I'm good a team. I hope you bloody terrific. Before we get underway with today's episode with Perry, I just want to say that we cover a broad range of subject matter, not surprisingly. Also we talk about lots about food and doses and volume and supplements and micros and macros and vitamins and minerals and hormones. I want to just emphasize before we start, none of this is a prescription or a personal recommendation. Just two dudes having a
chat about some interesting stuff. So if you are interested in learning more about any of the stuff that we talk about relevant for you and your needs, your biology, your physiology, your diet, your supplement regime, have a chat with somebody who is in the space relevant a professional, a dietitian, a doctor, an exercise physiologist, somebody who's relevant for that area of interest for you. But let's get underway. I'll get our you, bloody champions, Welcome to another installment
you project. Craig Anthony Harper is my name? Fuck? And how what a great day. It's Thursday, It's the tenth of the tenth, It's twelve minutes past ten, and the thriving metropolis of bayside Melbourne, where I'm currently at, and up where the sun is at, and well it seems like the fucking the torrential rain is at. It is only nine to twelve pm in the am. In the nine to twelve in the am, put your teeth in arps.
And Perry Venakis, a longtime friend and work colleague, is joining us again on the show.
Get I buddy, the mister Harperdopolis. It's so good to see you again. And in forty eight minutes I'll be just as excited as you because it'll be tenth of the tenth at ten o'clock. Then I should be bouncing around outside him what should be sunshine. But unfortunately it's pouring down to rechial rain today with hell storms et cetera. You know, over one hundred milimeters of rain dropped through last night. So yeah, fun and games today.
One hundred millimeters of one hundred millimeters of rain you and I were talking about before we started. We pressed to go. But there's four inches and you said that that fell in around an hour, right, that's correct.
And it smashed down some shopping centers up in an area called Morrowfield where wooll these people were shopping and all of a sudden they got a deluge of water on their head as it fell through the roof, and Marshal Lastsenter copped it as well, so they got drenched. But the hailstorm, it's incredible. It's just done so much damage and destroyed properties, etc. It was coming in so fierce, it was coming at a ninety degree angle in some areas. So I know one of the guys I know had
popped these garage. He had his car in there and by the time he closed the garage, his garage was full of halstorm inside got down the back of the actual garage itself.
So Mother Nature's fucked off at the moment. There's a lot going on around the world. So a couple of my friends, so Nicole Livingston, who you would have met Nicole back in the day at Harper's. She was, of course an Olympic swimmer, multiple world champion, Olympic medalist, three time Olympian, boss of the afl W and now boss of the Victorian Institute of Sports, so clearly an underachiever.
She's she's over in Florida at the moment with her son, who's an elite baseballer and Also, you would have met back in the day when I was training the Melbourne Vixen's and the Melbourne Phoenix. You may not remember exactly who she is, but you would have met her. Renee. She was Renee Ingles, she's now she was Renee Helen and now Rene Ingles. She's her husband, Joe plays in
the NBA. She's also in Florida and I've been doing a bit of coaching with her and so like there, I mean, it's it's not even bat and down on the hatches. It's like, get the fuck out of dodge. Like I saw this lady. She was the I don't know, maybe the mayor of Orlando, or and she's like, if you are in an area with whatever warnings and you stay, you will die. Like that's what she said. I'm like, fucking hew.
I saw that. And there was some guy that was in a boat and he's covered himself up in this little boat gown. Oh, I'll be fine, I'll just old weather it out. And the interviewer is leaning over into the boat gown. Are you sure maybe you'd want to sort of leave with us.
I know, I know this has got nothing to do with food, but this is what's happening at them. We're going to get to food everyone. But also and this one, I'm like, this is like weird and macabre. This other lady who was some kind of expert commentating on everything, and she's like, if you don't evacuate and you decide to stay, which essentially she was saying, you're a fucking idiot. She didn't say that, but she might as well have.
She goes, make sure that you write your n on your arm with a text, so when they find the body they know who you are. I'm like, oh my god, imagine, Yeah, Diane, where are our black Texters?
Yeah, I'm going to put one on your forehead just in case your heat comes off your body. It'll be a bit easier. I might write someone else's name just to fuck with everyone. That might Actually that would be a great way to go missing. You know, you've got all these bills to pay. I'm like, I'm John Smith. There you go, and just putting you an extraor nahbor and you take off.
Or what you oh? Yeah, but even more macab No, I can't say it. No, I can't say it. I can't where we might I might actually get banned for the first time. I don't know who bans podcasts. I'm sure someone does. So how's life in the Sunshine State? How long you been in the Sunshine State? As I said earlier, everyone Perry and I used to work together. He lived down in Melbourne. Then he has built his own amazing brand and business. But when did you move to the Sunshine State.
I moved here about three years ago, now it's been I went through the COVID dramas as we know, and got locked in the detention center for two weeks before they let me loose in Queensland. Now three years and sort of settled into a completely different lifestyle, which I absolutely love because I mean, I forget the rain that we just had today, but two days ago it was thirty three degrees blue skies. I live only a few minutes from the beach. So the healthy living lifestyle, it
is incredible. It is just amazing. You can just get out there and just take in a great weather and appreciate where you are and you feel amazing. There's no pollution, no praising. This it's a little bit a little bit slower than Melbourne, let's put it that way. You know, two minutes from the beach. I'm five minutes from the
hint Lands. You can explore anything you want. And as I've mentioned a while ago two Craig, I bought a great four will drive which you've seen, and you know, I get on the beach, I drive for forty fifty minutes along the sand where it's completely remote, end up at a place called Double Island Point. There's this big lake lagoon there that comes off from the ocean, and sit there all day, just cook up some great food, enjoy the sun, read a book and then come back recharging.
