podcast episode 69 2015 - paleomagazine.com · superhero who is in fact fueled by bulletproof...

Paleo Magazine Podcast Episode 69

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Podcast Episode 69

2015

{Music}

Host: Welcome to PMR, Paleo Magazine Radio, where we bring you Paleo

nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle perspectives from both the experts and the

everyday. PMR is brought to you by Paleo Magazine, the first and only print

magazine dedicated to the Paleo lifestyle, and is hosted by Tony Federico.

{Music}

Tony Federico: Would you be surprised to find out that Superman’s powers—his ability to

leap tall buildings in a single bound, to fly faster than a speeding bullet—were

powered by a Bulletproof Coffee and a Paleo diet? Did you know that

Superman’s Kryptonite is actually gluten?

Today’s guest, Brandon Routh, the star of Superman Returns, is a real-life

superhero who is in fact fueled by Bulletproof Coffee and the Paleo diet. As a

star of productions on both the big and small screen, Brandon has the ability

to bring the message of Paleo to a huge number of influential people. I’m

honored that he chose to join us today to share about his own personal Paleo

transformation, the challenges of being healthy on a movie set, and how he

transitioned to Paleo and brought his family along with him.

In the second half of the show, me and Russ Crandall sit down for a different

sort of Ancestral Table sit-down. We’re going to dive into the topic of bacon

with an irreverent style that hopefully is a little refreshing. Rather than


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treating food like a vitamin, we’re going to treat it like food, and talk about

the way that food is actually eaten. I think you’re going to find it interesting,

and hope you stick around. Paleo Magazine Radio starts now.

{Music}

Tony Federico: All right, everybody. I’m here with Brandon Routh. Brandon, obviously,

everyone knows from the movie, Superman Returns. We’re happy to have

him here on the podcast, because some of you probably don’t know this but

he’s actually Paleo, which is pretty cool. So, we wanted to talk to him today.

Brandon, thanks for coming on the show.

Brandon Routh: Thank you. My pleasure to be here.

Tony Federico: So, let’s go way back to the beginning and find out more about – just growing

up, were you an athletic kid? Were you into sports? Is this something that

you’ve always kind of been interested in—the health and fitness stuff?

Brandon Routh: Yes. I mean, definitely the fitness. I don’t think I knew so much about the

health, and at least the nutrition side of it. I grew up in Iowa in a little small

town called Norwalk, just south of Des Moines. I played every sport—

basketball, baseball, soccer; a little bit of wrestling, even—till I was about in

middle school, and then I refined and played more – just soccer, and I swam

as well.

Tony Federico: Yes. So, you were pretty good at sports?


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Brandon Routh: I like to think so {laughter}. We all have our own image of that. But, yes, I

saw myself as an athlete, anyway.

Tony Federico: Oh, there you go. So, at least you felt good about your athletic abilities. And

any sort of conception of diet at this point, or were you just eating whatever

showed up, or…?

Brandon Routh: No, my diet was really pretty terrible. I mean, my parents did as good a job as

they could. Knowledge was not very {laughter} readily available. Dang. So,

this is the late ’80s and ’90s, when I was growing up, living under my parents’

household.

Tony Federico: It’s when junk food really started becoming the modern stuff.

Brandon Routh: Yes. We were doing meat and potatoes, and chicken, and those type of things.

Vegetables were mostly canned, although we did have a garden…

Tony Federico: Oh, there you go.

Brandon Routh: …and we did our own corn and tomatoes. And I actually didn’t have much

taste for a lot of the things that were really good for me, maybe because some

of those came out of a can, like mushrooms and things. It kind of ruined the

flavor of them for me. But just – basically, I spent a lot of time eating Doritos,

and Oreos…

Tony Federico: There you go.


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Brandon Routh: …and Chips Ahoy, and cereal, and skim milk by the gallon, and frozen pizzas.

Ravioli; Chef Boyardee; cheese and crackers melted in the microwave; Kraft

macaroni cheese; lots of Mountain Dew and Coca-Cola.

Tony Federico: All that good stuff. Yes, I mean, that’s kind of typical…

Brandon Routh: Real fuel.

Tony Federico: …for that era. I mean, I certainly grew up in the ’80s and ’90s. That was the

initial boom of all those junk foods first coming out. When did you start to

think, maybe I shouldn’t be eating this stuff? Was that something that

occurred decades later?

Brandon Routh: Well, the first thing I ever heard about nutrition that really stopped me was, I

first got into the modeling and acting thing. I was still in Iowa. I got into

college for a year, and I was making this transition of what I was going to do.

And I started working out at this gym. I’d free-trialed this gym. And the

trainer said, what do you usually eat? I said, well, this and that, and this and

that, and I love Sour Patch Kids. And he was like, oh, those aren’t good for

you. I was like, what? What do you mean? They’re fat-free. There’s no fat

in them. He was like, no; fat turns to sugar. And I was like, what? My mind

was blown {laughter}.

Tony Federico: That was the first chink in that whole mindset.

Brandon Routh: Yes. That was the beginning of the end for my sweet tooth.


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Tony Federico: Yes, man. So, you’re – initially were in modeling. You certainly had to be in

shape for that. Were you naturally in shape? Is that why it didn’t really have

to – it wasn’t such a priority initially?

Brandon Routh: Well, here’s the thing. I never really got into the modeling thing because I

wasn’t quite in good enough shape, I think.

Tony Federico: There you go. The Sour Patch Kids didn’t really work out.

Brandon Routh: {Laughter}. No, they didn’t. I have a tall frame, and for starters I’m just a

little bit too tall for a lot of modeling stuff anyway. Even if I was really, really

lean I’d still be probably a 32 jean, and that’s almost too big for a waist for

men’s modeling.

Tony Federico: Interesting.

