24 Hour Ben: Farming, Ancestral Eating, Sunlight, Vitamin D, Red Meat Increases Telomere Length and More

The podcast discusses several health topics including migraines, the vagus nerve, and salt consumption. The panel talk about the link between migraines and a variety of factors such as lack of sleep, stress, and certain foods. They also discuss the importance of omega-3 fatty acids and how vegetable oils can affect the body's ability to produce vitamin D, leading to sunburns. The podcast concludes with a discussion on the benefits of Celtic Sea salt over Pink Himalayan salt. Ben and Richard talk about the upcoming Carnivore Conference and how they got into the carnivore lifestyle. They discuss migraines and how a ketogenic, carnivore diet may help reduce them. Richard shares his personal experience with migraines and their potential causes. They also mention some other contributing factors such as grains, calcium and magnesium imbalances, and the benefits of beta hydroxybutyrate in reducing neuroinflammation. 

Eating plant-based food and taking sun supplements are not enough to keep adequate vitamin D levels. UVB rays interact with our skin and cholesterol to produce vitamin D, which acts as a sunscreen and hormone in our body. Eating meat has been shown to have a positive impact on telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of our DNA strands. Come join us at the Carnivore Conference to learn more about health and nutrition!

Thank you so much for listening to my podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. Your support means the absolute world to me. And if you're enjoying the show, I've got a small favor to ask you. I'd be incredibly grateful if you would consider becoming a supporter and make a small monthly donation. 
Your contribution will really help to improve the show.  It's a small monthly contribution. You can cancel at any time, and the link is in the show notes. 

Transcript

24 Hour Ben Transcript

Summary

The podcast discusses several health topics including migraines, the vagus nerve, and salt consumption. The panel talk about the link between migraines and a variety of factors such as lack of sleep, stress, and certain foods. They also discuss the importance of omega-3 fatty acids and how vegetable oils can affect the body's ability to produce vitamin D, leading to sunburns. The podcast concludes with a discussion on the benefits of Celtic Sea salt over Pink Himalayan salt. Ben and Richard talk about the upcoming Carnivore Conference and how they got into the carnivore lifestyle. They discuss migraines and how a ketogenic, carnivore diet may help reduce them. Richard shares his personal experience with migraines and their potential causes. They also mention some other contributing factors such as grains, calcium and magnesium imbalances, and the benefits of beta hydroxybutyrate in reducing neuroinflammation. 

Eating plant-based food and taking sun supplements are not enough to keep adequate vitamin D levels. UVB rays interact with our skin and cholesterol to produce vitamin D, which acts as a sunscreen and hormone in our body. Eating meat has been shown to have a positive impact on telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of our DNA strands. Come join us at the Carnivore Conference to learn more about health and nutrition!

 Transcription

 Ben. Ben. I'm feeling my age today, guys. Oh, yeah. It's our 3251. I refereed a rugby match yesterday. Who like top national level schools match and I can barely walk. So I'm happy to be sitting down and just using my mouth. Hopefully I'll make some sense. If you can barely walk, you might get into the England football team anyway, right? For people that don't know you, Ben, um, would you give yourself a little introduction? I'd love to be able to, but I don't. I don't know, me either. Um, I've run the the big fat challenge with Phil, who you just saw. Um, since the start of 2023, 2024 numbers. And, um, so it's a 90 day carnivore challenge to help you through the adjustment period, which is, uh, a lot of fun. Um, and I also write about, um, I actually came into this through regenerative agriculture, and, and I got into that through growing vegetables. So I've got quite a unique path into carnivore. And I wasn't destroyed by vegetables like, um, Lee, for example. Um, but yeah, I got really interested in soil and, uh, and sucking all the evil carbon out of the air as well. Uh, which is something that I've done a U-turn on in the last few years. I don't think that's an issue now at all, because I know that the the natural world has checks and balances built into it. So I know that the more carbon dioxide you get, the more plants you'll get. And that's exactly what we're