You spent a whole day. They're just enjoying life and appreciating everything. It's amazing.
I'm so fucking jealous when I come up next. Can you take me to.
That place you are on Craiger and guess what I'll cook you up one of the best steaks you could ever have on the portable barbecue or take up there with me.
How are you allowed to just drive your road registered vehicle along the beach well forty five minutes? What are you driving? It?
Say?
Forty k is an hour on the sand or something.
Okay, here's an interesting thing. They actually have that area allocated for four wall drive access only, And what they do is they actually put speed limits up there so you can do eighty kilometers an hour in some areas, and then because there's camping areas along the beach, they give you a forty k warning. And here's the really interesting thing. They cover that area with drones and police that are hidden with four wall drives in the bushes.
You're doing forty five, they will come and get you. They'll just spend you down straight away and you're like, oh lord, this lovely drone following me and nix menting of the blue lights and pull over and instant find straight away. And it's exactly the same fine as if you're driving on a normal road. So if you've been drinking and you're driving on the beach, you're in trouble.
That's so that's such an Australian thing, isn't it. It's like, well, apart from the drones, but what about dirt bikes? Because you know, I'm a bike person. Would I be allowed to ride a dirt bike.
Along there as long as it's registered? Yes?
Right? But no, but no, there's no Hyundai Atlantra's just rocketing along there there.
Is They usually end up either getting stuck in the sand or float out in the ocean.
So though like so, they're not allowed. If they're just irregular at Sedan though they're not allowed along there, they.
Can go on there. They're more than happy to go on there. They'll allow any vehicle on there. But if you're a fool and you've got to take a little there and you realize it's too driving, you've got standard wheels and you go out, you're done.
So if you're driving the thirty year old high UNDIXL front wheel drive with skinny wheels, you're probably and high pressure in the tires, you probably fucked.
Now, let's think about it. Yes, one hundred percent.
You should just hang out there all day and wait for those people and go for one hundred and twenty bucks. I'll take you back to the start.
Yeah. Well, you know the tourists that like to come along there and want to experiment. If they're carking get through, I'll just hitch them up and pull them back out and gets one hundred and twenty dollars. Or I'll let you float out into the ocean. What would you like to do.
Now, when you get to this the end point the lagoon that runs off. What do you mean, is it like just a big salt water pool? But what is it?
It is huge, this massive, huge salt water pool area. And it's near a place called Rainbow Beach, which is a beautiful beach as well, and it's just a massive area that would be maybe you know, three four kilometers easy of beach land where everyone just parks it car. You know, it sets up there camping equipment and yeah, relaxes. I've got a real big two hundred and seventy degree annex now on the vehicle, so it covers most of
the vehicle and open it up. Put the chairs out there, open up the back, pull out the fridge, get the barbecue going. Life's amazing, and you just enjoy it and just have a nice relaxing day because you can't drive back during the high tide. Once high tide comes up that beach excess, you're locked in. You're going to stay there.
You wouldn't want to fuck up the timing, would you.
Well that's why you get told please check the tithe thing. You've got to drive two hours of either side of low tide. And my first adventure there, I was waiting for a friend to guide me along to go down there, and what happened was the barge that gets you across onto the other side of the foreshore so you can get your full driving there one had broken down, so the line was really long. And then my friend rings me up and says, I've got family problems with kids,
are sick. Can't make it. You have to go on your own. So by the time I've got on the beach, high tide was coming up. Did I have fun learning how to drive my fall for the first time ever on the sand with the ocean splashing up against the car where they say, if the water hits you and you think this is your car, would buy sow? Was a fun adventure?
Oh god, oh god? And how's business going?
Business is going well. It's been a bit slower to start off with, as with anything you I suppose, and people understanding what nutrition ninety is all about. But it's picking up every day. There's a few more clients getting
on board, We're getting better results. I'm getting more and more exposure now I'm having what's been really good actually having people that I've looked up to as high profile in the industry now messaging me directly and saying, hey, I really love your content, love what you're sharing, you know, keeping a great job. And it's been a bit of an awakening for me to see that these people that you know, I followed for years and have been actually impressed with and then all of a sudden, now they're
messaging me, we're impressed with your work. Actually, one of your doctor friends from America, doctor Alexander Ruth, if you remember her, yeah, I remember her peptides for the old ladies that she's always messaging me and having the chat and everything like that. She's been absolutely amazing.
So I'm pretty sure you can't say peptides for the old ladies. You know, you're an old man and I'm an old man.
Right, Yes, we're very old men. But it seunds better that way. But when you assume mature ladies, old ladies that are beautiful, just like a wine that replied the pip flights to make the mill work really well.
Yeah, no, she was. She was interesting. I had her on the show a long time ago, and she's she's pretty smart. She's pretty smart. How old are you now? I just turned sixty one.
I am sixty one. I turned sixty one in Jude.
How about you, Craig, Yeah, same, same, just turned sixty one in a couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago. So you know what's really interesting is, and I'm not just saying this because it's it's you and me, but like I look at you, and we worked together, we worked together for quite a long time, but we probably we haven't worked together for I don't know, fifteen or twenty years, but you look a scent. I look older, I definitely look fucking older, but you you pretty much
look the same. Like it's hard to be objective, you know, because my relationship with you is subjective and everything, you know, the Craig Harper bloody thing. Everything's subjective, right, But as an objective as I can be, you look about fucking three years older than you did twenty years ago, which is very annoying. I don't know, do you reckon that's your Greek heritage, your bloody amazing genetics, or your lifestyle or what is that?
It's got to do with the headgel that I use.
You know, you know this is an audio you know, you know this is audio only his bald It's been bored as a fucking badger for our badge is bald, though I don't think badges. I don't think. I don't think badgers are bald.
It depends which way you flip them over.
