May 6, 2025 • 43 mins
Episode #203
In this week's episode, Megan and Terri are joined by a very special guest, Ben Azadi, to talk about his new book Metabolic Freedom: A 30-Day Guide to Restore Your Metabolism, Heal Hormones, and Burn Fat.
They share their focus on the root causes and ways to resolve metabolic issues that underly so many health concerns and obesity.
Preorder Ben’s book via this page to get his FREE Metabolic Health Course plus exclusive guest interviews (inc. Megan Ramos and Dr. Fung):
https://www.ketokamp.com/free-course
Ben’s Links
Website: www.benazadi.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebenazadi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benazadi/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebenazadi
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ketokamp
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebenazadi
Podcast (Metabolic Freedom): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/metabolic-freedom-with-ben-azadi/id1470779784
Summary Timestamps
00:00 Intro
02:52 US Studies about Metabolic Health
04:07 Metabolic Freedom - Book Summary
07:21 Who Ben’s Book is for
09:38 The Importance of Mindset
12:18 Psycho-Cybernetics
15:05 The Problems with Being a Sugar Burner
15:50 The Role of Insulin
17:00 Fasting Insulin and A1C Blood Tests
22:27 Simple Tips
24:34 One Tweak a Week
28:35 Obesogens
30:00 Diabetogens
30:51 Microplastics
33:11 Metabolic Rate
33:56 Fasting
40:10 Free Course + Interviews
Transcripts of all episodes are available on the Podcast page at www.thefastingmethod.com
Please Submit Your Questions for the Q&A episodes here: https://bit.ly/TFMPodcastQs
Connect With Us
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Join our FREE Facebook Group: https://bit.ly/TFMNetwork
Disclaimer
This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. You should always speak with your physician or other healthcare professional before doing any fasting, changing your diet, taking or adjusting any medication or supplements, or adopting any treatment for a health problem. The use of any other products or services purchased by you as a result of this podcast does not create a healthcare provider-patient relationship between you and any of the experts affiliated with this podcast. Information and statements regarding dietary supplements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I think a lot of people are getting so much
information and that's not the issue these
days. We're information overload.
We're drowning in information and starving for
true wisdom and truth.
But it's not the information that's going to
change lives, it's the application of the
information. If information changed lives,
I always say every librarian would be a
multimillionaire with six-pack abs and
celebrity status. It's not the information.
(00:22):
It's the application.
[music]
Welcome back to The Fasting Method podcast.
This is Coach Terri and I am super excited
about this episode because it's something
brand new for me and I think something
so worthwhile for all of our listeners.
(00:43):
So, I'm here today with Megan Ramos.
We have not gotten to do an episode together
in quite a while.
And we are joined by a very
special guest, Ben Azadi from
Keto Kamp.
So, Megan, I'm going to turn it over to you
to kind of get us rolling and tell
us a little bit about Ben.
In 2008, Ben was an obese
(01:05):
man who went through a personal health
transformation of releasing 80 pounds of extra
weight and getting metabolically healthy.
Ever since, he has been on a mission to help
one billion people live a healthier lifestyle.
And he's on a 10-year mission to help
over one million people naturally reverse
their diabetes.
Ben is the founder of Keto Kamp and
(01:25):
has over 17 years of experience
in the health industry, and he's the author
of four best-selling books.
He is one of the go-to sources for
intermittent fasting and ketogenic-diet
information since 2013.
He's also the host of a top-15
podcast, The Metabolic Freedom Podcast,
(01:45):
which won Keto Podcast of the Year
in 2022 by The Metabolic
Health Summit.
In addition to all the super cool stuff
that I just shared, Ben is one of the kindest
people, a dear friend of both mine, Dr.
Fung, and The Fasting Method, and we're so
grateful to support Ben with the launch of
his brand new book, Metabolic Freedom:
(02:07):
A 30-Day Guide to Restore Your Metabolism,
Heal Hormones & Burn Fat.
This is a book that I hope all of our
listeners get. It's so complimentary to what
we do with fasting and it is really
a whole, 360 approach that
will help you restore your metabolic health.
Ben, welcome to the show today.
(02:27):
Hey Megan, hey Terri, what an honor to be
here. I love what y'all are doing at
The Fasting Method and I'm excited to have a
life-changing conversation.
So, Ben, this book is super
exciting.
I remember us kind of talking about this,
which felt like not that long ago, and
now it's this incredible book.
And I have no doubt it's gonna change people's
(02:48):
lives. What inspired you to create
this particular guide?
Yeah, I'm very excited about it.
Well, we see with our eyes, that there's a lot
of people that are unhealthy in the United
States and most first-world countries and
the studies back it up.
There were three key studies that I looked at
that really inspired me to write the book.
The first study was a 2016 study
(03:08):
from Mayo Clinic that I put in the book and
what these researchers were set to determine
was how many Americans live what they
consider an active, healthy, fit lifestyle.
And they essentially based it off of four
different criterias.
The first criteria was that, number one,
they don't smoke cigarettes.
Number two, they do moderate to vigorous
exercise/activity about 150
(03:30):
minutes total per week.
Number three, they eat what they consider a
healthy diet, which is simply a
minimally-processed diet.
And number four, their body-fat percentage
was, for a female, under 30% and,
for male, under 20%.
At the end of the study, it concluded that
only 2.7% of Americans hit
that criteria, hit those stats.
(03:50):
That's it. Which is such a small
percentage. And in 2018, the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill put
out a study showing around 88% of
Americans are metabolically unhealthy, and
a more recent study in 2022 showing it's
closer to 93%.
It's insane.
And I believe the body was not built to have
all these symptoms and to manifest disease and
(04:12):
dysfunction. I believe God created the body to
be self-healing.
So what's the problem, right?
I wanted to outline that in the book.
The first half of the book discusses
the five main causes to metabolic dysfunction
and disease.
It's exactly what you and The Fasting Method
and the entire team have been preaching for so
many years. So it gets into the causes.
So once we identify the interference,
(04:34):
then we can start removing it and the body
goes to heal itself.
And, in the second half of the book, are the
solutions - ketosis, fasting - we'll dive into
a few of these today, but it shows them the
solution. Then it's all wrapped together in a
30-day plan to achieve or
to actually implement the information, because
I think a lot of people are getting so much
information and that's not the issue these
(04:54):
days. We're information overload.
We're drowning in information and starving for
true wisdom and truth.
But it's not information that's gonna change
lives, it's the application of the
information. If information changed lives,
I always say every librarian would be a
multimillionaire with six-pack abs and
celebrity status. It's not, the information,
it's the application.
And in America, it's really crazy
(05:17):
because every year, in the United States,
we spend $4.6 trillion on
healthcare. That would be the fourth largest
GDP in the world if it was a GDP.
And what's really fascinating (this is so
important to your work, Megan, Terri, and the
entire team) is one out of every $4
spent on healthcare is on diabetes,
(05:37):
mostly type two diabetes, which we
know is completely a
lifestyle disease that is completely
preventable and completely reversible
(type 2).
So the book illustrates exactly how to
do that, and I'm excited to dive into this
with you all today.
Yeah, I love how you have the book divided
into these two parts.
(05:58):
And the outline that you provided in
the solution is just so clear.
And I hear you, I think, Terri and I, we
deal with this day in and day out.
People are just so eager to try
to take control of their health.
I mean, the information day and age is kind of
cool, right? They can learn about things about
keto and fasting, and hear
people having really great success about it
(06:20):
and know that there is hope.
But then the information day and age, social
media inundates them - do this, do that,
that's wrong, that's good, that's bad, this is
clean, this is dirty.
There's all of this stuff and it just becomes
overwhelming. And the more people try
to learn, you know, when they're
navigating these things - different blog
articles, magazine posts,
(06:41):
social media posts - they don't even know what
to do. They just end up getting like analysis
paralysis.
So much is contradictory.
And what I love is that you've just clearly
laid this out, you know - this is the problem
and this is what you do to fix it, and here's
the complete guide, step-by-step guide.
It's a one-stop shop for really implementing
this approach.
When I was going through it, you know,
(07:02):
I thought this is perfect for everybody,
whether you're brand new to this lifestyle and
you're feeling a little overwhelmed by what
you're seeing online, or you've gone down
the rabbit hole and you're no longer sure what
to do and what you're doing is just not really
working for you, this will get you back with
your feet on solid ground moving forwards.
Thank you, Megan. That's exactly right.
It was written for the masses, it really was.
(07:24):
But even if you're not new to this, like if
you've been following low carb, keto,
carnivore, fasting for quite some time (which
you probably are if you're listening to this
podcast), you're still going to learn a lot
because there's actually 275 scientific
references that I have in the book.
And that 30-day plan at the end of the book,
there are two different avenues to follow that
- if you're a complete beginner, do the
beginner plan, if you're advanced, do the
(07:46):
advanced plan - and you're going to benefit
either way. And it's really a good book,
I believe, to buy or
recommend to somebody in your world
(like a family member, a wife, a husband, a
coworker) who you wanna get into this
low-carb, fasting space, but they're just so
resistant. I have
stories of testimonials, I have the scientific
(08:06):
research, I have my personal story, and
it's written for the masses so they can just
understand, wow, keto, it's
not really like this fad, fat-loss diet, it's
actually a metabolic process.
Wow, fasting, you're right, we're designed to
go periods of time without food and then
periods of time when we eat, these famine
cycling. So it helps kind of like get them
into this world without you having to force it
(08:28):
onto them, which I'm sure you've tried.
I know the message sometimes goes on deaf
ears, but, when you give a resource like this,
I think it helps them get inspired to kind of
get into our world of low carb and fasting.
It's funny that you mention that, Ben,
because, as I was reading,
I was thinking of who I need to send this book
to when it's launched.
[laughter] I'm gonna set up some pre-orders
(08:49):
now because I have friends that--
they're curious about what I do but they don't
really understand why I do it, and I don't
want to take the time to go into that deep
dive but I thought, "Oh, my gosh, this is the
book." And what I particularly
love about the book is, not only do you do
a lot of science in it, one,
you cover the science at a level that
(09:10):
I can manage (I'm an English major,
I'm a psychologist), so it's a
great degree of depth of
science to really make it meaningful without
being overwhelming, and then,
of course, I am totally biased on
the mindset piece (the
power of our mind in our healing process)
(09:31):
and I think you do a great job of
incorporating that into this book.
