Eat Smarter with Shawn Stevenson

Our guest this week is Shawn Stevenson, author of the book Eat Smarter. We discuss  the importance of our gut bacteria for weight management and the science behind why and how to keep it healthy.

Follow up with Shawn at the Model Health Show page.

Or get the audio book.

As always, if you like our podcast, Rate, Comment and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. And tell your friends! If you don’t like our podcast, then keep it quiet, I guess.

Stream the John Tesh Sports Album now. Available on all platforms.

For more information, and to sign up for our private coaching, visit tesh.com

Our Hosts:
John Tesh: Instagram: @johntesh_ifyl facebook.com/JohnTesh
Gib Gerard: Instagram: @GibGerard facebook.com/GibGerard X: @GibGerard

Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:00):
Gib. Hello and welcome to another episode of

(00:10):
intelligence for your life. Thepodcast. I'm Gib Gerard. Our
guest this week is SeanStevenson, author of the new
book, eat smarter. We're goingto talk all about the importance
of our gut bacteria now we I hadactually intended to talk with
him about a whole bunch ofthings about that are in his
book, eat smarter, all kinds ofways for you to eat the best
things for your lives. How tohave the psychology meeting. We

(00:33):
didn't get to hardly any of itbecause we spent so much time
talking about food diversity andgut bacteria and how
fundamentally important that is.
So we're going to talk about allof the ins and outs of that. In
it may sound boring, but this isa very smart man who is, you
know, a long time practicingnutritionist. He really
understands this stuff, andwe're going to have him back
multiple times. But also youneed to check out the book. So

(00:53):
again, stay tuned for for myinterview with Sean Stevenson.
Real fast, here are two quickpieces of intelligence you can
share with your friends. Beforethe 19th century, most families
actually lived together forlife, and some experts say we
are headed to be living that wayagain. That's right. According
to Pew Research report, as ofthis past summer, with covid and

(01:13):
everything, 52% of adults underage 30 were living at home with
a parent. That's the highestpercentage recorded since the
Great Depression. Historically,large family households were
seen as practical, obviously,since everybody could contribute
financially or with chores orchild rearing or farming, and
sociologist Catherine Newmansays it's not a bad idea. She
says it creates a sense ofdevotion. It's only been since

(01:35):
the 20th century that parentswere told if their kids didn't
leave home in adulthood, they'dbe emotionally stunted. So multi
generational living is the newthing. Here's one more. Here's
that activate your brain's chillout circuit, from neuroscientist
Dr Andrew Newberg, first watchwhat you say. MRI studies show
positive words light up thebrain's reward system, while

(01:58):
complaints activate the paincenters, adding a spoken
positive effect, and can reducestress hormones and produce
relaxing mood boosting neurotransmitters. So talk to
yourself with positive selftalk. Stuart Smalley was on this
another tip for staying calmwhen things go wrong.
Psychologist Dr James gross sayswe should name our emotions. He

(02:20):
says we will find that willimmediately reduce the intensity
of our emotions. StanfordUniversity explains naming your
emotions transfers brainactivity from the emotional to
the rational part of the brainand helps you calm down. So
positive self talk. Name youremotions. I named my anxiety,
Albert. That's not what itmeans. But regardless, I you
know, Albert is always with me.

(02:44):
Anyway, folks, those are twoquick pieces of intelligence,
positive self talk, multigenerational living, and name
your emotions. Take that withyou. Do what you will with that
information. A littleintelligence for life. But here,
most importantly is, I'm veryexcited for this to you my
interview with Sean Stevenson.
Sean Stevenson, author of Eatsmarter, among other things, but
we're really gonna bring me talkabout eat smarter today. Thank

(03:04):
you so much for being with ustoday. Really appreciate it.
It's my pleasure. I'm pumped tobe here. So your book, I
mean, your book was huge. Wewere talking before we started
about how it sold out in themiddle of a pandemic. And I
think I know why. I think Iunderstand at least part of why.
I mean, not only is theinformation really relatable,
but like a lot of people, my gymclosed, so my routine was gone.

(03:30):
I'm stuck at home. I'm going tobe reaching for comfort foods,
and all of a sudden, I look downand and my belt is slowly
disappearing under mymidsection, and I think I gotta,
I've got to be smarter about myapproach to this. I think a lot
of people had that moment, and Ithink that's why, I think that's
why, that's why your book isdoing so well, is that people

(03:50):
realize that they that we'vemessed up our lives during this
time?
Yeah, I mean, it coming out atthis time. I don't think it's an
accident. You know, actually gotpushed back almost a year
because of covid relatedshutdowns and so. But I'm really
grateful because, you know, at atime when there isn't a lot of
focus on actually getting ourcitizens healthier, like, let's

(04:12):
actually get our citizens ourimmune systems more healthy and
robust, and just make us moreresilient, less susceptible to
all manner of infectious andchronic diseases. There isn't a
lot of talk about that. It's 1%less than 1% of the media
coverage. And so for book likethis to come out and to take off
like it did, you know, it wasthe number one new release of
all books, fiction and nonfiction when it came out. And it

(04:34):
just really was incrediblyheartwarming for me, because it
just shows like we do care aboutthis, yeah, but we also want to
come along with some fun. Wewant to come along with some
real, actionable science. Yeah,we want it to make sense at the
end of the day. Yeah.
I mean, I think, I think we livein a unique time in human
history, right prior to the 20thcentury, prior to
industrialization, and even inthe beginning of

(04:56):
industrialization, we didn'thave this problem where this is
like, the only time he's like.
Last 50 years, really, where,where access to calories is not
correlated with with materialwealth. So, so the idea of
being, of being beingoverweight, and being able to
eat more than we than we need,is in these empty calories.

(05:17):
It's, it's, it's available toeverybody now, and it's,
obviously we're dealing withsome of the metabolic and and
health consequences of that. Sowe need this now. I don't know
that if you if it was 100 yearsago that anybody would need this
book, honestly, because becauseof where we're at right now. So

(05:39):
right now we are living in atime where, for the first time,
we're actually dying from overconsumption, right, rather than
not having enough, as youmentioned. But you just
mentioned a very importanttransition point, which is this
concept of calories, right? Youknow? And I love the focus that
you guys have with here, withthe show, is really looking at,
how does this stuff work, beingmore intelligent around these

(06:01):
and of course, the book beingcalled Eat Smart, it's a natural
marriage. But here's the thing,you know, I went to a
traditional university, aprivate university, expensive
place to be. And the very firstsemester that I had there, which
I went because it had a greatpre med track, but I took a
nutritional science class, and Ididn't take it because it was

(06:23):
required. This was totally thiswas an elective, but I thought
that nutrition, this nutritionalscience class, was going to
teach me how to be more fit.
Nutrition had to do withfitness, and there's nuance
there with fitness and health.
But anyways, I was taught on thevery first day of class that if
you can manage your calories,you can manage your body
composition. If you managecalories, you can manage your

(06:45):
health. And at first, I didn'tused to tell this part of the
story, but my teacher wasincredibly smart. He was a
really, really smart guy, but hewas bordering on obesity
himself. And at the time, Ididn't really put the two
together, but I knew thatsomething just didn't fit,
right? He's, he's one of thoseguys. He's not like, secretly,

(07:06):
like, huffing down m&ms andhoney buns between classes. He
was doing, the things that hewas teaching, which, at the
time, you know, this was back inlike 9798 that we were taught
that when we work with patientsin the future, we're going to be
telling them to really watchtheir fat intake, be very
careful, right, about consumingfats, and also so low fat was

