#138 - Dr. Will Cole: Meet Gwyneth Paltrow’s Intuitive Fasting Man

Well, happy Friday night. It's August 13th. This is Jorge Cruise. I'm the host of The Zero Hunger Guy, and on this podcast, my goal is simple, guys. It's to get you radical hunger control so you can do an intermittent fast of at least 21 hours or 23 hours. That's what a lot of my celebrity clients do. That's what I want to encourage you to do because it is study-proven that doing an intermittent fast is going to help you improve everything. Including drop up to 25 belly inches. And remember, a high waist circumference causes everything from type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, COVID, everything. So we want to lower our waistlines, and the way we do that is by intermittent fasting. And so this show is dedicated so you can eat when it's time to eat intuitively. We're going to talk about this today, and in a way that feeds your metabolism, lets you burn belly fat, and keeps you satiated so you're never hungry. That is what my goal is been now for over 3 years with this podcast, and I feel like it's the culmination of 20 years in publishing. So I'm thrilled you're here, guys. Today's show is gonna be kick-ass because I have a guest on. His name is Dr. Will Cole. Dr. Will Cole is on the East Coast. He is a functional medicine expert. He does a lot of telehealth. He's an author, and he's written a new book with Gwyneth Paltrow writing the foreword called Intuitive Fitness. Fasting. The subtitle says, a flexible 4-week intermittent fasting plan to recharge your metabolism and renew your health. Now, I got to know him literally the day of the interview, and we had the best time. The interview went on for almost 3 hours. We had to trim it down so to make it enjoyable for you guys, but I can tell you this, in the time we spent together, I had so many aha moments. Uh, I love people, experts that help me understand and learn things. And for me, fasting has been something that I've learned to embrace because of autophagy. It helps us extend our lifespan. It helps us lose belly fat. There's everything good about it. It's where all the magic is, right? But the hardest thing is being hungry. So we're going to cover all that on the interview today. So stay tuned, guys. It starts in just a minute. First, I want to give thanks to our sponsors. A very special thank you to Elemental Labs. They make the Zero Hunger Water on the go, a official beverage, which I love. It is so delicious. Um, and if you are doing a little bit of a challenge with me, if you did this this morning or if you're doing it tonight, you guys know I have a free challenge going on, uh, a Zoom coaching that I'm doing. You can simply get that information at, uh, ZeroHungerLive.com. We have another one this evening at 5 o'clock Pacific time. But my challenge is, I did this this morning with a group of people at 5 in the morning Pacific time. We talked about what we have learned over the years about what it takes to lose weight, right? To drop belly inches. I've written over 30 books and I can tell you I've covered all the science, but the science seems to always change, right? So I've written a lot of books, obviously, but what the new science is showing, and I feel like it's finally staying stable because it makes so much sense, and it takes 20 years in context really to understand this, but it's understanding that mineral deficiencies cause us to feel this false hunger. And if we can correct that, we feel great. You're gonna hear how Dr. Cole talks about this on the show. He talks about Zero Hunger Water and how he thinks we should all drink it. So I want you to check out a website. It's called zerohungerwater.com. We have the recipe there for free, but Elemental Labs is giving us a free box of these electrolytes. It's a $45 value for you exclusively for listeners of the podcast. Go check it out, guys. Simply go to zero— zero water— zerohungerwater.com. You get all the information there and sign up and get the box sent to you.

Try it out.

My favorite is chocolate. I made that this week on the show.

And finally, we're brought to you by Primal Kitchen.

