Hello, and welcome to Federalist where you our. My name's Tristanjustice and I'm
the Western correspondent for the Federalists. And joining me today is one of my
dear colleagues, Eva Duffy. Eva, how are you doing? Doing good?
So we're going to talk about nutrition and health on this podcast. It's
actually a podcast at our colleagues requested because we're always talking about nutrition. Exercise
is just our different routines and how to live as healthy and long life as
possible. So, Eva, there seems to be something wrong in our country
when it comes to our food supply, when it comes to the amount of
environmental toxins that are we're currently living in seventy percent of the countries are away.
Forty two percent of the country is categoric movies. Something's not working.
And so you live a healthy lifestyle up in Wisconsin. UM, tell me,
what are the some of the things that kind of you've observed as you've
seen America's ABCD epidemic kind of continue to swell, and how that's motivated you
to keep healthy habits and healthy lifestyle well. Growing up my parents executing.
My mom was always very health conscious. We went to the local co op
we I brought school lunches. I always had the food that you know,
I was always envisa everybody else in their white bread and you know, peanut
butter and jelly with like Cheetos on the side. And I had like this
whole grain stuff and had like fresh fruit, but that kind of didn't taste
as good once it's been sitting in your lunchbox for a long time. But
I think growing up that way really made me think about food a lot more
than I think other people did, and want to build healthy habits at a
young age. So I think I just wanted to off the bat say how
important it is to be starting these habits and caring about nutrition for your children
when they're really young. I think that was huge. And when I went
off to college and there's the freshman fifteen, I actually lost weight because I
was walking everywhere, because I was biking all the time, and because I
was really thinking about what I was putting in my body. And you have
to do that because, like you said, Tristan, there are so many
toxins in our foods and our laundry detergent and the soaps that we use,
and it can be hard to keep track of, but if you really care
about longevity and the way that you feel, these things are important to be
thinking about and to be conscious of. So I've always sort of been health
conscious, but something that I think we're going to have a little bit of
a discussion about is what's the best nutritional diet. And we may have some
competing ideas, But I've actually been animal based for a while, which means
I eat fruits, a lot of fresh fruits, UM, raw dairy.
I have sometimes low temp low UH non pasteurized cream from whole foods UM,
and then a lot of meat, preferably if it's chickens soy free, soy
and corn free, and then for beef, grass fed, grass finished UM.
And I found that that's been really amazing for me, the high protein
intake UM in helping with some iron deficiencies that I had, UM, not
being cold as often. There was a lot of really amazing effects UM that
I sort of recently have have found from from really going high protein, which
has been interesting because you know, in our current culture there's a real push
against eating meat. But I'm really curious to think how you feel about having
having a steak or a burger, no bun um with almost every single meal
um that you have. I'm really curious what your thoughts are on not one
of the most delicious steaks last night cooked by one of our readers down in
Lone Tree, Colorado. Last night steak is an absolute favorite meal, and
that's coming from someone who was vegan for a month two years ago. But
we can talk about that. I want to talk first a little bit more
about your kind of habits growing up. You said your parents really instilled a
healthy lifestyle growing up, and so you always went to school with healthier options,
and your peer is sitting across from you with you know, peanup and
jelly sandwiches, cheetos, chips. I cannot imagine eating the way I did
in middle school today. I mean just as a high car low fat diet,
peanutver and jelly, just full of sugars and and all these artificial ingredients.
But the sad reality is that millions of Americans still eat that way today
and that is a large part of consequence of you know, government guidelines we
had for the better part of five decades that promoted this, uh, this
high carb, low fat diet. The science was completely one eighty on this
our Remember we had the food pyramid still in elementary schools, they were promoting
this idea of you know, bread should be the biggest staple in your diet,
especially you know these these these white breads and pastas, and you know,
the item's really high on the on the glycemic index UM. And of
course, you know children today are a lot of them are still eating like
that, even though we've had minor reforms to the food pyramid and our guidelines.
I think the FDA took a big step forward last ball with plans to
redefine healthy UM. They want to take off saturated fats and raise salmon as
a healthier option than items like cereal UM and so. But I think it's
interesting that you brought up how you ate in school, UM, because we
have in obcit crisis. And it's not just a crisis among adults. It's
a crisis among our next generation. More than anybody else right now, m
one in five children our categoric movies. There was a team of researchers at
Harvard who found who calculated they estimate half the entire country is going to be
categorically obese by the end of the decade. That estimate came four months before
COVID hit, and the fact is a whole lot more Americans gained a lot
more weight during lockdowns, when we our government just impose sententary lifestyles on us
shut down gems, when COVID really should have been a wake up call to
this crisis, considering that eighty percent of people who are hospitalized with COVID were
at least overweight or obese. But COVID did a lot of damage, especially
for our children. The rate of type two diabetes doubled among children during lockdowns.