Brandon Routh: Or at least it was, back in the day. So, I never really succeeded at the

modeling thing. But that was the gateway into the acting, which is what I

really wanted to be doing anyway. And I would say that I’ve been in better

shape in my life, but it’s not been until the last year and a half that I’ve really

gotten to even better shape, because I’ve had, now, consistency in my eating,

and a real ability to maintain and not worry about fluctuation because I’ve

dialed in my diet so well.

And I still have room to grow, because I – a lot of this Paleo-style eating was

to be a fix for some of the aches and pains that I had, that were keeping me

from doing cardio and – not that I’m into cardio now so much as burst


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training, if I was able to do that; or when I’m able to do it, would be more of

what I was – would be into. So…

Tony Federico: Yes. So, just going back a little bit, you’re – in high school you narrowed

your sports focus down. You’re swimming; playing soccer. Did you continue

exercising through adulthood while you’re pursuing modeling, and then as

you got into acting, was the working out part of the routine there?

Brandon Routh: Yes. I definitely got into weight training then, as I shifted into the – my body

really had to look good for other people than myself. And I started lifting

weights. And I didn’t really work out with a trainer, but I picked up some

things, and I was interested, so I had read the magazines and information that

was out there, doing it myself.

Tony Federico: What was your resource? Was it Men’s Fitness, or going towards the

bodybuilding, like Flex and things like that?

Brandon Routh: There were a magazine – I think it was called Muscle and Nutrition, or – it

was back in 2001.

Tony Federico: Yes. That sounds familiar.

Brandon Routh: And I don’t know – I think it went away, and I was so upset because it had – it

was the line between – there was some training tips, but it wasn’t all about

being Hulk; it was about the real health and nutrition side of it. That the first

time I read about hydrogenated oils and really understood. And I was quoting

this article from this magazine for {laughter} months and years to people,


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about why hydrogenated oils are bad, and we have to abolish them. And that

was my first, standing on my soapbox about health and nutrition.

Tony Federico: Nice. That was the beginning.

Brandon Routh: Yes.

Tony Federico: So, I read something that actually said that you gained a pretty substantial

amount of weight, preparing for your role in Superman. What kind of stuff

did you use for that? Were you just eating a lot or were you changing your

exercise routine? What did that bulking routine look like?

Brandon Routh: So, I did it in a couple phases of that. My first trainer that I was working with

is a gentleman named Gudni Gunnarsson. And he’s Icelandic. And he has

developed this form of yoga. It’s called rope yoga. It’s a mix between Pilates

and yoga. I believe it’s actually called GlóMotion now—G-L-Ó Motion. And

he’s a wonderful man. And a lot of his training was also emotional, spiritual-

based along with the physical. So, the physical could show the emotional/

spiritual issues that you were having, and they worked in – as we’re a whole,

and we are not just a physical body. Not to get too airy-fairy about it, but it

was all encompassed in that, and I – really appealed to me. So, we did a lot of

that work, just getting my body ready to put on weight.

Tony Federico: Getting you more connected with yourself, and more self-aware.

Brandon Routh: Yes. Absolutely. And it was fantastic for that. And so, my eating was

contradictory to how you would normally gain weight. So, I leaned out first,

and that was basically chicken breasts and spinach and broccoli.


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Tony Federico: The standard, fitness, cutting diet.

Brandon Routh: Yes. And so, this was – that was in 2004. And I was actually working with JJ

Virgin at the time, my nutritionist for the film. After we did the kind of

leaning phase, which was more of Gudni’s plan, then we got into – she got me

on supplements, and we did testing for vitamin and mineral deficiencies. And

that was my first experience with that whole world—the quantified self…

Tony Federico: Did you find anything out that was unexpected or…?

Brandon Routh: It’s hard to say, because I didn’t have the knowledge base to really understand

what she was talking about. Through the course of it, I found amino acid and

things that were funky for me after – this was after Superman. After I’d gone

through the stress. I found out more after the stress, about a year of shooting,

and physical and emotional stress, my adrenals were trashed. I was having

issues all over the place. But – so, she got me on Designs for Health stuff:

protein shakes, and a still fairly lean diet, I would say, focusing on chicken,

and egg whites, and those kind of things. Because we were still in the – a

little bit in the dark ages of knowing about the beauty of fat then.

But I remember she had Paleo bars. This is the first time I had really ever

heard of that—this was 2004, 2005 time—that Designs for Health had. And

those were my in-between snacks. But it was a lot of egg whites; a lot of

brown rice, and broccoli, and chicken.

Tony Federico: How did you feel your body responded to that?


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Brandon Routh: I was hungry. And I got tired of that, honestly. The downfall of that, with all

the stress, was that my body wasn’t really actually being fueled properly. So,

I had a huge sugar craving. So, I would – on weekends I would binge on

things that I really wasn’t supposed to be having. So, it was more challenging

to keep my weight where it was supposed to be.

Tony Federico: Yes. Because you’ve got that fluctuation. It’s hard to burn that weekend off.

You can really do a lot of damage in a couple of days.

Brandon Routh: You can. And it’s not just physically it’s mentally and emotionally exhausting

as well. But these are things I learned. Had I gone back and – doing it now, I

would have a very different regime and would be so much more prepared.

But you live and learn. I take all those lessons into the next phase of my

career. But I absolutely did what I needed to do. I put on 25 pounds. I went –

I was basically down to, I think at my leanest, 196, 198. I started at 206 and

then went down to 196, and then bulked up to 225 at my heaviest.

Tony Federico: That’s a pretty good amount of weight. What kind of timeframe did you add

that in?

Brandon Routh: So, that was about five months.

Tony Federico: Oh, wow.

Brandon Routh: Five to six months. And I really had to stop, because I was getting bigger than

the suit would allow.

Tony Federico: They’re like, all right man. So, chill out, Superman.


