Transcription
Everyone says that sardines are the perfect food, so I put it to the test. I ate nothing but sardines for five straight days. But I'll be very honest with you, I did not feel amazing. However, I discovered some critical distinctions about how the body works that I think everyone needs to understand, and that's what I want to share with you today.
Hello, health champions. Here's what happened when I ate nothing but sardines for 5 days. So, I wasn't trying to eat a certain number of sardines. I just ate as much as I wanted, whenever I wanted. And it turned out I averaged about six tins of sardines per day. Some days I had a little more, some days a little less. And I ate some of them in olive oil, I had some of them in hot sauce or tomato sauce or mustard sauce for variety. Because once you eat just sardines, one kind can get a little bit boring. And if you go looking, you'll find that some sardines are sold with skin and bones and others are bone free and skin free. So, it turned out I ate about 80% of mine with skin and bones. And we'll talk about why that makes a difference. But if you're new to sardines and you're kind of hesitating, then I might suggest that you start with the skin and the bone free because then it's sort of like tuna, I think. Then it's a little bit easier. It doesn't taste so fishy and it might be a little bit easier to get started with.
And in addition to that, the only other things I had were a few supplements. And the big thing I would recommend if you try something like this, any restrictive diet or any major change where you cut back on carbs, you want to get some electrolytes. So I took three scoops a day of my own brand of electrolytes called Ulite. All in all, I ate 30 tins of sardines in the five days and it added up to about 18 ounces of fish per day or about 510 gram of sardines. And those are whole small fish. And we'll talk about why that matters. That provided about 120 to 125 gram of protein, about 85 to 95 grams of fat, and that included some of the olive oil in the cans in the tins that had olive oil because I didn't drain them. So, whatever oil sort of stuck to the fish, I ate that as well. The carbohydrates were very near zero because there's no carbs in the fish itself. But because I ate different sauces, there would be like a trace amount, like half a gram maybe of carbohydrate in a tomato sauce. But for all practical purposes, it was zero carbs. And even though I could eat as much as I wanted, you're going to find that if you try this, you will have a calorie deficit. I ate about 1,300 to,400 calories per day. You can probably force yourself to eat more, but that's not really the point.
So, why did I pick sardines for this versus some other fish? Well, they are small and young fish, and that means that they have the lowest toxic load. They don't live long enough to accumulate a lot of waste. And they're also not predatory fish. They don't eat other fish that have accumulated toxins like larger predatory fish. With the sardine, they're small enough that you basically eat the whole fish. It's a form of miniature nose totail animal consumption basically. So, you're eating the organs, the skin, the bones, and the connective tissue. Eat the whole thing. And one of the biggest advantages of sardines is that they have an amazing omega-3 to omega6 ratio. Where most people consume 15 to 20 times more omega6, they're super dominant in omega6, which promotes inflammation. Sardines have basically the opposite ratio. They have about 7 to 10 times more omega-3 than omega6. So during a period like this, if you eat a very high amount of omega-3s for about 5 days, you're starting to shift that ratio around. And there's also evidence that our ancestors who lived on the coast and who did some fishing and ate things from the ocean that they were thriving on small fish for thousands or tens of thousands of years, which means sardines are an original food. This is not a new thing. It's not a fad.
Let's cover some micronutrient highlights of sardines. And here's a label from a package of one that I ate quite a bit. This brand is available at Costco in the US. And this is one of my favorites because it tasted really good. It's one of the ones that had the least tendency to get repetitious and be tiring. But I also like the fact that it had organic extra virgin olive oil in it. and it's still very very affordable. It's a natural thing. They don't add a bunch of strange stuff and it's also sea salt in there. But if we look at the detailed nutrition label, I just want to point this out because of how completely irrelevant it is. All most people know when they look at this is they see total fat and they think, "Oh, I know that's bad and saturated fats bad and sodium and cholesterol, those are bad." So, it's almost like this nutrition label is just there as a warning. It's not to inform or educate or anything like that. So, I'm not saying that there's not information to be had, but it doesn't really cover what the food is all about. And then down at the bottom, they list some vitamins and maybe some minerals. And people in for the most part, they they see, yeah, I think those are good, but what do they mean? And one of the most curious omissions from this label is that there's nothing on here about omega-3s. That's like the huge the biggest thing about small fatty fish and sardines is how incredibly rich they are in omega-3s. And we can't see anything about that here.
