A Dose of (Vitamin) D with Max Lugavere

Okay, so let's talk about one of my favorite ways to upgrade your solo or partner play. It is the Hera by Jiu. It's a sleek, powerful rabbit vibrator that's basically the best of both worlds. It's incredible for internal stimulation and those rumbly, mind blowing clitor vibes Jaejoo is known for. Here's what I love. The external ears are powered by the same motor as the Mimi, which you've heard me rave about before. I love the Mimi. And the internal arm delivers deep, satisfying vibrations right to your G spot. It's super so soft, ultra quiet. And it moves with your body. So whether you're using it solo or with a partner, it has this feel like it's made just for you. And honestly, it's kind of a no brainer. Everyone loves the hera and right now you can get 20 off the hera using code emily20@sexwithemily.com hera that's emily20 for 20 off at sex with emily.com h e r A so if you've been looking for a toy that delivers powerful blended orgasm with thoughtful design and serious quality, this is it. So go treat yourself. You deserve it, right? Like time and place for Cheetos and a lot of porn. But we all have those moments. However, if it's too often, too much, too many processed foods and too much porn, you're never gonna be satiated and you're always gonna have a craving. And then overall you're not gonna be sexually healthy or physically healthy, which I thought was great. I love hyper palatable. Hyperpalatable.

Yeah, for me, I mean. Cause porn is hyper palatable. Like where in. When in human history would have, I mean, not to say that women don't appreciate or can't appreciate porn either, but when in human history would a male have access to like the kinds of, like all, just all the different permutations.

Of porn that there are and all at once?

Yeah. And by the way, like I've. I'm a male, okay. I'm. I'm in my mid-30s. So it's like I've watched porn. Like I will confess, and there are times in my past when I've watched porn and while. And I think this is pretty common because I have male friends. I've got younger brothers. When you're watching porn, you're already thinking about the next video that you want to click on while you're watching the current video. Like what, what else can I go? Where can I leap from to, you.

Know, from here before you even. Okay, right.

And that's the same thing that I think happens when people are hooked on these ultra processed foods. They're like eating. They've got one mouthful and they're already thinking about the pleasure that they're going to get from the next mouthful.

Thanks for listening to Sex with Emily. I'm Dr. Emily and on today's show I'm joined by New York Times bestselling author and host of the Genius Life podcast, Max Lugaver to talk about his new book the Genius Life and becoming the better healthier version of you. Topics include the hyper palatability of food addiction and porn addiction and why they're somewhat similar. How artificial light is affecting our health and our bedroom activities, why it's important to get the D, vitamin D that is. And ways making small improvements in all areas of your life can translate to a better sex life. All this and more. Thanks for listening.

Look into his eyes. They're the eyes of a man obsessed by sex. Eyes that mock our sacred institutions. Bed they call them in a bygone day.

Hey Emily, you got a boyfriend?

Cuz my man E here, he just got his heart broken. He thinks you're kind of cute.

The girl's gotta have her standards.

Oh my. The women know about shrinkage. Isn't it common knowledge?

What do you mean? Like laundry? It shrinks.

Can we not talk about sex so much? Are you kidding me?

Oh my God, I feel so good.

Being bad feels pretty good.

Well, you know, Emily's not the kind of girl you just play with.

You're listening to Sex with Emily. We're talking about sex, relationships and everything in between. For more information, check out Sex with Emily dot com. Check out our blogs. Our site is exists to help you have better sex and relationships and all social media. It is Sex with Emily across the board. All right, Intentions with Emily. For each show, join me in setting an intention. I do it. I encourage you to do the same. So what I mean is, when you're listening, what do you want to get out of listening to this episode? Like, how could it help you? Maybe it's I feel as if there's ways I could be healthier in life that can lead to better sex. Or maybe it's I'd love to know what environmental factors are affecting my health and side note, my sex life. My intention for the show to show you what small simple changes you can make towards a healthier life in and out of the bedroom. All right, enjoy the show. I'm so excited. Hi Max.

