THE ANABOLIC DIET

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mauro Di Pasquale has been a respected member of the international sports community for
the last 25 years as an athlete, administrator and physician. Today he is one of the most influential
voices on drug use in sports as well as one of the top experts in sports nutrition in the world.
He was a world class athlete for over 20 years, winning the World Championships in Powerlifting
in 1976 and the World Games in 1981. During his athletic career he was also Canadian champion
8 times, Pan American champion twice, and North American champion twice.
It was as an athlete that Dr. Di Pasquale began the search for an alternative to drugs that led him to the Anabolic Diet. Later, during his 8-year tenure as Chairman
of the International Powerlifting Federation’s Medical Committee, and his two-year tenure as
Medical Director and Drug Program Advisor for the now-disbanded World Bodybuilding
Federation (WBF), he continued work on the diet while developing the two Federation’s drug
testing protocols and procedures.
Today he serves as Medical Director and Drug Program Advisor for the World Wrestling
Federation (WWF), and Medical Review Officer for the National Association for Stock Car
Auto Racing (NASCAR).
Dr. Di Pasquale has published several books focusing on drug use and athletic performance,
including Drug Use and Detection in Amateur Sports, Beyond Anabolic Steroids, and Anabolic
Steroid Side Effects, Fact, Fiction and Treatment. He’s also provided hundreds of articles on drug
use, nutrition, and sports medicine to a variety of international magazines and journals.
As editor-in-chief of a new quarterly newsletter entitled DRUGS IN SPORTS, he continues
to bring his message to the international sports community. DRUGS IN SPORTS is now
publishing editions in English, Spanish and Italian.
His research and work in the areas of athletic training, performance, and the treatment of
sports-related injuries have also won him praise from athletes, trainers and other researchers.
He is a licensed physician in Ontario, Canada, specializing in Sports Medicine, and is certified
in North America as a Medical Review Officer and a Master of Fitness Sciences.
Dr. Di Pasquale holds an honors degree in biological science, majoring in molecular
biochemistry, and a medical degree from the University of Toronto. As an assistant professor at
the university, he lectures on athletic performance and drug use in sports. He’s also actively
involved in hormonal research at the University of Toronto and Medical Forces Research Base.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR 1
2 THE ANABOLIC DIET
INTRODUCTION
DIETARY FAT IS NOT THE ENEMY
THE MYTH
You’ve heard it all before. Everybody from the American Medical Association to the media
trendsetters to that so-called “expert” at your neighborhood gym has been saying the same thing for
the last three decades: Fat is bad. Carbohydrates are good. If you want to get the body you’ve been
working so hard for, you’ve got to focus on those carbohydrates and keep fat to an absolute minimum.
So you dedicate yourself to living by the percentages the Lords of Lowfat give you. 55 percent
carbs. No more than 15 percent fat. You load up on turkey and chicken. You separate the egg
whites. You surgically remove all visible fat from any piece of meat. You always broil. Never fry.
But you’ve been living a lie.
Fact is, the high carbohydrate diet favored by so many bodybuilders can actually work against
them. They bulk up on all those carbs and end up packing on a tremendous amount of bodyfat.
Then, when it’s time to cut, too much muscle ends up being left in the gym along with the bodyfat.
Strength levels and personal motivation drops. You can become irritable. Maybe even
depressed. By the time that contest you’ve been working so hard for comes around, you often
look no better than you did for the last contest. You may look worse.
And that diet. To say it’s inconvenient and strict would be a drastic understatement. In a
world where eating makes up a great part of our social life, the regimen of a high carb diet can
quickly make you a social outcast.
Not that you can’t make progress toward your goals with a high carb diet. You can. Some.
But you can also find yourself plateauing or even losing lean body mass. As you count down
toward contest time, panic can set in. You take drastic measures to compensate for the state
you’re in and end up losing weeks of training.
So, why are you torturing yourself? Especially when there is an alternative that can pack on
muscle while keeping bodyfat at a minimum. It’s called the Anabolic Diet and, while it flies in
the face of what most bodybuilders have been led to believe, it could be the answer to your prayers.
THE ANABOLIC DIET
Unlike the high carb diet that can work against the body’s system of growth producing
hormones, the Anabolic Diet maximizes the production and utilization of the Big 3 growth
producers — testosterone, growth hormone and insulin — and does it naturally. It also shifts
the body’s metabolism from that of a sugar burning, fat producing machine to that of a fat
burning machine. With the body packing on extra muscle and simultaneously burning both
dietary and stored body fat, the bodybuilder finds himself twice blessed.
The Anabolic Diet stresses a high fat/high protein/low carbohydrate approach to nutrition.
INTRODUCTION 3
Many in the general public will dismiss it out of hand, citing the popular beliefs that fat is a
prime component in heart disease, cancer and obesity. Likewise, many bodybuilders have come
to assume that dietary fat smooths the bodybuilder out and blurs definition.
