#53 - AMA #6： Fasting framework, vitamin supplementation, antioxidants, time management, problem-solving, and more
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Summary
In this episode of The Drive, I talk about why we don't run ads on this podcast, and why we rely entirely on listener support to sustain it. I also discuss why I don't want to rely on advertising to support The Drive.
Transcript
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Hey everyone, welcome to the Peter Atiyah Drive. I'm your host, Peter Atiyah.
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The Drive is a result of my hunger for optimizing performance, health, longevity, critical thinking,
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along with a few other obsessions along the way. I've spent the last several years working with
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some of the most successful, top-performing individuals in the world, and this podcast
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is my attempt to synthesize what I've learned along the way to help you live a higher quality,
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more fulfilling life. If you enjoy this podcast, you can find more information on today's episode
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Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of The Drive. I'd like to take a couple of minutes
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to talk about why we don't run ads on this podcast and why instead we've chosen to rely entirely on
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listener support. If you're listening to this, you probably already know, but the two things I care
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most about professionally are how to live longer and how to live better. I have a complete fascination
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and obsession with this topic. I practice it professionally, and I've seen firsthand how
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access to information is basically all people need to make better decisions and improve the quality of
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their lives. Curating and sharing this knowledge is not easy, and even before starting the podcast,
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that became clear to me. The sheer volume of material published in this space is overwhelming.
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I'm fortunate to have a great team that helps me continue learning and sharing this information
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with you. To take one example, our show notes are in a league of their own. In fact, we now have a
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full-time person that is dedicated to producing those, and the feedback has mirrored this. So all of
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this raises a natural question. How will we continue to fund the work necessary to support this? As you
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probably know, the tried and true way to do this is to sell ads. But after a lot of contemplation,
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that model just doesn't feel right to me for a few reasons. Now, the first and most important of
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these is trust. I'm not sure how you could trust me if I'm telling you about something when you know
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I'm being paid by the company that makes it to tell you about it. Another reason selling ads doesn't
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feel right to me is because I just know myself. I have a really hard time advocating for something
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that I'm not absolutely nuts for. So if I don't feel that way about something, I don't know how I can
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talk about it enthusiastically. So instead of selling ads, I've chosen to do what a handful
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of others have proved can work over time. And that is to create a subscriber support model for my
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audience. This keeps my relationship with you both simple and honest. If you value what I'm doing,
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you can become a member and support us at whatever level works for you. In exchange, you'll get the
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benefits above and beyond what's available for free. It's that simple. It's my goal to ensure that no
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matter what level you choose to support us at, you will get back more than you give.
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So for example, members will receive full access to the exclusive show notes, including other things
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that we plan to build upon, such as the downloadable transcripts for each episode. These are useful
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beyond just the podcast, especially given the technical nature of many of our shows. Members also get
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exclusive access to listen to and participate in the regular ask me anything episodes. That means
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asking questions directly into the AMA portal and also getting to hear these podcasts when they come
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out. Lastly, and this is something I'm really excited about. I want my supporters to get the best deals
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possible on the products that I love. And as I said, we're not taking ad dollars from anyone, but instead
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what I'd like to do is work with companies who make the products that I already love and would already
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talk about for free and have them pass savings on to you. Again, the podcast will remain free to all,
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but my hope is that many of you will find enough value in one, the podcast itself and two, the
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additional content exclusive for members to support us at a level that makes sense for you. I want to
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thank you for taking a moment to listen to this. If you learn from and find value in the content I
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produce, please consider supporting us directly by signing up for a monthly subscription.
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Another month and another AMA. Welcome to AMA number six with me, your host, and my head of
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research, Bob Kaplan. As a reminder, these are for subscribers only. And if you are a subscriber,
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you'll be able to watch and listen to this full episode on our website. If you're listening to this
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on a podcast player, you will hear a preview now, and then you'll have to go over to our site to hear
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or watch the remainder. Based on the topics we cover in this AMA, I have a feeling this one will
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be a fan favorite, which also ends in one of my favorite AMA moments as we have a special guest,
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Silky Ears. In this episode, we talk about vitamins. Do you need to supplement them if you
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eat a balanced diet? What's the deal with antioxidants? I go over my entire fasting framework,
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how to break a fast, what breaks a fast, does caffeine or coffee constitute that? How do you optimize
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it? What type of supplements should you be taking? I then go into some detail on time-restricted
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feeding. What does it mean to do 16-8 versus 18-6, some of these things. And I talk about
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how I use time-restricted feeding to prepare for a huge food day, such as Thanksgiving.