Primal Kitchen was created by my mentor Mark Sisson, who's 67 years young. Uh, it's basically my favorite way to turn down hunger because it's healthy fats. You can do it during a fasting window, you can do it while you're breaking your fast, but regardless, it's healthy fat. You want this in your life. It's going to help you have beautiful skin, joints, nails, hair. It's going to turn off your hunger, and he's made it delicious. Primal Kitchen has salad dressings and mayonnaise. They're giving all of us a free jar of their incredible lemon chipotle mayonnaise that you can put as a dollop or two or three on steak, chicken, fish. I use it all the time. It is absolutely the most delicious condiment. Fat from avocados, and it's amazing. So check it out. They're giving this for free. Simply go to this website, primalkitchen.com. Primalkitchen.com/jorgecruise. All one word, primalkitchen.com/jorgecruise. All right guys, with that said, uh, I want to tell you that today's interview, um, we made it 30 minutes, so it's going to be a tight squeeze and get everything you want in there. The biggest request you guys had is you want everything to be under 30 minutes. I'm trying to do our show during the week under 10 minutes. I get none of us have time, but I want you to listen to the entire interview. This interview with Dr. Cole will transform your thinking when it comes to your health, your body, and even your spirituality. He's going to show us how we can tune into, uh, our inner knowledge, our intuition, to help guide us and give us control over our appetite, over our hunger, by being connected to ourselves. It's powerful, guys. This is one of the best interviews of 2021. So without further ado, guys, Dr. Will Cole, the author of Intuitive Fasting. Let's get started right now.

Welcome everyone to an incredibly special podcast. I am so excited. As you know, the Zero Hunger Guide podcast is really here to help you have that control of your hunger, especially to sugar, carbs, and salty snack foods. And joining me on today's show is a man who is brilliant. He is truly one of the most innovative people I think we're going to be talking to in 2021. He has a brand new book. He's written many books. It's a New York Times bestseller called Intuitive Eating. Fasting. The subtitle says, A Flexible 4-Week Intermittent Fasting Plan to Recharge Your Metabolism and Renew Your Health. And the lovely Gwyneth Paltrow wrote the introduction to this book. So let's say hi to Dr. Cole. Dr. Cole, are you there?

Hey, man, I am here. How are you?

Welcome. I'm doing great. It's such an honor to meet you. This is the first time we're meeting here, and I think you're out on the East Coast. I'm in here in California. And congratulations on this incredible book. I feel like We got a lot to cover here, but how— tell everyone how you got started briefly. Would you mind indulging us with a little bit of your background and how did you get started on all this? Tell us.

So I am a functional medicine practitioner.

I—

my heart, my passion are people that are struggling with chronic health problems. They're trying to figure out what the heck's going on in their body but aren't getting any answers. And I know we have similar passions in that way, and people that are really just looking to have agency over their health and So I deal a lot with people with autoimmune problems and different inflammatory problems like that. And we started— I started one of the first functional medicine telehealth centers in the world over a decade ago. So that's really where I've been for the past decade is talking to people via webcam, like we're talking right now, for 10+ hours a day. And now that telehealth is a thing because of the pandemic, but I didn't start it 11, 12 years ago because of that, obviously. I started it because I was in Pittsburgh. A lot of people weren't in Pittsburgh, but they needed access to this information. And I was talking about functional medicine a long time ago. So I really just love this field of healthcare and I love people and I wanna help them. So the books are an outpouring of my passion of people and functional medicine. And yeah, so that's my jam.

Now this is, correct me if I'm wrong, your third book, is that right? Intuitive Fasting? Tell everyone briefly about the first two and then why Intuitive Fasting. And obviously you have the support of this gorgeous woman, Ms. Paltrow, which we all adore. I'm a fanboy of the Avengers, so need I say any more?. But tell us your first book, your second book, and then how this one came, if you would. And then let's dive into it, please.