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Brandon Routh: Yes. It was the first time my body had really been pushed to that limit. So,

thankfully, actually, I hadn’t really done much before that, because—as I’ve

been told, anyway—the body responds when – the first time it’s really tested

in that way. And I have, thankfully, pretty good genetics for muscle building

without having to do anything crazy or scary, or use any crazy substances. It

was just built on lots of branched-chains – whey protein, chicken breast,

and…

Tony Federico: Yes. It seems like you had a pretty big frame to start with, and just a lot of

heavy lifting. Is that primarily what the exercise piece looked like?

Brandon Routh: Yes. When I was there I switched trainers. Gudni had gotten me prepared for

the muscle building that we were going to do, so I wouldn’t tear or injure

anything – was basically because I was going to – not only was going to have

to lift weights, but I was going to be in strange positions in harnesses, doing

really physical work during the actual filming. So, switched to Mike Ryan,

and we just hit the weights pretty heavy.

And it was a lot of fun. I certainly enjoyed it, even though I was getting up at

4:00 a.m., running through parks in Sydney, Australia at pitch black, at the

beginning for the warmup of my workout, and then going to the gym every

morning. Even if I was only on set shooting 12- or 14-hour days, I was

having 16-hour days because I was spending the time in the gym.

Tony Federico: So, you were working out during the shoot. So, it’s not like you’d work out,

get ready, and then roll with it. You’re shooting, and exercising, and trying to

maintain that physique, I guess.


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Brandon Routh: Yes. I mean, I think when we actually got into filming, I was on a three- to

four-day-a-week workout routine, versus the five- to six- that I had been doing

leading up to it.

Tony Federico: Yes. And working with a nutritionist all the way through?

Brandon Routh: Well, yes. I – JJ was in L.A., so that was a challenge. That was only via

phone and email. And that was actually the hardest part of it. What I should

have done, had I known or – that I could request it, I would have requested a

private chef, is really what I should have had. Because that would have made

it much easier for me to stay on. Because I – a lot of times I was making my

own meals, and…

Tony Federico: People would just assume that you would have somebody making all your

food and just being, all right: you eat this; you do this. But you were just

winging it.

{Crosstalk}

Brandon Routh: Yes. And I think that happens in other situations. But this was my first film.

I didn’t have the wherewithal or the – didn’t think I had the power to demand

such things. Being that it was such a huge issue that I looked good, I would

have, and will in the future – something like that, different demand. Of

course, I know so much more than most people, cooking for me, what I want,

and what’s best for me, but…

Tony Federico: So, it worked out in the end.


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Brandon Routh: It all worked out in the end, and I’m happy with the movie and all that stuff.

But it definitely – I developed a dairy intolerance and egg intolerance through

the course of shooting, because I was eating so much, and my gut was really

pretty compromised through all the emotional and physical stress. So, I came

out with some issues that I’m still working off, which pushed me to the Paleo,

Bulletproof-style eating, which is how I got into this (sounds like: world) was

through Bulletproof Coffee, and Dave Asprey, and Bulletproof.

Tony Federico: What you just described there—that’s something that most people probably

don’t really think about that, is just that adrenal stress of long days; long

shoot; working out; all that stuff. And the need to really recover from that—

the toll that that can take.

Brandon Routh: It’s huge. And then sleep, on top of it. When you’re shooting the hours

they’re shooting, you – sometimes you’re getting four or six hours of sleep

only. And the amount of work that I was doing, I needed a lot more. And so,

that just manifested in me being cranky on set – cranky with people. So, if

any of you crew are still listening to this, I apologize. I had bad days.

Tony Federico: That was bad Superman, came out that day. So, recovering from that, getting

your adrenals back online, you went out and did some research. You said you

came across Dave Asprey stuff, and started getting on the Bulletproof Coffee

train?

Brandon Routh: This movie came out in 2006. So, it really wasn’t until – it was 2013 – it was

August of 2013 till I found Bulletproof Coffee and really changed things. I’d

still worked with JJ on and off, after the movie was done. We did some


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adrenal testing and worked with tyrosine and some other things that I was

needing to help replenish that.

But it was a bigger task than I was ready to take on, I think, actually. I denied

it a little bit, and was going through my own life journey at the time, so it

wasn’t an area of focus that I was ready to look at. Until my knee had gotten

so bad with—I’m using air quotes—arthritic damage, but definitely true

cartilage damage in my left knee, and some other really sticky spots in my

back with trigger points and things, and other body aches that I never had.

My back had never hurt me before, and was starting to hurt me.

Tony Federico: Getting old, man.

Brandon Routh: Well, that’s what we say. We call it (sounds like: getting older), but I don’t

believe in that.

Tony Federico: Or chronic inflammation, and all that stuff.

Brandon Routh: Yes. And brain fog. So, it was that physical side of it, coupled with my son,

who’s now two years old, and it was transition time for him to be really eating

solid foods, after we were transitioning from breastfeeding and just mush

stuff, to real food, and what we were going to be feeding him. And that

pushed me over the edge.

Tony Federico: Got you thinking about what you’re feeding yourself.

Brandon Routh: Exactly, yes. Thankfully for him, it’s been good for everybody.


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Tony Federico: {Laughter}. So, talk to me a little bit about the Paleo transition. You had the

period of time after wrapping with Superman. I imagine you lost some of that

weight. You probably…

Brandon Routh: Oh, yes.

Tony Federico: …didn’t stay at – in the 220s. A few years go by, and then you’re thinking

about, all right, what am I going to be feeding my kid? How did you go about

that process of researching? Were you just hopping on Google and searching,

what’s the best thing to eat? What was that initial exposure, I guess?

