Diet and Exercise as an intervention to treat mental disorders.


Physiology is the study of the normal function of living systems and is derived from the Greek φύσις (physis), meaning ‘nature, origin,’ and -λογία (-logia), meaning ‘study of’[4]). Thus, physiology is a subdiscipline of biology that is concerned with the chemical and the physical functions that exist in a living system. Epidemiology, the study of diseases, uses physiological models to explain disease development as a function of deviation away from normal conditions under which chemical and physical functions occur. It is common practice among medical doctors to describe disease development regarding physiological changes that deviate from “normal” conditions.

Therefore, in the context of physiological epiemiological disease models, the physiological foundation of our body determines its state of health. Of all physiological processes, breathing seems to be the most fundamental one because the bodies’ need for a steady supply of oxygen supersedes that for food, water or sleep. Breathing has a definite effect on the bodies’ physical state, and oxygen is the necessary ingredient for chemical reactions, such as the Krebs-cycle:


About 95% of the oxygen we inhale is used in the Krebs-cycle to generate ATP in the mitochondrion. The chemicals of the reaction: carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen of carbohydrates have divergent fates. While carbon and oxygen are combined to form carbon dioxide which is exhaled by the lungs as a waste material, hydrogen has a higher, more meaningful, physiological role. The chemical composition of hydrogen consists of a single proton, and a single electron. Specific nucleotide moieties [= functional part of a molecule] capture and carry hydrogen from catabolic reactions such as glycolysis to an enzyme complex located in the matrix of the mitochondrion.

Generation of energy under normal physiological conditions

This enzyme complex catalyzes the cleavage of hydrogen with hydrogen-carrying nucleotides, for example, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD). When this chemical carries hydrogen it is written as NADH and is said to be reduced; when, however, the molecule relinquishes its hydrogen, it is said to be oxidized. The membranes of mitochondria consist of a series of molecular complexes known collectively as the electron transport chain, whose purpose is to carry electrons along its length.

The energy dissipated by this flow of particles is used to pump protons from the interior of the mitochondrial matrix into the interlaminar space between the inner and outer membrane. Thus, while negatively charged electrons accumulate in the interior of the mitochondrion, positively charged protons accumulate in the interlaminar space, creating a difference in potential energy. This power differential provides the immediate source of fuel for the chemical combination of adenosine diphosphate (ADP) with inorganic phosphate (Pi) to produce adenosine triphosphate (ATP) [34].

The interlaminar protons flow through the substance of a catalytic, integral membrane protein containing ADP and phosphate. The energy dissipated from this inward flow of protons enable the fusion of ADP and phosphate to reconstitute ATP. In this manner, figs, dates, and oats eventuate in glucose whose energy transfers to the bonds of ATP. It is interesting and rather edifying to appreciate that the complex chemical reactions responsible for affording living beings the energy essential for their existence are inextricably linked, indeed entirely dependent upon, elementary constituents of matter—infinitesimal, immaterial electrons.

This way, we have shown one of the crucial physiological dependencies in the body and how it effectuates the general functioning of the metabolism; the amalgamation of all chemical and physical interactions of the body. To maintain healthy body function we have to work towards an ideal condition that is called homeostasis. Homeostasis is a set of conditions, a boundary, in which the chemical reactions and physical interactions of the body can occur without error.

Homeostasis and Salt

It is my belief that erratic behavior results in the absence of a full range of micronutrients. The chemicals that dissolve in body fluids are amino-acids, carbohydrates, and fatty- acids, collectively referred to as macronutrients that provide energy. However, the large variety of micronutrients; mostly salts that disperse in the body are much more important for optimal health. The body is well adapted to deal with energy needs and derive it from practically any source, that, however, does not hold true for the wider range of micronutrients. Micronutirents are involved in practically all vital processes. Their abundance, presence or absence can drive behavior and determine if we are within the boundaries of homeostasis or not, and unlike macro nutrients, some micronutrients are entirely deficient in the diets of most people [13].

Chemically, all micronutrients are salts. Any salt is a combination of metal and non-metal, like calcium [=metal] fluoride [= non-metal, halogen]. These salts constitute the vitamins [vita = vital, min = mineral]. For example, ferrous phosphate is needed to form hemoglobin, while sodium chloride is needed in the extracellular environment for intercellular communication. [35] Among the many tasks of sodium chloride are the transfer of electric potentials between cells and the management of water content in the body. Since micronutrients such as sodium chloride are involved in many different, yet crucial bodily processes monitoring their intake is important to maintain optimal health. Sodium is a special case in the realm of micro-nutrients since it is actually over consumed by most people who follow a standard diet.

The reason why micro nutrients are often present in insufficient (or too sufficient) quantities is that unlike macronutrients, micronutrients cannot be derived from any food source. While all non-artificial foods contain all macronutrients, Vitamin C, for example, cannot be derived from meat as the animal already metabolized Vitamin C for the functioning of its immune system. However, fat-soluble vitamins are overly abundant in meat, in fact, in such quantities that the consumption of certain parts of animals, organs like the liver, can cause hypovitaminosis A (A vitamins are fat-soluable). Therefore, special attention has to be taken when considering the intake a micronutrients.

Since salts have a metal component they have the ability to carry electric charges from the mitochondria of a cell to any other part of the cell, to any other cell, or any other part of the body. To transfer electric potential efficiently and correctly, the body requires an exact quantity of mirconutrients at all time. Nature, amazing as it is, has constructed a perfect system to carry the electric potentials generated by cells throughout the body because the cellular salts are dispersed in water. Pure, that is, distilled water (H2O) cannot conduct any electricity and is a perfect insulator; meaning that it has no influence on the electric charges in the body. All communication of the cells rests on the dispersed salts and they are perfectly insulated in the water they swim in. This insulation mechanism guarantees that the electric charges are transferred efficiently and do not harm the body because they only enter specifically designed gates, enzymes [= functional proteins] so that they always land where they are supposed to land. The body’s cell membranes and components are highly specific to guarantee that only the particles with the correct charge can pass through and attach to a specific cell component. However because these components are so exactly designed a sufficient quantity of all micronutrients needs to be present at all times.