You're a fucking idiot. Now, before we jump in how often, I just want to talk about you a little bit. I want to talk about your training because you're sixty one. I'm sixty one, and I think some people think I'm
just a fucking unicorn. Not that I'm gifted. You've got way better genetics than me, but you know, in terms of how I think, and I always tell people or I did a thing recently on strength training, like kind of the nuts and bolts of you know, why, how when, how much and how hard with strength trains, like really yeah, And it was really just like opening the door for people anywhere between beginners and somewhat intermediate, or perhaps people who've been training for a while and want to kind
of just revisit some of the fundamentals and think, am I actually training progressively? Is there overload that's adequate? Or am I in a fucking holding pattern? But one of the questions that I get asked a lot is what I do because people want to know, Yeah, but what do you eat, how do you and how much waits? How much cardio? Do you stretch? Do you fucking do you have five minutes? Do you do fasting? Do you whatever? And so I downloaded all that which I don't need
to again, but I want to know. So you at sixty one in you know, not too great a detail, but within reason, like, tell us about your eating, strength stuff. I know that you have a martial arts background, you're an elite taekwondo compareditor, black belt, blah blah blah. Tell us about stretching, tell us about strength, tell us about cardio if you do any I don't know if you do, And give us just a window into your nutrition and
your lifestyle. I know that's a lot, but if you could kind of give us because and the reason I say this, I'll shut up after this. The reason I say this is because we have a lot of people who are forty five plus who listen to this show, and I want to encourage people that you don't need to be old at any age, Like, irrespective of your age, you don't need to be old, right, because I think so much of being old is about thinking. And yeah,
of course there's a physiological component. But all right, so I'll shut the fuck up, give us the story, the story of you.
I'll sum it up quickly. Number one, you mentioned about Cardio, well, as we were at the Harper Drome and we're all become bodybuilders, and we threw Cardio out the door my perception, and that has changed a little bit now. And now actually I went out and bought a bike and I ride my road bike down to the gym. What You've got a bike?
Who the fuck are you get?
Perry back one. I'm the guy that used to run people off the road with their bikes and now I'm a bike rider. So you know, it's a bit of a contradiction there. But I actually ride my bike to the gym. And where I live it's hilly, so the ride there isn't too bad. You get a bit of speed going down the hill. It's after you work out trying to come back the ride up the hill, and there's one hill at the moment I'm just trying to
conquer and it's two minutes from my house. I've gotten ninety percent up the way before I fall off the bike and get out of the gutter and get some pull bystander to come up and go you okay, And I'm so.
You got to try. You've got to try the lower gears, mate, what there's more than one gear. That's what happens when you buy a fixed wheel bike out of the Bloody paper from nineteen to seventy four.
Mayhey for seventy five dollars is a great deal. I'm pretty happy. It'd even come with a seat this time. I'm happy with it. So, yeah, I'll go to the gym. I'll hit the gym a minimum of three times a week. I try to get six times a week in and I like to work on the philosophy. I'm doing three body parts in the workout. I'll only do three sets close to fail. I've ever got a fayre for the major muscle groups, and I'll then try and retrain them four days later. But you know the worst case scenario,
I'll do three training sessions. At the most, I do six, and I like to have the arrest, so I'll do three days on, one day off, days on again, and there's my seven day split. And yeah, I believe that you need to be functional. You need to have some muscle mass and strength so your body works effectively and that you know, we're looking at bone density, and we also understand now that the muscle isn't just a muscle, it's a hormone itself too that releases my kids, which
is great for the body and it's functions. So to feel amazing and to feel great, do the way training I do. The cardio in between you keep my heart health up as well too, and then that's basically it. That's to give a very fick synopsis of what I do nutrition wise, being a nutritionist and a bit psycho. When it comes to food, I am very meticulous about my food. As one of my friends come over the other day and said, why are you weighing your steak?
Why are you weighing your vegetable? So I'm like, when you've got a fuel tanking or car, you've got to gauge to tell you how much how much sure you got right? You know, if I disconnected that gauge and you have to drive around Australia when you know you run out of fuel, you're done. So therefore, when it comes to nutrition, I'm aarticular So to make it really quick, it's basically, I'm very much into having animal protein as my protein sawce so meat, fish, chicken, eggs, whete protein,
any one of those. And then I have a large stack of vegetables because I very believe in keeping my micronutrient balance up, balancing out the animal protein with lots of fiber. And obviously the big issue that we start to see now is the diversity of microbiome in the gut. And by eating a lot of variety of foods like fruits and vegetables, et cetera, and eating the let's say, the broccli eat in the head, but also eating the
stalk as well, you're creating a better microbiome effect. Therefore, we know that now one hundred percent that microbiome effects brain function, but also other bodily functions as well. So having a healthy gut, as we call it, makes a healthy body. And maybe that's the secret why I look so great and amazing and glowing every day.
And humble. How did that? You know you did a humility Yeah, you were telling me you did a humility workshop on the weekend and you were the best.
Yeah, of course, and even though I was doing only one in the class, it went really well, you're an idiot, all.
Right, Okay, So but also we have the reality that the only person in the world with your DNA as you, the only person with minus me. Right, and so let's talk to people. Let's talk a little bit about the idea of While there are broad principles that that work, like, yeah, we need to lift weights, we need to move, we need to do some cardio, some flexibility is good. Getting good sleep is important, you know, the right amount of
micros and macros and energy, you know is important. What about helping people figure out how their body works individually? Like you know, we can you and I are the same age. Let's say we go and get another eight sixty one year olds and we all eat the same food, the same amount, the same type, we all do the same workout, we all have the same amount of sleep,
we don't get the same outcome. So this genetic variability, this individual variability from person to person, how does the person who's listening to this start to figure out what works optimally for their unique physiology.