So I was very excited as I was reading.
I love it, Terri. That is actually my favorite
part too. Chapter 10 is my
favorite chapter in the book, and it's all
about what you just said, how your thoughts
influence metabolism, longevity,
or disease. It gets into the placebo effect,
(09:51):
the nocebo effect, the subconscious mind
versus the conscious mind, the self-image.
That's my favorite chapter.
You know, I might write an entire
book one day based off of chapter
10. I might call it Mental Freedom instead of
Metabolic Freedom. But, yeah, I'm with you.
I think that's the most important part to the
puzzle here, is that mindset, the inner work.
(10:12):
It's really an inside-out job.
So I'm glad we're on the same page there,
Terri.
And it goes back to what you said earlier
about, if knowledge were all
that it took, we'd all be so successful
at this and it would be so easy.
But we really also have to work on our
identity and the mindset and the self
sabotage. So, maybe we need to co-author
that book. [laughter]
(10:32):
Let's go!
I love it!
We often talk at The Fasting Method that this
isn't just a metabolic transformation that
you're doing through nutrition
and through fasting.
It's a whole transformation of the
self and, you know, not just even
to your relationship with food, but
it's so incredible to watch someone start
(10:54):
this journey, and take it and run with
it, and just see where they end up getting.
I know most people come in to
Keto Kamp, come into The Fasting Method and
they're just so eager to get off medications,
get into a good-health place, get these
biomarkers out of these high-risk zones.
And then they start to realize, oh wait,
(11:15):
there's a little bit more here.
And I think it's really a lot of these
conversations that solidify the
journey and really do result in that
complete transformation.
I can't believe who I am today as I approach
my 41st birthday.
When I look back and think about where I was
at the start of my journey in my late
twenties, it's just kind of wild.
(11:37):
So this is a deep process.
You know, people just think they're going to
lose a few pounds and [unintelligible]
You're in for it in a big way with this.
Yeah, spot on.
It's an inside-out job.
And that's why I'm really passionate about
that chapter 10, because I've seen it time
after time.
We make a conscious decision to change and get
healthy. Or maybe we have diabetes
(11:59):
and we make that conscious decision, "I want
to reverse my diabetes, and," like you said,
Megan, "get off my Metformin, get off of my
insulin." Or you're overweight, 50 pounds
overweight and you make a conscience decision,
"I want to lose 50 pounds," but what
happens at the subconscious level will
determine if you actually achieve that.
You cannot outperform your self-image, the
way you view yourself.
In chapter 10, I get into the concept of
(12:20):
psycho-cybernetics from an author from
the 1960s, Dr. Maxwell Maltz.
And this is really interesting because he
was-- well he called it the greatest
physiological discovery of his generation, and
this was the 1960s, and I think it's still, to
this day, the greatest discovery.
He was a plastic surgeon
and he would work on patients that had
really wicked facial
(12:42):
disformities. They were unhappy, they were
really self-conscious, they felt like,
"I needed to have plastic surgery so I could
look better and feel better and live a normal
life." That was the thought process of these
patients. So they would hire Maxwell Maltz to
perform plastic surgery to remove these facial
disfigurements. He was one of the best in the
world. But what Maxwell Maltz
noticed, after the surgery, is that these
(13:03):
patients, they would look in the mirror,
facial disfigurement's gone, and they would
still see themselves with that disfigurement,
meaning they were still unhappy, they were
still feeling the same way they felt before.
Nothing changed for them even though they
physically looked different.
And it wasn't until they changed their
self-image at a subconscious level that their
life actually improved.
(13:23):
And we do the same thing with our
health goals, and weight-loss goals, and
diabetes. The example I give in the book is
somebody who says, "I need to lose 50 pounds."
So they make that conscious decision and,
let's say, they join a program or they start
cutting calories, they do it the wrong way,
whatever, but they start to lose weight.
And if they didn't change their self-image, if
their self-image identifies as an overweight
(13:45):
person or an obese person (like it
was for me for 20 years), they might lose
five pounds or ten pounds that first month,
but the self image they will course correct,
meaning self-sabotage (you used that word
earlier, Terri). They will self- sabotage
and course correct and gain the weight back
to match that self image.
They would find themselves binge eating, they
(14:05):
would find themselves in a McDonald's
drive-thru, whatever it is, to match the
self-image. And they keep cutting calories
more, joining another program, or reading
another diet book, and they lose some weight
and gain it back, and they keep yo-yoing
because they didn't alter the self-image.
So we need to change that self-image, and,
once you do, then you start to make long-term
progress. I know this has been the case for
(14:25):
myself, and I talk about how do you actually
change that self-image in the book.
There's actually only two ways to do it, and
I outline how to do that.
So, Ben, I could talk about changing
our identity all day long, but
I wanna really make sure we cover some of the
other aspects of this book that I think are
also so powerful.
I think, for some of us, it's trying to
understand what went wrong, why
(14:47):
have I struggled?
And one of the chapters you have is about
being a sugar burner.
And I think that might be a place where we
could start understanding, metabolically,
what's going on that makes us sick,
makes us gain weight, makes it hard to lose
weight, and then go from there.
Yeah, Terri, there's a whole chapter on why
(15:08):
being a sugar burner is one of the leading
causes towards metabolic disease.
And there's nothing wrong with burning sugar
and glucose unless you're only burning sugar
in glucose. And the study that I referenced
earlier about 93% of Americans being
metabolically unhealthy, they're sugar
burners. They're in a keto deficiency is what
I call them. And what happens is, when you're
burning sugar, you're not metabolically free,
(15:29):
you are in a metabolic prison.
You're relying on snacking and grazing every
few hours just to get a short energy burst.
Your energy levels fluctuate, you're gonna
gain weight, you're going to createinflammation.
It really starts with insulin and y'all do a
great job discussing the role of insulin.
Of course, Dr. Fung is the master at
explaining how insulin works in the body.
(15:50):
And I discuss insulin as a big part
of the picture here because I do believe that
high levels of insulin, it's the first domino
to fall that will trigger a cascade
of metabolic disease and dysfunction,
meaning high blood pressure, weight gain,
weight-loss resistance, pre-diabetes, type 2
diabetes. And then, once you're type 2
diabetic or diabetic, it opens up the door
(16:10):
to cancer, heart disease, and other serious
diseases.
But what's interesting about insulin-- and
I love that y'all have a strong focus on it
and you test it.
What's interesting about insulin is that the
average person could have full-blown
hyperinsulinemia (for, on average 6 to 14
years is what the studies show) with their
fasting blood sugar and A1C looking
(16:30):
normal, looking just fine, because
that pancreas is so busy just producing
massive amounts of insulin to clear that
excess glucose until those receptor
sites go deaf to the screams of insulin.
And then there's a steep, sharp increase
in blood sugars. And if the person's testing,
they'll be diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
And if they're not testing, eventually,
they'll get diagnosed with full-blown
(16:51):
diabetes. But if we just measured fasting
insulin, we could have seen this happening
years, a decade or so, before.
So a fasting insulin blood test is one of the
most important tests to get done.
We want to see that in the single digits.
And, unfortunately (and you know this, both of
you know this), the standard reference range
on a fasting insulin is usually between 3 and
(17:14):
25 or 3 and 28.
So a conventional doctor might run a
fasting insulin (if you request it, they don't
typically order it for you, but if you request
it), but if you get the report back and your
fasting insulin is 12, 17,
21, they're not gonna flag it as being an
issue, but that's an issue, you're trending
in the wrong direction.
And once you're diagnosed with type 2
(17:34):
diabetes, we know what happens.
I mean, it's the neuropathy, the vision loss,
the infections, the kidney failure.
It's actually pretty rare to die from
diabetes, it's what diabetes leads
to that really ends the life of the person.
That's what happened to my dad in 2014 with
the stroke he suffered and then it took his
life.
The A1C is another important metric because
(17:55):
it's, of course, showing you your blood sugar
levels for three months.
And there's a study that I put in the book
that shows, if your hemoglobin A1C
is at 7.5% or higher
(which is diabetes), every year it's
at that level, they estimate 100
days come off your lifespan.
So if it's that level for 15 years,
you lose approximately four years off your
(18:17):
lifespan. That's how destructive high
levels of glucose and insulin are inside
of the body. So the first step is
to go from burning sugar to burning fat.
And the great news is that you could do that
like in a week or so. It's not that difficult.
I show you the steps to do that.
So, insulin is the key part to monitor here,
and I hope your entire audience (they probably
(18:38):
already do because they listen to you) all get
a fasting insulin. And if you don't, I really
encourage you to get one as soon as possible.
We appreciate you speaking out
about this, because, as you mentioned, we talk
about it a lot, but not a ton of experts
out there are talking about it, still,
today.
There's still this focus on calories in
(18:58):
a big way. And I'm not saying calories aren't
important, but they're not the whole story,
they're not the big picture.
And so, often, you know, we get people that
are trying to believe in the process, but
everybody around them is like, "Calories,
calories, calories, calories, calories," and
it's just like, oh, my goodness, like, no,
this is not the case.
And then their doctors are saying, "Oh, you
(19:19):
know, you don't need to fast, you don't need
to change your diet, your A1C is 5.6%."
Well, my background is in nephrology (as
Jason, he's a nephologist) and we would get
all these people in their 40s with A1Cs of
5.5, 5.6,
and they would have these gnarly kidney
issues. And we would not know why.
Their blood pressure is good, there's nothing
(19:40):
genetic that stands out, but we biopsy
them to do our due diligence, especially since
they're young. They're going to have kidney
disease now for a long time,
diabetic kidney disease, diabetic nephropathy.
Every single time,
I remember being just as perplexed as the
patient, "But I don't have diabetes." No,
you technically don't, but there's
(20:01):
obviously something going on here.
And I think this was one of the biggest flags
for Jason and I early on, is that these
numbers are, by convention, considered
to be normal, but they're not and there's a
lot more going on here.
