by Siim Land
Coconut Oil and Coconuts – A good source of plant-based saturated fat that has some MCTs. Coconut oil has anti-bacterial properties as well so you can use it for oil pulling your teeth or cleaning the face. MCT oil has even been shown to stimulate Chaperone-mediated autophagy a little bit thanks to the elevation of ketones.
Avocadoes and Avocado Oil – A low carb high-fat fruit with a lot of monounsaturated fatty acids. They can lower cholesterol and increase potassium intake more than bananas. The small amount of carbs in avocados is quite low which makes it quite neutral on the insulin/TOR scale. However, because of its small protein content, it should be thought of as an additive to your meals not the main source of calories.
Green Leafy Vegetables – Fibrous vegetables and plants are low in carbs, full of polyphenols, high in fiber and other compounds that help with blood sugar. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, bok choy, and spinach won’t really raise mTOR but they can promote autophagy because of their small sulforaphane content.
Fermented Foods – Sauerkraut, pickles, natto, miso, and kimchi are primarily plant-based but the live bacteria in them actually make these foods animal-based. Sauerkraut won’t affect mTOR or insulin but it can help you to build muscle by improving gut health.
Now that we’ve covered mTOR and anabolism regulating foods, let’s turn to the other side of the coin, which is autophagy and cellular catabolism.
Low Autophagy (LowATG) Foods
Foods that can activate AMPK and stimulate autophagy a little bit. They’re rich in polyphenols, antioxidants, and other beneficial compounds that will lower blood sugar, improve insulin sensitivity, and trigger a mild hormetic response.
Here are the top 5 LowATG foods:
Coffee - Coffee induces autophagy and has benefits on cellular metabolism[596]. It can also stabilize blood sugar, enhance fat oxidation, and protect against neurodegeneration, which makes it the perfect drink for fasting. However, too much caffeine will raise cortisol, which can promote inflammation and visceral fat formation around your belly.
Green and Herbal Teas - Epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG), a green tea polyphenol, stimulates hepatic autophagy[597]. Other herbal teas can also promote with liver cleansing and generally induce a more autophagic state. Bergamot, black tea, chamomile, and ginger tea have polyphenols and other compounds that stimulate autophagy. For biggest effect consume them while fasting. Avoid commercial teas that may have added fruit, sugar, and other carbs.
Apple Cider Vinegar – Apple cider vinegar lowers blood sugar and suppresses insulin quite a lot. That will indirectly promote ketosis. Whether or not it’s going to stop autophagy depends on the type of ACV and when you’re taking it. On the Bragg’s ACV label it says: „Contains the amazing Mother of Vinegar which occurs naturally as strand-like enzymes of connected protein molecules." Raw unfiltered mother contains proteins and bacteria which can technically inhibit autophagy if you take it in a fasted state. The filtered distilled version of ACV without the mother will be better to take while fasting. It’ll also lower appetite and kills of bad bacteria in the gut. Taking vinegar with the mother should be kept around meal time.
Hormetic Herbs and Spices – Many plants and herbs stimulate autophagy. Curcumin induces autophagy by activating AMPK[598]. Piperine which is a compound found in black pepper induces autophagy[599] and it also boosts the bioavailability of curcumin, which makes it a double whammy! Other similar spices are ginger[600], cinnamon, ginseng, and capsaicin from cayenne pepper[601]. Generally, you’d want to be eating a bunch of herbs like rosemary, thyme, arugula, coriander, parsley, and basil because they’re incredibly nutrient dense, virtually zero calories, and with many benefits on blood sugar and cellular turnover.
Polyphenols and Flavonoids – Certain plant phytochemicals help to protect plants from danger. These same compounds give the plant its color and have a hormetic beneficial effect on the body. Darker pigments especially are indicative of a high polyphenol count and in folk medicine are said to promote liver health. Maybe because of the autophagy boost, eh? Phenolic acid includes coffee, teas, grapes, red wine, berries, kiwi, cherries, and plums. For optimal anabolic/catabolic value, you’d want to focus on coffee and tea and have some berries every once in a while. Funny enough, coffee is the No.1 source of polyphenols on the standard western diet. I mean, coffee’s great and all but it comes to show how nutrient poor the SAD diet really is.
Stilbenes are associated with resveratrol. Resveratrol from red wine, cranberries, and grape skins is said to have life extension benefits thanks to the polyphenols. Resveratrol also stimulates autophagy and suppresses cancer growth[602]. However, one must be wary of the carbs and alcohol of wine. I wouldn’t recommend eating grapes either unless you directly eat just the skins. Red wine’s resveratrol content is also quite small and is mainly a marketing hoax. If you want to get some real resveratrol, then consider getting it as a supplement instead.
Lignans are found in legumes, cereal, grains, fruits, algae, flax seeds, and some vegetables. Clearly, it’s not ideal to be getting your polyphenols from bread or beans as you can get a lot more of them from other healthier foods.