So with the omega-3s, let's talk about and understand what that means. So a combined EPA and DHA in milligrams per day. So these are the longest fish oil fatty acids that we need and these are critical for cardiovascular benefits for the EPA primarily and for brain and cell membrane benefits for signaling clarity for membrane elasticity and so forth. These are some of the most basic and critical functions in the body. Now, the average person gets about 80 to 100 milligrams combined of these two fatty acids. The American Heart Association recommends we get about 200 to 500. So, already we're about five times. We're only getting about a fifth as much as we should compared to the American Heart Association. But if you're like most people and you have already a dominance of omega6, now what you're looking for is a therapeutic dose if you're looking to change something. And now what you need is about 2,000 to 4,000 milligrams of EPA and DHA combined. So depending on your fish oil or your fish oil supplement, that doesn't mean 2,000 to 4,000 milligrams of fish oil because you could have only 20% of that fish oil be EPA and DHA. So you got to read the fine print and those numbers and most fish oil is kind of diluted in that regard. So therapeutic dose, the purpose is to get enough of these two fatty acids so that you can start displacing some of the omega sixes, some of the bad fats, the trans fats, the fats that you don't want in your cell membranes. And the way to get those out is basically to eat enough of the good stuff so that they start pushing them out. And on the sardine diet that I had with six tins a day, I got about 5,000 milligrams. So, I got in the neighborhood of 50 times as much as the average person, which is terribly deficient, but I got a very, very strong therapeutic dose out of that. And also, when you get fish oil, you're going to get for the most part, you're going to have twice as much EPA as you get DHA. And again, EPA is heart benefits, DHA is brain benefits, just to simplify. But with this fish oil, with the sardines, you're getting about a one to one. So, this fish oil, this uh fat, this omega-3, they're more brain friendly. They're leaning toward more brain support than just cardiovascular. Now, you're getting a tremendous amount of both, but especially for brain support.
And let's explain some of the other benefits. You're getting a high quality B12. You're getting about 45 micrograms per day, which is 19 times the recommended daily allowance. You're getting 265 milligrams of selenium per day, which is about five times the recommended daily allowance. Vitamin D, you're getting about a,000 IUs, which is more than the RDA, and it is significant, but those numbers are generally way too low. So, we probably need about three to five times as much as that. But it's very individual. People absorb it and retain it differently. So, you don't want to go mega doses on vitamin D without knowing where you stand. We're getting about 15 milligrams of iron. And this is the heem iron. That's the very available, very highly bioavailable form of iron. And you're getting about as much or a little more than you need per day. And then you're also getting 1,600 milligrams of calcium per day from eating six tins of sardines. And that comes from the bone in the fish. So it needs to be where the bone is still in the fish. But the source of calcium is so important. I want to spend a little time on that because most people have absolutely no idea. And the calcium that you get from fish bones, from sardine bones are calcium hydroxyappatite. And what that means is it's the same exact formulation and combination of calcium and other ingredients and the way it's put together as what you have in your body. And this means that the calcium, the phosphorus, the magnesium, and the collagen, which is what bones are made up of, you're eating all of them. They're built in. You're getting the entire package. So of course you have to first digest it and break it down, but then as you absorb it, you have the exact ingredients, you have the package ready to reassemble into bone. So in other words, sardines would be one of the best versions of calcium that you can get.
And why is this important? Because most calcium supplements sold are calcium carbonate. It's the cheapest form of calcium. It's abundant and it's basically the exact same thing as chalk. And very popular form of this calcium carbonate is called Tums which is sold as an antacid medicine. Now what we need to understand about this is we cannot absorb calcium carbonate without strong acid. We have to have stomach acid in order to break this down and in order to absorb it. That is very different from calcium hydroxy appatite which will be absorbed at any pH. We do not need acid. It's absorbed at a variety of different pH. So it's much more bioavailable. But here's the kicker. The calcium carbonate requires acid for us to absorb it. But the calcium carbonate neutralizes acid. Okay, I hope you got that. We have to have the acid, but as soon as we take calcium carbonate, it destroys the acid. It neutralizes. It takes it away. Which means that most calcium supplements only have theoretical calcium. Yes, there is calcium in there, but your body won't absorb it. Now, in the case of Tums, they're at least honest about it because it's primarily sold as an antacid. Now, sometimes they will claim that it's good for you because it has calcium, which isn't true, but at least it's primarily sold as an antacid, which means, of course, that it does work to neutralize acid, and that means we can't absorb the calcium. However, most other calcium supplements are still going to be calcium carbonate. So, they're sold the supplement under the illusion that you can get calcium from it, but they're just the same thing as toms. All they really work for is as an antacid.