Deviation from the ideal homeostatic condition will, eventually, lead to the deterioration of physiological function and cause disease as soon as the bodies reserves are depleted, or, on the contrary, overloaded. The range of developed diseases can include mental disorders. The inclusion of mental disorders is a logical conclusion from what we know about our body’s physiology. If some micronutrient is not present, it is possible that the body ceases to have the capacity to perform a specific task related to that micronutrient. It could be that electric charges from one neuron to another cannot be transmitted because the body lacks the salt that is necessary to transmit the charge. As a result of the failing process a mental disorder arises and is diagnosed eventually as the bodies reserves deplete and the problem becomes more and more apparent.

Potential diseases that develop if the body’s salt content is not managed appropriately include conditions such as anemia which occurs when the Ferrum phosphate content in the blood is too low. Hemoglobin loses its ability to carry oxygen from one cell to another because it can no longer produce the cell structures that are necessary to transport the electric energy from oxygen to other cells. If the sodium chloride content is too low blood pressure will fall, and the heart will have to pump at a higher frequency and use more force. In turn, the risk to develop cardiovascular diseases increases and heart attacks and strokes become more likely.

A chronic salt deficiency can be quite serious. Dilution of salts by excessive drinking, for example, can induce coma or cause death because the bodies ability to transfer electricity is diminished by ‘water poisoning.’

Physiology and Epidemiology

If researchers want to determine the epidemiological state of a population, they apply physiological measures to form hazard ratio models. Hazard ratios can be used to show that; cancer correlates with shortened telomerase [18], diabetes correlates with insulin sensitivity [7], and cardiovascular diseases correlates with adiposity [19,20,21]. All of these models invoke physiological explanations for illness and are, in some cases, well studied and defined so that doctors use them for diagnosis.

The two factors that contribute to the deterioration of general health in Western countries, but increasingly all over the world, are hyper-glycation and adiposity [2,3]. Type II diabetes and obesity are the most common diagnoses by Western doctors and, importantly, these diseases are co-morbid and hit the core of our physiological make-up. Over time, insulin sensitivity and adiposity eventually destroy the organism so that the result of one or both diseases are cardiovascular complications, heart attacks, strokes, damage to the ligaments and bones, dementia [27, 28], Alzheimer’s and depression [24, 25, 26].

Both diabetes and adiposity independently contribute towards an increased risk of all-cause mortality [2,3] and have a synergistic effect that hinders the bodies’ maintenance of homeostasis. Diabetes, i.e.: insulin sensitivity and adiposity are classified as metabolic diseases [7,8] for this reason. Glycation invariably produced so-called AGE [advanced glycation endproducts, 36, 37] that induce permanent abnormalities in cells. The damage is the result of oxidation of an AGE, and the effects of glycation increase under adiposity [38].

Metabolism and Diseases

Note that all of these diseases arise because they affect the bodies physiological functioning also called metabolism. Metabolism simply is the name given to the body’s chemical processes that occur within a living organism to maintain homeostasis [life]. Therefore, we can categorize all the above-mentioned diseases as metabolic diseases.

There is only one known intervention that is able to reverse and prevent metabolic diseases: life-long dietary changes. Oftentimes, even a small time period of dietary restriction is enough to allow the body to recover from symptoms that are otherwise ‘untreatable’ [e.g.: 10,11]. Patients with diabetes or high cholesterol can improve their insulin sensitivity and cholesterol levels by changing their diet. Dietary interventions have been shown to reduce or eliminate the need for medication [29] in as little as 12 weeks or can serve a protective function [39]. That is something that medical treatment cannot achieve unless the treatment involves supplementation of the vitamins [micronutrients] that the body lacks to restore full function.

Especially veganism seems to be a promising avenue to reverse metabolic conditions. The vegan diet is a strict dietary regimen that is ideal for humans to maintain optimal body weight [12,13]. Vegan foods have a low-calorie density, but a wide nutrient spectrum so that, over fixed periods of time, veganism may prevent the development of diseases when compared to other diets. The advantage of the vegan diet is primarily derived from the availability of salts from plants. Since plants grow by drawing salts from the soil plants are the immediate and best source for any salt that the body may need to restore its homeostasis. Other diets, especially those that depend on meat do not offer this advantage. Though meat also contains salts, the salts have already been modified by the animal’s body to fit specific purposes and it is unclear to what extend the human body can repurpose those salts when ingested. Furthermore, meat is calorie dense meaning that a carnivorous diet will likely lead to increased calorie intake and thereby increase glycation and adiposity which, in turn, is implicated in the progression of nearly all diseases.

Excess glycation and adiposity harm the body because they place an additional demand for cellular repair processes. Glycation increases demand because it damages the cells, while adiposity increases demand because it leads to the production of additional fat cells. Metabolic conditions (cancer, scurvy, obesity, diabetes) thrive under these conditions because the increased demand for resources and labor to maintain the body leads to ‘accidents’ in cells that the bodies immune system needs to fix. Therefore, metabolic conditions are, in my opinion, always caused by inadequately meeting the bodies’ nutritional needs, but are, regardless of my opinion, empirically shown to exacerbate under conditions of inadequate malnutrition.