Okay, that's a really good point. And I think a lot of people don't realize that every body is different. That's using pinching one of your quotes, which I absolutely love, But it's true. Everybody is different. So we look at a producol of creating an assessment, and how do we do an assessment? We get a baseline, so we might someone's strength or tuddiovascular activity. We might ask them how they're feeling. You know, how much you sleep?
Do?
They get all little biomarkers to try and understand a baseline, and then we might create some change. So, for example, we might say, all right, today, we're going to get you to doing there and do a three week thing of body weight exercises and every week getting quintat with me on a Tuesday and just give me a rundown. How are you feeling? Are you sleeping better? Are you walking better? Can get ut of your car easier? Whatever little things
like that. We might say that might be working for them, or they might go, hey, I've just done this session. I am completely exhausted, i can't walk, I'm really tired, I'm falling asleep everywhere, and we go all right, well this hasn't worked for you, let's try a different protocol. But the most important thing is that we have a baseline, that we have an understanding of where they are right
now when they come into our environment. What's actually happening with them, and if they want to go in deeper, we can get blood tests done, so we have a very in depth blood panel that one can do to see what's happening with their body and if there's any
inflammatory markets going on. They see what the cholesterol levels like, what their living functions like, what kidney functions like, and then if they want to go another deeper level, they can also then go get a dexa scam to assist their bone density, their body fat mass, and the amount of muscle they have on their body. So it becomes an individual thing to what that client wants to find out about themselves and how in depth they want to go.
The biggest concern I find with people they will come to me when they're actually sick. When I've actually hit rick war. Oh mate, I've been to the doctor and he said to me, I'm pre diabetic. Or you know, I've gotten up this morning and I've gone to put my shoes on, I've done my back. What do I do? And that's a sad thing to see that they come to us broken rather than come to us before they break and go, hey, I'm sixty one, I've just had
my sixty one birthday. When I get the seventy one, I want to be feeling amazing, feel optimal health, be able to run up that stairs, you know, go to the beach, go with Prague and Perry down to Double Island point. And what do I need to do?
Oh my god, No, we're not taking anyone. Fuck that. It's just you and me. They can get there themselves. Okay, okay, Now let's just put aside for the moment that not everyone can work with you. But we're going to talk about your stuff towards the end. But in general, though, like people can like you don't need to be you or me, right, you don't need to have multiple degrees to be able to be scientific.
Right.
So like, so when we what I mean by that is, you know, Brian the truck driver, shout out to Brian the truck driver, God bless him. He might go, well, I'm going to just start to record a few things. I might get some as you call baseline data, and that might just be what's my what's my stomach measurement, my hip measurement, what's my body weight? You know, what's
my energy level? If I had to do a subjective rating out of ten and then Brian the truck driver can start to put in place some what you and me would call protocols. Most people would just say changes where you do something, you try something, and then over time he or she or whoever can figure out what's working, because I mean, our body is always telling us something like our right. Our body's always talking to us right, and we need to learn that fucking language.
This is the problem. Though people don't realize what their body's saying to them. They have accepted the fact that they feel like crap. And the biggest reason why I think this is is that let's say they're eight nineteen
twenty running around feeling great, feeling amazing. You know, twenty years later of forty forty one, forty two, they've had twenty years of slow, slow incrementation of full food pull lifestyle choices, whatever right, life's gotten in the way, So they slowly, slowly go down the rabbit hole of not feeling fantastic, of feeling suboptimal, having no energy, feeling it's better just to sit on the couch rather than go after a walk, and they just accept that as being normal.
And this is the problem is that this feeling of normal is actually really bad. You're in poor health. And it's when they start to create change, like you said, put a protocol in or do something different to try and assist their health and world be and they go, oh, my god, I feel amazing, and we sit there and go, well, that amazing is actually normal. That's how you should be feeling. I had an experience like this about a month ago.
What had happened with me is that we had a few things going on here a friend that had passed away, So it sort of put me in a bit of a bad headspace because I was trying to help him out, and yet it just went belly up. Long story short, that passed away and a few other things. So for those few days, I wasn't eating properly. I was pretty sad about what had happened. I fell sorry for the family, etc. Missed out on training, missed out on food. My slip was disrupted. By the end of the week, I was
a mess. I was at a few days and I went, I need to force myself to eat properly in I need to get just open up the cupboard, get the food out, get back into routine. And within forty eight hours I was bouncing off the walls again and I could handle the stresses of life have been dished out to me. But it was just that instance, dainious shock of you know, one mid I'm talking to this person, next minute they've passed away. It's like, what just happened?
And I've got the taste of what it's like to not eat well, not sleep well, not be active, and you know, just being a negative headspace. How can affecting you, Savili? And unfortunately a lot of people are like that every day and it's.
Sad, it is, and it's it's and we don't mean this too in any ways sound judgmental listeners at all, at all. That's actually coming from a place of you know, compassionate care. I want people to feel great. I want people to have energy. I want people to get out of bed and go.
Fuck.