Brandon Routh: Initially, I had been doing prolotherapy and PRP—injections into the knee

basically to help recruit stem cells and heal the inflammation. And the doctor

that I’d been working with had mentioned the anti-inflammation diet, and I

can’t remember the author’s name. But it was a precursor to all this stuff,

talking about arachidonic acid, and too much inflammation, and how you

could – anyway, read that. I was like, okay, this is interesting, and started to

really look at my diet.

Tony Federico: Started thinking about omega-3 versus omega-6, and…

Brandon Routh: Yes, and how it might be affecting the inflammation in my body. Then we

started feeding these little puffs—you know, organic brown rice flour, grains,

powder on it—these little puffs to my son, for dexterity but also to calm him

while we’re at a restaurant, because you give him something to do.

But then I recalled something that we’d read about processed foods and

cereals, and went back and looked at it and found some research on the


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Weston A. Price Foundation, and all this stuff they talked about—the

extrusion process, and I – my mind was blown again. And we’re going, how

can we be feeding him these damaged proteins, and starting to freak out. It’s

like, we’ve got to take this away.

Tony Federico: {Laughter}. It’s killing him.

Brandon Routh: Yes. And us. And then I was at a bachelor party in Big Bear, and my buddy,

who’d been on a Paleo kick for a while, said, hey, have you heard about this

thing where you put butter and coconut in your coffee? It’s called Bulletproof

Coffee. I was like, no, that sounds weird…

Tony Federico: {Laughter}.

Brandon Routh: …but interesting. Send me the information. So, he sent me the article right

then and I read it on my phone. And it was just – it was Dave’s blog entry

about Bulletproof Coffee, and how he developed it, and whatever. It just blew

my mind, just the things he was saying about fat, and how we had been

demonizing it, and how it was really pretty powerful for us. And I was like,

wow. I think that really rings true to me. This is really calling to me.

Tony Federico: Yes. Because you did (inaudible). You’re on the low-fat thing.

Brandon Routh: Yes. Although I was never scared of fat in years past. I would eat avocado,

and I had – we did coconut oil every once in a while, but it was not the level

of this. But I knew that I felt better. I knew that I craved red meat. And I

knew that when I ate it I wasn’t hungry.


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Tony Federico: All that chicken breast and steamed broccoli wasn’t doing it for you.

Brandon Routh: It really wasn’t. Oh, the broccoli’s still good. There’s nothing wrong with

that. But a little…

Tony Federico: A little butter on it, yes.

Brandon Routh: A little ghee on it’s much better. It was kind of like on a dime, I just shifted.

Was going on a work trip and had to travel out, so I was in a hotel room

making Bulletproof Coffee for the second or third time. I think I did it at

home a couple of times, and was traveling, spilling coffee all over the place.

But had a little whisk blender, trying to make it work for myself. And cold

turkey, pretty much shifted from eating steel-cut oats or quinoa and organic

chicken and apple sausages every morning, to Bulletproof Coffee, and adding

fat to everything. Adding probably way too much—pretty hardcore until my

wife was cautioning me. She’s like, I don’t know. This sounds crazy. But I

was like, no, no, this is it. This is the thing.

And it really was, in the end. After about four months of eating that way, I

lost 20 pounds, with no – absolutely no cardio. At this point I was lifting

weights—heavy weights— two to three times a week. That was it. With just

a huge shift in my diet: cutting gluten; cutting almost all grains; upping my

fat.

Tony Federico: And your knee – how did the condition of your orthopedic issues change?

Brandon Routh: Yes. Well, I had a lot less swelling in my knee; a lot less sensitivity. And I

really just started to look at the injury differently—just my emotional response


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to it shifted from a negative thing to, oh, I can work with this. I have the

power. It was enabling me to take control of the situation.

Tony Federico: It wasn’t a sentence.

Brandon Routh: Exactly. Like, oh, man, maybe I can fix this. And I kept listening to, what are

the things that heal cartilage, and – so, that’s been an evolution. I was doing

just a regular physical therapy, which was great. People were wonderful.

This was prescribed by the PRP doctor. But I stopped doing that too, because

I think, I don’t know that I need these other things. I can heal this just with

food.

So, I really pulled back from a lot of other healing that I was doing, and just

focused on food. And then that transformed into other things that I’m now

doing. I’m doing this awesome thing called Egoscue therapy. It’s a functional

movement therapy which…

Tony Federico: Starting from the beginning, like…

Brandon Routh: Yes. Which has been profound. And other cool ways to heal myself, and

think about injury and inflammation and body ache differently.

Tony Federico: Yes. I think that’s a cool shift in perspective of, the body is broken, to, this is

a dynamic system; I’m a participant; there’s something that we can work with

here. It’s not this, set-in-stone, I’ve got a bad, quote-unquote, knee.

Brandon Routh: Yes. And the body wants to heal. The body wants to regenerate.


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Tony Federico: So, you’ve got to get out of the way.

Brandon Routh: Exactly. I mean, I think about all of the – just the c--p [expletive] that I ate

growing up, and I just am astonished at how healthy I am right now. I mean,

just the nutrient deficiency alone, plus the toxic oils and chemicals and

everything else that were in the food that was eating – preservatives. It’s just

– the body is amazing, when I think about it that way.

Tony Federico: Absolutely, man. I mean, it’s pretty remarkable. I mean, if you think about

the fact that people actually can, to some extent, live off of things like Doritos

and pizza and stuff like that, for a period of time. Now, you said you overshot

a little bit initially with the fat intake. What did that look like? And then,

where have you rebalanced?

Brandon Routh: Well, I don’t know that I definitely overshot. I just know that I ate more than I

do now.


Brandon Routh: And actually, there may be a better balance. I actually probably need a little

bit more. At the beginning, I was craving it and it was working for me, and

really helping burn fat and keep my energy up.