Children's BMIs doubled under lockdowns, or as our life expecsioncy continues to decline,
it's supposed to decline even more in the coming decades. Children today was
just I was just reading this book by doctor Mark Himan, and he outline
some of the data on this. The average child born today will live five
years fewer than their parents. Four children today will live ten twenty years lower
than their parents. And so that is such an indictment of our current food
supply and our approach to health the path better part of the last really century.
But back to how you ate in school, that probably primed you to
live the way you do today, because it's a lot harder to unlearn these
healthy habits and it is to practice them from an early age. I mean,
your parents did such a service to you by in stealing those values early
on. Well, absolutely, and I'm so grateful to them for that.
I really like the point that you made just about the increase and obesity,
right, I mean in the predictions, because with modern medicine, you'd think
that people are just going to be getting healthier, that longevity is to be
an even bigger thing, and instead you're seeing people become less healthy. And
I saw an interesting study I'm not sure if it's been collaborated a few times
or not, but that the calorie intake from people in the nineteen sixties and
seventies versus now has not actually changed very much, right, And you always
you know you you know that you put on more weight it depending on the
amount of calories intake. So you could you could eat salads all day long
and gain weight because it has more calories or whatever you were eating before,
is what we all think. But if the calories are if the calorie intake
is the same, and people now are gaining weight, we have this din
obesity crisis. What's the cause. And I think a lot of people have
pointed to high processed foods and the chemicals that we're putting inside them. That's
actually so, it's so contrary to our biology that's causing people to react in
these horrible ways to gain weight and to be more to be sick. Really,
and I think we have to really have to focus on that because the
food perramid is interesting. Science is always changing, people always have different ideas,
and I think there are special interests involved in that too. But I
will say that not all bread is bad for you. I like to eat
a really high protein diet. I like to keep certain things out. I'm
not somebody who says I will never eat bread. What I do say is
I won't eat the ultra processed bread, right, I make it myself at
home if I'm going to eat bread, because I can't trust what these companies
are putting in my food. There are tons of stories of people who go
on vacation to a lie or to France, and they have a lot more
regulations on food there. They also have different values than we do in the
United States, and they'll go and they'll eat just as much bread and pasta
and pastries. If not more then they do in the States, and they'll
lose weight and they'll feel better. And we have to ask ourselves what are
the ingredients? And I think at this point we just can't trust the food
industry. Um. They the labels aren't indicators of how healthy, how healthy
something is, right, I think, Um, it's a red dye,
is a natural flavoring. Natural flavoring means means nothing, right, it doesn't
doesn't mean anything, So you can they lie about the Latin the labels.
They put things in there that make the food addictive, that make us fat,
that make us sick. Um. And I just I think with the
real problem for a lot of people then is how do we balance eating food
um from from the store if we don't have time to be constantly in the
kitchen ourselves interest. I want to ask you that if somebody wants to avoid
the ultra processed food UM, and they don't want to have an uber restricted
diet where they only you know, fruit that is insulated with no pesticides on
the outside, right, so no berries, and you're only eating grass fed
grass finished beep, but you have to cook it all day and you might
have to tackle the launch, like how do people um to people meal prepped
in a way that's sustainable for the work life that most of us have.
We first, I want to talk a little more about calories you mentioned now,
our calorie intake isn't all that different from I think you said a couple
of decades ago. I actually think we need to kill the calorie um.
I don't think calories food labels really don't tell us a ton um. The
reality is our diet comes down to whether it's processed or un processed. And
so you can have you know, breads and process all you want, as
long as it's really not processed because there's so much you know, it just
also just bread. This book by doctor Robert Lusting Metabolical, and what it
comes down to it's it's not what's in the food, it's what's done to
the food. And if it's processed, it's poisoned. And that's especially true
for different types of process breads. If it doesn't go bad after a few
days, there's a good chance its preserves in there that are probably killing your
gut. And it might not kill you right away. It's not acutely boys,
but it'll kill you over thirty years, because then you get chronic disease.
You're you developmentabolic dysfunction, and of course it leads to chronic disease.
And the reality is chronic disease today is through the root. Sixty percent of
our calories in the United States come from from ultra processed foods. Every ten
percent increase of ultra process food in your diet raises your risk of death by
fourteen percent. Ninety percent of Americans are deficient and at least one or more
nutrients. And so you know, as we continue to escalate our consumption of
processed food, we're only just killing ourselves over time. And that's you know,
the key reason why life expectancy is coming down. And it's not just
that we're not living as long anymore, we're not living as well anymore.
