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Nutraceuticals

Buyer beware.

Goji berries….Antioxidants….Omega-3…Oh, my!!

You could spend all day reading up on supplements and only scratch the surface. You could also spend a lot of money – and many of my patients do – upwards of a thousand dollars every few months. But what are you really buying? Is it hype? Or is it real?

The answer: a bit of both.

Nutraceuticals from powders to pills to gels and creams are certainly a heterogeneous group of consumer products and it’s hard to lump them all into one post in any kind of logical way. But that’s what I’m going to try to do.

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Kobe Bryant

It helped. I feel great.

"It’s helped. I feel great."

Kobe Bryant
NBA baskeball player
megyn kelly

This has been life changing

"Let me tell you this has been life-changing. I have all of her books, in audible and ebooks! I have gotten rid of all the hateful 8 oils. I have trained my body to eat its own previously toxic body fat. Download that pod it's a game changer!"

Megyn Kelly
Jesse Watters

Life changing

Deep Nutrition changed my life.

Jesse Watters
Fox News Primetime host

Saved my life

I would like to thank you for literally saving my life. Back in February, I had to be hospitalized while on vacation in Phoenix with an A1C of 11% and had to start taking 2 types of insulin and 2 other meds. I read the Fatburn Fix in April, and followed the program to a tee, and I’m down by 15 pounds, 6.8 A1C, and only one once weekly diabetes medicine. Prior to reading the book, it was almost impossible for me to lose weight as a diabetic. 

Leontyne Tompkins

I feel free

For the last month, I have really been reading all labels on everything. I have completely remove those 8 oils you talk about. I must tell you, I feel great! I have more energy and I am now 197 lbs (have always been around 205 to 210lbs). I eat potatoes with real butter, grass fed steak, pasta with the right toppings. I eat everything! I seem to crave less sugar. I love it! 

Robert Kirkendall

I feel so much better

I had terrible aches and pains everywhere in my body, my hands, shoulders and knees. I feel so much better and the way I feel is motivating me every day! Thank you

Mike Deb Wootan Burcin

Better than ever

I am an anesthesiologist in Orlando and a huge fan of both of your books! I have been incorporating your principles for the last 10 months and feel that my health is better than ever.

Marnie Robinson, MD

My allergies disappeared

The biggest difference for me (and a surprising one) is that my allergies have almost completely disappeared! This is a big deal for me, because I’ve had allergies most of my life and they have often affected what I do which is a teaching music in [a public school district].  In general, I feel much better and have more consistent energy throughout the day.

Erica Turrell

Heart Palpitations have Stopped

I’ve lost 20+ pounds (also fasting 16-24 hours daily) and haven’t had palpitations except for one occasion — I had a mini bag of Fritos for the first time in July. And, I feel better now on a daily basis than I ever did all through college.

Mike Wright
Deep Nutrition and Fatburn Fix reader
Mitzi Wilkinson Champion

I’ve lost over 50 pounds

I’ve lost over 50 pounds. I’m 56 years old. Cutting processed food and unhealthy fats from my diet was one of the first things I did on my health recovery journey...I went cold turkey off the bad oils. Emptied my pantry into the trash and just started eating real food

Mitzi Wilkinson Champion

Knowledge I didn’t know I needed

Your Fatburn Fix book is amazing, my friend. Thank you! I’m an Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and I know my stuff. This is the extra layer of knowledge I didn’t know I needed. Well done!

Jennifer Dillman
Fatburn Fix reader

Lost a solid 20 lbs and my bloodwork is great

I have lost a solid 20 lbs and my bloodwork (after 3 months of eating your way) was even better! I was metabolically healthy (per your book) before I read your book, but barely. Lowering my weight, sealed the deal! I have been talking about you and your book to anyone who will listen...Thank you for all you’ve done and what you continue to do! You are changing lives for the better!

Missy Cramer
FatBurn Fix reader

Lost 20 lbs I could never shed

I love your Fatburn Fix!  Has helped me so so much!  I have had the dreaded weight all my life - 20 or so pounds I could never shed.  I have lost that now. I only eat 2 meals a day lunch and dinner with a glass of milk or cappuccino around 4 to hold me over. No snacking and not bad oils.  It has been the key to unlocking my fatburn.  I work out in the am and believe I am burning fat for energy not from food!

Lauren Smith

I feel great

My waist is four inches smaller. I feel great and many of the minor aches and pains that I had (knees and lower back) are gone. Also, my muscle tone is amazing, even though I have not increased my workout routine.

Richard Janelle
Completed Dr Cate's online course
Kent Matthes

The go-to for strength and conditioning coaches

Whenever I advise my clients about eating to perform I go straight to what I have learned from Dr. Cate. Her book Deep Nutrition has become the go-to for strength and conditioning coaches across the country.