I love being me. Ah, how good is it me? You know, Peza, It's interesting. I'm like you. I weigh my fucking dinner, I weigh my breakfast. I weigh you know, I have protein powder. Everyone knows almonds, oats, some cilium husk, and a few bits and pieces a few seeds in my breakfast. I weighed every day before I put whatever I put on it, milk, whatever. It weighs one hundred and sixty gram so it's not a small breakfast, right,
And I also weigh my dinner. How if I have most nights i'll have like meat and vegies, but I weigh the amount of you know, and that just works for me. And again this is not a recommendation for you, the listener, But not last night, the night before. So
what's today? So that was Tuesday. I'd had a massive day, and I every now and then i'll buy takeaway like I live in Hampton, as you know, there's a million fucking restaurants, and I'll go and get some some Thai food, chicken, veggies, rice, whatever. And when I was I don't know, in my twenties and thirties, I used to eat pasta like a motherfucker. But I rarely eat past it, right, I just anyway, the other night I went and I got I went fuck it like I'd not eaten much food just because
my day was crazy, and I just ordered tortellini bolonnaise. Right, dude, I've felt like, so we are now ten forty, I can still feel that that was two nights ago, and it's not like the actual calories that I ate wouldn't been more than my normal dinner. But it's so funny. My body has been going to me for the last thirty six hours, what the fuck is wrong with you? And now I'm not saying donat passa everyone, I'm not saying donut to ord Lennie, but my body has very
clearly told me don't do that again. I do not like it. And it's funny because you wouldn't think. I mean just typically, but oh my god, dude, I feel I mean, I'm starting to come good now, but I felt heavy in the I wasn't psychological. Physiologically, I felt ah. I didn't. I felt like low level nausea and I just felt blah. And also I actually think it impaired my cognition.
I wouldn't be surprised. I have a similar story. One of my clients who's now become a good friend, messaged me and he goes, actually hate you, and I'm like, that's a really nice message. Why and he goes, well, I went out with my girlfriend down a Live on the street for those of that that's a nice alien restaurant area. And they've gone out and splurge and he's had dessert, et cetera. Now he's been fanatical about getting
his health back on track. Was out of healthcare two years ago, so he has been eating what we term as clean, consistent home cooking, et cetera. They've gone out to celebrate with his partner. He reckons. By the time he got home, he was on that toilet and yeah, like let's say, exploding volpain and he goes, I hate you, he goes, my body just can't handle eating. You don't
processed food anymore. That's all your fault. And I've said, I'm really sorry, but you know you're actually fifteen kilos lighter and all your blood taste to shine that you're in optimal health. So yeah, blame the bald brick. It's all good. I'll pop it on the chin.
I think just like when you are, you know, suboptimal, you know you're not in a great place physically, and as you were talking about a moment ago, you think, oh this is normal. Then when you get healthy, I mean functional, energetic. I'm not talking about what you look like everybody. I'm not talking about what you're weight is, you know, but just whatever that is when you get when you're in a better place like I. It's kind of although it's bad, but.
It's for me.
Sometimes it's good to do that have a bit of pasta because it makes me realize how good I normally feel, because I because my energy, my everything, my cognitive function, my training, my strength, everything is I think maybe I take it for granted a little bit because I've never really stopped right. It's like you, it's like I've I've never really like, I've never taken more than in the
last forty five years. The most I wouldn't have trained would be one week and I can't even remember when that would have been.
Right.
It doesn't mean my diet's always been fucking optimal. That definitely has been a problem at times. But you know, for the last twenty years, I would say my diet has been, you know, as close to optimal as I can have it. But yeah, that when you feel really good, but your normal state is feeling really good, you kind of lose perspective and then when you feel shit, you're like, ah, fuck, this is horrible. I just want yesterday back when I wasn't eating this.
And look, you mentioned it to all. Two is that it's become a way of life for us. Well, what we're doing, the way we eat, the way we train, the way we move, the way we sleep is now a normal aspect of our lifestyle. But that's how it was. Two hundred years ago. There was a packet of Colvin Ships, Senior Eminem's and all this that was there. There was no fast food places, so back then they were eating everything that came out of the earth or anything that
was running around, et cetera. That's the way, you know, my grandparents ate and why my parents ate when they got here until they discovered, you know, Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Shout out, Shout out to KFC, one of our biggest sponsors. They're no, they're not. I actually have been offered a couple of not through KFC, but other well known fast food outlets as sponsors for the show.
And I've been approached for some supplement companies that I've just gone ah, yeah, no, thank you.
Well, I had to say, have you listened to my fucking show? As if do you know what I do? Anyway? Hey, so we were going to do a show talking about myths and fallacies around food, but look at us, we haven't done that but let's talk about.
A few anyway.
I want to.
I want to.
Just a few things that I guess a lot of people are either misunderstand or curious about, or perhaps even a few topics that are somewhat divisive in that there's different there's two different schools of thought. So there's an idea that salt, you know, putting salt on our food is bad for us? What say you, Judge Perry.
Judge Perry is now taken over the stand and we'll be discussing this clearly with you, salt. If you have a high pertension, promise, have you've got high blood pressure? We need to look at whether it's a renal condition or as a genetic issue, or whether it's got to do with your nutrition. Now, a lot of the times has got to do with the fact that you're eating
a lot of ultra process food. There's a lot of hidden sodium in there, or you haven't just read the label to realize how much salt you're getting in through the day. So therefore your blood pressure goes through the roof. Your hydration system in your body has changed completely as well too, So we start to have a lot of
issues here going on. But if you're a whole food eater, if you're eating a lot of fruit and vegetables and nuts and you don't buy any process food, you actually need salt and all the trace mineral eons that come with that to make it affecting your body. See, your body can work effectively. So in the end ninety program that I run, because it's a whole full basis, my clients must be put in there anywhere between one to five brands of Celtic salt in their food per day.
And initially people sort of get scared and they go, oh, what do you mean. I'm like one, Celtic salts got a lower amount of sodium compared to the other nutrients that any and the other micronutrients. But more importantly, it's going to assist with all the other bodily functions, Like there's calcium, magnetesium, potassium, and the list goes on and
on and on which you require for bodily function. It's when we isolate the sodium, so you get you know, the old sacks assault that my mum and dad used to put all over their food because I thought this is cheap and easy. Well it is cheap and easy, but that shoots your blood pressure up through the roof and there's no other benefit to it. There's no o the other traces and minerals that you require. So salt
I'd give people the thumbs up. Basically your nutrition and if you're eating whole foods, you're going to need it. You're going to need to put solving your steak, You're going to need to put salt in your vegetables to have your body functioning effectively. And again the old thing, let's monitor it, Let's work out how much you need as an individual to make it work effectively for you.