seeing. About 90% of the world is is getting more plant cover right now. And the more plants you get, the more life there is, generally, the more animals you'll get and whatever. So it's all it's all prone to balance. Um, but yeah, that brought me to doing a lot of conferences about soil and, uh, looking after the land. Um, opened my eyes to, um, the, the benefits of of meat for the diet. So I just as a curious person, I decided to look into that, uh, came across Phil and his Facebook group, and we started working together three years ago. So that's that's the beginning of that story. But more recently, um, I've got a lot more into the, like, the philosophical side of carnivore as well, and being hunters. Naturally. Like, um. I think you both. You've both already said that we can track back our our meat based diet for at least 2 million years. Our species is around somewhere between 200 and 250,000 years old, apparently, according to science. And, um, 95% of that time basically has been in the Paleolithic. So which was featured at least two major ice ages with short interglacial periods. We are currently in the most recent nice, warm, pleasant interglacial period, so most of our time on Earth as a species and but never mind the pre-human is we were either in icy conditions with long winters, long cold winters or dry conditions and eating meat. So as hunters, it got its got me to thinking, well, how does that actually affect the way that we think and the way that we relate to each other? And then, more importantly, from switching away from being nomadic hunting people to sedentary, grain munching people, how has that affected our psyche and the way that we relate to each other, the way that we relate to the natural world? So, yeah, I don't do one thing. I'm I'm fascinated with it, with it all. It was an introduction. That was a brilliant introduction. Yes. And that's the thing. Uh, I believe you and Richard have a festival that you're organising, which I think you should really talk about as well. Yeah. Well, yeah, we decided to, um, that we were planning to do, um, a carnival conference in October this year, but that, that then changed. And so we decided, come on, let's do it. Let's do something in, um, by the end of this year. So we're doing one in the middle of September, I think it's the 14th and 15th of September, called the Carnival Conference. You can go to Carnival Conference. Co.Uk and get in early on the tickets. Lovely venue. Uh, Stephen, you'll you'll be speaking. Richard. Jonathan, that you met Phil and Lee. The whole gang gang is going to be there. And several other people as well. Um, so, yeah, that'll be two full days. Get all your questions answered. And you don't have to be. It's not exclusive for for strict carnivores. If you're into keto, paleo, low carb, just curious. Then come along and hang out and get all your questions answered. So Phil and I did a couple earlier on in the year called War on Health, which were just really, really good fun. Um, and but both of you guys obviously spoke at the Easter one for that, which was fantastic. Lovely vibe. Cool. Rich, do you have any questions for Ben? Just to reiterate what you said there. The events that you and Phil held that Stephen and I spoke at were fantastic. Um, very good vibe. And I think that's what, you know, you're looking to recreate in this one, isn't it? Is an experience where guests can spend time with the speakers. It's a very intimate event. Um, and it's going to be fantastic. I've just popped a link in the comments there. I know, for for for guys to book. But Steven did a fantastic, uh, talk on Bloods and how to look at blood testing and so on and so forth. And, you know, things within the blood. Um, he's got a fantastic talk this year. Um, mine is going to be. Can I tell them what mine's going to be? Ben. Please do. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, we we look at toxic compounds in plants. Um, but nobody ever speaks about how much it takes to cause damage or how much of that compound is going to kill you, and that's what mine's going to be. So I'm going to explain to people, quite literally how much and we mentioned this earlier, but as we're probably two hours further in, I'll mention this again. This is part of what I'm going to do a presentation on. This is linseed flax seed. This is high in a compound called Lindemann which is a cyanogen like oxide. If you were to eat that much of this pack, you would you would die. There is enough cyanide within that, within that amount to to kill a human being. Um, yet it's a compound that we add to foods constantly thinking that it confers a benefit. Uh, and that's what my talk is going to be about. This is how much of this