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we have been exploring adventuring for
the last 10 years and a big part of
adventuring is
preparing your body for us trying to
keep our fitness
interesting and trying to keep ourselves
motivated we tend to try and focus on
these three-month segments of fitness
because we're genetically identical we
can compare various different
foods training regimes and find out what
works for us so we wanted to test plant
the animal what was the best what was
the worst what were the benefits what
were the drawbacks and uncover something
new
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we dubbed ourselves as the adventure
guinea pigs because over the years we've
taken part in research at the department
of twin research at king's college
london we wanted to use the model of
identical twins who are genetic clones
in order to test the effects of diet and
exercise on the way they respond to
foods
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i was on the vegan diet and it really
does take a hit on your body i think the
first couple of weeks it was really
craving of wanting meat and dairy
and cheese love cheese i was now having
to eat fruit and nuts and alternatives
that didn't have any dairy and so that
meant i was eating a lot more wholesome
food which meant that my sugar levels
were a lot more satiated during the day
i felt like i had more energy
performance was up and down a little bit
more for me on my meat diet i'd have a
few days before i was very energetic in
the gym and then i'd have huge lulls as
well whereas hugo is far more sustained
and associated with energy levels
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i think the interesting thing is how
they differ in their responses to sugars
and fats
despite being identical twins ross
was actually above average for the way
he processed fats and sugars whereas
hugo was below average
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we believe that there's a big
non-genetic element to that that is
driven a lot by our gut microbes
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if you
treat them right they will produce
thousands of different chemicals that
will keep your body in the best shape
they will help your immune system to
fight infections they will go to your
brain to make you not feel over hungry
or not stressed or depressed we find on
average that
most identical twins only share between
25 and 30 percent of their microbes with
each other and we think this is why
many of their metabolism is different
and they react to foods differently and
that's in a way an example why all of us
react differently to foods being a vegan
and going through that 12-week period my
diversity of gut bacteria
severely dropped
whereas mine mine stayed the same which
meant that i was less susceptible to
illness it could be that diversity he
was getting from dairy products and
those other fats in meats
led to a slight reduction in in the
diversity they're already in the top
five percent of their gut microbiome
health so they it's hard for them to
push it
further than that
so the first thing is to give yourself
try and aim to have 30 different plants
a week to give it that diversity second
is to always try and pick plants that
have these natural chemicals called
polyphenols in them which gives them the
bright colors or the bitter tastes
things like brightly colored berries or
nuts or seeds things like coffee
things like dark chocolate and even red
wine
thirdly probiotic having foods that
contain live microbes themselves like
traditional yogurts kefir
kombucha
and finally it's cutting out
ultra-processed food
watching hugo eat all his vegan food you
do realize how much processed or i say
crap food you do eat compared to a vegan
and you do become quite aware you're
like oh god like i feel guilty the whole
time when you're next to somebody eating
very very healthy food
on average
vegans are healthier than meat eaters
but within that there's a huge range and
there's some very unhealthy
vegans and vegan diets and it does
depend on the quality of the food it's
not about whether you have meat on your
plate or not and many vegans often find
themselves
eating ultra processed food because of
reformulating
standard foods particularly dairy
substitutes and meat substitutes that
are probably as unhealthy as eating
processed meats
the medical and scientific research that
monitors us
all agree that there's not a huge
difference if any
between the two diets it's just the
small ones we both have high cholesterol
because we lose a lot of weight on
expeditions hugo's cholesterol dropped
off the scale on the vegan diet whereas
my regular meat diet just stayed the
same my obesity level dropped my
resistance to type 2 diabetes also
increased
they're looking for small incremental
effects that athletes tend to look at
it's very much understanding how your
body's working so you can tailor your
nutrition optimally and athletes do it
to improve performance normal humans
would do it just to feel less tired feel
less hungry
put on less weight over a year
i've
slightly changed my diet and sense that
i eat a lot more different things eat
the rainbow eat everything in moderation
yeah have a balanced diet that's really
the key i think if somebody says right
you need to do this certain diet with
these weights to get the results
question it a little bit just
go and have fun with it experiment find
out what works for you
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you