Full Transcript Introduction and Guest Background 0:00 Hello and welcome back I'm your host, doctor Sharon Stills. 0:03 It's always my honor, my privilege, my joy to be here with you all 0:07 and to share these life changing conversations. 0:10 And today I have a special guest, Doctor David Jockers. 0:15 He's a doctor of natural medicine. 0:17 He runs one of the most popular natural health websites, drjockers.com, 0:21 which I love, and he's got over 1 million monthly visitors, 0:25 so he is really making an impact. 0:27 His work has been seen on popular media such as The Doctor, 0:30 Aso and Hallmark Common Family. 0:34 He's the author of bestselling books The Keto Metabolic Breakthrough 0:38 by Victory Belt Publishing, and The Fasting Transformation. 0:42 He's a world renowned expert in the area of metabolic health 0:46 and fasting and brain health and inflammation and functional nutrition. 0:50 All the things we're going to dive in today for you. 0:53 And he also hosts the popular Doctor Jockers Functional Nutrition podcast, 0:58 which I've been on and has been consistently ranked 1:01 among the top 50 health and fitness podcasts in the world. 1:05 He lives in canton, Georgia 1:07 with his wife Angel, and he has twin boys and daughters. 1:11 And they're all gorgeous and adorable and cute. 1:14 He has cutest family ever. 1:15 And so it's my honor and I'm really happy to welcome you to the summit. 1:20 Thank you for taking time out of your busy, busy schedule to be here with us. 1:24 Well, thanks so much is really appreciate everything that you're doing. 1:28 Awesome. Yeah. 1:29 So let's just jump in because you've got a lot to share. 1:33 And I want to get the information to the listeners. 1:35 So inflammation we all know inflammation 1:39 is this driving factor in all chronic illness. 1:43 And not that menopause is a disease. 1:46 But the truth is as we age inflammation becomes more of a concern. 1:51 And if we're not actively preventing 1:54 or taking action to avoid inflammation, it's going to be something 1:58 that's going to become a part of our life and not in a good way. 2:02 So maybe for starters, because we hear the word inflammation. 2:06 But if you can just describe what exactly is inflammation 2:10 because there's good and there's bad and how does it develop for sure. 2:14 Well, inflammation is our body's natural survival system. 2:18 We know that our ancestors throughout the history of mankind, 2:22 they have died from more so from sepsis or some sort of infection 2:27 getting into their bloodstream, spreading throughout their body, getting into 2:30 vital organs like their heart and causing, you know, myocarditis or causing
What Inflammation Is and Why It Becomes Chronic 2:36 something like pneumonia or meningitis or encephalitis. 2:41 And they would die, you know, obviously, from that. 2:43 So our body adapts, has adapted to create this inflammatory process. 2:49 And inflammation helps prevent against bacteria 2:53 getting into the bloodstream, spreading, causing 2:55 something that could kill us quickly. 2:57 So it keeps the pathogens under control. 2:59 And then it also is really key for the healing process. 3:01 It breaks down old damaged tissue and allows for the formation 3:05 of new healthy tissue. 3:06 But inflammation should be short term. 3:08 So it should be a cute and short term. 3:10 Like if you sprain your ankle or if you get a bug bite or something 3:15 along those lines, 3:16 you're going to have some short term inflammation to clean the area up. 3:20 But again, 3:20 it should be for a short period of time, and then your body should go into healing 3:24 and rebuilding that region and turn off the inflammatory process. 3:28 And so I always say, you know, 3:30 as a metaphor, inflammation should be like a fire in your fireplace. 3:35 Fire in your fireplace is a beautiful thing. 3:37 But if you go and you dump a bunch of gasoline on the fire, 3:40 then it's going to spread throughout all your walls 3:42 and it's going to burn down your house and our lifestyle, 3:45 the things we do in our daily lifestyle and the things that we're exposed to 3:48 in our air, our water and our food can be like gasoline 3:52 on that inflammatory process, 3:54 causing it to start to burn down our body and causing it to become chronic. 3:58 And so no longer short term, but long term. 4:01 And again, the body, when it's adapted into this kind of chronic inflammatory 4:07 physiology, it's doing the best it can to keep us alive. 4:12 And it's an adaptive physiology based on the environmental conditions. 4:17 So it's not necessarily something wrong with the body. 4:19 The body is trying to do what it can, but the environmental conditions 4:23 are leading it to create this sort of chronic inflammatory process. 4:27 And over time 4:28 that breaks down all the different tissues and different systems of our body. 4:32 And sometimes it can affect certain regions more than others, right? 