Six months into this, I did a lipid panel and my results were excellent. And

wife was kind of – rightly so, was the voice of reason. She’s like, I don’t

know. I mean, I support you; but a very – with a very watchful eye until you

get some results, so that I can see that you’re eating all this fat and it’s not

clogging your arteries.


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So, I got the – my cholesterol results and other things, and they were pretty

fantastic. So, I was like, see? This is what they were talking about. Plus,

cholesterol is not the marker that we think it is for all those things. I know so

much more now about it. There’s so many lies and missteps along the way.

But, due to just being very busy and not actually being able to cook as much

as I’d like to, some of – my fat intake, I think, has decreased, maybe more

than I needed to, actually. Because I got to such a place where I could go for

six, seven, eight hours without eating. But I was fine. I’d forget to eat,

because I was sustained, and I was functioning at such a high level. And then

you do get to a point where you start to drop off, and I would get fatigued, or

lose my brain power. And then it was – had to refuel at that point. But it was

too late.

So, it was almost too powerful, that I didn’t have to eat. So, I was retraining

myself to say, okay, even if I’m not quite hungry yet, I know what my limit is,

and so I need to be ready to refuel so that I don’t bonk out.

Tony Federico: So, what’s a typical day looking like at this point? When you get up, are you

still doing the Bulletproof Coffee?

Brandon Routh: Yes. And in fact, I’m having my second cup of the day right now. Which I

don’t normally do, but…

Tony Federico: {Laughter}. This is a two-bullet day.


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Brandon Routh: Well, I got up earlier today and I had somebody else make it for me. There’s a

place here in Los Angeles where you can get it made for you. They don’t tend

to make it as strong as I’d like it. I do two tablespoons of ghee and two

tablespoons of Brain Octane. And they make it for starters—for people

who’ve never done it before, so, they don’t have “disaster pants,” which is

good.


Brandon Routh: But it’s sometimes hard for me say, yes, I’d like triple that, and quadruple that,

please.

Tony Federico: Like real men {laughter}.

Brandon Routh: So, I took the weak bullet, the smaller bullet, and made my own…

Tony Federico: Full-strength version.

Brandon Routh: Full-strength version. So, pretty much every morning – there have only been

five or six days in the last, more than a year, that I haven’t had Bulletproof

Coffee to start the morning.

{Crosstalk}

Tony Federico: Oh, wow. Do you do the upgraded beans and all that, or are you…?

Brandon Routh: I do the beans, yes. Almost exclusively, unless I run out, and then I try to find

something that’s a single-estate, high-altitude, as least moldy as I could find.


2015 Page !21

Because I really have – a couple of times, have gone and had somebody’s

Coffee Bean Blend, or…

Tony Federico: Yes. We don’t have Coffee Bean over here. I’m on the East Coast.

Brandon Routh: Oh, okay. I’ve had blends that people have made, and have really gotten a

headache from it.

Tony Federico: Really? Yes? So, you can feel a difference.

Brandon Routh: Whether that’s because I had too much caffeine that day, is maybe a

possibility.


Brandon Routh: But I actually think it’s just, the coffee wasn’t as pure as I – my system reacted

to it. But, yes, I do the beans. I do collagen usually every morning. A

tablespoon of the collage to get some protein, and good for my skin. I use the

vanilla. About half a teaspoon of the vanilla powder, which is – extract, which

I think gives a nice flavor to it. I use xylitol every once in a while. I find that

the xylitol actually helps with the consistency of it. It makes it a little bit

more smooth. Because I use ghee. And so, the ghee tends to separate more

than the butter.

Tony Federico: So, it kind of emulsifies it a little bit.

Brandon Routh: Yes. It keeps it from turning into an oil slick, especially with the amount of

fat that I’m putting in it.


2015 Page !22

Tony Federico: So, it’s not a layer of butter/coconut oil, and then the coffee layer on the

bottom.

Brandon Routh: Right. You don’t have to re-blend every 30 seconds.


Brandon Routh: The way I brew it, I brew it pretty strong. But it makes about two 16-ounce

cups, probably, of coffee, for me in the morning. That’s about the five or six

hours of the day, usually. After a workout, I’ve got this awesome Paleo

proteins – beef peptide protein that I’ve gotten from JJ Virgin, that I’m using.

Tony Federico: Is that commercially available, or is that…?

Brandon Routh: Yes. On her website—I think jjvirginnutrition. I don’t know exactly what it

is. But it’s Paleo – it’s a Paleo protein. It’s beef peptide from grass-fed cows.

Tony Federico: Oh, nice, man.

Brandon Routh: (Inaudible) in a chocolate flavor. Yes. And I would be using Dave’s whey

protein, except that I still have a bit of a dairy intolerance. Which is why –

again, why I use the ghee instead of butter, which has its own different, good

taste. I’ll do a shake in the afternoon anyway. If it’s after a workout I’ll put

maybe a banana or half-banana in it; some frozen blueberries. And then I’ll

load it up with sunflower butter or more MCT oil, or cacao butter, or tahini, or

an avocado, or put it all in there together and just make something fun every

day.


2015 Page !23

Tony Federico: A nice fatty blend.

Brandon Routh: Yes. And most often, that’s my – what I would call lunch. That’s where I

should probably be eating more. But I’m in a hurry, and that transitional thing

is what I do. Or, I’ll have some kind of jerky, that’ll be more of a snacky

thing that I do, and then a couple different versions of that, that I found, that I

really like. And then I’ll do – usually it’s some type of red meat in – at night,

whether it’s ground beef in patty form, or…

Tony Federico: I like that. Ground beef in patty form. {Laughter}.

Brandon Routh: Yes. Or it’s just, over the stovetop. Or steak. I do a fair bit of fatty fish.

