Sardines for three days?
Why would a doctor recommend that?
Let's start by covering the benefits of a sardine.
Sardines are so nutritionally dense that you might be surprised to see all the stuff that we've got packed into them.
My friend and colleague Judy Cho did one of the best infographics on these sardines.
Her infographic shows that it's high in omega-3s and vitamin D and E and the kind of calcium that's
super easy for your body to absorb, along with the important minerals that are tucked into these little special fish.
Let me just brag on how good those omega-3s are for you. They're good for your brain and your heart
and your overall health.
By increasing those omega-3s, you decrease the risk of anxiety and depression by about 20%.
The more you increase those omega-3s, the less you have of omega-6s sticking around in your body.
And I mean sticking around. They cause an inflammatory response when they have no omega-3s to fight against.
So keep those omega-3s high and those omega-6s a little lower by eating these small, nutrient dense fish.
As soon as I convince people to eat them, they start pushing back about, "what about all the toxins in those fish?"
Here's the rule folks, the smaller the fish, the smaller the risk of mercury.
When the regulators came up with the guidelines on how much mercury should we be eating, they used
one of the most conservative approaches. Almost to the point where they make it impossible to have a mercury toxicity.
For example, the recommendations are that you would have to eat 800 ounces of salmon per week to
get close to that mercury risk. And what that means actually is you would need a thousand fold
times that to actually have a true risk of mercury poisoning.
That's 800,000 ounces of salmon.
The point is you would need to eat so many sardines to get a mercury risk that it's not physically possible.
The second thing people chirp about is a BPA risk, because inside the can of a sardine is a plastic lining.
And indeed there may be a slight amount of BPA in there. I am not worried about that in my diet, but if you are, you can buy the sardines found in a glass jar.
All right, so the first reason you should eat sardines is they're so stinking nutritious.
But the second reason you should eat them is because it's really hard to overeat sardines.
Let me explain.
First of all, sardines come in a very convenient, pre-packaged dose.
Yeah, each can is its own serving.
And if you're like me, you can eat it right out of the can.
The second reason that sardines are really hard to overeat is that they induce satiety.
Yeah, when you eat that fatty protein little fish, it surges the fat based hormones that are in
charge of suppressing our appetite. It surges things like cholecystokinin, peptide YY.
And your bile production increases.
The bile emulsifies the fat and protein in that fish and allows you to absorb it.
If you don't produce enough of that bile, you will indeed burp them up, but it gets better each day
that you do it.
Today's production of bile is linked to how much you produced yesterday. So each day of the
challenge, you will get much better with this side effect.
By the end of this challenge, your system will be in full force.
You'll be better satiated from smaller amounts of food thanks to your hormones.
And you will not be burping them up.
The final reason that I like to brag about these little fish is how well they surge your ketones by the third day of eating them.
Yes, we talked about those Omega-3s earlier and indeed they are jam packed with those Omega-3s.
Once they're getting emulsified by bile and absorbed better, they turn into ketones.
And a wave of ketones shows up by the third day.
When I'm trying to give that same euphoric feeling or said another way, when I'm trying to give a
metabolic workout to my patients that aren't so healthy, I use sardines.
And by the third day, their ketones are the highest they've seen them in months
and their blood sugars are the lowest.
Okay, so let's get to the good stuff. How do you actually do this?
For starters, you'll hear me talk about this as calling it a sardine fast.
It's not technically a fast. A fast is when you have salt and water only.
So unlike a fast where people usually start the timer when they're done eating the last meal,
I don't start the sardine challenge until you have the first bite of sardines. I also don't let you
end it without eating the last can of sardines at the 72nd hour.
I've helped hundreds of people through this sardine challenge and I remind them the purpose of this
is to deny food when you're bored or when you're just eating because it's a social thing.
I want you to only eat for substance. And if you can't get past the flavor, I do let them add some hot sauce.
I let them fry them up in a hot fryer.
The crispiness can help a little bit.
I think it's important to add pepper.
You can even add a little mustard or a tiny bit of relish.
Just really make sure that there aren't any carbohydrates in there.
We are trying to stick to food that is a high nourishment and for that purpose only. It is a time of denial.
The length of the fast is 72 hours. That's from the first bite to the last can of sardines. During that time, there is no eating window.
Whenever you feel hunger, eat.
I don't care if it's three in the morning.
Get up, eat the can of sardines.
I recommend you don't do this alone.
Yes, bring a friend with you on this sardine challenge.
The support is welcome.
But the positive peer pressure is also a way to get you all the way through the 72 hours.
You want to use their disappointment to help you.
Be sure you're checking your morning fasting glucose and your morning fasting ketones.
You are going to be amazed at what your numbers are the day after your 72 hour challenge.
If you want to find out my personal reasons for doing a whole week of sardines during a time where
I needed less choice and less stress, check out this video.
It's pretty entertaining.