(07:27):
the thing that was repressedreally hard with that, and also
make sure to get in seven to 11servings of whole grains. And he
was doing that. He was gettingin plenty of whole grains. But
this was leaving out of theequation. What? What we know
today, which, when I talk abouta need smarter, is that there
are seven things we now havescience on that are controlling

(07:50):
what calories do in your body.
It's not just about thecalories. There are things that
control what calories do, andthat's where the science is
really at.
I mean, it is So correct me. IfI'm wrong, thermodynamically,
it's still calories in, caloriesout, but there are ways that you
can eat where your calories incan stay more or less the same,
but the amount of effort and theway that your body burns them

(08:10):
will actually increase yourcalories out from your resting
metabolism, so that you're,you're, you're going to have a
net fat loss. Is that, is thatthe way to think about it?
Because thermodynamically, wehave calories in, calories out.
There's no, there'sno question about that. Okay, so
the problem with thatoverarching assessment is that,
well, let's start with what acalorie is, and even that this
is a new term. This is anewfound entity that, you know,

(08:31):
if we go back and this was,again, I went through and took
people through the history ofthe calorie, I think it's
important to understand when itfirst hit the scene, this wasn't
anything to do with nutrition.
It was used nutrition. It wasused in physics
and engineering. Sure, it's theamount of energy it takes to
raise one milliliter of waterone degree Celsius, correct?
And then we go from we stillWilbur Atwater is a person who

(08:54):
really made the transition intothe nutritional domain. And we
use the Atwater system,actually, for packaging. But
that's kind of a footnote. Buthere's you just brought up one
of the issues that's using abomb colorimeter to measure the
energy in food right now, thething is, you might be the bomb,
you might absolutely be thebomb, but you're not a bomb
colorimeter. And the way thatfood is utilized in your body,

(09:17):
and the way that it breaks downis radically different than the
metric that's used to measure itusing a bomb calorimeter. And as
a matter of fact, companiesdon't use that anymore. They
just do math to put what's inthe in the food products on the
calorie labels. Nobody'sactually measuring. There's
grass like, generally guarded assafe, and there's like,
generally regarded as thecalorie content in certain

(09:39):
foods. And that's what companiesare doing now. So when we're
having this conversation aboutcalories in, calories out, it
completely ignores thecomplexity of human digestion,
sure, and so that's one of thebig metrics to understand. And
this is highlighted in thejournal Cell this was a really
great study. They discoveredthat there's a certain bacteria
found in mice, which I'm goingto bring this. Back to humans in

(10:00):
a moment found in mice thatactually blocked the mice
intestines from absorbing asmany calories from their food.
It didn't matter how manycalories they're bringing in,
their bodies were not absorbingthe calories. Now you take this
over into human studies, andthis was conducted by the
Wiseman Institute, and I mappedthis out a little bit more. I
know we should be in a littlebit more summarized here, but

(10:21):
research that the WisemanInstitute and the same thing in
my clinical practice, theyidentified that there's a
certain bacteria cascade, acertain microbiome makeup
associated with obesity. And soin my practice, I could have
somebody, and, you know, I'vebeen in this field for 19 years,
over 10 years in clinicalpractice as a nutritionist, I
could have somebody send out toget a stool sample. I've never

(10:41):
met the person, never seen himbefore a day in my life. Have
them send out to get a stoolsample, which basically I send
you a kit you poop into, like,yeah, you know not the nacho
basket, yep. And then you sendit in, and then I get the report
back, and I can tell withextreme accuracy whether or not
the person is obese based ontheir microbiome makeup. Wow. So

(11:03):
here's what the researchersfound. This is the biggest part
of this particular epi caloriccontroller. So this is above
caloric control. So what theresearchers noted was that,
okay, we've got folks that weknow that they have a microbiome
makeup associated with insulinresistance, diabetes and
obesity, and so they took fecalsamples from folks who had this
microbiome makeup and implantedit into lean mice. And then they

(11:27):
took fecal samples from humansubjects who had a microbiome
associated with leanness andimplanted that into lean mice.
Those mice stayed lean eatingthe same diet, but the mice who
received the fecal transplantfrom folks with the microbiome
associated with obesity eventhough they're eating the same
diet. Suddenly these mice becameinsulin resistant. Suddenly they

(11:47):
became obese. Suddenly theygained body fat even though
they're eating the same thing.
So conversation about caloriesin, calories out, again, is
completely ignoring thecomplexity of digestion, and one
of those big epi caloriccontrollers is the makeup of our
microbiome, and the science onthis is just incredibly

(12:08):
powerful, I mean, so I thinkwhat's important for me to take
away there is like, whilecalories in, calories out,
remains true, what you'retalking about is the factors
that determine calories in andhow much energy we expend on a
given day or while we'reresting. It's not as easy as
just reading a food label andthen reading your Fitbit. And
that's where, that's where thisnotion really, really falls

(12:32):
apart. And also, our gutbacteria affects how many of
those calories we actuallyabsorb. Because, to your point,
we are not bomb calorimeters. Weare not just little chemistry
sets walking around. We're muchmore complex organisms than
that, and these things allaffect us in different ways. I
want to, I really want to pushon this. How do we begin to
build the gut bacteria thatyou're talking about? Because

(12:55):
that feels like that would solvea lot of our problems.
Yeah. Okay, so two things, I'mfrom St Louis, that's where, you
know my practice was for manyyears, and St Louis University,
so I'm just highlight. I thinkit's cool that, you know,
researchers at the Universityaround the corner from me did
this work. It was so fascinatingto go through this, but they

(13:16):
were, they were noting the samething when you took identical
twins and we found one twin, butthis was the prerequisite. We
had to have one twin that hasthe microbiome associated with
obesity and one who had themicrobiome associated with
leanness. Even though they'reeating the same diet, they're
from the same household, and youdon't get any more identical
than identical twin Right, rightfrom the same egg. But sure

(13:38):
enough, after they map this outand follow the twins over a
number of years, the twin withthe microbiome associated with
obesity became obese far morefrequently. And this is just one
of those things that, again, iscontinue to be overlooked, but
we're really going to changethis. So what do we do to really
optimize?
Yeah, this for us. Give me thatskinny person bacteria. Do I
take a pill? How do I getthere? So did you just brought

(13:58):
up, I love that. You justbrought up the exact thing that
happens when we look at thisthrough the lens of allopathic
thinking, of allopathicmedicine. So when we find that
bacteria that blocks theintestines from absorbing as
many calories from the food,let's just bottle that bacteria
up and sell it. Yeah.
I mean, I know, I know fecaltransplants are a lot more

(14:19):
complicated than just taking apill, but, but, but, I mean, why
aren't we there?
So the problem with that is thatwhen you there's this idea of a
quote, side effect. So maybe I'mtaking this, this particular
pill that brings in a certainbacteria cascade. But what does
that do to my other bacteria?
And what does it do if we startto proliferate this particular
bacteria that blocks myintestine from absorbing as many

(14:41):
calories. Sure, there's a goodchance it's also going to block
my absorption of key nutrients.
There's a good chance that'sgoing to disrupt the microbiome
cascade in a way that maybe I'mnot producing as many short
chain fatty acids from my gutbacteria that's protecting my
gut lining and now I'm. Thing,autoimmune issues, you know,

(15:02):
related to my diet. So the listgoes on and on. There's this
term side effect, but it's not aside effect. There are no such
thing as side effects. They'redirect effects, because a side
effect is looking at somethingin a vacuum, right? The human
body. It's in parts like, I'mgoing to take something for my
pancreas, and that's the end ofstory. Your pancreas is
connected to everything aboutyou, from your brain cells to