4:36 It can affect, you know, for some individuals it can affect their thyroid. 4:39 Right. 4:39 We call that maybe an autoimmune condition like Hashimoto's thyroiditis or graves 4:45 disease, hypothyroidism or for other individuals, 4:47 it can cause irritable bowel or some sort of inflammatory bowel disease 4:50 like like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. 4:54 For other individuals, it can really affect their brain causing 4:57 dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's disease, these different 5:00 neurodegenerative conditions. 5:01 And before we get that, like when people are younger, 5:05 they end up depressed, when they have chronic inflammation in the brain, 5:08 or they have anxiety or they have just mood disorders, trouble 5:12 sleeping, brain fog. 5:13 These are all symptoms of inflammation in the body and inflammation in the brain 5:17 in particular, affecting our ability to think sharply and quickly. 5:20 It can affect our ability to burn fat for fuel. 5:22 It can affect our metabolism, causing us to not be able to break down 5:28 fat effectively in our body and be and have weight loss resistance, right? 5:32 It can affect any system of our body, our joints. Typically, 5:35 when people think about inflammation, think about chronic pain, right. 5:38 So it can absolutely affect our joints, muscle tissue fire up more pain fibers. 5:43 It can affect our skin, cause skin inflammation. 5:45 So eczema acne rosacea right a lot of different issues like that. 5:49 Psoriasis. So any tissue of our body 5:53 can be dramatically affected by chronic inflammation. 5:57 And so all of it though has some of the same root cause factors. 6:01 And that's what we have to figure out and address. 6:03 Yeah I mean there's really unfortunately nothing that is spared 6:08 from being affected by inflammation when it comes to our bodies. 6:11 So we're going to talk about the root causes. 6:14 But before we do that, I'd love to talk about 6:17 just how do you measure inflammation. Right. 6:21 Like how to what are the lab markers you like. 6:23 Because I like to keep it really practical. 6:25 You know what can the ladies listening jot down and go ask their doctors for. 6:30 So we really have some way to measure what is our inflammation. 6:34 So when we're making the changes we're going to talk about, 6:36 we know that they're actually affecting us in a positive way for sure. 6:41 Well a couple biomarkers, you know, that you can easily get that are low cost. 6:45 And most doctors know about them and they can run them. 6:48 One would be high sensitivity 6:49 C reactive proteins series active protein is an inflammatory protein. 6:53 If that's up over 1.0 it's a sign of inflammation in the body. 6:58 And so you want that down as low as possible right. 7:01 If it's under 0.5 that's that's great. 7:03 It's wonderful. 7:05 But if it's up over one we know there's inflammation in the body. 7:07 And a lot of people you know it's I've seen many people with 710 2000 right. CRP. 7:13 So very very high levels. 7:15 Now you also want to make sure the person is doing the test properly. 7:18 Like for example, some athletes will work out really intensely and then the next, 7:23 you know, the day before, and then they'll go in the next day 7:26 and get their labs run and their crp will be really high. 7:29 But that's that can also be a byproduct 7:31 of the inflammation induced from intense exercise. Right. 7:34 So ideally when you get your your labs done 7:37 the day before, you don't do any sort of intense exercise. 7:40 Usually you just need one rest day there. 7:42 So one rest day you can still walk and move, 7:44 but nothing intense, no intense weightlifting or anything like that. 7:48 Go in, you know, eat dinner, normal dinner 7:51 the night before and then you can just drink water 7:53 the morning off,
Key Lab Markers for Measuring Inflammation 7:54 go in and get your blood work done 7:56 in the morning ideally. 7:57 And then after that you can have your breakfast 7:59 or your coffee or whatever it is. 8:00 So so that way you get your test done properly and get the right results. 8:04 So that's one one thing that we look at is CRP. 8:06 Another one is ESR erythrocyte sedimentation rate. 8:09 So we want to make sure that the blood's not not clumping up together. 8:13 So blood cells you know they have basically a negative charge. 8:17 And so normally they 8:18 when they're functioning right they should repel each other. Right. 8:21 But when we have chronic inflammation we have a lot of glycation 8:26 in our blood cells. 8:27 They start to clump. They start to stick together. 8:30 They become very viscous. 8:31 And they don't they don't they clump right. 8:34 And so they don't separate properly. 8:35 And you could see that in an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate. 8:39 And then also serum ferritin. 