So, I'm sure you're wondering what happened to me during these five days. So, on day one, it was very easy. It was novel. It was satisfying. I didn't have much hunger at all, so it was a breeze. Now, on day two, I was still fine, but I did start to get some fatigue. And I noticed that my bowel slowed down a little bit. I didn't go to the bathroom nearly as much for a bowel movement. And I also found out that I was getting somewhat tired of eating sardines. It's like, well, I'm a little bit hungry. What can I eat? Oh, that's right. Sardines. Then on day number three, I noticed increased fatigue, increased sluggishness, and increased hunger. And for some reason, in addition to that, I noticed an increase in the number of strange cats hanging around the house showing curious interest. And on day number four and five, I noticed that I was still functioning. I was adequate, but I was not thriving. And my mood and my attitude kind of shifted to if I have to choke down one more tin of sardines, then blank.
Now, during these five days, I lost about 5 to six pounds, which a lot of people would think is significant, but I'm going to get back to that and give you some perspective. So, in my honest summary, I would have to say that I felt okay, but not amazing. And I know a lot of people who make a video like this, they're just going to say, "Oh, I felt amazing." Because that's sort of what people expect to hear. But I want to be totally transparent here and I want to use this as a teaching experience and talk about why someone may not feel amazing. Because you see so many people try this or try similar things or try keto and they say, "Oh, I felt so amazing. I got so much energy." But I want you to understand maybe why that's not happening. So first of all, I had a significant calorie deficit while I was still staying active. So 13-400 calories is about half of what I would normally eat. And I maintained significant physical activity. I did some yard work. I did some hiking. So I burned at least 6 to 800 calories above my basil metabolic rate just in activity. So all in all, I had a calorie deficit of about 1,000 to,400 calories per day. And this could be okay if you are already in keto, if you're already fully fat adapted. Now, I have to be honest, I was not perfectly fat adapted prior to going into this. I basically went straight to a keto diet from a moderate carb diet. And for the most part, I eat very low carb to fairly low carb. this particular period I came off about 70 to 120 grams of carbs per day to zero overnight and at that level of carbs which is not necessarily wrong if you're insulin sensitive if you're active then it can be good to have a variety a lot of people don't want to be that high for a long period of time and I like to be lower than that for significant periods but coming off of that I would not fully fat adapted. And if you were to try this and in my case, I would have been much better off to have spent a couple of weeks to go very low carb first. So I was fully fat adapted and then it would probably have been a very easy transition.
Another thing we need to understand is what happens when we have zero fiber for the gut. For one thing, your motility is likely to slow down. your bowel movements are going to slow down, which I definitely noticed. But another thing is that the fiber is food for your gut bacteria. So when you cut back on that, then they're not going to produce as much of their normal output. And a lot of these bacteria, they make what's called shortchain fatty acids. And that's an energy source for other bacteria in your gut, but also for your intestinal cells, for your intercides that line your gut. And more specifically, one of those short- chain fatty acids is called butyrate. And when you cut back, when you reduce butyrate, now there's going to be less production of serotonin, which is your feel-good neurotransmitter. So, by cutting back on fiber, you're not just slowing down your gut, but you're changing your whole mood setup. And the gut makes as much as 90% of the serotonin in your body. And then there's another nerve called vagus nerve. It goes from your brain stem and all the way down to your gut. It basically inervates the digestive portion of most of your digestive system. Now, what most people don't realize is that the majority of vagus signaling is not from the brain to the gut. It's from the gut to the brain. This is called the gut brain axis and it is very much involved with brain signaling. So as a result now you could see a decrease in mood and energy. So we have to realize that there's more than one thing going on here and we don't want to point all the blame or all the responsibility on one factor. So if we reduce calories and we don't do a smooth keto transition and we reduce the gut fuel, we have to understand that all three of these can affect and probably will affect which it did in my case will affect your mood and energy. And this just goes to show that your body is a system. It's a unit. Every system talks to every other system. So, as soon as you change one input, then it's going to affect other factors.