To your point about the insulin, we had one
member, one incredible Fasting
Method family member who had
to insist-- like, wanted to prove to her
(20:23):
doctor that she had insulin resistance, even
with her, quote-unquote, 'normal A1C and
fasting glucose levels'.
So she ended up doing a Kraft Test.
For our listeners out there, that's like
an oral glucose tolerance test over four
hours, but you also measure your fasting
insulin.
Her fasting insulin levels were some of the
highest I had ever seen at that point.
(20:44):
Every single marker was just sky high.
They had been high earlier on, which is
usually, with type 2 diabetes, we see it being
delayed a bit, but every single marker
was sky high. Her glucose levels were actually
all kind of in a pretty healthy range,
and her doctor was floored and just did not
know what to do with this data.
And then asked if she could reach out to us to
(21:06):
learn more because she said she would have bet
everything she owned that this woman did not
have metabolic disease.
How wild is that?
Like, how-- people just do not understand
insulin out there.
So it's so important that you're speaking
about this.
I know a lot of people listening feel
frustrated. Like, these are some big changes,
but they're not huge change-- like, they are
(21:27):
big changes, but some small changes
can get you a long way.
So, as we start to sort of shift into some of
the solution aspect, 30 days can change your
life. I, a hundred percent, have seen this a
million times. It's changed my life.
Are there some simple things that people can
do if they're feeling overwhelmed in this
moment (like this is a big dietary change for
(21:48):
them), that you really say,
hey, no, this is actually not over
complicated. This is something that, if I can
do it, you can do it too.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
That's a story about the fasting insulin and
the Kraft Test. Wild!
It's beyond me.
I mean, I understand why doctors are not
ordering a fasting insulin.
There's no medication they could prescribe for
it, right? There's not a medication to lower
(22:10):
insulin. There's a medication to lower
glucose. There's not an incentive to really
do it. The good news about a fasting insulin
is, though, if your doctor does not want to
order it for you, or if your insurance doesn't
want to cover it (which it typically doesn't),
it's a very cheap test to get done.
You can pay out of pocket. It's not that
expensive, but it's very valuable.
The solution is very easy and, Megan,
you're really brilliant at discussing like how
(22:31):
snacking is going to raise insulin and
glucose and that's just a simple tip - just
have three meals a day - so we'll start there.
And I talk about that in the first week of
this 30-day plan.
Just start with three meals a day, breakfast,
lunch and dinner, no snacking in between.
The second change here is to
gradually start to lower your total
carbohydrate intake, which we know carbs will
(22:53):
raise blood insulin more than any other
macronutrients. So you wanna gradually lower
your total carbohydrate intake while you
replace that with proteins and fats.
Protein has a moderate insulin response
and fat, very, very minimal, not much
going on with fat. So as you swap out carbs--
let's say you start reducing rice, pasta,
(23:13):
beans, lentils, and grains, and
you swap that out with eggs, avocado,
chicken, fish, beef (whatever your favorite
protein source is with natural fats), and
maybe like coconut oil, butter you use to cook
your foods in.
If you make that swap and no snacking in
between those meals, your body's gonna start
to lower glucose and insulin, lower
inflammation, and it's gonna start to shift
(23:35):
now into going into a fat burning-mode.
If your goal is to achieve ketosis
(which I do recommend in the book), the goal
is to eventually take those total
carbohydrates, which, for most people, the
average person eats around 250 grams
of carbs per day-- if your goal is shift
into ketosis, I would say, by day
(23:55):
seven of doing this, you should eventually get
to a point where your total carbohydrates are
now under 50 total grams per
day, and that needs to come from non-starchy
carbohydrates.
Now, some people need to go a little bit more
restrictive, but I would say 50 as the upper
limit. No snacking in between.
Getting plenty of protein and fat.
And within a week of just doing this, which is
(24:16):
part of the seven-day plan (the first seven
days in the 30-day plan) is you're now
shifting into a fat-burning mode.
You're gonna have more energy, less
inflammation, and it does not require
a whole bunch of changes (to your point).
It's small little tweaks that gain some
momentum, and then you move into the next week
and add some different tweaks, and kind of go
from there.
One of my favorite takeaways from the book,
(24:36):
Ben, is, in talking about your own
journey, you talked about an approach that
you had of one tweak a week.
Because I think sometimes we are so
overwhelmed by, "Oh, my gosh.
There is a solution, but it's so complicated.
There's no way I could possibly do it." And
I love how you framed that as
make one change, get good at that
(24:58):
change, make another change.
You know, there's a progression.
You don't have to do it all at once.
Trying to do it all at once often really
backfires on us.
So 'one tweak a week' was one of my
fun takeaways.
I love it. Yeah, that's the philosophy, right?
One tweak a week. Get some momentum,
stack another behavior to that-- and it could
be a couple of tweaks a week as well, but you
(25:20):
just want to get some moment and then build
from there. I think a lot of the time we get
so excited, we hear about something, whether
it's like fasting or ketosis or the carnivore
diet, and we like-- we go all in.
And we have to remember we've
done, for many years, the opposite and
it can be a dramatic shift and change to
your entire metabolism and body,
and, all of a sudden, you're symptomatic,
(25:42):
you're suffering, you're relying on willpower,
which is why the old 'calories in versus
calories out' method is so difficult because
it's like you're depriving yourself and
relying on a willpower. It's just not fun.
It doesn't have to be that way.
It could be easy. It could really simple.
You just have to understand what are those
tweaks? All right, let's make them, adjust
them. We mastered that this week, all right,
let's add a different tweak and kind of go
from there. So it works really well.
(26:04):
It worked for me personally and it works for a
lot of my students.
I love that you talk about some other
variables that can be leading to
metabolic dysfunction that I literally have
not seen in a book out there.
I know we haven't talked about it at all.
Some of these things that you talked about are
things that actually brought us together and
brought us closer.
(26:24):
I learned a thing or two about nutrition,
I learned about insulin, I learned how to
help people fast and have a lot of success in
those areas, and then I just kind of was like,
cool, I can't give a lot of people their lives
back. And the book kind of stopped there, or
the continuing education, you know, went into
learning more about fats, learning more, about
proteins, learning more about metabolic
health.
(26:45):
And then, in 2019, I almost died
from mold toxicity.
I was at a loss.
I did not know what to do.
My whole life was falling apart.
I was pretty certain I wasn't gonna see the
end of the year.
And I thought I was doing everything right.
Like, I thought, I was almost invincible to
anything in the world at that point because
of what I knew about nutrition and fasting and
(27:07):
hormones, and that nothing could stop me.
And then I got stopped.
I was this New York Times, best-selling person
on the subject and I couldn't even get myself
to fast. I was that sick.
So I sent out an SOS message
to you.
I had shared that we had recently learned that
there was some mold in our house that
I couldn't see.
(27:27):
So when we had our house initially inspected,
you know, there was no black mold anywhere,
not a spot of it, but there was all this other
mycotoxins and mold and things in
the house. And I had no idea what to do.
This was a whole new can of worms for
me, and you really helped provide me with a
lot of guidance and information on that.
But I don't think people think about the other
(27:48):
environmental toxins and other things in
their life. And I know this has been a big
part of your journey, as you share in the book
and have shared so much online.
Do you want to speak to any of that, Ben?
Of course, yeah. I'm glad you're doing much
better. Mold is a serious, serious
thing. I've also experienced mold illness,
not as severe as it was for you, but it really
(28:09):
debilitated me with chronic fatigue and weight
gain, I just felt awful.
And it's a big problem these days.
It's a hidden problem, not just the mold,
but environmental toxins in general.
That's why to your point, Megan, I wrote a
whole chapter on it (chapter five), which is
all about how environmental toxins contribute
to metabolic disease and dysfunction.
There are two classifications of
toxins that I outline in that chapter.
(28:32):
Obesogens, which mold could be in that
classification, heavy metals, for example.
Obesogens are these toxins that-- they
enter the body-- and they're coming from
everywhere, by the way. We live in a more
toxic world than ever before.
So yeah, it's mycotoxins from hidden mold,
maybe glyphosate in the food, it's heavy
metals, and fluoride in tap water, it's
toxins in the air, in the food supply,
(28:53):
in our cleaning supplies, it's everywhere.
So when these toxins entre the body (whether
we're eating it, breathing it, putting it on
our skin), the body wants to
survive. The number-one priority for the human
body is survival.
So what it does, it activates a pathway
called PPAR-gamma.
And PPAR-gamma is interesting because it kind
of acts similar to insulin, meaning
(29:14):
PPAR-gamma's job is to now clear those
toxins out of the bloodstream.
Remember, survival is the number-one priority.
I don't want those toxins to float around and
enter vital organs. So PPAR-gamma
shuttles those toxins into our adipocytes,
our fat cells; they're lipophilic, they're
fat-loving toxins.
And the reason the body does this is because
the solution to pollution is dilution.
(29:36):
We could dilute these toxins by putting them
into our fat cells where there's a lot of
room. And, hey, if there's not enough room in
your fat cells, your innate intelligence
will increase the size of your fat
cells. And, hey, if that runs out of room, it
will create new fat cells. And that's how
these obesogens make us overweight
and obese, they're toxins.
And I'll give some simple things the
(29:58):
audience can do in a second.
The next classification of toxins are
a new classification, Megan, which are
called diabetogens.
Diabetogens are toxins that specifically
disrupt beta cell function in
the pancreas, triggering prediabetes
and diabetes. And I found a study, which is so
fascinating, that showed around 33%
(30:20):
of these diabetic cases are
from these diabetogens, this high toxicity
load, that we're getting all over the
place.
So what can we do, right?
It's not all doom and gloom.
I talk about the importance of keeping your
downstream detox pathways open.
Your downstream detox pathway is your gut,
your liver, your kidney, your colon,
(30:40):
your lymphatic system.
So there's many things you can do.
Just getting healthy by eating a clean diet
and eating organic as much as possible will
help, but there's some simple things you do
right now. I make the case-- I talk about
microplastics and how these microplastics are
showing up in men's testicles, and
our arteries, like, they're everywhere.
So some simple things we can do is, as much as
(31:02):
possible, drink out of glass water bottles
instead of plastic water bottles, as much as
possible. If you're using plastic Tupperware,
I recommend switching to glass Tupperware.