8:42 Ferritin is a storage form of iron. 8:44 We need it and we need a good amount of it. 8:46 But when we see that elevated that could be a sign 8:49 of inflammation in the body. 8:50 It's an acute phase reactant to inflammation. 8:53 It also could indicate certain pathogens as well in the system parasites, 8:57 things like that. 8:57 Because of the body, especially if we see iron 8:59 serum iron low or some sort of anemia but ferritin high, then 9:04 then it can often indicate some sort of a gut infection or blood infection. 9:08 But if it's just normal, normal iron, normal red blood cells, 9:12 high serum ferritin oftentimes a sign of inflammation in the body. 9:16 So those are a couple of markers. 9:17 And then we can look at like blood sugar markers like fasting insulin right. 9:21 And see if there's an insulin resistant type phase that's taking place. 9:25 Fasting insulin ideally should be under six. 9:28 So ideally it should be 2 to 5. 9:30 Now in conventional medicine sometimes if they see it low like that they see it 9:35 like three or 2 or 3, they'll say oh wow, you have to low of insulin. 9:39 But actually that's really good. 9:40 You should always be producing some insulin. 9:43 So if it's under one, that could be a sign that you're not producing 9:47 enough insulin. Maybe you've got damage to your pancreas. 9:50 But really the level the ideal level should be somewhere on 1 to 5, 9:54 maybe up to six. 9:55 And that's a sign of good insulin sensitivity. 9:57 When you're doing a fasting blood work 9:58 test, you know, if it's up over six, sign up some level of insulin resistance. 10:03 And, you know, oftentimes I know, doctor, I'm sure you see it quite high often. 10:07 You know we'll see it in the 20s. 30s. Right. 10:09 That's a sign that the body's producing a lot of insulin. 10:12 And the issue with insulin is, you know, high elevated 10:15 insulin creates an environment for chronic inflammation. 10:18 So that's a good marker to look at as well. 10:21 You know, we can look at liver enzymes. 10:22 There's a lot of different things you can look at on blood work 10:24 that are more indirect. 10:26 Right. 10:26 Fasting insulin is an indirect marker of inflammation. 10:29 Whereas A the SR and the serum ferritin 10:33 can be more direct markers of inflammation in the body. 10:36 Yeah. 10:37 And what you're talking about is so important because on a blood test, 10:40 like a said rate, they give you sometimes up to 40, 10:45 up to 20, and you want to keep that low below five. 10:48 And with insulin you can come back as a 19 being normal. 10:52 And so you have to realize that there's these optimal ranges we're looking for. 10:57 And laboratory ranges are not that optimal. 11:00 They may be common but they're not optimal. 11:02 So important important markers. 11:05 And these are easy tests you can ask your doctor for. 11:07 And if your doctor doesn't want to do them for you, 11:10 probably time to fire your doctor and find a new doctor. 11:13 Because these are just some basic. 11:15 These are not like way out there. 11:17 You know, we're not doing Milo peroxidase and getting into all these other things. 11:20 These are like basic blood markers that your insurance should cover. 11:24 So let's talk about blood sugar because I think blood sugar 11:29 is like the 700 pound gorilla that sits in the room 11:33 that no one really wants to pay attention to. 11:36 And we get fatigue. We get brain fog. 11:39 We are dealing with all these things, especially as we're 11:41 going through the menopause transition. 11:43 But we all we're all trained. 11:45 We want to take a pill. Let's take some berberine. 11:48 What can I take? 11:49 What do I need to do when a lot of the times 11:51 this is all being modulated by irregular blood sugar. 11:55 So I'd love for you to speak to that for sure. 11:58 Well, blood sugar, we always have some level of blood glucose. 12:02 When we eat something with carbohydrates, 12:04 our body is going to turn it into glucose. 12:06 But also we have glucose inside of our muscle tissue and inside of our liver. 12:11 We call that glycogen storage form of glucose. 12:13 So even if we're on a zero carb, let's say a carnivore diet, 12:16 our bodies constantly undergoing something called gluconeogenesis. 12:20 Basically, it's creating glucose from the glycogen that it has. 12:24 Right. 12:25 And it can turn it can also turn protein into some level of glycogen as well, 12:29 and also some level of glucose. 12:31 So we're always going to add glucose. And we need it. 12:32 It's a critical energy source. 12:34 It's an anaerobic energy source meaning we don't need oxygen to break down glucose. 12:38 And it provides quick immediate energy. 12:41 But it's a dirty energy source. 12:43 And what I mean by that is it's very metabolically expensive. 12:47 It actually costs a lot of oxidative stress 12:50 within our cell when we use glucose as an energy source. 12:54 So it's a needed energy source. 12:56 We just don't want to be reliant on it all the time. 12:58 It should be for short periods of time. 13:00 And certain cells like a red blood cells, are always going to need 13:02 some level of glucose to run on brain cells. 13:05 Also, can they need about 50%, 50 or 60% of their energy production off glucose?
