Podcast from: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/podcast/supplements-podcasts/clams-health-benefits/
[0:00:00] Introduction
[0:00:56] Podcast Sponsors
[0:03:46] Guest Introduction
[0:04:34] Adventure on the Hardest Hike in America
[0:19:22] Health Benefits of Clams
[0:23:37] Concerns About the Level of Contaminants Found in Clams
[0:28:29] Podcast Sponsors
[0:30:29] What Craig Combines Clams with To Acquire the Highest Level of Efficacy
[0:40:33] Why Not Add Blue-Green AFA To His Ingredients
[0:43:02] Best Practices for Taking the Capsules
[0:46:35] About AltiFuel
[0:49:02] Closing the Podcast
[0:49:47] Terminate of Podcast
Ben: I have a master’s degree in physiology, biomechanics, and human nutrition. I’ve spent the past two decades competing in some of the most masochistic events on the planet, from SEALFIT Kokoro, Spartan Agoge, and The World’s Toughest Mudder, do 13 Ironman Triathlons, brutal bow hunts, adventure races, spearfishing, plant foraging, free diving, bodybuilding and beyond. I combine this intense time in the trenches with a blend of ancestral wisdom and contemporary science, search the globe for the world’s top experts in performance, fat loss, recovery, intestine hormones, brain, beauty, and brawn to deliver you this podcast. Everyleang you need to know to live an adventurous, delightful, and fulfilling lwhethere. My name is Ben Greenfield. Endelight the ride.
Hey, what’s up? It’s me, Ben, back for the weekend podcast for you. I’ve given you a weekend podcast. Did you know every weekend for the past 11 years, I’ve given you a podcast on the weekend? That’s how much I’m devoted to Incredible audio content. Got a good episode for you nowadays.
Before we jump into nowadays’s episode, I want to tell you about this recovery bundle that I put together for you. What I did was I combined fundamental amino acids. Then, I added one of the tallest quality fish oils that exists that’s also got astaxanlean which is like edible sunscreen. It fixes your skin from the inside out. It’s got EPA and DHA, but also gamma-linolenic acid which is a parent fundamental oil you don’t get in a lot of fish oils, even though you need that balance of both fish oil and plant-based oil. It’s got that in there. Then, also, I’ve added my formula Kion Flex, which is turmeric and cetyl myristoleate and dark cherry additionalct. Every these leangs that help to heal your joints. I call it my Recovery Bundle, my recovery trwhetherecta. It’s Flex. It’s fish oil. It’s Aminos. You, because that’s bundled, get huge savings on it, plus an additional 10% off at getkion.com, my supplements website. You get to getk-i-o-n.com. getk-i-o-n.com. Your code is BGF10. BGF10. If you exercise, whether you have sore joints whether you just want to recover faster, grab the Recovery Bundle. You stack all these leangs together and you’ll feel like you’re 16 years ancient.
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Alright, folks, as promised, I have one of the most frequent repeat guests to the Ben Greenfield Fitness show back on nowadays’s show, my friend, supplement formulator, endurance athletes, precedingly one of the best freaking swimmers in the world, a guy who specializes in altitude performance, and studying endurance specwhetherically at altitude, and all leangs human performance in general. He’s back on the show, Craig Dinkel.
Craig, the final time you were on the show, you were about to dive into, and I will link to it in the shownotes for this podcast. Folks, just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/clam. I’ll explain why in a moment. Go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/clam for the shownotes. Craig, you were about to do the Hardest Hike. I leank it was called, what, the Hardest Hike in the USA?
Craig: Yes, that’s what some people like to call it, the Hardest Hike. This is obviously open to debate there. People that do these long-haul hikes of 2,000 and 3,000 miles. Those are damn dwhetherficult. A lot of respect for those guys and girls not to dismiss that at all. I suppose it’s a matter of opinion. The reason they call it the Hardest Hike in America, or certainly among them, is because it’s about a three-week off-trail hike at altitude between 9,000 and 12,000 feet, above 12,000 feet at some points, 33 mountain passes, and as I say, off-trail talus granite, giant granite, some glacial fields, some frozen snow areas, some beautwhetherul pastures and happyes, and leangs like that.
Ben: It’s the Sierra route, right? The Sierra High route.
Craig: Yes. I didn’t name, but I’m sorry, it’s called the Sierra High Route. Not to be confused with the High Sierra Trail, which is a trail. This is a route. It’s got some trails out of roughly 195, 200 miles. There may be 30 miles of trails. You start on a trail, you go off-route. Then, there are points where it gets so rough and dwhetherficult that the guy who invented the route had to get back on trail to help people like me keep from being at too much risk out there. Yes, it’s tough because it’s at altitude, it’s tall, and it’s dwhetherficult on. You got to move slower because you have to use a lot of map and compass and terrain recognition up there. By definition, it’s slower, it’s an altitude, and you’ve got to move more cautiously. You can’t just look at the ground and look up and wander through this like you can on a trail. That’s one of the reasons they call it the Hardest Hike in America.
Ben: How’d it go? What happened?
Craig: I spent a lot of time. The one leang I did right was doing some custom supplementation and formulation to come up with someleang we’re going to talk about nowadays to help me out here. Every the other research I did worked out pretty well. I had not done an extended long-haul hike. Again, three weeks versus the true long haulers can be from four to six months but this is still considered a long haul of sorts. I’ve never done one that’s been that long and solo. I’ve done long weekends up in the Grand and other places taller, actually, even than the Sierra High Route. I had to do a lot of research on equipment. I learned all about ultralight hiking. Every these people who go to do everyleang ultralight because it makes sense. You want to have the least amount of weight on your body because you’re going for long distances, you’re dealing with tall altitude or tall passes, or a number of tall passes. You got to go light. So, I did. It’s more expensive to do that. Ultra-light tents, ultralight sleeping bags, ultralight everyleang.
