I Ate Junk Food For 10 Days: Here's What Happened To My Body

Hello Health Champions today I'm going to talk  about what happened when I ate the standard  

American diet for 10 days so first of all I had  to go shopping and this is what I brought home  

on the first run and let me tell you it's been a  long long time since most of these items could be  

found in my house and I must say that I was both  a little excited and quite apprehensive because  

you know how you can look forward to something  like a birthday party or a holiday and you're  

gonna cram yourself full of junk even though  you know that it's not a good idea and a lot  

of people have asked me about when I made the  video about a hundred eggs and when I ate 100  

tablespoons of butter in 10 days they're saying  why would you experiment on your body like that  

but I know enough about food and Physiology that I  know 100 eggs or 100 tablespoons of butter are not  

dangerous however with the standard American diet  I I was not so sure because we know that these are  

things we're not supposed to eat and I really  didn't know what was going to happen but I also  

trust in my body's intelligence and Physiology  that I know if I push it a little out of balance  

for a short time I know that it can adapt and  bounce back and it wasn't very long before I  

started feeling like not so great and it started  the very first day with a little buzzing like a  

strange feeling of unease in the body and shortly  after that I also started getting plaque on my  

teeth that usually I don't have hardly at all and  then I found when I was eating I had the urge to  

keep eating even when I was reasonably full it's  like I still wanted one more thing and very soon  

I started having sweet Cravings now I'm kind of a  genetic Sweet Tooth but I control it by not eating  

sweets but with a very short time I had huge  sweet Cravings I also noticed that I was very very  

hungry in the mornings and normally I just wake  up I'm at ease and sometimes I eat and sometimes  

I wait till later in the day but now it's like  I had to have something and even though I still  

had a sense of physical fullness I was very very  dissatisfied and hungry so it was this strange mix  

between fullness and emptiness it's like I had  to have something still and throughout the days  

there was basically never a moment where I felt  completely satisfied and content and at ease and  

I also noticed some changes with my focus that I  became more lethargic a little bit of brain fog  

and also lack of focus more fatigue and by some  strange coincidence I noticed that all my clothes  

started shrinking just a few days into this diet  so I'm thinking I need to check my washing machine  

in for the temperature settings maybe it's just  washing things a lot warmer than usual I don't  

know but what is the standard American diet well  it's not that easy to figure out so I did a bit of  

research and I looked at some surveys but you know  what happens when you take a survey people lie  

because what they're asking basically is how much  alcohol do you consume how much sugar do you eat  

and people know that this is something they're not  supposed to consume so asking those questions is  

basically the same as asking how bad of a person  are you really another way of figuring it out is  

try to see how much of something is sold how much  soda how much sugar how much butter is sold in  

a country and then dividing by the population  and now you get a good bit closer to the truth  

but you're not accounting for the fact that a  lot of food is thrown away so I'm not claiming  

these numbers are absolute exact but in the end  here's what I I came up with so out of a hundred  

percent total food consumed that for the average  is 3 782 calories and according to the CDC that's  

46 carbohydrate 16 protein and 36 fat and some of  you have already figured out that only makes up 98  

and that's because roughly 2 percent is consumed  as alcohol but here's the thing a lot of people  

don't drink anything at all or extremely rarely  and Men drink a whole lot more than women so since  

I'm a man I wanted to do the numbers for a typical  person like me so alcohol actually becomes seven  

percent this total becomes 93 and now we have to  adjust these numbers down just a little bit so  

these were the numbers I was aiming for and in the  end I consumed 3452 calories 43 percent was carbon  

hydrate 13 was protein 38 was fat so I ended up at  94 total with six percent of calories from alcohol  

so I overall I got really really close to the  average male who consumes the standard American  

diet but it gets a little worse because we have  to account for two more factors 58 of all calories  

consumed are what's called Ultra processed so  these are things that have a long shelf life  

they're usually packaged processed foods made  from white sugar high fructose corn syrup white  

flour and Seed oils with a bunch of chemicals and  preservatives and I did eat enough garbage enough  

muffins and cookies and beer to probably hit that  58 so it's hard to tell exactly but I think I got  

that the other Factor though is that 22 percent  of all calories to fit the standard American diet  

are supposed to be added sugar so that's white  sugar and high fructose corn syrup now I felt  

like I probably ate as much sugar in 10 days as I  have in the last year but I still only hit 11 so I  

fell a little bit short there but overall I think  I was really really close to eating the standard  