Low carb berries like bilberries, blueberries, elderberries, seabuckthorn, strawberries, dark cherries as well as dark chocolate and raw cacao are also high in polyphenols and antioxidants. Eat in moderation but not every day.
These LowATG foods can be consumed as part of your daily nutrition even during the limited eating window. Combining these polyphenols with mTOR stimulating foods won’t jeopardize the anabolic response that much and will be beneficial for longevity. However, there are some nuances to be kept in mind, such as chasing two rabbits while catching none.
High Autophagy (HiATG) Foods
Foods that will ramp up autophagy quite significantly. These are primarily catabolic ingredients that promote cellular turnover much more so than anything else, especially if you consume them during fasting.
You should eat HiATG foods whenever you want to get into a deeper state of autophagy or liver cleansing. They can indirectly help your body trigger many of the other pathways related to longevity and cellular turnover.
Here are the top 5 HiATG foods:
Berberine – Berberine (Berberis vulgaris) is a compound found in Barberry or other plants with many medicinal benefits, especially in regards to lowering insulin and blood sugar. Berberine has been shown to have a similar effect on lowering blood sugar as metformin, which makes it a great thing to consume after larger meals, and it also activates AMPK[603]. It’s better to strategically time your berberine intake after eating HiTOR foods or having carb refeeds because it’ll help you to lower the blood sugar and go back into autophagy faster. If you’re eating Mod- or LowTOR, then it’s not advisable to have berberine all the time because it may drop the blood sugar too much. It’s still a poison and the hormetic effect is in the dose.
Medicinal Mushrooms – Things like Chaga mushroom, Cordyceps, Reishi, turkey tail, lion’s mane, and shitake are powerful adaptogens that strengthen the immune system. They activate the main antioxidant pathway Nrf2 as well as stimulate autophagy[604]. My favourite way to drink coffee is to add a bit of Chaga and Reishi powder to it. It’s going to increase the therapeutic effect during the fasted state and prevents the over-stimulation of caffeine.
Caloric Mimetics – Certain caloric restriction mimetics like Malabar tamarind, rapamycin, metformin, and berberine can activate autophagy[605]. The most effective one is probably berberine but there are others such as bitter melon extract, fenugreek, adiponectin, ursolic acid, spermidine etc. More about these compounds in the chapter about supplements.
Shilajit – This nutrient-dense mineral has been used in Ayurvedic medicine to energize the body. Modern medicine has shown shilajit to contain fulvic acid and humic acid, which helps with ATP production as well as fighting bacterial infections. It won’t stimulate autophagy directly but it can regenerate cells by improving oxygen flow and antioxidant activity. If you’ve ever tasted shilajit,
then you’d know that it may still have an autophagic effect.
Astragalus – A lot of herbs and plants that belong to the Astragalus family have many medicinal benefits on longevity. Some examples include milkvetch, locoweed, goat’s thorn, licorice root, angelica, as well as curcumin, cinnamon, and ginger.
Even if you are eating a higher fat diet, you don’t want to roll the dice with your lipid profile and long-term health. That’s why it’s a good idea to be still consuming a ton of plant polyphenols and other autophagy activating agents that help with lipid clearance and metabolism.
There are no real side-effects to eating a lot of plant polyphenols and vegetables. If you get some sort of digestive strain, then you simply have to focus on healing the gut and establishing a more balanced microbiome. In that case, going through a short elimination protocol that excludes fiber and phytonutrients will be useful. However, these issues should not arise in the first place if you’re already practicing intermittent fasting, sleeping enough, keeping stress low, not drinking too much caffeine or suffer from other ailments.
You should strike a balance between the anabolic animal foods and autophagic plant compounds. Most of the nutritional value and calories can come from meat, fish, eggs, and organ meats but the majority of longevity-boosting polyphenols and flavonoids will be derived from vegetables, berries, herbs, and spices.
Whenever you eat, consider the purpose of that particular meal – do you want to promote higher anabolism, maintenance, or stimulate deeper autophagy? With that in mind, choose between these 5 categories and structure your nutrition based on that.
This lays the framework for what kind of foods you’d be actually eating on the Metabolic Autophagy Diet. The next chapter will delve into the full list of potential things you can eat.
Chapter XV
Metabolic Autophagy Foods
„You are what you eat ate“
Michael Pollan
That was an overview of the anabolic/catabolic score and the rationale behind it. I gave you only the top 5 foods of each category but there are many other things we can eat on this protocol.
Keep in mind that the benefit of every food is very context dependent and relative to what you’re trying to do in that particular moment in regards to the anabolic-catabolic cycle. That’s why for optimal nutrition, it matters what you eat, in what amounts, and at what time. Also, the combinations of certain foods will yield a completely different response as you’ve already seen.
Now I’m going to list out the principles of every macronutrient from the perspective of optimizing longevity and lean muscle preservation. I’ll go through each macronutrient and food group with the pursuit of inducing Metabolic Autophagy.