Blood Sugar, Insulin Resistance, and Metabolic Flexibility 13:09 So we always have it and we always need it. 13:11 We just want regulate how often we're using it. 13:14 And so in our in our body, we have a kind of a tight zone 13:17 for our blood glucose where it's a healthy range. 13:20 And when our blood glucose goes elevated too much we call that hypoglycemia. 13:25 And that's really dangerous 13:26 because the excess glucose in our bloodstream will actually bind 13:30 to proteins and create something called advanced glycation end products. 13:35 Ages. 13:36 And these ages are like shrapnel going through our bloodstream. 13:39 They cause inflammatory damage in the 13:42 endothelial lining of the blood vessels, and that leads to atherosclerosis. 13:45 It can lead to kidney failure. 13:47 It can lead to nerve problems. 13:49 When you think about somebody with type two diabetes that's uncontrolled, 13:53 so they have excess sugar in their bloodstream for long periods of time. 13:57 These people they end up with, 13:59 they end up typically on dialysis because their kidneys are damaged. 14:03 Oftentimes they'll end up with peripheral neuropathy 14:05 where they can't feel their feet or sometimes their hands 14:08 because the nerves have been damaged. 14:09 Sometimes they end up with optic neuritis because the nerves go to their eyes 14:13 and becomes so damaged by these AGS and the inflammatory damage that occurs 14:17 with it in the endothelial scarring, the scarring in the blood vessels. 14:20 And they typically die of congestive heart failure. 14:23 And oftentimes they have dementia, Alzheimer's, 14:25 something along those lines as well because of these AGS. 14:29 So they become so problematic. 14:30 So hyperglycemia is a serious problem. 14:33 But also hyperglycemia is a major problem as well. 14:36 So if the blood sugar drops too low and the individual 14:39 is not metabolically flexible enough to burn fat for fuel 14:43 and the sugar is too low, then they're not getting enough energy, 14:46 enough of an energy source into their neurons and their brain. 14:49 And then their neurons start to die. 14:52 When the neurons start to die, they spill out their contents 14:55 and they spill out a bunch of different ions and metabolic byproducts, 14:59 and these will actually excite the neurons around them to death. 15:03 We call this neurotoxicity. 15:06 It's almost like a domino. 15:07 When domino goes down, a whole bunch of dominoes go down. 15:10 And so when somebody has a hypoglycemic event, 15:15 right, like a medical event, like they pass out, okay, 15:17 that actually dramatically increases the risk of developing dementia 15:21 or some sort of neurodegenerative condition later in life. 15:24 In fact, if you've had one medical episode of a hypoglycemic medical episode, 15:29 meaning, again, you passed out, that actually increases 15:32 your risk of neurodegenerative conditions by over 40% later in life. 15:36 And that's 15:36 because you've damaged so many neurons in order to have an event like that. 15:40 And so it's very important to keep your blood sugar stable. 15:43 We want to have we want to be very metabolically flexible. 15:46 And what that means is we want to be really good at burning 15:49 sugar, burning glucose as an energy source when we need to. 15:53 When do we need to when we're exercising, when we're doing something 15:56 at a very high intensity 15:58 and we can't get enough oxygen in to produce the energy to to undergo 16:02 oxidative phosphorylation and run through the electron transport system. 16:07 So we need to rely on a, an energy source called glycolysis, right 16:12 where we're breaking down glucose really quickly. 16:14 We're only producing two ATP, two site, two components of cellular energy. 16:18 So it's not a whole lot compared to when we're burning fat we can produce 16:23 or when we have enough oxygen. 16:24 In general, we can produce about 36 ATP so we don't get as much, 16:28 but we can do it quickly. And that's the key. 16:30 So when we're exercising, what do we feel like 16:33 we start to feel, you know, acid building up in our body. 16:36 Right. And and we'll be out of breath. Right. 16:39 And that's part of the glycolysis process. 16:41 And so we produce acid as a metabolic byproduct. 16:44 And that's actually healthy. And that's normal. Natural. 16:46 Nothing wrong with that. 16:47 It's actually a sign that we're burning sugar for fuel. 16:50 That's good okay. 16:51 Now what we want 16:52 to do is when we are done exercising and we're sitting at our on our couch 16:56 or we're sleeping, we want to be burning fat as our primary fuel source. 17:01 That's what we should be doing because we have enough oxygen. 