How To HACK Plant Protein For Muscle Building, How *Little* Can You Train To Maintain Muscle (& A Sauna Strategy For Muscle), The Best Time To Take Melatonin, & More! Solosode #482

Ben Greenfield [00:00:00]: In this episode of the Boundless Life Podcast, how to hack plant protein for muscle building. How little can you train to maintain muscle? And a cool sauna strategy. The best time to take melatonin and a whole lot more. Welcome to the Boundless Life with me, your host, Ben Greenfield. I'm a personal trainer, exercise physiologist, and nutritionist, and I'm passionate about helping you discover unparalleled levels of health, fitness, longevity, and beyond. You notice that there's a different title for the podcast today, the Boundless Life Podcast. Change the album artwork, change the title, freshen things up. Look at me, I'm turning into a big boy who decided to ditch the narcissistically titled name of the show, the Ben Greenfield Life Show.

Ben Greenfield [00:00:52]: Now it's the Boundless Life Podcast. Because this show is all about unlocking boundless energy at your beck and call all day long. So I hope you like that new title. And if you don't, my apologies, you'll have to skip the introduction from here on out. Hey, this is another Q and A episode. All the show notes for everything that you're about to hear are going to [email protected] slash 482 BenGreenfieldLife.com slash 482. I have more than 482 podcast episodes, by the way. I don't know if I've ever shared this on the show, but I've been podcasting for 17 years, and the lion's share of my podcast episodes are interviews. So I would estimate on this podcast, there are probably over 4,000 episodes.

Ben Greenfield [00:01:41]: I used to own another podcast called Endurance Planet. We had over a thousand episodes on that. I had another podcast called the Rockstar Triathlete Academy. We had like 500 episodes on that. Now, I've launched a health membership website called The Life Network at golifenetwork.com and I have a weekly raw, edgy, insider, slightly offensive, controversial podcast within that platform. So, yeah, there's lots of podcasts going around. I remember when I first started a podcast, there was like five health podcasts. Imagine that.

Ben Greenfield [00:02:14]: Five things like Jillian Michaels, Robb Wolf. There was me, a couple other random folks. So this was, you know, kind of like how blogging took off in the 90's. Podcasting took off, and, you know, now there's people with like, $30,000 video setups traveling around the world, recording their podcasts while I sit here at home in my underwear. You don't even know if I'm wearing pants. Actually, if you're watching the video version, I Am, but not much of them. And, you know, I sit at home and do this with smoothies charred still on my face. But I'm not going to stop.

Ben Greenfield [00:02:49]: At least not anytime soon. 17 years of podcasting and still going strong. I digress. Quick thing before we jump into today's news flashes, and I have some doozies for you. I did just recently get back from Tijuana, Mexico. No, I was not involved in any type of ping pong or tiger riding or tequila chugging shenanigans down there. Instead, I was doing a blood filtration protocol. This thing kind of flies under the radar.

Ben Greenfield [00:03:17]: I think I'm the seventh person in the world to even have done this. But there is a brand new blood filter that's been developed. It specifically was developed to treat bloodstream infections by binding pathogens from the blood, notably the spike protein, the COVID19 or SARS COV2 spike protein. In addition to a lot of other crap that can be in your blood. Lyme, Epstein Barr, et cetera. I'm not a doctor, don't misconstrue this as medical advice. But I found out about this filter about six months ago. I've been very interested in it.

Ben Greenfield [00:03:49]: It literally involves getting shuttled across the border to Tijuana, going to a luxury hospital attached to a luxury hotel. I didn't realize Tijuana has come a long ways from the, you know, tequila ping pong days. And now it's. It's a hub of medical tourism. So this filter, it's called the Seraph, S E R A P H. You look it up. Xthera Medical developed it. What happens is the blood comes out of your body.

Ben Greenfield [00:04:13]: It's literally a catheter in the side of your neck. You lay there for six hours in a hotel bed, the blood comes out. It passes over micro beads coated with what are called heparin receptor sites that mimic the same heparin in your cells that pathogens attack when invading the body. And those pathogens could be bacteria, viruses, fungi, you know, spike protein. It binds to the Seraph filter beads and gets removed from the bloodstream without impacting other cells or proteins in your blood. So I did this like a full oil change for the body. This is way different than, like, you may have heard of a plasma exchange or ozone exchange. This is way different.

