Fix Your Brain Health By Starting These Habits [MASTERCLASS] EP 1308

Omega-3 fatty acids decrease inflammation. Fruits and vegetables decrease inflammation, flossing and probiotics getting your gut healthy. There's this huge connection between the brain and the gut.

Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. One of the best parts about my job as a podcast host is getting to know people on a deeper level. And I love discovering the interests my guests have that they don't always talk about. You know, the world class athlete whose favorite pastime is painting or the billionaire who still plays a weekend garage band. And the truth is everyone has layers and people are rarely as simple as they appear on the surface. For marketers, that complexity can make the job even more challenging. After all, how can you reach your customers if you don't really know them? That's where TransUnion's marketing solutions come in. TransUnion brings clarity to marketing chaos by delivering a 360-degree view of your customer, helping you deepen your insights, accelerate your decision-making, and better measure the impact of every marketing dollar. Visit transunion.com/clarity to learn more. this podcast is sponsored by Northwestern Mutual. Everyone wants to feel good about their finances, right? Well, that's why I've had life insurance with Northwestern Mutual for years. Their financial professionals ask the right questions, truly listen, and help uncover opportunities most people miss. I've seen it firsthand. Northwestern Mutual has been a part of my journey from the very beginning, providing the security and peace of mind I need as a human and an entrepreneur. Find a better way to money@nm.com the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Paid testimonial by a Northwestern Mutual policy owner.

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Father's Day is coming up and for lots of dads out there, dad doesn't quite cover it. They're groundskeepers, patio whisperers, and rogue leaf vigilantes too. So this year, show dad some love with gifts from the Home Depot. They've got fast free delivery on handy gear that helps dad do his thing. We're talking Ryobi cordless outdoor tools like the Ryobi 40 volt expanded string trimmer. Find the perfect Father's Day gift at the Home Depot. Shop in store and online at homedepot.com, free delivery subject to availability. Welcome to this special masterclass. We've brought some of the top experts in the world to help you unlock the power of your life through this specific theme today. It's gonna be powerful, so let's go ahead and dive in. What I'm hearing you say, obesity is a big factor to mental health. stresses and brain stresses.

And Alzheimer's disease.

And Alzheimer's, obesity.

I mean, it all sort of goes together from depression to problems in school to memory problems later in life.

What's your thought? I mean, I'm all for people loving themselves where they're at, where they're at in their life, and loving their bodies for where they're at and not shaming themselves and the self-love movement of accepting yourself for where you are. But that's only going to hurt our brains if we're not actually saying, okay, I accept and love myself where I'm at and the decisions I've made to be here, but I've got to start working on these things. Otherwise there's going to be some challenges emotionally, mentally, anxiety, depression if I don't work on it, right? My health.

Then don't worry, be happy people, die the earliest from accidents and preventable illnesses. and I want people to love themselves. But doing the right thing is an act of love. Like if you're really unhealthy, walking is an act of love. And so it sort of catches me in this funny place. I remember I was on a plane once and And I'd figure out this connection between as your weight goes up, the size and function of your brain goes down. And I was sitting next to someone who is very overweight and we were on a tiny plane going to Des Moines, Iowa for public television. And in my head, I'm like, oh, you want to talk to her about that? And then I talk to myself all the time. It's like, no, you don't want to say anything. Don't need to upset her day. But then I went to Pittsburgh and I went to GNC, the supplement company.

And.

One of my core values is being authentic. So I live the message of my life. And the message of GNC is health. And their number three guy, their marketing director, took me to dinner, was morbidly obese. Really? And that thought in my head is you should talk to him about this. And he made the comment, he opened the conversation. He's like, you know, I don't know why I'm overweight, but my numbers are okay. And I'm like, what numbers? And I'm like, Tom, you don't want to be a dinosaur. Because I had figured out, big body, little brain, you're gonna become extinct. we had this great conversation because my favorite verse in the New Testament is John 8:32, Know the truth, and the truth will set you free. I'm like, Do you not want to be like the number two guy or the number one guy? You're not going to do that if your brain's not healthy. And that conversation the next year, he lost 80 pounds. Most people don't know that this is a serious health, mental health, brain health risk. And I just want to tell people the truth and I want them to get healthy. And people go, But I don't like any of, one of my NFL players, but I don't like any of the foods that are healthy for me. And I'm like, None? Not one? And we did this great exercise. And it turned out he liked like 70 of the foods that were on the list. You only want to love food that loves you back.

What are the five foods that we should have to help our brain the most?

Salmon, wild salmon, blueberries, walnuts, olive or avocado oil. Yeah, healthy protein, chocolate. I make this great brain healthy hot chocolate every night for my family.

Really?

I just look at the six of them that live at home. I'm like, okay, who's up for it tonight? So Costco, of all places, organic vanilla, unsweetened almond milk, rock cacao, it's a superfood. So organic rock cacao, and a little bit of Sweet Leaf is a company that makes flavored Stevia. They make chocolate flavored Stevia and put it in the blender, heat it up. It's phenomenal. Good for me. I love it. And it loves me back.

It loves you back. Salmon, blueberries, walnuts, avocado or avocado oil, raw chocolate are some of the top favorite for the brain.

For the brain.

Why are these foods, is it high in antioxidants? Is it proteins that they have?

So, blueberry, it's the phytonutrients. They've actually done studies showing cognitive enhancement with blueberry juice, salmon, it's the omega-3 fatty acids and complete protein, avocados, it's the healthy fat, especially omega-3 fatty acids. Same with walnuts. Your brain is fat. Low-fat diets are bad for your brain. People who go on low-fat diets actually have an increased incidence of depression.

Really?

Yeah. So, now you don't want bad fats, fried fats particularly. You want healthy fats, avocados, nuts and seeds, green leafy vegetables.