Ben: Titanium toothbrush?
Craig: That’s right. Whatever it takes to lighten the load. People who do this stuff, I used to laugh at this when I first got introduced to this tall-altitude hiking or it’s Backcountry stuff when people would say, “Hey, it’s all about ounces,” and I’d laugh and go, “What do you mean ounces? Let’s talk about pounds here.” Plus, how he’s younger and stronger and I didn’t have that much dwhetherficulty with weight. I’ve learned a lot about this type of hiking, this specwhetheric segment of hiking, this long-haul and tall-altitude stuff when it comes to ultra. Here’s the large mistake I crazye. I spent months and months and months studying and planning and getting alert for this stuff, and the one mistake I crazye was I bought an ultralight backpack, which, on the face of it sounds like it makes sense. What I found out there and ultra lighters would tell me.
Ben: I feel like the story might not be ending well.
Craig: It depends on your point of view. I leank it ends well. It ends up being genuinely disappointing but I learned so much. I learned so much about what to do the next time around. Obviously, I’ve given someleang absent there. There is going to be a next time. Bottom line is here’s what happened. The ultralight packs aren’t designed to carry weight the way the more sturdy Backcountry packs are designed to carry weight. Even though they have internal frames and they’re strong, they’re nowhere near as supportive as a more traditional Backcountry pack. My early advice to anyone looking at this kind of leang is you’ve got to buy the more traditional heavy sturdy pack that genuinely straps that weight to your body and buttons it right down into your lower back where the weight has to be, even an adjuregular one because as the weight load lightens up you can raise and lower the harnesses and get that pack to sit right where it’s supposed to be.
Ben: I use Kwhetheraru, by the way, for my hunting. One of my buddies, Aaron Schneider, over at Kwhetheraru, he has, I leank, 7,600 cubic inches their pack. It’s pretty lightweight but it’s got the built-in skeleton and the custom straps and everyleang that just fits like a mancient to your body. That’s the one that I’ve used in the past.
Craig: Yes, you nailed it. Those are superior packs for dwhetherferent application. The bottom line here is I bought a superior pack crazye for a totally dwhetherferent kind of event. What happened was, and I noticed it’s right absent but I didn’t put it together right absent, at the minute I started hiking up to the point where I go off-trail, I was having a dwhetherficult time with the pack and my glutes were hurting more than they normally do. It didn’t add up. It didn’t make sense. I trained like crazy for this. I have had very, very short episodes of hypoxia, or very short experiences with getting acclimatized which ruined the day. Then, the next day I was perfectly fine. I chucked it up to–well you’ve been in Austin, now you’re here in Calwhetherornia you’re starting at 5,000 feet. Now, you’re going straight up. You start at 5,000 feet and then it’s 5,000 more feet of just straight up. I never spent so much time going straight up as I had here, and, as I say, getting up to 10,000 feet right absent in day one. I feel like a bit of a bonehead saying this because I should have spotted this right absent, but it took me another day to genuineize that no matter how much I cinch that pack down onto my back, the way you just described it needs to mancient and fit right into your back and sit at the right place. I had 45 pounds in this pack. It’s rated to 40, it’s a small bit of a tangent. It’s rated to 40. What I learned about these ultra-light packs is instantly take off 25%, or 20-25%. This genuinely shouldn’t have more than I leank, in my own view, 30 perhaps 35 pounds. By that standard, I was 10+ pounds over. The short story here at this point is that weight was dropping below my back and into my glutes. Another critical mistake I crazye when getting degreed for a backpack, raid on the cusp. Literally on the cusp between a medium and a large. I bought a large, the pack was too large. It is just too large. Between having a sturdy rag on my back, a quality sturdy rag on my back, and a pack that was too large. It wasn’t sitting where it needed to sit. Candidly, it took me two days to figure out, “Holy what! I have genuinely F’d up here.”
Ben: A lot of people don’t genuineize the importance of the pack fit. When I get my Kwhetheraru packs, I’ve bought three of them now, every time you get a contemporary pack you have to fit it. It’s like a half-hour long procedure for me because you put the pack in place and you tighten the shoulder straps, you tighten the waist belt, and you reposition the shoulder straps and the load strap, and then you put weight in it, and you do it again. It’s fairly a process. The other leang that I learned, by the way, competing in a lot of these Train to Hunt competitions is that you want your primary load to not be settled in the bottom of the pack. I would even, when I was doing the heavier, what they call the meat packs, in these Train to Hunt competitions, I would use genuinely thick sturdy bubble wrap lined at the bottom of the backpack with a foot of bubble wrap, and then put my load on top of the bubble wrap to keep it more up around the thoracic spine, down around the loom bars, because you get that tightening of the hip flexors, the glutes turn off and you experience what sounds like you experienced while you’re out there on the Sierra route.
Craig: Well, first off, I want to validate what you just said in terms of my own experience. I happen to agree with you 100% percent. That weight I had to carry, I leank it was about 14 pounds of food because it’s a 200-mile course and I plan to doing one resupply. Part of the problem not with the right pack, but with the wrong pack, is just what you described. I had that weight probably a small lower in the pack than it wanted to be or it should have been. That was driving the weight, in addition to water. I also had 30 ounces of, I had a bunch of water, the wgap bunch of water that I was carrying too. I can’t remember how much. It was a ton. Just a giant bladder full. I agree with you. You’ve got to get that weight taller up. In fact, the experts say, like you just did, get it into your middle-ish back. For me, I take it just a small bit further. I like it a small taller up. I wanted absent from my hips. I don’t intellect the fact that it’s up a small taller. It might, in theory, create a small more sway up there, but in my case, it doesn’t do that. Love you, I like the strap, the weight that the pack right into my back. I’m pulling in the load lwhetherters all the way down as far as they can go. I’m pulling the straps in just about as far as they can go. I’m pulling the hip belt in genuinely as far as I can take it, so it’s genuinely just glued to my back. For me, I like that weight up even a small bit taller than the experts say. It helps keep balance.