If you're using a plastic cutting board
in your kitchen, switch to a wooden cutting
board because a plastic cutting board will
leach a lot of these microplastics into your
food, but a wooden cutting board is safe.
(31:23):
BPA is one of those toxins as well that we
think of. Like canned food, make sure it's
BPA-free.
There's a study I put in the book that shows
cash register receipts contain
a thousand times greater BPA than
canned food, meaning when they offer you
your receipt at the grocery store, say,
"No thank you." Do not touch that, or grab a
napkin and grab it, but don't put it in your
(31:45):
pocket because, if you put your hand in there,it'll go into your bloodstream.
And the thing about plastics-- there's a study
from the University of Newcastle, and it
showed the average American consumes a
credit card size worth of plastic every single
week,
which is absolutely crazy.
So keep the detox pathways open.
(32:05):
I would explore what Megan went through and
I went through. I would explore mold toxicity
as being a probable cause to why you
don't feel well.
I also had mercury poisoning from
silver amalgam fillings.
So, if you're listening to this and you have
silver amagam fillings, about 55%
of every filling contains mercury,
which is a super toxin.
So I had eight of them for 20+ years
(32:28):
leeching mercury into my hypothalamus
pituitary, which controls my entire
endocrine system.
So I would recommend finding a holistic
dentist (they're also called biological
dentists) that perform safe amalgam removal,
and kind of going from there.
So it is important and that's why I wrote an
entire chapter about it in the book.
That's all really fascinating, Ben.
(32:49):
I'm just sitting here nodding my head the
whole time you're talking.
So I'm curious if you could talk a little bit
more about the whole creating metabolic
flexibility and metabolic freedom.
And, obviously, that's part of how
your plan is created, is to help us
achieve these things.
So I wondered if you can talk a bit about the
whole metabolism piece of this.
(33:11):
I would love to. It's really, really
interesting and exciting to chat about.
When we think about the metabolism, I hear so
many people say, and I'm sure y'all have heard
it as well, "I have a slow metabolism,"
"I want to speed up my metabolism,"
or even things like, "Hey, I'm gaining weight
because I'm turning 50 and my metabolism
slows down every year. It feels like it slows
down year." But when I dug into the research,
(33:33):
I discovered that the metabolism doesn't
necessarily even work in speeds, it's either
efficient or inefficient.
And we don't necessarily want to boost
our metabolism or increase the speed of our
metabolism. Animals in the wild, in the
kingdom, in the wildlife, the animals that
have the fastest metabolism have the shortest
lifespan. So it's not really about doing that
as well, it's about creating a flexible,
(33:55):
metabolically free metabolism.
And what else is interesting-- there's a study
I published in the book from Duke, 2021, that
looked at over 8,000 people-- I think
over 10,000 possibly, but from
ages 1 to 95.
Crazy! They were
looking at changes in metabolic rate
and metabolism throughout our lifespan.
(34:15):
And what the study showed is that our
metabolisms do not have any
significant changes between the ages
20 and 60.
It's pretty much the same between ages 20
and 60.
Then, at age 60, our metabolism
starts to decrease in efficiency about
0.7% every year after
(34:35):
age 60. And you might think, well, that's bad
news if I'm listening to this and I'm over the
age of 60, but here's what the study said...
The only reason the metabolism starts to have
this decrease after age 60 is
loss of muscle mass.
So if you build lean muscle mass,
preserve lean muscle mass, by age 60
(or even in your 60s and 70s), you could
(34:57):
essentially be 85 years old with
the same metabolism as when you were 25
years old. And that's really exciting.
And you could do that with a low-carb
approach, a keto approach.
You could do it with having some days with
high protein and then no protein (feast/famine
cycling), a lot of the things you learn at
The Fasting Method. These are ways to create a
(35:17):
metabolically free metabolism where
you're able to go without food for
hours or, in some cases, days and feel
incredible, actually have more energy.
It's inspiring to me because
it debunks a lot of myths around
the metabolism.
We're not trying to speed it up.
We're now trying to fix a slow metabolism.
We're trying to create a metabolically free
(35:39):
metabolism. And it's very easy to
do as long as you have the combination to the
code, and the book gives you the keys to the
kingdom here.
One of those keys is fasting.
So, it's The Fasting Method podcast, we've got
to talk about fasting.
Ben. Fasting. [laughs]
What a great transition, Megan, I like that.
[laughter] One of those keys is fasting.
(36:00):
It's actually a very important key to unlock
that metabolic freedom.
I mean, I've learned so much about fasting
from you, Megan, and Dr. Fung over
the years, and, of course, Dr. Pompa, my
mentor.
And fasting is my favorite way
to harness the innate intelligence within the
body. It's really, really incredible.
You know, I think a lot of people are starting
to become really fascinated, no
(36:22):
pun intended, with fasting.
And I say that because, just the other day,
six days ago, I posted an Instagram Reel
on what happens in your body when you go
without food for 100 hours.
It's like a 90-second video and I just kind of
give a timeline.
And it's got over 10 million views in six
days. It's insane.
And it shows me that people are like-- they're
hungry, they want to learn about this stuff.
And it goes against what most people think you
(36:44):
can do. Most people don't even believe you
could go without food for 100 hours, let alone
100 days, or even more.
Some people have done that, right?
But fasting removes the interference.
We know it takes a lot of energy,
blood flow, bandwidth to
digest food, an extraordinary amount of
energy. So if you're constantly digesting
food, you're taking resources away from the
(37:05):
brain, your liver, other areas that need
healing. But when you go into a fasted state,
where you just have water, you start to
create this energy-diversion process where you
divert energy away from digestion
to healing. And your inner physician,
the innate intelligence, will direct that
wherever it needs to go.
So that might be, okay, let's divert energy
(37:26):
and blood flow to the brain, because Ben's
doing a lot of podcasts today and he's
speaking on stage, or whatever it is, or maybe
for you to have energy for your family, and,
whatever it, you'll get that energy and those
resources because you're not using it for
digestion.
And we know what it does to lower
inflammation, to lower insulin.
We know the New England Journal of Medicine
put out a study in 2019 showing it should be,
(37:47):
like, the first thing we all use for these
metabolic diseases. It's not taboo,
it's not woowoo.
You and Dr. Fung have been preaching this
before it became mainstream.
Thank God there's research to back it up.
So it is such an important piece to the
puzzle, fasting.
But it is a muscle.
You've got to build it up the right way.
It is a stress. That doesn't mean it's bad for
(38:08):
you. It could be what's called a hormetic
stress. You just have to use this tool the
right way, and you guys teach that really
brilliantly.
Also do you, Ben.
I've always learned something listening to
you. And I appreciate that so
many of our Fasting Method family members
also really benefit from participating in
Keto Kamp as well.
And together, it creates a full picture of
(38:31):
information and strategies to really help
people overcome this.
Fasting is a pretty incredible tool at that.
But there's so many incredible tools in this
book. I really hope everybody goes out,
gets this book, gets it for friends.
I have a whole slew of new mom friends.
They're all struggling with metabolic
dysfunction right now, and they kind
(38:52):
of know me because they've done some Googling,
but I sound crazy, right?
They hear me saying, like, "Fast for 42
hours," "Oh, five days, sure, go for it."
You hear me say these things.
So they're not quite sure if I'm insane or
if I've onto something, but this book is just
the perfect guide.
It's completely well-researched.
This is something you could give to anybody
and just the number of references from it.
(39:12):
It's just like The Obesity Code.
No one can dispute it.
I remember giving my new husband, who was
still skeptical a little bit about this, a
copy of The Obesity Code, and he was like,
"This is just so well researched.
You can't dispute it, it just speaks for
itself." And it's just so much of
the same here, but a really practical
solution. You get the information, it's really
(39:33):
digestible, as Terri said, and then actionable
steps and a whole plan laid out for
you to really succeed.
And simple.
Just to circle back to some of this
environmental stuff, I know it can sound a
little overwhelming.
Ben gave five, ten good examples of little
things that you can do.
Those little things radically transformed my
life. Once I remove myself from the mold,
(39:55):
it is amazing.
These little things go a long way and Ben
unpacks it all in the most easy-to-digest
form in this book.
Ben, I know you've got some exciting stuff
happening around this book where people can
participate and learn even more.
Do you want to share with our listeners?
Yeah, and thank you so much for the kind words
there, Megan.
Yeah, we have a special opportunity (or
(40:15):
gift I should say) for those who order the
book this week.
We have an entire course that I built out
on the metabolism, 12 lessons.
There's a couple lessons in keto, fasting, and
just how the metabolism works, why 'calories
in versus calories out' is not the full
picture.
So 12 lessons on the metabolism.
And we have some exclusive interviews in
that course as well.
(40:36):
With the amazing Megan Ramos, we
did a deep dive into metabolic
freedom together. This is an interview you
cannot find anywhere else, but only in this
course. Dr. Jason Fung, we also did
an interview with him in this course.
Cynthia Thurlow, who I know is a dear friend
as well, and Dr. Daniel Pompa.
So all of these interviews and the entire
(40:56):
course we're going to give to you for free.
All you need to do is go to
metabolicfreedombook.com.
What you'll see on that page is links
to purchase the book.
We have Amazon, Barnes & Noble, wherever you
want to get it, Audible, Spotify.
It's available on hardcover, Kindle and
Audible. I narrated the Audible myself as
well, which was a pain in the butt.
So you buy the book on that page and you
(41:18):
simply just go back to the page.
And then there's a step two, which shows your
order form. So you just put your name, your
email, and then you grab the order number from
that purchase and you hit submit.
And as soon as you do that, you're going to be
emailed the course with the interviews.
So you get the course and the interviews right
away. So I'd love for you to go to
metabolicfreedombook.com, pre-order the book
(41:39):
or order the book, and get the entire course
with the interviews for free.
What an amazing way to begin
your journey to metabolic freedom, or
tighten things up, get back on track, get your
feet on the ground.
So many great resources.
Thank you, Ben, for helping spread the
word, spread the great message, everything you
do. I love it.