Sure. Yeah. So my first book is called— was called Ketotarian. It's like a clean Mediterranean ketogenic diet. Second book is called The Inflammation Spectrum. Book is called Intuitive Fasting. And I talk about the concept of intermittent fasting over all the books in passing. It was— I talked about it in Ketotarian because really it's part of the conversation around beta-hydroxybutyrate and ketosis and the fact that intermittent fasting, different types of fasting, ketogenic diet both support ketosis. So of course I had to talk about it within Ketotarian. And then I talked about intermittent fasting in passing in The Inflammation Spectrum because it's a way to help support healthy balance inflammation. So the book is, as its name implies, a mindful approach to intermittent fasting. And it's paradoxical on purpose. When someone's metabolically inflexible or metabolically rigid, fasting will be anything but intuitive because you'll be bound by hangryness and blood sugar imbalance. And have true discernment on what your body loves and what your body hates what's serving you and what's an underlying, underlying saboteur to you feeling great and feeling amazing in your body, or what I call in the book having food peace, where you're not out of control and you don't feel like you're bound by those insatiable cravings and hangriness, but you have true agency over your health. Not in a controlling way, not in a disordered eating sort of obsessive control, but in a true stillness of knowing what serves you and what doesn't, and having the choice to to eat whatever you want, but you just love feeling great more than you thought you missed something that really was going to dim your light. Every food we eat is gonna bring your light up or bring it down. And I think on a physiological level, it's gonna bring inflammation levels up or bring it down. There's no, I'm doing nothing for your physiology food. There's no Switzerland meal when it comes to your physiology. So it's about having agency of your health and knowing that and truly having that clarity. But when there's noise going on in the body in the form of blood sugar imbalance and inflammation levels and all of the blood sugar volatility that can be found, this roller coaster of glucose that can happen, it's hard to know what the— your truly that still small voice of your intuition says, because your body is going to be so out of balance that there's really going to be a lack of clarity. So intermittent fasting and mindfulness are two great ways to calm that noise, not just on a physical level. But a mental, emotional, and spiritual level as well, to truly come from a place of intuition and using intermittent fasting to get there.

I love that. In your book, you talk about a lot of people want more control over sugar addictions.

Yeah, absolutely. I think— and these are all hallmarks of metabolic inflexibility. So just the analogy that I use in the book is using this mindful approach, intermittent fasting, as a proverbial yoga class for your metabolism. If someone's metabolically inflexible, we need to become flexible. Just like someone's inflexible, their hamstrings are tight, the core is weak, and they're going to yoga class. Yoga is not going to be intuitive when you first start, but I promise you, the yogis will tell you it becomes their practice intuitively, and the practice evolves as they gain practice intuitively on their yoga journey. That's the same with intermittent fasting and these tools that we're talking about. It's a way to gain metabolic flexibility. I love your zero hunger water recipe idea. I think everybody should consider that, to putting in some sea salt, good quality, like Redmond's. I love them. Himalayan sea salt or some sort of sea salt that's quality mineral rich, adding some of that into water is a great way to support sodium, magnesium, potassium, these minerals that are needed for brain function and cardiovascular function and energy production, tons of different pathways.

We had on the show here, Dr. James, the author of The Salt Fix. I always like to tell people, I, I feel very smart when I tell people the, the word in Latin for salary came from the root word of sal, right? Salt. And salt was valuable in the Roman times, not because of wealth, but because it gave people incredible energy. And we think it has to be from the bright blue bottle, and they don't even know it's just salt, magnesium, potassium. And that's what our Zero Hunger Water is. I know Dr. James has told us that it's only when there's sugar paired with sodium that maybe blood pressure goes up. But I tell my clients to have a low-sugar diet, and I'm sure you would as well. But tell us why salt is something to be embraced and not vilified.

Yeah, it's definitely so needed for human health. And I think that the problem is things are conflated and there's always— there's oftentimes a lack of context, and context matters with these things. So making broad-sweeping, over-generalized statements and saying this is all bad and this— you should be fearful of this— what are we talking about here? Yeah, a high-salt diet with a high-sugar diet and refined carbohydrates, that's— that could be problematic. What researchers call with, you know, fat and carbs, and salt, that mixed meal is what researchers refer to it. That's problematic. But then saying that's because of sodium or even because that's fat is an incomplete perspective of the context of what we're talking about here. But we're talking about mineral-rich salt from the earth in the presence of normal insulin, normal glucose, and eating nutrient-dense foods. This is something that human body needs. And as Dr. James very eloquently says in his book and over the years of him talking about this is that the problem is that humans aren't getting enough of these nutrients and the context is lost. Yeah, he's a great resource when it comes to— I think they act— he just talks about the research so eloquently around this subject.