But they couldn’t be more wrong. Dietary fat, when utilized properly as in the Anabolic Diet,
can be the key to growth and success. And while some will see the Anabolic Diet as a new,
revolutionary, even dangerous approach to nutrition, its basics actually originated with the
dawning of mankind.
THE PRIMITIVE DIET
First let’s clear up a widely held misconception that ancient man was a herbivore who turned
his nose up at all meat in favor of the available plant life. Current vegetarians often claim that
their diet is the most natural and ancient known to man, in an effort to gain converts, but it’s
simply not true.
In fact, archeological evidence shows that man’s earliest tools were put to use, at least in part,
in the dressing of meat1
. In many areas, the diet of primitive man was made up almost entirely
of animal products. The continued affection for meat demonstrated by the monkeys and apes
that are our primate cousins today is also testament to early man’s dietary preference.
There’s a good reason for all this. It’s called survival. Meat is a far superior source of amino
acids than plant life. It’s also high in vitamins A, E and B complex. Fat, whose benefits we will
discuss throughout this book, is also readily available in meat and not in plants. Along with
many other uses, including the fact that it’s tasty and adds to the palatability of food, fat is
necessary for proper breakdown and use of vitamins A, D, E and K in the body.
Meat is, indeed, one of the most nutritious substances on earth, and it’s been held in high
esteem by civilizations throughout history. It’s even played a big role in religious ceremony. In
the early days of recorded history, meat was offered to the prevailing Gods through “burnt
offerings”, and the Bible reports on feasts held in conjunction with these animal sacrifices.
So when we’re talking about “natural” or “primitive” diets, we’re not talking about the eating
habits of vegetarians. We’re talking about meat eaters who came to understand early the
importance of meat in the daily diet. Man’s earliest diet probably consisted mainly of meat,
supplemented by periodic feedings of carbohydrates. It was only with the development of
agriculture a mere 10,000 years ago that any large change was seen.
In the nearly 50 million years of man’s existence before that, man was largely carnivorous
and lived off animal flesh. At its crudest, this meat diet bears a strong resemblance to the Anabolic
Diet we’ll be providing you with. All we’ve done is taken this primitive diet and brought it into
the modern age, making use of modern science to adapt it and perfect it for maximum health,
fitness and development.
THE ESTABLISHMENT WON’T LIKE THE ANABOLIC DIET
But don’t expect the Anabolic Diet to be hailed widely by major food industries in our society.
Go down the aisles of any supermarket today and you’ll see little but fancy carbohydrates on
4 THE ANABOLIC DIET
the shelves. Meat is simple. It involves little more than butchering a cow. It’s also very difficult
to package for big profits. It wouldn’t be in their interest to support it.
A similar situation exists with the supplement industry. They won’t be happy with this diet
because it doesn’t require protein supplementation. You’re already getting plenty of protein
from all the meat you’ll be eating. Likewise, the general supplements they tout will be of little
use here. Though we’ll be prescribing supplements to give you the edge in maximizing the
Anabolic Diet’s benefits, they will be of a high tech variety, specially designed for the needs of
the bodybuilder dialed into the anabolic lifestyle. They’ll be well beyond anything the generalists
are presently offering.
Those modern day gurus of nutrition, who think that the quality of a diet should be measured
in the torture it extracts on its users, won’t be pleased with this diet, either. It’s not torture.
You’ll be eating meat during the weekdays, supplemented by a wide variety of other delicious
foods. And when the weekend comes, virtually anything goes.
While you may have to give up that lasagna or ice cream during the week, you can have it during
the “carb loading” portion of the diet that comes every weekend. Unlike the high carb diets and
others of it’s ilk, you aren’t forced to give up your favorite foods forever on the Anabolic Diet.
THE MODERN BODYBUILDER
Although my approach to the high fat/high protein/low carbohydrate is new, it’s interesting to
note that an early form of the diet was favored by many bodybuilders back in the 1960’s. It wasn’t
well refined at the time. Nor did it feature the critical aspects of hormonal manipulation and
stimulation I’ve added. But it concentrated on meat consumption with very few carbs, and
bodybuilders were pleased to find themselves maintaining maximum muscle with very little bodyfat.
In fact, the diet produced some huge men back in the 60s. They didn’t have all the components
of the diet perfected and didn’t get the “super-ripped” look bodybuilders work for today but,
nonetheless, the diet produced some big, big men. Unfortunately, the trendy diets stressing high
complex carbs, high protein and low fat swept through the bodybuilding community so
completely that these earlier experiments in a high fat approach were wiped out.
As often happens, the blinders went on to alternatives to the high carb movement, and the
high fat diet was ignored by most people. I was the exception. I began working with the diet as
an active powerlifter in the 1970s and used an earlier version of what you’ll find in this book on
my way to winning the world championship in powerlifting in 1976 and the World Games in
the sport in 1981.
ANABOLIC STEROIDS
Soon after, the world of professional sports began their campaign against anabolic steroids.
Strict drug testing began in the world class bodybuilding community, and the cry went out for
some natural alternative to steroids.