(15:23):
your toe cells. And so one ofthe things I saw, you know, in
my practice, which was, youknow, folks were coming in all
the time on statins, likestatins were the hottest thing
smoking. And sure enough, we gotsome early data, which now
everybody knows at this point,well, hopefully, if they don't
know, I'm going to share thisand anybody can and anybody can

(15:43):
go to Dr Google and look thisup, but we found out that folks
taking a statin had a 30%increase incidence of developing
diabetes being on that statin.
Wow, it's not a side effect.
It's a direct effect, becauseit's all happening in the same
human body. So that's not theway to look at this, but so I
want to make that clear, becausewe tend to do that like even

(16:04):
people are, you know, consumingtapeworms, to consume their
calories, like the craziestthings that will go through. So
how do we do this in an ethicalway, in an intelligent way,
smart way, right? Well, the onething that
because I think, I think a lotof people walking around going,
I I have access to all thecalories I want. If I can get
something that interferes withthat, I can deal with the side

(16:26):
effects as long because, becausecalories are so cheap and easy
to acquire. I mean, I knowthey're not side effects. I know
that this is bad thinking. Iacknowledge all of those things.
I'm just, I'm just saying, Ithink that's where that, that's
where that thinking comes from,is I can fix, I can fix not
getting enough calories. I havea hard time fixing having too
many calories.
Yeah, you just said it, youknow, it is a big, you know,

(16:49):
conundrum in our in our societytoday, because it is one of the
things that we're dealing with.
We're oversaturated withcaloric, you know, energy
everywhere that we turn. Sowhat's the, what's the most
practical thing that's alsoproven by science to be
effective. So one of the mostremarkable things that we've
seen, and this is very simple,is that as your diversity of
microbes goes down, your rate ofobesity goes up, right? So this

(17:15):
is this is very important. Asyour diversity of microbes goes
down, your rate of insulinresistance goes up as your
microbes go down, your rate ofheart disease goes up, your rate
of inflammation goes up. Thesethings have a direct inverse
relationship in study afterstudy after study. And now
here's the big issue. So howdoes this all work together?

(17:35):
Well, it's been noted, and oneof the studies that I break down
is that when we go and look atthe microbiome diversity of
somebody who's eating more of anindigenous kind of diet, right,
more of a hunter gatherer diet,not really inundated by our
natural, you know, ourconventional way of eating
today, they have approximatelyfour times more bacterial

(17:56):
diversity than we do here in theWestern world, Right? So just to
give you a little bit of a scopeof what that looks like, just
say I have, right now, 4000different species of bacteria in
my gut. And that's not when I'msaying this stuff. I don't want
people to be freaked out. We allhave, yeah, tremendous. We have,
like, two pounds of microbes inour in our bellies.

(18:18):
Am I correct in saying that ouras a human body, we have
actually more bacterial cellsand foreign DNA than we have in
our of our own cells, our ownDNA cells. Is that correct?
It's it to say that the numberisn't even remotely close. All
right, we've got literally 99over 99% of our genes are

(18:40):
microbial genes. If we go genefor gene, most of the genes that
we carry as a human are from themicrobes that we carry. They
have genes as well. Yeah. Andone of the studies, also that
we've kind of broke down, is howyou know inflammation, damages,
specifically from pesticides,damages bacterial are bacterial
genes. You know, it's crazy. I'mable to circle back and talk

(19:00):
about that, but we have 10,2050, times more bacteria than
we have human cells. You know,it's not close. And then don't
even get me started on viruses.
We have 400 trillion virusparticles in and on our bodies
right now. So we got the humanmicrobiome. We have the human
virome, and we have the HumanMicrobiome all the fungi we
carry. We have archaea. We haveso many different things, these

(19:22):
microbes that make us up. And soyeah, let's get, let's get to
the biological diversity of ourof our biome. So go ahead, as
you're saying, 4000 bacteria.
So we say, I have 4000 bacteriathat I have the a person who's
eating more of a natural humandiet, who's been, who hasn't
been inundated by what the waythat we eat today. So I've got,

(19:43):
I've got 4000 they've got 12,000different species, right? So
it's if I've got, we'll just sayI got 10,000 they got 40,000 and
again, as your diversity ofmicrobes goes down, your rate of
obesity goes up. Interesting.
And so here's the number onething. We can do to help to
which, unfortunately, someresearchers believe that we have
many species that have goneextinct here in the Western

(20:05):
world that protect our health inmany different ways, and many
endangered species in our gut,you know, if you want to use the
analogy of seeing yourmicrobiome like a rainforest,
yeah, but I don't believe thatit's just over and done, you
know. And so the number onething that we see in the
research is that as you increaseyour diversity of foods, as you
increase your diverse diversityof probiotic, I'm sorry,

(20:27):
prebiotic, not probiotic,prebiotic fibers, you directly
increase your ratio, your amountof microbes, because you can
take all the probiotics youwant. And I was doing this in my
practice. I was having everybodyhaving everybody on probiotics,
but I was missing the point,probiotics cannot proliferate
and do their jobs if they don'thave their preferred food

(20:49):
source. And so those are theprebiotics. All right? So this
is just like anything. If youdon't have food, you've got to
move on, or you're going to dieoff, right? And so prebiotics
enable the probiotics toproliferate and then create post
biotics in you, for you. Sothese are the products that the
probiotics create and protectionthat they provide against things

(21:10):
like obesity. So what do we dowith the prebiotics? Where do we
get them? Anybody can go toGoogle and look at best
prebiotic foods. But I'm goingto give you a little sidebar,
because this is really, reallyimportant. You're going to find
things like asparagus,Jerusalem, artichoke, onions,
garlic, apples. That's cool, butit's missing the point. Every
single food operates as a realfood. Let me be clear, real

(21:35):
food. Every single real foodoperates as a prebiotic for some
different strain of microbes,all right, every single food. So
we want to eat more of adiversity of foods. And even if
we're eating healthy now, and Iknow this is going to resonate
with a lot of people, we canfind ourselves getting kind of
caught in meal prep gone awry,where we're eating the same

(21:56):
food. Sure, infact, psychologically that can
be a real ease for a lot ofpeople, is you, you just like,
look, I'm doing me even the rockthe guy is as metabolically
elite as it gets, but he eatsjust a lot of cold water, oily
fish, grilled oily fish, like,that's, that's, that's his MO
and then, you know, he throws inhis cheat days, but it's like
five meals a day of a littlething of deep water, cod,

(22:21):
yeah, but you've also got tolook at these are all factors
that eventually, that ourhealthcare system is going to
get to. I know it eventually,but right now, the big term is
personalized nutrition, andyou've got to look at what is,
what is his background, right?
Where is it? Where's his genescoming from? Right, his DNA,
what's the closest food sourceand where he comes from, right?