I think I'm so happy that we're synced in on this. And the second thing I think that— I think a lot of listeners are concerned about is things like ghee. And I was a fan of butter, grass-fed butter, but now after reading your book, I may lean more into ghee because I feel like it has more fat, less of the micro amounts of sugar. Not that it has a ton of sugar, but can you share with us just briefly why maybe what was told to us, this low-fat revolution from the '80s, is now beyond— in my opinion, there's no question that it's something that was wrong. Why is fat something not to be feared?

Absolutely. So again, that big, uh, broad-sweeping statements around fat is an oversimplified reductionist idea of something that has nuance, and we have to understand it. There are fats that aren't healthy for human beings, but to say all fat is the same and that we should avoid it and be low-fat is really missing the mark and really missing the nuance of the conversation. So I talk about the different types of fat in detail in Intuitive Fasting, but the— and even saturated fat specifically has been unnecessarily vilified as well.

I agree.

Back to that saturated fat plus carbohydrates and eating lots of sugar with saturated fat, that mixed meal with this high salt could be problematic for some people. But the problem is that saturated fat in its whole food form and its healthy form with eating a variety of these nutrient-dense foods is actually really important for human health. So a blend of good saturated fats with good monounsaturated fats and good omega fats in well-balanced proportions throughout the day is a good idea for humans to consider. So fat isn't bad, fat shouldn't be vilified, fat should be understood. And I think that the current research really points to the fact that these fats are healthy and needed for human health. The brain is 60% fat, 25% of of all the body's cholesterols in the brain. So these low-fat diets for long term for some people can be really detrimental for their brain health, because it could be detrimental to their hormone health, to their immune health, to their energy production. And I see that time and time again, people that are trying to do the right thing, that are doing these low-fat, low-fat diets long term, and they end up really wrecking their hormones and their brain function and energy levels long term. So it's something that I really want to educate people on, that if they want to stabilize their blood sugar, they want to have optimal human health and brain function, they have to consider bringing in a variety of healthy fats into their diet.

Could I ask you to give us your top 3 healthy fats and your top 3 to avoid? Because I know certain fats, unfortunately, seed oils— I mean, give specifics on the ones you avoid— can cause inflammation, which is the opposite of, I think, why we, we're doing all this, right, Dr. Cole?

Absolutely, yeah. So my favorite fats are olive oil and like polyphenol-rich olive oil and olives. Avocados would be number 2, and then wild-caught fish would be 3. And that's— those are monounsaturated omega fats. It'd be my top 3. 4, if you had 4 to have it well-rounded, I would say some grass-fed beef would be number 4.

And if we're going to put a little butter in our coffee, what one— you like a type of butter, but tell us the difference between butter but then ghee. Would you spend a minute on the ghee versus butter debate maybe?

Yeah. And ghee is a great option too. Ghee is a fantastic source because it has a high smoking point. It's good for cooking with and has a blend, has MCT oils in it, just like coconut oil has MCT oil. So it's good for improving brain function, supporting brain function. And again, you can cook with it. It's a good, has a high smoking point for frying things in it and cooking things at higher temperatures. So that's another great option too for healthy fats. So I, you could add it to coffee or tea if you wanted that latte type feel, or, and then add MCT oil on it, which Which is the medium-chain triglyceride oils extracted from typically coconut oil. Oftentimes people enjoy that. Yeah. So that's another great option too. And look, the dairy protein, the casein protein is removed whenever they're clarifying that butter, which is what ghee is. So it's, if someone's sensitive to casein, if they have dairy sensitivity and it's a casein problem, it's that, that casein removed is negligible or removed entirely because there are brands that will test it to be casein-free. So people that typically have a dairy sensitivity you won't have that same sensitivity necessarily to ghee. So it's a great option for people that have dairy problems because it's just a dairy fat, which is not immunoreactive because the lactose, the dairy sugar, and the casein, the dairy protein, is removed in the clarification of that butter. So yeah, Kerrygold grass-fed butter is fine too for people, but it does have small amounts of the casein in it.