Kent Matthes
Major League Baseball Agent with WME Sports
Ken D Berry

Dismantles the lie

Dr. Cate dismantles the lie that seed oils are healthy, which may the biggest lie about nutrition and health because it’s so insidious.  

Ken D Berry, MD
Author of Lies My Doctor Told Me
Dr. Drew Pinsky

She knows the chemistry

Dr. Cate alerts us to the harms of seed oils and she’s convincing because she knows the chemistry better than anyone.

Dr. Drew Pinskey, MD
Globally recognized internal medicine and addiction medicine specialist, media personality, LoveLine Host, and New York Times bestselling author
Kelly Starrett

No one is better at communicating nutritional truth

Dr. Cate has had the single greatest impact on how we talk to people about fueling for both performance or durability. While we all are a little unique, the foundational principles of human nutrition are immutable. If you are looking to create a more durable, resilient body, no one is better at communicating nutritional truth than Dr. Cate.

Dr. Kelly Starrett
Physiotherapist coach and New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author
Brian Lenkzes

Highly recommend The Fatburn Fix

Dr. Shanahan has had a significant impact on my practice of medicine. I am known as a Low Carb Doctor, but I never really appreciated the negative effects of processed seed oils on the health of my patients. I highly recommend The Fatburn Fix to my patients and have a loaner copy in my waiting room. It is amazing how quickly blood sugars and overall health improves with cutting seed oils. It is not just about the carbs!

Dr. Brian Lenkzes, MD
CEO of LowCarbMD San Diego, co-host of Low Carb MD Podcast and host of Life's Best Medicine Podcast
Chris Kaman

Respected in the sports world

Dr. Cate reordered my diet when I was with the L.A. Lakers, and the benefits, for me personally, were felt immediately and have served me to this day. I’ve come to take real food so seriously I started a small family farm. I know of no M.D./nutritionist more respected in the sports world than Dr. Cate Shanahan.

Chris Kaman
NBA Player
Mark Sisson

Brought seed oil issue front and center

Cate brought the seed oil issue front and center. Healthy fats matter. So much so that I created an entire product line to swap out bad fats with good.

Mark Sisson
Founding Father of the Primal/Paleo Movement
Dallas Hartwig

Optimal health starts with food

If you want to understand how optimal health starts with food, start with Dr. Cate. Her book Deep Nutrition leaves you with an appreciation of the profound relationship between our genes and the planet, inspiring us to be good shepherds of both.

Dallas Hartwig
Attribution author of The Whole 30
Dwight Howard

Helped me with endurance

Deep Nutrition really helped me with endurance. I started to feel better as a player. I was able to run more, I was able to be more active …and I just decided to keep going with it to this day.

Dwight Howard
NBA Player
Paul Grewal

Silver bullet for me

Dr Cate’s teachings helped me lose 60 pounds like it was nothing. It was like a silver bullet for me.

Paul Grewal, MD 
Dr Grewal Internal Medicine, MD, author of Genius Foods
Joesph Mercola

Radically improve your health…

Dr. Shanahan has provided a solid reference that deserves a place in the library of anyone who is seriously interested in nutrition. Her perspective on the vital role that healthy fat has in our diet is novel and, if implemented, can radically improve your health.

Dr. Joseph Mercola
Author of Fat for Fuel and Founder of Mercola.com
Dave Aspery

Pull up a chair…

I have based my work on the idea that getting the right kinds of healthy fats into your body and avoiding the worst fats is essential to optimal health. I've interviewed dozens of the world's top experts about this, and I know of no one who speaks more eloquently on this topic than Dr Cate. If she’s talking fats, pull up a chair. Take notes.

Dave Asprey
Author of the Bulletproof Diet

The key to unlocking my fatburn

I love your Fatburn Fix!  Has helped me so so much!  I have had the dreaded weight all my life - 20 or so pounds I could never shed.  I have lost that now. I only eat 2 meals a day lunch and dinner with a glass of milk or cappuccino around 4 to hold me over. No snacking and not bad oils.  It has been the key to unlocking my fatburn.  

Lauren Smith

Saved my life

I would like to thank you for literally saving my life. Back in February, I had to be hospitalized while on vacation in Phoenix with an A1C of 11% and had to start taking 2 types of insulin and 2 other meds. I read the Fatburn Fix in April, and followed the program to a tee, and I’m down by 15 pounds, 6.8 A1C, and only one once weekly diabetes medicine. 