Olive oil is in there.

Olive oil, avocado oil, Damian, not oil. Yeah.

So how much food should the brain have? Is it, you know, it's your buddy, our buddy, Dave Asprey talks about fasting a lot. A lot of people are in this fasting craze. If we're not giving the brain food or nutrients for a day, three days, five days, does that help the brain? Does it reset the brain? Does it hurt the brain?

So intermittent fasting, where you go 12 to 16 hours from dinner to breakfast or lunch is good. They've actually found your, there's a term called autophagy where your brain begins to clean up some of the trash.

So it works in the brain too, not just in the body.

It works on the brain as well. Now, I grew up Roman Catholic and long suffering was one of the gifts and I never got that one. I'm not a fan of long suffering. I'm not doing a marathon. It's like way too much stress for my brain and I'm not fasting for three days. But I can go 12 hours and they're like, that's not a big deal. And it helps people lose weight. It helps them be healthy. And I come from a family of fat people. My dad used to say when I would say that, but I have a brother that's 150 pounds overweight despite me loving him, nudging him, and you just have to be thoughtful, know your vulnerability and bright minds, and gee, it's genetics. So know what you're genetically vulnerable to, and you know, I have to work on it. Right, right.

How you mentioned you don't do marathons. If you're not traumatizing the brain through contact sports, but you're an endurance junkie, you love to run marathons, you run them every year, you do triathlons, you do ultra marathons, you're doing mountain climbing, are these activities good for the brain to put some extreme stress on it, even if it's not physical contact to the brain, or does it long term hurt the brain?

The scans I have of extreme athletes are not good.

Really?

Yeah. I think it's too much stress for the brain. I love HIIT training, high intensity training, that's been shown to increase mitochondria in cells. I'm not a fan of putting your body under a lot a lot of stress. It's just not good for it. Some stress is good. We call it eustress. A little bit, so your fibers grow. That's why weight training is important. The stronger you are as you age, less likely you are to have Alzheimer's disease.

Really?

But you want to love your brain. You want to make sure you're sleeping for your brain. That's the essence of bright minds.

So someone's like, you know what? Okay, I hear what you're saying, but I really love to do a marathon or two a year. And a few times in my life I want to do, you know, on a climb Everest or something like that. I want to do something to challenge myself.

And I go, Is that gonna be awesome?

Is that gonna hurt the brain?

It's not gonna, if you're doing everything else right. So one of my NFL players just signed an $80 million deal. So he's gonna play. He's going to play. But if you're going to do something that is potentially damaging to the brain, make sure you're doing everything else right. So for example, being a firefighter is a brain damaging profession. We need to own that, just like we need to own playing football is a brain damaging profession. It's like own it, everybody knows it. Now when I started my work in 2007, very few people know it now. Everybody knows it. But they don't know that being a firefighter, because there are heroes, those are the people we need when we need them, and we need them healthy. But because of the toxins they breathe, because of the emotional trauma they see day in and day out, because of the head traumas they experience, they have a higher incidence of depression, a higher incidence of suicide, and a higher incidence of early death. We should not be okay with this. But it doesn't mean we're not gonna have firefighters. What it means is we should put their brain in a rehabilitative environment all the time. We should be teaching them about brain health, like with NFL players currently. We should be teaching them, look, if you're gonna do this, own it. It's a brain-damaging sport, so let's just do everything else.

Right.

What are the other things right that you talk about? Are there are a few main keys? Is it nutrition? Is it sleep?

Well, we think about Bright Minds, it's just such a good model. So blood flow, B is blood flow, so exercise. And foods like beets that increase blood flow or supplements like ginkgo that increase blood flow. The R is retirement and aging. New learning is absolutely critical. you know, your work and studying greatness, you're always learning something new, which is great for the brain.

Retirement plus aging, is that what you said?

Retirement and aging.

So continuing to learn in those stages.

And always putting yourself in an anti-aging environment. So the food you eat, the exercise, new learning, being passionate, never retiring, right? I mean, maybe you go and do something else you like better 'cause you have enough money. But never retirement, 'cause when you start not doing things, your brain actually starts to disconnect itself.

So when we say people, someone retires at 60, 70, 75, and they say, you know, I'm just gonna sit on the beach for the next however long, enjoy my family time, enjoy the money I've had, and relax. What happens to those people if they don't have a purposeful mission? in their life beyond relaxation. What happens?

Their brain disconnects itself, really. They have a higher incidence of dementia. And my dad worked until he died when he was almost 91. And he's like, when my friends retire, they die.

Really?

Now, if you retire, because you really didn't love what you were doing anyways, and you go off and do something you love, maybe not golf, because you're around all those toxins on the green. Maybe not golf. But if you're doing things you love and you're always learning, well, that's awesome. That's definitely. That's a really good thing.

So you can retire from your job, don't retire from your life.

Don't retire from your life.

Stay connected in some meaningful pursuit.

Absolutely critical to staying keeping young. And then the eye is inflammation. This is the big bad. actor because inflammation in your body, which comes from eating processed foods, one of the surprising things comes from gum disease. If you're not a flosser, you need to floss. I'm a flossing fool.

I do it twice a day.

I wasn't that way until I started reading the studies that people who have gum disease have a higher incidence of heart disease, but also a higher incidence of brain disease. They actually found gum bacteria higher in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease. Wow. And so omega-3 fatty acids decrease inflammation, fruits and vegetables decrease inflammation, flossing, and probiotics, getting your gut healthy, there's this huge connection between the brain and the gut. Because inflammation often comes from having an unhealthy gut, either from infections or the lousy food that you're eating. And the G is genetics. You need to know your vulnerability, but genes aren't a death sentence, what they should be, is a wake-up call to know what you're vulnerable to. I have heart disease and obesity in my family. I don't have heart disease and I'm not obese. Why? Because I'm always on a prevention program. You just want to be serious as soon as you know what your risks are. Right.