In the case of scurvy, a metabolic disease that occurs after a chronic shortage of Vitamin C, we can observe how the bodies physiological functions deteriorate over time and eventually break down completely after the Vitamin C vanished. Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant which is antagonistic to ‘free-radicals’ who, in turn, are involved in the deterioration of the body because they disrupt the electric flow in the body. ‘Free-radicals’ are intimately linked to glycation [AGEs] and adipose tissue so that the bodies’ need to contain them increases proportionally to the bodies’ glycation end-products and fat-mass. Scurvy exacerbates the symptoms of AGEs and oxidation because the absence of Vitamin C severely diminishes the immune systems’ ability to curtail ‘free-radicals.’ Under the perpetuation of the condition, tooth decay will appear at first. The gums will lose grip of the teeth because the immune system becomes unable to fight off the increased oxidation [ = infammation] of the tissue. Eventually, all teeth are gone, and the body will slowly succumb to the climbing number of erupting infections caused by an acquired immune deficiency syndrome [AIDS] that it caused by the lack of the micronutrient Vitamin C.

The genome under stress

The uncontrolled indigenous reaction of ‘free-radical’ oxygen is called ‘inflammation.’ Ideal physiological conditions can reduce he amount of ‘inflammation’ in the body. Chronic inflammation caused by adiposity is a cause of cancer [14], because it slowly oxidizes, i.e.: burns away the genome [1]. If we extend the notion of chronic inflammation to include that of chronic ‘stress,’ then chronic inflammation as a by-product of adiposity is also the cause of mental disorders [26,27] that often manifest themselves under conditions of stress.

A continuous assault of oxidative ‘free-radicals’ on our body contributes to the aging of the organism and culminates in death. Death is invariably associated with some chronic degenerative diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and dementia. However, instead of chronological age, the decay of the organism’s genome is not dependent on chronological time. Instead, it depends on the amount of glycation [AGEs] and adiposity and the inflammation they cause within the body, in turn, explaining why people age differently.

Interestingly, the synchronization of aging amongst mammals suggests that only a few genes control the deterioration of an organism [15]. Genetic research suggests that changes in the genes support models with a tiny number of fundamental timing processes that act to speed up or slow down age-dependent change of the body in multiple domains [16,17].

The genome is a combination of different nucleotides (adenine, thymine, guanine, and cytosine) that make up chains. Nucleotides have a chemical bond that alternates one sugar molecule and one phosphate molecule in sequence. These alternating chains form a double helix that contains specific sequences of nucleotides that are called genes. Genes themselves, are instructions which generate proteins that ‘do stuff’ in the body. The presence or absence of proteins is indicative of the internal state of the body so that the genome and the information contained therein must be protected to prevent aging and death of the organism.

The realization that a small number of genes are responsible for regulating the entire aging process affords the question if there are small interventions that can have an effect on them. As most diseases eventually occur in an organism as it ages, reducing the intrinsic factors that control aging in an organism may be the best possible intervention to prevent diseases and mental disorders in general.

Feeding studies of primates have shown that there is a single intervention that will do exactly this, calorie restriction [33, trivia article, actual feeding studies abundant]. Calorie restriction results in a range of genetic adaptations that make the genome more resilient against decay. Furthermore, they reduce glycation and adiposity, so that, under conditions of severe calorie restriction the effects of ‘free radicals’ are drastically curbed, and the body can preserve mass more efficiently.

A “dis-ease” is the Latin prefix ‘dis’ meaning: “apart,’ ‘away,” paired with the French ‘ease’ which denotes “physical comfort, tranquility, and peace of mind” [30]. It is hard to imagine how an organism may achieve the state of tranquility when it is constantly inflamed, i.e.: under chronic stress.

The physiological mechanism of autophagy, from the Ancient Greek αὐτόφαγος autóphagos, meaning “self-devouring” is the process by which the body disassembles dysfunctional cells, while cells that are resilient remain. As caloric restriction improves an organism’s ability to maintain functional cells because of a lack of glycation or adiposity, it has merit to pursue dietary restriction as interventions to combat sickness [animal feeding studies have shown this in primates, mammals, rodents, insects, bacteria, birds and fish]. The intake of fewer calories will reduce inflammation and result in less autophagy. Therefore, this strategy is believed to be conducive to the general resilience and health of the body.

Physiology and disorders

Though psychologists tend to differentiate between the physiological state of inflammation and the mental state of stress, there is no need to do so because inflammation activates the autonomous nervous system and correspondingly acts on the hypothalamus, the limbic system, and the endocrine system. Neuroscientists have no problem to invoke physiological explanations when they describe the development of depressive symptoms [40,41,42] and have discovered many physiological changes that occur in the hypothalamus of depressed patients.

Therefore, it is easy to argue that patients that get diagnosed with mental conditions should be made aware of concrete observable phenomena such as lesions, decreased blood flow or inflammation instead of an abstract idea of a mental disorder when they see psychologists. Concrete objects can be tackled specifically and reproducibly, but abstract ideas are difficult to challenge. Any patient who can realize that their mental disorder is characterized by underlying physiological conditions can formulate a plan to improve his condition. Additionally, patients may come to better terms with their mental condition because a physiological can be overcome. It means that it is not ‘just in their head.’

Furthermore, public education about physiology and its potential involvement in mental disorders may reduce social stigma, because the physiological changes that occur during, e.g.: depression become understood as physiological processes. An understanding can increase acceptability because we are only able to judge familiar and known concepts. Improved understanding of mental disorders could help relatives, acquaintances, family, friends and patients cope with the condition. Additionally, it could spur interest in measures to prevent an occurrence by people. A proactive change in behavior, for example, better nutrient uptake can greatly reduce the risk of both mental and physical disease in the future.