American diet but here's a few examples of why  I didn't get all the way up on the sugar if you  

eat a sandwich for example and I made these like  kind of like a pizza in the oven so you start with  

bread and you put butter tomato ham and cheese  on it then you check for these macros that we're  

looking for and you compare them to the standard  American diet now you see that the fat is already  

much higher as soon as you put a little butter and  cheese on it then it's already higher the proteins  

a little higher but pretty close carbs are much  lower so we think of bread as being all carbs  

but if you put something on it now now you're not  getting as much carbs as the average diet and of  

course with these ingredients there's no sugar in  there and even something like a pastry I got some  

cheese danish rolls from Costco and here the fat  is much higher the protein is really low but even  

carbs are lower and sugar are lower even though  we think of a pastry as a sugar bomb we're not  

getting up to the average diet in terms of sugar  and carbohydrates so to get closer to the marks  

for the standard American diet we have to eat  things that are low-fat low protein and basically  

all sugar so something like orange juice very low  in fat and protein 92 percent from carbs and 76  

percent is sugar out of the calories but here's  the thing this still counts as zero added sugar  

and this is one of the huge myths that even though  this is the exact same sugar as in white table  

sugar it's basically sucrose and fructose and  glucose in various combinations just like table  

sugar it doesn't count because it's naturally  occurring in the food and therefore in terms of  

your sugar allowance this doesn't count at all  toward the 22 percent we're adding to really  

start making some Headway toward that 22 percent  we have to get resort to things like Coca-Cola  

zero percent fat zero protein one hundred percent  of calories from carbs but now of course also  

one hundred percent is added sugar which starts  counting toward that 22 percent another thing that  

some people actually think is healthy like low-fat  yogurt would also count and and help you build up  

your sugar numbers so proteins pretty close fats  pretty low carbs 76 percent but also sugar is 37  

the added sugar in low-fat yogurt is 37 percent of  calories so that's why I didn't get up to that 22  

percent because I couldn't drink any soda and  I refused to do low-fat Dairy I did eat a lot  

of cookies and muffins but like I said that mostly  is going to increase your fats and that's not what  

you're looking for to meet these markers and I  want to mention about the guidelines The Official  

Guidelines that have been published a number of  times since the 1980s on how we're supposed to eat  

and they are a good bit better than the standard  American diet because they're not promoting 58  

Ultra processed foods and they limit the sugar  intake to 10 percent which is about what I managed  

with my hyper sugar diet and I used to think  that these guidelines you know I don't approve  

of them at all but I didn't think that they were  responsible I'm thinking you know in terms of this  

obesity epidemic and the type 2 diabetes they're  really really not helping but I didn't go as far  

as to lay the blame on the guidelines but after  trying to eat like this and realizing how much  

sugar what an incredible amount of sugar you can  get from things like juice without exceeding the  

standard sugar intake I'm gonna go as far as to  say that I believe the guidelines are in a very  

large degree responsible for the Obesity and the  type 2 diabetes epidemic that we're seeing and  

it's starting to turn just a little bit around  but for about 50 years we have been promoting  

fat guilt that fat is is the bad guy and that's  the only thing the primary thing that you need to  

cut back on and when you try to avoid the fat and  you're only supposed to be guilty about eating fat  

so anything low fat is promoted as guilt-free now  they're pushing you toward things that have more  

sugar because fat is very satisfying if you can't  have that you've got to get something else that's  

satisfying and to most people that's going to be  things that have more sugar and more processed  

food so I believe the guidelines have played into  the processed food industry and this horrendous  

situation that we're facing now what about my  results on the inside what happened based on  

blood work so we're going to look at a couple of  things here we look at insulin resistance we're  

going to talk about Liver Health we're going  to mention a few other markers and then I'll  

tell you what happened to my weight but first  let me point out that I am genetically very  

insulin sensitive I've been exercising all  my life I've never been overweight never been  

insulin resistant and it takes typically decades  to really totally break down your metabolic Health  

you can do it faster if you totally abuse it but  for the most part it's going to take years or  

decades to break it down so 10 days is not a time  period where you're totally going to wreck your  

metabolic health so I did not expect really to see  much of anything and yet we did find a few things  

so in terms of insulin resistance my glucose went  from 88 to 95 and that's not very significant  

because glucose does change all the time it  fluctuates so it just depends on what time of day  

and and your mood and so forth but even so I have  really never been over 90 on My fasting glucose so  

it does seem to be like a change there my A1C was  5.4 and it went to 5.5 and let me tell you this  

5.4 is already probably the highest that I've seen  because I wasn't exactly a saint over the holidays  

so I'd already gained some weight and I had eaten  some things that I really hadn't reversed yet when  

I started this diet so it wasn't exactly at my  usual Baseline but even so in just 10 days my  

A1C went up by by a tenth my insulin was 4.8 and  I'm usually in the between two and three and yet  

it went to 5.7 the ideal optimal range is two to  five and this is the first time I've ever been out  

above that optimal range of five my triglycerides  are usually between 45 and 60 and when I started  

they were at 45 and at the end they were a hundred  and one and I have never ever seen a number like  

that so these are markers of insulin resistance  because glucose and triglycerides are the primary  

fuels and when the cells start resisting fuel  because we're packing in too much then glucose  

and triglycerides are the two first to start going  up and triglycerides even more so because glucose  

is so tightly controlled by insulin and hand in  hand with triglycerides we also have vldl very low  

density lipoproteins I'm usually single digits and  I think I've seen 11 as my highest ever and now I  

went to 17 so more than double and one more marker  is Homa IR homeostatic model assessment of insulin  

resistance and you take that by multiplying  glucose and insulin and dividing by a constant  