Ben Greenfield [00:04:51]: This is the actual blood. I came out of that thing. I spent two days there getting filtered and then shuttled back across the border to San Diego where they gave me stem cells and light therapies and hydrogen gas baths and all sorts of crazy stuff. But anyways, I'm not financially affiliated with this company at all. But it was kind of a stint of immersive journalism because I know a lot of people deal with COVID 19 side effects and spike protein sticking around in the body. And I think this is probably the fastest way to clean it out. It's not inexpensive. It costs $25,000 to do a filtration.

Ben Greenfield [00:05:25]: I did not pay that. Just so you know, they reached out to me, they wanted me to try it. They were begging me to try it. So I just said, well, I'll do it. I know a lot of people who might be able to benefit from it. I'm hoping they scale it to make it a little bit less pricey. The company that oversaw this whole protocol, they're called Lumati L U M A T I. They're based out of San Diego.

Ben Greenfield [00:05:45]: And you literally fly into San Diego, they take care of you, they share across the border, they feed you good food and they vampire filter all of your blood. So anyways, that's what I've been up to randomly. So that all being said, let's jump into. Oh, and by the way, after doing it felt like a 16 year old kid. I didn't even have Covid issues. I did, you know, I did post blood work and it cleared out like lipids and inflammation and, and I know several other people who have done it who have all felt incredible afterwards. And so, you know, mostly it's celebrities and random physicians and you know, a few choice billionaires going down there and doing it. But yeah, super interesting, super interesting.

Ben Greenfield [00:06:33]: You can google the company Lumati L U M A T I or I'll put it in the show notes. So let's jump into today's research review. Well, I am not walking right now, but you may or may not have noticed depending on whether you watch the video version of this podcast. I'm often walking while recording the podcast. I love to walk when I'm doing calls, when I'm having conversations, when I'm learning, when I'm listening to an audiobook, you name it. And I actually did not realize that there is an official name to this habit of walking while learning or walking while in meetings, or walking while podcasting. I found this phrase via Tim Ferriss and he alerted me to this Latin phrase. He didn't alert me.

Ben Greenfield [00:07:19]: I don't want to act like Tim and I were on the phone talking. I know him, we text occasionally. He's been on the podcast before. But we aren't chatty on the phone or something like this. But this is on his Twitter and he said there's a Latin phrase. The Latin phrase is called Solvitur ambulando Solvitur ambulando. It's a Latin phrase. It means it is solved by walking.

Ben Greenfield [00:07:43]: You've probably heard it is solved by sleeping. I also like the idea that it is solved by praying, solved by journaling or writing. But solved by walking is Solvitur ambulando. It's basically tied to another phrase that I'll tell you briefly. But Latin is an incredible language. I took it in high school. All I remember is Semper UBI sub ubi, which roughly translates to always wear underwear. But anyway, Solvitur ambulando.

Ben Greenfield [00:08:11]: This got me thinking, it is solved by walking. And so I started to look into this and there's actually a form of learning called peripatetic learning. Peripatetic learning, that is the phrase for discussion, reflection and deep learning undertaken while walking. And there are a lot of benefits that occur when you are walking and learning. So first of all, research has shown that walking boosts brain function and performance, likely via the increase in blood flow to the brain and the increase in what is called brain derived neurotrophic factor and vascular endothelial growth factor to the brain, resulting in greater levels of neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. So your brain cells grow in number and grow in connectivity when you're walking while learning, you also get increased oxygen delivery to the brain, which can also enhance cognitive processing. It's been shown to help with focus, with problem solving abilities. Back to Solvitur ambulando solved by walking.

Ben Greenfield [00:09:09]: What else? Studies suggest that walking can improve memory recall and retention because light, movement and exercise stimulates the hippocampus, the part of the brain associated with forming and storing memories. When you walk, you get a release of endorphins and reduced levels of cortisol if you aren't walking with a weighted vest and a couple of 20 pound ankle weights on. But a more positive mood and lower stress levels can make studying less overwhelming, can improve information absorption. Walking while engaging in learning tasks has also been linked to better concentration and sustained attention over extended study periods. I have actually found when I am on a walk, looking straight into the camera on the walking treadmill in my office interviewing a guest, I am honed in like nothing else on that guest because there's nothing to do but walk and stare at them. And for some reason when I'm just sitting, standing, you know, I start to fidget. I start to get a little bit distracted. I honestly do my best podcasts while walking in terms of my ability to be able to keep up with the super smart cookies who I interview who are way smarter than me and going directions that I really have to keep up with.