Now, what about weight loss? Did I really lose five to six pounds? Well, the scale said so on day six, but I probably lost about two pounds of actual fat tissue, and the rest of it I lost one pound of glycogen and three pounds of water. So glycogen is how your body stores carbohydrate. You if you eat bread or fruit or sugar or any form of carbohydrate, it breaks down into glucose and then your body reassembles that into a branched tree so to speak of these glucose molecules and this is glycogen. And you can put some of that in your liver and you can put the rest of it in your muscles. And then as you stop eating carbohydrates or you do a complete fast, you're going to start using up that glycogen pretty quickly. And if you do a complete fast, you'll probably burn through it in 24 to 36 hours. If you do like I did and eat some other food like sardines, you'll go through it a little bit slower. But in about two days, you will have used up that glycogen. Now the thing about glycogen is that molecule is like a sponge. It attracts water just like a sponge. It holds water to it at about three times as much as the glycogen itself. So you could store about a pound of glycogen and then that's going to hold three pounds of water. So when you burn through the glycogen, you release the water and you're just going to flush that out because there's nothing to hold it anymore. And then what happens is you guessed right. As soon as you start eating any form of carb, you're going to gain that glycogen and that water right back. Which is not a bad thing. We just have to realize that that's how it works. And the important thing to understand is this is not just in my case or about sardines. This happens always. It's true for any sort of shortterm diet or restriction where your body is going to be using up that glycogen.
Now, here's how the electrolyte, the ulite helped in my case, and it's important to understand this because if you do any sort of transition into keto or you do some short-term fasting, you do want to take some electrolytes. It's really critical because it will reduce a lot of the problems that people experience. So once you reduce carbohydrates, you're going to reduce insulin and with less insulin, you're going to tell the kidneys to lower their sodium retention. So in other words, as you drop carbs, you're going to lose sodium. And sodium holds on to water. So now you're going to lose water as well and with that you're going to also lose potassium and magnesium. So you're overall you're losing a lot of electrolytes and you're losing a lot of fluids not just from the glycogen but from this mechanism as well. So in my case, the Ulite helped to compensate for the loss of these electrolytes, but also for for the reduced intake because just eating sardines, you're not going to get as much sodium, potassium, and magnesium as you need. Sodium is probably going to be the closest, especially if you find a brand with with a lot of salt in it. And if you take an electrolyte, that's going to help reduce headaches and possibly cramps and keto flu. So, a lot of the things that people call keto flu, the lightadedness and so forth, the nausea, the lack of energy associated with what's called keto flu, is not really a keto flu. It's a loss of minerals. That's the biggest factor in getting symptoms. And even though I went on this little campaign pretty drastically, taking the electrolyte is probably why I felt okay rather than completely terrible.
So even though sardines is still one of my favorite foods and I highly recommend it, we have to understand that it does not provide any fiber, zero. It does not have any vitamin C and it has some magnesium but not enough to sustain you. It has some potassium but not enough. And then I want to point out because very few people do that in terms of biome support it also does not do a very good job. Has no fiber. It has no phytonutrients or polyphenels and those are other plant compounds that help selectively feed certain bacteria especially some of the beneficial bacteria that are hard to feed. They live off these polyphenels. Now it's totally okay to do this for 5 days but we have to realize that this is sort of missing from a long-term diet.
So, was it a good idea to do this little experiment? Well, I think it's a good reset. Anytime that you feel like, hey, I really need to reset myself, that's not a bad idea to do something like this. It can work as a cleanse or as a mini fast. It's not a total fast because you're still eating, but you have a significant calorie deficit. And I had seen some other people talk about sardines. So, I figured, hey, it'd be fun to do an experiment because most people who talk about it, they don't actually do it. And I do recommend though that you do get do a period of very low carb, highfat so that you're adapted first. That's going to make it much more enjoyable. And it provided me an absolutely massive boost in the best omega-3s, the EPA and the DHA, as well as high quality calcium and B12. But we need to understand that even though something like this can be great for a few days, that long term your body really wants more variety on it thrives on different types of foods that provide different nutrients, different fiber, different components that the body needs for different things. So, if you were to do this or something similar or if I was to do it again, I probably would go more like three cans of sardines per day and then maybe add in some non- starchy vegetables. Maybe steam up some broccoli, have a salad, do some avocado or something like that just for variety. I'm not one that do really well on any very limited, very strict, repetitive diet. my body sort of asks for variety. So, I strongly recommend you eat some sardines. It's a fantastic food. They are cheap, incredibly cheap for what you get, and they are nutritious. So, if you can tolerate them at all, I would suggest you make them part of your diet, not your entire diet. If you enjoyed this video, you're going to love that one. And if you truly want to master health by understanding how the body really works, make sure you subscribe, hit that bell, and turn on all the notifications so you never miss a lifesaving video.