1 00:00:17,199 --> 00:00:20,519 And we're back with another edition of Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Tristan Justice. 2 00:00:20,640 --> 00:00:24,039 As always, you can email the show at radio at the Federalists dot com, 3 00:00:24,199 --> 00:00:28,239 follow us on Twitter at fdr LST. Make sure to subscribe wherever you 4 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:32,439 download your podcast and the premium version of our website. Today, I'm joined 5 00:00:32,439 --> 00:00:36,719 by doctor Georgia Eed, an author in psychiatrist who specializes in nutrition, brain 6 00:00:36,799 --> 00:00:40,600 metabolism, and mental health. Georgia, thank you for joining me. Thank 7 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:44,679 you very much for inviting me, Tristin. So let's dive right into your 8 00:00:44,679 --> 00:00:49,439 recent roundbreaking book just released, Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind. My 9 00:00:49,520 --> 00:00:52,759 takeaway from this book was really similar to what I came away with from doctor 10 00:00:52,840 --> 00:00:55,560 Christopher Palmer's book which came out about a year and a half ago, call 11 00:00:55,560 --> 00:00:59,560 it Brain Energy, which is that most of our problems are really foutable, 12 00:00:59,719 --> 00:01:03,920 not druggable, and that all this, all these mental health issues, it's 13 00:01:03,959 --> 00:01:08,280 all one disease, metabolgic dysfunction. My subtect readers know that I'm writing another 14 00:01:08,319 --> 00:01:11,159 whole book on this, related to the OBESID epidemic and kind of tying it 15 00:01:11,159 --> 00:01:15,079 all back to you know, this one crisis, not necessarily a mental health 16 00:01:15,120 --> 00:01:21,439 crisis or disease crisis. It's a lifestyle crisis considering how we eat and live 17 00:01:21,480 --> 00:01:25,319 and work today. But of course we've kind of fallen into this track where 18 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:27,159 we don't really ask ourselves what we could be doing about our own situations. 19 00:01:27,239 --> 00:01:32,840 We want doctors to fix them for us with a cheat, well expensive but 20 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:38,519 cheap in terms of effort, pharmaceutical fix. Your book was really tailored into 21 00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:41,680 what kinds of foods we should be eating and why and how we should be 22 00:01:41,680 --> 00:01:44,799 eating. So I want to start off by just having you tell us about 23 00:01:44,799 --> 00:01:49,359 your book. Sure, So thanks for asking about it and thanks for reading 24 00:01:49,400 --> 00:01:55,000 it. Yeah. So I wrote the book because I want people with mental 25 00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,400 health conditions of all kinds, anybody who's worried about their mental health, which 26 00:01:57,439 --> 00:02:00,200 is now the vast maturity of us. I mean, if you don't have 27 00:02:00,239 --> 00:02:05,439 a mental health condition yourself, then someone very close to you certainly does that. 28 00:02:05,719 --> 00:02:10,759 You know, dietary changes can be really powerful therapeutic interventions. They can 29 00:02:10,879 --> 00:02:16,479 change your improve your mental health in ways that no medicine can, sometimes even 30 00:02:16,479 --> 00:02:21,800 within a matter of just a few weeks. But you have to know which 31 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:25,000 dietary changes are the ones to make and they're not the ones that we're used 32 00:02:25,039 --> 00:02:29,120 to hearing about. So I really this book I wrote to empower people, 33 00:02:29,120 --> 00:02:35,360 give people hope, even people with longstanding serious mental illnesses, who've tried lots 34 00:02:35,360 --> 00:02:38,759 of medications, been out of the hospital. For people who think that they've 35 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:43,159 tried everything, I want them to know that there's so much more they can 36 00:02:43,199 --> 00:02:46,159 do if they have the right information. And she seems like there's so much 37 00:02:46,159 --> 00:02:50,639 misinformation about there about what kinds of foods we should eating. When people talk 38 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:54,400 about changing or fixing their diet, they think will more fruits and vegetables, 39 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:59,199 you know, an aggressive food and vegetable load. But you talked a lot 40 00:02:59,199 --> 00:03:01,439 about your book about the different kinds of foods we should be eating and how 41 00:03:02,120 --> 00:03:06,919 the vegan diet, for example, has so many pitfalls in terms of you 42 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,840 talk about anti nutrients found in a lot of these different popular food items. 43 00:03:12,039 --> 00:03:15,360 Can talk about a little bit about what kinds of foods we should be eating 44 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:20,280 and debunk some of the most popular myths surrounding a healthy diet today. Yes, 45 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:23,360 you know, we've been told and we've really fed the wrong information about 46 00:03:23,439 --> 00:03:28,759 nutrition for decades, really for fifty seventy five years now. So we've been 47 00:03:28,800 --> 00:03:31,240 feeding our brains and the rest of our bodies improperly for our entire lives, 48 00:03:31,240 --> 00:03:36,479 for generations, and that's really catching up to us because almost none of us 49 00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:39,479 are healthy anymore. Depending on which study you look at, it's about ninety 50 00:03:39,479 --> 00:03:46,439 percent of us have at least one marker of metabolic dysfunction, and this affects 51 00:03:46,439 --> 00:03:51,479 every cell in the body. And so we're eating improperly because the information that 52 00:03:51,479 --> 00:03:55,599 we've been given is not based on science or biology or experiments. It's based 53 00:03:55,599 --> 00:04:03,159 on guesswork and untested theory about what certain groups of nutrition scientists think we should 54 00:04:03,159 --> 00:04:10,840 be eating, and so those untested theories are published as high blot, as 55 00:04:11,159 --> 00:04:15,639 headlines and as dietary guidelines. I mean, most of our dietary guidelines actually 56 00:04:15,680 --> 00:04:23,199 rest upon this guesswork as opposed to human biology and food ingredients and what we've 57 00:04:23,199 --> 00:04:27,279 known about nutrition to be true for so long, about the very basic facts 58 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:30,360 about human biology and what every cell requires to be healthy. So, for 59 00:04:30,399 --> 00:04:35,000 example, we are told that the foundation of our diet not only that should 60 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:40,879 it be high carbohydrate, but the types of carbohydrates that should form the foundation 61 00:04:40,920 --> 00:04:45,560 of the diet are things like old grains and lagoons, and so not only 62 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:48,399 are these very starchy and so therefore you know they're not going to be safe 63 00:04:48,399 --> 00:04:55,160 for you if you have a significant degree of metabolic you know, damage pre 64 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:59,839 diabetes, type two diabetes, something called insulin resistance. We can talk about 65 00:04:59,839 --> 00:05:05,680 all those of you want, but the majority of us now have unfortunately damaged 66 00:05:05,759 --> 00:05:10,720 carbohydrate metabolism, and so, uh, you know, the more of those 67 00:05:10,759 --> 00:05:14,360 carbohydrates who eat, the higher endslaline levels going to go up, and the 68 00:05:14,360 --> 00:05:16,199 more damage is going to be doing over time. So not only are they 69 00:05:16,240 --> 00:05:20,639 just too high in carbohydrate for the majority of us now, but they're also 70 00:05:20,720 --> 00:05:27,439 extremely low in nutrients. Uh so low in nutrients that products made with grains 71 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:31,160 are routinely fortified with lots of vitamins and minerals because they don't possess very many 72 00:05:31,199 --> 00:05:36,120 of them themselves. So and then they're also full of naturally full of anti 73 00:05:36,199 --> 00:05:43,639 nutrients that you know that plants naturally produce to guard their nutrients for themselves. 