Ray Cronise on Water Fasting and ‘Our Broken Plate

Written by Matt Frazier

“Ray Cronise saved my life. I’ve lost 100 pounds. I used to be fat and sick, and now I’m not fat and sick.”

– Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller

Unless you’ve heard his other appearances on No Meat Athlete Radio, it’s likely Ray Cronise is the nutrition guru you’ve never heard of.

But that’s about to change, with Ray’s new book, Our Broken Plate, having smashed through its Kickstarter funding goal, thanks in large part to a video that opens with Penn Jillette’s glowing endorsement of Ray’s approach to health.

Of course, you probably have heard of Ray without realizing it. He appeared in Tim Ferriss’ smash-hit 4-Hour Body, where he was the guy who discovered cold stress as a tool for fat loss when he noticed a discrepancy between the number of calories Michael Phelps consumed in a day, and how many he burned through exercise.

And if you read the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue for anything but the articles (that’s why I do!), then you probably know of Zero-G, the company Ray started with XPRIZE creator Peter Diamandis, whose weightlessness-inducing, parabolic-flight planes were used for an interesting if strange photo shoot last year. (And for the ladies and/or scientists in the audience, Stephen Hawking has taken a Zero-G flight, too.)

I’ve been fortunate to call Ray a friend for a few years since he turned his attention and considerable penchant for disruption towards nutrition, landing on a plant-based diet as the optimal one for long-term health. And in several multi-hour phone conversations we’ve had over the years, I’ve come to believe that Ray has a deeper understanding of nutrition than anyone else I know.

It was my pleasure to have Ray as a No Meat Athlete Radio guest for a third time, for an often-contrarian and always extremely interesting conversation about food, nutrition, and how most people screw them up.

Here’s just some of what we talk about in this episode:

  • Ray’s 24-day water fast (and should we all be fasting?)
  • The “metabolic winter” — how modern comforts sabotage our health
  • Why people run so that they can eat, when animals eat so that they can run
  • Ray’s work with Penn Jillette
  • Protein!
  • The Our Broken Plate Kickstarter campaign

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