Ben Greenfield [00:10:17]: Walking keeps the brain alert, better focus, better attention. Proven by science, because science. A study by Stanford researchers found that walking can boost creative output by an average of 60%. Walking, particularly in nature settings, encourages what is called divergent thinking, which is the ability to come up with different solutions to a problem. So it's beneficial for brainstorming, for studying or listening to complex topics. The nature piece, you know, you don't have to be outdoors. The way that I hack it is my office. I have a desk, I have a treadmill behind the desk, the microphone in front of the treadmill, and then there's a big picture window that I look out into.

Ben Greenfield [00:10:56]: It's the forest. If you just live next to a crappy condominium complex in an urban setting, maybe you could put a poster of nature on the wall or one of Those big screen TVs that plays nature scenes. But looking at nature while walking increases creativity and idea generation even more. So. What else? Mind body synchronization. The rhythmic repetitive movement of walking can enhance learning through a process that is known as embodied cognition. Embodied cognition. So that means that your rhythmic movement basically synchronizes with cognitive processing and that enhances learning.

Ben Greenfield [00:11:33]: So physical movements influence thought patterns, particularly light forward movement. So it's probably good I don't walk backwards. While podcasting increased energy and reduced mental fatigue. Paradoxically, you'd think that, you know, walking while learning might exhaust you, but it's not the case. It increases alertness, it reduces mental fatigue, making it easier to concentrate on and comprehend new material. And it also supports what's called executive functioning, which is higher order cognitive functions such as planning, organization, self control. So you know a ton of benefits. Improve blood flow, reduce stress, heightened focus, neurobiological benefits, cognitive performance, memory retention.

Ben Greenfield [00:12:13]: So this is a really, really good excuse to ask your boss or invest yourself if you're self employed in getting some kind of a movement apparati in your office. But the benefits of this whole peripatetic teaching go on from there. For example, they looked at peripatetic teaching in a group of medical students in a recent study. I'll link to it in the show notes. And the study is titled Peripatetic teaching: What Can Medical Education Learn from Ancient Greece? And the background or the abstract of the paper says Peripatetic teaching originated in the Aristotelian school of Ancient Greece and refers to the action of simultaneous walking, discussion, and deep learning. So what they did was they underwent medical student trainings and had a certain group of those medical students walk during each teaching session a total of around 1500 steps. Then they had them fill out a questionnaire about how that learning session went for them and how they enjoyed walking and talking with their teacher versus just sitting in a classroom. The mean score and overall value placed upon the walking sessions was significantly higher versus what they called the bedside teaching, which meant they were just sitting in a standard environment in which one is in medical education, for example, standing by a patient's bed or sitting in a chair.

Ben Greenfield [00:13:44]: And the students really enjoyed it. The only complaints they had was that sometimes it was hard to hear the teacher and they had to make sure they kept up with the teacher. But besides that, students reported feeling better, more awake, more interested, more allowed to speak freely, more relaxed, more focused. So it was fascinating that medical students really benefited from learning while walking. And of course, the same can apply to younger students as well. There's even a website, it's thewalkingclassroom.org thewalkingclassroom.org chock full of data on mood, cognitive performance, attitudes towards learning, and a whole lot more improving when students were able to walk while interacting with their teacher, walk while listening to an audiobook or a podcast, or walk while otherwise learning. And this is fantastic because frankly, I think we deal with a totally outdated educational system where a bunch of students are sitting with just their peers in a room, learning at the pace of the slowest learner in the classroom and fighting the natural urge that a child has to move. And of course, that can be assisted by an ADHD diagnosis and a little bit of Adderall to keep one seated for long periods of time.

Ben Greenfield [00:15:02]: But nothing beats moving for a child when it comes to enhancing their behavior. At least I don't think much comes close to it. And so the idea of weaving walking in for children while learning is also a fantastic idea, backed up by the data from this walking classroom website. So one question that I get related to this is, how do I walk or not? How do I walk? I put one leg in front of the other. What do I use for walking? I use a soft surface whisper quiet treadmill that we want to use called Walkolution. You could look this up or I'll link to it in the shownotes. Like Walkolution have revolution. Walkolution.

Ben Greenfield [00:15:44]: Clever title. It's Lined with foam padding that stretches and strengthens my feet with each step. There's no motor on it. So not only is there no EMF or dirty electricity being kicked off, a notorious thing that treadmills do, which is why when you're, you know, on a big line of 20 treadmills at the gym, you're basically in an EMF soup. But these manual treadmills, the really nice ones, not only can you walk, you can sprint and do some intervals. So in between calls, I'll occasionally throw in a sprint to keep the metabolism elevated. I walk barefoot, and it just stretches and strengthens the feet during the entire walk. It's probably one of my favorite pieces of fitness equipment I own.