Salmon always is the preference. And chicken really sparingly at this point,

which used to be a huge part of my diet, has really slimmed down. I’ve really

found that people think of Paleo, and they think, oh, you just – all you do is

eat meat and nuts and berries and stuff. I’m, well, no. I actually eat a lot less

animal protein than I ever did. I certainly eat more red meat, and responsibly-

sourced…

Tony Federico: Do you have a farm that you’re getting your meat from, or just try to do the

best you can at the store?

Brandon Routh: There was a great butcher shop that used to be here, and unfortunately – in

Los Angeles, which has just closed down, called Lindy and Grundy. And so,

that’s where I got a lot of my stuff. So, now I’ve switched to Paleo Chef.

Mary, who’s become a friend, let me know about Honest Bison. So, I’ve been

getting a lot of great bison from them. They seem to run a really cool


2015 Page !24

business and really treat the animals great. And very tasty products. So, I get

it from there. And I’m searching out, now, other sources, as I don’t have it as

locally available.

I do buy – Erewhon is a great grocery store we have here. It’s all – it’s

somewhat packaged, because they don’t have a meat counter, unfortunately,

yet. But that’s pretty much where I get everything else. The protein is the

harder thing to get. Bacon is extremely hard to get. Because I’m so picky, I

won’t buy any other bacon unless I know that it’s at least organic, and I – even

if it’s organic, I usually pick it up and put it back down, wait till I can find

something that I know is pastured, or has the word on somewhere.

Tony Federico: Sure. I mean, that’s another big stereotype, is that Paleo – it’s just all meat, all

the time, and bacon, bacon, bacon. And I was just going on a blog earlier

today, and it was a blog by a registered dietician, and she was slamming Paleo

for this bacon-centric approach. And my response is, I don’t know anybody

who does that—who actually is following Paleo, who’s been doing it for a

reasonable amount of time – they’re not slamming bacon three meals a day.

Honestly, I don’t eat it all that often. It’s just kind of a fun thing, because it’s

fat, it flies in the face, I think, of the conventional nutritional approach; but it’s

not like that’s what the average Paleo person᾽s doing.

Brandon Routh: Right. Well, I mean, come on, it’s tasty, and – but, the more I get into this,

and as I am a consumer of more pork and beef than I ever have been in my

life, I really have taken responsibility, to the best of my ability at this point in

my life – make sure that the majority of the protein that I get responsibly

raised, and fed properly, and treated properly. It might not always be local.

It’s hard to get all those – to check all those boxes.


2015 Page !25

But I figure if they’re eating grass, and they’re grass-fed and grass-finished,

then the people that are taking care of them are treating them right. They are

eating grass. They are having a natural experience of life. And the fat and the

– all the vitamins and minerals that are in that, are not only good for me in that

way, but if you want to say even energetically, emotionally, spiritually, they’re

good – they’re better for me, and they’re doing what they’re intended to do for

me.

Tony Federico: So, is your wife a little bit more on board at this point?

Brandon Routh: Oh, yes. Definitely. Absolutely. She was just shocked by the amount of fat, I

think. But she’s – does a form of Bulletproof Coffee as well. She’s switching

to Mary – again, Paleo Chef, for her Unicorn Fuel, which – she likes the

flavor with the turmeric, and cinnamon, and cayenne in there, a little bit.

Gives her a – she likes that zing. I’m more of a traditional guy.

She was having issues with caffeine being too stimulating for her. But I don’t

know if it’s just the presence of fat or whatever it is, but with just a little bit of

the Bulletproof Coffee beans, and she uses the Brain Octane, and she’s able to

use pastured butter. It changed the effect for her, and she’s really seen great

results for her work, because memorization, and clarity, and the ability to

communicate is really important for us in our job.

And then it’s also my – I mean, my son eats better than I do, most of the time.

I’m cooking for him when I’m cooking for myself. And he loves his bacon,

certainly. He has a – pretty much every morning, he has a runny pastured egg

yolk with something else. That’s the standby. We are believers in dairy for


2015 Page !26

him at least, because it works for him. And after we stopped breastfeeding we

switched, because we were able to, to raw milk. And he’s absolutely thriving,

to our eyes, on that. Just physically and intellectually, he’s powered on all the

time and is…

Tony Federico: He’s particularly energetic.

Brandon Routh: Yes. Because he’s pretty stable—his emotional status. And I think if he was

eating more sugar or more processed foods we’d have a rougher time.

Tony Federico: Yes, man. So, I just wanted to wrap things up a little bit with your

perspectives on the importance of health in your industry. I mean, is this

something that you’re seeing more and more of your cohorts getting on board

with—the need to really take care of yourself when you’re going through

these long days, when you’re working crazy hours, and travel, and lack of

sleep? Do you think more people are becoming aware of the benefits of

Paleo, or ancestral, or Bulletproof lifestyle?

Brandon Routh: When I tell them, yes, about this.

Tony Federico: I like it. I like it. Doing a little proselytizing.

Brandon Routh: Yes. No. I definitely do tons of that, and maybe more than they’d like. But

the tide is turning and the word is getting out, whether it’s the buzzword of

Paleo or Bulletproof that people hear, or butter coffee. That’s the gateway

drug for people. And if I can get them at that, then I turn their brains on to

being open to it.


2015 Page !27

And I’ve learned that less is more, as I try to convert people. Just try this and

see what this does for you. And then you can get into it. Because I know so

much now, and I love the science of it, that I can overwhelm people with it.

But there definitely is a desire for this information. People respond to it

because they can feel it. And they feel in their bodies, they want to be given

license to eat bacon. They want to give license to eat red meat. But we’ve

demonized it. Because there are absolutely people who are doing it wrong

and who are not treating animals properly.

And part of the way to shift the balance is to bring up the other side—is to

create environments where we can have more grass-fed, grass-finished beef

production, and pastured pork, and poultry even, if you’re going to eat poultry,

production, and to be welcoming to that rather than demonizing all production

of – because it’s not going to go away. It’s just – it’s – for me, it’s the best

way to eat {laughter} that I’ve found.