By that time steroids had assumed their place as a “wonder drug” among bodybuilders and other
athletes. Physically, steroids had been shown to have a remarkable effect on muscle growth and
INTRODUCTION 5
strength. Psychologically, they provided users with an aggressive, contentious mindset very useful
in competition and training. The fact that they swept through the bodybuilding and other sport
communities where getting a competitive edge was so important to winning was not surprising.
Unfortunately, steroids were found to have some severe side effects. Moodiness and an
unhealthy aggression toward others that could extend to violence (known as “roid rage”) were
widely reported in sporting journals. Links to heart disease, liver cancer, kidney disease and
sterility were also discovered. With the evidence mounting, there was little choice but to shut
down their use in the international sporting arena.
It was into this void that I stepped with the high fat, Anabolic Diet I’d been working on. It
was not an easy task. The World Bodybuilding Federation wanted their athletes to get clean
but maintain muscle mass and stay cut up and in competition shape. This was a tall order.
One of the major problems was to get the hormonal systems of the bodybuilders back on
track, producing testosterone naturally. This was very difficult because steroids shut down the
testosterone-producing system in the body. The hypothalamic, pituitary, testicular axis (HPTA)
ceases to function, and you may need to go to extreme measures to get your testicles working
again. It often takes a long time to recover and, in some cases, a user may never recover and be
doomed to treatment with artificial steroids or testosterone for the rest of his life.
Steroids can also make the athlete lazy. He’ll get growth with marginal training methods but
find the road much tougher when he gets off steroids and has to do all the work himself. Anabolic
diet or not, it may take him awhile to get back up to speed with proper training methods.
Then there’s the diet itself. Like any diet, if you don’t follow it, you’re not going to get results.
Some bodybuilders who’d been cruising on steroids for a long time found it difficult to replace
the ease of steroids with a diet which required some commitment.
Finally, some people chose to believe that a natural program could replace steroids immediately
and offer the exact same results. There is no way this can occur. Over a short time period, no
diet is going to replace steroids. But over the long term, the Anabolic Diet has proven to be a
very effective alternative to steroids, providing the same kind of results without the “Russian
Roulette” nature of steroid usage.
By 1990, I’d come out with my book, Beyond Anabolic Steroids, and begun to provide articles
for a variety of fitness and bodybuilding publications on the subject. The response to the Anabolic
Diet was remarkable. In a world where steroids are a real gamble, both in terms of competition
and health, the Anabolic Diet gave the bodybuilders who used it that natural edge they were
looking for.
But I’m no “Just Say No” crusader in this area. Hysteria is not my stock in trade. Anabolic
steroids do have their place. In fact, I’ve recently been involved in research testing steroids for
use in AIDS patients. They could play a role in maintaining body mass and stengthening the
immune system in these patients, thus allowing them to better resist the opportunistic diseases
that are so deadly to them.
6 THE ANABOLIC DIET
I also fully realize that steroids and other artificial means for growth and performance are still
used widely in the athletic community. They give the athlete the edge he’s looking for and, for
many, they’ll gladly risk their health and the sanctions that can come from steroid use for the
performance benefits they can bring.
It should be pointed out that the Anabolic Diet can even be used in concert with steroids.
You will get results. Indeed, you can do most anything with steroids and achieve some gains.
But, though the Anabolic Diet will help you to some degree, your use of steroids will keep you
from maximizing the endogenous anabolic hormones the diet seeks to stimulate.
Bottom line, the Anabolic Diet is meant for the natural athlete who wants to be the best he
can be naturally. And, while it’s much easier and convenient to stay on than the high carb diet,
it will still require some dedication and the will to properly execute it. The key to success in the
diet is to make sure you take your body through a “metabolic shift” where you’ll begin to use
dietary fat and bodyfat instead of carbs and muscle protein as the main fuel for your body. To
do this, you’ll have to follow the diet very closely, especially at the beginning.
The battle the drug-free athlete engages in is not an easy one. He must face up to drug-using
and abusing competition and drug-based competitive standards in every contest. What the
Anabolic Diet does is to give him the same kind of benefits the drug user obtains.
By introducing anabolic drugs or agents into his body, the drug user increases the circulating
amount of anabolic hormones and compounds, which in turn produces the desired anabolic
effect of muscle growth. The Anabolic Diet does the same thing. Only instead of introducing
the anabolic substances from an exogenous source outside the body, the diet stimulates the
production of anabolic hormones IN THE BODY. It’s LEGAL and it’s SAFE.
And, best of all, it’s a SURE THING. If you follow the diet, IT WON’T FAIL. It may sound
bizarre. It may counter everything you’ve ever been led to believe about diets, fat and
carbohydrates. BUT IT WORKS. It is a biochemical inevitability. YOU WILL get the
combination of increased lean body mass with less bodyfat you’re looking for if you follow the
diet properly.
And you’ll get it naturally. Without the dangers of steroids.
Given the trials and tribulations most bodybuilders have experienced with their “diets,” what
more can you ask for from a nutrition program?
INTRODUCTION 7
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