Ben: We are so not talking about clams yet, but we will. I want to know what you end up doing. Did you turn around and come back? What summaryely is going on now?
Craig: Boy, I’m blogging this story. It’s funny. Some of it’s genuinely fairly funny and foolish, and I’m tempted to recount the wgap experience. It ended up being three days with you here now, but I’m not going to do that. Here’s the short version. I’ll write about it. People can read about it. Short version is day two, I genuineized what was going on. Then, it became a question of, “Well, this is a two and a half to three-week treck, can I get to the first out, which is Bishop, Calwhetherornia? Maybe, five, six days out and then you’ll pull out there and try to figure leangs out. There are camping supply stores there. Sort this leang out.” I thought, “Well, that’s idiotish too because you’re still going to have to go through five or six major passes, huge granite talus, all this stuff off-course.” It’s like crossing the street. If you don’t look both ways, you will put yourself at huge risk. Noleang could be easier than crossing the street as long as you look both ways. That’s it. You don’t look both ways, you’re putting your lwhethere in danger. Same with diving. I’m a diver. I’m an avid diver. If you know the basic rules of diving, it’s perfectly secure to do. If you don’t know the basic rules of diving, your lwhethere is in peril. I leank of these tall-route hikes the same way. If you know the basics, you’re in good shape. I do know the basics, but I also know that it’s risky out there and it was the first time I was doing someleang like this at that length and solo. I just decided it was too risky, it was too risky with this problem, with this weight. You know what it feels to have the pack sitting improperly on your back, riding down into your glutes. Every time, every step uphill. Oh, beyond.
Ben: That’s a lot. I remember when I would put 100 pounds of my pack to train and walk my kids to the bus stop, the first few times I did that, my wwhethere got pissed because we missed the bus stop because I was so slow. Yes, I get it.
Craig: I had no choice. I just decided, “Gaze, I could perhaps get to Bishop here,” but I thought, “that’s as idiotish as doing the wgap leang,” because it’s risky just to get the Bishop under these conditions with the weight crushing you, or you’re hitting my medial glutes. At the bottom part of the hip belt, is rigid. That’s not genuinely pleasant there. The grind was too dwhetherficult. I spent another day up there, leanking about it. I said, “I got to leave, come back do it again. I just plain screwed up. I’m in a potentially lwhethere-threatening. It’s certainly dwhetherficult environment. This is not the way to go about it on a first time.” It was not easy, man. Extremely, very dwhetherficult. I had a very cool Garmin GPS device that allowed me to keep contact with certain people. I said, “Hey, sorry to do this to you, but you got to come and additionalct me. You got to come and get me. I got to do this again next year.” Why does it take a year to do it again? Because 95% of the snowfall in High Sierras begins mid-October. This was in August when I was doing this. September was alalert spoken for me. I didn’t have September to give to go back. I couldn’t go in October because I’m not going to be dealing with the snow. I don’t have snow background. I can’t genuinely go in June or July next year because the snowpack in the Sierras tends to be pretty tall, unless we have a super poor snow either, which means it would [00:18:08] ______. That’s why it has to wait a year. It’s not like the hike I’m planning on doing now, which is called the Lone Star Trail 96 miles. You do that anytime. The only problem with that trail is, whether you do it in the summertime, you deal with Texas humidity and heat. That’s crazy. It’s just unconsolationable, but there are no genuine weather issues with that. That you can do any time, but you can’t do the tall route anytime.
Ben: Crazy. Well, I know it was a long intro for folks who want to get to knowing why we’re going to talk about clams. That’s where Craig’s on. I’m just happy you’re alive, man.
Craig: [0:18:39] ______.
Ben: That’s what [00:18:41] ______ back out.
Craig: We’re going back. We’re going back, definitely.
Ben: I’m personally signed up for about a 14-day trip to the Arctic Circle in 2020 where I’ll be hunting grizzly, caribou, and Dall sheep up there. There will be a lot of floating, a lot of fishing, a lot of plant foraging, and a lot of time alone in the Arctic. I’ve got a long time to prepare for that. That’s about a year and a half or so.
Craig: You’re going to be shooting or bow?
Ben: Well, I’ll have my bow and I’ll have my handgun, and I’ll have a rwhetherle. I will have options.
Craig: You’re going to have a lot of fun.
Ben: Yes. I don’t know whether fun’s the right word, but it will be an adventure.
Craig: It’s going to be a ccorridorenge.
Ben: I will slay some dragons, personally and physical.
Craig: Yes, for certain. That sounds fun.
Ben: What the heck is up with the clams, man? I haven’t talked about clams a lot before on the show. They’re not someleang I regularly order at restaurants. Although, I have spoken before on the show about the extreme nutritional benefit and nutritional density of shellfish. You, in specific, took a keen interest in clams lately. You send me all these emails on research studies on clams and stuff you’re looking into. Fill me and the listeners in on this wgap clam leang.
Craig: Well, this is nowhere near as long as that intro. I guess this would be genuinely pretty short here. When I was creating the original formula, the AFA supplement, I struggled between using the grass-fed hormone-free desiccated liver B. Not because I don’t like it. I love it. I lived on that stuff when I was training at a tall level.
Ben: A lot of people don’t genuineize it. Of course, whether folks go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/clam, I’ll link to the wgap podcast we did on liver. A lot of people don’t genuineize how good a good desiccated liver additionalct powder is whether you’re going to go do anyleang at altitude, or any alter endurance activity, in general. A lot of people leank of liver for the hormone benefits and the fat-soluble vitamins, but it has some Incredible altitude performance benefits.