Okay.

H is head trauma, which we talked about. Brain is soft, skull is hard. There are 3 million new head injuries every year in the United States. This is a big deal.

3 million new head injuries?

Is that- Every year.

Is that from car accidents or- Falls? Falls, everything.

Everything. Wow. You know, being hit.

Domestic violence, whatever it might be, anything. Gunshot, whatever.

Whatever. Three million. Which means most people live over the last 30 years. That's 90 million people in the United States who struggle with the effects of traumatic brain injury. Very high in prison populations, very high in people who struggle with psychiatric diseases. And then T is toxins. And so you go, what can I do to support my brain? Well, one, avoid them. Alcohol is not a health food. My biggest blog last year was titled, I Told youd so. And when I dated my wife, Tana, and I think you met my wife. She's awesome. And when we were dating, she said, your current wife? My current wife.

Not the 20 years.

Not the 20 years. She said, I'll never tell you I told you so. She lied. She just flat out lied to me. It's like her favorite thing to say. But I've been telling people ever since I started imaging, alcohol is not a health food. And our first clinic was right next to the Napa Valley, so it was not a popular thing to say. But it's just what I saw. And then there's a study from Johns Hopkins that say people who drink every day have smaller brains. Wow. And last year, the American Cancer Society came out and said any alcohol is associated with an increased risk in cancer.

Oh.

Seven different cancers.

Oh, any alcohol.

Any alcohol.

And so my wine drinker is saying, no, you're wrong. No, I'm not listening to this right now. What about a glass once or twice a week? What about the nutrients from the grapes?

Well, if you're gonna do, something that's bad for your brain, you should be doing other things that are good for your brain. It doesn't mean you can never have a drink, but just know it's not a healthy, healthful thing to do. So you want to do the other things.

When I eat a bowl of ice cream and pizza, I know it's not helping my brain.

Right. And if you do it once a month, it's not the biggest deal in the world. But then, 'cause here we're talking about tea for toxins, you want to support the four organs of detoxification. So your kidneys drink more water, your gut eat more fiber. In my shake every morning, I put fiber in it for your liver, kill the alcohol and eat detoxifying vegetables. They're called brassicas. brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, and take infrared saunas. People who take the most saunas have the lowest incidence of Alzheimer's disease because it detoxifies you. And it's also, there's actually a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, people with major depression took one infrared sauna their mood was better. Well, how cool is that? I mean, that's like simple. There's no side effects mostly to taking a 25 minute sauna.

So is it infrared or any type of sauna?

Well, it's probably any type of sauna, but the study was on infrared.

But anything that's releasing the toxins, any heat exposure and sweating.

Sweating with exercise or saunas, is detoxifying for you.

Yeah.

And this isn't hard, right? Like not one thing I've said so far is hard. The M in Bright Minds is mental health. This is where you learn to kill the ants and tame the dragons. So ant stands for automatic negative thoughts. The thoughts that come into your mind automatically and ruin your day. And the exercise is super simple. Whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or anxious, write down what you're thinking. And then just ask yourself if it's true. You don't have to believe every stupid thing.

I was working with a therapist recently that said, just because someone tells you something about yourself doesn't mean, and they're trying to give you this thing, doesn't mean you need to receive that gift. It's not a gift you need to receive. They're offering you a gift that's a bad gift. Doesn't mean you need to take it. You can just say, okay, I don't need that gift right now. I don't need to let that thought sink in and believe this. Women's health affects more than women. In fact, research from the World Economic Forum and McKinsey suggests that closing the women's health gap could boost the global economy by $1 trillion annually by 2040. Join Dr. Jen Ashton and her guests as they examine the women's health gap through specific topics like maternal health, menopause, heart disease, and more. Listen to the new season of the Visibility Gap, a podcast presented by Cigna Healthcare. Are you ready to level up your business? Intuit QuickBooks has got your back. Forget stressing over unpaid invoices or tracking expenses. QuickBooks takes care of all that so you can focus on growing. Let QuickBooks be your all-in-one tool to help with the day-to-day tasks so you can stay focused on the big picture. Manage and grow your business all in one place. Intuit QuickBooks, your way to money.

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So you know that if you're overweight on Monday and you have a salad, you are not going to be trim on Friday. You need to develop practices that getting well physically is a discipline that occurs over and over, over time.

Right?

To be mentally well, you need to develop practices that you do like eating well over and over and over. So for example, I start every day with today is going to be a great day. Soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning, and today was easier because I spent last night in Santa Monica and walked on the beach this morning, and I get to hang out with you, today is going to be a great day. that way my unconscious mind finds why it's going to be a great day. And then your brain is always listening. I talk about taming the hopeless and helpless dragon, the dragon from the past that feeds depression. And it's something I do called positivity bias training. I want to get my brain looking for what's right because it automatically goes for what's wrong. And so I start every day with today is going to be a great day. And then if I have a hard time, if I feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control, I write down what I'm thinking. And then I just go, is it true? And there's a whole bigger method in the book. And often I'll go to, what's the opposite of that thought? No one loves me or no one respects me or you're a failure. And so quickly my brain, if I go, my wife never listens to me, I've had that thought. I'll go, well, I never listen to my wife. And I'll be like, oh, that can be true. Or she does listen to me and then I find the times that she, it's just I don't believe what goes on in my head. And then when I go to bed at night, and this is so powerful, I say a prayer and then I go, what went well today? And I put myself to sleep by reviewing the positive things that happened. that day. And I find the little micro moments, whether it's that sip of hot chocolate that I made that I'm proud of myself for, or some cool text or interaction.