compound, if you eat it in one go, will kill you? Um, I won't go through my my story of the rat poison thing again. Maybe we'll save that for for our 8 or 9 again. But, um, it's going to be fantastic. So get your tickets booked. And I look forward to seeing that. Yeah, it's going to be good. It's going to be really good. Now we've got tons of questions. So I'm going to ask uh, ones that I think might be relevant to you, uh, Ben. But if you feel like you don't want to ask, answer and we can pass it on. Um, we've got a question here about migraines, which you may have come across when you were doing the Big Fat Challenge and all that. But anyway, can you give me advice on migraines? I don't have them for months. Then can have 3 to 7 in a few days. I've just started eMDR and got one, uh, just after doing the very first session. Could this be normal? Well, I'm going to say exactly what Phil said and, uh, defer to to Richard on that, because I know that Richard suffered from migraines in the past and still occasionally. Um, I haven't I've had like 1 or 2 in my entire life. So it's not something that's come up frequently, actually, in our experience with the adaptation. So yeah. So I have to dodge this one, right? Um, probably just a clarification for those that don't know, eMDR is, uh, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for those that don't know. Yeah. Sorry, Rich. So, look, there's lots of contributing factors, uh, in regards to migraines, and I'm still. I'm. I still suffer with migraines. So, you know, when I do a lot of my talks, I explain to people that I'm completely ailment and medication free. Um, I'm completely medication free. I still suffer with migraines. Uh, usually 1 to 2 migraines a year. Um, but I have noticed that more recently because, uh, well, until recently, I've been increasing a specific compound, which is caused more again, but there's lots of contributing factors. The biggest for me, um, were the grains. The grains were causing intestinal permeability, which was leading to migraines, wheat germ, gluten, which Ben knows all about. Um, I'm sure you can get into more detail on this, but wheat germ gluten will travel the vagus nerve also, which we've seen in in surgeries called forgotten means, um, this is a toxic compound which causes loads of issues. Uh, it could be an electrolyte imbalance, particularly excessive amounts of calcium, uh, which is another problem when we gravitate into carnivore, uh, for for the less strict of us, we consume lots of cheese and eggs and A2 dairy, um, eggs are fantastic. Eggs are fantastic source of nutrients. Choline, which we've mentioned earlier. Um, but they do contain around 24mg of calcium. If you were to eat five eggs, that's close to 100mg. 500 is where we want to be, but we need to be matching that roughly with magnesium also. Um, we don't want to be going over excessive amounts of calcium, um, because it's exciting. It's exciting to the muscle and to the brain, and it can cause, um, it could cause a difference between, uh, glutamate and Gaba. It can automate. alternate effect, the glutamate to Gaba ratio, which which is another contributing factor. Um, cheese and raw dairy. Super high in calcium. And we're not offsetting this with magnesium. Um, so you know, those those are 2 or 3 massive contributing factors, but just live in a ketogenic, carnivore based lifestyle. And production of beta hydroxybutyrate has allowed me to reduce the neuroinflammation, because that that's one of the benefits of BHB or beta hydroxybutyrate. It blocks a pathway called Nlrp3 inflammasome, which is inflammatory cytokine in the body. It allows us to reduce inflammation, um, and combat many of these issues. So again, just to reiterate, I still suffer, you know, now, the biggest contributing factor to me, though, is, is lack of sleep and stress. Um. I'm self-employed. I work seven days a week. Lack of sleep and stress come hand in hand. So I'm surprised I don't get a lot more migraines, you know? But, um, calcium for me, I've noticed recently, is a massive contributing factor. So again, just reinforces, you know, you've probably noticed my head for calcium over the last couple of months. Um, you know, and that's another contributor. And again, acrylamide, you know, acrylamide this compound in coffee. Um, so it's not just one thing if you're a migraine sufferer, there's lots of contributing factors, and this is just about gravitate in the journey and trying to manage, uh, each and every one of these pillars and pulling the levers, uh, as best as you can. Yeah. On the subject of that, um, sorry, Stephen, that, um, the lectins travelling up the vagus nerve, they've not only found these, these chemicals, uh, traveling up