And so people are spending last at twenty thirty years either maybe either diabetic or
have some other sort of chronic disease to developed from a processed diet over decades.
In decades now um, And so it probably comes down to, um,
you know, how can we protect the liver and feed the gut.
And it comes down to a high protein, high fat diet. UM.
And of course you asked a question, how to you know, how do
people you know eat eat such a diet and remain financial response responsible. Um.
Inflation is uh gripped Americans UM in a way that we haven't seen and
since the nineteen eighties and seventies and so UM, it is harder to eat
a you know, a whole unprocessed diet. UM. The reality is big
food and big pharma have too much money to make off a population that's chronically
fat, sick, and depressed. UM. Because there is a correlation,
there's a direct colation between the quality of your diet and the quality of your
mind. UM. And so you know, I'm currently in classes to Tioga
and one of our modest and classes the issues in the tissue. And I
think that's true both physically and mentally. I mean, it has to do
with your brain and your nervous system quality over few the terms the quality of
your life and so and you know, if you want to look really holistically,
UM, you'll you're going to spend a lot more money eating a process
that in long term and the fact is these people pay at least double m
in healthcare costs than those who are an otherwise healthy weight, and that goes
up exponentially as BMI increases. And looking at the healthcare system, probably the
numbers are unsustainable. Our entire health we spent about six percent of GDP on
healthcare. Excuse me, in nineteen sixty we spent about five percent of GDP
on healthcare. Today that's eighteen percent, and it's only continuing to rise as
Americans get sicker and sicker and fatter and fatter. U to put that into
perspective, in twenty sixteen, chronic chronic conditions alone cost six percent of our
GDP, and so that's already far eclips what we were spending on healthcare in
nineteen sixty and so yeah, it might cost more to buy whole healthy options
at places like Whole Foods, But long around, you're saving your health and
you're also saving your kids health because down the line, how you eat is
ultimately how your offspring will eat. There's something called epigenetics, where your kids
are predisposed to the habits that their parents had. Now, you know,
a lot of times people will scapegoat genetics as an excuse for for obesity,
and there's a difference between epigenetics and genetics that the fact is, only about
thirty nine genes have been identified as related to obesity, only two are clinically
significant, and they're only found in fourteen percent of people who are bees.
But your epigenetics do play a big role, and that leaves certain Americans to
be predisposed to certain lifestyles and others. And of course, you know,
speak probably about habits, children will tomately adopt the habits of the parents.
And you know, this also comes into the importance of role models when you
know children are growing up an environment where no one's modeling healthy behavior. Say,
their parents are obese, all their friends at school are overweight, and
our celebrities and pop culture are Liz own samp Smith. There's and I don't
need to pick on them, but there's not a whole lot of incentive to
live a healthy lifestyle like you did when you were growing up and you had
parents who were promoting that too. And so to answer your question, it
is a lot harder to eat the healthier and clean the way that human bodies,
you know, kind of more supposed to to live a long, healthy
life. And the long run, you're not only saving your own wall,
you're really saving the country, because the country is on a trajectory right now
that we will bankrupt ourselves with healthcare costs if we don't clean up our own
diet. Just and I want to to clarify, so I've I've been reading
a little bit about epogenetics, and I want to make sure that I'm correct
on this and for the listeners too. If your parents are eating so for
example, in history, I guess they say that during the potato famine,
people were really hungry um and and starving and dying. And the offspring of
people that were in the potato famine have their their h genetics were impacted and
they are actually, you know, predisposed to have a slower metabolism because they're
great grandparents or great great grandparents. Um, we're starving. Is that is
that correct? Precisely because it's environmental um and so and and those you know,
get passed on hereditarily, and so you know, they're the interesting nuance.
I mean, there's definitely some interesting nuances here. But what comes to
eu genes probably, you know, obesity is not something that's out of your
control entirely. Just because your parents were a certain way, you might be
a little more predisposed because the all these environmental factors, but people escape to
go genetics as almost like a prison cell, to their own circumstances when reality
and doctor Albert Lustig talks about this in the book, only thirty nine genes,
and again genes are different from epigenetics. Only thirty nine genes have been
found great with obesity too, are clinically significant, and they're found in less
than twenty percent of the obst population. And so, you know, Americans,
we can get out of this, and we should. Medicare and Medicaid
services are expected to by twenty forty eight to spend something like about three trillion
dollars on American healthcare. But I mean that's how much we collect in federal
tax revenue. We're not going to have money to spend on national defense or
education or let alone social security because the country is eating itself to death,
and you know a lot of it comes down into I also want to also
want to kill the calorie because calories don't really tell us a whole lot.