And so, we need to just be doing it better. In my industry we can be at the

head of that. But part of the mantle I take on is to educate people as much as I

can and to get them – because we have large voices, and can talk and spread

the word. And it’s activated my brain and made my ability to function in my

work, in my relationships, much better. And I don’t think I could ever stop

talking about it, because it’s been so profound for me.

Tony Federico: That’s awesome, man. Well, don’t. Just keep talking about it. Well, hey,

man, unfortunately we’ve got to stop talking. I’ve got to wrap things up for

now. But I really appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your


2015 Page !28

experience going Paleo, with our listeners. And certainly encourage people to

follow you in your career, and wish you the best of luck with everything.

Brandon Routh: Yes. Thank you, and happy eating I guess.

Tony Federico: That was Brandon Routh, star of Superman Returns. You can currently find

Brandon playing the role of Ray Palmer in The CW’s Arrow. Coming right

up, bacon talk with Russ Crandall on another installment of The Ancestral

Table. I am Tony Federico and you’re listening to PMR.

{Music}

Tony Federico: All right, everybody. Welcome back to another installment of The Ancestral

Table. Russ and I are going to do something a little bit different here today.

We’re going to be talking about a single food item, an everyday food item—

something that makes up a part of your Paleo table on a regular basis. And

we’re just going to break it down: what’s the best way to eat it? What’s the

best way to prepare it? How do you like it? And today, of course, we’re

going to start with bacon. Russ, welcome to the show.

Russ Crandall: Hey, thanks for having me on.

Tony Federico: So, it’s all about bacon. What’s the best way to make bacon? I think bacon’s

just one of those things that has become infiltrated into the Paleo diet. And

it’s delicious. It’s versatile. What’s not to like about bacon?

Russ Crandall: Yes. I agree. So, right off the bat, the first thing I can think of is that

everyone in the Paleo world – not everyone, but a lot of people in the Paleo


2015 Page !29

world have such a small understanding of what bacon actually is. They think

of bacon as just this stuff that you find in pork belly, right? The problem is

that there’s only so much belly to go around, and pork belly’s needed for other

dishes too. People also make bacon out of jowl, which is the cheeks of pigs.

Tony Federico: So, face bacon.

Russ Crandall: Yes. And so, pork belly bacon is good, but jowl bacon is really good.

Tony Federico: So, you’re proposing that we start baconifying different parts of the pig.

Anywhere you have a nice, thick layer of fat and a little bit of meat—that’s

game for baconing.

Russ Crandall: Right. And you know jowl bacon has just got one big chunk of meat—that

cheek meat. And so, it’s more meaty than it is fatty, which is pretty awesome

too.

Tony Federico: So, now, would you propose procuring some fresh jowl, perhaps from your

local farmer or farmer connection, and making some jowl bacon yourself?

Russ Crandall: Totally. They’re not doing anything else with that. Sometimes they’ll cut it

up and put it into spam and that kind of stuff; but for the most part, the jowl is

very unused.

Tony Federico: It’s kind of a throwaway?

Russ Crandall: Yes. Exactly. So, yes, making your own bacon is easy, and jowl works really

well for that too, so…


2015 Page !30

Tony Federico: So, we have some more options, perhaps, than we’ve considered in terms of

bacon. What do you think about beef bacon? I got some beef bacon not too

long ago. I felt like it was okay. It wasn’t pork bacon but, I mean, it’s –

seems like bacon.

Russ Crandall: So, to be honest, and I might fired for this, I’ve never had beef bacon. I don’t

know, man.

Tony Federico: You’re fired.

Russ Crandall: {Laughter}. Dang it.

Tony Federico: Turkey bacon. Is that even bacon? Should we even have that in our lexicon?

Russ Crandall: No, that’s a Frankenfood, man. That’s not even real stuff.

Tony Federico: I agree. Moving on. Turkey bacon is a waste of your time. Don’t eat it. And

we’re certainly not going to bring up any sort of faux bacon alternatives. I

saw some coconut bacon bits of some sort, or coconut – bacon-flavored

coconut bits. I don’t know. Is – are those bacon bits or coconut bits?

Russ Crandall: Man, I have no idea. Just thinking about that, in my pre-Paleo days I

remember—this is 10 years ago or something—where I was like, oh, yes, I’m

having these bacon bits; but they’re non-bacon. They’re so much better for

me. Oh, my gosh.

Tony Federico: What is that stuff?


2015 Page !31

Russ Crandall: I don’t know.

Tony Federico: So, not even the vegan coconut faux bacon – the regular bacon bits—not

bacon.

Russ Crandall: Yes.

Tony Federico: They’re bacon-flavored corn flakes or something. I’m not even sure.

Russ Crandall: It’s false advertising.

Tony Federico: Totally false advertising. Not bacon; not worth your time. So, with

legitimate, true bacon—bacon from an animal’s belly or face—pan-fry it;

bake it in the oven; what’s the top cooking method?

Russ Crandall: That’s actually a topic of heated conversation in our house, because my wife

likes to oven-fry it. I like to pan-fry it personally. And to be honest, if I’m

talking about the best bacon to eat, I actually like microwaved bacon a lot.

Tony Federico: Microwaved bacon! Mmm. That’s heretical statements from Russ Crandall

here on Paleo Magazine Radio. Talk me through it, man, because I’m highly

skeptical.

Russ Crandall: All right. Well, so, this is reaching back into my pre-Paleo childhood days.

But we used to layer paper towels with bacon. And then you just microwave

just a bunch of the layers all at once. And that’s it. All of the fat goes into the


2015 Page !32

towels themselves, so you come out with this super-crispy – the fat’s perfectly

rendered.

Tony Federico: Interesting.

