Own the Day, Own Your Life: Optimised practices for waking, working, learning, eating, training, playing, sleeping and sex. Aubrey Marcus

on the boat. There are, however, different types of lipoproteins—different size boats—that deliver it into the cells. There are the “bad” small boats (VLDL, or very-low-density lipoproteins) and the “good” big boats (high-density lipoproteins and large low-density lipoproteins). The big boats carry the cargo efficiently into the cell without issue, and are correlated with great heart health. The small boats don’t carry as much cargo, so you need more of them, and they can get jammed up in the shipping channels (the arteries), causing all these little shipwrecks of lipoprotein and cholesterol lining your artery walls. Then, over time, pieces of the shipwrecks can get dislodged, travel to the heart, and lead to heart attacks or strokes.

      What gives you more of these shipwrecking small VLDL particles? Let me tell you what doesn’t, first. Motherfucking egg yolks, that’s what. In a review of seventeen observational studies covering 263,938 total participants, no correlation was found between egg consumption and heart disease or stroke. Surprise, surprise, a lot of evidence points to sugar, particularly fructose and high-fructose corn syrup, as the culprit instead.

      But not only was there no correlation between eggs and heart disease; eating saturated fat with associated cholesterol, like egg yolks, was actually found to increase the size of the boats, turning the dangerous small boats into larger, more benign boats and positively shifting the ratio of “good” to “bad” lipoproteins. In 1994 the official journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology reported that subjects who consumed diets high in fat (46 percent of calories), including a high saturated fat intake, increased the percentage of the larger particles (boats) of LDL cholesterol.

      And yet many of the doctors who are prescribing you medication to lower your cholesterol don’t know this. A report by Credit Suisse in 2014 showed that 54 percent of doctors still believed that dietary cholesterol (like what is found in egg yolks) significantly correlated to elevated levels of bad cholesterol. It is a dangerous association that is just not true, a fact that was implicitly recognized as such less than two years later, when the newly released Dietary Guidelines for Americans did not specify an upper daily limit for dietary cholesterol, reversing a long-standing position. The body is smart; when you eat more cholesterol than your cells need, the body adjusts accordingly. What does that mean for you and me in practical dietary terms? Simple: whole-egg omelettes are back on the menu, baby!

      WHAT FATS (BESIDES EGGS) SHOULD I EAT, THEN?

      Not all fats are created equal. There are bad fats. Fried oils, refined fats, and trans fats—like you find in potato chips or margarine—drive inflammation and make you feel sluggish, and should be limited or avoided. (We’ll talk more about these antinutrients in chapter 8.) The good fats—saturated fats, cholesterol, triglycerides, and omegas of all sorts—are the ones found in unprocessed meats, dairy, fish, butter, egg yolks, olives, avocados, coconuts, and raw nuts, and should be sought out for breakfast. Here is a closer look at five of my all-time favorites that I regularly reach for at my first meal of the day:

      WHOLE-FAT YOGURT

      First of all, let’s get one thing clear. Nonfat dairy of any kind is bullshit. Dairy is comprised of largely three parts: protein (where whey protein comes from), sugar (lactose), and fats. The fats and the protein are the only good parts of dairy for an adult human. The lactose is not, because lactose is just another word for milk sugar. By cutting out the fat from dairy, you are basically saying that you want to increase the percentage of sugar relative to the other macronutrients. Great plan! That’s like saying you want to increase the amount of smog relative to your fresh air.

      Fats make dairy taste good, and they make dairy good for us. There is a reason fat is a part of the milk that babies receive. We need it. If you look at the labels for nonfat yogurt, you will be shocked how much sugar is in there. It’s not healthy, or “lean,” it’s slow death in a cup.

      Yogurt has a variety of additional benefits beyond its macronutrient value. Yogurt is cultured, meaning it contains some of the friendly bacteria that we have in our own gut biome. Several studies show that regular consumption of yogurt enhances the function and composition of microbiota, and may even improve lactose intolerance. A healthy gut biome supports mood and immune function and can even help battle pathogenic microorganisms.