I love connecting with you anytime we have a
(42:00):
chance. So grateful you got to meet the
incredible Dr. Lance today as well.
I'm grateful too, Terri.
It's been a pleasure knowing you and I am
grateful for both of you.
Thank you for the opportunity to come share
with your community. I know this is not
something you do often with outsiders on
your podcast, so I'm very grateful.
Thank you so much.
And as Megan said earlier, thank you for the
360 approach.
(42:22):
This is like all-inclusive, everything
in one place at a very
consumable level.
So thank you, for all of your work.
I can't wait for everyone to start benefiting
from this book.
Thank you so much, Terri.
I appreciate you both so much.
All right, listeners out there, we will
have all the links Ben shared.
You can register for his course,
(42:43):
the links for the book, links for Keto Kamp -
we will all have them all in the show notes.
And hopefully, Ben-- I mean, we'll get a
little bit more practice at interviewing.
[laughs] We'd love to have you back often.
I would love that.
All right. Well, thank you so much today, and,
everyone listening, happy fasting.
Happy Fasting. [music]
I think a lot of people are getting so much
information and that's not the issue these
days. We're information overload.
We're drowning in information and starving for
true wisdom and truth.
But it's not the information that's going to
change lives, it's the application of the
information. If information changed lives,
I always say every librarian would be a
multimillionaire with six-pack abs and
celebrity status. It's not the information.
(00:22):
It's the application.
[music]
Welcome back to The Fasting Method podcast.
This is Coach Terri and I am super excited
about this episode because it's something
brand new for me and I think something
so worthwhile for all of our listeners.
(00:43):
So, I'm here today with Megan Ramos.
We have not gotten to do an episode together
in quite a while.
And we are joined by a very
special guest, Ben Azadi from
Keto Kamp.
So, Megan, I'm going to turn it over to you
to kind of get us rolling and tell
us a little bit about Ben.
In 2008, Ben was an obese
(01:05):
man who went through a personal health
transformation of releasing 80 pounds of extra
weight and getting metabolically healthy.
Ever since, he has been on a mission to help
one billion people live a healthier lifestyle.
And he's on a 10-year mission to help
over one million people naturally reverse
their diabetes.
Ben is the founder of Keto Kamp and
(01:25):
has over 17 years of experience
in the health industry, and he's the author
of four best-selling books.
He is one of the go-to sources for
intermittent fasting and ketogenic-diet
information since 2013.
He's also the host of a top-15
podcast, The Metabolic Freedom Podcast,
(01:45):
which won Keto Podcast of the Year
in 2022 by The Metabolic
Health Summit.
In addition to all the super cool stuff
that I just shared, Ben is one of the kindest
people, a dear friend of both mine, Dr.
Fung, and The Fasting Method, and we're so
grateful to support Ben with the launch of
his brand new book, Metabolic Freedom:
(02:07):
A 30-Day Guide to Restore Your Metabolism,
Heal Hormones & Burn Fat.
This is a book that I hope all of our
listeners get. It's so complimentary to what
we do with fasting and it is really
a whole, 360 approach that
will help you restore your metabolic health.
Ben, welcome to the show today.
(02:27):
Hey Megan, hey Terri, what an honor to be
here. I love what y'all are doing at
The Fasting Method and I'm excited to have a
life-changing conversation.
So, Ben, this book is super
exciting.
I remember us kind of talking about this,
which felt like not that long ago, and
now it's this incredible book.
And I have no doubt it's gonna change people's
(02:48):
lives. What inspired you to create
this particular guide?
Yeah, I'm very excited about it.
Well, we see with our eyes, that there's a lot
of people that are unhealthy in the United
States and most first-world countries and
the studies back it up.
There were three key studies that I looked at
that really inspired me to write the book.
The first study was a 2016 study
(03:08):
from Mayo Clinic that I put in the book and
what these researchers were set to determine
was how many Americans live what they
consider an active, healthy, fit lifestyle.
And they essentially based it off of four
different criterias.
The first criteria was that, number one,
they don't smoke cigarettes.
Number two, they do moderate to vigorous
exercise/activity about 150
(03:30):
minutes total per week.
Number three, they eat what they consider a
healthy diet, which is simply a
minimally-processed diet.
And number four, their body-fat percentage
was, for a female, under 30% and,
for male, under 20%.
At the end of the study, it concluded that
only 2.7% of Americans hit
that criteria, hit those stats.
(03:50):
That's it. Which is such a small
percentage. And in 2018, the
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill put
out a study showing around 88% of
Americans are metabolically unhealthy, and
a more recent study in 2022 showing it's
closer to 93%.
It's insane.
And I believe the body was not built to have
all these symptoms and to manifest disease and
(04:12):
dysfunction. I believe God created the body to
be self-healing.
So what's the problem, right?
I wanted to outline that in the book.
The first half of the book discusses
the five main causes to metabolic dysfunction
and disease.
It's exactly what you and The Fasting Method
and the entire team have been preaching for so
many years. So it gets into the causes.
So once we identify the interference,
(04:34):
then we can start removing it and the body
goes to heal itself.
And, in the second half of the book, are the
solutions - ketosis, fasting - we'll dive into
a few of these today, but it shows them the
solution. Then it's all wrapped together in a
30-day plan to achieve or
to actually implement the information, because
I think a lot of people are getting so much
information and that's not the issue these
(04:54):
days. We're information overload.
We're drowning in information and starving for
true wisdom and truth.
But it's not information that's gonna change
lives, it's the application of the
information. If information changed lives,
I always say every librarian would be a
multimillionaire with six-pack abs and
celebrity status. It's not, the information,
it's the application.
And in America, it's really crazy
(05:17):
because every year, in the United States,
we spend $4.6 trillion on
healthcare. That would be the fourth largest
GDP in the world if it was a GDP.
And what's really fascinating (this is so
important to your work, Megan, Terri, and the
entire team) is one out of every $4
spent on healthcare is on diabetes,
(05:37):
mostly type two diabetes, which we
know is completely a
lifestyle disease that is completely
preventable and completely reversible
(type 2).
So the book illustrates exactly how to
do that, and I'm excited to dive into this
with you all today.
Yeah, I love how you have the book divided
into these two parts.
(05:58):
And the outline that you provided in
the solution is just so clear.
And I hear you, I think, Terri and I, we
deal with this day in and day out.
People are just so eager to try
to take control of their health.
I mean, the information day and age is kind of
cool, right? They can learn about things about
keto and fasting, and hear
people having really great success about it
(06:20):
and know that there is hope.
But then the information day and age, social
media inundates them - do this, do that,
that's wrong, that's good, that's bad, this is
clean, this is dirty.
There's all of this stuff and it just becomes
overwhelming. And the more people try
to learn, you know, when they're
navigating these things - different blog
articles, magazine posts,
(06:41):
social media posts - they don't even know what
to do. They just end up getting like analysis
paralysis.
So much is contradictory.
And what I love is that you've just clearly
laid this out, you know - this is the problem
and this is what you do to fix it, and here's
the complete guide, step-by-step guide.
It's a one-stop shop for really implementing
this approach.
When I was going through it, you know,
(07:02):
I thought this is perfect for everybody,
whether you're brand new to this lifestyle and
you're feeling a little overwhelmed by what
you're seeing online, or you've gone down
the rabbit hole and you're no longer sure what
to do and what you're doing is just not really
working for you, this will get you back with
your feet on solid ground moving forwards.
Thank you, Megan. That's exactly right.
It was written for the masses, it really was.
(07:24):
But even if you're not new to this, like if
you've been following low carb, keto,
carnivore, fasting for quite some time (which
you probably are if you're listening to this
podcast), you're still going to learn a lot
because there's actually 275 scientific
references that I have in the book.
And that 30-day plan at the end of the book,
there are two different avenues to follow that
- if you're a complete beginner, do the
beginner plan, if you're advanced, do the
(07:46):
advanced plan - and you're going to benefit
either way. And it's really a good book,
I believe, to buy or
recommend to somebody in your world
(like a family member, a wife, a husband, a
coworker) who you wanna get into this
low-carb, fasting space, but they're just so
resistant. I have
stories of testimonials, I have the scientific
(08:06):
research, I have my personal story, and
it's written for the masses so they can just
understand, wow, keto, it's
not really like this fad, fat-loss diet, it's
actually a metabolic process.
Wow, fasting, you're right, we're designed to
go periods of time without food and then
periods of time when we eat, these famine
cycling. So it helps kind of like get them
into this world without you having to force it
(08:28):
onto them, which I'm sure you've tried.
I know the message sometimes goes on deaf
ears, but, when you give a resource like this,
I think it helps them get inspired to kind of
get into our world of low carb and fasting.
It's funny that you mention that, Ben,
because, as I was reading,
I was thinking of who I need to send this book
to when it's launched.
[laughter] I'm gonna set up some pre-orders
(08:49):
now because I have friends that--
they're curious about what I do but they don't
really understand why I do it, and I don't
want to take the time to go into that deep
dive but I thought, "Oh, my gosh, this is the
book." And what I particularly
love about the book is, not only do you do
a lot of science in it, one,
you cover the science at a level that
(09:10):
I can manage (I'm an English major,
I'm a psychologist), so it's a
great degree of depth of
science to really make it meaningful without
being overwhelming, and then,
of course, I am totally biased on
the mindset piece (the
power of our mind in our healing process)
(09:31):
and I think you do a great job of
incorporating that into this book.
So I was very excited as I was reading.
I love it, Terri. That is actually my favorite
part too. Chapter 10 is my
favorite chapter in the book, and it's all
about what you just said, how your thoughts
influence metabolism, longevity,
or disease. It gets into the placebo effect,
(09:51):
the nocebo effect, the subconscious mind
versus the conscious mind, the self-image.
That's my favorite chapter.
You know, I might write an entire
book one day based off of chapter
10. I might call it Mental Freedom instead of
Metabolic Freedom. But, yeah, I'm with you.
I think that's the most important part to the
puzzle here, is that mindset, the inner work.
(10:12):
It's really an inside-out job.
So I'm glad we're on the same page there,
Terri.
And it goes back to what you said earlier
about, if knowledge were all
that it took, we'd all be so successful
at this and it would be so easy.