Regardless of the public’s opinion however, patients who know about the physiological factors that can drive the development of their mental disorder can alleviate them to the extent they can improve some physiological factors. The control of one’s physiology is the control of the internal environment of the body. It is possible that simple changes in behavior such as a better nutrient selection could restore a mental function similar to a reversal of scurvy when vitamin C is administered. When patients are able to help themselves by adopting new behaviors then they are empowered to heal and treat themselves and do not depend on a psychologist to do so. Furthermore, changed behavior that improves the physiological processes of the body are also likely going to lead to a decrease in glycation or a drop in body fat which improves overall health. Additionally, an empowering experience such as meeting a weightloss goal can be the first stepping stone towards overcoming some social or cognitive biases that have developed while they were influenced by their physiological condition.

Physiologically, our ability to experience the world depends on our bodies ability to transfer action potentials within our nervous system that relays ‘information’ throughout our bodies. If these electric signals cannot be produced by a cell then some ‘information’ is lost and not transferred between cells. Therefore, all micronutrients are necessary for a proper experience of the world. For example, a lack of vitamin C increases oxidation which would lead to the accumulation of oxidative damage that destroys neurons. This would disrupt the information highway of the brain and could lead to traffic jams that are expressed as lesions. Cells have to shift toward maintenance and generate fewer action potentials. Therefore, a simple shift in nutrition can have a tremendous influence on the well-being of anyone.

It is undoubtedly clear that mental disorders have some intrinsic physiological factors that do not depend on behavior but are the result of behavior. Changing behavior leads to physiological change that is expressed in physis, id est, nature, origin. The change in physiology does not only change the appearence of the body it also represents an intrinsic change that improves the patient’s general health and along with it comes better mental health. The body’s postive change reinforces more energy and a better mood.

However, it is also evident that mental illness is accelerated by agents in our external environment. There are extrinsic factors that influence mental disorders, but the capacity to improve one’s mental condition depends on the bodies ability to change. Therefore, a psychologist should not refrain from physiological explanations to motivate a patient to change hehavior to combat mental disorders. It is necessary for any patient to get as much help as he or she possibly can, ideally from multiple domains of health care, including dietary advice and new activities that replace old habits.

However, some data [24] suggests that few psychologist do invoke physiology when they treat patients. Instead, it is common to reframe a physiological indicator [adiposity] into a social or mental construct [perceptions of adiposity] to explain mental symptoms. Nonetheless, medical researchers do include the physiological markers directly [25, 26]. In study 26 we learn that:

(1) people with inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease, and psoriasis have elevated rates of depression;
(2) many people administered inflammatory cytokines such as interferon alpha develop depression that is indistinguishable from depression in non-medically ill populations;
(3) a significant proportion of depressed persons show upregulation of inflammatory factors such as IL-6, C-reactive protein, and TNFalpha;
(4) inflammatory cytokines can interact with virtually every pathophysiologic domain relevant to depression, including neurotransmitter metabolism, neuroendocrine function, and synaptic plasticity. CAUTION! The result in study 25 suggests that there is no link.

Personally, I evaluate the finding of study 25 which was written by Miller, Freedland and Carney, Settler (2003) and Banks differently. Though their study provides excellent data I do not agree with the authors’ top-down approach in the paper. However, I invite you to read the paper and draw your own conclusions from it.

Study 25 uses a structural equation model in which the authors hypothesize that depression is the cause for adiposity which increases leptin and inflammation as a result. However, given their data, I would argue that a bottom-up explanation is more reasonable. An increase of inflammation can be inversely related to nutrients. Less Vitamin C is a precursor to inflammation, so is Ferrum phosphate because fewer blood cell count will downregulate oxygen availability and increase lactic acid build up in the muscles cells. Acids increase inflammation.

Fewer blood cells afford a change in behavior because under this physiological condition the patient feels perpetually tired. Cells produce less energy when less oxygen is available. The Krebs-cycle necessitates oxygen as fuel for the mitochondrion to produce ATP. This in turn can favor conditions that are relevant to the development of depression. When fewer micronutrients are available the body responds with more leptin, adiposity and inflammation. I think it is plausible that a physiological condition as such can increase the risk to develop mental disorders. Therefore, the bottom-up approach can explain the observed data coherently as a physiological disease. That means my conclusion is different from the one suggested by the authors of study 25.

Nonetheless, the physiological processes that potentially underlie mental disorder are highly complex, and there are many possible pathways for the disorder to occur [study 25 tested six models]. The research presented by the scientists is valuable because it has tested a lot of possible models and opened an avenue for interesting further research. More research has also found links between adiposity, depression [26], and dementia [27]. Dementia is a severe mental conditions that should be avoided at all costs. I, therefore, believe that the best chance for a recovery can primarily focus on diet and secondarily on exercise.

Nutrition has been shown to be the only relevant factor in long-term weight management and provides us with the material that we absolutely need to function. Population studies have shown that a majority of Western populations do not receive adequate amounts of Vitamins to function properly. I believe that dietary interventions are a promising intervention for a range of mental disorders such as addiction, depression and dementia [23, 31].

It may also be possible to benefit from exercise, however these benefits are different as they do not constitute of ideal homeostatic conditions, but as a challenge to cells to perform under positive stress. Postive stress induces autophagy in the weakest cells and improves the growth of the remaining cells to make the body stronger. Essentially it is a controlled stress test to the body that improves the bodies ability to respond to “real” stress.

However, it is not yet clear if there is a high efficacy for dietary restriction and exercise regimens. We only know that the availalbe data suggests that adiposity, depression and dementia are linked. It is much harder to become lethargic when one is pristine health and more likely to pursue activities that allow excitement and relaxation. Instense and stimulating activities require a disease free body that can only be insured when the body has adequate nutrition. From what I can gather of the scientific literature it appears to me that I have outlined a theoretical foundation that can link physiology to mental disorder. Other researchers seem to have similar conclusions about links between nutrition, exercise, meditation and mental health [23, 32].