74 00:05:44,040 --> 00:05:46,560 And then on top of that, you know, we have the issue that 75 00:05:46,639 --> 00:05:51,800 a lot of these foods are are really hard to digest and and can irritate 76 00:05:51,839 --> 00:05:57,120 the gut lining cant can aggravate the immune system. Uh and and so there 77 00:05:57,120 --> 00:06:02,040 are lots of these There is no good reason to base your diet on these 78 00:06:02,040 --> 00:06:05,720 foods. They really don't deserve to be the foundation of our diet. But 79 00:06:05,800 --> 00:06:12,160 yet we're told that that should be something like forty to sixty percent of our 80 00:06:12,199 --> 00:06:16,920 diet, should be complex starches and refined starches, pastas and breads and cereals 81 00:06:16,959 --> 00:06:21,160 and things like that. And in the meantime, oh, go ahead, 82 00:06:21,519 --> 00:06:26,600 no, please, please. In the meantime, there's so much anxiety about 83 00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:31,839 people eating meat. There's this whole industry now to even dissuade people from eating 84 00:06:32,040 --> 00:06:34,600 meat, as if meat is bad for you. There are a group of 85 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:41,120 scientists a couple of months ago who even proposed putting warning labels on meat products 86 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:45,079 like we do with cigarettes. And you talk a lot about in your book 87 00:06:45,079 --> 00:06:49,720 about how meat is really a super food containing all the right minerals and nutrients 88 00:06:49,720 --> 00:06:56,199 that we actually need to function optimally. And so I wonder if you can 89 00:06:56,240 --> 00:07:00,720 talk about kind of some of the different myths surrounding meat itself. Yeah, 90 00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:03,439 so there's a whole chapter in the book. So one of the things about 91 00:07:03,439 --> 00:07:09,279 the book is that the about a quarter of it is a series of chapters 92 00:07:09,319 --> 00:07:12,959 on different whole foods to help people understand what are the pros and cons of 93 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:15,120 eating meat, what are the pros and cons of eating grains, What are 94 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:17,279 the pros and consivating dairy and fruits and vegetables, et cetera. Right, 95 00:07:17,519 --> 00:07:21,319 so it kind of really dive into it. And the meat chapter, you 96 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:26,480 know, really, it could have been one sentence. It could have just 97 00:07:26,519 --> 00:07:30,199 been your meat is good for you, full stop. But the reason why 98 00:07:30,199 --> 00:07:31,759 I had to write a whole chapter about it is because it's the opposite of 99 00:07:31,759 --> 00:07:35,519 what we've been told. There are lots and lots and lots of scary headlines 100 00:07:35,519 --> 00:07:42,199 about meat causing colon cancer, causing heart disease, causing obesity, just you 101 00:07:42,240 --> 00:07:45,279 know, you name the disease and meat has been blamed for it. And 102 00:07:45,519 --> 00:07:49,720 when you but you actually look at the science behind those claims, there there 103 00:07:49,800 --> 00:07:55,680 is no evidence. There's no evidence for any of any of those claims. 104 00:07:56,240 --> 00:08:01,600 In fact, when you actually look at reliable sources of science where scientists have 105 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:05,600 actually done experiments or they've actually looked inside meat to see what's inside and and 106 00:08:05,639 --> 00:08:09,639 how good it is for what you see, is every nutrient you need in 107 00:08:09,720 --> 00:08:16,439 its proper form without any anti nutrients, easy to digest, is incapable of 108 00:08:16,480 --> 00:08:22,480 creating unhealthy levels of blood sugar and insulin, metabolically healthy, nutritionally healthy, 109 00:08:22,959 --> 00:08:31,079 uh gastrointestinely safe, and so they're just it's the most perfect source of food 110 00:08:31,160 --> 00:08:35,279 that you that you can imagine, and yet it is the most vilified. 111 00:08:35,879 --> 00:08:41,080 And you know the reasons for that are really complex, but when you look 112 00:08:41,120 --> 00:08:43,879 at the simple facts about it, there's just there's absolutely no question that these 113 00:08:43,919 --> 00:08:48,120 foods are essential for human health, for physical health, for mental health, 114 00:08:48,639 --> 00:08:56,240 and there's it's almost difficult to to what's sort I'm looking for. It's almost 115 00:08:56,279 --> 00:09:03,919 difficult to prove that we needed to eat anything more than that. The evidence 116 00:09:03,960 --> 00:09:07,240 behind grains and vegetables and fruits. It's not that you can't get nutrients from 117 00:09:07,240 --> 00:09:11,840 those foods. It's not as though most people need to avoid those foods. 118 00:09:11,879 --> 00:09:16,720 It's just that they get a lot more credit than they deserve, and meat 119 00:09:16,519 --> 00:09:22,000 gets blamed for all of these diseases, which really most of these diseases have 120 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:26,919 to do with high glucose and insulin levels, which are coming from refined carbohydrates 121 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,639 largely. So a lot of these studies when they look at meat and they 122 00:09:31,639 --> 00:09:37,159 try to blame problems on meat, it's meat in combination with refined carbohydrates like 123 00:09:37,200 --> 00:09:41,759 breads and sugars and flowers and so forth, and so one of the things 124 00:09:41,759 --> 00:09:45,200 that might be helpful for people to members it's not the meat, it's the 125 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:48,320 sweet So if you put a piece of meat on the barbecue that's perfectly healthy 126 00:09:48,360 --> 00:09:52,639 for you, douse it in sugary barbecue sauce, now you have a problem. 127 00:09:52,039 --> 00:09:56,399 So there's a lot of confusing messages about food out there, and that's 128 00:09:56,399 --> 00:10:01,720 I think one of the biggest ones is that meat is the most dangerous food 129 00:10:01,759 --> 00:10:07,279 you can eat, when actually the opposite is what's true. Are you concerned 130 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:09,799 at all about the level of processing of our meat supply, because one of 131 00:10:09,840 --> 00:10:13,960 the arguments about meat is that meat today is so much different than the meat 132 00:10:13,960 --> 00:10:18,440 we were consuming even just one hundred years ago. And so, I mean, 133 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:22,799 meat's been such an important part of human diet throughout our entire species. 134 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:26,480 We're talked about forty thousand years of evolution. But on the other hand, 135 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:33,240 our food supply today is radically different from even how it was even just seventy 136 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:39,000 years ago. And so are you concerned about how you know meat? It's 137 00:10:39,000 --> 00:10:41,720 so general, such a general term. Are you concerned about the level of 138 00:10:41,759 --> 00:10:46,879 processing and the meat supply. I'm concerned about the quality of our food supply 139 00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:50,279 in general, so meat as well as plant, so animal foods as well 140 00:10:50,279 --> 00:10:54,519 as plant foods. You know, all of these have been many of these 141 00:10:54,519 --> 00:10:58,919 suits have been co opted by the food industry processed, you know, appearing 142 00:10:58,919 --> 00:11:03,720 to add value, but really are just anything you do to a food, 143 00:11:03,120 --> 00:11:09,200 anything you do to meat, including cooking, it can reduce its nutritional value. 