How does food affect our brain? Well, I wrote a book about 13 years ago called the Ultra Mind Solution about how the body affects the mind. We often know about the mind-body effect, which is real, but there's also the other direction going on. And it turns out that food is probably the biggest driver of dysfunction in the brain when it comes to mood, behavior, attention, memory. And this is not just sort of hypothetical, but there's a whole department, for example, at Harvard of nutritional psychiatry. There's a whole department at Stanford of metabolic psychiatry. I've had both of them on my podcast, the Doctors the pharmacy, the doctors from those institutions are talking about the role of food and the brain and the mood. And we see depression, anxiety, irritability, stress. It turns out that when you eat the American diet, otherwise known as the SAD diet, the standard American diet, that people are damaging their brains in ways that create inflammation in the brain. And we now know that mental illness often is an inflamed your brain. You know, when you cut yourself and you get an infection, it's red and hot and sore and inflamed. If you sprain your ankle, it's sore. If you get a sore throat, it's sore and red. When your brain is inflamed, it doesn't hurt. The only way your brain knows how to say ouch is by getting depressed or anxious or angry or irritable or having even more serious consequences. And so the food that we're eating, particularly this sugar and starch and additives, the lack of good fats, the predominance of bad fats and refined oils, the nutrient depletion of our diet. I mean, 95% of us are deficient probably in omega-3 fats. You know, 90 plus percent of Americans are deficient in one or more nutrients at the minimum level to prevent deficiency, which all play a role in mood like folate, magnesium is incredible for anxiety, iron, zinc, all these vitamin D, all these play a role in the brain function. I mean, you hear about winter blues, you know, that's because of lack of vitamin D. So we know about this intimate connection between food and mood and nutritional status and mood. And, and the clinical trials have been really staggering, showing that people who eat a whole foods diet and get rid of the junk actually can get rid of depression. I see panic attacks, anxiety disorders, often caused by the food we're eating. Just an example, when you eat sugar or starch, your cortisol level goes up, which is the stress hormone. Your adrenaline goes up. So if you eat a bagel or a cookie, your body literally has the same reaction as if you're running from a saber-toothed tiger. And that can create anxiety.

Internally, with the insulin.

Internally.

Yeah.

I mean, you could be totally fine and calm and take five deep breaths before your meal, but if you eat all that crap, your brain is going to feel it. Your body body's gonna feel it.

So what happens to the brain when you're eating a bagel or an ice cream cone or whatever it is and it goes into your gut, does it send signals to your brain and then it starts to, you know, what does that do? Is it inflaming it in that moment? Does it take time to inflame something?

So there's a whole cascade of things that happens when you eat mostly the starch and sugar that's 60% of our diet, right? It's ultra processed food. the main ingredients of corn and flour and sugar that are in everything. And what happens is you get this spike in blood sugar, which then creates a spike in insulin. At the same time, you get an immediate spike in cortisol and adrenaline. That's the first phase of response. Of course, it affects your liver and screws up your cholesterol and all that. But what happens next is even more concerning. It drives all the available fuel in your bloodstream from all the food you've eaten, sugar and starch and whatever bad fats, drives it into your fat cells. And it's a one-way street into your fat cells called your adipocytes around your belly, those belly fat cells. Those fat cells in turn create a whole series of chemicals, hundreds of chemicals, hormones, inflammatory markers and messengers, neurotransmitters. It's quite striking when you look at they're not just like holding up your pants, it's fat there. It's actually doing stuff. And when you eat in that way, it drives hunger, it stores fat, it shuts down your metabolism, and it literally slows your metabolism. And even worse, it locks the fat cells so that fat can't get out. It's like a one-way turnstile. Only get in. And then on top of that, it releases all these inflammatory messenger molecules. We call them adipocytokines. They go to your brain. and they create inflammation in the brain. So it's kind of a downstream effect of a chronic eating this way. If you have one cookie or one bagel, it's not going to kill you, right? But if you're constantly eating this stuff, and we're talking about the average American eats a pound almost of flour and sugar a day. Wow. A pound. Like 152 pounds of sugar and 133 pounds of flour. You add that up and it's, and I know I'm not eating that much and you aren't, so a lot of.

People are making up for the difference.

Right, right.

So food affects your mood for sure.

Yeah, and not only that, it's not even just, you know, it was striking, and I don't know if you had David Perlmutter on the show, but he wrote a book called Brainwash, and it really speaks to what happens to the brain when you don't eat real whole foods and you eat too much of this American diet that we're all eating. It disconnects the frontal lobe from the amygdala. Now, what does that mean in English? The frontal lobe is the grown up. It's the adult in the room. It's like you think you're going to punch that guy, but you go, I better not punch that guy.

Right? Right.

It's that adult in the room that sort of is your higher self. And the amygdala is your reptile brain. It's your lizard brain. It's going to just run or fight or flee. And what happens is literally physiologically these parts of the brain are connected, but when you eat crap, they get disconnected. and so you're constantly reacting from your amygdala with no grown-up in the room, which is why we see this level of divisiveness and hatred and I mean just all the upheaval we're seeing in society now. I think a large part of that has to do with our brains being constantly triggered by this reptilian insult that is driving behavior change. And when we look at the fact of other data to support it, it's not just there's a theory in prisons, if you give prisoners healthy food, swapping out all the crap they eat in prisons, which is pretty darn bad, there's a 56% reduction in violent crime in the prisons. If you add a multivitamin, it's an 80% reduction. Come on. If you look at kids, and this is in juvenile detention centers, they've done clinical trials, because he's got these people locked up, so you've got, it's a really great kind of study. Now, these kind of studies are hard to do, because mostly we're free, we call them free living humans who don't really behave and they'll do whatever they want. They don't follow the study protocol. When you're locked up, you get what you get, right?