the nerve, but they there was a study in Denmark that ran from 1977 to 1995. So 18 years that ran and they tracked people who'd had victims. So for whatever reason, through an accident or through surgery, the vagus nerve, which is actually I think it's a bundle of like two nerves, um, had been severed for one reason or another. That group who'd had the victims, they they found a 47% reduction in Parkinson's disease compared to the national average in Denmark. So that's just one of the one of the outcomes. Um, the Danes have also, uh, found that, uh, mothers who consume less leptin, that their children are far less likely to contract, uh, I think type one diabetes. I think it is as well, which is fascinating. Yes. Type one diabetes. Toxic. I mean, the vagus nerve. The vagrant nerve, because it's all over the body goes all this way in that. Um, yeah. And I think Doctor Paul Mason talks about an interesting, uh, experiment they did on dogs, which proves the movement up the vagus nerve. But we won't get into that because it's a bit of a sad experiment because there's a lot of dogs were were sadly sacrificed for it. But it did prove the connection between Parkinson's. Right. Here's one for you. Uh, Ben, I think, and I will I will go and visit the facilities. It's not that I don't want to hear your answer, but we're here for 24 hours, so we do need to do those functions. So Alex Mack is saying Celtic Sea salt. Question mark why would one consume the English Channel question mark have you seen what's in it. Black Himalayan for me that's a really good question. Um, on the subject of Himalayan salt, I know that doctor Jack Kruse is very critical of the pink salt. Um, he says that it's it's dead and it's inert, and there are supposed to be enzymes in there that can help you to make use of some of the salts within that, obviously. Um. One of the worst sources of what we call salt isn't really it's a salt, isn't it? Which is sodium chloride. And basically what the reason why table salt is, is, is sodium chloride is because that's the most abundant to ions in the whole thing. Um, and they've taken out all the more valuable ones basically is that sodium and chloride are cheap. And um, And so what's tended to happen historically since the Industrial revolution is that they would put mills, factories, you know, for dyeing wool, whatever it was, they'd actually site them near to salt mines because the salt was a very important or different salts, very, very important, um, resource in a lot of industrial processes, lots and lots of processes. And then so they take out all the salts that they needed and they'd have a load of sodium chloride left over. So they thought, well, let's package it up and call it salt table salt. And that's why so many people have, um, excess sodium, allegedly. Um, so the idea with, um, with sea salt is that it's got the, a much more natural balance of all the salts. So basically all the salt is, is, um, it's a metal iron and a non-metal iron together. But I think that's that's the like the simple answer. Um, and so what you get when you mix an acid and an alkali, let's say hydrochloric acid and, um, sodium hydroxide. Right. So hydrogen hydrochloric acid is CL and sodium high. Uh sodium hydroxide is now right. So the H from the acid. And that's what measures it's the excess hydrogens that combines with the o h the hydroxide from the, uh, from the alkali to make water. And then you've got sodium and chlorine that make sodium chloride table salt. So that's why I know we're well off the topic, but this idea that certain things you put into your stomach can make your blood more or less alkaline. Um, I just don't buy that at all. And you pour a load of, like, um. Calcium carbonate or stuff into your into your stomach, and you just, you're just going to, you're going to get excess salts, salts and water produced. That's that's all. So the idea of neutralizing your stomach acid is actually very, very poor idea. But basically we all came from the sea, right? We have our our the our blood plasma is very, very rich with a lot of different stuff in it. And it's not a million miles away from, from seawater. Um, I'm also quite a fan of the aquatic ape theory. I think that's really interesting if you guys up on that one. This this idea that maybe it wasn't so much bone marrow and smashing into skulls that that helped us to get big brains. But it was a seafood diet. And there's there's quite a lot of, uh, evidence to say that humans may have evolved around the edges of land. In the water, for example, cold food goes into this isn't you. So, yeah, he's he's big on that. Um, yeah. For example, we've got, you know, webbing on our fingers and toes, right? Some of us more than