(22:42):
What's in his DNA? Right? A lotof seafood, right, right? And so
if you try to eat his diet, andyour ancestors are from, we'll
just say, you know, I don'tknow, Brazil
or mine's Italian, so, so, yeah,Mediterranean diet
works. There's gonna be fishedthere too, you know. But the the

(23:03):
array of fish, and also thepercentage of seafood, is going
to be different, right? But Iwas trying to think of somebody
who doesn't have access towater, so just, we'll just say,
smack dab in the middle of theUnited States, like I was, but
even still, like my grandfathertook me fishing that kind of
thing. So yeah, it's going todepend on that. So we take that
into consideration. We look atyour microbiome makeup and some

(23:25):
of these other factors thatwe'll talk about here. But the
most important takeaway fromthis point is that every single
one of us has a unique metabolicfingerprint. All right, all of
us have a unique metabolicfingerprint. And nobody's
talking about this. There are alot of these cookie cutter
diets, which many of these dietframeworks are wonderful, truly,
they have saved lives. They'vehelped people to achieve

(23:46):
incredible goals. But so often,there's a large percentage of
people who don't get the resultsthat other people get, and it's
because, and this is what I wantpeople to understand, there has
never been anybody in thehistory of humanity who has a
metabolism just like yours, whohas a microbiome makeup just
like yours, never, and therenever will be. But here's the

(24:06):
biggest part, your metabolism aweek from now, the person a week
from now, your metabolism then,is not like the one you have
now. It is always changing. It'salways in flux. And if we don't
start to understand the thingsthat control our unique
metabolism and be able to changeas we change, that's when we
have the healthy foods that wefeel good about. We have a body

(24:28):
composition we like, but thenthe weight starts coming back a
year later. Have to be able toadapt and change, and a big part
of that change to keep our eyeon is to continue to add a
diversity of foods inall right? So, I mean, so I hear
you saying, like, look, we withThese Healthy Foods, we need to
eat in in diverse proportions,right? So you don't just have

(24:49):
the sliced apple and the and thesalmon every single day. You
can't live like that unless youare one, unless that is just
you. But not everybody can you.
And so we need this diversity offoods in order to keep our
microbiome as diverse possible.
Can we supplement it all?
Because I know that some, forsome people, access to different
foods is difficult, especiallyright now. Does like psyllium

(25:11):
husk help us get to you know,there's sort of the active
ingredient in every fibersupplement out there is psyllium
husk. Does that get us? Doesthat help move the needle at
all? Or is it just, is this keyfor for really changing our
microbiome? Is that going to bejust eating diverse
that's a great question. Andthere's, there's two parts. So
number one, I also want toshare, I mentioned earlier that

(25:32):
one of the studies finding that,and this was published in
Scientific Reports, thatpesticides create pro
inflammatory state in the gutand disrupt our microbial gene
expression. All right, so whenI'm saying that, it's not a
joke, this is one of the bigthings not talked about,
pesticides, herbicides,rodenticides. These synthetic
chemicals are designed to killvery small things by disrupting

(25:56):
their their nervous system ortheir endocrine system, or both.
Our bodies are made of verysmall things, single celled
organisms right in our gut,these things absolutely wreak
havoc. So I just want to mentionthat, just to reiterate what I
talked about earlier, but youjust mentioned, for example,
using psyllium husk. Yeah, thisis looking through the lens and
you know, like you justmentioned as well, like, it's a

(26:18):
different circumstance rightnow, but not really, because
there's always been, in recentdecades here in the United
States, what they're called nowis, quote, food deserts, which
is where I grew up, right? We'reon food stamps and WIC and
getting food from, you know,charities and food pantries and
things like that. I know whatthat's like, but there's always

(26:39):
a way it's really just aboutaccess and education and so
bringing in a supplement, thisis the big point I want to make,
is that. So with psyllium husk,you've got to keep in mind that
whenever you eat any real food,any real food, you're also
eating that food's microbiome.
All right, you're taking thaton. So when you eat a blueberry,
you're eating that blueberriesmicrobiome, when you eat an

(27:01):
avocado, you're eating thatavocados microbiome, when you
eat spinach, you're eating thatspinach microbiome. There is an
array of microbes and thingsthat we can't see, and we really
barely even understand rightnow, that we take on as part of
our own microbiome, creating thediversity and so having
something that doesn'tnecessarily have any life to it,

(27:24):
or especially like somethingwe're consistently doing all the
time, it's not that it's bad,per se, but it would be
something still to havediversity with. Like you don't
want to just start jamming downpsyllium husk every day,
necessarily. You know, you mightdiversify and have, you know,
some ground flax seeds, whichisn't very expensive, or some
ground chia seeds, or, you know,whatever it is. But we just want
to keep that in mind, to notlook to one thing, because the

(27:47):
word supplement really gets alittle bit skewed today, too,
because the word itself meanssupplement, to supplement
something right which we want tosupplement an already healthy,
real food based nutritionprotocol. But we can't just say
that and take away the joy.
That's the big problem as well.
You know, inherently in theconcept of a diet, there's this

(28:08):
psychological there's apsychological leading point, or
just perception of deprivationrestriction. I can't have, and
it's very much against humannature. Sure. You know, even if
we just have the illusion offreedom, we like freedom, right?
And so having that psychologicalburden, you know that putting

(28:31):
yourself into this frameworkwhere you're taking stuff away,
where, when we look at a diet ornutrition protocol, it should be
more about adding in. It shouldbe more about pleasure and part
of this, and how it's kind ofbeen, how it's kind of gone
awry. And I just think it'simportant, especially, again,
with the context of your show,is the intelligence of our

(28:52):
bodies to recognize nutritionand food, sure, right? So
there's this, this term that I'mreally working really, really
working hard to impress uponculture. It's something called
post ingestive feedback, right?
Post ingestive feed,it's like eating to satiety,
that kind of thing.
So this is more so this is aneurological association to the

(29:14):
nutrients you're consuming andflavors. So this is the science
of flavor, all right? So put itlike that. So as we evolve, we
just say, 25,000 years ago, ourancestor, you know, your
ancestor, was out and abouttheir gathering, and then they
came across a new berry thatthey never saw before. And we'll
just say that the berry is safe.
We're going to take that intoaccount. But they ate the berry,

(29:35):
and their body, your brain,begins, essentially taking,
like, sticky notes and, like,writing notes about the
nutrition that came along withthat food, right? So you ate
this berries kind of start, itwas kind of sour and a little
bit, little bit sweet. And thenyour, your brain is like, Okay,
I got some boron, I got somecalcium, I got some essential
amino acids, I got a little bitof omega threes from the seed.

(29:58):
Needs. And so your your brain,your biology, links up a flavor,
links up that flavor sensationwith the nutrients that comes
along with that flavor, sure.
And so when you become deficientin those particular nutrients,
your brain will elicit a cravingfor that particular food to get
those nutrients back in yoursystem. Right? That's how we

(30:22):
evolved. And of course, like,there's incredible animal
studies that we've utilized tobe able to really see this
firsthand. But animals do thisall the time. It's like, why are
they eating that thing? Or, youknow, even if they get sick, you
know, if they contract thevirus, they'll go and start
eating a different thing. Like,you know, one of the studies was
done on sheep, and if theycontract an infection, they've
started eating, like, some someweird, like, twigs. It's just

(30:42):
like, why are they doing that?
They they've linked up this postingestive feedback. Now, here's
the problem. Food manufacturershave really hacked it, muddied
up the water. Yes, yes. So theycan use there's, and I'll just
give one example. There's amachine. It's called a bomb.
Sorry, not bomb colorimeter, butit's a gas chromatograph where

(31:02):
you can isolate flavors, right?
So you can actually isolate theparticular chemicals that make
certain flavors happen. And sonow you can make a thing taste
like a different thing,right, which does not have the
nutritional profile of the thingthat your brain thinks it is, so
that's it, smoke flavor, butit's not actually cooked meat.