It's you know, your body process is sta based on how hormones and enzymes
are, on your regulation of hormones and enzymes. It has far less to
do with calories and far more to do with the quality of those calories.
And so um, you know it's about the country's in. It's on definitely
on a path that's demonstrably unsustainable and that we have to have a national emergency
about. But the culture is becoming apathetic about this. And so a b
to ur in Wisconsin and you talked about eating grass head beef. Do you
do you eat locally or do you still find that stuff at the grocery store?
How do you find these different items? Yeah, so I try to
eat grass fed beef at you can buy it at Whole Foods. But I
will say it's not in my budget, and I'm sure it's not in most
people's budget to eat that all the time. So I have to opt for
by meeting like a you know, a steak of some sort. I just
have to get that regular because it's so expensive to try and get grass fed
any kind of steak, especially if it's like a rib or something like that.
So um, it's it's Whole Foods. I know. I have fan
members who have Evan aunt who actually started this and got me into this diet.
She said it was it made her feel so better, It made her
hair stronger, the same thing happened to me, having this increased protein,
and she'll actually order it from a you know, monthly bulk order of meat
and steaks and burgers from from uh this farm that ships out to the whole
country, and there are options like that. But I don't I don't think
people should get super hung up on it not being grass fed, grass finished.
I think that's a good place to start if you're I think that's a
good thing to get to. But if you if you're just starting out and
you don't have the money for it, trying to eat you know, naturally,
even if it's not going to be organic or grass fed all the time,
is going to be better than than the chips and the fruit roll ups
that are on the inside of the supermarket. Right, that's the best thing
to do is to go around the outside where everything's fresh, and that's where
you buy your food. But Tristan, I like that you brought up the
culture we saw today in the old staff. I think somebody at our staff
messages, somebody sent a video of a counselor telling people that if you try
to lose weight, that's fat phobic. There's this perception that if you know
you want to be healthy, you want to look good, you want to
feel good, that somehow that means you're against fat people. I think Rebel
Wilson famously lost a lot of weight, made herself a lot healthier than she
used to be, and people were angry at her. I think Adele the
same thing happened. Um, you have people whose entire personalities are based off
of being fat. Lizzo, her whole personality is about, you know,
being being an morbidly obest woman, and we're not focusing on her music.
I think there's a really bizarre part of the culture that has taken uh fat
fatness and put it into this intersectional box with race and gender and you know,
sexual orientation and all these things and set Oh now we're at a press
group. Go ahead, Trisan. Oh no, I was just you know,
I'm agreeing with you on that. Look. I think we need a
whole on more fat phobia in this country, and perfectly rank that doesn't mean
going out and to start fat shaming people and telling people that they're slabs and
that they're great. Am not endorsing any of that has no placed in her
society. Let's not make people feel bad. We all have different ways that
we cope, and a lot of the country uses food for that, but
we do need I mean that. That's gosh that therapist who is that video
is posted from from Lives of TikTok talking about how if you are exercising these
weight then you're faphobic. Why did that person counseling anybody? Because the fact
is this is killing people. This is shortening our lifespan for the first time
in the Industrial Revolution. And it's not just again that we're living shorter lives.
We're not living as as well anymore because we spend the last decades of
our lives sick and miserable. Would you rather spend your six season seventies playing
tennis and climbing mountains or spending your six season seventies sedentary and nursing home because
you've got three or four chronic diseases and a majority of Americans will have chronic
disease by the end of this decade. And it has to do with food
policy, It has to do chemical policy. We're swimming in this environment of
toxic chemicals that are approved by government regulators from the industry and a revolving door.
UM who whose job isn't necessarily to keep us keep us healthy, but
to make sure the products that we ingest interact with won't kill us right away.
