HEADS UP! Your Legs WEAKEN First! Eat These 10 Foods To Build Them!

As you get older, your legs weaken first, long before you feel it. And this leads to a loss of control, a loss of balance, and for too many people, a devastating fall, which is the number one cause of traumatic death in the elderly. But it doesn't have to be that way. You can turn it around with simple lifestyle changes. Hello, Hell, champions. Today we're going to talk about the top 10 foods to help strengthen your legs. I really felt I had to do this video because it's an important topic, but there's so many videos out there whose advice is just superficial, random, and misleading. The people making those videos don't really understand health, so they're grasping at straws. They're talking about single nutrient solutions, such as they say sweet potato has potassium, and potassium is important for signaling. So therefore, you should eat sweet potato. And they're talking about causes of leg weakness without understanding what that is. So they say sarco-pena is a condition that causes muscle loss. No, sarco is muscle and pena is weakness or lack thereof. So that word only says that it is muscle loss or muscle weakness. It doesn't cause it. It's just describing the condition. And they talk about how muscles need energy and oats have complex carbohydrates, so they provide you lots of energy. Well, sweet potato and oats are not the absolute worst foods if you can tolerate a certain amount of carbohydrate, but to mention them loosely based on a single fact like this is very, very misleading. And they're presenting this as if all you have to do is to eat some sweet potato and some oats and your muscles will grow strong and regenerate. Well, it doesn't work like that, and we're going to give you the bigger picture here. But the first thing we have to understand is why is there so much talk about this? Why are weak legs so dangerous as you age? Well, I mentioned that weak legs can lead to a loss of control and a loss of balance. And that means that you are at a much higher risk of a fall, which is the number one cause of traumatic death in the elderly. Because if you fall and you are a little bit older, oftentimes this can result in a hip fracture. And if you have a hip fracture, now you can't move for a bit. So you're losing a lot of your mobility. And if you have a loss of mobility, I've talked a lot about what the purpose of movement is. The number one purpose is to drive the brain. It's to send signals to the brain. Because if we lose movement, we actually lose brain power. We lose brain strength. Just like a muscle, if you put it in a cast, it starts to shrink. It starts to atrophy. Well, the same thing happens to the brain. If we don't move, we're not sending it enough signals. And that brain starts to degenerate. And if we degenerate enough, now that can actually lead to a loss of vitality and death. So these statistics are pretty scary that for the people who have a fall and break their hip, about up to 50% of those people die within a year. And even if they survive, their quality of life will never be the same because up to 60% will require long-term care. So this is what you're trying to avoid. And you can do it with simple lifestyle changes. So the lifestyle that can reverse this and prevent this consists of two things. The first is exercise, which is relatively straightforward. And the reason that exercise helps you build muscle is that when you exercise, you break muscle fibers. And then during recovery, your body can repair them. But there is a second step here because we also need a signal exercise provides a signal and a challenge that is the reason for the body to start repairs. If you are completely sedentary and you break down some muscle fibers, you're not going to fully repair them because there is no reason. There's no challenge. There's no signal for the body to repair them to the same level they were or stronger. And exercise is relatively straightforward. I'll be happy to do a video about it. If you let me know in the comments, if you'd like to see a video like that. But the biggest confusion is about food. So that's what I want to tackle in this video. Food is what gives you the stuff so that you can repair muscles. And what is the food that provides the best solution for you? Well, it needs to have fuel. It needs to have building blocks. And it needs to have catalysts. It needs to have little vitamins and minerals to drive the reactions. And if we look at the detail, this would mean fat, quality fats for fuel. A certain amount of carbohydrates if you tolerate them. If you watch my video, you know I'm not a fan of 300 grams of carbohydrate a day. If you're a diabetic or carbohydrate intolerant, I think that you should be very low carb or even ketogenic often on. If you tolerate carbs, I still think you should keep them under 100 grams a day. So they can provide some fuel. Just make sure that they are whole food. Then we need quality proteins. We need essential fatty acids. And we need vitamins and minerals. But even with all that, that's still not enough because we have to understand the big picture. And everyone's not the same. Your food must also support your metabolic health. So if you're a diabetic or you're a 20 year old athlete, this food is not the same for you. The good foods can be very different. It needs to lower your inflammation. And here we're also talking about neuroinflammation because a lot of people who get echronic low grade inflammation, they also get inflammation and neuroinflammation, which means that their brain and their nervous system is inflamed. And now