Things that enhance testosterone: 1. Steak and eggs (for lunch) 2. Exercise 3. Zinc 4. Asparagus 5. Dopamine 6. Truffles 7. Saffron Things that destroy testosterone: • Sugar and refined carbs (insulin resistance) • Statins • Alcohol • Stress (cortisol) • Poor sleep • MSG • Soy • Microwave popcorn (PFAS) • Aspartame • Plastic water bottles (BPA) Dr. Eric Berg, DC, not MD; information only

Coach Maximus, 11 years old today! He’s getting a steak for his birthday!

The 2021 study published in the journal Nutrients (Barber et al., “Differential Effects of Western and Mediterranean-Type Diets on Gut Microbiota: A Metagenomics and Metabolomics Approach”). It was a randomized crossover trial with about 18–20 healthy men (ages 18–38). Participants spent two weeks on a fiber-enriched Mediterranean-style diet (mostly plant foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes, and limited animal products such as fish) and two weeks on a higher-fat Western-style diet (more meat, eggs, dairy, and less fiber), with a washout period in between. Key findings reported in coverage (including New Scientist): • On the plant-rich diet, the men logged about seven times more flatulence episodes per day (using a handheld counter). • Each event contained roughly 50% more gas (measured with rectal balloons after a bean test meal). • Stool volume roughly doubled (~200 g/day vs. ~100 g/day), though the number of bowel movements stayed similar. • This was linked to more fiber-fermenting gut bacteria producing gas (mostly odorless hydrogen, methane, and CO₂) plus short-chain fatty acids. Media headlines often framed it as “vegan men fart 7 times more than non-vegans/normal men,” but the plant diet was Mediterranean-style (not strictly vegan) and compared against a Western diet in the same men, not lifelong vegans vs. omnivores. The study’s abstract notes higher numbers of anal gas evacuations, more flatulence sensations, larger post-meal gas volume, and larger colonic content on the Mediterranean diet, with substantial shifts in microbial metabolism despite smaller changes in overall microbiota composition. Researchers and commentators (e.g., Rosemary Stanton) generally described the extra gas as a sign of healthy fiber fermentation and colon function rather than a problem. These conclusions were, of course, retarded!

Five series of Clarkson's Farm, and the same thing happened every year without anyone pointing it out. The wheat drowned in the wettest autumn on record. The sheep stood in the rain and lambed. The oilseed rape was eaten by flea beetle before it came up. The cows ate the grass that grew where the rape had failed. The potatoes rotted in a shed he could not sell them from. The pigs ate the potatoes. The wasabi, the chillies, the mushrooms in the bunker and the nettle soup made a few hundred pounds between them. The venison off the wood paid for the stalker and then some. The barley came in late, light and under the price it cost to grow, and the brewery took it at a discount. The beef off the same acres went out of the farm shop at a price people queued down the lane for. The arable half needed a two hundred thousand pound tractor, a man to drive it, a contractor to combine it, diesel, sprays, seed and a prayer to the sky. The grass half needed a fence and an animal. The one thing on that farm that failed every single year was the part a government leaflet tells you Britain should be growing more of. The one thing that never once failed was the part you are told the planet cannot afford. Five years of evidence, a thousand acres, the best advice in the county, and a camera crew to record it. The verdict was the same as every hill farmer's since the Domesday Book. On land like that, the animal is the only thing that works.