Bulletproof Diet: Fructose Is Bad? Fish Oil Is Great?

[jitsmonkey]

My vocation for the last 22 years has been as a marketing consultant
I'm not opposed to anyone selling anything at all.
I sell things for both myself and my clients every single day.
Many of the fundamental strategies and processes Dave uses skillfully are used
to effectively help/support people everyday.
You're 100% correct. Sales and Trustworthiness are not related in any way.

However, I know the wizard behind the curtain.
I know all of his tricks. I know all of his magical powers.
I can see when they're in play.

No different than Ray has the ability to decipher data and science most avg folk wouldn't even come across much less understand at first blush.
No different than any "insider" in any industry.

Dave is a marketer before anything else. He's extremely skilled a the straw man argument
He's extremely skilled at making arguments/debates/dissonance where there is none.
His version of "research" is as follows

1. look at studies that show any positive correlation with commonly held amorphous health issues (ie. inflammation)
2. determine if there are people either consuming related products or looking for information on that issue
3. see if there's a product to sell into that market.

(sometimes the process requires these steps be in a different order but the steps are the same)...
Is there an audience?
Can we create doubt / fear about what they know?
Can we offer "proof" we're right?
Can we find product to profitably sell into the void?
rinse.
repeat.

Every single product he sells follows this formula.
From "mycotoxin free coffee" to "mct oil" to "dha"
He's an intentional purveyor of misinformation and uses that to grow his brand.
Predator would not be too strong a word.

Marketing 101.
There is a special place in hell just for people like Dave Asprey
PT Barnum would be proud


There's a big difference between Haidut or Health Natura or even someone like Joe Mercola.
Intentionally misinforming people to "create" a marketplace to sell into vs selling into a market that already exists are two very different things.

Health Natura sells some products I would NEVER buy but other people do and that's fine. They sell some products I buy all the time. Haidut provides products that many in this forum ask for or desire. Joe Mercola does the exact same thing on a much much larger scale. Do I like or agree with him or many of his views? No but that doesn't make him a bad guy it just makes him in disagreement with me. The problem isn't selling or making money. The problem is lying, deception and intentionally misinforming for your own benefit.

Asprey is a predatory and dishonest human being.
I know this both first and second hand.
He's not the first nor is he the only and he certainly won't be the last
but when people utilize his position as a "debate" point its laughable.

 

[Sucrates]

There is this mentality in the nutrition world where people automatically don't trust someone if that person is selling things, like trying to make a living makes you a liar or something. "You're trying to make money? Shame on you!!"

This belief system seems especially prevalent with 'peaty people' for some reason. Asprey is just a salesman though, the reality of the effects of his products are completely irrelevant.

 

[Such_Saturation]

Remember when that kid said "he told me to just add any pubmed abstract that had these words in it". Of course that "exposed" webpage went offline. Probably got a cease and desist.

 

[ecstatichamster]

I won't engage in political discussions. But capitalism is wonderful, and anyone who sells something people buy is enriching both buyer AND seller. Most reputable sellers offer money back guarantees and honor them.

 

[Such_Saturation]

enriching both buyer AND seller

By teaching them a life lesson?

 

[theLaw]

For anyone interested, just go back and listen to the episodes of Joe Rogan's podcast when Asprey was the guest.

Rogan finally confronts him about the micotoxin claims, but he has no real answer, saying that his cleaning/roasting process is proprietary, and can't be revealed.

Rogan also announced on another episode that a friend of the show claims to have tested several store-bought brands against BP Coffee, and found no significant concentrations of micotoxins in all of them, although BP was on the higher end vs the others.

Also, Rogan is co-owner of Onnit which carried BP Coffee for a while, but has now switched to Caveman Coffee, produced by friends of the show.

 

[Badger]

My local health food store says it is hard to deal with the Bulletproof staff, who are arrogant and difficult, when they call them and try making orders to bring products into the store, and it takes 3-4 weeks before anything arrives, even though it should only take 4-5 days at the most.