And so they took these kids.

The environment's the same for everyone. Yeah, all that stuff. That's right. And they took these kids and they, these were kids who were disruptive, violent, aggressive, oppositional, suicidal. It was by cleaning up their diet and giving them whole foods. It was a 91% reduction in all violent behavior, you know, physical behavior, need for restraints went down, suicide went down 100%. I mean, it's the third leading cause of death in that age group. It went down 100%, no suicides. And so you see this incredible data that comes from understanding nutritional psychiatry. And you go, wait a minute, maybe some of our messed up society has to do with not only the problems with obesity and the problems of chronic disease and the fact that COVID is, is landed on perfect laboratory for spreading in America because we're all so unhealthy and our immune systems are so sick because of our diet. But it's also led to this incredible disruption of our brain and our mood and our behavior, which we're seeing at rampant in society today.

What would you say are the three foods we should all stay away from in order to increase the happiness of our mental health?

Oh, that's not hard. So, I mean, in my book, Pegan diet, it's called 21 Practical Principles for Reclaiming youg Health in a Nutritionally Confusing World. And it's really practical and there's a bunch of steps at the end. But I think the real dangers are one, high fructose corn syrup, because anything with high fructose corn syrup, almost by definition, is a highly processed food that comes with all kinds of other brad craps. So if you're reading labels, if you just can eliminate that, that would be like number one. Number two would be trans fats, hydrogenated.

Fats, which-- what is that, what's that in? What foods is that in?

Is that processed packaged food? Hydrogenated fats? Is that fried food? Is that french fries? Yeah, what's that? So, hydrogenated frats have literally been banned by the FDA, essentially ruled not safe to eat, but they're still out there, okay? You can still find them, it's less, but it's-- and they used to be really, that's-- it makes Crisco shortening, so anything that comes comes with a baked good or any processed food. And the third thing would be, you should only eat foods with ingredients that you would have in your cupboard can pronounce and recognize. In other words, would you have butylated hydroxytoluene in your cupboard that you sprinkle on your salad?

No.

Which is also known as BHT. It's a preservative that's been linked to cancer. It's banned in Europe. We have it in everything you know, so if you wouldn't have, you know, azodicarbonamide in your cupboard that you would use in your stir fries, you probably shouldn't eat it. And yet this is in so much of our foods. In fact, in America, it's legal. This is an ingredient used in breads to make them fluffier. Subway used it in their Subway sandwiches. Did they have to take it out? Didn't Vary get it taken out? Yeah. So our friend, our friend, shamed them into taking it out. But it's still legal here. It's not illegal. They just, she just shamed them publicly. trying to eat her yoga mat in front of the subway and got them. But in Singapore, for example, if you're a food manufacturer and you use this ingredient in your food, you get a 15-year jail sentence and a $450,000 fine. No, you do not.

Yes, you do.

I swear to God. In Europe, a lot of these chemicals are banned. So basically just eat real food. So get rid of all those three things that would make you likely to end up in trouble. And then, you know, there's another hierarchy of how do you even upgrade the quality. But the whole principle of the Pegan diet, food is medicine and quality matters. And then it's not just calories, it's information. And it literally can upgrade or downgrade your biology with every bite. And so when you're putting something in your mouth, you're literally speaking to your genes, you're speaking to your hormones, your brain chemistry, your immune system, your microbiome, your mitochondria, everything is controlled by what we're eating. So the book is really focused focused on two key principles. One is food is medicine and the other is personalized nutrition and medicine. Because, you know, I call it the Pegan diet as a joke between paleo and keto, right? Sure. You know, and I had a, I was sitting on a panel with a friend of mine who was a vegan cardiologist and another one was a paleo doc and they were just fighting. And I was in the middle and I felt like a ping pong ball going back and forth. And I was sort of, I was like trying to break the, break the tension a little bit. And I said, hey, if you're a paleo and you're vegan, I must to be Pegan. And it was kind of a joke and everybody laughed. I was like, oh, wow, that was good. And then I thought about on the way home and basically they're identical except for where you get your protein, animals or grains and beans. They both agree that we should eat whole foods. They both agree we should eat lots of vegetables and nuts and seeds and good fats and get rid of processed foods and low sugar and even agree that we should not be eating dairy, which is a whole controversial subject, but they're pretty identical. Sure. And so the goal, the goal the first book is not to create a dogma, but to create a Big 10 inclusive framework for people to think about food in a different way. So what are the principles of eat healthy eating that are adaptable to different cultures, different preferences, different belief systems? And I think, you know, I always encourage people to listen to their body, not to dogma. You know, a lot of our nutrition advice is based on, oh, be keto or be paleo or be vegan or be this or be that, be raw. And the truth is, it depends on you. if you are, if I do keto, my body doesn't respond great. I mean, I do higher fat, but another person who's a diabetic, they might do great on it. One person on a vegan diet, like Rich Roll, may be able to run triathlons. I mean, just incredible Ironman stunts of heroic effort, but he may be a unicorn or maybe he's figured out how to do it. And other patients of mine see are extremely ill after years of being a vegan because of they're nutrition depleted or they don't have protein in their body. Their body doesn't like it. I just had a patient, for example, this week, who was a young woman, 26 years old, who's been a vegetarian vegan. She was basically a vegetable and sugar vegan. And she didn't even like to- so she would eat sugar as well. Yeah. Oh yeah. Well, a lot of people who are vegan eat sugar because the body starts to crave the carbohydrates and sugar. So it's not uncommon. And so she wasn't overweight. ate it all, but metabolically, she was super unhealthy. She had acne and her gut was a mess and she had very low protein, very, very low amino acids. She had very low vitamin D, extremely low B12, very low iodine, very low zinc. She was extremely unwell and her diet was just not fit for her. We had to upregulate it and change it a little bit. I had to get her some different protein shakes which she needed. I had to upgrade her vitamins. I had to sort of get her off the sugar. But it takes a lot of work. So, the key is how do you personalize the diet and get away from the basically religious nutrition that we have.