you can't have the proper signaling. So the food needs to support your neuromuscular connections. If you don't have the proper signals, you just have a stake. A muscle is nothing without the proper signal and the proper timing. So when we're talking about the keys to not falling, we're talking about strength, balance, and coordination, which is a combination of the muscle and the signal. So if your nervous system isn't healthy, if you have a bunch of neuroinflammation, this is not going to work as well as it could. But why is it now that the legs typically break down faster than the muscles in the rest of the body? Well, if you have complete inactivity, like if you're in a coma or complete bed rest, in 30 days of complete inactivity, you can lose up to 50% of your quadriceps muscle. And this is about the same as what you do in 30 years of a sedentary lifestyle. So a coma or bed rest would be an extreme example where muscles break down. But we're kind of doing the same thing to ourselves with a sedentary lifestyle. We're just not challenging the body on a regular basis. And what that means is that we can lose the same 50% of muscle strength of quadriceps of leg strength at the age of about 60 to 70. So that's typical for that age range to have less than 50% of their muscles left. And the reason legs deteriorate a little faster is that they generally have more fast twitch fibers than the average muscle in your body. And those muscle types tend to atrophy, tend to break down faster. So here are 10 foods with explanations in no particular order. And number one is eggs. And you have to eat it with the yolk if you want these benefits. So eggs complete eggs have an amino acid called loosing. They have, they're a very rich source of amino acids in general. But loosing specifically triggers muscle growth via a pathway called m-tore, mammalian target of rapamycin. Don't worry about the name. It's just a pathway that triggers muscle growth specifically. Eggs are also very rich in a substance called colon, which is a raw material for acetylcholine, which is the neurotransmitter that the body uses to activate muscles. Eggs also have a vitamin called B12, which is super important for signaling. And a lack of B12 can often result in neuropathy because the signals don't travel. And one thing that the B12 does is it maintains the myelin sheath, which is the insulation, it's the outer layer of the electrical cables and the body and the nerves that transmit the signal. Eggs are also rich in essential fatty acids like EPA and DHA that the body uses to make the right type of cell membrane. So every cell in your body needs these, including nerve cells and including muscle cells. And with the right types of fat in the cell membranes, you have healthy cells that can perform the proper signaling. And you may have heard that eggs are a great source of protein and amino acids. And in fact, it is the best other than mother's milk and they're about the same. Eggs provide the highest percentage of available amino acids to the human body. And then I also want to mention the quality of eggs. When I'm listing these, then you want to keep in mind that pasture raised eggs. We're talking about eggs where the chickens walk outside, they eat bugs and grass, they get sunshine. These eggs have about two to seven times more of some of these key nutrients that we're talking about. Food number two is salmon and other fatty cold water fish like sardines and macrol. Just don't go for the king macrol because very large fatty fish also accumulate a lot of mercury. So when we have a very, very rich source, salmon and these fatty fish, it's a richest source of the EPA and the DHA that we just talked about with the eggs. Eggs is a good source. These fish is a great source of these fatty acids. And when we get enough of them, they tend to help the body balance inflammation. So they're not anti-inflammatory like a pill that you take, but they help the body balance the proper amount of inflammation. So the end result is that they tend to be anti-inflammatory. We reach a normal level of inflammation. And they have also found that these fatty acids can increase the muscle protein synthesis in older adults. And just like with eggs, it matters what the source is. If we compare wild and farmed salmon, for example, when it comes to omega-6 to omega-3 ratios, then we find that wild is going to have a one to four ratio. And I want to point out that this is with the omega-3 being the higher value, which is unique for fish. There's no other food that actually has more omega-3 than omega-6s, but that's so that they can swim and survive in cold water. The farmed, however, is going to have about a one-to-one to a one-to-two ratio, again, with the omega-3 being higher, but you notice how big a difference it is between the wild and the farm. I do want to point out though that we got to keep this in perspective, that if you're in a restaurant and you're choosing between the mass-produced chicken or you're choosing between farmed salmon, the farmed salmon is always going to be a better choice. And it's always going to be better than the breaded chicken and the mac and cheese. And these fish are also an excellent source of protein. It's what we consider a high-quality protein with high availability, not quite as good as a complete, farmed-raised egg, but close. But then salmon has some other properties too. They have something called selenium and astazanthin, which are antioxidants. And if we can reduce the oxidative damage in the body to the mitochondria and to the muscles and to the nerves, now there's going to be less breakdown and a