But we really also have to work on our
identity and the mindset and the self
sabotage. So, maybe we need to co-author
that book. [laughter]
(10:32):
Let's go!
I love it!
We often talk at The Fasting Method that this
isn't just a metabolic transformation that
you're doing through nutrition
and through fasting.
It's a whole transformation of the
self and, you know, not just even
to your relationship with food, but
it's so incredible to watch someone start
(10:54):
this journey, and take it and run with
it, and just see where they end up getting.
I know most people come in to
Keto Kamp, come into The Fasting Method and
they're just so eager to get off medications,
get into a good-health place, get these
biomarkers out of these high-risk zones.
And then they start to realize, oh wait,
(11:15):
there's a little bit more here.
And I think it's really a lot of these
conversations that solidify the
journey and really do result in that
complete transformation.
I can't believe who I am today as I approach
my 41st birthday.
When I look back and think about where I was
at the start of my journey in my late
twenties, it's just kind of wild.
(11:37):
So this is a deep process.
You know, people just think they're going to
lose a few pounds and [unintelligible]
You're in for it in a big way with this.
Yeah, spot on.
It's an inside-out job.
And that's why I'm really passionate about
that chapter 10, because I've seen it time
after time.
We make a conscious decision to change and get
healthy. Or maybe we have diabetes
(11:59):
and we make that conscious decision, "I want
to reverse my diabetes, and," like you said,
Megan, "get off my Metformin, get off of my
insulin." Or you're overweight, 50 pounds
overweight and you make a conscience decision,
"I want to lose 50 pounds," but what
happens at the subconscious level will
determine if you actually achieve that.
You cannot outperform your self-image, the
way you view yourself.
In chapter 10, I get into the concept of
(12:20):
psycho-cybernetics from an author from
the 1960s, Dr. Maxwell Maltz.
And this is really interesting because he
was-- well he called it the greatest
physiological discovery of his generation, and
this was the 1960s, and I think it's still, to
this day, the greatest discovery.
He was a plastic surgeon
and he would work on patients that had
really wicked facial
(12:42):
disformities. They were unhappy, they were
really self-conscious, they felt like,
"I needed to have plastic surgery so I could
look better and feel better and live a normal
life." That was the thought process of these
patients. So they would hire Maxwell Maltz to
perform plastic surgery to remove these facial
disfigurements. He was one of the best in the
world. But what Maxwell Maltz
noticed, after the surgery, is that these
(13:03):
patients, they would look in the mirror,
facial disfigurement's gone, and they would
still see themselves with that disfigurement,
meaning they were still unhappy, they were
still feeling the same way they felt before.
Nothing changed for them even though they
physically looked different.
And it wasn't until they changed their
self-image at a subconscious level that their
life actually improved.
(13:23):
And we do the same thing with our
health goals, and weight-loss goals, and
diabetes. The example I give in the book is
somebody who says, "I need to lose 50 pounds."
So they make that conscious decision and,
let's say, they join a program or they start
cutting calories, they do it the wrong way,
whatever, but they start to lose weight.
And if they didn't change their self-image, if
their self-image identifies as an overweight
(13:45):
person or an obese person (like it
was for me for 20 years), they might lose
five pounds or ten pounds that first month,
but the self image they will course correct,
meaning self-sabotage (you used that word
earlier, Terri). They will self- sabotage
and course correct and gain the weight back
to match that self image.
They would find themselves binge eating, they
(14:05):
would find themselves in a McDonald's
drive-thru, whatever it is, to match the
self-image. And they keep cutting calories
more, joining another program, or reading
another diet book, and they lose some weight
and gain it back, and they keep yo-yoing
because they didn't alter the self-image.
So we need to change that self-image, and,
once you do, then you start to make long-term
progress. I know this has been the case for
(14:25):
myself, and I talk about how do you actually
change that self-image in the book.
There's actually only two ways to do it, and
I outline how to do that.
So, Ben, I could talk about changing
our identity all day long, but
I wanna really make sure we cover some of the
other aspects of this book that I think are
also so powerful.
I think, for some of us, it's trying to
understand what went wrong, why
(14:47):
have I struggled?
And one of the chapters you have is about
being a sugar burner.
And I think that might be a place where we
could start understanding, metabolically,
what's going on that makes us sick,
makes us gain weight, makes it hard to lose
weight, and then go from there.
Yeah, Terri, there's a whole chapter on why
(15:08):
being a sugar burner is one of the leading
causes towards metabolic disease.
And there's nothing wrong with burning sugar
and glucose unless you're only burning sugar
in glucose. And the study that I referenced
earlier about 93% of Americans being
metabolically unhealthy, they're sugar
burners. They're in a keto deficiency is what
I call them. And what happens is, when you're
burning sugar, you're not metabolically free,
(15:29):
you are in a metabolic prison.
You're relying on snacking and grazing every
few hours just to get a short energy burst.
Your energy levels fluctuate, you're gonna
gain weight, you're going to createinflammation.
It really starts with insulin and y'all do a
great job discussing the role of insulin.
Of course, Dr. Fung is the master at
explaining how insulin works in the body.
(15:50):
And I discuss insulin as a big part
of the picture here because I do believe that
high levels of insulin, it's the first domino
to fall that will trigger a cascade
of metabolic disease and dysfunction,
meaning high blood pressure, weight gain,
weight-loss resistance, pre-diabetes, type 2
diabetes. And then, once you're type 2
diabetic or diabetic, it opens up the door
(16:10):
to cancer, heart disease, and other serious
diseases.
But what's interesting about insulin-- and
I love that y'all have a strong focus on it
and you test it.
What's interesting about insulin is that the
average person could have full-blown
hyperinsulinemia (for, on average 6 to 14
years is what the studies show) with their
fasting blood sugar and A1C looking
(16:30):
normal, looking just fine, because
that pancreas is so busy just producing
massive amounts of insulin to clear that
excess glucose until those receptor
sites go deaf to the screams of insulin.
And then there's a steep, sharp increase
in blood sugars. And if the person's testing,
they'll be diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
And if they're not testing, eventually,
they'll get diagnosed with full-blown
(16:51):
diabetes. But if we just measured fasting
insulin, we could have seen this happening
years, a decade or so, before.
So a fasting insulin blood test is one of the
most important tests to get done.
We want to see that in the single digits.
And, unfortunately (and you know this, both of
you know this), the standard reference range
on a fasting insulin is usually between 3 and
(17:14):
25 or 3 and 28.
So a conventional doctor might run a
fasting insulin (if you request it, they don't
typically order it for you, but if you request
it), but if you get the report back and your
fasting insulin is 12, 17,
21, they're not gonna flag it as being an
issue, but that's an issue, you're trending
in the wrong direction.
And once you're diagnosed with type 2
(17:34):
diabetes, we know what happens.
I mean, it's the neuropathy, the vision loss,
the infections, the kidney failure.
It's actually pretty rare to die from
diabetes, it's what diabetes leads
to that really ends the life of the person.
That's what happened to my dad in 2014 with
the stroke he suffered and then it took his
life.
The A1C is another important metric because
(17:55):
it's, of course, showing you your blood sugar
levels for three months.
And there's a study that I put in the book
that shows, if your hemoglobin A1C
is at 7.5% or higher
(which is diabetes), every year it's
at that level, they estimate 100
days come off your lifespan.
So if it's that level for 15 years,
you lose approximately four years off your
(18:17):
lifespan. That's how destructive high
levels of glucose and insulin are inside
of the body. So the first step is
to go from burning sugar to burning fat.
And the great news is that you could do that
like in a week or so. It's not that difficult.
I show you the steps to do that.
So, insulin is the key part to monitor here,
and I hope your entire audience (they probably
(18:38):
already do because they listen to you) all get
a fasting insulin. And if you don't, I really
encourage you to get one as soon as possible.
We appreciate you speaking out
about this, because, as you mentioned, we talk
about it a lot, but not a ton of experts
out there are talking about it, still,
today.
There's still this focus on calories in
(18:58):
a big way. And I'm not saying calories aren't
important, but they're not the whole story,
they're not the big picture.
And so, often, you know, we get people that
are trying to believe in the process, but
everybody around them is like, "Calories,
calories, calories, calories, calories," and
it's just like, oh, my goodness, like, no,
this is not the case.
And then their doctors are saying, "Oh, you
(19:19):
know, you don't need to fast, you don't need
to change your diet, your A1C is 5.6%."
Well, my background is in nephrology (as
Jason, he's a nephologist) and we would get
all these people in their 40s with A1Cs of
5.5, 5.6,
and they would have these gnarly kidney
issues. And we would not know why.
Their blood pressure is good, there's nothing
(19:40):
genetic that stands out, but we biopsy
them to do our due diligence, especially since
they're young. They're going to have kidney
disease now for a long time,
diabetic kidney disease, diabetic nephropathy.
Every single time,
I remember being just as perplexed as the
patient, "But I don't have diabetes." No,
you technically don't, but there's
(20:01):
obviously something going on here.
And I think this was one of the biggest flags
for Jason and I early on, is that these
numbers are, by convention, considered
to be normal, but they're not and there's a
lot more going on here.
To your point about the insulin, we had one
member, one incredible Fasting
Method family member who had
to insist-- like, wanted to prove to her
(20:23):
doctor that she had insulin resistance, even
with her, quote-unquote, 'normal A1C and
fasting glucose levels'.
So she ended up doing a Kraft Test.
For our listeners out there, that's like
an oral glucose tolerance test over four
hours, but you also measure your fasting
insulin.
Her fasting insulin levels were some of the
highest I had ever seen at that point.
(20:44):
Every single marker was just sky high.
They had been high earlier on, which is
usually, with type 2 diabetes, we see it being
delayed a bit, but every single marker
was sky high. Her glucose levels were actually
all kind of in a pretty healthy range,
and her doctor was floored and just did not
know what to do with this data.
And then asked if she could reach out to us to
(21:06):
learn more because she said she would have bet
everything she owned that this woman did not
have metabolic disease.
How wild is that?
Like, how-- people just do not understand
insulin out there.
So it's so important that you're speaking
about this.