144 00:11:09,720 --> 00:11:13,600 So the less process the better as far as I'm concerned for meat. 145 00:11:15,159 --> 00:11:20,480 But I would still say despite the many, many, very real problems which 146 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:24,919 I do try to address in the book regarding our food production system both a 147 00:11:24,000 --> 00:11:26,840 plant and animal foods. The way we grow food, the way we treat 148 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:31,799 animals, the way we treat people who who produce our food, the way 149 00:11:31,919 --> 00:11:33,519 the way we damage the environment and the production of the food, all of 150 00:11:33,559 --> 00:11:37,559 these things, the way we feed the animals, and the way and the 151 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,039 way we the way we try to nourish the soil of the plants, all 152 00:11:41,120 --> 00:11:50,720 of these systems are have tremendously, tremendously complicated negative effects on the health of 153 00:11:50,759 --> 00:11:52,679 the planet, on the health of people, on the health of animals and 154 00:11:54,279 --> 00:12:00,440 plants, and so many many problems. However, if you are concerned about 155 00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:03,840 your health, you have to eat, and you have to make the best 156 00:12:03,919 --> 00:12:07,559 choices you can. And if you had a choice, say, for example, 157 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:11,200 between a processed meat, I always, you know, I advocate for 158 00:12:11,519 --> 00:12:16,720 fresh and frozen, minimally processed animal foods in my book and my life and 159 00:12:16,759 --> 00:12:22,279 with my patients. But if you had a choice between a processed piece of 160 00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:26,440 meat, like say, a piece of salami or a hot dog or uh 161 00:12:26,639 --> 00:12:33,039 you know, uh name name a slice of bacan versus a cupcake or a 162 00:12:33,039 --> 00:12:39,480 bowl of cereal or yogurt with sugar in it, that piece of processed meat 163 00:12:39,559 --> 00:12:43,480 is going to be infinitely healthier for you, infinitely more nutritious, infinitely safer 164 00:12:43,519 --> 00:12:50,000 for your metabolism than the processed plant food option would be. And I think 165 00:12:50,000 --> 00:12:54,639 a lot of people don't realize that. You know, I'm not a fan 166 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:58,799 of process foods of any kind, but when you process carbohydrates, what you 167 00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:05,159 end up with is a really metabolically dangerous product of naked carbohydrates that a tsunami 168 00:13:05,159 --> 00:13:11,600 of glucose molecules and insulin in your system. Even process needs, unless they've 169 00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:15,440 had sugar added to them, are incapable of that kind of metabolic damage, 170 00:13:15,639 --> 00:13:20,200 and they're far more nutritious. So I'm not a fan of process foods, 171 00:13:20,279 --> 00:13:24,879 but again, you need to I think people need to understand what they're actually 172 00:13:24,879 --> 00:13:30,200 deciding between and have the right information so that they can make better choices for 173 00:13:30,240 --> 00:13:37,840 themselves. Debt it keeps you tossing and turning at night. You just can't 174 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:41,080 get away from it. 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The bottom line is they find every solution possible to end your 183 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:22,360 debt permanently. Before you do anything, contact Pivotal Debt Solutions first. Talk 184 00:14:22,399 --> 00:14:26,639 to them for free. Find out how fast they can help you get out 185 00:14:26,679 --> 00:14:33,360 of debt. Visit zapmydebt dot com. That's zapmdebt dot com. Zapmidebt dot 186 00:14:33,399 --> 00:14:39,600 com. The processing was really a key takeaway from a book I read from 187 00:14:39,720 --> 00:14:45,159 doctor Robert Lustig called Metabolical, which you cite in your book, and his 188 00:14:45,279 --> 00:14:48,799 monitor aout the entire book was it's not what's in the feud, it's what's 189 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:52,039 been done to the food. And that was so eye opening to see. 190 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:54,440 I mean, walking through the grocery store, I feel like I'm wearing the 191 00:14:54,480 --> 00:14:58,200 tinfoil hat on sometimes because I feel like there's almost nothing walking down the aisle 192 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:03,960 that I want to purchase that I feel safe purchasing. You have to really 193 00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:09,600 look for the unprocessed items that have been barely industrialized. And so meanwhile, 194 00:15:09,639 --> 00:15:15,360 as our food supply changes and as the American diet changes, we're just deteriorating 195 00:15:15,360 --> 00:15:18,759 into the best with product disease and mental health crisis. And it's not just 196 00:15:18,759 --> 00:15:22,799 that we're not eating correctly, we're not sleeping right, we're not in sync 197 00:15:22,840 --> 00:15:26,639 with our circadian rhythms. There just seems to be a lack of awareness as 198 00:15:26,720 --> 00:15:31,080 to how we're going about our lifestyles, and of course diet is I would 199 00:15:31,159 --> 00:15:35,480 argue, probably the most fundamental part of that. And I don't want to 200 00:15:35,519 --> 00:15:39,600 necessarily write off medication for sake psychiatric issues, but I think it's such an 201 00:15:39,639 --> 00:15:45,960 interesting contradiction to note that when we're looking at the record number of prescription drugs 202 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,639 that we're pushing out to the country, particularly antidepressants, and then you look 203 00:15:50,679 --> 00:15:56,759 at the World Happiness Survey and how the United States just fell eight spots to 204 00:15:56,879 --> 00:15:58,840 a record low. We're not even in the top twenty now, and where 205 00:16:00,559 --> 00:16:06,120 prescribe, we're prescribing all these antidepressants at record numbers. And I thought Bill 206 00:16:06,159 --> 00:16:08,879 Maher made a really excellent plan on this the other day when he talked about 207 00:16:10,919 --> 00:16:15,960 our mental health crisis. He talked about how maybe you don't have social anxiety 208 00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:18,440 disorder and that you're just shry, and maybe you don't have OCD. You 209 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:22,960 just like things in order. Maybe you're not clinical leader, you're depressed, 210 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:26,960 you're just sat But maybe we have all these issues because we're not eating properly. 211 00:16:27,399 --> 00:16:30,960 And really, the brain is no different from any other organ in the 212 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:36,440 body that when you don't nourish it correctly, it's not going to operate optimally. 213 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:41,919 And so, considering that seventy three percent of US adults prescribed antidepressants haven't 214 00:16:41,960 --> 00:16:45,840 even been diagnosed with depression, I want to know how much of our mental 215 00:16:45,879 --> 00:16:49,840 health crisis do you believe, as a psychiatrist could be relieved if we just 216 00:16:49,919 --> 00:16:56,799 refocused our attention on fixing our diet and our food supply. Yeah, there's 217 00:16:56,960 --> 00:16:59,919 no way for me to prove that this is the case. Of course, 218 00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,720 it's not a question I can answer scientifically, but I can tell you. 219 00:17:02,720 --> 00:17:06,960 You ask me what I think, and based on my knowledge with fifteen years 220 00:17:06,960 --> 00:17:11,839 of studying nutrition and twenty five years of practicing psychiatry, I can tell you 221 00:17:11,880 --> 00:17:15,039 that I think the vast majority of our mental health crisis is directly due to 222 00:17:15,200 --> 00:17:18,720 our lifestyle, mostly our diet, but also, as you said, circadian 223 00:17:18,759 --> 00:17:22,519 rhythms. We don't spend enough time outside exercise. We don't spend enough time 224 00:17:23,039 --> 00:17:27,079 using our bodies, you know, and we spend too much time in front 225 00:17:27,079 --> 00:17:33,440 of screens, and those things are all true. But