better chance of rebuilding them. And in both eggs and in fatty fish, we can find vitamin D, which has the properties of helping reduce inflammation. It supports mitochondria in muscles. It helps muscles make energy. And it supports neural membranes, meaning the cells that send the signals. So overall here, we can see that it supports increase in strength, in balance, and in energy production. Food number three is grass-fed beef. And it has something in it called creatine. There's a popular supplement among bodybuilders called creatine phosphate. And basically what it is, it's a carrier that attaches. It carries the phosphate molecule. So when the body makes ATP, and it cycles back and forth between ADP and ATP, which is how we transport and make energy available in the body, now we can do that a little bit better if we have a little more creatine. Now we can cycle that ATP back to energy a little bit faster. Beef is very rich in bioavailable iron. And iron is super important for making red blood cells. If we have enough iron, then they get nice and large. They get to the right size. And of course iron is used for oxygen transport. It's a part of the molecule that carries oxygen for us. And beef is also rich in B12. And B12 also helps in maturing the red blood cells. And then on top of that B12 helps with the nerve conduction. So these two factors put together make sure that we get the signals to the muscle. And that we get the oxygen delivery to the muscle because all of that's obviously necessary for muscles to function and grow and repair. Beef is also rich in zinc, which helps with muscle repair. And beef is one of those proteins that we consider high quality protein. It's high bioavailability, which of course we can extract amino acids and build muscles. And I talk a lot about grass fed beef as opposed to grain fed beef. And I would suggest you do the best you can. I talk a lot about it because there is a difference when we compare grass fed to the KFO to the mass produced beef. And we can pair omega-3 fatty acids. We can have as much as five times as much of the good omega-3s in grass fed as in mass produced. When we talk about an antioxidant called conjugated linoleinic acid, there's two to three times as much in the grass fed. Vitamin E has two to three times as much in the grass fed. So if you can't get it, especially with something affordable like ground beef, I would strongly recommend the grass fed. But again, if you're in a restaurant or if you can't find grass fed or you can't afford it, then regular is still going to be much, much better than any high carbohydrate or sugar or processed food. Food number four is yogurt. And we're not talking about the fat-free, flavored sugar-laden stuff that has more sugar than the average dessert. We're talking about the unsweetened full-fat yogurt. If you like Greek, what you're getting is a strained yogurt that has higher protein content. But I would still suggest that you get it full-fat. In Greece, the Greek yogurt has about 10% fat in it. Now most of the time in the US, when you buy Greek, you're going to get fat-free, which means that they have probably added something else to create the right consistency. So if personally between fat-free Greek yogurt and a full-fat regular, I would go for the full-fat regular. I would try to get it as tart as possible because that means that the bacteria have consumed a lot of the milk sugar. And it also means that there's more bacteria in there. And if you can't find a great one, then it is always possible to make your own. And yogurt also has bacteria called probiotics. And they support your microflora, your biome. And when you have a functioning microbiome, you have a better nutrient absorption. You can make available to your body more of the nutrients that you actually eat. And you can also reduce inflammation because a healthy flora kind of reduces the chaos down there. A lot of the inflammation in the body comes from not being able to break down and process the food's proper licks. You don't have the proper bacteria. And yogurt also has calcium, which is necessary for this proper signaling for muscle contraction. And it is also an animal food, which means it's a high quality protein. Number five is bone broth. And the bone broth has collagen, which supports the rebuilding, the repair, and the maintenance of your joints, your ligaments, and your gut. So we talked about the gut. If you can help repair that, then you'll have less inflammation, you can absorb more nutrients, et cetera. But if you can maintain joints and ligaments, that's also important for for strength because if you have pain, then your muscles shut down. They protect themselves from pain. And if you have a lot of inflammation and aches and pains, you have less mobility, you tend to move less. So by supporting the connective tissue and the supportive structures, you can actually gain more mobility and more strength that way. Bone broth is also rich in an amino acid called glycine, which helps reduce chronic inflammation. And it also supports neurological communus. And it is very rich in another amino acid called glutamine, which helps reduce, helps heal leaky gut and helps reduce neuroinflammation. There's something called the gut brain axis. Because if we have a leaky gut, we typically have a leaky brain. And all of those inflammatory compounds in the gut can leak out into the blood and make their way into the brain. And that's why there's so much emphasis on this brain gut axis. Number six is vegetables. And I would emphasize the non-star-cheat vegetables and the leafy greens. You can eat a ton of those and