17:03 But most people, because their insulin levels are elevated all the time. 17:08 And this has to do with the nutrition they're putting in their body, 17:11 the light that they're being exposed to, the the movement 17:14 or lack of movement that they have on a regular basis. 17:18 And hormone dysfunction, these individuals, 17:20 because their insulin is elevated, they're not burning fat. 17:23 You see, insulin is this superhero hormone. 17:25 Its job is to take sugar out of the bloodstream 17:28 and put it into the cells. 17:29 And that helps protect against the buildup of those AGS, 17:32 those advanced glycation end products, really important. 17:35 And we need that insulin to shuttle the glucose into the cell 17:38 so we can use the glucose as an energy source. 17:40 The problem is when insulin becomes elevated 17:43 because we're consistently putting in, you know, high glycemic foods 17:46 and hyper palatable ultra processed foods, and we're eating all the time. 17:51 Every few hours we get elevated boosts of insulin. 17:54 And as that insulin stays elevated, 17:56 it shuts down our ability to burn fat for fuel. 18:00 And so now we can't undergo fat burning effectively. 18:04 So we become metabolically damaged. 18:06 And the research shows that over 91% 18:09 of our population or society today is metabolically inflexible. 18:13 That means they don't shift from sugar burning into fat burning effectively. 18:17 And so when their blood sugar starts to drop down, normally 18:21 our insulin is coming down and we're able to burn fat as a fuel source. 18:24 And then we can actually create these water soluble molecules called ketones. 18:28 You see, 18:28 fatty acids are a great fuel source for our muscle cells 18:31 and most of the cells of our body, but they can't cross the blood brain barrier. 18:35 And so the body, because our ancestors were exposed to times of famine 18:39 on a regular basis, 18:40 our body knows how to get an alternative fuel source in the brain. 18:45 So it takes fatty acids, converts them into ketones, which are smaller, 18:50 water soluble molecules that can cross through the blood brain barrier 18:53 the liver does. 18:54 This takes the fatty acids, creates ketones. 18:56 As ketones elevate, they actually shut down inflammation in the brain. 19:00 They actually help to balance the excitatory 19:04 and the inhibitory neurotransmitters in the brain. 19:06 They enhance certain certain 19:09 growth factors in the brain and help to balance neurotransmitters 19:13 and create all this great, all these great benefits in in our brain. 19:17 But we need insulin down, insulin low in order to get the elevation of ketones. 19:22 And most people, 19:23 because they're eating a lot of ultra processed foods, a lot of seed oil is high 19:27 glycemic or high end slow foods that promote a high insulin release. 19:31 They're eating consistently. Most people are snacking. 19:33 The average individual eat something with calories nine times a day, 19:37 and it could be just drinking, you know, taking a swig of sweetened tea. 19:42 Right? 19:43 Or a sprite or, 19:44 you know, some sort of soft drink that counts as a meal 19:46 because that's actually increasing your insulin levels. 19:49 Let's say you take two gulps of, you know, a, you know, Mountain Dew, right? 19:54 That increases your insulin levels quite a bit, 19:56 and that might be in between feedings, and that's increasing the insulin. 20:00 So because of that sort of of a lifestyle. 20:03 And then the fact that people are most people are circadian 20:07 rhythm is so far off and they're being exposed to blue lights late at night 20:11 that causes that that can drive up insulin resistance and hormone dysfunction. 20:15 Most people are not moving well. Right. 20:17 So movement is a great way to get insulin levels down. 20:21 It's going out for walks trying to build lean body tissue with strength training, 20:26 things like that, doing high 20:27 intensity interval training that will bring down insulin. 20:30 It will activate muscle cells. Right. 20:32 And your muscle cells will have to work hard and muscle itself. 20:36 Your muscle tissue acts as a glucose sponge. 20:39 So it actually will take in the stronger and the more you work your muscle 20:44 and the larger your muscle tissue is, 20:47 it will actually pull sugar out of the bloodstream, right. 20:50 So it protecting against the ages and lower insulin. 20:53 And so now that creates more insulin sensitivity 20:57 and creates more metabolic flexibility where you're able to burn fat for fuel. 21:00 So these are things we need to do is really activate our muscle tissue, get 21:05 our circadian rhythm functioning well and follow a blood sugar stabilizing diet. 21:10 Well that was a lot. 21:12 That was a that was a little mini masterclass there. 21:14 That was amazing. 