Parallels to religious systems

Religious practices such as Yoga in Hinduism and Tai-Chi in Buddhism have a long tradition of dietary limitations and exercise regimens to prevent disease to attain enlightenment. Though the meaning of enlightenment is somewhat unclear, it implies a state of pristine health. Both eastern religions regard the elemental air as the carrier of the essence of life called either ‘prana’ or ‘chi,’. The essencee must be guided through the body to attain pristine health and to be able to reach enlightenment.

Undoubtedly, the dietary limitations were prescribed by ancient priests as a form of public health services. Though the concept of health is epxressed differently (for example as imbalance of ‘yin’ and ‘yang’ chi energies in the body) it is similar, even tautological to modern medicine in certain aspects that can be singled out. For example, regardless of one’s opinion about the religious narratives, the scientific data suggests that some Buddhist and Hindu practices work. One example would be Veganism which is the advised diet by both religions as it is stipulated to be conducive to the accumulation of prana or chi, but research shows it to be conducive to the prevention of disease also. Thereby, we may realize an ancient theory of the ‘free-radical’ that uses different language then we do today.

In light of the ontological conceptualizations of the life force Western science has experimentally confirmed that some of the exercise practices used by Buddhists and Hindus work and offer health benefits. Both Hinduism and Buddhism advise breathing exercises and breath control to learn to garner the life force. If more life force is akin to more health then research confirmed that deep breathing can have calming effects on the mind [5, 6, 22]. It is also known that the forced control of the breath can calm the emotion of anxiety and this is often advised and practiced by psychologists when they consult with patients that suffer from anxiety disorders or panic attacks. Similar commonalities to religious practices exist in folk wisdom when people advise taking ‘taking a deep breath’ to release stress.

This concludes my small excursion into the physiological underpinnings of mental health. I hope that I have been able to convince you that are enough reasons to pursue a rigorous scientific investigation into the efficacy of voluntary dietary restriction, exercise, and meditation interventions to combat mental illness. Moreover, I wish to contribute research towards the establishment of a coherent and efficacious dietary, exercise or meditation regimen that has beneficial effects on the physiological state of the body and can help to reverse symptoms of disease and disorder.


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[38[ Goodarzi, M. T., Navidi, A. A., Rezaei, M., & Babahmadi‐Rezaei, H. (2010). Oxidative damage to DNA and lipids: correlation with protein glycation in patients with type 1 diabetes. Journal of clinical laboratory analysis, 24(2), 72-76.

[39] American Academy of Pediatrics. (1998). American Academy of Pediatrics. Committee on Nutrition. Cholesterol in childhood. Pediatrics, 101(1 Pt 1), 141.

[40] Bao, A. M., Meynen, G., & Swaab, D. F. (2008). The stress system in depression and neurodegeneration: focus on the human hypothalamus. Brain research reviews, 57(2), 531-553.

[41] Ehlert, U., Gaab, J., & Heinrichs, M. (2001). Psychoneuroendocrinological contributions to the etiology of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and stress-related bodily disorders: the role of the hypothalamus–pituitary–adrenal axis. Biological Psychology, 57(1), 141-152.

[42] Wang, S. S., Kamphuis, W., Huitinga, I., Zhou, J. N., & Swaab, D. F. (2008). Gene expression analysis in the human hypothalamus in depression by laser microdissection and real-time PCR: the presence of multiple receptor imbalances. Molecular Psychiatry, 13(8), 786-799

How to become a herbivore in seven month

If you want to transition from the carnivore diet of most “civilized” cultures and become a happy healthy herbivore you could attempt to go cold turkey. However, there is a chance that the cold turkey approach might not work for you and that you need to have a more structured approach to reinventing yourself and your diet.

When I decided to become a vegan I had an urge to change drastically, but it did not work in my favor. I realize that there might be the same potential for drastic changes in you, therefore I am warning you now that there is a chance that you will fail while you transit from your usual diet and suddenly give up everything at once. Personally, it took me about a year to fully transition from a standard American diet to a vegan diet. To me, some things were easy to let go while some were really difficult. The purpose of this text is to help you define your diet transition so that things are easier for you in the long run. The plan I am outlining here should be considered a recommendation to gradually transit from carnivore to herbivore. It is not the only way to do it, you can change this outline to make it work better for you.

Phase one: become a vegetarian

Quitting meat is a no-brainer in my opinion. Meat is the most likely reason why you are considering to become a vegan and meat is also at the center of most of the controversy surrounding vegans (where’s your proteins). Subjectively, meat was the easiest to quit for me, but this also seems to be the case for the population as a whole. If we consider the broad population, there are significantly more vegetarians than vegans so that it appears that many more people have no problem to forgo meat, while having more difficulties forgoing all animal products. During my own transition quitting meat took me exactly one day. I just consciously decided to stop eating meat and stopped buying it from that day. The combination of my anecdotal claim corroborated by population statistics indicates that my anecdote seems right and if you are able to quit meat for at least three months you have effectively graduated to vegetarianism.

Why giving up meat is easy

I believe there are many reasons why not eating meat is so easy for us. The main reason is that we are just not made to eat meat. There are many indicators that show this. For example, the acid in the human stomach is weak compared to that of carnivores. At the same time, the lengths of our colons suggest we are herbivores, just like our teeth do. Additionally, population studies consistently show that populations who eat a vegan diet are the healthiest and live the longest. Adopting a vegan diet can cure many degenerative conditions of the body and people who change to a vegan diet often cannot cease to tell you about how awesome they feel since they have changed their diets. All of this suggests that we aren’t meat eaters.