And a little bit of sugar, right? A little bit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So what brand— not that we're mentioning brands here, but if we're going to mention a good brand of the ghee, is there one you would recommend?

I'm bad with Brands with things like that, I don't know per se. What I would do is look for organic, look for grass-fed, look for brands that also test for casein if that's an issue for you, which is the dairy protein. And then I really like some of the brands that are coming out with the fermented ghee too. So the culture—

what is that doing for us? We've never talked about fermented ghee before.

So it's like cultured ghee. It's slightly fermented. So it almost has the beneficial bacteria, it's probiotics, and the fermentation further breaks down some of the, the things that could be irritated. It makes it more digestible, makes it more digestible. So yeah.

And we had recently on the show, we had Dave Asprey, the creator of the Bulletproof, and he, he shared with us blending the healthy fats with the coffee. Have you ever noticed a difference? He says it's absorbed differently and helps suppress appetite a wee more.

Yeah. Yeah. I love what Dave's doing. I think smart. And it's a good— I see things like healthy fats in coffee or tea as a great option option for people that are trying to improve metabolic flexibility, because it'll make your intermittent fasting easier. And it's a way better alternative than the carb-rich, sugar-laden, processed breakfast that many people find themselves having with a traditional background, with a traditional—

Could we jump into that? Because I think this is perfect, because I think what you just said, things to avoid, you just said sugar, the traditional standard American diet. We've all heard the acronym, I think, SAD, and it is sad. But when we are ready to, to eat, to break the fast, What would be something— I don't know if you want to go with what to avoid first. I think people always love the belly bad, I call it, or the bad stuff that's going to make us hungry. And then what would be the belly good or the things that would turn down hunger? And just give us an example of one of these beautiful meals that are in your book, because I feel like your book has gorgeous recipes, right?

Yeah, I really— we worked hard on the recipes and there's pretty pictures and stuff for people that like those. But you mentioned like the fats that are not healthy. I think people— to be mindful of those industrial seed oils, like you mentioned, the canola oil, these high omega-6 processed refined oils that can be oxidized easily or rancid at room temperature, very sensitive to light and heat. It's the oxidation of fats that can drive inflammation levels up that are problematic. So definitely high omega-6 industrial seed oils like canola oil, and they're in a lot of boxed foods. So read labels because you'll find a lot of these industrial seed oils in many packaged foods, unhealthy, quote unquote, food.

Mark Sisson is a friend of mine and he's created this Primal Kitchen. You've heard of the Primal Kitchen?

Yeah.

And he, he gets on his soapbox and says, Jorge, we can't eat the deli food there. I was like, why, Mark? He's like, they use canola oil in the entire— all these beautiful meals you can get at the deli were full of canola oil and they're not using avocado oil, but it is more expensive. He says it comes down to money, but yeah. Would you agree it's canola, soybean, corn? What's another seed we got to avoid? What would you add to that?

Soybean, canola, even the, the, the seed-based, the processed seed-based oils, which one?

Which one?

Safflower oil, I wouldn't say is the top base. Sunflower oil. These are not the worst things in the world. The worst ones out of those would be corn, soybean, and canola. The other seed-based, it depends on how they're prepared because you can get cold-pressed ones that are less problematic.

What are your thoughts on flaxseed oil since it's a seed?

Yeah, it's— you can get good sources of it. It depends if it's cold-pressed and high quality. But look, those seed oils are sensitive to light and heat oftentimes. So the extraction process, if it's done properly, you can get better quality of them. And there's brands that are doing that, but oftentimes the care is not made into making the quality really good. So you just have to be educated on the quality of these fats. But I think the biggest, uh, implicator— like, the biggest problem when it comes to industrial seed oils would be corn, soybean, and canola. So yeah, you're right about the Whole Foods, and I love Whole Foods too, but it's definitely true. They, for a time, they had in their, their like, uh, salad bar, warm food, prepared food section, they had Michelle Tam, who— her, she's with Non-Paleo. They did a whole line with her, and they used olive oil and avocado oil.