21:15 Yeah I mean I don't think I've ever met anyone who's in ketosis 21:20 and did not report that their moods 21:23 improve, that their energy improve, that their ad went away, 21:27 that their concentration, there's just no downside to it. 21:32 It just really improves everything. 21:34 So an interesting I just want to highlight again 21:37 what you said about the blood glucose dropping, 21:40 because we tend to always be worried about it being elevated. 21:44 And with anything with we're talking about hormones. 21:47 There's always that Goldilocks where we want it just right. 21:51 We're always concerned about too much, but too little is just, 21:54 you know, that's quite a quite a statistic. 21:56 Youth throughout there about 40% increase in dementia. 21:59 That's pretty significant. 22:02 So what do you to the women who are listening. 22:07 Do you recommend regular fasting. 22:10 How do they. What do you think about CGM. 22:13 Like what do you recommend they do to make sure that they are 22:16 balancing their blood glucose? 22:19 And what is a balanced blood glucose in your. 22:23 Yeah for sure. 22:24 So CGM you mean a continuous blood glucose monitor? 22:27 And that's a great idea 22:28 because that actually gives you more individual kind of 22:30 instant feedback on how your blood sugar is being regulated throughout the day. 22:35 These are little things that are noninvasive 22:36 that go in the back of your arm. 22:38 And they pretty much last about two weeks. 22:39 These little sensors, and you don't even feel 22:42 the needle going in as opposed to the blood prick. 22:44 I don't know about you, but like, pricking my finger is like. 22:47 Like I'm, like, scared of doing it. 22:49 And it only tells you what your blood glucose looks like right? 22:51 Then at that moment. Okay. 22:53 You want to be able to test this 24 hours a day to see what sort of habits 22:58 and activities cause more blood sugar dysfunction than others, and that helps 23:02 you modulate and make positive changes in your lifestyle. 23:06 So you're getting that instant feedback. 23:07 And that's what happens with these CGM. 23:09 They last for about two weeks, 23:10 and they connect to a software system where you can actually manage. 23:14 You just scan it with your phone over the CGM. 23:18 You actually look at what your blood sugar is looking like all the time, 23:20 and then chart your activities and your, your, your meals and things like that 23:24 so you can see what sort of changes you're noticing with it. 23:27 So I think it's a really great idea. 23:28 I think it's probably the best way of looking at your overall metabolic health. 23:32 I also like doing the fasting insulin test 2 to 3 times a year on blood work, 23:37 you know, to 23:38 to just kind of manage and look at what your insulin levels are looking like, 23:41 hopefully at some point in the future will have a continuous, you know, 23:45 insulin measurement. 23:47 Yeah, exactly. 23:48 That would be amazing. And I think it will. 23:50 We will have that probably by 2030 or so next few years. 23:54 But with that said, here's what you do. 23:55 Here's the best way to start. 23:56 Number one is blood sugar stabilizing diet. 23:59 So what does that look like. 24:00 You want to make sure number one you're getting rid of process 24:03 ultra processed foods right. 24:04 There's different screens ultra processed and processed. 24:07 Ultra processed doesn't really resemble food. 24:09 It's like pretzels you know, cookies, chips right. 24:13 Things like that. 24:14 All those things kind of the middle section of the of the store. 24:17 Whereas a processed food could be like olive oil, for example.
Practical Diet and Fasting Strategies for Stability 24:20 That would be an example of a processed food 24:21 that actually could be really, really healthy for your body butter, right? 24:24 Would be an example of a actually a processed food but healthy for your body. 24:28 And so you want to go as much as possible real foods right. 24:32 Real food diet. 24:33 Get rid of all the seed oil your corn, Cornwall soybean, safflower, 24:38 cotton seed, canola oil, peanut oil, all of those types of things. 24:42 Get those out of the diet and then try to go as organic as possible. 24:46 You want food that has maximal nutrients and minimal toxins. 24:50 And so if you can get food that has the lowest levels 24:54 of pesticides and herbicides, the better it is for your body. 24:57 And that's really what organic does. 24:58 Organic food on average has somewhere between 20 to 40% 25:02 more nutrient value and then has significantly less, right, 25:06 like something like like 300% lower levels of toxic chemicals. 25:11 Right. And so that's what you're looking for. 25:13 That's going to give you the best bang for your buck. 25:15 So that's what you want to focus on. 25:16 And then with your meals I recommend starting with just three meals a day. 25:20 Get 30 or more grams of protein in each meal. 25:24 Now I know that seems like a lot, okay, 25:26 but once you get used to this, you actually start to crave it. 25:29 Okay? 25:29 And so it would be something 25:30 like five ounces of chicken or steak or something along those lines. 