Lastly, to illustrate why humans aren’t meat eaters imagine raw meat. Are you salivating? If no, you are like everyone else. No human being in their right mind ever gets a watery mouth from the raw meat of a dead carcass. Most meats that are considered “uncooked” still go through many preparation processes before they are consumed by humans. We know that dead carcasses are not attractive to humans because no human will ever spur an apatite when they see roadkill (unlike actual carnivores). Most humans only eat meat if it is cooked and seasoned to hide its actual taste.

Why is that, one might wonder? It is because of meat – is quite literally – the ingestion of death. Meat from a dead carcass has ceased living when you consume it. Additionally, meat is infested with bacteria that start to break down the dead matter immediately after death because the immune system no longer keeps the bacteria from taking over the organism. When you eat the organic matter of the deceased you are also ingesting all the germs that they carried and introduce them to your gut.

In comparison to meat, plants continue to be alive after you harvest parts of them for food. Apples, for example, contain enzymes that still function and go through metabolic processes after they fall from the tree. These enzymes help to keep the apple seed alive through the year so that it can grow into a tree next spring. Though a cooked apple loses the metabolic function of the enzymes an apple can be eaten raw so that you have the option to consume living organic matter as opposed to dead organic matter. Eating foods that are still alive also gives you another benefit. Living foods go bad when they are infected by bacteria or fungi. You can when an apple is going bad when it develops brown spots (from bacteria and fungi). The Apple still has a functioning immune system that shows you what is wrong with it. You can now cut out the bad parts of toss away the Apple to avoid being infected with bacteria, fungi or other parasites. You do not have the option with meat. You can only cook it and hope that all the bacteria has died.

Phase two: unlock full vegan powers

After you have completed three months without meat you now only have to eliminate milk, cheese, eggs, and honey from your diet. In my opinion, the best way to achieve full Veganism quickly is to eliminate one of these foods each month. However, you should attempt to eat fully vegan every single day with the remaining foods as your fallback options in case you get a craving. Eventually, you’ll have to learn to resist these craving entirely, but it is hard to get it right from the get go. Therefore, if you have a really strong craving for vegetarian food that you cannot satisfy or ignore otherwise, the remainder of your elimination options is there to rescue you. However, every passing month reduces the options to cheat reduce, while you get more accustomed to eating a fully vegan diet. Every passing month will make living your vegan lifestyle easier and tastier. I believe that this is a good system to have in place if you attempt to become a vegan because it allows you to progress towards Veganism and protects you from falling back to square one if you encounter a food emergency.

There is no right or wrong way to eliminate the following items from your diet, but here are my thoughts on the way you should progress through the items. The order is milk, cheese, eggs, honey.


If you consider becoming a vegan for health reasons you should attempt to eliminate milk first. However, milk was hard for me to give up. The best alternative for milk is tea and water, perhaps coffee. Though coffee is not exactly healthy coffee can help you suppress appetite. It is also likely that milk that you may consume is consumed with coffee. To replace milk, just buy the vegan alternatives like soy or rice milk. However, if you want to become a vegan for health reasons you should limit your beverage consumption to water and tea only.

Learn more about why milk is bad here.

If you like milk and cereal you’ll have to change your morning routine slightly to become a vegan. Start eating oatmeal with fresh fruits, some cacao, cinnamon, and water in the morning. It is what I do and it is delicious. However, during my own transition phase, I skipped a formal breakfast and fasted until noon every day. I usually broke my fast with apples and bananas. I never was a big breakfast person, therefore this was easy for me.


In the following month, you should give up cheese. Giving up cheese is really difficult because cheese contains molecules that are like morphine. So-called casomorphins are very addictive and attach to the opiate receptors of the brain (the one’s heroine also attaches too). Therefore, it can be difficult to walk by cheese in the grocery store while you are hungry. I often felt tempted to get cheese while changing to a vegan diet and I often did. Personally, the cheese was the last thing I gave up because I did not have an adequate replacement that I liked in place. Milk is fairly easy to replace because the soy alternative is usually right next to real milk in most grocery stores. However, this is not the case with cheese.

I recommend buying nuts, instead of cheese, because of the (somewhat) similar fat and protein content. The healthier crunch of nuts can make up for the cheese.


In my experience eggs should be fairly easy to give up. They are similar to meat meaning that you will never crave them. If you have managed phase one of the transition then giving up eggs will feel like nothing to you. If you follow my recommendations then eggs will be your last possible cheat option next to honey. For some weird reason, I developed a strong craving for eggs during the last phase of my own transition. Sometimes, I had strong cravings for eggs, but every single time I was on verge of buying them I was haunted by vivid imaginations about the spirit of the animals.

My consciousness expressed strong compassion for these eggs because these eggs represent nothing but children that were taken away from a mother and are sold for food. Furthermore, these eggs still can produce viable offspring (actually I am not sure on that, but I assume that if the eggs are fresh and you put them in a breeding box they should still hatch; assuming the manufacturer does nothing to ensure the contrary which they might). I just did not want to crack, fry and kill them. I could not do it. I never ate eggs after I decided to become a vegan, but if you have a strong urge to consume non-vegan foods at this point you should relapse on eggs because it will make you feel terrible that you failed and you will probably not do it again.

Learn more about the chicken industry here


Lastly, you should give up honey. If you are like me you were not a big honey consumer before you changed to veganism and there is the potential that this changes during your transition. Since honey is technically still on your white list you may feel compelled to compromise your vegan diet and buy it compulsively. This was the case for me and since I was not willing to cave in on meat, milk, cheese or eggs I got honey. Even though you have been eating vegan for the most part of the past six months you will find the occasional craving for animal foods creeping up on you.