All Right, love it by the way, that's not a recommendation to just go crazy. Un sold everyone, But I'm where do people get Celtic salt?
By the way, any health food shop will get it, or you can buy it online as well too. Make sure it's the unrefinedment because unfortunately, because people see Celtic salt and it's an original state, it's a gray width type of salt. Because it's unrefined, some companies refine it and make it look white, and when they've done it, they've actually taken some of the good qualities out of it. So be aware that the salt that you'll buy will
have a great color and it will be moisty. Come'm putting in normal shaky and if you use your fingers to grab it and sprinkle it over your food.
Wow, moist salt. Who would have thought that could be the name of the show Moist Salt.
I'm writing that down right now.
All right, we could do a whole show on this, but just give us like sixty to one hundred and twenty seconds on some of the confusion around carbs, because I mean, carbs could be a fucking handful of lollies, or it could be mashed potato, or it could be a bowl full of fucking steamed veggie or an apple. So give us the just just give us a little bit of insight.
Okay. So all carbo hydrates are not the same day. All will break down into either fructose or glucose into the body to get absorbed, and fructose will get broken down again. But the process that fructose goes breaks down within the body goes through the liver first, so there's
a little bit of a difference. And when it comes to fructose and eating fruit, the problem with sugar is is that people look at sugar on its own, and we'll have let's say, sugar sweetened beverages, or they're adding sugar to every food that they've gotten there, like they make a cake and you'll see they'll go put one hundred and fifty grams of sugar in there. Anything in such a high dose is going to cause a problem
with the body. Any any individual item that we take is going to create a problem within the body if the dosage is too high. So with sugar, sugar is fine. There is no problems with sugar. You will not get diabetes. With sugar, you will not get the bone put on fat if you're having carbs on at night. It's yeah, all these fallacies. It's understanding that the energy balance of
energy in versus energy out. So you've got someone that can explain it to you effectively and understand what your energy output is and then you balance it out with your intake. And a carbohydrate is a macro nutrient that we need to monitor and we need to understand the carbohydrates and sugar basically are an energy source for the body that don't make you fat. What makes you fat is eating way too much of anything. You eat too much protai and you're going to get fat. You eat
too much fat, you're going to get fat. You eat too many carbs, you're going to get fat. So the realistic approach is to understand what carbohydrates and should we do within the body itself, and then monitor it and have the right amount that's going to suit you. So, yes, you can have carbs at night, you will not get fat. Yes you can have a piece of fruit before you
go to bed, you will not get diabetes. The interesting thing is, though, and this is one thing I've explained with a couple of my clients, if you have a big carbohydrate meal before you go to bed and you are getting blood tests on the next morning, I've proved this over and over again that your blood glucose level in the morning in the fastest state, will be elevated. Now, if you're on borderline already and then you have carbs at night and you go to your doctor, that might
say you're pre diabetic. So always advise people, if you're getting blood TIS done, please have your carves before lunchtime. And then if you're having anything else with which are carbohdlates, such as vegetables, they're fibrous don't have too many of them. Let the body work into its normal state, so we get on a state of homeostasis. Wing you're getting your blood works done.
Yeah, I love that. And what's interesting is I think people try and just bring, you know, obesity or dysfunction or poor health down to one thing. Oh it's carps, and you're like, there's so many fucking variables, right, and not even you know, it's like you said, you eat too much of anything, You're going to gain Wait, you're going to gain fat. So you could have you could have the perfect diet in terms of what you're eating, the quality of food, the type of food, like you said,
everything that was grown or running around or swimming. You know, you could have all whole foods. But you have a thousand calories a day more than you need. Guess what, you know it ain't healthy. Yes, the food sauce is healthy, the type of food that you are eating is healthy. But the volume of food that you are eating is unhealthy. And you know what else is I was going to
say frustrating, It's not frustrating, it's just fucking annoying. Is that, you know, despite the fact that we're more educated, more researched and all of that than ever, and yes, we need to talk about all the minutia and the variables around micros and macros and quality of food and the thermogenic effective food and all that. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But the bottom line is most Australians just fucking eat too much. But I mean, that's it the end.
And you know what, when we do a self report analysis, so we getting to do a food frequency report, it has been proven I think percent of these people under risk them what they're eating. Of course I only had a bag of chips, but they had four or you know, I only had one slice of pizza. It was two massive, large pieces that you ate and we forget the alcohol that you had to wash it down with. You know,
it is incredible to actually see that. And when you have people that actually when we do surveys and we actually have people that monitor in their lifestyle that they're actually with them when they report what they've eaten, and when we see what they've eaten, eighty percent of the time, it's very different, and it makes it frustrating. It really does.
It creates the problem because you're trying to identify a problem to give them a solution, and they're like giving you the actual facts, and like I said, they're just over eat and I don't realize that overeating. They're like, hey, I had two big Macs. Well you know, I didn't have the diet coke. I didn't Sorry, I didn't have a coke, had a diet coke.