Which is either all vegan, vegetarian, keto, or carnivore. There's all these extreme diets.

Exactly. And again, I only encourage people to listen to the smartest in the room, which is their own body.

Theirself.

Right? Yeah.

Like how do you feel? Do you feel great? Do you feel bad? How's your stomach? How's your head? How are you clear? Do you have energy? I mean, what is happening to you? So I think it's important to understand that we are all different and that the future of medicine is personalized medicine. There's a whole section here on personalized nutrition and how do you identify your particular needs by various kinds of testing, whether it's genetic testing, whether it's metabolic testing, food sensitivity testing, and how do you actually figure out how to dial in your perfect diet?

Everyone's kind of swearing by their way is the way, but it seems so extreme in my mind. And, I empathize with vegans and I'm like, yeah, I don't want to hurt animals either. But then, I've tried it for a while and I'm also like, gosh, but I miss meat. And it's like, what is the way? And what I'm hearing you say is that there is not one size fits all. You have to really figure out what works for you. You talk about brain foods, specific foods that we should be stocking our kitchen with. Can you share what some of these brain foods are? You have an acronym for them. I'm not sure if you have them all memorized, but...

So, I'll give you a few to get you started. So, use the brain foods acronym to really almost have be a checklist. for people. I like people to take a photograph of it or read it or list it in their phone so that when they're at the supermarket, they're picking out those nutrients. So, you know, B is my favorite berries and my favorite berry is blueberry. Now, they're rich in anthocyanins, they're rich in fiber, they are colorful and that brings me to the R, one of the Rs, is for eat the color of the rainbow. And these are sort of things, Louis said, many people overlook. Their doctors have said it or they've heard it or read it, but what we're uncovering in the science is that the color of the rainbow, the colors of vegetables, the phytonutrients in those interact with the gut microbes. These are powerful antioxidants, powerful anti-inflammatory substances which impact things like depression, anxiety and more. So it's no longer just eat a colorful salad. There's actual good evidence as to why we should be eating it.

And is it a matter if it's cooked or uncooked?

You know, the science on that varies, but my feeling about it is the following. When you have raw veggies, they have, you know, their microbiome intact, they're providing those bacteria, they're giving you good nutrients. So I like to play, I like people to do the following, have some, say when they're preparing their vegetables for roasted veggie dish, you know, keep some chopped veggies that you munch on and then roast the rest or, you know, whatever you, baking the rest, whatever. And so you're having a little bit.

Of combination of both.

Some raw, some cooked. Some cooked. But in things like, say, spinach, you know, steaming the spinach can actually help lower the oxalate levels.

So some of it is more specific. Okay, gotcha. Now here's a, There's a, I've heard a topic about fruits that some people say have as much as you want. Others say the less fruit, the better. You've probably heard me say this before, but taking care of your health should be your number one priority. What you put in your body directly impacts how you think, how you feel, and how you show up in the world. And whether you're training for a marathon, you're running a business, or just trying to get through a busy day with energy and clarity, nutrition is fundamental. And when I feel my body right, I perform better, period. And that's why I'm a big fan of RXBAR. RXBAR is all about simple ingredients and honest nutrition. They lead with transparency. Just look at their packaging. It says no BS, just real ingredients like egg whites for protein, dates to bind and nuts for texture. Whether you're on the go or in between meetings, they've got something that fits. The original 12 gram protein bar the nut butter and oat bar, soft, crispy and packed with 10 grams of protein, or the mini, just 100 calories with six grams of protein. RXBAR is the proud sponsor of no BS, and they want you to say no to what's holding you back, and yes to what fuels your greatness. Use code GREATNESS on RXBAR.com for 25% off. RXBAR, proud sponsor of no BS, subject to full terms and conditions. and to change valid until September 30th, 2025, and may not be combined with other offers. See RXBAR.com for full details and limitations. You ever walk out of the grocery store or fill up your tank and just think, how is everything this expensive? Feels like prices are going up everywhere. And how great would it be if just once something actually just went down in price? Well, at Metro, that's exactly what's happening. They've lowered their prices and are giving you a five year price guarantee on talk, texts and data. One line, now 20% lower. Family plans also lowered. Oh, and you also get a free 5G phone, all with no ID required and no activation fees. Stop by your neighborhood Metro store, visit metrobyt.com or call to find out about their amazing offers. Bring your number, not available if currently at T-Mobile or with Metro in the past 180 days. Guarantee covers monthly price of on network talk, text, and 5G data for customers activating on an eligible plan. Exclusions apply. Details@metrobyt.com or do it in seasonal times or things like that. Have you seen anything where if people are only eating fruit that it helps or hurts them psychologically? or can you never have too much fruit in moderation, I guess?

So I think when it comes to psychological health, one of the biggest things is how mental health and metabolic health are not connected. And what I mean by that is I talk about berries because they have a low glycemic index. So they have a powerful positive impact eaten in moderation. So I'm not, I don't mean four cups of blueberries a day. But I do mean about a half a cup at least is one of your serving of fruit in a day. The issue with fruit is that the higher glycemic fruits, say the more tropical fruits, you know, mangoes and pineapples, those are actually less healthy for those with mental health because many individuals with mental health might have a struggle with weight and sometimes with metabolic health.

Interesting. And so if you have a lot of these high glycemic fruits, they store more fat.

They could increase your weight. They could potentially increase your weight.

