17 Dec 2025 · 5 min
Brian Johnson and Michael discuss Dr. Casey Means' advice to cut liquid calories like juice and soda, which make up 22% of the American diet. The core move: eliminate refined sugar, industrial seed oils, and refined grains to fix your metabolism and mitochondria.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. In the last few plus ones, we've been spending some time with Dr. Robert Lustig and Dr. Casey Means chatting about how to take good care of our mitochondria so we feel great today and avoid chronic diseases tomorrow. Today I want to go back to KC Means's wisdom from our last PLOS one. As you may recall, she said, if you remember one food principle in this book, remember that cutting the unholy trinity of these three ingredients from your diet will completely change your health and ensure you're making room for more good energy foods. Number one, refined added sugar. Number two, refined industrial, vegetable and seed oils. And number three, refined grains. Now, when I read things like if you remember only one food principle from this book, it makes me want to make sure you remember it. So, pop quiz. What three things do you want to make sure you avoid? Yep. Refined sugar, refined industrial vegetable and seed oils, and refined grains. Get this. Casey tells us that, and I quote her again, refined sugar causes astronomically more deaths and disability per year than COVID 19 and fentanyl overdoses combined. Now, we already chatted more than once about the fact that when a kid drinks one bottle of Coke, they ingest as much added sugar as they might have had in an entire year if they were living 150 years ago. Know this. Casey would agree with our heroic food rule number one, don't drink sugar. She tells us that liquids make up 22%. 22% of the American diet and says, no liquid. Liquid calories. Don't drink your calories. Then she encourages us to I quote her again, eliminate all juice. Soda, frappuccinos, flavored milks, sweetened non dairy drinks, Gatorade and other sports drinks, energy drinks, Slurpees. Then sugary liquid toppings like syrup. End quote. Parents, all caps. I'm looking at you when I drop some All Bold caps into that last recommendation. Eliminate all juice. Eliminate all juice. Soda, Frappuccinos, flavored milk, sweetened non dairy drinks, Gatorade. In other sports drinks, energy drinks, Slurpees. Sorry, Slurpees. And sugary liquid toppings like syrup. Now, I'll talk more about what advice Casey gives to parents in our next plus one. For now, know this. According to Dr. Means and Dr. Lustig and Dr. Attia, fruit juice is just as bad as soda. All caps. Repeat. Fruit juice is just as bad as soda. Our bodies simply didn't evolve to consume and process that much sugar with no fiber at once. It destroys our metabolic health and leads to all the things we want to avoid, whether that's chronic ear infections and upper respiratory infections in our kids or obesity and diabetes and heart disease and cancer in their parents. If you and or your kids are drinking your calories, consider dropping that habit today.
What's up? This is Michael, President and Head Coach at Heroic. One quick note before we go. I just think it's so amazing that Brian keeps reading all these books and distilling them into more wisdom and less time. By the way, thank you Brian for continuing to read the books is still them for us. I love not having to read the book, just getting them more wisdom in less time through the plus ones of Philosopher's Notes. And if you're into this kind of thing, expressing the best version of yourself and using your greatest gifts make a positive impact on the world. Make sure you head to Heroic Us to check out all the other resources that we have available to you. You can download a bunch of free goodies including Philosopher's Notes masterclasses and our scientifically proven Heroic app. You'll. You can also explore advanced resources to help you go next level, including live and virtual workshops, working one on one with a Heroic Performance coach, or even becoming a certified coach yourself as you master heroic performance, the fundamentals of coaching Excellence, and Heroic coaching prosperity. Again, head to Heroic Us to get the ancient wisdom, modern science and practical tools you need to activate your heroic potential and change the world together. And please do hit subscribe, Appreciate you have a fantastic day and see you again soon.