Ben Greenfield [00:16:21]: I average well at home. I average about 13,000 to 17,000 steps a day. Much of that done while working on zoom calls, doing podcasts, et cetera. When I travel, I average 15 to 20,000 steps a day because I rarely get a car. When I'm traveling, I typically will grab a, you know, one of those little bike rental things like the lime bike or whatever, trying not to go for the E bike version. Or I walk, you know, so, you know, standard practice for me. I'll get into the airport, I'll, you know, I'll stroll out, I'll get an Uber to my Airbnb, and I will Google the Locust, the closest, let's say Whole Foods. If it's less than three miles away, I'll walk there and all farmers walk back with my groceries.

Ben Greenfield [00:17:06]: And that's kind of my workout. I walk just about everywhere when I travel, and so I get even more steps in when I travel. But the idea of having a real nice, whisper quiet, super cool treadmill that you invest in for your office makes this whole idea of Solvitur Ambulando or peripatetic learning even more palatable. So that's the first little bit of research and interesting anecdote that I wanted to share with you. So the next is a study that came out. This study looked at how little one can exercise. It was a randomized control trial in this case, on young women looking at muscle strength and aerobic fitness gains to see, hey, how much could you maintain with a reduced training frequency? So what they did was they took participants for 12 weeks, they signed them into different groups. One group trained once a week, one group trained once every two weeks, and one group did nothing.

Ben Greenfield [00:18:02]: And this was for 12 weeks. We had a group training once a week, group trained once every two weeks, and a group doing nothing. And they did A whole bunch of measurements, leg press, one rep max and body composition, counter movement, jump quadriceps, cross sectional area of the muscle, which is how large the quadriceps were, or the amount of muscle hypertrophy that occurred, maximum aerobic power, et cetera. The study concluded that you can perform one training session every two weeks for three months and preserve 90 to 95% of the muscle mass, strength and aerobic power adaptations that you have achieved with a style of training called concurrent training, meaning they were doing the aerobics and the cardio in the same session once every two weeks. Now, I'm not telling you this as an excuse for you to stay sedentary, but let's face it, some of us travel, we get busy, we get guilty that we're not able to train. We think, oh, I'm going to lose my muscle, I'm going to lose my aerobic fitness. You lose a lot less than what you'd think, surprisingly less than what you'd think. So this idea of reduced training frequency is super interesting.

Ben Greenfield [00:19:15]: Now, of course it is important, and you no doubt realize this because you're probably a fitness devotee if you're listening in, or maybe you're interested in being one. Training once every two weeks is not that great for mood. I mean, for me I'm just happier, clappier, in a better mood if I can get some kind of training session in every day. So a lot of this is not applicable to say, mental health or productivity or creativity, back to the Solvitur Ambulando concept. But minimum training is definitely something you should know about. For example, for cardiovascular fitness, studies have shown that as little as 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise per week or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise per week is more than adequate to maintain cardiovascular health. As a matter of fact, if you exceed that, sometimes you get diminishing returns and you can get atherosclerosis or stiffening of the arteries or cardiovascular complications with excess training. So 150 minutes of moderate intensity per week or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity per week can easily allow you to maintain cardiovascular fitness.

Ben Greenfield [00:20:20]: Now, leading up to this study, most studies showed that for maintaining muscle mass and strength, one resistance training session per week was sufficient. And this is especially in people who are already trained going into a period of detraining. Most of these studies get cut off after about three months. If you trained once a week or once every two weeks for a year, I suspect you'd probably learn lose more fitness than what we see in three months. But at least over a three month period of time, once every one to two weeks, appears more than sufficient. And most of the studies show that a combination like this latest study showed, of aerobic and strength training at the same time is the best way to go, right? So what I mean by that is you might do, let's say three sets of 12 repetitions of the deadlift, the squat, the overhead press, the row, the chest press and the pull down. And you might do some stretching and core work and your quote, recovery, unquote periods between each of those sets and then in between each of the exercises, maybe you'll ride on the bike hard for two minutes, right? That's, that's a very typical routine I might do at a hotel gym, for example. That's concurrent aerobic and strength training done in the same session.