       Pro Tip: Coconut Yogurt for Millionaires

      My favorite place to find new foods is a grocery chain called Erewhon, in So-Cal. One day while snack-hunting I saw a yogurt with a really shoddy label that looked like it was printed on a laser-jet printer from 1992. Super Coconut Probiotic Yogurt, it was called, and it boasted “240 billion organisms.” That caught my attention, but what also caught my attention was the price tag: $30 for the jar! Even for Erewhon, which regularly charges eighteen dollars for a smoothie, that was excessive. Out of sheer curiosity, I pulled the trigger anyway. Despite having extremely low sugar content, it tasted as if ice cream and coconuts had sex. After the first bite, I knew I had a dangerous new habit. And after a week of eating the stuff, I can honestly say I noticed a difference in my gut health. There are a few coconut yogurt brands, including the one from New Earth Superfoods, which I mentioned above, but the coconut cream under the Coconut Cult brand name will ship throughout the US in cold packs, so you can yogurt like a baller.

      AVOCADO

      Avocado may be the strongest argument against atheism I can come up with. It’s creamy, fatty, delicious, and comes in the perfect to-go packaging. It is packed with saturated fats and twenty other vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients. Not only that, it has fiber too. I like to eat half an avocado with lime, sea salt, and cayenne when I want a lush, nutrient-dense snack or a quick breakfast and I don’t have time to sit down to a proper meal.

      BONE BROTH

      Soup for breakfast? You’re damn right. It’s the perfect way to start your day. Bone broth may not be the miracle cure that everyone claims it to be, but it is damn good for you. When you cook it yourself, you will get a nice layer of fat that will rise to the top of the broth, full of all the vitamins and minerals from the marrow in the bones. It is an excellent carrier for a host of healthy spices, and is comprised of collagen protein, which has a unique amino acid profile, along with fats and a bunch of minerals. It contains no sugar and is one of the easiest foods to digest, making it the go-to for anyone trying to correct gut-related issues.

      BACON

      Bacon worship has gotten a little ridiculous. There are bacon museums, restaurants, candy bars, even bacon-themed art on Band-Aids! Part of the reason is due to the Paleo movement, which put bacon back on the plate of high-performance athletes. The other part of the reason is that fats are good for the body, including animal fats like bacon. As long as your bacon has not been pumped full of hormones or antibiotics or cured with artificial preservatives, those delicious slices of hog tummy are a fun way to get some fat and some protein on the plate. Just be sure not to burn the bacon (sorry, crispy bacon lovers), as the charring will add in some nasty antinutrients that we’ll talk more about in chapter 8.

      BUTTER

      When I was starting my own personal health journey, I was around a lot of people who couldn’t stop talking about butter. It was such an appealing concept, I decided I would try to eat butter at every single breakfast. The problem was, I wasn’t sure how best to do it. I knew I didn’t like how I felt when I had coffee first thing in the morning, so blending it with my coffee was out. Eating butter on its own is revolting unless you are a cute little child. So what did I do? I ordered foods that I was familiar with and I knew went well with butter. Specifically, pancakes. Lots of pancakes. Not for their own sake, of course, merely as a delivery mechanism for the butter (at least, that’s what I told myself). As for the maple syrup … well, who can resist maple syrup when you have a buttered pancake in front of you?

      What started as a well-intentioned idea blossomed into exactly the blood-sugar-spiking nightmare we’ve been trying to avoid. This caveat aside, butter is great to work into your diet, including breakfast. Grass-fed butter, like Kerrygold, contains CLA, a potent nutrient with its own class of benefits, along with a great serving of saturated fat to fuel you into the day. Cook your scrambled eggs in it, blend it into tea or coffee, add it to your vegetables with a little sea salt. Syrup cakes aside, think of that old-school