not overload on carbs and blood sugar. And these vegetables tend to be very rich in minerals like magnesium and potassium. In vitamins like folate, which is a B vitamin, vitamin K1 and K2, as well as polyphenols and nitrates. And nitrates, that's a precursor for nitric oxide, which helps with vasodilation and blood circulation. They also tend to reduce inflammation system-wide inflammation. And the polyphenols in particular, even though your body doesn't need them. And some people consider them plant toxins, plant poisons. They are very, very important. They're not for you. They are food for your gut bacteria. And there's a wide variety of them. So the more variety of them that you eat, the better the variety of your microbiome bacteria, which supports the gut brain axis again. And that's how we bring a lot of this inflammation down. And they also fuel your mitochondria. Not in the sense that they provide calories for energy or anything. But mitochondria make all your energy. And a lot of these nutrients are necessary catalysts for helping the mitochondria do that. Number seven is nuts and seeds. And again, the rich in certain minerals like magnesium and zinc, some of them like flax seed and chia seed, especially, can have a lot of omega-3. It's not as good or as beneficial as the one in fish oil, because that's the end product. But these plant products contain something called ALA or alphalino liniac acid, which can become the EPA and the DHA. But we convert it very poorly. However, it still helps us maintain the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, even if we don't convert it to the final end product. And they also have some vitamin E and protein. Now, how do these help? Well, for muscle contraction and relaxation, we need sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium. And we have all these and the proper ratios. Now we can contract and relax. We prevent muscle cramps. And they are also necessary for nerve transmission, for tissue repair, and for the production of neurotransmitters, which are the little chemicals that help the nerves signal. Number eight is legumes or beans. And here we have things like lentils, chickpeas, and black beans. And previously, I haven't talked much about these because so many of my videos have been geared toward diabetics, people with metabolic problems, people who try to go extremely low carb. And these are not extremely low carb. But they are moderate carbs. And if you want to, you can include them in moderation. And what they do have is protein, iron, potassium, fiber, B vitamins, and again, polyphenols. So what this does, it helps support your microbiome. It becomes fuel and food for the bacteria in your gut. So especially the type of fiber in some of these legumes, as well as the polyphenols, they're kind of unique. So by including some legumes, again, if your metabolism tolerates it, if you're not trying to go keto, 'cause then these don't fit in that picture. But if you can tolerate some carbs, you can actually diversify your microbiome by including this a little bit. And these beans also contain arginine, which is a nitric oxide precursor. So we talked about nitrate becoming nitric oxide. Well, here's another component that participates. And number nine is berries. And my favorites here are gonna be raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries. And the reason they're so good is that they are high in fiber, very high in nutrients, and they are low in sugar and carbohydrates. They also contain something called anthocyanins, please some of the berries, and they help reduce neuroinflammation. But they can also help actually boost the BDNF, the brain derived neurotrophic factor, which is your nutrient, your miracle grow for making new nerves and new synapses. And those are the connections. So if you're gonna connect your brain to the muscles, if you're gonna build strength and coordination, you need to make new synapses, and you need to train those pathways, and that's what you need this BDNF for. So that helps you improve your nerve to muscle control, and in doing that, you also help your motor coordination and your balance and all that. And berries also contain polyphenols, which we've talked a lot about. They help support the microbiome, and therefore the gut brain acts as, and they help improve blood flow to both muscle and the brain, and they also help preserve the fast twitch muscle type. So I'm talking a lot of brain in this video, because that's the other component of muscle strength and balance and muscle control. And food number 10 is one of my favorites, perhaps the perfect food from the plant kingdom. It is packed with mono unsaturated fatty acids, the same type you find in olive oils. It is full of soluble fiber. It has tons of minerals and vitamin B6 and vitamin E. So here we can see an improvement in nerve conduction, in signaling, we can see that the healthy fats, all these mono unsaturated fatty acids, they help reduce systemic inflammation. Again, not because it's an anti-inflammatory, but because they're neutral, and we're replacing a lot of inflammatory fats. And vitamin B6 is necessary for making neurotransmitters these signaling molecules. So if you're gonna build muscle, you don't need a single ingredient food with some magical property. You need a variety of the most complete and whole foods that you can find. And if you wanna see a video on how to build strong legs, then let me know in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video, you're gonna love that one. And if you truly wanna 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 life-saving video.