Protein and Amino Acids
Let’s start with probably the most essential macronutrient, which is protein. You’d want to optimize the protein and amino acid profile of your diet because not all protein is the same.
The most abundant proteinogenic or protein creating amino acid is methionine. It has an important role in growing new blood vessels and serves as the initiating amino acid of protein synthesis[606]. Unfortunately, it’s been linked to some cancers as well.
Methionine restriction is associated with extended lifespan and reduced IGF levels[607][608][609]. Over-consumption of meat may reduce longevity just because of methionine but we also know that protein reacts differently with different foods.
A 2011 study found that glycine supplementation had the same effects on life-extension and IGF-reduction as methionine restriction[610]. Muscle meat and flesh, in particular, is higher in methionine whereas glycine can be found more in organ meats, tendons, ligaments, drumsticks, and all these ancestral bone broth parts.
You don’t need to be going on a low methionine diet just to maybe live a bit longer. The best life-extension still comes from fasting, eating low carb, and training. However, you would maybe want to incorporate more glycine-rich proteins instead to kind of „balance out“ the methionine. It’s not that natural for our bodies to be eating sirloin steak all the time either. In the past, people would eat the entire animal from „nose to tail“.
High-quality protein that optimizes longevity and performance includes all the organ meats, bone marrow, the skin, ligaments, and tendons, not just the steak, filets, and pork chops. These unconventional bits are also more nutrient dense and packed with the other essential vitamins, such as B6, B12, phosphorus, magnesium, etc. Liver and heart, in particular, are probably the No.1 superfoods on Earth.
It’s often thought that organ meats and liver aren’t healthy for you because they’re said to contain toxins. However, the function of the liver isn't to deposit toxins or hold onto them – it simply filters them out and removes potential infiltrations. In fact, the fat tissue would have much more of these toxins. Of course, there’s going to be a huge difference of quality in grass-fed and factory grown animals but if the liver being toxic is your concern of not eating liver, then you’d want to avoid all meat, including grain-fed steaks.
The recommended dietary allowance (RDA) for protein is 0.36g/lb of bodyweight which for an average individual weighing between 150-180 pounds would be 55-70 grams of protein per day[611]. However, this is not ideal for the majority of the population and most people actually need more, especially if they’re exercising.
In general, the optimal amount of protein tends to be somewhere between 0.7-1.0 g/lb of lean body mass which for the same average individual weighing between 150-180 pounds would be 110-160 grams of protein at a minimum. There are no seeming benefits to eating more than 0.8 g/lb of LBM, even when trying to build muscle.
Here’s a List of Proteins to Eat:
Food Source
Calories
(kCal)
Fats (g)
Net Carbs (g)
Protein (g)
ACS
MEAT
Bacon, 1 slice (~ 8g), baked
44
3.5
0
2.9
ModTOR
Beef, Sirloin Steak, 1 oz, 28 g
69
4
0
7.7
ModTOR
Beef, Ground, 5% fat, 1 oz, 28 g
44
1.7
0
6.7
ModTOR
Beef, Ground, 15% fat, 1 oz, 28 g
70
4.3
0
7.2
ModTOR
Beef, Ground, 30% fat, 1 oz, 28 g
77
5.1
0
7.1
ModTOR
Beef, Bottom Round, 1 oz, 28 g
56
2.7
0
7.6
ModTOR
Lamb, ground, 1 oz, 28 g
80
5.6
0
7
ModTOR
Lamb chop, boneless, 1 oz, 28 g
67
3.9
0
7.3
ModTOR
Pork chop, bone-in, 1 oz, 28 g
65
4.1
0
6.7
ModTOR
Pork ribs, 1 oz, 28 g
102
8.3
0
6.2
ModTOR
Ham, smoked, 1 oz, 28 g
50
2.6
0
6.4
ModTOR
Hot dog, beef, 1 oz, 28 g
92
8.5
0.5
3.1
ModTOR
Veal, 1 oz, 28 g
42
1
0
8
ModTOR
Chicken Drumstick, Medium
103
7
0
10
ModTOR
Chicken Wing, Medium
73
5
0
7
<
br /> ModTOR
Beef Liver, 100
132
3.7
3.7
19.6
ModTOR
Duck, 100 g
337
28
0
19
ModTOR
Wild Boar, 100 g
138
4
0
25
ModTOR
Beef Heart, 100 g
142
7
0
17
ModTOR
Beef Kidney, 100 g
131
6.5
0
16.7
ModTOR
Lamb Brain, 100 g
273
23
0
17
ModTOR
T-Bone Steak, 100 g
247
16
0
24
ModTOR
Rib Eye Steak, 100 g
291
22
0
24
ModTOR
Beef Tenderloin, 100 g
324
25
0
24
ModTOR
FISH
Cod, 3 oz, 85 g
70
0.6
0
15
ModTOR
Flounder, 3 oz, 85 g
60
1.6
0
11
ModTOR
Sole, 3 oz, 85 g
80
2
0
14
ModTOR
Salmon, 3 oz, 85 g
177
11