Ben Greenfield [00:21:34]: And it's also very time efficient. In addition, most studies show that if you are training infrequently, intensity counts a lot, right? Going to failure with each shot or following what I call the rule of three, right? Like if your goal is 12 reps and you can do 15 reps, then you used too light of a weight. And if Your goal is 12 reps and you can only get to 9 reps, you probably use too heavy of a weight. Very, very simple concept, but easy to understand. But the idea is you want to train close to muscle failure, you want to push yourself aerobically. But this idea of concurrent training done once a week to once every two weeks will allow you to maintain fitness, muscle mass, anaerobic fitness for up to three months. There are obviously genetic variabilities in this equation. There are nutritional parts of this equation, like if you're eating inadequate amounts of protein, I doubt that you would see the same results in muscle mass maintenance versus eating adequate amounts of protein.

Ben Greenfield [00:22:31]: But it is really good to know. And it leads me to think about one other thing that's important, especially if you're injured or if you are unable to lift weights, maybe joint complications, maybe lack of access to a place where you can train efficiently. The sauna is also interesting. This is a little heat hack I mentioned in the introduction, because there are a lot of studies that are now highlighting the potential benefits of sauna, not just for muscle recovery, but muscle growth. So the heat shock proteins that you get when you're sitting in a sauna, especially for 20 to 45 minutes, those aid in repairing muscle damage and they support muscle protein synthesis. So you can actually maintain muscle or theoretically even build muscle, especially if you're detrained by stressing your body with heat, sauna can also elevate growth hormone levels significantly. There was one study that noted a five fold increase in growth hormone levels with two 20 minute sessions of in the sauna separated by a brief cooling period. So that's like the growth hormone stack, right? You sauna for say like 20 minutes, jump in a cold, plunge for two minutes, get back in the sauna for 20 minutes.

Ben Greenfield [00:23:36]: That really increases growth hormone dramatically. You get improved blood flow and reduced inflammation which can improve recovery and allow you to train and build muscle more efficiently, oxygenate muscles better. A higher sauna temperature seems to be even better when it comes to the ability of sauna to be able to build muscle, stimulate growth hormone release and allow for muscle maintenance. So generally you have to get somewhat hot. As a matter of fact, some of these studies were using up to 212 degrees Fahrenheit, which you're not going to get from an infrared sauna. You know, if my, if my number one goal, to be honest with you, was to maintain or build muscle with the sauna practice, I would go up to, you know, a dry sauna and, and spend time in the higher amounts of heat to get the better effects. And look, I'm not going to lie like you're not going to become the Incredible Hulk if for some reason that's your goal or very strong and functionally fit by just sitting in a sauna. But it is good to know that it can be used for not just muscle recovery, but also muscle maintenance or muscle growth.

Ben Greenfield [00:24:39]: So one interesting study was called the effects of 12 sessions of high temperature sauna baths on body compos position in healthy young men. And the abstract of this, and this was 100 degrees Celsius. So yeah, over over 200 degrees Fahrenheit. They investigated a bunch of healthy young men. They had them do 12 sauna sessions, not all in a row on the same day. I believe they split these up over about two weeks. And they looked at the muscle mass of those who did the heat at high temperatures versus those who did not do the sauna. And there was a significant increase in the sauna group in the muscle, the bone mineral density and the bone mineral content of the legs that they were measuring via a DEXA scan, which is super interesting.

Ben Greenfield [00:25:29]: Healthy young men can actually get hypertrophy by doing nothing else but getting exposed to high amounts of heat for 12 consecutive days. That is pretty impressive. And so again, the main thing that the researchers attributed this to was the synthesis of heat shock proteins. They also suspect that heat can activate what's called the kinase B protein, rapamycin target in mammals, the MTOR signaling pathway, which can also assist with muscle protein synthesis. And the bone metabolism piece is super interesting. But there seems to be an increase in the cells, the osteoblastic cells responsible for increasing bone density. Kind of paradoxical, isn't it? Because you'd think if you were sweating a whole bunch, you'd be at risk for mineral loss and, you know, osteopenia or osteoporosis. I'm assuming that these folks were replenishing and hydrating well and adding electrolytes in, so that didn't occur.

Ben Greenfield [00:26:24]: But yeah, the bone mass piece, the muscle mass piece, it's super interesting. When it comes to a sauna, no changes in fat parameters. By the way, doing regular sauna does not seem to nuke fat. It may cause a little bit of a detoxification effect, loss of toxins from fat cells. And when you detox, you do potentially create less fat cells to store new toxins. But don't look to asana for massive amounts of fat loss. But for muscle maintenance, muscle gain, bone density increases seems to be a pretty good idea. So that's cool.