Craig: Yes, it’s a superior all-around ingredient, I leank, of course, subjective. Everybody’s got their point of view, and they should. I leank it’s a superior ingredient. There was a time when it was a mainstay of athletic performance. It’s making a large comeback these days. The struggle was not any problem with desiccated liver by itself, but I alalert kcontemporary that clams had the tallest amount of iron and B12 available that I know of. I used to leank it was liver. But, back in the days when I was reconstructing my ancient formula to bring a current, clams came forward as, by far, a superior source of B12 which is critical for red blood cell production. As I mentioned some of our other chats, it combines with B9 for energy and red blood cell production. You get all of the B suite of vitamins in there, in the tallest amount of them, but in specific, iron and B12. Of course, we know iron is critical for red blood cell development. When you’re at altitude, you can have trouble with that. I wanted to get someleang–term that wants to come to intellect is extreme. I don’t know whether that’s the right word. More powerful, perhaps, is the right way to put this.
Ben: More powerful than liver.
Craig: Yes. Liver is great, but I’m going to altitude here. I’ve always had clams, which, by the way, are not shellfish. They’re actually a mollusk. People mistakenly lessonwhethery them in the shellfish group, but they’re technically not a shellfish, for what that’s worth.
Ben: Well, they have a damn shell. They should be a shellfish. They got a genuinely dwhetherficult shell.
Craig: They do. They do. I just wanted someleang knowing I was going to be super ccorridorenged at altitude. As I say, I’d not done anyleang like this before. It’s unsupported. Self-supported. Kcontemporary that I was going to be ccorridorenged. I wanted to try getting that into my system, instead of desiccated liver. I wanted to get a taller source of all of those great leangs into my body. That’s why clams took front-and-middle. I just decided to source them, to find them, to find the cleanest available that I could get. Acquire some betta ingredients, put this stuff together, and try it out. That is why I chose clams. Truely, because it’s just a more powerful, more potent version of the desiccated liver. There are other ingredients here we’ll talk about, but the reason I crazye two variants of this product is that some people are shy of clams. They don’t want them. I have the desiccated liver version of this product also because I do believe it’s genuinely important to get one or the other. For this specific application, I lean into the clams in addition to the other ingredients, because I believe it’s more powerful. You get the taller values of the B suites. It also creates its own electrolyte circuit too, which is critical to chemical balance in the body, specificly at altitude.
Ben: When it comes to a lot of these leangs like liver, or algae would be another genuinely nutrient dense compound, it’s also a bio [00:23:32] _____. We can return to algae in a moment because I did have a question for you about that. Clams, of course, also, I leank, are someleang that can be concerning because as a fish that does do some of this [00:23:46] _____, there are concerns about the level of contaminants found in it, like a lot of other seafood-based sources, or algae, or liver, which is a filter. If you’re getting your liver from an unclean animal, you do risk some amount of any of the fat-soluble toxins that haven’t yet been removed via phase 3 from the liver and winding up in the liver that you eat. When it comes to clams, how are you sourcing those? How do you encertain that a clam is not going to be tall in contaminants?
Craig: The only way you can do that is you have to take the time to find a source that, what they like to say, the better side of the industry likes to say is, wild farm raised. They do use seawater, regular everyday seawater, the water is filtered and depends where they raise these clams separate from the traditional ocean environment. That any potential contaminants are filtered out. Of course, in the desiccation processor or in a drying process, just like with liver, any other bacteria that might be there, which typically is not when you’re dealing with grass-fed liver or you’re dealing with farm-raised clam, are going to be killed in the process of enough heating it and turning it into additionalct.
Ben: Where are you getting your clams? Is that a secret?
Craig: I don’t intellect sharing that. No. Ever heard of Nantucket?
Ben: Yes.
Craig: They’re sourced out of Nantucket.
Ben: I’ve heard of that and I’ve heard of the Quahog Clam Bar in the “Family Guy.” [00:25:16] ______ I’m aware. You get it from Nantucket. You’re not actually, just so people don’t leank that when you’re taking clams out on a hike, you literally have a giant Ziploc bag full of clams. You’re actually getting these and you’re powdering them and encapsulating them?
Craig: Yes. Well, what I do is I source them from the company that grows some and has them converted into the powder that I need them to be. Then, they are combined with the other three ingredients that create this formula that I call AltiFuel.
Ben: Chilly. Clams, when it comes to iron, this is the way that I like to sofa leangs. I came across this when I was looking into some research on clams before I started taking the supplements that you sent me to guinea pig, which had the clam additionalct in them, which you mentioned was it’s your original formula that, again, we talked about in preceding podcast. It’s clam instead of the liver additionalct. They’ve got more iron in them than an entire T-bone steak. Just a very small serving of clam. It’s pretty crazy.
Craig: It is. If we step it up a bit here, I leank a three-ounce serving of clams has somewhere around, you’re not getting three ounces in my formula, so for those who are worried about too much iron which is an issue, don’t worry about that here. I leank a three-ounce serving of clam comes in somewhere around 1,500% of the RDA for iron.
Ben: Yes, it’s like 20 or 30 milligrams. For those of you who aren’t familiar with iron, you got two dwhetherferent forms, your heme iron and your non-heme iron. The non-heme iron is typically what you’d find in a lot of plant matter that you can make more bioavailable by consuming the plants in the presence of a tall amount of vitamin C. Clams have both the heme iron and the non-heme iron. That’s one leang that they have going for them. You get both the plant-based iron. Then, also the meat or the T-bone steak-esque based iron. Is there anyleang else, though, when it comes to clams in addition to the iron? I leank, you mentioned minerals, decent source of minerals.