Again, what you eat today might not kill you this week, but
it will kill you over thirty years, and it will make those thirty years
a whole lot more miserable than they otherwise need to be. I just happen
to think, you know, health is synonymous with happiness in a lot of
ways, in terms of UM being being able to be active and do all
the things that we want to do. UM. And of course it's it's
a subjective perspective, but but I mean, it's all just based on my
observations and how I've I've looked at, you know, the circumstances of people
around me, and I guess I'm also in called Lado. It's one of
the most Denver Colorado. It's one of the most in shape places in the
country. Um. It was the last green spot on the CDC map ball
of OBC sits to six. Stuff finally tipped into yellow last year. And
so this is a nationwide epidemic. The country is eating itself to death,
and all of our elites are making way too much money off this population that's
chronically fat and sick and depressed. And that's why we need a whole lot
more fatphobia in this country. We're going to get ourselves out of this um
and so, I mean, I want to ask you, you've always been
into health and wantest I don't think this conversation is complete without exercise. I
think diet is still far more important when it comes to maintaining a healthy way,
because it comes down to because you cannot outrun healthy or you cannot on
route run a processed diet. Because you know, a processed diet these these
different chemical compounds that we come into contact with, and you know the lack
of fiber that's in all these processed foods because you really can't put the teeth
based back in the bottle when somethings were fine if I were taken out you
really, I mean, no matter how much fiber one wants to advertise itself
as a premier fiber roar, it's not the same as you know, a
whole piece of fruit. If you can out run in a processed diet,
it comes down to how were hormones and enzime's work. That's why this conversation
not complete belt without talking about testation levels and men, they're falling off a
cliff. It has to do with the amount of estrogenics that are coming in
contact with and so men of balogy functions. Men is being is just being
dealt a havoc by low testatrian levels. But exercise is still so important here.
What's your exercise routeam, Yeah, I was hoping that we would get
to talk about this because I so in high school, I played a lot
of sports, but I never really you know, I never there was never
a need for me to go home and work out in the way that I
started to when I was in college. And I when I when I started
college, I started to get really serious about, UM, actually every day
working out. And now now it was more like five or six times a
week. I found that I really doomed to rest day UM, and I
think rest days are really important. UM. But back then it was it
was I wanted to work out every day. I was super motivated, and
I was running and weightlifting, So I would UM three or four times a
week. I would run at the end of my workout, and then every
other and then every other day that I worked out. I was I was
lifting, which I had never done before, and I felt amazing. I
felt wonderful. And I had a knee injury in my sophomore year and I
have just recovered from it and am now starting to run again. And I
wanted to touch on this sort of cardio versus lifting battle, right. I
think people say all you need to do is weightlift, and cardio is stupid,
And then there are still a lot of people who say, you know,
just cardio is good, you don't need to lift. Those mostly women,
have a perception that they'll look ge and bad if they start to weightlift,
which is not true at all. Um. When I was just weightlifting,
I didn't I didn't feel as good as I do when I'm doing both.
And I think both are really really important. There's like a two camp
thing. Um. First of all, movement, movement is essential. You
should be if you can walk. If you could walk to work, that's
amazing. If you can walk U you know, at night after you eat,
or or for in the morning before walking is so important. Working out
is also very important, um, And I think both cardio and lifting is
the best way to do it. And you do it doesn't have to be
crazy. It can be thirty minutes of lifting, thirty minutes of cardio.
If you don't have a lot of time, you can take rest days if
things come up. But that's what I found has been the best combination for
me and Tristan. I'm curious what you think, because I know you do
a lot of running. I'm not sure if you if you lift or not.
I feel like you said you didn't do that as often when we last
talked at our last retreat, But I really would like to hear what you
have to think about. What do you have to say about that. You
know. The thing I've learned about myself in my past year a few years
is I like to toep refresh when it comes to fitness routines. I had
crossed it for a year and it was fun and exciting, and I couldn't
get enough of it. By the end of it, I just felt like
I was going through the motions, and you know, once you get to
that point, it's it's just not as effective. And so once you get
started just going through the motions and novelty, whereas all I just I switched
it up. I joined a new gym, Focus more on lifting. I
do run. I actually I do not run in the winter, and I
do not run in cities. I find running in the city so boring and
I'm miserable and I'm just wanting it to be over. But I do shart
run um. And so you know, in the summertime, and the summertimes,
I hear it's magical the mountains, You're gorgeous, evergreens. I'll like
to get up and get out some friends, usually before the sun comes up,
and start the start these just on the weekends, we just do these
massive char runs where we're before dawn, got our coffee going, and then
we do these ten mile runs out in the mountains. Um, and then
maybe do a little yoga at the peak. We're a little bit of yoga
after. Um. So in the summertime, on the weekends, I'll do
I'll do char running out there because it's just it's absolutely gorgeous. Um.
But this past winter I found hot yoga. I hate being cold, okay,
um So in the wintertime in Colorado, and it is simily nothing felt
better than going to a hot yoga class and just thawing out and and um
you know, I really got to practice I got into it so much that
I'm actually in classes to teach now. I I'm in the Core Powers a
Spring Spring program um. And so yoga has been my big thing lately.
And I don't really do a ton of cardio in the winter area. I
just do some lifting on the side and then go to yoga. UM.
And I found yoga to be actually the restorative too. Ever since started I
started yoga back in November, my lists have been better, my energy has
been better, my posture has been better. Especially I cannot promote yoga enough.
