#181 Feel Your Best: How to Optimize Your Diet with Data and Improve Your Metabolic Health with Dr. Lauren Kelley-Chew of Levels Health

What if you could see in real-time how what you’re eating affects your health? 

We all know we should be “eating healthy”—but what does that mean exactly? Health is not one size fits all and with so much competing advice out there, I’m excited to introduce you to this week’s guest, Dr. Lauren Kelley-Chew. 

Lauren is a physician entrepreneur whose background includes private equity, a Y-Combinator backed digital therapeutics startup, and leading strategy and business operations at Verily Life Sciences (formerly Google X) where she focused on devices and emerging products.

She is currently the Head of Clinical Product at Levels Health, a startup dedicated to improving your metabolic health by helping you make better (and tangible) lifestyle choices through personalized data. Levels uses wearable biosensors like continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) to show you how the foods you eat affect your body specifically, in a quantifiable way. 

This is incredibly important because metabolic dysfunction and insulin resistance is at epidemic levels in the US and it’s tied to virtually every symptom or disease you can think of—diabetes, Alzheimer’s, high blood pressure, cancer, depression, anxiety, infertility, chronic fatigue, acne, psoriasis, and more. The good news is that it’s largely reversible by making some simple habit changes, which can go a long way in helping to prevent chronic disease and improve your quality of life.

I’ve been excited about what Levels is doing and where they plan to expand. They have an all-star team of MD’s, former SpaceX and Google engineers, advisors including previous guest Dr. Molly Maloof, Dr. Mark Hyman, Dom D'Agostino, Ph.D., Dr. Sara Gottfried, and David Sinclair, Ph.D., and huge investors backing them.

On Ep. 181, we cover:

• Why Lauren ditched the traditional medical practice route and her experience as a woman working in the tech scene
• Metabolic Health: What it is, why it’s important, how it relates to diet, sleep, exercise, and stress, and how it’s affected by glucose and insulin
• How CGMs can help you optimize your diet
• What she learned using Levels for herself, and how she's adjusted her diet
• Women’s health, the keto diet, and how it affects men and women differently
• Optimal blood sugar levels, what order you should eat your food, and other actionable tips
• Behind the scenes of Levels Health—their culture, content process, and more!

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Book Recommendation

Women, Food, And Hormones: A 4-Week Plan to Achieve Hormonal Balance, Lose Weight, and Feel Like Yourself Again by Sara Gottfried, MD https://amzn.to/3IOqe3A

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