What's Up.

Max Lugaver. Usually I just see you at Erewhon, like, with a bunch of, like, a gaggle of hot women surrounding you, and I'm like, I don't know if I should get. Say hi to Max right now.

Wow, that is cool.

He's making it.

That's good branding, I guess.

Yeah. Max is hot and smart. His book is the. It's true and kind.

Thank you. Thank you.

And like a good man, like. Like, I don't think you're, like, on the make after Erewhon and going home and having sex with all of them in a way that's distasteful.

No, I'm not. I'm. I am a. You know, I was raised well.

I know Max has.

I have respect for women.

You really do. I love Max. Max has. Comes highly regarded from men and women alike. Thank you for being here and congratulations on your new book.

Thank you.

Genius. The Genius Life.

That's the name of the book.

That is the name of the book. Following your New York Times bestseller, Genius Foods become smarter, happier and more productive while protecting your brain for life, which was really a wonderful book that you wrote. I know, because you found out your mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and you went on a journey to really heal her, and now you end up healing yourself and millions of people.

Yes. My mom was sick. She, at a young age, developed dementia, and I had a background in journalism. Yeah, Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia.

Yeah.

It can get confusing. There are different types of dementia. There's vascular dementia, which is the second most common form. My mom actually had a very rare form called Lewy Body Dementia. But because there's a relative dearth of information on Lewy Body Dementia, I kind of focused on Alzheimer's disease in my research, just because there's just a bounty of it. There's more of it.

But, yeah, my first book was a nutritional care manual to the brain.

Right.

And the Genius Life is really more of a care manual for the body. So for people looking to optimize their metabolic health, you know, prevent things in accordance with what we currently know, the best available evidence about dementia prevention, cancer prevention, heart disease prevention, it's sort of like a guide to that, while also helping you get your body into the best shape possible in the. With the least amount of obsession and effort. You know, it's going to take some effort, but it's all about efficiency.

Yeah, that's what I like. That's how I felt when I read your first book. I was like, oh, God, we got, we were all reading in here, remember Jamie? We're like, oh God, we got a. What were we talking about? We can't eat anything. We didn't eat anything. We really tried it. We did for a while. We felt really good. I learned a lot. I eat more eggs and avocados now and everything. But in this book it's like, wow, there's so many things in my environment like I'd hurt. And you actually made it easy for me to understand like why like, lights could be, like my lights could be so harmful in my home.

Yeah, it's super important. I mean, nutrition is just one part of the story. I mean, you could be checking all the boxes, dotting all the eyes, you know, crossing all the T's. But if you're not, if you'. If you're not cognizant of the fact that the environment affects our health in a profound way, in a way that most of us aren't even conscious of, you're really ahead of the game. It's such a major, major part of having good health, of feeling good, even feeling energized and feeling happy. I mean, the environment plays such a huge role.

Exactly.

In that.

You say that food addiction is much like porn addiction.

Yeah, yeah, it is. I mean, if you look. So porn addiction is a relatively new area, you know, I mean, we've only had the kind of mass proliferation of porn that we, that we currently see just for the past couple of decades. But when I was doing my research and writing the book and I was looking up anecdotal reports of how people kind of experience this porn addiction, what they were saying about it was so similar to how people feel when they're addicted to hyper processed junk foods. And I was actually shocked by that. So when you think about it, like ultra processed foods that line our supermarket shelves, they trick our brains, like they send off our reward trip wires in the same way that porn does. Right? I mean, the, these foods are hyper palatable. They bring together these flavors, these mouthfeels, these sensations that are, you know, I mean, to say that they're delectable to the human brain would be an understatement. And so what that does is it creates over consumption, you know, it creates this insatiable appetite the same way that you kind of feel sometimes, like when you're exposed to pornography. And I'm not placing judgment on either of them, there's a time and place for both, right?

Like time and place for Cheetos and a lot of porn. But we all have Those moments, however, if it's too often, too much, too many processed foods and too much porn, you're never gonna be satiated and you're always gonna have a craving. And then overall you're not gonna be sexually healthy or physically healthy, which I thought was great. I love hyper palatable. Hyperpalatable.