you could arrange the 226 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:36,559 outside of your life as perfectly as you can imagine. You could have a 227 00:17:36,559 --> 00:17:38,640 wonderful relationship, you could love your work, you could have enough money, 228 00:17:38,799 --> 00:17:42,880 you could spend your time outside, you know, you could get to bed 229 00:17:44,279 --> 00:17:45,680 at the right time. You could do all of these things. But if 230 00:17:45,680 --> 00:17:49,640 you don't eat properly, no matter how good your life looks on the outside, 231 00:17:49,720 --> 00:17:53,759 you are going to be unstable on the inside. Because the foods you 232 00:17:53,839 --> 00:18:00,039 eat determine the balance of the neurotransmitters in the brain, the health of the 233 00:18:00,119 --> 00:18:03,920 cells in your brain, your hormone levels and how they you know, how 234 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,640 they are regulated. And we're not talking just about reproductive hormones. We're talking 235 00:18:07,640 --> 00:18:17,079 about stress hormones and appetite hormones UH and and and and also reproductive hormones and 236 00:18:17,240 --> 00:18:22,920 blood pressure regulating hormones. Everything will be destabilized from within because food is information, 237 00:18:22,519 --> 00:18:26,440 and so when you take that food in, it's telling you, it's 238 00:18:26,519 --> 00:18:30,480 telling your hormones what to do. And a lot of people think they overeat 239 00:18:30,640 --> 00:18:36,599 or they emotionally eat because their hormones are kind of in control because they're stressed, 240 00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:41,319 and and and really a lot of that is the other way around that 241 00:18:41,440 --> 00:18:45,279 what you're eating is telling your hormones to make you eat that way. What 242 00:18:45,319 --> 00:18:51,079 you're eating is making you stressed because it's raising your stress hormone levels. And 243 00:18:51,119 --> 00:18:56,240 if you know which foods are going to be metabolically safe, hormonally friendly, 244 00:18:56,599 --> 00:19:03,160 and brain healthy, then you can add actually stabilize yourself from within. Again, 245 00:19:03,240 --> 00:19:07,599 often within a matter of days, just a few weeks, people can 246 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:12,720 notice tremendous, like really meaningful improvements in their anxiety levels, in their mood, 247 00:19:12,759 --> 00:19:15,960 in their outlook on life, in their energy levels, in their sleep 248 00:19:17,079 --> 00:19:21,039 quality, in their ability to tolerate stress, in their ability to recover from 249 00:19:21,079 --> 00:19:26,079 stressful events. I mean, my gosh. I worked I specialized in college 250 00:19:26,119 --> 00:19:30,279 mental health for thirteen years. I worked at Harvard University Health Service for seven 251 00:19:30,359 --> 00:19:36,319 years and then Smith College more than five years. And what I saw on 252 00:19:36,359 --> 00:19:41,079 college campuses was just people becoming the mental health are young people becoming increasingly brittle. 253 00:19:41,799 --> 00:19:47,200 I mean students, so many students, some who had every advantage, 254 00:19:47,559 --> 00:19:52,079 not all, but unable to manage a day, unable to get through the 255 00:19:52,160 --> 00:19:56,440 day without specialized support, coming into the crisis, coming into our mental health 256 00:19:56,480 --> 00:20:00,960 service in crisis, meeting leaves of absence, you know, needing you know, 257 00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:07,559 UH hospitalization, sometimes having to go to the emergency room, meeting crisis 258 00:20:07,559 --> 00:20:11,400 appointments. We're not well, and and that's not normal. We shouldn't. 259 00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:17,799 We should expect much more from ourselves than that. I'm so glad you brought 260 00:20:17,839 --> 00:20:22,559 up the tech part of this, because I think addiction is such a fundamental 261 00:20:22,599 --> 00:20:29,720 pillar of why we have all these issues. Food is so addictive as it 262 00:20:29,799 --> 00:20:33,240 is with screens and illicit substances. I mean, it's it's all capitalizing on 263 00:20:33,279 --> 00:20:37,039 the reward centers of our brains to make us create these products. Even more 264 00:20:38,480 --> 00:20:42,119 so, it's not just food. It's not just the screens. It's it's 265 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:48,039 it's our day to day where everything is preying on our on our on our 266 00:20:48,039 --> 00:20:55,400 dopamine UH neurotransmitters. Oprah Winfrey just held this special on obesity, which really 267 00:20:55,519 --> 00:20:59,200 was just an hour long time time in commercial for these drug companies with new 268 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:03,119 weight loss drugs. Now, I don't want to discount anyone who might have 269 00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:08,160 taken ozampi ormandua and found really great successful results on a condition it's so hard 270 00:21:08,519 --> 00:21:14,799 to treat. But I'm worried that these weight loss drugs are really just another 271 00:21:14,960 --> 00:21:19,200 example going down this road of needing a pharmaceutical intervention to fix our every problem 272 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:27,200 that can already really be solved by just implementing different lifestyle changes. This specialist 273 00:21:27,359 --> 00:21:30,960 even sponsored by weight Watchers, which ran ads. During it. You had 274 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:37,960 representatives from Noble Ortisks and Eli Lilly participate on air. But look, obesity 275 00:21:37,079 --> 00:21:40,599 is really just has as much to do with the brain as it does with 276 00:21:40,799 --> 00:21:45,480 the rest of our organs. We're all food addicts, and you can be 277 00:21:45,480 --> 00:21:48,640 a food act and not even be OBEs. In fact, I would argue 278 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:49,640 most of us are, and we all have a sweet tooth, right. 279 00:21:51,680 --> 00:21:53,839 But as a psychiatrist, do you think we've gone so far down the rabbit 280 00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:59,599 hole of addiction that mere lifestyle changes are no longer enough to curb the epidemic 281 00:21:59,599 --> 00:22:03,359 of obese c Because I just finished this book called The Least of Us and 282 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:07,720 about the opioid epidemic by I might picture the name Sam Ken your Days. 283 00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:12,200 I might have said that wrong, but talked about how the the dopamine mechanisms 284 00:22:12,200 --> 00:22:18,799 in our brain are so powerful they will absolutely overwhelm any sort of willpower that 285 00:22:18,880 --> 00:22:25,400 draws us to elicit substances or social media or food. So, as a 286 00:22:25,480 --> 00:22:27,920 practicing practicing psychiatrists, what do you make of this kind of rabbit hole of 287 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:34,119 addiction? Yeah, food, So I think terminology matters, that words matter 288 00:22:34,160 --> 00:22:38,640 when we're having this kind of a discussion, because when I hear the term 289 00:22:38,680 --> 00:22:45,920 food addiction, I want to make a tweak to it, because you can't 290 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,839 really become addicted to whole foods. Whole foods, generally speaking on non addictive, 291 00:22:51,839 --> 00:22:55,200 and they're very satisfying and they're very difficult to overeat, so and that 292 00:22:55,440 --> 00:22:59,559 that's true for plant as well as animal foods. So you know, even 293 00:22:59,599 --> 00:23:02,680 if you're even if you consider yourself a sugar addict or love sweet foods, 294 00:23:02,680 --> 00:23:06,279 there are only so many bananas you will be able to swallow. And that's 295 00:23:06,319 --> 00:23:08,640 because of all the fiber in the water, and there's some natural stop signs 296 00:23:08,640 --> 00:23:14,839 built into whole foods. And this actually brings us to back to this question 297 00:23:14,880 --> 00:23:21,640 about these weight loss drugs, because there are appetite regulation centers in