Leontyne Tompkins

> Tears of joy

 I'm crying tears of joy and appreciation for all you've done for me and my health! Without Deep Nutrition and Fatburn Fix, I would literally still be in the vicious cycle I'd been fighting all my life! In a nutshell - I am no longer a compulsive overeating addict suffering under the crushing 'thumb' of all food and alcohol.     

Penni Wicks

 

I call the nutraceutical business the modern snake oil business. Snake oil salesmen actually sold snake oil, at one time. And snake oil, as some of you may know, is full of omega-3 fatty acids which are anti-inflammatory. Omega-3 fatty acids should be part of everyone’s diet. But back in the days of the oil salesmen, people were buying snake oil for everything under the sun. And not only that, they were told that nothing else could help them.

Sound familiar?

Today’s savvy consumer knows that omega-3 comes from a variety of sources. It comes from fish, flax, and more. One of the most abundant sources of omega-3 that you won’t see advertised on the flax or fish oil web sites is super cheap: organ meat. (Yucky? Only if you never learned to cook it!) Another source is egg yolks from chicken free to eat their normal diet which includes omega-3 rich plants and insects.

Most supplement companies are little better than pharmaceutical companies.

Pharmaceutical companies sell their products to you indirectly, through doctors, by convincing us they’re the best way to address your health challenges. Supplement companies sell their products to you directly, by convincing you the pills they sell are superior to a balanced diet. In fact, nutraceutical companies want you to think the antioxidants, flavinoids, and other compounds they provide can only come from their pills. Nonsense.

All plants contain antioxidants, bioflavinoids and so on. So the more vegetables and herbs and so on you eat, the more of these goodies you get. And what’s more, there are far more active antioxidants and healthy bioflavinoids when plants are fresh than when they are dehydrated and encapsulated or otherwise formulated to sit on a shelf unrefrigerated.

I tell my patients that the “average” nutraceutical for sale is probably no more or no less dangerous than the “average” prescription medication. The FDA does not regulate the industry at all, not that they’ve done such a good job with pharmaceuticals but at least they contain what they claim to contain. The neutraceutical industry, however, is completely on the honor system. And when people get hurt and killed, there’s no system in place for notifying people selling tainted or just outright deadly cases to be notified. At least with pharmaceuticals pharmacists and doctors must be notified by law.

One of the more notorious cases was Kava Kava, which was banned from Germany after several people died from taking it. Kava Kava is a polynesian herb used as part of religious ceremonies and also for relaxation, a bit like the Irish use Guiness. The polynesians who use Kava Kava know that it can cause skin rashes, violent stomach upset, and other gastric problems. Clearly, just because something has been used “traditionally” and comes from a plant growing in the dirt as opposed to a plant off the Turnpike in New Jersey, doesn’t mean it’s free of painful and potentially harmful side effects.

But Kava Kava has more to teach us about all Nutraceuticals, not just the mind-altering ones.

Like all plants, Kava contains dozens of chemical families and perhaps thousands of individual chemicals. At the time people took their deadly capsules of Kava Kava, little was known about it. And few suspected there might be something about the way the Polynesians prepared the drink that might prevent them from dying. So when the factory made it’s Kava nutraceutical product, they followed a totally different protocol their product was a dry powder rather than a drink). It turns out, that little detail made the difference between life and death for some people.

Traditional preparation is done using what chemists call an aqueous extract, meaning water is used to remove the active ingredient from the source. This was traditionally done by soaking crushed Kava leaves in either water or coconut oil. In the factory, however, the chemists figured that they’d use a different kind of material to extract more of the active ingredient. It worked, and customers who took their product got plenty relaxed. But some, perhaps those with poor liver capacity, ended up permanently relaxed. Why?

The mind-altering Kava alkaloids are potentially toxic to the liver. Fortunately, aqueous extraction also removed compounds which helped reduce the toxicity, specifically one compound called glutathione. Glutathione is water soluble. And the factory, wanting to improve the efficiency of the extraction process, used an alcohol based solvent instead, leaving the glutatione behind. The result was deadly. Now, Kava manufacturers make sure the glutathione gets into the capsules. This was only one lesson learned, and some paid with their lives. How many other similar mistakes will be made?

The Solution Is Dilution

This was one of my toxicology professor’s favorite sayings. And it’s been taken to heart by the Nutraceutical companies who now put a tiny bit of numerous plants into their products. This safety measure reduces the chances that any one toxin can be present in large concentration. A good idea.

But is buying pills and powders really the only way to get all those antioxidants and other good things? Isn’t there a safer, tastier, more natural way?

There certainly is. And the answer may inspire you to check out a few of my salad dressing recipes.

With over two decades of clinical experience and expertise in genetic and biochemical research, Dr. Cate can help you to reverse metabolic disease and reshape your body.

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