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I also go into intermittent fasting, which I distinguish from time-restricted feeding as
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periods of true fasting, sort of three days, five days, seven days, et cetera. I go into a bit of our
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process of learning and the importance of using a framework, which anyone who knows me
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personally knows, I'm pretty emphatic about. And of course, talk a little bit about some of the
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podcasts that I like to listen to. And we close it out with a little cameo of Silky Ears.
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Hey, Peter, long time reader here. First time caller. A long time first time. What do you think of the
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assertion by many doctors and researchers that if you eat a balanced diet, i.e. low in processed foods,
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high in fruits and vegetables, that supplementation is completely unnecessary.
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And in fact, you're probably just peeing away most of the nutrients. Thoughts?
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You know, it's tough because supplementation is such a broad concept that I don't know what we're
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really referring to there. So for example, would taking vitamin A or vitamin C or vitamin E
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be required under the circumstances you describe? Almost assuredly not.
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It was A, E, D, and K. You're not necessarily peeing those out because they're fat soluble.
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Yeah, those are fat soluble. So yeah. But it's hard to say that you don't require any
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supplementation. I think that's a bit of an open question. In fact, we did a podcast
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a while ago with Chris Masterjohn where we went super deep on the B vitamins. And in fact, the role
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of B vitamins in people that have mutations in an enzyme that is responsible in part for the
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methylation of these things. So I guess I'd have to take some issue with that. I understand that
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that's a very, like, that's the cool kid approach today. I think people love to be cool today and
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sort of say, well, supplementation is a scam and you don't need any supplements. And I understand
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why people say that because the opposite end of that argument is equally nonsensical in my mind,
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which is like, you need to take 2000 supplements a day and you need to supplement like biotin levels
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and stuff like that. I think that's also sort of equally silly. So I guess, no, I would sort of
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disagree with that. But I'd also put this in the context of we might be splitting hairs.
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In other words, if you're really eating an awesome diet and you're exercising really well and you're
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sleeping really well and you're getting lots of outdoor exposure to sunlight, making your own
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vitamin D, et cetera, et cetera. What's the difference between you being on theoretically the most optimized
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supplement regimen versus not? It might be so small that it's sort of like we're picking the
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wrong thing to discuss. I think one thing too, to maybe differentiate is if you have a deficiency
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versus super physiological doses is probably the one of the things so that I've never calculated
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this. Maybe somebody has where they, you read these articles about super foods, all the foods that you
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must include in your diet every day. And if you add all those up, you'd be the stay puff marshmallow
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man. Nice ghostbusters reference right there. Score some points there. That being said, I do think
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that super foods are super if they're providing something that you are deficient in, because then
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you'll feel like, wow, this is life changing because I had some deficiency and now I've made it up.
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Right. If you have zero vitamin C, you're in a bad place. If you have zero vitamin D, you're in a bad
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place. Having vitamin C above the level upon which you can make enough proline to make enough collagen
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to not get scurvy, not that helpful. That said, you know, look, there are some other interesting
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applications here. I do think there's, I'd love to see some research done on mega dose intravenous
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vitamin C for viral infections. There was some research that was done on this, I think in the
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sixties. My recollection is it looked sort of interesting, but wasn't really followed through upon.
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Obviously Linus Pauling, who himself is a two-time Nobel laureate, although I think one of them was
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a Nobel peace prize and not to diminish the Nobel peace prize, but it sort of fits in a different
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category. He was close on, uh, elucidating the structure of DNA too, right? With Crick and Watson,
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he was either on their heels or right there. Yeah. But Pauling was a huge proponent of vitamin C
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and he was given enormous reign to, to sort of propose this and put this forward in large part
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because of his credentials. Though I think in, for the most part, people today view many of his
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views with respect to hyper doses of vitamin C as sort of nonsensical. There's a book of letters by
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Richard Feynman. Yeah. Back in the day, people used to write letters, you know, rather than, I guess,
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email and tweets and things like that. And there's a letter from Linus Pauling to Richard Feynman.
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And there's maybe, and then I think a Richard Feynman response, but Feynman was diagnosed with
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esophageal cancer and Pauling was putting in his two cents and his words of encouragement and things
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like that. But he talked about vitamin C and I think a couple other things. And it was almost
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like organic foods and things like that, which was pretty interesting.
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