(31:23):
You go, and now your brain isthinking it's getting cooked
meat, and then you get it, andthen 10 minutes later, this is
like the Diet Coke problem. 10minutes later, your brain goes,
Wait a minute. I thought we weregetting I thought we were
getting, you know, saturatedfats and all 12 essential amino
acids, but we didn't. We gotsomething else because it was
exact, smoke flavored, you know,Doritos

(31:45):
Exactly. Yeah, that's perfect.
And you know, it's, it doesn'thave to be perfect, but it just
muddies up the metabolic watersand the cognitive waters, just
enough to screw things up. Andso now there's such a there's
such confusion in ourmetabolism, in our inner in our
link up with where nutrition iscoming from, that again, we're
we're developing. So this is abig takeaway. Chronic nutrient

(32:07):
deficiency leads to chronicovereating. All right, chronic
nutrient deficiency leads tochronic overeating. And a big
driving force of that is, youknow, just what the biggest
mineral deficiency in ourcountry is magnesium. For
example, magnesium isresponsible, responsible for
over 650 biochemical processeswe know about. So what that
means is there's 650 things thatyour body can't do or can't do

(32:30):
efficiently if you're deficientin magnesium, that is messed up
like we're we're walking around.
60% of US population ischronically deficient in
magnesium. A big role that itplays is the management of
stress, you know, theparasympathetic nervous system,
digestion, you know, musclerelaxation, cognitive

(32:51):
performance, the list goes onand on and on with all the
different benefits. It'simportant. It's it's utilized
for signal transduction in thebrain, you know, so your brain
cells being able to talk to talkto each other, which is kind of
important, right? So having thisis the case. So you're say, your
body's deficient in magnesium,you're deficient in vitamin D,
you're deficient in amino acids,so your body's going to compel

(33:15):
you to eat something to getthose nutrients in. Sure, that's
what it is. That's what thedriving force of hunger and
natural hunger?
Well, that's why you can be fulland still want to eat more food,
is because you didn't getwhatever your body needs. I
mean, that's that's a commonthat even if you're listening to
your body, and I want to in asecond, and I know we don't have
a lot of time left, but I dowant to talk about the
psychology, psychologicalimplications of what we're

(33:36):
saying in a minute. But I dowant to finish this, this idea
of how we can expand our fooddiversity to keep that
microbiome going. So, yeah. Soto your point, there are these
foods that we crave, and you saythere's nothing wrong with
hunger, but so that we're goingto start reaching for the foods
to get the in this case,magnesium. So keep going.
Yes, yeah. And just to give anexample, really quick, I think

(33:58):
this is important, because Imentioned and some of these
things could be so just metathat it doesn't have any real
world connection. So when I say650 biochemical processes, one
of the things so we talk aboutnumber one, how food controls
our metabolism, which mostpeople have a rudimentary
understanding about. But I thinkit's doing a disservice when we

(34:18):
look at food through that onelens of controlling our body
composition. Food also controlsyour cognitive performance. It
literally controls everythingthat your brain is able to do.
Your brain is literally made offood. It's made from the food
that you eat. It is thatimportant so our ability to have
thoughts, emotions and feelingsand and to be able to, you know,

(34:39):
have ideas, all of these thingsare driven by the food that we
eat. And humans are incrediblyresilient. We can definitely
people are building rockets onlike vending machine
consciousness, you know, like weare incredibly resilient, but
just imagine what we can do whenyou put the really good stuff in
our body. So there was a doubleblind, placebo controlled study.
This is the gold standard ofclinical clinic. Trials, and

(35:00):
this was published in theJournal of Alzheimer's disease,
and they found that improvingyour magnesium levels in adult
test subjects who already hadcognitive decline so they were
in their 50s and 70s couldreverse their brain aging by
upwards of nine years, right? Soliterally, the physical
appearance of the brain. So likethe the brain activity and the

(35:25):
cognitive performance, suddenlytheir brains are almost 10 years
younger by getting theirmagnesium levels up. All right.
So this is one simple thing thatwe can all do. So how do we do
this? Number one food? First, wedon't want to just jump to
supplements, but then still, itcan supplement a good
diet, like, why aren't we justdrinking a
shake for calories and thentaking a bunch of pills to get

(35:46):
this sort of diversity of of ofelements in our system? That's I
understand why food, why food isbetter, but why is it any
different than what you'retalking about?
This is perfect. That's aperfect question. So this,
again, this goes back to thatfirst university class that I
had nutritional science we weretaught that first day. Of
course, you know, calories arethe tip of the spear. If you

(36:08):
manage calories, you can manageyour body, you can manage your
health, but also make sure youget in all your essential
vitamins and nutrients. Here'sthe problem, which, again, he
encouraged all of us to take amultivitamin. Have patients take
a multivitamin. Here's theproblem that we have now, again,
this is 20 something yearslater. We have so much evidence
to affirm what I'm about to say.
At the time we were taught, forexample, get vitamin C. Now we

(36:31):
know there are so many differentforms of vitamin C, there are so
many different forms ofmagnesium, there are so many
different forms of vitamin D,there's so many different forms
of B 12. The list goes on andon. And so when we take a
synthetic supplement, are wetaking the one we actually need?
Right? You're just gettingyou're just getting whatever

(36:53):
process they used to make thatone version of vitamin D or C or
B 12.
There you go. So already, rightoff the bat we're missing. One
of the unique elements aboutfood is that it has a vast array
of these nutrients. So it has avast array of different forms of
vitamin C, but then it also hasbio potentiators that enable
your body to actually utilize itmore intelligently. Yeah, you

(37:15):
got to just think about from arational perspective, of course,
how long have humans been eatingfood versus, how long have we
been using isolated right andright, right, right, right. So
you just got to think about theconnection with, what are your
What are your genes expect youto eat? Or, what are you, what
is your DNA going to do wheninteracting with this
nutrient? Okay, so I heardrecently, and I think this is,
this is appropriate, you know,to eat around the outside of a

(37:38):
grocery store. What that meansis, like, usually the the outer
aisles that so the the far left,the far right, and then the back
aisle, that's where you're goingto get most your whole foods.
It's going to be produce. It'sgoing to be meat and dairy and
then and an eggs, that kind ofthing. And in the middle that's
going to be frozen foods,processed foods. And I don't, I
watch a lot of fooddocumentaries, but I don't know

(38:00):
if you ever saw the documentaryKing corn, but one of the great
lines is that we have thisperception of diversity when we
walk into a grocery store wherewe look around and we see all of
these different foods, all thesedifferent colors, but really
it's just cleverly rearrangedbits of corn. And so my concern
is that for a lot of us, wethink we're eating a diverse
diet, but what we're actuallygetting is cleverly rearranged

(38:20):
bits of corn, and we're notactually able to execute what
you're talking about. And in theFood deserts are the worst place
for this, because that's mostlyrearranged corn and soy, and
it's all they're all processedthe same way, and then ref
flavored. So how do we begin tounpack that where we're sure
we're getting what we'resupposed to be
getting? Yeah, it's great. SoI've been what you're talking

(38:41):
I've been in a lot of thosedocumentaries over the years,
and, you know, it's somethingI've been talking about for
probably about 17 years, becauseit, I mean, it became, some of
these things become so blatantlyobvious when you come across the
right bit of data. And also justbeing able to just be very
logical when you step into agrocery store like you, like you

(39:02):
mentioned, it looks like thisvast array of different
products, but the reality is,most of the food is the same,
like 12 things, just packageddifferent ways, and
predominantly corn, soy, wheat,you know, if you especially
those middle aisles, like youtalked about, so that can be a
good kind of moniker or tenant,you know, to look at the outer

(39:24):
perimeter of the store, but Idon't think people really
understand the extent to whichthey're encouraged not to do
what I'm what you're talkingabout. And this really goes back
to and I really wanted to makesure people know this. And I'm
so grateful because you know,some of the higher ups at Target
stores, for example, got anearly copy of the book, and they

(39:45):
did a national promotion withwith eat smarter, even though
I'm literally talking about thestuff in the store, you know,
because it was done in a reallykind of graceful way and kind of
non intrusive. But people needto know this stuff. So one of
the coolest studies. Which isalso kind of messed up too. But
this was published by gem, youknow, the Journal of the