Ben Greenfield [00:26:57]: So what else? You know, this is kind of related. This was an article that recently came out in the Guardian and it's related to this idea of how often you can work out. So this is interesting. Check this out. It's a study of nearly 90,000 people enrolled in the UK Biobank project. They found that weekend warriors who fit a week's worth of exercise into one or two days, eg the weekend, had a lower risk of developing more than 200 diseases compared with fully inactive people. Right, so basically cramming your training into the weekend, I don't think it's as good. Probably higher risk of injury and over training than spreading your training sessions consistently out over the weekend.

Ben Greenfield [00:27:41]: But you still get a ton of benefits, reduced risk of a whole bunch of mortality, increasing conditions. So in terms of the actual amount of training, these folks are squeezing a 150 minutes or more into a weekend. But again, back to the minimal training. Let's say you have a busy week. You're not able to train at all Monday through Friday because you're launching a new product or you have a lot of meetings or you're sick or you had a new baby, whatever. You can just get in some massive training sessions on the weekend and still get a ton of results, especially if you're using that tip I gave you about concurrent aerobic and strength training. So it's Good to know that even though you might see people on Instagram posting daily 4am sessions in the gym, that you can still stay pretty fit by cramming on the weekend or in a busy period of your life, just training. With a real solid training session once every one to two weeks.

Ben Greenfield [00:28:34]: Maybe throwing in some sauna here and there and you're not going to lose all your gains, bro. I still think consistent daily training is a good idea, especially for the mental benefits which these studies didn't look into. But when it comes to maintaining muscle, maintaining bone density, et cetera, pretty good case to be made for minimalist training when the time arises that you need to do it. Okay, so I'm often asked this Here we go. Whey protein versus whey or animal based protein versus plant based protein. What does the latest research say? Brand new study the effects of plant based protein ingestion on athletic ability in healthy people if you want to put on your tinfoil, it's not the tinfoil hat, it's more like the pocket protector and the large oversized glasses. This is a Bayesian meta analysis with systematic review of randomized controls trials. So it was an analysis, a study of studies, so to speak.

Ben Greenfield [00:29:27]: What they looked at was 2,152 studies on this meta analysis and they were looking specifically at plant based protein ingestion and its effects on muscle strength, on endurance and on athletic ability compared to animal based protein ingestion. Plant based protein ingestion definitely demonstrated in these meta analysis or in this meta analysis superior efficacy compared to low or no protein ingestion. Duh. No surprises there. But it was not as effective as other protein types like whey, beef or milk protein in terms of enhancing athletic performance in healthy individuals. And this doesn't come as much of a surprise simply because you've got less bioavailability, sometimes less of a complete amino acid profile, and often the need to eat many more calories overall in order to get adequate protein from plant based protein sources. However, I don't necessarily think that you need to stop having your rice pea hemp based protein powder that maybe you like way better than whey protein, or maybe you're sensitive to whey protein or egg protein or whatever because other research that's relatively recent and I talked about adding amino acids a couple of weeks ago to any protein shake to vastly improve the protein bioavailability. But adding just one amino acid to a plant based protein powder can make it just as powerful as whey protein.

Ben Greenfield [00:30:56]: Now plant proteins in the past have been considered inferior because plants, you know, pea, soy, quinoa, rice, egg, you name it, they don't have as many essential amino acids, the building blocks of your cells, the amino acids that your body doesn't make on its own, as say whey protein or other animal sources. And that means you're going to have lower amounts of muscle protein synthesis with just about any plant protein. However, to get around this issue, if you consume your plant based protein with around 1 to 2 grams of leucine, the muscle protein synthesis is similar to consuming an animal based protein source. You could say the same for consuming a plant based protein source with around 5 to 10 grams of essential amino acids. So whether it's leucine, which is one of the branch chain amino acids, that on its own can give you an impressive bump up in muscle protein synthesis if you're vegan, if you're vegetarian, if you're having a plant based protein shake or essential amino acids, essentially what they found, I did not do that on purpose, but I'm going to stick with it. Essentially what they found was that when participants in this study consumed 20 grams of plant protein with an additional 1.5 grams of leucine, super simple amino acid that you can find just about anywhere, muscle protein synthesis was similar to that of 20 grams of whey protein. So this is what I tell vegans, vegetarians, people who have difficulty eating animal based protein for ethical or digestive reasons, if you are able to work in leucine or even better yet, essential amino acids into your protocol, you will experience much, much better muscle protein synthesis. And you know, generally what I tell people is if you can get like 20 to 40 grams of essential amino acids per day, especially if you're on a plant based diet, it is a game changer.