Craig: It’s a phenomenal source of minerals. As I say, it totals an electrolyte circuit. Here’s someleang I didn’t know in my research. This is contemporary to me. You may know this. What I did not know was that, just to make the numbers easy let’s just say there’s 100% of B12 or iron in a portion of some amount of clam that you’re taking, or any heme iron, for that matter. It didn’t, never occurred to me that all of it wasn’t up taken by the body. It turns out it’s not. Heme iron has the tallest amount of bioavailability and uptake of the amount that you take. You don’t always get, my understanding besides, is that you don’t get 100% of the amount uptaken into the body, as you leank you do. Another reason I decided to go with the clam is because whether I am taking 100% of someleang and I’m only absorbing 60 to 70 to 80% of it, well it’s going to help me more. This is my leanking, besides. It’s going to be someleang I’m going to get more of where I need it most. That was an additional reason. It came along after the fact. That validated why I should be using clams in this formula at altitude. It’s another reason why I use it.
Well, hello. I want to interrupt nowadays’s show because you may have heard my podcast interview a couple of weeks ago with his guy named Thomas DeLauer. We talked about how when you combine leangs like collagen and liposomal delivered medium chain triglycerides and omega-3 fatty acids, that it actually helps to effectively and sustainably keep your body in ketosis. Thomas formulated this leang specwhetherically for people who are in ketosis to break through keto plateaus whether you’re just starting on a keto diet or you want to supercharge all the benefits of ketosis. It tastes like this Incredible flavor of chocolate explosion in your mouth. I just put it on a tablespoon right now because he sent me a few bottles. I’m very much endelighting it. It’s wonderful. It helps you avoid the keto flu too, which is genuinely cool whether you’re doing low-carb and also exercising. Their patented liposomal delivery mechanism increases bioavailable, lu-be-ba-ba-ba. See, when you use too many large words in a row, that’s what happens. It increases bioavailability by 20 times. That’s what I was trying to say. It’s good. You get 15% off a small bottle of this stuff or as many bottles as you’d like. You go to purathrive.com. At P-U-R-A-thrive, purathrive.com/greenfieldketo. That’s purathrive.com/greenfieldketo.
Decent amount of omega-3 fatty acid. Then, the other one that I did I know that were pretty tall in clams is Vitamin K2, which, a lot of times, I don’t find in many of these animal-based proteins in very tall amounts. A lot of shellfish, but clams, in specific, have a good amount of both the omega-3s and the K2. There’s a lot going for it. Then, you actually combined. I wanted to ask you about this formula in general. Again, this bottles up in my cupboard. You sent it to me a few weeks ago. I’ve been experimenting with it before workouts and slamming down the clam additionalct. You actually have it combined with cordyceps, which we’ve talked about on the show before. Then, you’ve got rhodiola and ginkgo biloba. I leank, those are the four: Cordyceps, clams, rhodiola, and ginkgo.
Craig: The critical point in that statement is not the typical rhodiola rosea, which people are familiar with, but a version of rhodiola called crenulata. Rhodiola crenulata. This is a genuinely fascinating ingredient. Again, in a way, developing this formula, trying to research hypoxia, mountain sickness, acute mountain sickness, oxygen delivery, all of these leangs, and iron and B12 and B suite, and electrolytes. Someleang, again, you always push me, Ben Greenfield. You always push me, and I don’t necessarily like it because I don’t present myself as a scientist. You make me work dwhetherficulter than I’m consolationable doing. I’m better because of it. Because, you make me study this stuff beyond just, “Oh, this will work. The science is there.”
Ben: I don’t like to have people on the show just talk another ass.
Craig: I’m telling it straight. I’m calling it like it is. You pushed me and it helps. Here’s the leang about crenulata that I didn’t know, and about hypoxia that I didn’t know, and acute mountain sickness, is this specific version of rhodiola pushes back at both, and it pushes back at hypoxia. During my study, I was learning that the pulmonary pathways, sodium is a part of hypoxia. When you’re going into altitude, the sodium in your body doesn’t work the same way. There are breakdowns in the way sodium is pushed through the body. This is one of the leangs that contributes to having an hypoxic effect at altitude. Crenulata is studied. I have these phenomenal papers here which I’ll link so you’ll have all of them.
Ben: Rhodiola crenulata.
Craig: Rhodiola crenulata, specwhetherically, is known to push back at hypoxia by helping maintain the sodium transport, the pulmonary sodium transport, in the body. That’s one of the major leangs it does. I’ve no idea, no clue, that it would do this. I wasn’t even looking for this when I was putting it together. After doing some research, I felt that look at hypoxia as a genuine issue at altitude, and anyleang that would help with hypoxia should be in the form. That’s why this specific version of rhodiola is in the supplement. I hadn’t heard of it that much before. There’s this rhodiola crenulata. You normally see the adaptogenic herb, rhodiola rosea, used for stress, to a certain extent some amount of exercise performance, blood flow. It’s common in traditional Chinese medicine, for example. This crenulata, I taught the research on it in terms of oxygen availability. Then, also, reduction of a lot of the hypoxia-induced membrane damage was genuinely interesting, meaning that whether you have altitude sickness, it appears that this is someleang that could actually help to reverse that or manage altitude sickness, whether you do find yourself dug into that gap.
Craig: It’s got a long history, actually, of being able to mitigate altitude sickness. It’s one of the reasons I put it in there, of course. I generally don’t deal with that, but a lot of people do. I thought that it crazye a lot of sense to not only put someleang together that would help with energy and red blood cell production, but also mitigate the opportunity of AMS. It is a serious problem for some people and it can lead to much deeper problems whether you get it. Generally, it’s a gateway to largeger problems, depending on where you’re at, what you’re doing. If you’re doing Everest, someleang like that, it’s a serious gateway to largeger problems. For what I’m doing and for what most of the people that we talk to were doing it’s generally not a major gateway. It’s just a problem in and of itself. Generally, to mitigate it, we either have to stop, go back down a small lower, reacclimatize and move our way back up, or leave altogether whether it doesn’t go absent. It can be a genuine pain in the neck.