Russ Crandall: Yes. It’s really good. And I know a lot of people actually used to layer it with

newspaper, which is probably terrible for you. I remember people in the ’80s

doing that.

Tony Federico: So, you get a good bacon matrix. Stack bacon between paper towels.

Microwave it. Any particular time?

Russ Crandall: It takes a long time, like 12 minutes. You have to stop it every couple of

minutes and sometimes shift your layers. There’s an art to it. But to be

honest, my favorite to eat is microwave bacon.

Tony Federico: So, the highest eatability of bacon, according to Russ Crandall, is microwave

bacon. We’re going to have to see how that goes over in the Paleo

community. Although I have heard that, realistically speaking, microwaves

aren’t bombarding us with gamma rays. We’re not going to turn into two-

headed fish or anything like that. So, it’s probably not as deadly of a method

of cooking as it’s been made out to be.

But if we’re looking at more traditional cooking methods, what would you say

the pros and cons are between pan-frying versus oven-baking? Because you

mentioned pan-frying. Is that because you like to fiddle with the bacon? Do

you like to have a more direct, hand-son control, I guess, over the bacon’s

doneness?


2015 Page !33

Russ Crandall: So, that’s my approach to everything. If you look at my website and stuff like

that, I really don’t bake a lot of things because I like to be hands on it, and in

control of the food—to be able to just switch it around at any moment. And

so…

Tony Federico: You might need to flip the bacon.

Russ Crandall: Yes. Exactly. I can look at it. And to be honest, a lot of people say, only flip

it once or twice. I flip it, like, ten times. I don’t know what it is, but I like to

flip it to make sure that every little piece is getting rendered.

Tony Federico: So, bacon is a strip. Now, a long strip, a rectangular shape, is probably not

ideal for cooking in a pan, which is a circle…

Russ Crandall: {Laughter}.

Tony Federico: …and it has a circle of heat right in the center. So, when that long strip of

bacon, that center strip, gets direct heat, shrivels, and then the end pieces…

Russ Crandall: Curl.

Tony Federico: …are all thick and uncooked. How do you do that?

Russ Crandall: So, I cut my bacon in half lengthwise.

Tony Federico: Bam. Cut it in half.


2015 Page !34

Russ Crandall: Yes. And so, that way, I can fit more on there, and I can kind of arrange them

a little bit more easily. To me, it’s a continuous cooking process. So, as some

of them start to shrink, I put in more. You know what I mean? It’s not that I

wait for a batch and then add another one. I just – it just keeps going until the

bacon’s done.

Tony Federico: Going to get the bacon train running through that pan.

Russ Crandall: Exactly {laughter}.

Tony Federico: I’m intrigued. I like this idea of the half-slice making a more even cooking.

I’ve always just done the pan tilt, where you get the fat down on one side, and

then that immerses the less done end and brings it up to speed—up to par, if

you will. Is that a dangerous game?

Russ Crandall: So, the thing is, though – and I’m going to go back to that cutting in half

thing, is that – well, the way I cut it in half is, I take the entire package and I

cut the package in half. So, if I only need half a thing of bacon, I’ve got half

already. I can throw the other half in a Ziploc bag and I’m good to go.

Tony Federico: I think you’re winning me over on the half-slice deal. In terms of eatability,

though, I mean, there is something to be said for that long strip that you can

just kind of pick up between two fingers and just nibble on, and it goes for

days. Now…

Russ Crandall: Well, if they make some Paleo superglue, then we won’t have any issues.


2015 Page !35

Tony Federico: {Laughter}. Yes. I think they have meat glue, actually, that might do that.

But, again, it might not be super Paleo-friendly. Now, oven-baking, or oven-

frying as you referred to it—much less hands-on. Very hands-off, in fact.

You’re putting the bacon in the oven, leaving it alone and coming back, what,

half an hour, 20 minutes later, and hopefully it’s done. You do get a flatter

piece of bacon, and that’s something that sometimes is desirable.

Russ Crandall: I will say that it is an excellent way to make some mediocre bacon.

Tony Federico: A very consistently mediocre bacon can be achieved in the oven. Now, why

would you define it as mediocre? Is it missing out on some aspect—some

crucial component of excellent bacon?

Russ Crandall: I think so. So, the way we do it is, my wife puts it on a wire rack on top of a

pan. So, it just doesn’t have enough surface area touching the bacon. And

that makes sense, because if it starts to curl or something in the oven, then

you’re screwed. But at the same time, because it’s not really touching

anything, the fat just renders off and drips down. Whereas, when you’re

doing it in a pan, it’s touching that hot surface and caramelizing, which you

don’t really get when it’s just sitting, floating, suspended.

Tony Federico: So, you get more active flavor compounds; more caramelization; more of the

Maillard reaction taking place. So, ultimate eatability, ultimate tastiness: pan-

fried, half-sliced bacon. You heard it here on Paleo Magazine Radio. All

right, Russ. Thank you so much for rapping about bacon with us. It was a lot

of fun, man.

{Music}


2015 Page !36

Russ Crandall: Thanks, man.

Tony Federico: All right, Paleo Magazine Nation. I hope you enjoyed this episode of PMR.

Next time on the podcast, we’re going to be speaking with Abigail Marianetti.

She’s a Paleo girl trying to make it in a SAD, SAD world. And by SAD, I

mean Standard American Diet. I’m Tony Federico, and on behalf of everyone

at Paleo Magazine, thank you for listening.

Host: If you would like to share your story on PMR, please visit our Facebook page

at facebook.com/PaleoMagazine. For full transcripts of the show as well as

exclusive online content, go to our webpage, paleomagonline.com. You can

also talk to us on Twitter at #PMRadio.

{Music}

THE END

podcast episode 69 2015 - paleomagazine.com · superhero who is in fact fueled by bulletproof...

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