That is okay. If you were serious about the transition you have changed your shopping and cooking habits considerably already. You should not be upset if there is still some residual splurging habit that remains inside you at this point. You can satisfy that with honey or one if its many replacements. I do not find honey particularly appealing and I like the alternatives even less personally. Agave nectar is a possible alternative for you if you struggle to abstain from honey. However, I cannot understand why one would eat it, it is too sweet.

Actually, it can be okay to buy honey too since you will probably just buy it and never eat it. When I bought honey shortly before becoming a full vegan, I bought honey impulsively because of a craving, not because something was missing in my diet in particular. It was just a stupid urge to splurge on something for no reason whatsoever, but it is better to satisfy this urge by buying something and than realizing it is stupid at home then trying to suppress it for days before going on a food rampage. You can give the honey away to your neighbor if you want to (that is what I did).

Additionally, honey for your sweet tooth is easily replaced by any fruit. I think it is unlikely that honey is something that you will miss on a vegan diet because the sheer variety of sweet fruits that will become a part of your vegan lifestyle are actually more than enough for any sweet tooth.

If you are able to complete the final month of becoming a vegan then you are now officially a vegan. Congratulations. You have a better diet than most people in the world.

The foundation for an aesthetic body

If you seek to build an aesthetic body as efficiently as possible. The basic exercise program that I describe here can be used by everyone to get an extraordinary body over a relatively short time. Though the ultimate results will vary depending on your commitment to the program, your nutrition, and your starting point it will be possible for you to become strong, fit and muscular within a short time frame and a simple routine. It is a misconception to think that you have to take a lot of time to tend to your body and make it look good. Some people even insist that the time requirement makes it impossible for them to look good or lose weight. However, there is no basis for these beliefs. You only have to work out three times a week to see the results you want if you are patient and continuously work towards your dream body.

The reasons why you can get away with only three workouts a week are manifold and simple. First, most people do not focus on the tasks that get you the most results: compound lifts. Second, many people do not track their progress during training. Third, many people do not allow themselves to recover from each workout. If you give yourself enough time to recover, while you focus on compound lifts and track your progress you will maximize the benefits of your training and progress quickly.

Why focus on compound lifts?

The reason why I want you to focus on compound lifts is their complexity. Your body has to recruit and coordinate a lot of muscles to perform a single compound lift. Like this, compound lifts can train many muscles at once compared to an isolation exercise that only trains one specific muscle.

Why track my progress?

I want you to track your progress because tracking progress will prevent stagnation. Stagnation during training occurs often when you do not track your progress because you will have a hard time evaluating how much of a challenge your workouts are for you. If you only rely on your subjective feelings to evaluate your workouts, you will often overestimate how challenging the workout really was because you do not compare the workout to any objective criteria.  To prevent you from making subjective judgments about your performance and progress start writing down how much weight you lifted during each workout. Objective criteria are much more reliable than your feelings when you evaluate I use excel for this and it takes less than 5 minutes.

You can download a template here and look at my progress sheet here.

Progressive Overload

The reason why you must keep track of your workouts on paper (or on screen) is that it will enable you to progressively overload. Progressive overload is the single most important factor when you want to stimulate muscle growth. Roughly speaking, progressive overload refers to the idea to constantly increase the weight you lift over time. People who do not track their progress will overestimate how challenging the workout was for them and they will miss opportunities to make their workouts slightly more challenging than they could be because of their subjective evaluation of the workout.

However, when you track your progress and continually increase the weight you will produce the necessary progressive overload to grow muscles quickly. This is especially true when you have a simple yet effective training program that allows you to get the most out of compound lifts for each major muscle group of the body. Following a simple routine while you increase the difficulty every time you perform that routine will make you stronger, fitter and more muscular. When you focus on the right compound lifts you will eventually end up with an aesthetic body.

Time Management

You only need to work out three times a week if you stick to your plan and progressively overload. You will be able to attain the results that you desire, but you will have to be patient enough to wait for them. You cannot force your body to change drastically because your body has a limited and gradual rate of change. At a given day, week or month your body won’t transform from one extreme to the other, instead, it will transform gradually. However, if you work consistently the results are guaranteed to follow and eventually your body will make the transition towards a body that you want. Remember that as long as you can see progress on paper you will also see progress in the mirror.

Most of the time you will be better off just doing a little bit each week, instead of trying to achieve it all in one week. Additionally, more exercise each week will also lead to diminishing returns, not faster progress. The reason why some elite athletes exercise daily is that their fitness level is extremely high and their muscles need to be challenged daily to guarantee optimal performance at competitions. However, this is not necessary or practical for the vast majority of people to whom this workout is addressed.

Most people are not professional athletes, but most people can benefit from regular exercise. Regular exercise is fundamental to your personal well-being and can prevent most of the most common medical and mental problems that arise from a sedentary lifestyle. Apart from the obvious health benefits that you can get from exercise, exercising regularly will make you feel better about yourself, help you stay healthy and offer challenges in your lift that help you grow into a better person.

The Workout

  1. Work out three times a week
  2. Alternate between the two workouts outlined below
  3. Keep working out three times a week
  4. Progressively add more weight over time
  5. Track your progress
  6. Reap the rewards

Workout A

  • 3*5 Squats
  • 3*5 Bench Press
  • 3*5 ChinUps
  • 3*5 Dips

Workout B

  • 3*5 Squats
  • 3*5 Overhead Press
  • 4*5 Deadlift
  • 3*5 Isolation Exercise

Possible Isolation Exercises

  • Curls
  • Calf raises
  • Grip strength training
  • Ab training

Workout Instructions

  • Warm-Up 5 Min
  • Do one set of Squats with a very light weight to complete the Warm-Up
  • Do each set of exercises and rest 1.5 minutes between each set
  • Try to increase the weight as often as possible
  • If you fail to complete 5 repetitions in a set drop 10% of the weight
  • When you have dropped the weight because you could not complete a set add five pounds per week until you are back to the original weight

As long as you follow these simple instructions you will eventually have an awesome physique training three times a week.