(40:05):
American Medical Association.
They wanted to find out, becausewhat's actually leading the
cause. So let me actually give alittle nugget of why this makes
sense. If anybody's ever thoughtabout, why on earth can you get
a happy meal that's, you know,$2 299, with a cheeseburger,
fries, soda and a toy, thingsthat are very cost intensive to

(40:28):
make. How can you get a happymeal for the same amount that it
costs to get an avocado, right?
How is that even possible? Andthis literally can fall off of a
tree, and this thing over heretakes so much it's so cost
intensive to create. How is thatpossible? I mean subsidy,

(40:49):
exactly, government subsidies.
And so I wouldn't track thisdata down, because I wanted to
find out, okay, we know thatthere's an issue here, but what
is the actual outcome of thegovernment subsidy? So Jama
published a study, and theyfound that over the course of
about 10 years of the study,1015, years the study, the US
government actually investedalmost $200 billion right in

(41:10):
subsidies of the same foods thatprimarily end up in those middle
aisles and come through thedrive through window, Right? All
right.
Well, it's why, it's why thosefoods are there. I mean, we
look, we subsidize corn and soy,and we create these commodity
crops that are only edible ifyou process them properly, and
so we process them to the degreethat we do, and that's why

(41:32):
you're able to get Oreos forcheaper than you can get
avocados. Yeah.
And it might have started offagain. It's all always about
balance. It might have startedoff with a good intention to
feed Americans. To feedAmericans, but what the study
found was that the people whohad the highest consumption of
these government subsidizedfoods had a 40% greater
incidence of being obese. So wehave like a one to one

(41:54):
understanding, like when youconsume the foods that are
predominantly encouraged by ourgovernment, which when I say
that, that means we're payingfor it by Right, right? It's not
really that cheap. We're allpaying for it
40% greater incidence of beingobese, clinically obese, not
just overweight, obese. And thenI just, I'm actually sharing a
study today. We've got about 60chronic diseases that are now

(42:18):
confirmed to be connected toobesity, and about 400,000
deaths every year in associationwith obesity. So this is no
small thing. So our governmentis literally feeding this
problem. And when? And so whatdo we do about this? Really,
right, right, right, right,right, right. And get me to, get
me to what I can start doingtoday. So there's, there's,

(42:39):
there's always with anythingthat's sustainable, there's
going to be the personalresponsibility and is going to
be the community change, right?
So we've got to look at thebottom up, change yourself, you
know, so lifting yourself up,and also the top down, change.
So from the bottom up, what dowe do? So when I, when I was in
college, and just I've evengrowing up, I never met anybody

(43:01):
who even went to college, letalone, let alone graduated from
college, as the first person myfamily to do so. And I was
living in Ferguson, Missouri atthe time, which is kind of, you
know, famous or infamous rightnow, right but in that
community. So when I leave myapartment complex, when as soon
as I go out of the gate of theapartment complex, the first

(43:21):
thing I see is a liquor store,then, within just a mile and a
half radius, Papa John's,Domino's, Taco Bell, Dairy
Queen, Chinese food. But now I'mhungry. Now I'm hungry. Thanks a
lot. Sean, not like a niceChinese food restaurant, but
like bulletproof glass. Yeah, Iknow, you know, hot braised
chicken, Arby's, Burger King,McDonald's,

(43:45):
and by the way, they don'taccidentally use yellow and red
in their signs. That's alsoanother hunger trigger. So we're
being manipulated by just everystep of this process,
every step, every step, Krispy,Kremes, Jack in the Box,
Wendy's. And I can keep going.
But this, this, no, within amile and a half of my apartment
complex, I never I didn't knowwhat health food was, what is,

(44:06):
quote, health food. I didn'tknow what organic meant. I never
saw anything regarding that wedidn't have any gems. I didn't
know what yoga was like. None ofthis stuff existed in my
reality. So when I'm tellingwhen I'm sharing this about
personal change. I'm saying thisfrom some of the worst possible
circumstances right here in theUnited States, right, which is
even beautiful compared to othercountries, right? So what the

(44:29):
number one thing for me, and Iwant to encourage this for
everybody, not just for you, butdo this for somebody else. The
number one thing, the only thingI needed, was exposure. I just
needed to know that it waspossible. And so part of that
was for me, I started, I wasbattling with my own health
issues, and I was always placingthe blame on physicians, like,

(44:50):
why won't Somebody help me? Ihad this story. It's like, why
me, why me, why me. But Ifinally asked, What can I do to
get better? Right? And. When Idid, I started to literally,
because there's, there's amental reflex is called
instinctive elaboration, which Italk about as well, which your
brain is really run on.
Questions. Questions are theanswer, right questions the

(45:11):
answer. Your brain is constantlyscanning your internal and
external environment to finddata to reaffirm the question
that you hold dominantly, thatyour dominant question. So I
finally asked, What can I do toget better? And it's just, so
happens, there was a girl, awoman, that I've been talking to
for like, three years, and, youknow, on and off, and she

(45:32):
graduated from chiropracticschool, and after I made this
decision, this kind ofRevelation, to really do
something to get myself healthy.
Now, like, even though I knewher this whole time, now, she's
taking me to Wild Oats, right,which was bought up by Whole
Foods back in the day. But, Imean, it's, course, it's the
other side of town, you know, 45minutes away from Ferguson. But
now I'm like, What the What isall of this? What does organic

(45:55):
mean? What is this? You know,why they have so much more real
food and your whole foods here,why is the middle aisle smaller?
Why are they making juice? Whyis there grass inside? Right? It
was weak grasses, so. But myexposure changed, and, you know,
just be already I was, you know,doing some different research in
college, but now I use my skillsand really focus on becoming a

(46:18):
research scientist. And now youknow, coming across studies, and
some of the first books that Iread were at this bookstore
there at Wild Oats, and they hadpeer reviewed studies on
improving bone density, whichthat was my problem. I had
severe arthritic condition of myspine when I was 20, which is
unheard of, right? And now I'vegot these peer reviewed studies
talking about things like sulfurbearing amino acids and the

(46:39):
importance of omega threes formy bone density. Nobody ever
told me that. And so thatexposure is so important, guys.
So get yourself around people.
It'll be very if you're hangingout with with us. You know, here
doing this podcast today, we allgo out to eat. We're probably
not going to roll up and stop atWendy's, you know, low
probability. So get yourselftoday's episode brought to you

(47:01):
by Wendy's Baconator,eight different styles of bacon
in one sandwich. Sorry, keepgoing. It's not really brought
to us by that.
It's so just keeping that incontext, you know. So really
make it a mandate to getyourself like with social media,
even though we're distance rightnow, get yourself around
information that's encouragingwith your health. You know, I

(47:24):
know that the other stuff can bevery attractive, but the stuff
that's stressing you out, that'smaking you feel disempowered,
that's making you feelinadequate, you can absolutely
curate your social feed and justget yourself immersed in things
that make you feel good, sure.
So please do that. So numberone, exposure and access. You
know, even if I happen to besomebody that inspires you in
this domain, just, you know, seewhat I'm up to, check out my my

(47:46):
show. Check out, you know, justget yourself around that
information. I promise you,it'll start to really change you
from the inside out, becauseit's literally changing your
brain. So that's number one.
Number Two with that, simplechange, right? Simple change.
Most people are not the likeovernight rip the band aid off,
kind of people, right?