Amen.

And I don't know why it didn't stick on, but the average stuff's canola oil, which isn't the best. It's really— it can be bad. They are really inflammatory, and for many people, they're very disruptive to the gut microbiome. They can— people have digestive issues and it'll raise up inflammation systemically. Well, 75-80% of the immune system's in the gut, so there's a lot of these gut-centric components to people's systemic inflammation. So GI inflammation that's causing a cascade of inflammation on their skin or in their joints or somewhere else in their body, even in their brain. So it's definitely not something I would advocate people having lots of.

Hey, it's Jorge, and I just wanted to interrupt the show just for a moment to invite you to head on over and sign up for my Zero Hunger email that'll give you simple what to eat to get radical control over your sugar, carb, and salty snack food cravings. And if this is something you want to conquer and make a lot lifestyle, the newsletter is important. It will really give you tools every day to keep building that momentum to create a lifestyle where you're in control of sugar and carbs. So if that sounds good, check it out. Simply go to zerohungerplan.com. I'll spell it for you, it's with a Z, Z-E-R-O, zerohungerplan.com, and it's all free. I'll see you there. Let's get back to the show.

Look, there are— there are people that can tolerate some of these fats and they're not going to notice any difference. Yeah, but we all have different tolerances to these things. So that goes back to that bio-individuality aspect of what I do in functional medicine. We're all different. We all have our different thresholds for these things that are stressors. But even with sugar, you and I both know there are people, patients and clients of ours, that could handle some processed sugar. It's not ideal for them, but they're not noticing any major difference. But doesn't mean it's a great food. It doesn't mean it's something they should have copious amounts of. So I'm just educating people on and try to minimize these sources of inflammation.

I think it's brilliant. Jumping to chapter 9 again, because in chapter 9 there's something I think is brilliant, because I was an overweight little kid. I was a sugar addict. I love my carbs, and we're not talking healthy carbs. It wasn't zucchini I was in love with, it was like McDonald's food and french fries and all this stuff. And I love my salty snack foods, and I love salt, but it's the corn chips, the potato chips. So I was an addict of sorts, and And I feel like for people out there that are— I hate to use the word addict, but there are a lot of people that have these kind of personalities that go from— they can go from zero, they're like totally out, or they're totally in. And I feel like when my clients have a little bit of these sugars or these things that are naughty, it's hard to be in the middle. Some people can do it, but then they're not usually 100 pounds overweight. So for anyone out there, and I think you talk about this in Chapter 9, about community and about how fasting should be done with a support system. We have this thing called Zero Hunger Plan. I lead these meetings and it's a support system. And there's so many out there. There's so many great support systems. And I feel like a lot of people want to be lone wolves when they are trying. They're like, I got this, I got the book. That's all I need. Leave me alone. And yet I've learned from addiction specialists that the solution to addiction is community. Could you talk about community and why that could be a critical secret weapon in, in this goal of doing intuitive fasting? Because Because I feel like no one talks about that. And I feel like you did it. I believe it was chapter 9, right? Dr. Cole?