and normally you're supposed to get one I'm  typically like 0.6.7 I started at one and now was  

the first time I have ever been over one at 1.3  and with the liver there are two primary enzymes  

we look at they're called AST and ALT and enzymes  are supposed to be inside of cells so if we find  

them in the blood it's because the cell broke and  the enzymes Spilled Out so that's normal we have  

a little bit of a cell turnover so we expect to  find a certain level but anytime that level goes  

up it means that that there is more cell breakage  there's an accelerated cell breakage so these  

numbers indicate cell damage they could be liver  disease and I started before at 23 and I finished  

at 31 my ALT went from 20 to 25. so these are not  huge changes but let me tell you that the before  

numbers even after the holidays were inside the  optimal range whereas after both of these numbers  

are above the optimal range and starting to move  out toward the lab range which of course we don't  

really ever want to get to the lab range we want  to control these factors long before we get there  

another marker is LDH lactate dehydrogenase or  lactic acid dehydrogenase that's also an enzyme  

just like the liver enzymes it's supposed to be  inside cells if it goes up that means more cells  

are breaking so again cell damage and it could  also be liver disease or lung disease because we  

use lactic acid when we don't have enough oxygen  so if we have a lot of fats to burn we burn  

less carbohydrate less glucose and then LDH goes  down but if we're switching to more carbohydrate  

because we don't have enough oxygen now LDH goes  up and my number before was 192 which is a near  

perfect number and afterwards I had 335 which is  not only above the lab range but it is what they  

call alarmingly High it gets like a pink color on  the report instead of just a red so this was one  

that was very concerning to me and it's kind of  scary what can happen in just 10 days of eating  

garbage but I'm going to take really good care of  myself and I'm gonna make sure I follow up on this  

and reverse that another marker is homocysteine  which is a strong marker for inflammation and  

before mine was at 8.6 and 10 days later it was  at 10.4 so about a 20 percent increase in just 10  

days now what happened to my weight so let me put  this in perspective that when I competed and had  

a lot of muscle I weighed in around 200 pounds  and then I kind of settled down around 190 for  

many years and since I started low carb I've been  very very stable at 185 and then like I mentioned  

I was no saint over the holidays and I actually  went all the way up to 193 which is the heaviest  

I've been in probably 30 years however 10 days  of eating standard American diet put me at 203  

three pounds and I've been kind of embarrassed and  maybe you've I've gotten a few comments even in  

videos that I put on a little bit of a belly which  is something that I've I've never had so if you've  

seen that in the previous video then now you know  why and I'm gonna take the next four weeks to be  

really really strict and maybe I'll get back and  do a report on that in kilograms this is going to  

be 87.6 going up to 92.2 but I want to mention  something about how some of these things work  

that it's not primarily about calories it's about  carbohydrates insulin and hunger so how does that  

all tie together because a lot of people they  know that if you eat carbohydrates then that  

will trigger insulin that's become fairly common  knowledge by now and then if you watch my videos  

you also know that in insulin promotes storage  it is our storage hormone but insulin is not  

some evil thing it's not a mistake it's trying  to help you survive so basically also insulin  

is a signaling message it's an encouragement it  tells us that when there is a feast when there  

is plenty of food around now is the time to take  advantage of this so when we have a feast and we  

eat more and we trigger insulin that insulin puts  it in storage and that is also a signal for us to  

eat more it's a time to feed it's a time to put  on weight so that we can survive the winter so  

therefore insulin also promotes hunger because it  knows that if it can make us hungry even though we  

just ate then we have a greater chance of putting  on some extra weight faith and surviving the  

winter so insulin is part of the signaling that  takes advantage of this abundance and it creates  

hunger and when insulin is high it promotes the  storage and it tells us to go find more food  

instead of using the fat that we already have  stored but what most people don't realize about  

Hunger is that hunger is temporary it's a habit  you teach your body the circumstances where the  

body suggests that you eat some more so there's  a certain times of day if you eat frequently  

then you're going to get hungry frequently but if  you encounter a famine then the body is not evil  

where it's going to keep you miserable and hungry  all the time if you have a famine or a fast for a  

few days then the hunger comes and goes so this is  why we actually get more hung hungry when we eat  

more carbohydrates and we drive that insulin up  now if you want to dig a little deeper and really  

understand those markers that I talked about I  created a blood work course and it's all about  

understanding how the different markers relate  what they mean and what the early signs are see  

that's the key that if you understand what they  mean early on now you can catch the anemia and  

the thyroid health and the insulin resistance  before it becomes a big problem so that can  

help you prevent type 2 diabetes or reverse it  it can also help you understand why you have that  

stubborn weight why don't you respond to weight  loss efforts like a lot of other people we'll also  

talk about the real risk factors for heart disease  rather than just the number of total cholesterol  

which is almost completely insignificant and then  once you're armed with this knowledge and a base  

this line now you can really start taking charge  and moving your health in the direction you want  

if you enjoyed this video you're going  to love that one and if you truly want  

to master Health by understanding how the body  really works make sure you subscribe hit that  

Bell and turn on all the notifications  so you never miss a life-saving video