(48:08):
Right? And how do we and alsothe money
aspect, right? You, what youjust described is is expensive.
It's more expensive to eat withthe foods you're talking about,
a diversity of foods from avariety of locations that are
organic, that don't have theyou're talking about tripling
some people's food budget at atime when they can't necessarily
do it. So, yeah, we got toexpose ourselves to this, but
give us, give me a hack, or Ican get through
this. Yeah, yeah. Like when Ilived in Ferguson, and, you

(48:31):
know, I got exposed to all ofthis great nutrition
information, I was alsosuffering from this other
condition called broke allright,
so it affects a lot of us.
But here's the thing, so numberone, we've got to be honest
about this, which is, it's stillabout priorities. Because, you
know, my next door neighbor atthe apartment complex, he always

(48:52):
had the new Jordans, right? Youknow, you can it's a priority
thing. Number one, first andforemost, I started to invest in
my health, in my in my body. Andthe crazy thing is, when I did
that, I started to make moremoney. And crazy, here's the
craziest part. Within a fewyears, the companies that I was
buying these different foodsfrom, you know, like I was

(49:13):
buying, you know, go Gibberries, you can find anywhere
now. But I was like, theyweren't at store. So I was,
like, ordering them from theTibetan School of Medicine,
yeah, which was crazy, butanyways, but now, within a
couple of years, all thesecompanies started paying, buying
my food for me. They weresending me all of this stuff
because I had made aninvestment, and it became part
of my my universe, right? Soinvest in yourself. It's going

(49:36):
to come back in a magnitude. Butalso, Ferguson did have a
farmer's market. They had afarmer's market, and I could get
three, you know, bunches of ofkale for the same price that it
would cost at Whole Foods,right, right for one, for one,
right, right, right, right,right. So there's always a way,

(49:58):
right? So there's CSAs. There's,you know, community gardens, so
many different things like that.
And also, of course, then youget to the to the bare bones of
like, what are the mostinexpensive but highest leverage
things that we can do? Right?
Give me some of those. Give mesome of those. So this was a
study, this was published inmedicine and science and sports
and exercise, found that just a2% drop in your body's baseline

(50:19):
hydration level leads to mentalimpairment, Oh, for sure,
requiring attention, motorcoordination, executive
function. The list goes on andon. We're trying to have more
energy. We're trying to be ableto look for this next nootropic,
you know, I want the limitlesspill. The number one thing is
water. Yeah, number one thing,and this is something here in

(50:39):
this country, we all have accessto. Yeah, there's nuance with
water, of course, but justensuring that you're getting
your hydration levels met, thiswas game changing for me.
I mean, look, that's my I run, Irun marathons. I've done a lot
of backpacking, and you know,the joke in backpacking is,
there's the 3c of making sure,and it's the first thing you

(51:00):
worry about, and that your urineis clear, copious and frequent,
and if it's not those threethings, then you are definitely
not properly hydrated, and youneed to be drinking more
water. I love it. I loveit. I mean, I know that's like
we've gotten. We've talked aboutsome look body processes that we
all we all do, we don't alwaystalk about, but it's important
to know, like to your point, youknow, hydration, if you do any

(51:20):
kind of outdoors or extremesports of any kind like that,
that is, that is step one, ismaking sure that you don't get
dehydrated. Every singlesurvival book will tell you you
can survive, like a monthwithout food. You're you're all
sorts of stuff will happen toyou when you start to go for too
long without food, but you can'tsurvive three days without
water. That is the first thingyou have to secure when you are

(51:43):
lost in the woods, is a freshwater source that will not make
you sick. And that is, right,that's it's a super important
part, and it's something that alot of us underestimate. We take
all these diuretics. We're alldrinking a lot of coffee, and
that all that doing, all that'sdoing, is dehydrating us even
more, although there's been someresearch that the water and
coffee actually does counteractsome of its own diuretic
effects. But the bottom line is,you need to be, you need to be

(52:04):
drinking water. We it's, it's,it's, it's too important. We've
talked too much about it.
There's too many studies likeyou're saying, and how it's
connected to everything and allof the processes that we're
talking about. And you talkabout magnesium earlier, and how
important that is for makingyour brain healthy. If we don't
have the water, the magnesium isnot getting through our body in
the right way. And theseprocesses are actually, you

(52:25):
know, are actually not going tohelp us if we don't have enough
water. So that is your that isreally good, actionable. First
step is to make sure that we arehydrated.
Yeah, thank you for that. And bythe way, when you just mentioned
magnesium, it's an electrolyte,right? Sodium is an electrolyte.
So sodium literally enables youryour brain cells to have
transduction, to actuallycommunicate and talk to each

(52:46):
other. So, you know, so it's notjust the water, but also having
some structures, some mineralsin the water, that's going to be
helpful. But I want to givepeople something that is much
more visceral, because evenwith, like, you know, I'm out
here competing, I need to makesure that I'm getting hydrated.
Or, you know, the cognitiveside. That might not be the
trigger for you, but what if Itell you how water can actually

(53:06):
make you burn fat faster. Gotell me. Give it to me. Give it
to me. This study. So this wasreally crazy. This was it's
something called Water inducedthermogenesis. And what the
researchers discovered was thatsimply drinking 17 ounces of
water just within a couple ofminutes, made the test subjects
instantly have about a 30%increase in their metabolic

(53:29):
rate. Basically, they they burnlike 30 calories more by doing
nothing different but justdrinking water, 30 to 50
calories. And so with that said,what we can do here is simply by
getting meeting your hydrationneeds, you're going to burn, you
know, upwards of 200 300 morecalories a day just by drinking
water. It's not because of thetemperature of the water. It's

(53:50):
because water makes everythingwork better, yeah, because all
of your hormones related to fatloss and fat storage, your
neurotransmitters, they're alloperating in a water medium, so
a couple times a day. You knowwhat? One of the things that I
encourage people to do is tostart their day by taking an
inner bath. Right? Take an innerbath.
I can feel it when I chug waterthe first thing in the morning.

(54:11):
It's like I can just feel itmoving through my body.
Obviously, it's psychosomatic,because you can't really it's
it's not going the places that Ifeel it, but it like tingles
from my head down my shoulders.
I feel like a coolness throughmy chest. I can feel the water
bathing my insides.
I don't think it's justpsychosomatic. It's like there's
some, there's some reallyhardcore evidence to support

(54:33):
that, you know, because, again,water is unlike, like you just
mentioned, with food being anecessity, water is one of the
macronutrients that's not talkedabout. It's one of the major
five macronutrients. We talk somuch about proteins, fats and
carbohydrates, and there's a lotof infighting about those
things, and hardly anybody'stalking about water and also
alcohol, by the way, which wetalk about any smarter,
dehydrates you. There's a lot ofnuance there with alcohol, but

(54:57):
we're not taking anything away.
That's the key as well. Sohere's the thing. So with with
water, it's it's so quicklyabsorbed through your intestinal
wall and makes its way into yourbloodstream so quickly, makes
its way into your brain soquickly, your brain has the
blood brain barrier, which onlyallows in very specific
nutrients. Yep, right. So it'slike, we call it neuro

(55:19):
nutrition. It's very choosy, butthey're expressed like you get
like an Express Pass at a tollbooth, their express lanes for
water. So important, your brainis upwards of about 80% water.
All right, is crucial. It's themost water dominant organ in
your body, next to your lungs.
So get start, start each day bytaking what I call an inner

(55:42):
bath, because we wake up in themorning. Whether you realize it
or not, you're actually very,very dehydrated, right? Because
when you're sleeping, your bodygoes through so many different
metabolic processes, and Italked about this in my first
book and sleep smarter yearsago. All use water, yeah. And so
your brain, for example, there'sthe glial cells your brain has.
So your brain, again, that bloodbrain barrier, your brain has