25:34 That's going to give you 30 or more grams. 25:36 Now if you're under 100 pounds, you know, if you're really, really lean, 25:39 really light or you're a child, 25:41 you know, you probably get away with 20, 25g, right? 25:43 But for most people, 30g of protein or more. 25:46 Like for me, I lift weights six days a week. 25:49 I mean, I'm eating typically 60 to 80g of protein in a meal, right? 25:54 If not more. 25:55 And so depending on your activity level, you may need more than 30 to. 26:00 I always say I typically say 30 to 50g, 26:02 but it'll it will help create satiety and blood sugar stability. 26:06 And then you want to follow that up with healthy fats okay. 26:09 Now healthy fats are going to come 26:10 from grass fed animal sources which are your proteins right. 26:14 That's your best proteins. 26:15 So you're going to get healthy fats in there as well. 26:17 You also get healthy fats 26:19 from high polyphenol extra virgin olive oil from avocados, coconut oil, 26:23 butter, tallow, grass fed beef, you know, things like that. 26:26 And so with that it can range. 26:29 So for some individuals they can eat a high amount of fat and feel great. 26:32 Another individuals, 26:33 they get a lot of digestive discomfort when they do a lot of fat. 26:36 So I recommend trying to find your fat threshold. Right. 26:39 What I found is that most people, even if they don't have a gallbladder, 26:42 can do about 15g 15 to 20g of healthy fats in a meal. 26:46 So start there, right? 26:48 And if you feel fine with that, you could try increasing it 25g, maybe 30g of fat. 26:53 The fat will just help you be satiated longer, and that's a good sign. 26:57 It will help keep your insulin down your blood sugar stable. 27:00 So you want to do that. 27:01 You want to add in those healthy fats if you don't 27:02 already have them with your protein foods, like if you're doing chicken breast, 27:07 that's going to be low fat. 27:08 You want to add in some avocado or add in some extra virgin olive oil or butter 27:12 or something along those lines. 27:13 If you're doing steak, that's going to be higher and fat. 27:16 You don't need to add in extra fat with that. 27:18 And so that's what you want to do there. 27:20 And then add in lots of colorful fruits and vegetables. 27:22 The fibers, the nutrients in there 27:24 will all help provide satiety and start with three meals a day. 27:28 Do a 12 to 14 hour overnight fast. 27:31 Let's say you you finish your dinner at 7 p.m.. 27:33 You don't want to eat anything with calories until 7 a.m. 27:36 the next morning. Okay? 27:37 And if you can push it to 9 a.m., great. Right? 27:40 Hydrate your body well in the morning. 27:41 And the tighter 27:43 the eating window, the better metabolic health benefits that come from it. 27:47 So if you can go to 9 a.m. that's great, right. 27:49 Give you give yourself a 14 hour fast. 27:51 So what you'll start to notice is as you follow this plan and you avoid these ultra 27:56 processed, highly and slow genic foods, you just notice you're more satiated. 28:01 For most people. 28:01 I tell me I'm not even hungry at dinner or I'm not hungry at breakfast. 28:05 And so now it's okay to start from time to time missing one of those meals. 28:10 You know, I recommend ideally getting into a zone where you're doing 28:13 2 to 3 meals and let's say a 6 to 10 hour eating window, okay. 28:18 Depending on the individual, 28:19 depending on your activity level, your stress level, right. 28:22 If you're under a lot of stress, you're not sleeping well. 28:24 I think a larger eating window can be helpful, at least when you're first 28:28 starting this, because fasting or condensing 28:31 that eating window is also a stress on the body. 28:34 So the more stress you're under, you don't want to push it too much. 28:37 Kind of like exercise. 28:37 Getting into an intermittent fasting zone where you're only eating in a six hour 28:41 eating window, let's say 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 28:43 or 12 to 6. 28:45 It's kind of like doing an intense workout. 28:47 And so if you're not sleeping well, if you're under a lot of stress, 28:52 your body may not recover well from that intense workout 28:54 or that fast, maybe overwhelming your system. 28:57 So let's start by getting your stress 28:59 down, really optimizing your sleep and eating in a ten hour eating window. 29:03 And then as you start to get that down, you can start to, 29:06 you know, 29:06 move into an eight hour window or a six hour window 29:09 and see how your body feels with that, okay. 29:11 And that's a great strategy. 29:13 And then, you know, to to kind of more mimic 29:16 an ancestral strategy because our ancestors fasted often, 29:20 but not necessarily intentionally or at least not intentionally 29:24 on a regular basis, they didn't think, well, 29:26 I'm only going to eat in a six hour eating window. 