So it's fine, yeah, yeah, And I mean, look, it's it's it's it's also hard for and I'm not giving
anyone to get out of jail card. But you know, like as somebody who has struggled with food a lot of his life, and you know, when you've been eating a certain way and you socialize a certain way, and you know you are somewhat addicted to a certain way of eating, and it can be fucking addictive because whether or not you love Big Max or fucking Heroine or gambling, it's producing the same effect in your brain, which is dopamine, right, So you know, and the problem is if or the
challenges I guess, like when you are used to eating a certain way and it gives you that although it doesn't make you feel great overall, but in the moment, like if you love fucking quarter pounders. And you have a quarter pounder for about seven minutes. You're so fucking happy, right, but it's after the seven minutes that you start to feel like dogshit. I wanted to I wanted to just talk to you about something that I hadn't intended to,
but this is really relevant. So I often get people come to me pez and go, oh, can you look at this? And they hand me a can of something? Right, someone handed me a can of something recently, and it's like this, it's like a multi you know, like everything in it like a daily picked me up kind of you know, a little bit like a one Greens or whatever it's called. You know those things. Anyway, so the
person gives me this canon. I look at the cannon on the back of the fucking vitamin this and vitamin that and all these minerals, and you know, it's like the list is like as long as you're arm, there's like fucking fifty thing. I'm like, this is magic. Well I'm not like, They're like this is magic. It's got all the shit in it. And then I start reading the quantities, right, I'm like, yeah, I go it is in here, but do you know how much like, for example,
vitamin C or magnesium or whatever is a therapeutic dose. Well, this has got about one fiftieth of what you need for the day, right, And so so there are all these products that go, oh, it's got all this stuff in it, but it's at such a low fucking dose that it doesn't do anything. So technically they're not lying, right, Oh yeah, but you might need I mean, it depends who you talk to, but I reckon, you need a fair bit of vitamin C. What's your what's your RDI on vitamin C?
I need to look up the NRV because they've actually changed about six months ago. So we have to rather meke a quoto number or a figure. We go to the National Reference Values and anyone can access these and just type in vitamin C and we actually see how much vitamin C you need.
Good idea, you know, we need to find the right not just the right fucking you know, micro macro nutrient or mineral or vitamin, but also at the right dose. Right.
Well two, I'm going to be get with two points here, Craig number one. Unless I will use magnesum as an example. Everyone thinks they need magnesium to sleep better. To feel better, et cetera. But there are so many different types of magnesium. I think there's four different types of agnice. So they're buying the magnesium to assault so you can absorb in
the body. Usually with a product like that that's got four hundred and seventy two things listened to it, what you find is is that quality of magnesis igbuising is a really shit one. Exsuse of French here, but it's a really low gradear that it's not biovailable because it's so cheap and it's easy for them put in there and you look at it and go, I've got magnesium in here, but your body can't even process that, So what's the point. Secondly, you know you talk about vitamin
C fantastic, right. We know that for the body to work, we might need X amount, thousand milligrams whatever of vitamin C, but how do you know how much you need as an individual? Blood works, blood tests? Rather than go out and buy all this stuff and spend hundreds of dollars on all these supplements because John up the road told me this is really good, and TikTok was saying that I need magnesium, and the guy next door was saying
he's vitamin D deficient. So I must be vitamin deficient because we live next door to each other and go out and spend one hundreds of dollars on all these vitamins. We can spend a twenty nine dollars and go to your doctor and get a filled blood panel done and go, hey, look at my zinc levels, they're low. Look at my magnesium levels, they're high. Look at my vitamin D levels. I live in Queensland, they're off the clock. Look and what people don't realize is is that they have the
dose is what creates the poison. So let's say my mightamin D level is right up on the upper limit, right, So we know in Australia used to be fifty to two hundred and fifty per litter. Now it's changed to fifty two hundred and fifty. Why whether at beasts and there's a lot in my opining. You know, it's a long story why I think why they've dropped the level.
But if you're let's say, going off the old scale of two hundred and fifty, you're two hundred and forty, and then you start to mega those ten thousand IU a day and you go now three fifty four hundred, All of a sudden, the risk of causing you know,
hiding and barteries, et cetera, goes through the roof. And it's all because you didn't get a blood test to see where you're at before you get started, before you spend the three hundred and ninety five dollars to get it from some company from the Amazon that sends that I a via plane and two ships to get to you. So you've got this unique form of vitamin D that's got a label on it that you can't read.
Okay, I'm going to be the devil's advocate for a moment. I agree with you. I don't disagree on anything. But also even when we go, oh, or the RDI or the what was that other organization you.
Said, mate, Well, the National Reference for which actually recommend daily intakes and stuff, Well that's got the lower limit everything in there.
Yeah, right, Like, who's to say that, Let's just go, let's just I don't know whatever the fucking the X Y Z mineral you the recommendation for you and me is a thousand milligrams, And we get you and I get tested, and we're both low in the X Y Z whatever. And then so the prescription is a thousand
milligrams a day. Then there's the other fact that my physiology in your physiology might respond differently to the exact same dose of the exact thing, and it's definitely not going to produce the exact same benefit because again we're genetically different. So you know, like even with urdies, it's like, yeah, I reckon, definitely we need them because we need to. You know, like one of my friends went and got
his testosterone checked. Now he's fifty five or something, and his testosterone is like through the fucking floor, and I can't tell you all the symptoms, but you could guess what the symptoms are, right, And apart from losing muscle mass, he's depressed, he's got and I think and this is a whole other podcast, but I think that, you know, like part of it is because his testosterone level is
incredibly low. It's like a ninety year old man. And the doctor basically said to him, well, you know you're in your fifties. That happens on your way rather than going, well, I don't know, maybe we could try a therapeutic dose, you know, just like with women, where we replace estrogen and progesterone and we call it HRT or there's different protocols and different ideas, you know. But the thing is that maybe we'll have a chat about this one day.
But even with this with like, men have an endocrime system as do women, and men have a dominant sex or moment it's called testosterone. But because there's such an issue around buff edge using steroids, we can't even have this conversation for when there's this you know, opportunity or perhaps this medical reality for some men to explore some kind of hormonal treatment that's analogous to what women do or use, but you know, for the dominant male hormone.