the brain, 298 00:23:21,920 --> 00:23:25,880 but there are also appetite regulation systems in the gut as well. There 299 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:29,799 are hormones in the brain and gut that help us understand, okay, when 300 00:23:29,839 --> 00:23:33,960 should we eating and when should we stop? And processed foods that have had 301 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:38,480 their cellular integrity destroyed, So if they've been liquefied or crystallized or powdered, 302 00:23:40,039 --> 00:23:48,519 those foods bypass a lot of those hormonal stop signs. You literally cannot stop 303 00:23:48,559 --> 00:23:52,759 eating them because they don't satisfy your appetite. There's no stop sign. And 304 00:23:52,799 --> 00:23:56,440 so people, you know, imagine yourself trying to eat, you know, 305 00:23:56,559 --> 00:24:03,480 ten servings of steak, that's very different cult to imagine imagine yourself eating trying 306 00:24:03,519 --> 00:24:07,400 to eat ten servings of pie. You could probably do it. And so 307 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:14,960 it's just very different. And you know the way that foods are processed in 308 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:18,160 our bodies. Our bodies are designed to take in whole plant and animal foods 309 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,240 and to see them. With some we're designed to chew our food, swallow 310 00:24:22,279 --> 00:24:26,559 it, and then when it arrives in the stomach and in the intestines, 311 00:24:26,440 --> 00:24:32,119 you know it's it, expects to see it, expects to see whole foods 312 00:24:32,119 --> 00:24:37,920 coming through. If you eat liquids or powders or crystals, your hormonal response 313 00:24:37,960 --> 00:24:41,279 will be very different. And so when people say food addiction, I really 314 00:24:41,319 --> 00:24:45,759 want to use a different term, And I think the most addictive ingreed, 315 00:24:45,759 --> 00:24:48,960 what is the addictive ingredient within food, right, is what is causing that 316 00:24:49,039 --> 00:24:55,960 dopamine loop that you that you feel cannot be surmounted and it's really very very 317 00:24:55,960 --> 00:25:02,160 difficult to resist. It's the refined carbohydrates. It's not the fat. I 318 00:25:02,160 --> 00:25:04,400 mean, I don't know anybody who's a vegetable oil. I don't know anybody 319 00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:11,119 you know. It's not the fat. It's the refined carbohydrate. That's what's 320 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:17,759 causing that dopamine spike. And most processed foods contain some form of refined carbohydrate. 321 00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:22,119 Sugar, flour, cereals, fruit, juices, you know, all 322 00:25:22,119 --> 00:25:26,559 those kinds of things that are either sweet or powdered starches. So when people 323 00:25:26,680 --> 00:25:32,000 stop eating those, they feel like they have a lot more control over what 324 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:36,880 they're and they give them more willpower, so to speak. And then when 325 00:25:36,920 --> 00:25:41,240 people switch to a ketogenic diet, which is one of the dietary patterns I 326 00:25:41,359 --> 00:25:44,720 suggest in the book for people who are looking for bettermental health, there are 327 00:25:44,720 --> 00:25:47,319 other patterns as well. Don't worry. If you're afraid of a ketogenic diet, 328 00:25:47,319 --> 00:25:51,160 don't worry. There are other options. When people switch to a ketogenic 329 00:25:51,279 --> 00:25:56,200 diet where most of their cells are being fed by fat, fueled by fat 330 00:25:56,279 --> 00:26:02,240 rather than carbohydrate, by a greater ratio of fat to carbohydrate, they naturally 331 00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:08,359 feel satisfied for long periods of time between meals. Many people, this is 332 00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:12,880 what I do in my practice every day. Many people, even severe food 333 00:26:12,880 --> 00:26:18,160 addiction histories food addiction histories, can sit in a room with cookies or cake, 334 00:26:18,240 --> 00:26:21,440 or in the break room at work, whatever, and feel as though 335 00:26:21,480 --> 00:26:25,079 they're not drawn to them, and it's a completely foreign experience to them. 336 00:26:25,640 --> 00:26:30,160 So there are ways. There are ways to change your diet that will reset 337 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:33,759 your brain chemistry, reset your appetite hormones, and give you a real fighting 338 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:40,759 chance in this world where we're surrounded by these ultra processed, refined carbohydrate foods 339 00:26:40,759 --> 00:26:45,720 that are so compelling and so addictive, and so inexpensive and so convenient we've 340 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:51,079 been raised on since we were little kids. Unfortunately, there is hope even 341 00:26:51,119 --> 00:26:55,200 for those situations where people feel like their jopamine system has been shot. You 342 00:26:55,279 --> 00:26:56,920 know that there's nothing they can do. It's just going to be a slog 343 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,680 for the rest of their lives. I can tell you from working with people 344 00:27:02,359 --> 00:27:07,240 who've had decades of so called food addiction, that when they eat the right 345 00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:11,079 foods, they no longer feel addicted, and that I think is a really 346 00:27:11,119 --> 00:27:15,000 important message for people. I don't want people to give up and feel like 347 00:27:15,039 --> 00:27:18,319 it is just going to be, you know, a slog every day for 348 00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:21,519 the rest of their lives. There are things you can do to get control 349 00:27:21,559 --> 00:27:25,640 over your appetite and help you feel really happy with your relationship with food. 350 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:33,079 Again. This is Molly Hemingway of The Federalist, Join me my husband, 351 00:27:33,119 --> 00:27:37,119 Mark of Real Clear Investigations, twelve time All American swimmer, Riley Gaines, 352 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:42,720 Aaron Wren of The American Conservative, and others for the twenty twenty four Making 353 00:27:42,799 --> 00:27:49,160 the Case Conference Friday July twelfth and Saturday July thirteenth at Concordia University, Chicago. 354 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:56,200 Learn more at Issues Etc. Dot org. Making the Case July twelfth 355 00:27:56,240 --> 00:28:04,400 and thirteenth in Chicago, Issues Etc. On the oprah Winfree Special, there 356 00:28:04,480 --> 00:28:08,359 was a woman who had been taking vinduro for a number of months and ultimately 357 00:28:08,400 --> 00:28:11,759 lost more than half her weight and she got down to a metabolically healthy way 358 00:28:11,759 --> 00:28:15,400 of about one hundred and fifty pounds. She was about three hundred pounds, 359 00:28:15,759 --> 00:28:21,160 and she spoke about taking Manduro as if it was this magic diet pill that 360 00:28:21,759 --> 00:28:26,359 immediately solved her food cravings, and she talked about how she no longer had 361 00:28:26,359 --> 00:28:32,160 that constant voice in her head that she wanted. I think the example they 362 00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:36,680 used on the show was the bagel and so, but if I'm understanding correctly, 363 00:28:37,519 --> 00:28:42,839 you can actually turn those cravings off naturally after switching to say a ketogenic 364 00:28:42,920 --> 00:28:47,200 diet or a diet with whole foods. And of course, I think this 365 00:28:47,240 --> 00:28:49,799 is where Americans get so frustrated, because I think most people don't really know 366 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:55,640 what those whole foods are, because there's people afraid of eating meat, and 367 00:28:55,640 --> 00:28:59,279 they want to eat all these different fruits and vegetables that like we talked about 368 00:28:59,279 --> 00:29:07,119 earlier, of these anti nutrients that can sometimes become problematic. And so I 369 