 

[encerent]

Fish oil gives me great energy and I only need 1 hour of sleep on them

 

[Travis]

As for the original question for the newbie, fat prior prior to 60 years ago use to be saturated or at least not a pufa. Companies wanted to switch over to PUFAs b/c they are way cheaper, and the seed companies also loved this idea. So you use tainted studies to push a fear mongering campaign against saturated fat. Fast forward 60 years and almost everybody in the medical & nutritional field has been taught to use this data to support this gigantic corporate driven machine. The fish market is massive, and with profits comes massive amounts of waste.

No doubt the oil industry played their part, but I think the demonization of saturated fat was partly done by the medical community themselves as a scapegoat. Linus Pauling in the 60's basically proved that cardiovascular disease was mostly a vitamin C deficiency. Focusing on just one constituent of atherosclerotic plaques (cholesterol), and not the others (lipoprotein-a), ensured the the cardiology industry would have another few decades of exorbitant profits. Saturated fat was a safe scapegoat as well since avoiding it doesn't cause a reduction in cardiovascular disease, milk producers can make skim milk, and meat sellers can start making different cuts. The long-chains, but not the short-chains, slightly increase blood cholesterol levels by altering the solubility of lipoproteins for cholesterol. This barely matters since cholesterol plays a relatively minor role in cardiovascular disease anyway; the active player is lipoprotein(a).

 

[Travis]

And as far as Asprey goes, his "mycotoxin-free" coffee seems overpriced.

Most any South American coffee is going to have low levels of mycotoxins since they use the wet-process: coffee cherries are floated in a vat and they are de-hulled with rotating burrs. The coffee seeds sink to the bottom and are collected and dried.

David Asprey thinks you need a proprietary method to know how to keep mold from growing on coffee?

The African coffees can be high in mycotoxins. What is traditional there is to dry the coffee cherries in the sun. The husk then dries-up and the coffee beans are separated by hand. They way they process coffee there makes them dependent on weather, and rainstorms can moldify the coffee.

The natural occurrence of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) and ochratoxin A (OTA) has been surveyed in 47 samples of commercial green coffee beans. Samples were collected in Nagoya City, Japan, during 1988–93. Using a combination of immunoaffinity chromatography and high‐performance liquid chromatography analysis, AFB1 and OTA were quantified with detection limits of 2 ng kg‐1 and 0.1 μg kg‐1 respectively. Positive rates and levels of AFB1 and OTA were 32% and 2.0–32.9 ng kg‐1, and 30% and 0.1–17.4 μg kg‐1 respectively. The samples contaminated with AFB1 or OTA were mainly imported from African and Asian countries, and several samples were found to be positive for these two mycotoxins for the first time in Japan, although their levels were low.

Survey of aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A in commercial green coffee beans by high‐performance liquid chromatography linked with immunoaffinity chromatography

 

[PUFAsfree2001]

I came upon Ray Peat's writings in the late 1990s, when I was dealing with a wasting disorder the several doctors I consulted couldn't help me with. Eventually, I had to figure out on my own that I was producing little if any stomach acid (generic betaine HCl worked). During that time I did a great deal of nutritional research, and by early 2001 decided to avoid any food item that contained more than a tiny amount of PUFAs, and I have done so until the present day. I eat a boiled egg (or half) each day, along with cheese, chocolate, fruit, some grains, and coconut oil (I largely substituted it for better in recent years). This "experiment" I did on myself, which resulted in only benefits (such as a keloid that nearly disappeared, whereas it just kept growing on the vegan/organic diet I was on previously that included more than small amounts of PUFAs), is what matters most (to me if nobody else). I would never go near DHA or any "quality" omega 3 supplement (I tried that - ground flax seed - before the wasting problem, actually, and for all I know that's what caused it!). I take only generic/basic supplements, such as D, C, magnesium, calcium, etc. in the most absorbable forms, but only in small amounts. I'm not obese and I look much younger than my age (early 50s). I agree with those here who warn against supplements sales pitches. One thing I learned from Peat is to go with physiological approaches (changes made to diet in small amounts, and given at least a few months to see benefits), rather than the typical Western medicine therapeutic approach, which often involves medications that might work, but usually only for a short period of time (and can make things worse in the long term). Though few seem to notice, the "alternative health"" people have adopted the same approach as is the case for Western medicine. There is likely no "quick fix," but instead you give the body what it needs (and avoid what causes harm) and then you give it time to regain health (and remember, things like intense exercise can be very unhealthy!).