I know a lot of people listening feel
frustrated. Like, these are some big changes,
but they're not huge change-- like, they are
(21:27):
big changes, but some small changes
can get you a long way.
So, as we start to sort of shift into some of
the solution aspect, 30 days can change your
life. I, a hundred percent, have seen this a
million times. It's changed my life.
Are there some simple things that people can
do if they're feeling overwhelmed in this
moment (like this is a big dietary change for
(21:48):
them), that you really say,
hey, no, this is actually not over
complicated. This is something that, if I can
do it, you can do it too.
Yeah, a hundred percent.
That's a story about the fasting insulin and
the Kraft Test. Wild!
It's beyond me.
I mean, I understand why doctors are not
ordering a fasting insulin.
There's no medication they could prescribe for
it, right? There's not a medication to lower
(22:10):
insulin. There's a medication to lower
glucose. There's not an incentive to really
do it. The good news about a fasting insulin
is, though, if your doctor does not want to
order it for you, or if your insurance doesn't
want to cover it (which it typically doesn't),
it's a very cheap test to get done.
You can pay out of pocket. It's not that
expensive, but it's very valuable.
The solution is very easy and, Megan,
you're really brilliant at discussing like how
(22:31):
snacking is going to raise insulin and
glucose and that's just a simple tip - just
have three meals a day - so we'll start there.
And I talk about that in the first week of
this 30-day plan.
Just start with three meals a day, breakfast,
lunch and dinner, no snacking in between.
The second change here is to
gradually start to lower your total
carbohydrate intake, which we know carbs will
(22:53):
raise blood insulin more than any other
macronutrients. So you wanna gradually lower
your total carbohydrate intake while you
replace that with proteins and fats.
Protein has a moderate insulin response
and fat, very, very minimal, not much
going on with fat. So as you swap out carbs--
let's say you start reducing rice, pasta,
(23:13):
beans, lentils, and grains, and
you swap that out with eggs, avocado,
chicken, fish, beef (whatever your favorite
protein source is with natural fats), and
maybe like coconut oil, butter you use to cook
your foods in.
If you make that swap and no snacking in
between those meals, your body's gonna start
to lower glucose and insulin, lower
inflammation, and it's gonna start to shift
(23:35):
now into going into a fat burning-mode.
If your goal is to achieve ketosis
(which I do recommend in the book), the goal
is to eventually take those total
carbohydrates, which, for most people, the
average person eats around 250 grams
of carbs per day-- if your goal is shift
into ketosis, I would say, by day
(23:55):
seven of doing this, you should eventually get
to a point where your total carbohydrates are
now under 50 total grams per
day, and that needs to come from non-starchy
carbohydrates.
Now, some people need to go a little bit more
restrictive, but I would say 50 as the upper
limit. No snacking in between.
Getting plenty of protein and fat.
And within a week of just doing this, which is
(24:16):
part of the seven-day plan (the first seven
days in the 30-day plan) is you're now
shifting into a fat-burning mode.
You're gonna have more energy, less
inflammation, and it does not require
a whole bunch of changes (to your point).
It's small little tweaks that gain some
momentum, and then you move into the next week
and add some different tweaks, and kind of go
from there.
One of my favorite takeaways from the book,
(24:36):
Ben, is, in talking about your own
journey, you talked about an approach that
you had of one tweak a week.
Because I think sometimes we are so
overwhelmed by, "Oh, my gosh.
There is a solution, but it's so complicated.
There's no way I could possibly do it." And
I love how you framed that as
make one change, get good at that
(24:58):
change, make another change.
You know, there's a progression.
You don't have to do it all at once.
Trying to do it all at once often really
backfires on us.
So 'one tweak a week' was one of my
fun takeaways.
I love it. Yeah, that's the philosophy, right?
One tweak a week. Get some momentum,
stack another behavior to that-- and it could
be a couple of tweaks a week as well, but you
(25:20):
just want to get some moment and then build
from there. I think a lot of the time we get
so excited, we hear about something, whether
it's like fasting or ketosis or the carnivore
diet, and we like-- we go all in.
And we have to remember we've
done, for many years, the opposite and
it can be a dramatic shift and change to
your entire metabolism and body,
and, all of a sudden, you're symptomatic,
(25:42):
you're suffering, you're relying on willpower,
which is why the old 'calories in versus
calories out' method is so difficult because
it's like you're depriving yourself and
relying on a willpower. It's just not fun.
It doesn't have to be that way.
It could be easy. It could really simple.
You just have to understand what are those
tweaks? All right, let's make them, adjust
them. We mastered that this week, all right,
let's add a different tweak and kind of go
from there. So it works really well.
(26:04):
It worked for me personally and it works for a
lot of my students.
I love that you talk about some other
variables that can be leading to
metabolic dysfunction that I literally have
not seen in a book out there.
I know we haven't talked about it at all.
Some of these things that you talked about are
things that actually brought us together and
brought us closer.
(26:24):
I learned a thing or two about nutrition,
I learned about insulin, I learned how to
help people fast and have a lot of success in
those areas, and then I just kind of was like,
cool, I can't give a lot of people their lives
back. And the book kind of stopped there, or
the continuing education, you know, went into
learning more about fats, learning more, about
proteins, learning more about metabolic
health.
(26:45):
And then, in 2019, I almost died
from mold toxicity.
I was at a loss.
I did not know what to do.
My whole life was falling apart.
I was pretty certain I wasn't gonna see the
end of the year.
And I thought I was doing everything right.
Like, I thought, I was almost invincible to
anything in the world at that point because
of what I knew about nutrition and fasting and
(27:07):
hormones, and that nothing could stop me.
And then I got stopped.
I was this New York Times, best-selling person
on the subject and I couldn't even get myself
to fast. I was that sick.
So I sent out an SOS message
to you.
I had shared that we had recently learned that
there was some mold in our house that
I couldn't see.
(27:27):
So when we had our house initially inspected,
you know, there was no black mold anywhere,
not a spot of it, but there was all this other
mycotoxins and mold and things in
the house. And I had no idea what to do.
This was a whole new can of worms for
me, and you really helped provide me with a
lot of guidance and information on that.
But I don't think people think about the other
(27:48):
environmental toxins and other things in
their life. And I know this has been a big
part of your journey, as you share in the book
and have shared so much online.
Do you want to speak to any of that, Ben?
Of course, yeah. I'm glad you're doing much
better. Mold is a serious, serious
thing. I've also experienced mold illness,
not as severe as it was for you, but it really
(28:09):
debilitated me with chronic fatigue and weight
gain, I just felt awful.
And it's a big problem these days.
It's a hidden problem, not just the mold,
but environmental toxins in general.
That's why to your point, Megan, I wrote a
whole chapter on it (chapter five), which is
all about how environmental toxins contribute
to metabolic disease and dysfunction.
There are two classifications of
toxins that I outline in that chapter.
(28:32):
Obesogens, which mold could be in that
classification, heavy metals, for example.
Obesogens are these toxins that-- they
enter the body-- and they're coming from
everywhere, by the way. We live in a more
toxic world than ever before.
So yeah, it's mycotoxins from hidden mold,
maybe glyphosate in the food, it's heavy
metals, and fluoride in tap water, it's
toxins in the air, in the food supply,
(28:53):
in our cleaning supplies, it's everywhere.
So when these toxins entre the body (whether
we're eating it, breathing it, putting it on
our skin), the body wants to
survive. The number-one priority for the human
body is survival.
So what it does, it activates a pathway
called PPAR-gamma.
And PPAR-gamma is interesting because it kind
of acts similar to insulin, meaning
(29:14):
PPAR-gamma's job is to now clear those
toxins out of the bloodstream.
Remember, survival is the number-one priority.
I don't want those toxins to float around and
enter vital organs. So PPAR-gamma
shuttles those toxins into our adipocytes,
our fat cells; they're lipophilic, they're
fat-loving toxins.
And the reason the body does this is because
the solution to pollution is dilution.
(29:36):
We could dilute these toxins by putting them
into our fat cells where there's a lot of
room. And, hey, if there's not enough room in
your fat cells, your innate intelligence
will increase the size of your fat
cells. And, hey, if that runs out of room, it
will create new fat cells. And that's how
these obesogens make us overweight
and obese, they're toxins.
And I'll give some simple things the
(29:58):
audience can do in a second.
The next classification of toxins are
a new classification, Megan, which are
called diabetogens.
Diabetogens are toxins that specifically
disrupt beta cell function in
the pancreas, triggering prediabetes
and diabetes. And I found a study, which is so
fascinating, that showed around 33%
(30:20):
of these diabetic cases are
from these diabetogens, this high toxicity
load, that we're getting all over the
place.
So what can we do, right?
It's not all doom and gloom.
I talk about the importance of keeping your
downstream detox pathways open.
Your downstream detox pathway is your gut,
your liver, your kidney, your colon,
(30:40):
your lymphatic system.
So there's many things you can do.
Just getting healthy by eating a clean diet
and eating organic as much as possible will
help, but there's some simple things you do
right now. I make the case-- I talk about
microplastics and how these microplastics are
showing up in men's testicles, and
our arteries, like, they're everywhere.
So some simple things we can do is, as much as
(31:02):
possible, drink out of glass water bottles
instead of plastic water bottles, as much as
possible. If you're using plastic Tupperware,
I recommend switching to glass Tupperware.
If you're using a plastic cutting board
in your kitchen, switch to a wooden cutting
board because a plastic cutting board will
leach a lot of these microplastics into your
food, but a wooden cutting board is safe.
(31:23):
BPA is one of those toxins as well that we
think of. Like canned food, make sure it's
BPA-free.
There's a study I put in the book that shows
cash register receipts contain
a thousand times greater BPA than
canned food, meaning when they offer you
your receipt at the grocery store, say,
"No thank you." Do not touch that, or grab a
napkin and grab it, but don't put it in your
(31:45):
pocket because, if you put your hand in there,it'll go into your bloodstream.
And the thing about plastics-- there's a study
from the University of Newcastle, and it
showed the average American consumes a
credit card size worth of plastic every single
week,
which is absolutely crazy.
So keep the detox pathways open.
(32:05):
I would explore what Megan went through and
I went through. I would explore mold toxicity
as being a probable cause to why you
don't feel well.
