
Power naps set the stage for several different types of mental improvements, including memory consolidation, toxin disposal, and cellular recycling. All in all, it’s a recipe for improved cognitive performance.
“There’s a drive for us to seek sleep at some point during the day,” D.O. Camilo A. Ruiz explains. This urge builds up throughout the course of the day, eventually triggering sleep at night. he says. “The idea with napping is that we can reset that trigger and hopefully be able to function at a higher level,” Ruiz adds. [10]
Enhanced Immunity
Some research has found that power napping may boost overall immune function. Being sleep-deprived, on the other hand, can quickly reduce your natural immunity. Aim for 7+ hours of nightly sleep and routine power naps for the greatest benefits. [11]
Weight Loss
People who sleep less are more likely to be overweight or obese. On the other hand, napping is correlated with improved energy levels and better body composition. These correlations are intuitive enough: when you sleep more, you have more energy, and when you have more energy, you move more and burn more fat for fuel. [12]
Improved Memory
According to sleep expert Dr. Robert Stickgold, sleep is a time when your brain works through its memories and determines what’s worth keeping. This process is called memory
Consolidation. “Sleep seems to be a privileged time when the brain goes back through recent memories and decides both what to keep and what not to keep,” Stickgold says. “During a night of sleep, some memories are strengthened.” [13]
Napping’s memory-boosting properties mean that it shouldn’t be neglected — even by those who feel that they don’t have the time for it. Speaking to college students, Dr. Stickgold offers some practical advice: “the sleep you get the night after you study is at least as important as the sleep you get the night before you study. […] You get very minimal benefit from cutting corners.”
Do Power Naps Work?
They sure do! While power naps can’t fully make up for sleep deprivation, they provide many of the same benefits as longer periods of sleep nonetheless.
Relaxation
Better mood
Increased alertness
Reduced chronic fatigue
Improved cognitive and athletic performance
How to Power Nap
How do you take a power nap? It’s simple. Just find a time — normally in the early afternoon — when you feel naturally drowsy. Then set the stage for a successful power nap by dimming the lights, keeping things quiet, and setting your timer.
For further clues as to when your power nap should take place, look no further than the Mediterranean region’s traditions. These cultures have been taking daily siestas for hundreds (maybe thousands) of years. The hour or so after lunch is considered ‘siesta time.’ Be sure to start your own siesta by 3 pm; leaving it too late could negatively impact nighttime sleep.
The setting of your power naps matters, too. Do your best to keep your environment cool, quiet, and as dark as possible. Ditch the computer, TV, phone, and other digital distractions. If you need to have your phone around for alarm-related purposes, be sure to put it into airplane mode. [14]
Power Nap vs. Meditation
Power naps and meditation might appear totally different, but they’re both pretty awesome! And despite how things may look at first glance, these two activities actually possess many similarities. Here’s why.
There are many different types of meditation — and almost all of them are geared towards stilling, quieting, and rebooting the mind. (Sound familiar?)
One of our favorite meditative activities is known as yoga nidra, or yogic sleep. This type of yoga focuses on getting into a blended state of consciousness midway between wakefulness and sleep. In this special state, your thoughts can reach a deeper, more uninhibited level.
The ultimate goal of yoga nidra is to stay aware of how relaxed you are — and use this awareness to access deeper levels of your subconscious mind.
Combine power napping with meditation work or yoga, and good things happen. Below is just a short list of both activities’ shared benefits:
Improved confidence, sociability, and self-esteem [15]
Deeper senses of peace, relaxation, consciousness, and contentment.
Increased dopamine production; reduced anxiety and depression [16]
Increased alpha and theta brain wave activity, resulting in increased creativity [17]
The Bottomline on Power Naps
In light of power napping’s health benefits, it’s no wonder that so many of history’s top inventors, icons, and iconoclasts were fans of the activity. Consider tapping into these benefits yourself — especially if life has gotten you feeling stressed out or worn down. Feeling better may only be a few minutes of sleep away! Just don’t forget to set an alarm.
For some extra help with getting to sleep faster and sleeping more deeply try these bedtime yoga poses.
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AdobeStock_136570256-scaled.jpeg17092560Liam McAuliffehttps://www.doctorkiltz.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/logo-Dr-kiltz.pngLiam McAuliffe2021-11-13 22:03:302021-11-14 15:53:53Power Nap: How to, How Long, Benefits, and Research