00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:11,200 look at a ziantic and I see a permanent treatment for if you're ventable problem 370 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:15,680 that already has the cure. Am I right or not? I do agree 371 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:21,000 with you on that. So the way these medicines work they've gut effects and 372 00:29:21,039 --> 00:29:23,000 they have brain effects, right, do they work in this kind of dual 373 00:29:23,039 --> 00:29:29,440 way to curb your appetite. Essentially, they slow the stomach emptying, so 374 00:29:29,519 --> 00:29:33,279 food stays in the stomach longer, and that's one signal. There are actually 375 00:29:33,279 --> 00:29:37,240 stretch receptors in the stomach that acts as a sort of stop sign, one 376 00:29:37,279 --> 00:29:42,799 hormonal stop sign for overeating. And then they also tell the brain to reduce 377 00:29:42,839 --> 00:29:48,640 your appetite, and they lower your blood sugar by reducing the amount of sugar 378 00:29:48,640 --> 00:29:52,440 that the liver releases into the circulation. Right, So they lower your appetite 379 00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:56,400 and they lower your blood sugar. Well, where is all that blood sugar 380 00:29:56,440 --> 00:30:00,720 coming from in the first place. The easiest, most effectstive way, and 381 00:30:00,759 --> 00:30:04,960 the safest way, and the best way to lower that bloacher, without copays, 382 00:30:06,039 --> 00:30:11,240 without injections, without doctor's visits, without side effects, is to remove 383 00:30:11,400 --> 00:30:17,680 those external sources of sugar from your diet so that your blood sugar can't spike 384 00:30:17,720 --> 00:30:22,079 to unhealthy levels. And that you can do that's something that's safe for you 385 00:30:22,160 --> 00:30:26,599 to do for the rest of your life. And not only will it help 386 00:30:26,640 --> 00:30:29,839 you lose weight. If you're trying to lose weight, but it will also 387 00:30:30,960 --> 00:30:36,680 it will be healthy for all of your cells because you'll be protecting yourself against 388 00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:41,039 those glucose and insulin spikes. Now the medication for the people, some people 389 00:30:41,799 --> 00:30:45,359 find very good results with these medications. And I'm you know, I'm not 390 00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:49,839 anti medication. I still use medications in my own practice. I'm definitely, 391 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:55,799 you know, somebody who wants to find the right solution for each person that 392 00:30:55,880 --> 00:30:59,920 comes to me. And not everybody can change their diet. Not everybody will 393 00:31:00,160 --> 00:31:03,920 change their diet. Some people are in situations, in living situations where they 394 00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:07,880 can't change their diet, or their have cognitive impairment where they can't change their 395 00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:12,400 diet, for example. So no everybody can do that. And so I 396 00:31:12,519 --> 00:31:15,920 like that people have choices and that people you know, can choose a medication 397 00:31:17,279 --> 00:31:19,440 if they can access it and afford it and tolerate it. Those are three 398 00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:25,480 big gifts. But I don't view those medications as a solution to our metabolic 399 00:31:25,519 --> 00:31:29,839 health crisis. We're going to give children these injections, I mean children now 400 00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:34,200 have obesity and insulin resistance and can't stop eating. Is this really the answer 401 00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:37,880 for all of us, that all of us should be on an injectable medication 402 00:31:37,920 --> 00:31:41,440 so that we can just continue to eat the wrong foods for the rest of 403 00:31:41,480 --> 00:31:47,799 our lives. And remember, you know, folks who are listening that you 404 00:31:47,839 --> 00:31:51,400 know health is not just about weight. So yes, you can lose weight 405 00:31:51,440 --> 00:31:52,799 on these medicines. There are lots of weights to lose weight, so we're 406 00:31:52,839 --> 00:31:57,759 much harder than others. But what about your health? So it's important that 407 00:31:57,920 --> 00:32:04,240 even if you are eating less, whether you're dieting to eat less or whether 408 00:32:04,319 --> 00:32:08,440 you're or whether you're taking medication eat less, the foods that you're eating, 409 00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:14,160 the quality of the foods that you're eating, continues to matter because your cells 410 00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,160 don't just need to don't just care about how what size you are. They 411 00:32:17,160 --> 00:32:21,880 care about what nutrients are coming in. Are you getting enough protein, are 412 00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:23,799 you getting the right kinds of fat, are you getting enough vitamins, are 413 00:32:23,839 --> 00:32:28,519 you getting enough minerals? And are you not eating the foods that are going 414 00:32:28,559 --> 00:32:32,400 to be damaging your cells, the foods that cause inflammation, foods that cause 415 00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:36,920 oxidative stress, which is why I'm always told to eat so many antioxidants, 416 00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:40,960 food foods that are damaging your system over time. Even if you're at a 417 00:32:42,160 --> 00:32:45,200 healthy weight, you're still going to be continuing on the road to poor health. 418 00:32:45,839 --> 00:32:50,519 So one of my concerns about these medicines, and this has happened to 419 00:32:50,559 --> 00:32:53,440 a number of my own patients, One of my concerns about these medicines is 420 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:58,599 that, yes, it can curb your appetite. Again, if you can 421 00:32:58,599 --> 00:33:02,920 tolerate and afford it, it can curb your appetite. But what are you 422 00:33:02,920 --> 00:33:06,559 going to be eating? What foods are you going to be eating. So 423 00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:08,680 for some of my patients who have food addiction, when they start a medicine 424 00:33:08,720 --> 00:33:14,319 like this, it almost gives them permission to eat the wrong foods because they're 425 00:33:14,319 --> 00:33:17,519 not going to overeat those foods, and so you know, they kind of 426 00:33:17,519 --> 00:33:22,079 feel like they don't have to be careful about their food choices anymore because they're 427 00:33:22,119 --> 00:33:24,880 not going to gain weight, so then they make less healthy choices. So 428 00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:29,759 weight is not just health is not just about weight. So there are so 429 00:33:29,920 --> 00:33:32,960 many reasons why I agree with you that this is not the solution. This 430 00:33:34,079 --> 00:33:37,880 is a this is a this is really a pipe dream. I mean, 431 00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:43,559 I think these medicines can be useful in bridging, helping people get field some 432 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:49,599 control and make some progress, curb that appetite and then learn and practice healthier 433 00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:54,759 dietary strategies. And though just a study published by Vertic Health showing that they 434 00:33:54,799 --> 00:33:59,279 put people on one of these weight loss medications, one of these GLP one 435 00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:04,319 medications, which which help them lose weight, and then they gradually transition them 436 00:34:04,319 --> 00:34:07,639 over to a low carbohydrate diet and they were able to come off the medication 437 00:34:08,079 --> 00:34:14,599 and maintain that weight loss using a low carbohydrate diet. So they both work, 438 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:17,840 and I would suggest that if people are using these medicines, to use 439 00:34:17,840 --> 00:34:22,519 them short term as a way to help them practice healthier eating strategies and make 440 00:34:22,559 --> 00:34:28,519 some progress, gain some ground, and then gradually transition to a diet that's 441 00:34:28,559 --> 00:34:32,440 going to allow you to stay at that healthy weight and improve your overall health. 