I also had mercury poisoning from
silver amalgam fillings.
So, if you're listening to this and you have
silver amagam fillings, about 55%
of every filling contains mercury,
which is a super toxin.
So I had eight of them for 20+ years
(32:28):
leeching mercury into my hypothalamus
pituitary, which controls my entire
endocrine system.
So I would recommend finding a holistic
dentist (they're also called biological
dentists) that perform safe amalgam removal,
and kind of going from there.
So it is important and that's why I wrote an
entire chapter about it in the book.
That's all really fascinating, Ben.
(32:49):
I'm just sitting here nodding my head the
whole time you're talking.
So I'm curious if you could talk a little bit
more about the whole creating metabolic
flexibility and metabolic freedom.
And, obviously, that's part of how
your plan is created, is to help us
achieve these things.
So I wondered if you can talk a bit about the
whole metabolism piece of this.
(33:11):
I would love to. It's really, really
interesting and exciting to chat about.
When we think about the metabolism, I hear so
many people say, and I'm sure y'all have heard
it as well, "I have a slow metabolism,"
"I want to speed up my metabolism,"
or even things like, "Hey, I'm gaining weight
because I'm turning 50 and my metabolism
slows down every year. It feels like it slows
down year." But when I dug into the research,
(33:33):
I discovered that the metabolism doesn't
necessarily even work in speeds, it's either
efficient or inefficient.
And we don't necessarily want to boost
our metabolism or increase the speed of our
metabolism. Animals in the wild, in the
kingdom, in the wildlife, the animals that
have the fastest metabolism have the shortest
lifespan. So it's not really about doing that
as well, it's about creating a flexible,
(33:55):
metabolically free metabolism.
And what else is interesting-- there's a study
I published in the book from Duke, 2021, that
looked at over 8,000 people-- I think
over 10,000 possibly, but from
ages 1 to 95.
Crazy! They were
looking at changes in metabolic rate
and metabolism throughout our lifespan.
(34:15):
And what the study showed is that our
metabolisms do not have any
significant changes between the ages
20 and 60.
It's pretty much the same between ages 20
and 60.
Then, at age 60, our metabolism
starts to decrease in efficiency about
0.7% every year after
(34:35):
age 60. And you might think, well, that's bad
news if I'm listening to this and I'm over the
age of 60, but here's what the study said...
The only reason the metabolism starts to have
this decrease after age 60 is
loss of muscle mass.
So if you build lean muscle mass,
preserve lean muscle mass, by age 60
(or even in your 60s and 70s), you could
(34:57):
essentially be 85 years old with
the same metabolism as when you were 25
years old. And that's really exciting.
And you could do that with a low-carb
approach, a keto approach.
You could do it with having some days with
high protein and then no protein (feast/famine
cycling), a lot of the things you learn at
The Fasting Method. These are ways to create a
(35:17):
metabolically free metabolism where
you're able to go without food for
hours or, in some cases, days and feel
incredible, actually have more energy.
It's inspiring to me because
it debunks a lot of myths around
the metabolism.
We're not trying to speed it up.
We're now trying to fix a slow metabolism.
We're trying to create a metabolically free
(35:39):
metabolism. And it's very easy to
do as long as you have the combination to the
code, and the book gives you the keys to the
kingdom here.
One of those keys is fasting.
So, it's The Fasting Method podcast, we've got
to talk about fasting.
Ben. Fasting. [laughs]
What a great transition, Megan, I like that.
[laughter] One of those keys is fasting.
(36:00):
It's actually a very important key to unlock
that metabolic freedom.
I mean, I've learned so much about fasting
from you, Megan, and Dr. Fung over
the years, and, of course, Dr. Pompa, my
mentor.
And fasting is my favorite way
to harness the innate intelligence within the
body. It's really, really incredible.
You know, I think a lot of people are starting
to become really fascinated, no
(36:22):
pun intended, with fasting.
And I say that because, just the other day,
six days ago, I posted an Instagram Reel
on what happens in your body when you go
without food for 100 hours.
It's like a 90-second video and I just kind of
give a timeline.
And it's got over 10 million views in six
days. It's insane.
And it shows me that people are like-- they're
hungry, they want to learn about this stuff.
And it goes against what most people think you
(36:44):
can do. Most people don't even believe you
could go without food for 100 hours, let alone
100 days, or even more.
Some people have done that, right?
But fasting removes the interference.
We know it takes a lot of energy,
blood flow, bandwidth to
digest food, an extraordinary amount of
energy. So if you're constantly digesting
food, you're taking resources away from the
(37:05):
brain, your liver, other areas that need
healing. But when you go into a fasted state,
where you just have water, you start to
create this energy-diversion process where you
divert energy away from digestion
to healing. And your inner physician,
the innate intelligence, will direct that
wherever it needs to go.
So that might be, okay, let's divert energy
(37:26):
and blood flow to the brain, because Ben's
doing a lot of podcasts today and he's
speaking on stage, or whatever it is, or maybe
for you to have energy for your family, and,
whatever it, you'll get that energy and those
resources because you're not using it for
digestion.
And we know what it does to lower
inflammation, to lower insulin.
We know the New England Journal of Medicine
put out a study in 2019 showing it should be,
(37:47):
like, the first thing we all use for these
metabolic diseases. It's not taboo,
it's not woowoo.
You and Dr. Fung have been preaching this
before it became mainstream.
Thank God there's research to back it up.
So it is such an important piece to the
puzzle, fasting.
But it is a muscle.
You've got to build it up the right way.
It is a stress. That doesn't mean it's bad for
(38:08):
you. It could be what's called a hormetic
stress. You just have to use this tool the
right way, and you guys teach that really
brilliantly.
Also do you, Ben.
I've always learned something listening to
you. And I appreciate that so
many of our Fasting Method family members
also really benefit from participating in
Keto Kamp as well.
And together, it creates a full picture of
(38:31):
information and strategies to really help
people overcome this.
Fasting is a pretty incredible tool at that.
But there's so many incredible tools in this
book. I really hope everybody goes out,
gets this book, gets it for friends.
I have a whole slew of new mom friends.
They're all struggling with metabolic
dysfunction right now, and they kind
(38:52):
of know me because they've done some Googling,
but I sound crazy, right?
They hear me saying, like, "Fast for 42
hours," "Oh, five days, sure, go for it."
You hear me say these things.
So they're not quite sure if I'm insane or
if I've onto something, but this book is just
the perfect guide.
It's completely well-researched.
This is something you could give to anybody
and just the number of references from it.
(39:12):
It's just like The Obesity Code.
No one can dispute it.
I remember giving my new husband, who was
still skeptical a little bit about this, a
copy of The Obesity Code, and he was like,
"This is just so well researched.
You can't dispute it, it just speaks for
itself." And it's just so much of
the same here, but a really practical
solution. You get the information, it's really
(39:33):
digestible, as Terri said, and then actionable
steps and a whole plan laid out for
you to really succeed.
And simple.
Just to circle back to some of this
environmental stuff, I know it can sound a
little overwhelming.
Ben gave five, ten good examples of little
things that you can do.
Those little things radically transformed my
life. Once I remove myself from the mold,
(39:55):
it is amazing.
These little things go a long way and Ben
unpacks it all in the most easy-to-digest
form in this book.
Ben, I know you've got some exciting stuff
happening around this book where people can
participate and learn even more.
Do you want to share with our listeners?
Yeah, and thank you so much for the kind words
there, Megan.
Yeah, we have a special opportunity (or
(40:15):
gift I should say) for those who order the
book this week.
We have an entire course that I built out
on the metabolism, 12 lessons.
There's a couple lessons in keto, fasting, and
just how the metabolism works, why 'calories
in versus calories out' is not the full
picture.
So 12 lessons on the metabolism.
And we have some exclusive interviews in
that course as well.
(40:36):
With the amazing Megan Ramos, we
did a deep dive into metabolic
freedom together. This is an interview you
cannot find anywhere else, but only in this
course. Dr. Jason Fung, we also did
an interview with him in this course.
Cynthia Thurlow, who I know is a dear friend
as well, and Dr. Daniel Pompa.
So all of these interviews and the entire
(40:56):
course we're going to give to you for free.
All you need to do is go to
metabolicfreedombook.com.
What you'll see on that page is links
to purchase the book.
We have Amazon, Barnes & Noble, wherever you
want to get it, Audible, Spotify.
It's available on hardcover, Kindle and
Audible. I narrated the Audible myself as
well, which was a pain in the butt.
So you buy the book on that page and you
(41:18):
simply just go back to the page.
And then there's a step two, which shows your
order form. So you just put your name, your
email, and then you grab the order number from
that purchase and you hit submit.
And as soon as you do that, you're going to be
emailed the course with the interviews.
So you get the course and the interviews right
away. So I'd love for you to go to
metabolicfreedombook.com, pre-order the book
(41:39):
or order the book, and get the entire course
with the interviews for free.
What an amazing way to begin
your journey to metabolic freedom, or
tighten things up, get back on track, get your
feet on the ground.
So many great resources.
Thank you, Ben, for helping spread the
word, spread the great message, everything you
do. I love it.
I love connecting with you anytime we have a
(42:00):
chance. So grateful you got to meet the
incredible Dr. Lance today as well.
I'm grateful too, Terri.
It's been a pleasure knowing you and I am
grateful for both of you.
Thank you for the opportunity to come share
with your community. I know this is not
something you do often with outsiders on
your podcast, so I'm very grateful.
Thank you so much.
And as Megan said earlier, thank you for the
360 approach.
(42:22):
This is like all-inclusive, everything
in one place at a very
consumable level.
So thank you, for all of your work.
I can't wait for everyone to start benefiting
from this book.
Thank you so much, Terri.
I appreciate you both so much.
All right, listeners out there, we will
have all the links Ben shared.
You can register for his course,
(42:43):
the links for the book, links for Keto Kamp -
we will all have them all in the show notes.
And hopefully, Ben-- I mean, we'll get a
little bit more practice at interviewing.
[laughs] We'd love to have you back often.
I would love that.
All right. Well, thank you so much today, and,
everyone listening, happy fasting.
Happy Fasting. [music]
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