Ben Greenfield [00:32:54]: And yes, the essential amino acids that you constantly hear me talking about, the kion product, that is a full vegan essential amino acid which is difficult to find, it's difficult to find vegan collagen, gelatin sources, et cetera, difficult to find vegan essential amino acid sources. The kion one is vegan. So if you're not consuming animals for ethical reasons, then that one isn't going to keep you awake at night worrying about the animals. Although I was commenting to my wife on a hike the other day, the bloodbath of monocropping of agriculture on small animals, rodents, insects, et cetera is massive. And I wish more people following a plant based diet realized not only the pollution involved with monocropping and shipping of a large amount of plant based products, but also the number of small animals that die arguably unethical deaths during a monocropping and harvesting process to get your plant based protein to you. So don't fool yourself that you're just being kind to animals following a plant based protein diet. I realize that's a very political statement, but I'm just saying no matter how we look at it from a human standpoint, there is likely going to be death associated with our nutrition choices. Unless we literally live on a pristine Hawaiian base of a volcano and we're like picking fruits and fermenting and soaking and sprouting and literally just like hand selecting and farming all of our own products.

Ben Greenfield [00:34:22]: And even then the occasional mouse may perish. So speaking of keeping you awake at night. Melatonin. Melatonin. How many of you take melatonin, I don't know, 20, 30 minutes before bed or like right as you're going to bed because it helps you sleep. Well, it turns out that a recent study looked into the actual optimum time and dosing of melatonin as a sleep promoting drug. And they showed that the ideal time to use melatonin is three hours before bedtime. Three hours before bedtime, which for some people might even be before dinner.

Ben Greenfield [00:34:56]: It makes sense because in most areas of the world, the sun actually does set or it begins to get dark, or there's less blue light anywhere from two to four hours prior to when you go to bed. And light is what can suppress melatonin from acting on cell receptors or attaching cell receptors and acting to induce sleepiness and increase sleep drive. So it's actually really interesting that the timing of melatonin seems to mimic that. Most melatonin schedules that you'll see on the side of a supplements bottle or used in clinical practice is like 2mg 30 minutes before your desired bedtime. This study specifically found in looking at ideal dosing of melatonin over 26 randomized control trials taking place between 1987 and 2020, for a total of 1,689 observations. Three hours before bedtime at around 4mg is the ideal timing and dose of melatonin. Now, they weren't looking at people who had crossed multiple time zones, I think, and I make a case for this. This is not based on research.

Ben Greenfield [00:36:04]: This is anecdote. In my own personal experience, when I'm traveling, like I just got back From Europe, first three days when I've traveled across more than three time zones, I take 150 to 300 milligrams of melatonin before bed for three days. I call it my melatonin sledgehammer and it totally reboots my circadian rhythm much much more quickly. You know, of course I exercise in the morning. I don't skip breakfast and eat a protein rich breakfast. I pay attention to being warm in the morning, cool at night. You know these so called zeitgebers, I talk all about these in my book Boundless. You know, exercise is a zeitgeber or what's called a timekeeper.

Ben Greenfield [00:36:39]: Eating at the time of your destination, a meal that includes 20 to 30 grams of protein that also is one. Being warm in the morning that starts your morning sleep drive and being cool in the evening which helps to with the onset of sleep is a zeitgeist. But then I also throw melatonin large doses. First three days when I get to where I'm going, first three days when I get home. And I really don't deal that much with jet lag. As a matter of fact, I got back from Europe and you know, past three nights I've averaged, after getting back seven and a half to eight hours of sleep. So feel pretty good. However, you should know and you may have seen this.

Ben Greenfield [00:37:14]: This has been around since 2017. The study from the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine on poor quality of over the counter melatonin. What they say is often not what you get. So what this issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine looked into was they systematically analyzed the actual melatonin content and the presence of contaminants in 31 melatonin supplements that they randomly purchased from groceries and pharmacies in one city in Canada before countrywide, over the counter use of melatonin was actually banned in Canada. This was before that. And their findings show what is likely also true of over the counter melatonin supplements marketed in the United States. Melatonin content is important. Listen to this.

Ben Greenfield [00:37:59]: Melatonin content varied from an egregious negative 83% to positive 478% of what was on the label. And 70% of these products had melatonin concentrations that were less than 10% or more of what was claimed. Worse yet, the content of melatonin between lots of the same product from the same brand, same manufacturer varied by as much as 465%. Meaning that melatonin in many cases purchased over the counter from a store likely does not contain the amount of melatonin that it actually says that it does. They didn't include a full list on the paper of which manufacturers that they actually looked at, which brands that they looked at. I haven't really analyzed the brands that I use. I mean, they work for me. I could be getting less or more melatonin than I actually think I'm getting.