And if you don't even want to, and if you don't want to
rest day, but you still need to take or take a rest because everyone
needs to take a rest day at minimum once every seven to ten days,
do you restorative yoga? And that is where you just hold these these postures
and different restorative poses for a couple of minutes at a time. I actually
used to do yan yoga too on occasion back when I did cross it a
little bit um cross It was fun. I go in and out of it.
I a lot a few classes in my class back. But I will
say nothing has been harder than yin yoga. UM, not even hot yoga.
I think at sometimes yan yoga, I'll explain for a new listeners who
aren't familiar you yoga's where you hold these different yoga postures for about twenty to
thirty minutes at a time, so it's only about four or five six postures
in a practice. I used to go this guy and Denbees to have these
workshops. I would just go and we told these poses. Really that showed
me what you're made of. And so, and I also just love the
aspect of hot yoga two, when you're in a room that's you know,
one hundred and five degrees and it's it's a little bit gross considering how much
you're sweating and dripping on people around you. But you know, I really
started sitting studying stoicism last year and how yoga's really help us dosism in a
practice. And a key pillar of stoicism is you cannot control that bad things
happen, but you can control your reaction to them, your response to them.
And so I love being an hot yoga class and you're you're holding a
pose and that will show you what you're made of. When you know it's
it's it's blistering hot, you're slipping everywhere on the mat um, but you
still got to hold that that pose for that at a time till the instructor
says it's time to move on. Um. But I'm curious, have you
have you tried any different types of I mean, have you tried pilates,
soul cycle, or or power or any of these types of niche exercise programs.
Tristan, I do not have the money and I live in a rural
area, so there are nothing. There's nothing good, especially when I was
in high school and then when I was in college, there was just there
was just nothing around me. So I just had my little college gym.
Um. Now that I'm in Madison, I theoretically could, but I pay
for my membership, so I'm I'm just doing that. But you you really
influenced me on the yoga because my husband um has actually actually does it,
you know, a couple of times a week. He says it really helps
with his lifts, Like you said, he said, he recovers much faster.
And I've just never done it for whatever reason. But I think I
think I'm going to do it now. I think you you really influenced me,
and I do like I'm I'm pretty routine oriented, So I'm not somebody
if I think if I started CrossFit, I would probably not quit for like
twenty years. So like that just the kind of person I am. Like,
I just if I find something that I like, I can do it
forever. I mean, it's like the same thing with food, and I
know not a lot of people are like this, but I can eat really
consistently. I get like, I love routine, um, and I like
things to be consistent because that's kind of where I find my peace of mind.
So that we're a little different in that sense. But I've definitely you
piqued my interest with yoga. I wanted to ask you about something that you've
written about and that I've seen just from being in the health social media world
and being interested in that. The liver King has been really interesting and in
health and fitness, but in a warped way. So the liver King,
for the listeners who don't know it, just really um megabuff looking man.
He's got all these veins. He almost looks unnatural, and that's because he
is so. For for years, um he said, I don't I don't
do testosterone, all of that. Don't do hormone replacement therapy. I'm not
on anything, and I'm not on on any kind of steroids. He's completely
clean and he all he does is eat really healthy and work out all the
time. And it turned out recently that that is one hundred percent not true.
Um, he's on all these these different UH enhancement drugs and UH.
There were a lot of people that felt betrayed by him, and I think
that they're What people don't realize is there's a lot of people just like him
in the fitness world and industry that claimed to be really healthy, that claimed
to be natural, and they're putting things in their bodies that are not healthy
at all, meaning that it's it's just for the aesthetic. And I think
that might be where where the fat phobic people that you know, are the
fat phobia people that are all obsessed with with it might be maybe coming from
in a good way, right, that you can't just only care about the
aesthetics. You have to care about genuine health as well. And there's this
whole sect of the quote unquote health world that is not healthy at all and
that I've completely rejected. There have been people in my life who have said,
you know, I think I want to do hormone replacement therapy, which
is a little bit you know, has a little better uh you know,
connotation and some of them, you know, a real steroid or something.
But I've I've just been against doing anything that's unnatural the same reason that I
don't like taking a pill for your depression. I think most of the time,
if you're feeling sad, it's related to the way you're living your life.
Things that can be changed by putting in the work, to your diet,
to your routine, to the relationships you have with people. Um,
And so I trust I just want to get your thoughts in that because you've
written on it typically, um, and you've addressed the liver King and other
people in this world. Yeah, you know, the liver King is a
great story. Um. You have this guy you clearly was craving this extreme
validation, so it became this influencer and just injecting those self vali steroids.