Psychologically say, oh, I'm overweight or not confident in yourself.

That as well as your metabolic health because it could impact your insulin resistance, your insulin sensitivity, your glucose load. So because in my clinical practice I often see people who are struggling with their weight. I don't mean low weight, I mean struggling with a little bit of extra weight or they're taking medications like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, Zoloft, Prozac to name a few, one of the side effects is weight gain. Not everyone develops it, but many people do. Psychotropic medications, others, antipsychotics, also have a problem. They impact metabolic health and glycemic control, and they impact weight. So as a psychiatrist, you really have to be tuned into that to realize if you're going to save fruit, qualify better fruit for that individual to eat, because a person could eat two bananas a day and that could could totally increase their weight. Are bananas on their own unhealthy?

No.

To an average person of normal weight who's exercising and leading a healthy lifestyle, perfectly fine to eat a banana. But to that individual, it may not be the best solution. So it's that caveat with mental health that's important.

So what's the best fruit to eat if you're trying to lose weight?

So the best answer to that? stick with a couple of servings of different berries. Okay. Stick with a lifestyle that is supporting your weight loss, which goes from mindfulness all the way to hydration, to outdoor time, to good sleep and all of that, right? Because we know it's not just one thing.

Eliminating stresses in your life.

Exactly. Stress is a huge driver of weight gain, right? Because of the impact on cortisol. So, I would say stick with stick with a couple of different types of berries and smaller servings and have those regularly because if the fiber and the phytonutrients from them are still going to help you. So I would never say exclude fruit completely.

Right.

Unless, you know, your, your diabetologist has said, look, you need to do this in order to bring down your hemoglobin A1C, then it's a different conversation.

So when is fruit good for you then? Because if you're trying to lose weight, I'm hearing it's not as good to.

Have a lot Not a lot of it.

In moderation.

Actually, to be honest, everything in moderation. Right, right. Because every healthy food you want to eat it in a portion controlled sort of way. Fruit is actually always good for you. It provides nutrients, macro and micro nutrients, which are healthy for your body, healthy for your brain. So whether it's the vitamin C from kiwi or, you know, whichever, or, you know, if you're having leafy greens, not a fruit, but if you're having folate from leafy greens, that's affecting you in a positive way. So food is always a good option. But that also comes from my food philosophy, which is I am diet agnostic and I don't demonize a food group. So if you come into me and say, I'm vegan or carnivore, my role as a nutritional psychiatrist is to improve your mental well-being. You know, I will advise you how you can tweak your diet in a positive way. You may not agree with me, but I'm going to offer you that guidance. what I find, Liz, is that people fall into these eat this, not that mentality, then they exclude entire food groups, then they crave that food group, then there's a rebound effect, and then they end up either gaining the weight or they end up being unhappy because they've started to consume a food that they previously gave up. It becomes a vicious cycle.

Like I said, they weren't going to eat something, then they go eat it for a month.

Yeah.

Depression, you know, feeling more anxious. Interesting. and then almost unable to get back on that saddle of just eating a healthier diet, which I want people to eat healthier foods as part of their lifestyle. So it's a natural, whether they're traveling, whether they're walking through an airport or whether they're at home, they're just reaching for those healthier options or carrying it with them.

And what about antioxidants? Why are these so powerful for mental health?

So antioxidants have an extremely important impact through the gut microbiome but also in the brain. You know, in the natural process of life, we encounter different things that form these unhealthy substances in our body called radical oxygen species. If left on their own, they can actually lead to cancer, heart disease, lots of bad things, as well as, you know, worsening our mental health. So what antioxidants do is they kind of they interact with these radical oxygen species to almost neutralize them. And that's why they're so powerful. So that's why we should eat our antioxidants.

Okay. What foods are rich in antioxidants?

Starting with berries. But you know they're also spices. That's something people don't realize. There are spices that are rich in antioxidants like turmeric with a pinch of black pepper. My nutritional psychiatry no-brainers add a pinch of black pepper pepper because that makes the turmeric more bioavailable and bioactive in your body.

So.

Spices, many of them have rich antioxidants. So the spice cabinet is probably one of the ones you're not tapping into.

Interesting.

To add antioxidants as well as veggies, all these different colors of vegetables, you know, different bell peppers, different lettuces, All of these, you know, whether the purple carotenoids from carrots have rich antioxidants because of the nutrients in them.

What about.

The research that's been out about lectins and nightshades? Is this something that you would avoid or limit or is the science from your research not really saying there's an issue with nightshades and lectins?

So, you know, part of it depends on the person. If they are working with a physician who's asked them to and their condition, if they've been asked to stay away from nightshades because of a certain condition and it's been working for them, I'm not there to say stop doing that and eat everything.

No.

If it's working for them, absolutely. But many people come to me a little confused about where, you know, what foods include lectins and what they should avoid. But there are also some culinary techniques where you can get around by food preparation, for example, if you like nuts. You know, there's a way to get raw natural nuts, soak them in water overnight, rinse them out, and slow it's not even roasting because it's such a low temperature. Almost dry them out in the oven at a very low temperature, and that circumvents some of the anti-nutrients in them. so there are always ways to think about food and make it healthier or look at a cooking technique which could improve the nutrient, either the nutrient value or get around things like that. So I'd rather have that conversation than ask people to exclude things, not about other people, other people's research, but more about my Approach to how I feel I can help individuals when they're mental well-being because, you know, this is not just for someone with depression or anxiety. A lot of people in the last few years have just been feeling a little off, you know? And I use that term loosely. It's a little bit anxious, not sleeping well, feeling blue, just not feeling, there's a great article calling it languishing, you know, just not feeling good, just not feeling quite themselves. And so eating in a good way can help a lot of that. without a prescription.