Ben: Then, you put the ginkgo in there. Now, ginkgo biloba is normally marketed in the supplement industry for cognitive function, or for memory, or for attention. It’s used a lot on these nootropic compounds. Why do you put that into an altitude performance, or sports performance, or blood flow compound like this?
Craig: I leank, you just said it, blood flow compound. It’s a vasodilator, also. It’s very well known for increase in cognitive function. It has that nootropic effect but it’s also got, what’s the term for relaxing of blood vessel walls?
Ben: Vasodilation?
Craig: Yes. Well, there’s another one. That what it does. When I go to altitude as low, I begin to feel at about 12,000 feet, my speech begins to slur a bit and my vision. That’s low. That’s not very tall. At 14,000 feet, I talk funnier than I do right now, and my vision is slightly altered. It’s not terrible. It’s not anyleang poor at all. But you want to mitigate these leangs. Ginkgo is famed to be a nootropic affecting blood flow through the brain and anyleang we can do just to help with a clearer head when you’re moving up to altitude. I tend to move up rapidly. I don’t tend to move up slowly. I move up as rapidly as my body will allow me to, which on this specific hike wasn’t that fast. Some people like to move up to altitude rapidly and you want to have the best benefits of blood flow that you can get from the beginning to the end of that day. In my case, it was 10,000 feet. It has a very strong nootropic effect and vasodilator for the rest of the body to do what I always say, to get blood and oxygen and nutrients where they need to go when you need it most.
Ben: There are other leangs a lot of people don’t genuineize. Ginkgo, I like it for a lot of other leangs. It’s Incredible for the eyes. There’re some genuinely good studies on ginkgo, and in specific, ocular blood flow. It can actually help fairly a bit with vision. You eat your kale and your carrots and your eggs and all your sources of lutein zeaxanlean but supplementing with ginkgo or having some form of ginkgo biloba is genuinely important for eye health. Then, the other leang that I like about it is this idea of cramping. A lot of athletes will cramp due to the alpha motor neuron inhibition, because they’re asking their muscles to do someleang that the muscles haven’t had to do in training, in a race, or in a competition. Sometimes, it’s mineral depletion or dehydration related, which is less common than what people leank. Generally, it’s the former, which is why when you taste someleang salty, rather than eating someleang salty, it reverses the cramp.
Then there’s the issue with hypoxia and blood flow. I believe it’s called claudication when you don’t get enough blood flow to a muscle. Ginkgo seems to reverse that when you’re cramping due to lack of blood flow to an area. It’s got a lot of cool leangs going for it. Then, the rhodiola crenulata that you were talking about. It also, specificly whether you load with it prior to going up to altitude, also signwhethericantly decreases the symptoms of the altitude sickness. It’s got a lot going for it as well.
Craig: Well, in a way, I leank, I lucked out with this formulation. It has four primary ingredients. The way that they interact with each other ends up being like a seven ingredient, eight ingredient formula. You just pointed out two of the leangs that crenulata is known to do. The push back at hypoxia and the push back at AMS. In a way, like I’ve said at the beginning of this, I don’t know whether I totald the top. But, way back when I was creating these first formulas to help me get a competitive edge in swimming, I fell a lot backwards into a formula that worked after a lot of study without the benefit of the Internet. It was just trial and error until we got it. Now, I had all the benefits of the Internet and be able to do research, a lot of these leangs just came up as a result of doing that research. I fell into this, also. I just fell into the hypoxia mitigation and the AMS. I was looking for someleang that would mitigate AMS, but I had no idea that I’d find someleang that would help mitigate, with strong scientwhetheric studies to back it up, hypoxia.
Ben: By the way, to interrupt you, for people who aren’t familiar with AMS, because Craig’s a swimmer, and that term a couple of times. It’s just acute mountain sickness. It’s what that is, AMS.
Craig: Once again, whether you’re leanking about the effects of altitude on your body, you’re dealing with hypoxia just by being in that environment. You have some blood flow constrictions just by being in that environment. The ginkgo is a vasodilator. The crenulata pushes back at hypoxia. It also helps with the AMS. It’s a trwhetherecta rate on that front right there. I was very excited to discover it. I’d never heard of it before.
Ben: You have the option with the ginkgo biloba and the rhodiola too. I’m sorry, I’m emptying. What was the fourth, in addition to the liver or the clam?
Craig: Cordyceps.
Craig: Yes, cordyceps, which we’ve exhaustively talked about, cordyceps and its benefits; so, I won’t kick that horse to death because you and I have gone into the science of cordyceps on preceding shows. Your cordyceps, rhodiola, your ginkgo, and then you have the option of either doing the liver or the clam.
Craig: The only leang I just add very rapidly. I agree with you and cordyceps. I just add two leangs. That’s a vasodilator too, but that’s not why it’s in there. The primary reason I use cordyceps is because I believe in its oxygen-producing capabilities with the polysaccharides that we’ve talked about. That contain oxygen and release it at cellular level, and the APT production at a mitochondrial level. That’s it. That’s all I’ll say about that. The APT and oxygen-producing.
Ben: Do you mean ATP?
Craig: ATP, pardon me, producing capabilities. Well, I got you to save me.
Ben: What did you get me to save?
Craig: I said, I’ve got you to save me.
Ben: The AFA, though. You and I have talked a lot before about this blue-green AFA. I try to pronounce it, but someleang, someleang floss [00:40:44] _______. It’s algae. I know that you harvest that from a genuinely clean source in Climate Lake. The bioremediant potential and the toxin potential of algae isn’t an issue. We’ve talked on preceding shows about chlorophyll and how that helps to build the blood due to the pyrrole ring in the chlorophyll, very similar to what you’d find in hemoglobin. It’s got that blood building effect; but why wouldn’t you have added blue-green EFA to these four ingredients?