442 00:34:32,440 --> 00:34:37,400 At the same time, I'm so glad that you brought up the children, 443 00:34:37,559 --> 00:34:40,440 because last year the American Academy of Pediatrics just came out your guidelines and 444 00:34:40,480 --> 00:34:45,239 treating Childhood ob city, and they were, to put it plainly, to 445 00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:52,199 meet bonkers. They are recommending children as young as twelve and thirteen be recommended 446 00:34:52,519 --> 00:34:59,760 these weight loss injections on top of bariatric surgery. For adolescents who have an 447 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:05,159 e and matured into adulthood yet and so you have these really these remedies are 448 00:35:05,199 --> 00:35:10,440 a loss of a glass resort being deployed on children who are then destined to 449 00:35:10,440 --> 00:35:15,960 become lifelong patients. You had one of the doctors who was a consultant for 450 00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:20,280 one of the drug companies on over one Free special to talk about she acknowledged 451 00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:23,239 that, yes, the data shows that to maintain that weight loss on these 452 00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:28,440 weight loss drugs, patients usually have to remain on the drugs, and of 453 00:35:28,440 --> 00:35:30,639 course it just enables this behavior that got them to where they are in the 454 00:35:30,639 --> 00:35:35,400 first place. When that patient on the program talked about she still wanted to 455 00:35:35,440 --> 00:35:38,119 eat the vegel and she still would eat the begel. Well, the begel 456 00:35:38,400 --> 00:35:42,599 god is to where we are in the first place, being refined carbohydrates and 457 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,199 spiking an insulin response. And so I get really concerned when we talk about 458 00:35:47,559 --> 00:35:53,079 deploying these remedies of last resort on children, because you're just creating lifelong medical 459 00:35:53,079 --> 00:35:59,119 patients who are then going to remain, you know, sending no more more 460 00:35:59,199 --> 00:36:04,239 disks and lightly paychecks best for the wealth of their lives on top of remaining 461 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:12,440 in their lifestyles as consumers of big food for the next generation. Yeah, 462 00:36:12,480 --> 00:36:16,039 I think we're really in denial as a species about being able to continue to 463 00:36:16,079 --> 00:36:22,079 eat this way. It's destroying us. I mean, it's destroying our bodies 464 00:36:22,079 --> 00:36:25,039 and our brains from the inside out. And each successive generation is becoming less 465 00:36:25,079 --> 00:36:30,760 healthy, less robust, less capable. And this is really really concerning to 466 00:36:30,800 --> 00:36:37,280 me. So, you know, I why aren't we asking why why are 467 00:36:37,320 --> 00:36:40,800 so many more people overweight than than we used to be. Why what is 468 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:46,280 driving this overeating instinct in the first place? What's causing us to overeat like 469 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:50,800 this? Get to the root cause of it, or else we will we 470 00:36:50,840 --> 00:36:54,559 will be completely at the mercy of pharmaceutical companies, you know, who are 471 00:36:54,559 --> 00:37:00,119 trying to medicate. You can't medicate your way out of this problem. I 472 00:37:00,119 --> 00:37:02,639 mean think we're all in denial about that, and so we need to actually 473 00:37:02,639 --> 00:37:06,920 get the root of the problem. And the problem with the root of the 474 00:37:06,920 --> 00:37:12,480 problem is it involves a very difficult behavior change, and behavior change is harder 475 00:37:12,480 --> 00:37:16,280 than taking a medication. I know it is, but I'm also one of 476 00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:19,760 the one of the things I explained in the book is it doesn't take very 477 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,400 long to see results if you know which change is to make. Because people 478 00:37:23,440 --> 00:37:29,719 have been given not just the wrong information about what to eat and what's healthiest 479 00:37:29,719 --> 00:37:34,760 for us, they've also been given the wrong information about how to lose weight. 480 00:37:34,840 --> 00:37:38,559 So all of the diets that most of the diets that you see most 481 00:37:38,559 --> 00:37:43,000 people think about calories and exercise and those sorts of things as ways to lose 482 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:51,039 weight, that information is outdated and incorrect. And what's actually true about weight 483 00:37:51,119 --> 00:37:55,400 loss is again it's all about managing your glucose and insulin levels. Insulin is 484 00:37:55,440 --> 00:38:00,960 not just a blood sugar regulator. Insulin is a master hormone, a master 485 00:38:01,039 --> 00:38:06,639 metabol hormone. One of the things it does is regulate blood sugar. But 486 00:38:06,719 --> 00:38:10,239 one of the other things it does is it turns off fat burning. So 487 00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:15,880 if your insulin level is too high because you've got too much carbohydrate or too 488 00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:20,679 much food in your diet more than you need, the insult level is going 489 00:38:20,719 --> 00:38:23,039 to be too high, that's going to turn off your fat burning enzymes. 490 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:28,719 And you could literally have five hundred pounds of excess body fat. That's just 491 00:38:28,800 --> 00:38:31,280 lots of energy stored and stored in your body, sitting there waiting to be 492 00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:38,119 used. You can't burn it because your fat burning hormones are turned off by 493 00:38:38,199 --> 00:38:45,559 insulin. So any diet that lowers insulin levels will help you burn fat. 494 00:38:45,199 --> 00:38:49,599 And it doesn't have to be a keutogenic diet, but that's the most comfortable 495 00:38:49,639 --> 00:38:52,679 and most sustainable way to do it. You could also you could calorie restrict. 496 00:38:53,039 --> 00:38:55,840 You could eat a high carbohydrate diet. That's you seven hundred and twenty 497 00:38:55,880 --> 00:39:00,599 five calories a day, but that's going to turn your metabal great down. 498 00:39:00,599 --> 00:39:04,760 Over time. Metabolism is going to slow down, and you're going to be 499 00:39:04,840 --> 00:39:09,280 really hungry. And you know, you could also fast, and fasting is 500 00:39:09,280 --> 00:39:14,039 a really effective way to lose weight, but you can't. You have to 501 00:39:14,079 --> 00:39:16,800 eat at some point, and when you eat, it's really important to make 502 00:39:16,880 --> 00:39:22,639 healthy choices when you're eating. And so you can exercise, but you can't 503 00:39:22,679 --> 00:39:25,880 exercise all day long. So there are lots of ways to lower your insulin 504 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:31,719 levels. And if people understand how to lower the insulin levels that it's mostly 505 00:39:31,800 --> 00:39:38,719 about. It's mostly about the quality and quantity of carbohydrate in your diet that's 506 00:39:38,840 --> 00:39:44,880 driving you to overeat, that's making you store fat, that's making it impossible 507 00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:52,000 for you to burn fat. That's making you hungry, then I think people 508 00:39:52,079 --> 00:39:55,800 will feel empowered to do something that Actually, when something works, people will 509 00:39:55,800 --> 00:40:00,400 stick with it. But the other dietary strategies hear about, such as calorie 510 00:40:00,400 --> 00:40:07,280 restriction, exercising more, that sort of thing, it doesn't work for long 511 00:40:07,599 --> 00:40:13,039 because it doesn't satisfy your body's energy needs in the same way, and it 512 00:40:13,159 --> 00:40:17,480 makes you hungry and it turns