I wrote a column about it. Last of all, Um, it was
actually part of the impetus to that led me to start my substack on all
these issues. I just have all these questions about health and wellness and how
you know, I mean, I want to know how I can live as
long and healthy as possible. And I'm sure you know a lot of our
listeners and reads the Federals have these same questions. And so I started another
substack just to explore these issues. Social justice reducts and the liver King was
an interesting story because here's someone who was taking he was he was clearly on
steroids. I mean, anyone, I think anyone who looked at the over
King and followed him and thought this guy's being an all natural interesting. I
have to have to say, I didn't know. I'm not somebody who's in
that world. I didn't see. And so he said he was natural,
and I was like, he's natural, and my husband was like, you're
crazy. But I genuinely believed him. So I think there are people that
believed him. Oh there's a lot of people who believed him. I mean
he was making I think what it was like one hundred million dollars a year.
I mean that's the same same amount. But it came out that he
was taking I just put up the numbers here, five point eight milligram vials
of pharmacy grade human growth hormone injecting that sixteen times a month. That is
an astronomical amount of steroids to be taking. But when it comes to so
you talked about a hormone replacement therapy, I actually my mind has been kind
of been changing a little bit on the test testosteran stuff. I happen to
think a lot more men you need some testosteran replacement therapy and they're then they're
actually getting because I think doctors are flying blind on this UM. So the
way doctors determine whether some of whether a man is testoshrom deficient or not,
as they will they will assess their TESTOSHA levels in comparison to the national average,
and that is between a set of ranges. Well that range has declined
by forty two percent in the last two decades UM, So doctors, I
think someone might have, you know, average testostrion levels for their age,
but again that's compared to the rest of population, which would mean that they're
actually deficient. And the testosh and efficiency is coming from all these endocrine disrupting
chemicals that were coming into contact every with every day, UM and that it's
it's making its way into the water and even in the air, bringing fellies
us. I mean This is not tinfoil has stuff. I mean, I
read this whole book on estrogenics about it, and and so you know,
like you said, we shouldn't be doing anything unnatural, like you know,
checking ourselves with all these steroids at the time, but we're also living in
a really unnatural environment from the way we've been living for the past forty thousand
years, I mean, the way that humans have lived in the last century,
let alone the last thousand years, as a radical departure from our natural
environment. And as more of these forever chemicals leaching the water and the air
and our food supply, we're just getting sicker and sicker and sicker, and
our testosterone is being evaporated. For that, that's creating implications for fertility.
It's creating implications for obesity because testosterone is also a primary hormone that regulates metabolic
function, and so when testostrian levels are falling off a cliff, it's also
no wonder we have an obesity epidemic done. And you're also seeing this kind
of kind of drive these issues that come along with gender. You have people,
you you have men who aren't really masculating because they're testosterone deficient and they
get confused about what gender they really are, and then they kind of fall
into this trap of tran transgenderism. And so, um, you know,
there's a lot of talk about, you know, vegan versus meat diet,
and again, I think it really just comes down to whether it's processed.
But also, um, you know, looking at how we've been living in
the past forty thousand years, I don't know the answer on whether we should
be eating a meat based diet or a plant baste diet. I always just
go back to the idea that it comes down to whether it's processed or unprocessed,
that beings. I mean, I was vegan for a month two years
ago just to try it. I felt way better when I ate eggs again.
And they also tasted a lot better than the tofu scramble that was in
this in this cookbook. And so but you know, for people say we
need to be eating vegan forty thousand years of evolution, sy should be eating
meat. But also I think it happens to matter about your different your own
bloodline, because your ancestors might not have been hunters, they might have been
gatherers, or your answers might have been gatherers and not hunters, and so
I think our bloodline has a lot to do with it, which is blay.
Different diets tend to work for different people, but at the very very
base level, it comes down to processed and unnatural versus unprocessed and natural.
So, um, I want to get your taking. You obviously been eating
an animal based diet. Did you consider veganism or a vegetarianism and what are
your thoughts on that? Well? I did, Actually I hadn't done a
lot of research. Um. I just had this perception in my head that
vegetables equal good and red meat is bad. I actually thought that for a
long time, all through high school, all the way through college, and
up until recently did I start to realize that no, actually red meat isn't
bad for you. High protein diets are really good. Um, eggs aren't
bad for you. It there's this idea. I think that the foods that
are sometimes the least nutritious, right you have, vegetables with these defense chemicals
opted, with pesticides on them, um, are healthier than what, like
you said, what our ancestors have been craving for for all for all of
human history. I watched a while ago a video of these this uh,
this hunter gatherer group in Siberia, and they would they eat reindeer, right,
That's how they That's how they survive. And the most nutritious part of
the reindeer that the head hunter gets is the liver. And people, you
know, will will stay all livers. You know, these organs aren't good
for you. We filter them out, you can't find them at the grocery
store. But there's a lot of evidence to say that these are actually are
really good for you. And we talked about the pyramid and uh, flipping
it on its head really to see what's actually good for you. Grain is
not supposed to be the fundamental primary part of your diet. Um. It
is actually its eggs and meat and um and then raw dairy right there.
