Author: Henry Barnard

I am a voracious reader and also enjoy writing. I often have a very different point of view than the popular one. I do see value in debate, and thought it might add to the public debate on controversial issues if I were to express my contrarian opinions. I also started keeping my poems recently (I've written little pieces my whole adult life but never kept any); and I've been a photographer now for over 25 years. So I will be adding an occasional poem and hopefully interesting photograph to the blog along the way, just to spice things up.

48-Hour-Fast Strategy

This is my 48-hour-fast strategy to boost autophagy. The day before you don’t eat anything have a very low amount of both carbohydrates and proteins (no more than 10 grams for each). Then comes the day without food. The following day, do the same thing with carbohydrates and proteins — no more than 10 grams each.

The average male needs 56 grams of protein for basic metabolic functions. Over the course of the above 3 days, you’ve have supplied only 20 grams of protein when the body has required 168 grams. So the body will have had to scavenge for 148 grams of protein — that’s what boosts autophagy.

That you have only digested 20 grams of carbohydrates means that you will stay in ketosis. Exiting ketosis would halt autophagy — the opposite of what you want to have happen.

Use cronometer.com to come up with what you can eat to reduce carbohydrates and proteins to this extent. As an “almost vegan”, I use avocado, walnuts, pecans, brazil nut, and olives.

Caveat: On that third day, given the fact that you have eaten so little carbohydrates and so your glycogen stores are now running very low, you will feel fatigue in your arms and legs. You won’t get to restore the glycogen until the fourth day, but that meal is something to really look forward to.

What this strategy does for you are multiple things. First, on the very first day, given the fact that you have had only 10 grams of carbohydrates and protein, you will get into ketosis and autophagy sooner on that very first day — not just the second, food-less day — and second, given the fact that you do the same thing on the third day, just 10 grams of carbohydrates and protein, there will be continued ketosis and autophagy into the fourth day.

New Fruit for Me

5-Day Fast

Completed my first 72 hour fast today. Hunger wasn’t the issue. It was fatigue. Felt fatigue in both my legs and arms. But I do Joel Fuhrman GBOMBS diet with high carbs from complex carbs and whole foods with lots of vegetables and fruit — 200 to 300 grams of carbs a day. So when glycogen/glucose go through the floor, I feel it. My goal is to be able to do two 5-day fasts per year, for the autophagy benefits. Getting there with these baby steps.

Keto or Not Keto?

Hardening of the Arteries

Now they think that the blood cholesterol is not harmful unless it is affected by inflammation. What appears to happen is oxidative stress produces free radical overflow that can change the blood cholesterol from this elongated shape into a shorter and stickier shape, and it is this altered cholesterol that sticks to the artery wall.

LDL cholesterol is a necessary compound for the body. Among other things, it is in all your skin cells, and it is the compound that is turned into Vitamin D with sun exposure. But, nevertheless, I would argue that having excessive blood cholesterol sets the stage for hardening of the arteries from plague (the smaller, stickier LDL) buildup to happen should there be inflammation.

Health — No Accident

Keto or Not Keto?

 I do 20:4 5 days a week on a vegan plant-based, complex carb diet where the average carbs is around 240 grams and the average calories is 2100. But on 2 days a week, I do a vegan Keto diet (just 800 calories) where the net carbs is only 10 grams, so that the subsequent fasting periods for those two days kicks in the ketosis much sooner because of the low carbs digested. I also do one 48 hour fast every month. That 48 hour fast has the 2 Keto days on each side of it. I put all my meals into cronometer.com. It is clear to me from cronometer, comparing the high complex carb diet to the Keto diet that the former has much more nutrition. But I do use Keto on those 2 days to boost ketosis. People who do Keto 7 days a week get their ketosis from Keto, but I get mine from intermittent fasting boosted by Keto — there’s a significant difference there. Personally, I don’t think the Keto diet is a very healthy one.

Health — No Accident

Health — No Accident

Health isn’t an accident, it is a choice. You make choices when it comes to nutrition, exercise, rest/sleep, etc. Make the right choices and you get health. If you make the wrong choices, then…

The person who smoked since their teenage years and died prematurely from lung cancer made the wrong choice. It was no accident, it was not fate, it was not in his genes. That person did it to himself.

If you eat a diet low in fiber, you will have intestinal issues and probably leaky gut, which leads to all the autoimmune disorders.

If you eat a diet high in meat and dairy, you are more likely to have heart disease, cancer, and intestinal issues.

If you eat a diet high in saturated fat and dietary cholesterol, you are more likely to have heart disease.

If you eat a lot of refined sugar, refined flour, and processed foods, you are like to have significant weight gain, insulin resistance, and ultimately diabetes.

If you don’t discipline yourself and get regular exercise, you will subject yourself to all the major diseases.

If you don’t get regular and deep sleep, you are not allowing the body to repair itself, and you will suffer the consequences.

All of the above are choices. Make the right ones, not the wrong ones, for the sake of better health. It’s your choice.

Teas