Yeah, I believe so. And it's just a central part of my work with my patients too. It's not maybe just on a clinical level to have a support team that understands what you're going through. You should not doing it alone. Many people with the best of intentions think they could do it alone. And there are certainly certain personalities that are better at doing things on their own, but we're all humans. And I think there's a human communal thing, no matter what your personality is. Some people will lean on it more than others, but we all need community to some degree. You're right. Doing, making big life changes when it comes to your health and wellness or any other life change, having a support system, having something that's going to edify you and build you up. And when things aren't easy or when you don't know what to do or you get discouraged or disillusioned on what's right and what you should do, community can really be that safety net to allow people to keep going on and give this the time it needs to, because we don't want this, none of the work that you do, none of the work that I do, we don't want this to be a fad crash thing. Where they've tried it and then, oh, this doesn't work for me. What has taken years to get to where people are at today, it's going to take some time to start to come out of that and start to heal and start to feel great. So don't give up too soon. And community can be the difference between sustainability or people giving up. Sustainability is key here, and community can help make that happen. So yeah, we have an Intuitive Fasting Community on Facebook, and I think it's important. But from a book standpoint, I wanted people to just be mindful and maybe get someone else to do the 4-week protocol in the book. So you have someone to do it with you and keep you accountable and, and remind you why you're doing this, to improve how you feel, to feel great. And that's even if you look at fasting on an ancestral level, fasting has been part of the human DNA for a long time. So on a physiological level, fasting is actually encoded in our DNA, but even from a mental, emotional, spiritual level, As far as communities doing fasting for different spiritual purposes or health purposes, that's in our spiritual DNA too. So I think what specifically when you're talking about food and fasting, there's something so primally and primal and beautiful about doing things as a community.

I love what you said there. Can you talk briefly about why that community could also include a higher power? And I know for me, I pray every day.

I do.

Can you share your thoughts on that connection to maybe a higher power from a spiritual point, not religious, baby.

Yeah, no, not at all. I think it's a primal thing that is part of humans in different levels. So that's a major part of intuitive fasting, actually, and it's a major part of my work in functional medicine because we can't divorce ourselves totally from that. Now, we can connect on different levels, and not everything's going to— the analogy that I use in the book is we're all facets of the same diamond. We're all reflecting light in our different way. It's all reflected in different ways, but we're all part of that same diamond. So what I call in the book metaphysical meals, it's the these times, what do you do when you're fasting? Fasting has been used historically for many different health purposes throughout medicine. Hippocrates, Paracelsus, one of the fathers of medicine, called fasting the physician within, which I think is a really beautiful way to tap into this inner doctor, to upregulate all this healing pathways on a health side of things, a physiological standpoint. And now science is catching up with antiquity that we have all these amazing science around intermittent fasting, but fasting, as I mentioned, was also used for spiritual purposes too, where you talk about every, just about every indigenous culture around the world use fasting for spiritual and health purposes. So it's an amazing tool for people to really calm the noise, not just on a physical level, but check in with your body and use it for spiritual purposes too, or even just a mindfulness meditation to use fasting and food as a meditation and a mindfulness practice. So maybe it's something as simple as journaling, right? That's not religious. It's just—

I love journaling. Yeah.

Journaling. Or maybe it's just getting out in nature with the Japanese term shinrin-yoku. It's forest bathing. It translates as forest bathing. It's just getting out in and connecting on that primal level. It doesn't have to be super spiritual or religious at all, but it's just calming the noise. And this is backed up by science that acts of stillness can really start to activate the parasympathetic, downregulate the sympathetic fight or flight, and upregulate the resting, digesting parasympathetic activity of the body. But if you look around the world, Lent started out as a time of fasting, Islam with Ramadan, Judaism with Yom Kippur and Tishba'Av, indigenous cultures around the world, you could go, that they use fasting for these amazing communal, spiritual, and physical health purposes. It's beautiful.

I think it's so important. I think we forget that. We think we just want to look good in the bathing suit this summer. And I feel like it's so much more than that. And is there a prayer you could lead us in and share? And we'll wrap up and I'm going to tell everyone where they can get information about your coaching, your book, and all that. But is there something or an affirmation? I know some people don't like prayer, but I think affirmations are sort of prayers. What is something simple that you could share with us that if right now, if someone is struggling and they want that extra extra— what would you call it— that connection to that higher power?