These are things that are important that we've excluded. And I just wonder about
the left a little bit because there's there is a perception. I think,
I think there's some truth to it that people in you know, Denver,
like you say, or Los Angeles, um, are healthier than people in
Middle of America, that they care more um, that they'll spend you know,
way too much money on a salad at a restaurant um in LA or
whatever. And I just I wonder how people who theoretically are supposed to be
so much healthier are buying into the World Economic Forum demonizing meat, are are
buying into the transing of children which for will make it, We'll leave them
infertile, sometimes unable to have an orgasm, all of these problems, bones,
brittle, arthritis at at you know, in the early twenties, how
can these people who are supposed to be so health conscious actually be doing the
opposite of what they should be doing. And I'm not saying that the right
is super healthy or anything like that. I'm not saying that at all.
But what I am saying is that there seems to be a disconnect and maybe
a cultural disconnect between what is and isn't perceived as healthy, and the left
seems to be particularly warped on on what is and isn't healthy. And you
see this contradiction here. I think a lot of the contrary has really fallen
into this trap of chasing cheap dogamine hits. And that pace was really accelerated
by the pandemic when we were all worked into our homes and what else you
can do then binge Netflix with you know, carbs and sugar all the time
because your gym was shut down. They're telling you you can't interact with people.
We're also you're going to get sick with the buyers. That might kill
you. Um. Even though that we knew the entire time the risk for
COVID was incredibly low, especially if you are a help a metabolically healthy person
who who exercises regularly. UM. And so, but we've we've kind of
fall especially in these blue cities, where we've fallen into these traps of cheap
dopamine hits, whether it's Netflix weed born in processed, ready ready to eat
food, and that's not that's not healthy. And I'm sorry, but I
don't think anyone can convince me that they're happy with making their lives chasing cheap
dopamine. I think there's a lot of misery there. And I think that
the country as it continues to isolate because I think COVID, I mean,
I think COVID was a starting point for a lot of these poor habits that
just got accelerated, and it should have been a wake up call that this
country needed. UM. But unfortunately we're kind of descending into this path,
a path of isolation. People aren't dating, teens, aren't even having sex
anymore. And while that means that while it means king pregnancies down, I
would also just means stiff people aren't returing um and and there's different implications that
that brings with it on its own um and so. But to wrap up
a vida, I want to work just for our listeners. If you can
name three or three or four of your best uh of your best best health
and wellness steps for any listeners whom I'm wondering while I was, I was
just going to mention before I tell you that Tristan that when I was in
college, which was probably the worst hit by covid UM, I was so
angry when they shut down the gyms and I couldn't work out. I was
trying to do little at home workouts in my room, which was more like
a closet. I didn't have did have a very big apartment all um,
and just felt terrible. And one day I said, Okay, I'm gonna
go to the track because even though it's shut down, there is no one
there. It's outdoors, no one's gonna yell at me. If I if
I co run a few laps around the track and I live on the South
side. I lived on the South Side of Chicago. It's not a very
safe neighborhood. So just to run around the streets there was not a very
smart idea. So that's why I wanted to be in the track on campus.
And oh, a university employee came up to me and said I had
to leave because of because of COVID on a track where there was no one
there outdoors it was absolutely sandy. Um, so that's very that was very
frustrating. So what I say from my my my tips are um to be
to be like, be intuitive about this sort of thing. When when the
world starts to tell you that you have to sit home to avoid getting sick.
Um, go outside, go for a walk, try to go to
the gym. Um My, my husband and a bunch of his buddiest of
their own little gym where they rented out of space during COVID. They called
it the Wuhan Weight Club, and they said, even though the y mcas
are all closed down, we're still going to work out. Prioritizing your health
even when the culture and the government tells you not to UM. Not believing
the food labels is a huge one. UM. Calories, right, that's
what we talked about, calories not being as important as the quality of food
that you're eating. UM. And and then you know, I think if
you're a parent, like I said right off the bat, the biggest thing
is instilling good, healthy eating habits when your children are young, and you
have to do that by changing your own habits. You can't have a healthy
eating kid if you're unhealthy yourself. You have to be the example and you
have to put good food in the household. Well, thank you for joining.
Thanks Tristan, right,