others. Okay. But but there's there's half an inch of webbing there now. No other ape has that webbing. Also, you know, when you're in the bath for too long and you've you've fingertips and your toes and the bottom of your feet go all wrinkly and white. Apparently what that does is it increases the surface area and helps you to grip onto things in the in the wet. And all the hair on our body follows the direction of flow of water. If we were swimming along. And human babies will instinctively hold their breath when submerged in water and stuff like that. So very, very interesting. But there's definitely a huge role for omega threes um in brain function as well. Mhm. So yeah. So Jack cruise says that the the Himalayan salt. Um, because it's kind of mind. It lacks some enzymes that are actually important to help us to get the maximum value out of it. Plus claims that because it's, um, tends to be extracted with, uh, dynamite, that there's actually explosive residues as well on, on this stuff also. So for me, I go for Celtic Sea salt every time. Yeah, I did do that. I used to be a big fan of Pink Himalayan, but it's it's, uh, it's a non-organic salt, uh, is created from lots of many years of geological, geological activity. Um, it's it's non-organic. Uh, it's far less bioavailable than Celtic Sea salt to for Celtic Sea salt. Salt has been created through organic material, either from, uh, things in the sea that are broken down or compounds that have been taken through life. Um, and this is what we get from from Celtic Sea salt. So Celtic sea salt is organic is is way more bioavailable. And Celtic sea salt, uh, is microplastic free also. Um, so not just way more bioavailable, but it's far better for you if you go in to consume any salt at all. You know, uh, one over the other Celtic Sea salt would be mine. Um, pink Himalayan, I think if if that takes your preference is better than the no salt. Um, but yeah, be under no illusion. Celtic Sea salt is far, far better for you than than a pink Himalayan. Without question. Cool. I've got another question here which Ben may have some views on. Uh, two. Two and a half months into strict carnival. After a month, I realized that I was not getting sunburned. We'd love to hear your thoughts on this. So I've not heard a good reason why this happens. The only reason that I'm aware of is actually the cutting out of the seed oils and the excess omega sixes, which have, uh, natural inflammatory properties. Um, it's it's a very, very common symptom or lack of to to report. Um, and I figured we'd talk about this as well, because he actually pretty much ruined his his soul. Nicholas. Uh, so he still can't really handle much sun. But ten, 12 years ago, he he would burn to a crisp within within minutes in strong sunshine. He's a little bit better now. I will go, I will go red in the sun. And then the next day it's brown these days. And I put. I put it down to the Omega sixes. Yeah, I spot on that and I can tell you the mechanism as well. Um, so when UVB hits the skin, the body will synthesize cholesterol to make vitamin D, which is a sunscreen. So it's vitamin D is produced from cholesterol in the skin that acts as protection from UVB rays. Um, vegetable oils. Oxidized Omega Six's linoleic acid, for example, looks so similar to cholesterol that the body mistakes it for cholesterol. Um, but it's not fit for human biology. And we know this through a condition called site sterility. So feel free to search that while you guys are listening. Site. Austereo may begin with an S site or stereo. Lima is a genetic condition inherited condition in which the body can't detox plants sterols i.e. these these fight or sterols, these uh, these vegetable oils um, which goes to show how toxic they are on the body. The body is actively trying to to remove these compounds in a normal state. So, um, we, uh, we don't, uh, extract enough. The body will try to extract as much as it can, but we still retain about 2%. So when UVB hits the skin and cholesterol tries to go to work to create vitamin D, there's no actual cholesterol there. There's no cholesterol because it's plant sterols. So we we're not producing the adequate amount of vitamin D. And now we burn. We literally burn. We cook through these vegetables, through these cooking oils. We burn in our skin because we do not have adequate cholesterol. And that's what vitamin D is. Vitamin D, um, is is a sunscreen. Uh, it's not a vitamin. It's a hormone. Um, and many of the attributed benefits of vitamin D are not actually coming from the vitamin D itself. They come in from the, uh, the activation, an increase of a compound called nitric oxide, which comes from the UVA rays. So when we're in the sun, UVA and UVB hits the