(56:02):
its own cleaning systems calledthe glymphatic system. Your
brain is doing millions ofprocesses every second, and
there's a lot of metabolic wastethat needs to get cleared out.
And so when you're dehydratedand when you're sleeping, by the
way, your glial cells isglymphatic system is 10 times
more active when you'resleeping, just again, like
cleaning house, creatingcognitive connections, laying

(56:24):
down myelin, all this stuff, butthere's a lot of metabolic waste
when you get up in the morning.
Drinking Water literally helpsyour body and your brain to
flush these metabolic wastesout. Because, contrary to
popular belief, when you quote,burn fat, when a fat cell
empties its contents, we'll justsay, you know, some storage
triglycerides. It can getreabsorbed somewhere else. We've
got to get it out of the system,you know, we got to get it

(56:46):
shuttled over to themitochondria to actually, quote,
get burned. So again, all ofthis hap is happening in a water
super highway. Get up in themorning, drink at least 20
ounces to 30 ounces of water tostart your day, just within the
first 30 minutes. Whatever thatlooks like. For you, some people
don't like the taste of water,which, you know, some people
like it doesn't have a taste.
You know, there are subtledifferences with water, with

(57:08):
water taste. So I'd encourageyou to try different types of
water, different TDs, totaldissolved solids, with minerals.
And also, like my wife, in themorning, she doesn't like to
drink room temperature or coldwater. She likes hot water with
lemon, so that's what she's beendoing for, you know, as long as
we've been together, really, andI've been doing my inner bath
for about 15 years every singlemorning. So first thing I do to

(57:30):
start my day,yeah, it's super important. And
look, I've taken up a lot ofyour time. We have barely
touched what is in the book Eatsmarter. So link to where to buy
eat smarter is in the shownotes. You need to get it. I
mean, we, there's so many thingsI wanted to talk about today. I
wanted to talk we, we barelytouched food and metabolism.
We've barely touched our wespent most of today talking just

(57:51):
about the microbiome. And ifthis is how much information
we're getting about ourmicrobiome from Sean, then then
we really, we all need to bereading this book. We also
trying you you need, you need tocome back. Because I really, I
want to go. I want to talk moreabout the psychology of food and
how we can start to get into thekind of foods that we're
supposed to be eating, and wecan break some of our habits. I

(58:11):
understand that it's acomplicated topic, but I really
want to, I think that for a lotof us, the psychology of how we
eat is super important. Thesehabits that you're talking
about, where we're reaching forthe same five foods that is
connected to stuff that goesback for a lot of us to our
childhoods, and we need to bebreaking those habits up. So I
know you got to go, but I dowant to have you back so at

(58:32):
least we can talk about that thebook again. Eat smarter. Link to
where to buy in the show notes.
Sean, if people want to followup with you, where can they
follow up with you, perfect.
I appreciate it so much. And ofcourse, I'll be happy to come
back. Is really, really fun,where people listening to this
awesome podcast, they can findmy show is called the model
health show. The model healthshow. And, you know, I'm

(58:54):
people may not realize this,you're a very good looking guy.
The Model health show is thefact that you're a model that's
that's. So it's important forpeople to know, not a model. I'm
not, well, your PR people sentover a lot of pictures of you
working out, and you are amodel. So that's, that's where
the modelhealth show comes from.
Well, I'll take but I'm justreally wanting to set a model

(59:16):
for what's possible, you know,especially coming from, come
from, but also helping people tocreate their own model of
health. And you know, that'swhat we really strive to do.
Really strive to do. So peoplecan follow my my show. There the
model health show. And also, youknow, you can pick up the book
anywhere books are sold, Barnesand Noble, bam, Amazon, all that
good stuff. Also, the audio bookso freaking powerful. I love the

(59:37):
fact that the audio book is outnow, and it's just like taking
off. It was the number one audiobook and nutrition and health in
the US when it came out. So Ijust want to keep the momentum
rolling. Really work on gettingour citizens Healthier, Get our
communities and our familieshealthier. It's so, so important
right now.
Link to the model health showwebsite where you can get all
this other stuff, as well as thelink to, again, the audio and

(59:58):
the the writ. Book of eatsmarter Sean, one last thing.
And I ask it to everybody, whatis one last one thing we can all
start doing today that will makeour lives a whole lot better?
Oh, that'sthat is such a tough question. I
know, I know, you know. I'm justgonna share what comes up for
me. I would say just talk withsomebody who makes you feel

(01:00:22):
good. Talk with somebody thatthat that brings a smile to your
face. Talk with somebody whomakes you laugh, or that just
that cares cares about you, thatyou know cares about you. It's
so important right now, myoldest son, he just started his
college, but he just sent me avideo from his high school. This
was back in we moved from StLouis recently. We're in Los

(01:00:45):
Angeles now, but, man, he sentme this video from one of our
local news stations that I'vedone a lot of work with these
guys. And it was a report on thehigh school kids there,
Lafayette and Marquette, which Iwent to Lafayette when I was a
kid as well, and that's where hewent. And the shocking rates of
suicide that we're seeing withour kids, and the there was
about 800 kids surveyed, and 500of those kids thought about

(01:01:08):
taking their own lives. And thisis something that's also not
being talked about during thistime in isolation, that should
get a lot more consideration. Iwas so proud of this news
station for doing this work, butthat's why I did work with him
back when I lived there, becausethey did stuff like this. But
he's my son. Has lost several ofhis friends that he went to
school with, and I really justenough is enough. We have to

(01:01:30):
talk to each other. We have toreally just be there for each
other, because so many people,it's just like I didn't know.
You know, we don't see thesymptoms the further we get away
from our humanity that's when westart to lose track of who we
are and what we're all about. Sotalk with somebody today that
you care about, check in onthem, extend some love, send a
couple of texts out just to letpeople know that you appreciate,

(01:01:53):
that you're thinking about them.
And again, this is a big part ofour overall health, is our
community and our connection andloving each other. Sean, we
have so many ways that we couldbe connecting with people right
now, even though we're isolatedand you're really you're
speaking something that that alot of us have lost, and we've
been so isolated, it's sopainful, we need to use the
tools that we have. We'restaring at our screens all day.

(01:02:15):
You know, first off, fill yourfeed up with the good things,
not the bad things, the thingsthat make you be better, not the
things that make you feel worse.
And then put down the socialmedia and actually get social
face time, the friend zoom, thefriend text them. Don't just be
scrolling through social mediaall the time and watching
Netflix, not there's anythingwrong with either of those

(01:02:36):
things. But yeah, I think, Ithink that's that's huge. I
think we all need to be doingthat. We're social animals, and
for a lot of us, we haven'treally been taking advantage of
what we could be doing rightnow. So Sean, you're amazing. I
really appreciate your timetoday. We just We I have no
choice. Ihave to have you back. Awesome.
Thank you so much for having me.

(01:02:57):
That's it for ourshow today. Thank you guys so
much for listening. If you likethe show, please rate, comment
and subscribe on Apple podcast,Spotify, Stitcher, wherever you
get your podcast. Helps us out alot. Just hit that like or hit
that subscribe button, hit hitthe Rate button. There's a lot
for us. So please, please,please help us out by doing that
and share this with a friend. Ifyou share this with one person
that doubles our listenership,folks, if you want to follow up
with us, facebook.com/john,Tesh, we're spending a ton of

(01:03:20):
time there. You can check us outthere. Also, John is on
Instagram. At John Teshunderscore, if I'll, I have Gib
Gerard. Can you find me atfacebook.com/girard, at Gib
Gerard. On Instagram andTwitter, try to respond every
mention the show, every DM,every every suggestion that you
guys have, I try to respond tobecause, most importantly, I do
the show for you guys. So thankyou so much for listening. You