Q&A: March 2022

Is it important to wash fruits and vegetables that are not organic?

Cris Edmonds

100% you have to wash all the pesticides and fertilizers off the fruit. Now you would assume a quick rinse under water would do the trick, but think about business here for a minute (I know what you are thinking, we are talking fruit and you want to talk business??) Actually I want you all to consider money!

It would be far too costly to spray the crops every time it rained……so washing with just water will not get that oily texture from your fruit/veg. It’s a simple exercise, go to the grocery store and look at my favorite apple, the Honey Crisp. Notice how the conventional is super shiny, where organic is dull in coloring. That’s what needs to be washed off.

So here is your solution: Get 2 cups of white vinegar, 1 cup spring water, 2 tbs lemon juice and mix in a spray bottle. Spray the fruit with this mixture, wait 10 mins, then fully rinse with water and pat dry. Now you are good go for eating!

Is it ok to eat calf liver from the supermarket?

Cris Edmonds

Yes you sure can……I personally can’t stand it, but since US cattle spend their new born months on pasture, you are good to eat it.

What are your views on spices and herbs?

Cris Edmonds

Oh please make your food taste amazing!! This is something I am beyond passionate about. The old days boiled chicken and plain white rice just don’t make sense to me. Why suffer through boring food that tastes like cardboard, when you can take some extra time to flavor your food to taste gourmet.

I actually have completed the Gordon Ramsey Master Class where I fully learned how to cook. Now I have to make alterations to recipes to make it diet friendly, but you will quickly learn flavor profile and how begin to experiment in the kitchen.

So my take home advice here is, learn how to cook, mix up your foods and please season the hell out of them. All my clients who learn this skill, tend to cheat less on their meal plan bc they look forward to every meal.

I would love to know what you feel is an optimal fat burning stack for losing bodyfat?

Cris Edmonds

Here is what I use personally along with most of the guys and girls I work with:

2 caps Granite ThermoBurn, 2.5-5.0mgs Yohimbine HCL, 1000mgs Tyrosine and a baby aspirin. Do this on an empty stomach, smash 0.5-1L of water and rub on MPA Vaso Burn on your abs/obliques/low back/glutes.

If you do this consistently along with regular cardio and nailing your meal plan, you will be shocked at how much better you look and feel.

I read your article about reducing fat cell size and noted the dangers of trans fat in our diets, but isn’t Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) a trans-fat?  Something you talk about as being good on the mountaindog website?

Andrew Berry

Yes. CLA is a tran-fat but… it’s a naturally occurring trans-fat. When we talk about trans-fats negatively we are referring to man-made or man-altered fats, such as those that are found in hydrogenated vegetable oils. CLA has many anti-cancer and antioxidant properties and might even help with losing fat. What you want to watch for is the source. We want our CLA to come from natural sources. It is produced from ruminant animals not the type that is produced in a lab using plant oils. Additionally, grass fed animals produce 300-500% more CLA than those fed a typical hay and grain diet. So, if you are eating some grass-fed beef, some dairy with fat in it and eggs, you are probably getting a great supply of CLA.

My breath is sometimes putrid – my wife constantly complains about it. I am switching to your diet; do you think it will help before my wife divorces me?

Andrew Berry

There are a few reasons that you might have bad breath. First, if you are following an extremely low calorie diet and your body is using protein as a dominant fuel source, or just eating too much protein in general, your body could be leaching out ammonia, a byproduct of protein breakdown. I would look there first.

Next, it could be a matter of poor digestion. As we age, we produce less stomach acid- hydrochloric acid to be exact and when we don’t have enough of it proteins are not broken down properly, can sit in the stomach and intestine leading to gas production. I would add in a betaine hcl with pepsin supplement to higher protein meals. If it continues, add two caps. You will know you have taken too much when you feel a heartburn sensation and at that point bring it back in a capsule.

The last thing that comes to mind is sugar. Try lowering sugar intake as sugar feeds candida which can also cause a foul odor.

I am getting ready for my first bodybuilding competition; how should I do my water?

Andrew Berry

So, this is where having a good coach can come in handy because people will look better with different protocols. Some cut water out at some point the day of the show. Others keep it right in all the way through. Some load I the days prior and then cut back the day of. My advice is to try and do multiple shows this season and for this first show, change nothing from your regular protocol. If you are doing 1 liter of water in between every meal, stay with that protocol, take plenty of pics before every meal from Thursday through Saturday night. Then for the next show, try water loading 5 days out. If you are normally doing 6 liters of water a day, increase it to 8 through Thursday. Then on Friday taper it back to 5 liters and then just a half liter with your first meal on Saturday for the show. Again, take a lot of pics every step of the way and compare both looks to see which direction you should be leaning towards.

Also, keep in mind… I have yet to have someone look drastically worse, regardless of what water protocol we use if they are truly peeled and fat free a week out. It’s near impossible to hold water when you are fat free and often you need to keep drinking some amount of water to maintain muscular fullness.