Ben Greenfield [00:38:55]: I use a kind of small fringe brand out of Sarasota, Florida called Mito Zen. Mito Zen, they have a 150 to 300 milligram melatonin suppository and also an oral one. It's called Sandman. Great title. And I mean, it knocks me out. And as you know, you're groggy in the morning, as soon as light hits your eyes, that helps you to relieve the grogginess. So getting out in the sunshine, getting under bright lights, you're good within like 20 minutes of waking. But you do need to be careful with where you're getting your melatonin.

Ben Greenfield [00:39:25]: If you're really trying to modulate your dosage, I recommend anytime you're wondering if what you're getting actually has what it says it has in it that you ask the manufacturer or the brand for a laboratory certificate of analysis. If you're actually concerned about this, and to learn more about issues with adulterated supplements, you should listen to my podcast with Ben Katz, the so called mass spec guy on Instagram. I'll link to it in the show notes. Absolutely fascinating about it. I was like one crazy anecdote from that was Hershey's chocolate contains massive amounts of caffeine, like M and Ms. Chocolate bars, way more than what you'd naturally find in cocoa powder. Suggesting they might actually be. I'm not one of those, you know, Kellogg's is evil guys.

Ben Greenfield [00:40:06]: Like, they're actually following what the current governmental standards are for what is generally recognized as safe in a product. You know, they're just running their business and doing what the government has approved. I think we should change what we actually define as a generally recognized as safe product or ingredient in the US not necessarily force companies who are actually following the rules to discontinue their products. I think we should instead change what is actually allowed, which is probably what part of that Make America Healthy campaign will do. But anyways, not to get too political here, back to the general idea of melatonin and other supplements is do your research if you are concerned and actually ask for a lab certificate of analysis if you're concerned that you're actually getting what it says it has in it. Generally if you're going with a company that produces their product in a certified good manufacturing practices facility, a CGMP facility that is something like NSF certified for sport, so safe for use in sport, you're going to be a little bit more likely to get a good clean product. But you do got to be careful, especially if you're concerned about how much melatonin you're actually using. So I'm going to include a link to all of this research, everything that I've discussed.

Ben Greenfield [00:41:19]: If you go to BenGreenfieldLife.com slash 482 that's BenGreenfieldLife.com slash 482 if you enjoy these solosodes, these Q and A episodes, you can even ask a question. I didn't reply to any listener questions on today's show because I just decided to geek out on the research. But if you want to leave a question, you can go to BenGreenfieldLife.com if you want to interact with my AI clone that I've trained on over 10 years of my podcasts, articles, books, et cetera, you can also if you go to BenGreenfield Life.com ask it a question. Seriously go there. Ask it. You can be like Ben, I'm 6 foot 2, 180 pounds. I want to gain 5 pounds of muscle over the next six months and I would like to know what you would consider to be a good diet, a good protein intake and a good weightlifting protocol for me to follow. You can literally do that.

Ben Greenfield [00:42:06]: I'm probably putting myself as a coach out of business by sharing this. But anyways, it's the new AI trained Ben Greenfield clone, so check that out too. @BenGreenfieldLife.com Be sure to check out GolifeNetwork.com My brand new health membership website. You're gonna love it. Access to a ton of experts right there in your back pocket. AMA is a community. Challenges tons of goodies in there. So check that out.

Ben Greenfield [00:42:29]: All the [email protected] slash 482 until next time, I'm Ben Greenfield with the Boundless Life Podcast. Gotta remember to say that signing out have an incredible week to discover even more tips, tricks, hacks and content to become the most complete boundless version of you, visit BenGreenfieldLife.com.

Ben Greenfield [00:42:55]: In compliance with the FTC guidelines. Please assume the following about links and posts on this site. Most of the links going to products are often affiliate links of which I receive a small commission from sales of certain items. But the price is the same for you and sometimes I even get to share a unique and somewhat significant discount with you. In some cases I might also be an investor in a company I mention. I'm the founder, for example, of Kion llc, the makers of Kion branded supplements and products, which I talk about quite a bit. Regardless of the relationship, if I post or talk about an affiliate link link to a product, it is indeed something I personally use, support and with full authenticity and transparency recommend. In good conscience, I personally vet each and every product that I talk about.

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