Rational for the compound exercises

Squats is a good exercise that trains your calves, hamstrings, quads, glutes, and core. Performing a proper squat in good form engages the majority of the muscles in your body and stimulates growth. Regular squatting has been shown to improve overall body strength. There is even a training program that focusses on squatting every day. It is intended for powerlifters and can be found here.

The Bench Press is excellent to build up your pecs and triceps. It also requires you to balance your back and shoulders utilizing the core. The bench press is the single best exercise to build a great chest. You can use the incline bench press as an alternative to the flat bench press.

The Chin Up is the best exercise for your back and will give you a V-Taper. The Chin-Up is a very hard exercise on its own, but the rewards are insane as it is able to build up your entire back musculature by itself. You will see insane gains when you start to perform weighted chin-ups each week.

The Dip is the best triceps exercise in my opinion. Just like Chin-Ups, the weighted dip is enough to build up an impressive triceps by itself. It will also help you build a broader chest, shoulders, and back.

The Overhead Press is by far my favorite lift and a good indicator of overall body strength. The Overhead Press primarily targets the shoulders, but you will have to engage your entire body to remain balanced. It is impossible to be weak while lifting a heavy object over your head. Every time you add weight to this lift you will see broader shoulders and improve core stability.

The Deadlift is the best exercise to build a strong lower back, glutes, and hamstrings. It also targets the other leg muscles and your core. This lift is special because it is going to be the lift with the highest weight. For that reason, I recommend doing 2 sets of light sets to warm up specifically for the deadlift. Your spine is the most important bone in your body and you should protect it. After the deadlift specific warm-up, you can perform two heavy sets to build a strong core and massive back.

The Isolation Exercise

Even though this program targets all the muscles in your body and leaves out no muscle group, there are some muscles that do not receive direct training. The biceps, for example, is only utilized during Chin-Ups. Therefore, it may be necessary to add an isolation exercise like curls to your workout, that is, if you want bigger arms.

I personally perform Weighted Pull-Ups, because it does put a strain on the biceps and helps me relax my back after deadlifting. However, it does not matter what you pick. The isolation exercise should target a muscle group that you want to grow or a muscle group that is not directly targeted by any of the compound lifts. The best candidate would be a biceps exercise, a calf exercise, a grip exercise or an ab exercise.

I personally exercise daily (for at least 30 minutes, but 45 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), but on the other weekdays I use workout C. C stands for Continuation. When I started exercising one of my goals was to move at least a little bit daily, that includes days I am not going to the gym. I also use C days to perform stretches. While I usually do some cardio (15-20 minutes), followed by ab-exercises (5-10 minutes) and grip training (5 minutes) during the week, I focus on stretching and relaxation on the weekend.

Extending the Workout in Future

If you are a complete beginner and perform the exercises faithfully three times a week you should be able to gain strength using only the workout A and workout B routine three times a week. Eventually, however, you are going to reach a limit where progress on a 3*5 split is not possible anymore. At that point, you will already be incredibly strong, fit and good looking so that you could shift your focus on maintenance.

If you want to continue progress even further, you can make simple and slight adaptation to the system. Instead of performing 3*5, start doing 4*5 or 5*5 sets to increase volume. Increased volume will lead to increased muscle growth, but will extend the time you have to spend working out. You can also add one isolation exercise after each routine so that you do Curls on A days and Calfs on B days.

Alternatively, you could try out new things and incorporate alternative training methods to make working out more exciting for you. It does not matter what you decide to do, as long as you continue to workout three times a week you should reap most of the benefits that regular exercise has to offer to you.

Useful Items

There are a couple of items that you should consider buying if you want to follow this simple program successfully. They are not needed, but they will help you make progress.


It is extremely useful to buy microplates for any type of weightlifting program. Microplates are small weights (0.25 or 0.5 kg) that you can add to increase the weight weekly to continuously create a progressive overload. They are not expensive and the addition of microplates can become necessary later on when you want to progress to higher levels. They are not necessary when you are a beginner.

Most gyms do not have plates that are smaller that 1.25 kg (some do) and some gyms do not even have the 1.25 kg plates. This means that you have to be able to increase your strength by 2.5 kilo’s per set, per week in order to progress. This will become impossible very quickly for some lifts (Overhead Press) but is not a big problem for some others (Deadlift).

You will probably be able to increase your strength by 2.5 kg per week (or two) for the Deadlift because it utilizes the bodies strongest muscles. Making a 2.5 kg jump on the Deadlift is even possible after a year of training (at least monthly). However, this does not work for other lifts that are more technical or utilize smaller muscle groups. For example, if you want to improve from 5 * 45 kg on the Overhead Press and use the smallest possible increment of weight at the gym it could be that you have to work with 5 * 50 kg which will be really hard to do. It becomes much easier when you only add a single kilo per week with micro plates. Now you can space out your progression over 5 weeks and make an easily achievable jump each week. This will keep you motivated because you keep improving week by week.

I recommend buying 10 microplates, but if your gym has 1,25 kg plates you technically only need 6 to progress. Since they are inexpensive it does not make a difference which ones you buy. I have bought these <a href="http:////“>microplates for my workouts.


Since this workout requires you to perform Weighted Dips and Chin-Ups you will have to buy a weightbelt. The weightbelt enables you to increase the resistance your muscles have to overcome on bodyweight exercises. It is a tremendous help to use the Weight-Belt in combination with bodyweight exercises and will give you awesome muscles quickly. In addition with microplates, you can add 0.5 kg per week and keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger.

I have bought this weightbelt for my workouts.