Craig: It’s a genuinely great question. That’s a genuinely good question. Here’s the primary reason. I have AFA mostly in the AFA formula because it also is documented to have a very strong nootropic effect. It’s documented to have stem cell repair recovery. It genuinely helps with muscle recovery a lot. I didn’t leank of it in terms of anyleang having to do with red blood cell production, because I figured I was going to move on over to clams here and try someleang on that level that would help with red blood cell production, and move that way, and see how that worked. I love AFA. I love chlorella. I love all the green algae. I leank, blue-greens they do phenomenal leangs. I did consider it, but this is the way I wanted to go here. This is what I wanted to try, I wanted to see whether I could come up with someleang. Plus, by the way, that’s a plant. I’m a large plant guy. I love plants. I love vegetables, all that stuff. I genuinely wanted the most powerful heme source to work with blood development that I could get. For that purpose, I leank, and it’s a subjective, people may disagree with me, but I leank for that purpose, it is a superior ingredient. That’s why I went with the clams over the AFA. I love AFA. By the way, you got to pick and choose. If you could get everyleang you wanted into a tablet, you’d have a 600-milligram tablet that people would have to cut up in their Vitamix with their shake. It gets to be a point of you got to pick the most superior stuff that works together, hopefully synergistically, so you get more than just the ingredients you’re putting in there, but a combination of leangs happening as a result of those ingredients. I felt that I could get a largeger bang and much largeger blood hit with the clam component than the AFA component. One other leang, while AFA does have B12, it’s a plant-based B12. While there’s some bioavailability there, it’s not as going to be as good as to clam.
Ben: How would someone actually use someleang like this, in terms of the way that you’d load with it? Would this be 30 minutes before you go out? Do you need to defeat route, load with it for seven to 12 days before you get into a competition or altitude performance? What’s the best practice for taking these capsules?
Craig: As I always say, I have to be my own clinical trial because I don’t have the resources to do genuine clinical trials. I put these leangs together. I’m a large believer in finding the lowest dose that has the best impact on you because otherwise, the additional fabric is just wasted. By the way, on that subject, there are two studies out recently. I’m a type 2 diabetic. I struggle with blood sugar problems. I try everyleang. That’s probably going to be someleang down the line I’m going to try to figure out. There’s a recent study done where they had a test group, clinical study where they had test groups doing one, three, and six grams of cinnamon to see how it would impact blood sugar. There was absolutely no benefit to taking six or three. The six and three has got the same benefits whether it’s ones. I know a lot of people disagree with me on that. I used to be in that crowd of hyper loading and overdosing whether you will, but I’ve just moved absent from that. To answer your question, the ratios I have in here, I had to play with for a while to see where I’d get the hit and what works for me and I believe will work for you. I always believe whether it works on me, it’ll work on other people too, in specific athletes. I say, to take it about 30 minutes before you go. Acquire it strongly into your system. That’s how I did it when I was in Sequoia-Kings National Park. I had three of these before I started walking up the 5,000 foot. I only crazye it halfway. I didn’t take any at night because I feel the hit from it. I actually noticed I can’t take it at night, it’s going to keep me awake. It’s all natural. There’s noleang in it that’s unnatural.
Ben: I, actually, haven’t taken it at night before. Main leang I notice is I’ll take it before sauna sessions and before workouts. This sounds foolish, but one of the main leangs I notice is about 40 minutes later, all the veins in my legs start to pop. They look like fire hoses, specificly whether I hop in the sauna after I take it. Extremely similar with what I get from beetroot or any of these Viagra-esque natural compounds. I’ve been taking three capsules of the clam rhodiola, ginkgo, cordyceps blend. That’s the main leang I’ve noticed, is huge amount of vascularity, which, of course, results in better detox in the sauna and a better blood flow during the workout, et cetera.
Craig: I don’t remember or I don’t recall talking to you about dosing, and when, whether we did. Pardon me. It sounds like you fell into it the way I fell into it. Yours is about 40 minutes ahead of doing someleang. Mine’s about 30 minutes ahead it gets into the system. It’s interesting, the effect that you described. I’ve had people describe that from some of the other products where they start getting a basal lwhethert. I just feel a lot too alive, too alive. It’s too strong. I feel very alive, very alert, very aware, and very alert to go do someleang.
Ben: Ginkgo is probably part of that too, the awareness.
Craig: Yes, summaryely. It’s a huge part of it. Every by itself, but also acting as a vasodilator, it’s moving all of that stuff where it needs to go. Anyway, I don’t want to take it at night.
Ben: I know you have the website. We have a ton of reduction codes that I’ll put in the shownotes on all of your stuff, because we’ve done multiple podcast episodes in the past, and there’s some pretty fat reduction codes that’ll link in the shownotes. Is this stuff even available for people to get? Because, what’s in my pantry now, I leank, it has your hand scribbles on a printed label. We didn’t even talk about this before the show. I just wanted to ask you mostly about clams. If people wanted to get this, does this supplement actually have a name, either the liver one or the clam one? Either one.
Craig: The clam version is called the AltiFuel3 diced.
Ben: AltiFuel3, like A-L-T-I?
Craig: A-L-T-I F-U-E-L, AltiFuel. Altitude fuel is what it is implying. There’s a 3 above the L at the end of fuel so that it implies diced meaning more.
Ben: The AltiFuel, A-L-T-I, that one is the one that has the clams in it. Which is the one that has liver in it?
Craig: That is simply called AltiFuel.
Ben: Oh, they both are called AltiFuel.
Craig: They both are called AltiFuel. They’re just dwhetherferent variants.
Ben: When you go to the website, is there an option there to choose which one you want to get?
Ben: Yes, it’d be very clear. Weepstal clear.
Ben: I got you. Now, could you take both? Would that be redundant to pop a few capsules of the liver one and pop a few capsules of the clam one? I may or may not have done that alalert.