29:28 They they just followed a feast famine cycle. 29:32 Right now, 29:32 you know, 29:33 some cultures religiously, they might fast for a few days 29:35 or something like that, and that's great. 29:37 But most of our ancestors, 29:40 they fasted or they ate very little when there was a famine. 29:44 And then they feasted when food was abundant. 29:46 They didn't have pantries, they didn't have the food storage like we do. 29:48 They were dependent upon a good harvest and a good hunt. 29:50 And so when food was available, they ate a lot. 29:53 When food wasn't available, they couldn't eat much. 29:55 And so to mimic that, a great strategy would be 30:00 five days a week doing something like a, 30:03 you know, 16 to 18 hour fast or, you know, 30:07 like I was talking about eating window somewhere between 6 to 10 hours, somewhere 30:11 in that range, one day a week, trying to push it to about 20 to 24 hours. 30:15 Right. 30:15 So eat lunch and then fast until lunch the next day. 30:19 Hydrate your body well, right, but fast until lunch the next day. 30:23 And that really ramps up autophagy in your body. 30:26 Your body's ability to break down old damaged 30:28 cellular organelles to replenish new healthy mitochondria, 30:32 new healthy cellular structures, great cleansing process that goes on. 30:36 You also get much better insulin sensitivity that takes place. 30:39 You get a boost in your human growth hormone, 30:42 which is your quintessential anti-aging hormone. 30:44 And so, so many great benefits. 30:46 I mean, rejuvenation that takes place when you're doing that. 30:48 So it's a great thing to do. 30:50 And then one day a week where you eat more calories, right? 30:53 And so you have more of a feasting day one day a week, right, 30:57 and a larger eating window. 30:59 And so that's a really good strategy, kind of a feast, famine, cycling strategy 31:03 that I think is good. 31:04 It's something that people 31:05 can be compliant with on a long term basis and feel really good. 31:09 And so I think that's the key, because too much fasting 31:12 or calorie restriction can be harmful to our hormones, right? 31:17 But then of course, too much 31:18 eating overconsumption is very harmful to our hormones as well. 31:23 So having some sort of a feast famine cycle. 31:26 So we're not always in famine and we're not always feasting, I think is, 31:29 is is kind of the sweet spot for hormone optimization. 31:34 Absolutely. 31:35 I think, you know what you said like the word strategy. 31:38 So really understanding the strategy and understanding why you're doing 31:42 what you're doing and that you're giving your body that balance 31:46 because too much of one thing is going to hurt your hormones in both ways. 31:50 So I think that's brilliant and very helpful. 31:53 And ladies, you're going to need to. 31:55 This was like, you just got a 30 minute masterclass 31:58 in blood sugar regulation diet. 32:01 What you need to do. 32:02 So I highly recommend listening to this again and taking more notes, 32:05 because there's a lot of pearls of wisdom in here, as always from doctor doctors. 32:11 So we could go all day, but our time is is winding down. 32:14 So where can they learn more? 32:17 Obviously, I love your website. 32:19 Your website is such a great source of like. 32:22 You want to know about something, you just type it in to your website 32:25 and you get like 32:26 a major document about everything you need to know about that issue. 32:30 So the website is yeah, just go to doctor com. 32:34 It's the best way to find me. 32:35 And of course I'm on social media, Instagram, Doctor Shockers, YouTube 32:39 and my podcast, The Doctor Functional Nutrition Podcast as well. 32:43 Do you spell out doctor or is it just doctor? 32:48 Yeah okay doctor. 32:51 Well thank you as always for coming and dropping the truth 32:55 bombs, dropping the knowledge and sharing with the audience. 32:58 And this was super beneficial 33:00 because so many of the things we have control over, right? 33:05 We have control over when we eat and what we and how we and why we eat. 33:10 And all of these things really go to give us that longevity we're looking for, 33:15 for that beautiful energy to age gracefully and to feel good. 33:19 And, you know, I truly believe this can be your healthiest season, 33:23 because a lot of times, even though we're younger, 33:25 we don't have the knowledge that we're learning here. 33:28 And so we can truly feel better in our 60s and 70s 33:31 than we did in our 20s when we were junk food junk in it. 33:34 So thank you again for being here. 33:36 Thank you everyone for being here and learning and growing and doing what 33:40 you can to help your body heal. 33:42 So we'll see you at the next interview. 33:45 And until then, be well.
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