down your metabolic rate. So all of this 513 00:40:17,599 --> 00:40:22,920 information, so it's making people feel hopeless. But if you understand the biology, 514 00:40:23,079 --> 00:40:28,760 you can fix this problem fairly easily. So having the right information, 515 00:40:29,239 --> 00:40:31,880 knowledge is power, so you can choose to take the medication. But I 516 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:37,199 would also encourage you to learn about what got you into this problem. I 517 00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:40,679 mean, I've had a lifelong history of weight problems. I was overweight when 518 00:40:40,679 --> 00:40:45,360 I was six years old. I was one of only two overweight girls in 519 00:40:45,400 --> 00:40:50,119 my elementary school class. It used to be very uncommon back then to be 520 00:40:50,199 --> 00:40:54,280 overweight, and it was humiliating, and I struggled for decades with my weight 521 00:40:54,400 --> 00:40:59,599 until I discovered, you know what the truth is about weight management, and 522 00:40:59,639 --> 00:41:02,400 so you know, I want to give people out their hope that there is 523 00:41:02,480 --> 00:41:06,840 another way and it's a much healthier, much more sustainable, and much more 524 00:41:06,840 --> 00:41:10,519 affordable way. And that hopelessness that you just talked about, I think is 525 00:41:10,599 --> 00:41:17,400 really that is what's manifested into this body positivity movement, which came sixty years 526 00:41:17,400 --> 00:41:21,719 ago as Okay, let's all feel comfortable in our own skin and not shame 527 00:41:21,719 --> 00:41:27,400 anyone probably look into its healthy do bobs. That's really what it's become the 528 00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:31,760 last ten years. And I started reading all these books I could find from 529 00:41:32,159 --> 00:41:36,960 influencers for the body positivity movement, and it came away with, well, 530 00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:42,719 no wonder everyone's frustrated because everyone's been following the wrong diet advice for three consecutive 531 00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:47,920 generations while living on an industrialized diet. So not only is this high carblow 532 00:41:49,360 --> 00:41:55,079 leading everybody stressed and sick, but it's leaving them resentful and frustrated over the 533 00:41:55,079 --> 00:42:00,320 fact that the diet advice they were following to lose weight wasn't working. Low 534 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:07,480 fat diet was such a failed government experiment, and so it's no wonder that 535 00:42:07,559 --> 00:42:12,920 we have so many people, rightly, I would argue, frustrated, frustrated 536 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:15,599 about their inability to lose weight, and so I just kind of want to 537 00:42:15,679 --> 00:42:20,719 end with what are some of the most important lifestyle changes that you believe that 538 00:42:20,760 --> 00:42:23,639 people could start making to day to change their life and change their mind. 539 00:42:24,920 --> 00:42:31,760 Yeah so, and really the core message of the book is that you want 540 00:42:31,760 --> 00:42:35,480 the core of your diet, if you're willing to do this, you want 541 00:42:35,480 --> 00:42:39,599 the core of your diet to be animal foods, non dairy animal foods perfectly. 542 00:42:39,599 --> 00:42:43,840 We could talk about that another time, but so you meat, seafood, 543 00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:49,480 poultry, and eggs or any combination of those. This means that you 544 00:42:49,519 --> 00:42:52,519 can be healthy even as a vegetarian if you're willing to include some eggs in 545 00:42:52,559 --> 00:42:54,519 your diet. Right, So, the core of your diet needs to be 546 00:42:54,679 --> 00:43:00,360 for optimal health animal foods. You can try to supplement your way around it, 547 00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:02,880 but that's not going to be as good. And then the next layer 548 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:08,559 of your diet beyond that is whole plant foods, So whole fruits and vegetables. 549 00:43:08,760 --> 00:43:13,679 Not the grains or the beans, or the flowers or the sugars, 550 00:43:13,719 --> 00:43:17,039 none of those. But fruits and vegetables, the ones that you tolerate best 551 00:43:17,840 --> 00:43:22,599 and the ones that you enjoy the most. That's the next layer. And 552 00:43:22,639 --> 00:43:24,719 then and you can even include you know, some some nuts and seeds and 553 00:43:24,719 --> 00:43:28,840 that if you wish, I'd put those just on the next level on the 554 00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:31,320 outside. But in any case, if you've got these whole foods, really 555 00:43:31,440 --> 00:43:37,519 what it is is a paleo so called paleo style dietary pattern. You know, 556 00:43:37,039 --> 00:43:42,559 it's a hunter gatherers style pattern. It's it's the pattern that we evolved 557 00:43:42,559 --> 00:43:45,719 as a species over two million years to consume just the animal and plant foods 558 00:43:45,719 --> 00:43:50,920 that were in our natural environment minimally processed. Yes, they may have been 559 00:43:50,960 --> 00:43:52,719 cooked, they may have been chopped into small pieces. Sometimes they may have 560 00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:58,719 been fermented, but they were not put through a factory and industrially processed. 561 00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:05,639 We didn't have factories back then. That was impossible. That is the dietary 562 00:44:05,719 --> 00:44:09,880 pattern that our brains and our bodies evolved to be healthy on. And so 563 00:44:10,199 --> 00:44:15,559 the first step in my book, the first plan that I suggest in my 564 00:44:15,599 --> 00:44:19,440 book is to I mean, you could start even smaller, you could start 565 00:44:19,440 --> 00:44:22,519 but just removing all the ultra processed foods, all the packages and the cans 566 00:44:22,519 --> 00:44:27,119 and the bottles and so forth, and just eat foods that don't have an 567 00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:31,280 ingredient label. If you enter your store, a whole food does not need 568 00:44:31,480 --> 00:44:36,480 and usually does not have an ingredient label. If it has an ingredient label, 569 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:42,239 stop and ask yourself what is this? Is this a food? Is 570 00:44:42,239 --> 00:44:45,400 this a processed food? Because what you'll see on processed foods ingredients, you'll 571 00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:49,679 see what they don't have. Oh it's fat free, or oh it's gluten 572 00:44:49,719 --> 00:44:52,920 free, or oh it's cholesterol free. I don't really care what's not in 573 00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:55,039 it. I want to know what is in it. Turn the food over 574 00:44:55,280 --> 00:45:00,000 read that ingredient label. If you see more than one ingredient, I would 575 00:45:00,119 --> 00:45:05,639 leave it alone. So you really want meat, fruits, vegetables, nuts, 576 00:45:05,719 --> 00:45:08,639 seeds, those kinds of foods as the core of your diet. Everything 577 00:45:08,679 --> 00:45:13,159 else beyond that, the flowers, the grains, the sugars, the vegetable 578 00:45:13,159 --> 00:45:19,760 oils, everything else outside of that of that core is really dangerous territory. 579 00:45:20,199 --> 00:45:22,920 And that's almost upside down from what we're told. We're told the core of 580 00:45:22,960 --> 00:45:29,480 our diet should be carbohydrates, including refined carbohydrates, and that meat should be 581 00:45:29,559 --> 00:45:34,280 at the very outer limit of what you know it's going to should be avoided 582 00:45:34,480 --> 00:45:37,760 or minimized at all costs. And so that's upside down and backward. So 583 00:45:38,599 --> 00:45:42,880 any one of those changes that you make to your diet is going to be 584 00:45:42,880 --> 00:45:45,800 a step in the right direction. Well, on that note, Georgia, 585 00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:49,079 thank you for joining me. Thanks very much for having me, Tristan. 586 00:45:49,119 --> 00:46:00,719 I really enjoyed the conversations.