Right. What would you say is the best cooking technique that you've learned to get the maximum result for optimal nutrition? Is it from the nuts? Is it from soaking something? Is it from some other type of food where you've seen, okay, here's the original raw form, and by applying this technique, it actually enhances it to really help your mental health, your brain that much more. Is there a technique like that?

I don't think there's one technique. Okay. You know, I think that I mentioned the, I mentioned things like spinach and steaming it or applying gentle temperature to the nuts. That's specific to a better way to enjoy the nuts. Some people don't have a problem with nuts. They eat them and they feel okay. Now, the lectin research may refute that, but again, you pay attention to how you're feeling emotionally, how you're feeling physically, what your doctor's telling you. and you either continue or you change direction a little. One thing I will say is that many people hear their doctor say, eat your vegetables, eat your greens, and they sort of, they roll their eyes and they move on. They don't do it. Often it's that action step. One of the things I can say is just gently roasting vegetables in the oven with delicious flavors, putting in colorful veggies, adding spices, even your kids will want to eat it, you know, because it's interesting, it's different. That I think is one of the things where you can really expand and, you know, just little simple tricks like you can do your roasted, colorful roasted vegetables with different spices for the flavor, plus you can do your protein on whether you plant-based, you eat tofu, whether you eat chicken, you can do it on the same sheet pan and that makes it super easy for someone to prepare dinner.

Right.

The next thing you say is include lean proteins and plant-based proteins. From the science, you say you don't eliminate any diet or any food groups.

I try my best not to.

There are so many people that try to say, eat only meat and this is the way to go, and other people say, Be vegan, this is the way to go. Is there science proving which foods are better? lean proteins that are plant-based versus animal proteins?

So I will say that, you know, in nutrition science, they're usually things I can quote. They're probably in the same day or same week or same year, at least three other articles which will refute that. That tends to be the spirit of nutrition science. You know, omega-3s I've seen clinically help my patients time and time and time again. Usually I like them to use food sources first, but some people prefer supplement or they do. And I've seen the improvements yet there is research to say they're terrible, you shouldn't use them, that kind of stuff. So I say this with an open mind, understanding that. So I feel that the camps who, and they are sort of camps, right, because they tend to be very polarized. Either only eat this and the individuals who are plant-based will say, well, there's this studies to name a substance that is negative for your health because it is from meat. And then there are people, individuals who eat meat who will say, but you don't get enough from just the plant. So there's always this polarization. And here's what I feel about it. I think that the more we continue to have these camps, the more confused we are going to continue to be as a country and the worse our nutrition is going to get.

Right.

Because most people, that's not most people. A lot of people know the sad diet and are consuming that. So anything we can move from that to a healthier version of that. food, understanding what healthy whole foods are is better for us. I think it's much more about that for more people than camps. I'll eat this and not that. And I have difficulty with those because I feel that science can support both sides of the argument.

I know. You could always find evidence for each side.

Evidence for both sides.

And something against the other side, probably, right?

Exactly. And say, well, gee, you know, you're missing this nutrient because you're plant-based or you're missing that nutrient because you're eating or consuming more meat. And I think that's where most people in the public get confused. And they come in and say to me, should I exclude this entire food group? Should I give up whole grain? Should I never eat a slice of this or that? And I think that perpetuating that is not good for us as a country. But if we can find a sensible way to move forward to, for the most, so not the people in different camps, but those who just want to eat healthier, want to feel emotionally better, and most of us need to right now with all that's going on, I think it's a healthier way forward and more sustainable.

Yeah. I'm curious about.

Nuts.

You mentioned nuts for a second. This is actually the next thing on the brain, the nuts. I'm a big fan of nuts, but can you overdo it? I don't drink milk anymore, but I have the milk substitutions, like almond milk and things like that. So if you're having the physical nuts.

Then you're having almond milk and then almond butter, is there too much of that? So there's always, even a healthy food, we can overdo even a healthy food. So practicing, I'm not so much of a calorie counter as much as I am the source of food and the quality of food and then paying attention to portions. So I mentioned blueberries and I said, you know, that doesn't mean three cups of blueberries a day because unfortunately then the load of the amount of sugar from that is not good for you. Even though berries are healthy and they have lots of nutrients in them. So similarly with nuts, you want smaller servings and you want different types of nuts. My favorites are macadamia and hazelnuts. I eat them in smaller portions. And for someone who likes nuts and they're going to consume that portion of nuts in a day, you may want to switch to something like hemp milk, which by the way, you can literally make in two easy steps. And hemp milk has the advantage of having short-chain omega-3s in it, because it's rich in ALA. So there's a good solution for...

So if you're going to have nuts, you don't also have almond milk.

And nut butters and everything in the same day. that same 25 pounds.

Have hemp milk instead.

If you're going to use milk. You know, have your nut butter, but you know, nut and seed butter because you're getting the, you're getting other seeds and the value of that and just don't have a ton of it, you know, so everything in moderation. If you, if you do eat more of it, then maybe have that the next day, you know, and balance it up there. It's similar to avocados. You'll have, you know, delicious avocados in California. The truth is, you know, A good serving in a day is about a quarter of a medium avocado to get the benefit of the healthy fats. Really?

A quarter of a medium avocado.

Medium to large avocado. So not a whole avocado.

No.

It becomes, what happens is it gets calorie dense at that point. Interesting. And so, you know, it's balancing that up. Now, if you ate that for breakfast, that's okay. My policy around that is, you know, just cause correct to the next meal.

Or the next day because you understand something like A little bit better. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's show with all the important links. And also make sure to share this with a friend and subscribe over on Apple Podcasts as well. I really love hearing feedback from you guys, so share a review over on Apple and let me know what part of this episode resonated with you the most. If no one's told you lately, I want to remind you that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.

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