You know. But it's like, ah, no, no, Like, it's just so fucking dumb that we can't just treat some things, you know. And I'm talking about clinic call treatment. I'm not talking about people's self administering or any bullshit. I'm just talking about you know, does that ever frustrate you that?
Oh mate? I like, you know, I do a lot on blood testing, even though I'm not a doctor or a dietitian, so I can't prescribe. I can only offer my opinion on stuff. And I've had let's say, some in depth conversations with doctors regarding people's blood tests. And when I see stuff like this, whether it's some optimal testosterone level, and the guy's complaining here erect of dysfunction, I'm losing muscle mass, I'm feeling like crap, etc. And go to the doctor where you can see everything else
is normal except this testostera. Why can't you give him even just a basic gel a testojel that he can use to help elevate him. And then with what you mentioned before, how you and I could take a thousand milligrams or something, we see how I respond. The way to check that is to retest your blood work. So six weeks later or twelve weeks later, redo your blood testing might find a thousand milligrams worked amazing for you, but for me, because I've got no hair, I need
five thousand milligrams. And that's the thing we've got to retest after we take something. We don't just assume that it's fine. And secondly, this stuff with the humans where we've got a differentiation between females and males, where females can go yep, I'm going through perimidoporesal and our menopausal I can go a hi ten and it's easy, and it's I think you've got our adoptor as a male, and you complain of all your issues and your testosterone
levels alw. It is so rare and very difficult for them to prescribe you with any form of testosterone replacement therapy to try and help you out. That's really really hard.
Yeah, yeah, maybe that'll change over the next five to ten years. Who knows. All Right, I want to finish on one thing and I'm being a little bit self indulgent here because I want to know. Tell me about eggs, Tell me about cholesterol, tell me about yolks. What's the current? By the way, Pez has got a Master's degreen nutrition. If you're wondering what qualifies him, he's not just some Well he is a buffet and he is a bodybuilder, but also he's an educated bullf ed tell us about eggs, mate.
Okay, well, egg's got a really bad rap. We got told that you should eat you know, one egg, one egg yog to three egg whites and that's it for the day. And you know egg whites are better for you. Et cetera. Well, there's a couple of fallacies with that number. One.
We've actually found that there is no restrictions on a number of ext you can But what we need to take into consideration that in eggs there is a little bit of cholesterol that we need to be addressed, like the saturated fat, But more importantly, there's a better form of a polyunsaturated fat, which is the centsion fat, which is a Mega three. So it's got a Mega three, some traces a Mega six, and a little bit of
a Mega nine. Lot every fat. We need to understand that there is they're always going to find these three together. We don't have it like you can't get a let's say a product is sort of Mega three on its side, like for example, olive oil. We know it's a Mega nine, but there's still a Mega six and a Mega three in there. So there's a predominant oil that stands out and then place elements of the others. So with eggs, because we went down this pathway of ninety eight percent
fat and fat's what push your problem? And fat, what's make with fat? Et cetera, we decided to say, well, look at that the yolks or fat. I don't care. We're going to throw them in the bin. And that's a lot of crap. There's actually scientific studies that have
come through. Now that's something. You can eat as many eggs as you like, as long as you're cholesterols in check, right, if you know that your triglycerides are on point, and now we're understanding that ApoB is a very important blood test, and then your non HDLC is the next important one. If you're monitoring them and you see where you're at, then you can have as many eggs as you like.
There is no issue with that. But even if you try and do the old Wocki thing eat eggs raw, that's a big mistake because in egg white there is a product called avident, and avident bonds to vitamin B seven, which is biten and biotin is involved in a lot of chemical reactions within the body, a lot of energy releasing products like in metabolism with fats, and within the actual cell itself to function effectively. So if you're blocking biotin,
you're going to start feeling like crap. And I've had clients that have tried this with the eat the raw eggs and they always end up saying a very similar thing, and they go, I feel I've got a metallic taste in my mouth and I don't feel well. Now. I don't know if that's a correlation of the non absorption of biiton or whether it's just the egg white that's tasting like crap. And they want to be like Rocky and run up a flying the stairs. But in a nutshell,
you know, cook your eggs. Always cook the egg white very important. You can have a running oat. There's no problems at all. And yes, you can eat as many eggs as you like, as long as you don't have any underlying health conditions which involves cholesterol high levels cholesterol high levels of druggles ride in the body.
He's not suggesting that you do eat twelve a day, by the way everyone, but perhaps that you don't need to be terrified of having one or more a day.
Ye tell people. I've had people freak out and go I had a whole egg with it, and I'm really concerned. I said, well, if you ate the shell, I'd be worried too. It's okay. You can have your egg. You're can have two eggs, you can have three eggs. Because in three eggs there's twenty one grands of protein, which is it's perfect for your body to function nicely.
How do people find you?
Mate? Where do they?
Where can they connect with you? Website? Instagram, brand products.
Go beautiful? Okay, Well, I have a company known as Nutrition ninety, so you can look up nutrition ninety dot com dot au or to make it easier N ninety dot com dot au. I'm also on Instagram under Nutrition ninety. I'm on YouTube on Nutrition ninety. I am on Facebook as Nutrition ninety. If you go on my Instagram page, there's a lot of information on there to fill you in. I'm on TikTok with some more of a comical approach
to nutrition as well too. If you want to find me on there again, either Nutrition ninety or my name Perry Venatis.
Good work you fuck well. Now we just need the book and then we can flog your book. When's that coming out next year?
Hopefully the beginning of next year? Perfect perfect sarcopenia my favorite subject.
Oh yeah, fuck, that's very speaking of people over sixty, that's relevant, mate, l sagab fair But for the moment, Perry Venakas from Nutrition ninety n ninety. Check him out, mate. We love you and appreciate you.
Thank you so much, and thank you so much for being on the show. Always great to see you, Craig go.
Thanks buddy.
Bye,