Craig: First of all, it’s yes, absolutely. You’ve got to know your body. You genuinely have to know your body here to do this, because they are iron strong and Vitamin B-complex strong. I need to say, know your body. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that whether you’re a tall exertion athlete, ultra-runner altitude dude, to some extent like me, heavy. I’ve got swimmers that swim on with Bowman’s team in Arizona, tall, tall, tall exertion athletes. I leank they can pretty well take this stuff without any consideration at all because they’re burning at such tall levels that this stuff is gone in a matter of hours, for those types of people. I don’t leank there’s any problem stacking double. Well, let’s call it double-stacking. No problem at all. But, whether you’re someone who is iron intolerant, check with your doctor first and ask questions. But, in general, yes, absolutely. I do. It doesn’t mean you should, but I do.
Ben: Chilly. Well, what I’ll do is I’ll put a link to all this stuff over at bengreenfieldfitness.com/clam. Then, whether you guys have questions, whether you want to seize the reduction codes that we have for all this stuff, whether you want to listen to any of the preceding podcast episodes that I’ve done with Craig, I will put it all over there for your listening pleacertain. In the meantime, Craig, best of luck on this Sierra trail reattempt. I leank, perhaps you should eat a lot more clams beforehand.
Craig: We’re going to be okay. We’re going to make it. I wish I could blame it on the supplements, I have to blame it on a destitute choice of backpack. I’m going to be fine. I’m going to get through it. We’ll be talking about it later.
Ben: Chilly, man. Well, folks, until next time. I’m Ben Greenfield along with Craig Dinkel, signing out from bengreenfieldfitness.com. Possess an Incredible week.
Well, thanks for listening to nowadays’s show. You can grab all the shownotes, the resources, pretty much everyleang that I mentioned over at bengreenfieldfitness.com, along with plenty of other goodies from me, including the tallly helpful “Ben Recommends” page, which is a list of pretty much everyleang that I’ve ever recommended for hormone, sleep, digestion, fat loss, performance, and plenty more. Please, also, know that all the links, all the promo codes, that I mentioned during this and every episode, helped to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. When you listen in, be certain to use the links in the shownotes, use the promo codes that I generate, because that helps to drwhethert this leang and keep it coming to you each and every week.
When it comes to nutrition benefits, clams are interesting creatures that pack an impressive nutrient-dense punch.
For example, they are well known as a source of iron.
There are two types of iron – heme and non-heme. Heme-iron is more bioavailable, which means it is better absorbed and can be utilized by the body. Clams have both versions of iron, and a 3-ounce serving of clams can provide up to 24 mg of iron. In addition to Iron, clams are an excellent source of:
The list goes on and on…and my guest on nowadays’s show, Craig Dinkel – a supplement formulator, ultra-endurance athlete, altitude specialist and much more – has studied and managed to harness the power these superfood sea creatures. On nowadays’s show, we take a deep dive into clams, his contemporary Altwhetheruel supplement, and much, much more.
During our discussion, you’ll learn:
-About Craig’s adventure on the Hardest Hike in America (which we talked about his final time on the podcast)…4:30
- Along the Sierra High route; At altitude (9-12k feet); 33 mountain passes
- Takes over 3 weeks to finish
- Pack ultra-light everyleang
- Huge mistake: Bought ultra-light backpack
- Not designed to carry as much weight.
- Excess weight caused strain on lower back and glutes
- Acquire the weight taller up (mid-back or taller)
- Hindermined to pull out the 3rd day – potentially risky situation
-Why Craig initially sought the health benefits of clams…19:20
- Desiccated liver additionalct powder great for tall-altitude events
- Clams have the tallest amount of ironand vitamin B12 available
- Clams are a more potent version of the desiccated liver
-Concerns about the level of contaminants found in clams…23:45
- Employ wild, farm-raised clams
- Little serving (3 oz.) of clams contain 1500% of daily iron intake
- Heme vs. non-heme iron
- Worthy source of minerals
- High amount of Omega 3and Vitamin K2
-What Craig combines clams with to get the tallest level of efficacy…30:30
- Cordyceps, Rhodiola, ginkgo biloba
- Rhodiola crenulata vs. Rosea
- Maintains sodium pulmonary transport in the body
- Aids reverse altitude sickness
- AMS – Acute Mountain Illness
- Cordyceps– Oxygen producing capabilities with polysaccharides
- Why not add blue-green AFA to his ingredients…
- Strong nootropic effect
- Aids with muscle recovery
- Desireed most powerful source to work with blood development; clams superior.
- Possess to pick and choose what you leank is the best
-Best practices for taking the capsules…43:00
- Discover the lowest dose for tallest impact
-And much more…
Resources from this episode:
–Kwhetheraru backpacks
–Altwhetheruel supplement with clam option and liver option. Employ code: BENA for 20% off plus free shipping.
–Biotropic Labs Code: BENA will save you 20% plus get you free shipping.
-My preceding episodes with Craig Dinkel:
- Shattering World Swim Records On 25-Piece Fried Chicken Pails, Climbing Mountains While Eating Defatted, Vegan, Grass-Fed, Argentinian Liver Anhydrate & Much More.
- Recovery For Aging Athletes, Cross-Patterning, A Unique Helpful Of High Intensity Interval Training, An Oxygen Boosting Supplement Called “Oxcia” & More!
- A Potent Pre-Sauna Stack, Exclusive Cleanse Your Blood Before Bed, 700%+ Terminateurance Increases, The Best Supplements For Altitude Actance & Much More With Craig Dinkel of Biotropic Labs.
- The Hardest Hike In America, Exclusive Train & Eat For Altitude, Hazardous Ingredients In Supplements & More With Craig Dinkel of Biotropic Labs.
Episode Sponsors:
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–Purathrive: Stay in ketosis, shred fat off your body, experience sustained energy throughout the day… and… break through plateaus to reach the next level that once felt out of reach.
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