To me, nature is a beautiful sacred thing. For me, it's getting out in nature, and it's ineffable. It's— there's— it's beyond words, just connecting and using nature as the meditation and getting it in with all your senses and taking in the sights and the sounds and the smells. And the research coming out of Japan and South Korea showing that the actual essential oils from the trees and the wind blowing and the— and the air and the water help helps to calm cortisol levels, calm inflammation levels. But if you're looking for an affirmation, you grow up, it's in the Bible. I think it's a beautiful, uh, verse. It says, be still and know that I am God, which I think is a beautiful thing, no matter what you believe, just to create a stillness and realize that there's a mystery to the universe that we don't understand, to trust the, the connection of the universe, which is backed up by quantum physics. So even if you don't identify religious or religion, but just be and realize that there are powers that are greater than ourselves.

Would you take us through that prayer? I don't know if you would say it a few times and then break it down, because it's so— say the words again.

It's, be still and know that I am God.

What does that mean to anyone out there listening? They're thinking, I am God. Is that what it means?

Yeah, it could. Like, someone could translate that like the inner divinity of us, but the actual context of the verse— and by no means am I a theologian— but is saying that it's actually was God speaking in the Bible. Bible, but saying, be still, I am God. Like, be still, I've got this. Trust me.

Faith.

And yeah, having a deep trust. The Hebrew word for that is emunah. It's like a deep knowingness that you are supported in the universe. And I think that's a powerful way for people to connect and have a trust and have a gratitude practice. And Brené Brown talks very brilliantly about the research around gratitude and thankfulness. And I think that being still and taking in gratitude, is a great way to cultivate positivity and improves your health too, because it lowers inflammation levels and raises your immune system to be more balanced.

I mean, amen to that. So please, everyone watching and listening, I want you to go to drwillcole.com. That's D-R-Will, W-I-L-L, Cole, C-O-L-E, dot com. And tell them what they can find at your site, because you do consulting with people if they want you to be as a coach. I bet you have a little bit of a background backlist because you only have so many hours in a day, but you have tools there. The book is there as well. This is drwillcole.com. Tell them what they can find at your site, please.

Thank you so much. Yeah, so there's all— there's tons of free content. I've written articles for the past 12 years about these topics. There's tons of free resources at drwillcole.com. There's video classes there if people want to deep dive and learn at their own pace. We offer— we have— we primarily are a virtual telehealth center, so you— we offer free health evaluations online to see if a consult with me or one of my functional diagnostic nutrition practitioners would be appropriate for them. And the links to all the books are there as well.

Thank you so much, Dr. Cole. I feel like we're going to be talking again, maybe here on the show and maybe on your show. Oh, and tell everyone your podcast really quick because you have a gorgeous podcast.

Oh, thank you. I can't wait to have you on. Actually, I'll be in LA in a couple months, so maybe we can record in person.

We will get something in person. Let's do that. And we'll go to— we'll go— I used to love to go to True Foods. Do you ever go there?

Yes. Oh yeah, in Santa Monica and Pasadena.

Yeah, I love it. For sure.

Yeah. So it's The Art of Being Well. It comes out every Thursday, and I love it. We have conversations just about health and wellness, functional medicine, labs. We get super nerdy sometimes. It's super— yeah, it's a great— it's a great show. I love it.

All right, and that's your podcast. All right, guys, thank you so much. Dr. Will, thank you. Guys, check him out, drwillcole.com, and get the book. It's everywhere out there, Intuitive Fasting, New York Times bestseller. All right, thanks so much, Dr. Cole. We'll talk soon. Peace and purpose.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right, today's episode is complete, guys. Thank you so much for listening, and I want to ask you to please subscribe to the show on Apple Podcast, uh, and please leave a review on Apple as well. Give it 5 stars if you think the show has helped you in some way to transform your thinking. I hope it has. And more importantly, share your comments, your review of what today's episode did for your thinking and what you're what you got out of it, because I think that is how we spread this. And for me, this is a revolution. This is not a podcast, this is a way of life. And I hope to transform over a million lives in the next couple years, and I need your help. So please become part of the Zero Hunger Revolution by leaving that review on Apple Podcasts and subscribing today. Thanks so much. Have a great one. Peace and purpose, and I'll see you on the next episode.