skin, the UVA is increasing. Nitric oxide. And nitric oxide is a potent vasodilator which is associated with longevity. So when we see that people with high vitamin D are healthier, the vitamin D is a marker of good metabolic health. We can't become healthier by taking a vitamin D supplement. It doesn't work that way. We have high vitamin D because we're healthy, not the other way around. We don't become healthy because we have high vitamin D, but the vitamin D comes from the UV, the UVA, UVB rays as they hit the skin and is synthesized from cholesterol. This is why we need to drop the vegetable oils, the vegetables that are high in this oxidized omega six linoleic acid. We need to eat real fats butter, tallow. large fats as nature intended. Um, but but that. Yeah, 100% spot on, Ben. That is. I used to burn, and now I no longer burn. Yeah. Let's get another question. Sorry. Can I just jump in with another couple of points on that? One is, um, when you when you do synthesize the vitamin D, which is a very bad name because it's not really a vitamin, it's it's more of a more of a hormone anyway. Uh, when you do synthesize that, it happens on the surface of your, your skin. It doesn't happen within the skin cells. So it's very important that if you are in the sun, you get that good you ultraviolet exposure. When you're done sunbathing, don't go and jump straight under under the shower because you will literally rinse off all that vitamin D that your body's just made. So you need to leave it on there for a few hours to soak into your skin. And that's when you'll you'll get the benefit of it. Um, and the other thing in there, another reason to avoid the plants as well. Is the plant sterols. So the plant these kind of phyto sterols are the equivalent. They're the plants equivalent to cholesterol which is the the animals king animal kingdoms you know, really really useful structural molecule. Um, and the plant sterols are very, very similar in structure such that when you consume these, your body will mistake them for cholesterol, and it will try and use them to build the cell walls, to build the the hormones, including vitamin D, and it won't work properly. So just, you know, if we're keeping score of reasons not to eat plants, that's another one to chuck in. Yeah, cool. I'm just trying to make the most of having you here, Ben. Uh, so here's the next question. Does it eating meat have any impact on telomeres? Yes. There was a study. I think it was about a year ago. Now, if you if you type that into Google, it will say that you need to eat, uh, plants, fruits, stuff, grain, you know, whatever to increase the length of your telomeres. If you don't know what telomeres are, then the, the classic description is, you know, the little plastic bits on the end of your shoelaces that stop them from fraying every time. All of our cells can divide, right? Most of our cells. And when they divide, the telomere gets slightly shorter. And, um, that's also a reason to why adult stem cells are useful. Because when they create, when they turn into a new cell, they can turn into any cell in the body with the exception of eggs and sperm. Um, they start off with full length telomeres, which means that they can subdivide multiple multiple times over potentially years, um, without running out and leading to ultimate cell death. Um, now, this study, they looked at all kinds of things, uh, all kinds of lifestyle factors. And the only one that I that had a, a statistically significant correlation with telomere length was consumption of red meat. Right. Um, I can't I can't point you to the study itself, but, uh, I think Uncle Google will probably bury it and make it hard to find, but that's my understanding. Nothing else makes a has any positive difference. There you go. There is. So I can send people the link to that. Anyway, if they want that right now, then we're going to remove that from the screen. We're going to remove that question. And in the side of the the stage we have the wonderful doctor Robert Kilts. So let's bring him on. Hey my brothers, how's it going? Nice to see everyone. You too, my man. Oh, we keep in. Oh, awesome. Beautiful day in Paradise. Now that I'm here with you guys. Nothing better than this. So, Ben, thank you so much for your time. Do you want to just give us a little, uh, outro from your section? Uh, just that anyone who's watching this would love to. Love to see you at the kind of all conference, you know, meet all of these guys. Rob's not going to be there, but a load of the people that you've already seen today from the UK. Uh, we'll be there. Um, just go to Carnival conference. Co.Uk get your ticket and we'll, uh, let's hang out for the weekend. Be great to see you.