Yeah, for me. I mean. Cause porn is hyper palatable. Like, where in. When in human history would a male have. I mean, not to say that women don't appreciate porn, can't appreciate porn either, but when in human history would a male have access to like the kinds of. Just all the different permutations of porn.

That there are and all at once?

Yeah. And by the way, like, I've. I'm a male, okay. I'm. I'm in my mid-30s, so it's like I've watched porn. Like, I will confess, and there are times in my past when I've watched porn and while. And I think this is pretty common because I have male friends. I've got younger brothers. When you're watching porn, you're already thinking about the next video that you want to click on while you're watching the current video. Yeah. Like, what else can I go? Where can I leap from to, you.

Know, from here before you even. Okay, right.

And that's the same thing that I think happens when people are hooked on these ultra process foods. They're like eating. They've got one mouthful and they're already thinking about the pleasure that they're going to get from the next mouthful.

Like, you can't eat just one. You're going. You're right, it's the same thing and you're not. And you're not satisfied. You're absolutely right. So then what the hell do we do when everything is processed? Like, what about people who say, like, it's a lot of work, but I'm in a rush, I don't have time. That's what's available to me.

Yeah, I think you just. Well, what I like to advocate for are essentially a diet that excludes these, these, these ultra processed foods for the most part. I think an 8020 rule is fine, but then you can have planned indulge. So I actually like to call them planned indulgences. I don't like to call them cheat meals because.

Yeah, you just feel bad because then you feel bad cheating, bad branding on a cheat day. Take that back. Yeah, I like it.

Exactly. So the plant indulgence, so you can have them in moderation. But generally what I think is so important that most people don't have, and that's what I'm trying to drive home, is that, you know, it should at least be informed consent. You know, I think oftentimes when people crack open the pint of ice cream or the bag of chips, and before you know it, you know, the pint is gone, or that they feel like failures, they're like, why didn't I have the self control? But the truth is those foods are not to be. They're not designed to be consumed in moderation. And I think with porn, it is informed consent. It's like, I know I'm gonna indulge a little bit right now in this.

Gonna be another one and another one. And not only that, just like porn, you don't realize because it feels so good, there's like no harm. Yet it felt great. I had an orgasm. And then, and then you keep doing it and doing it and doing it and you realize after a while, oh, I actually don't really feel comfortable having sex with humans anymore. I'm no longer as turned on. I wanna know why three of her friends didn't show up and there wasn't like, you know, like guys, people who learn from porn, like, why wasn't there an orgy? Like that's how sex should be and why isn't every woman squirting? So it's very unrealistic. And if you keep eating foods like that, like the same, you, you really don't know though, because it's all that you know. So how can you learn to be healthy? Like, what are the, like, you know, it's like, what are like the misconceptions we have like that? I mean, how hard is it? Is it really. What can we avoid? What's the easy, where do we start?

Well, I think there's a few easy things to do. First of all, realize what these ultra processed foods are going to do to your, to your, to your willpower, to your fragile, finite resource that is your willpower, and try to avoid them as best you. And the way that I think that is most effective to do that is to, aside from those planned indulgences, to not even try them, you know, to just cut them out of your diet. You're not a failure if you cheat here or if you, you know, have that planned indulgence. No way. I'm not placing moral judgment on this, but just to have that informed consent so that you can kind of build your diet around, around minimally processed foods. The other recommendation that I make that I think is pretty Groundbreaking in the book that, you know, the fitness community has. Has appreciated for a long time, is to prioritize protein. So protein is actually the most satiating macronutrient. It's very overindulge in protein. When was the last time you binged on chicken breast or fish or whatever?

I ate the whole roasted chicken. Yeah, that doesn't happen.

It doesn't happen. It, like, snipes your appetite in a really powerful way. So if you prioritize protein, it's an appetite. Yeah, like a sniper.

I just like that. I just want my appetite sniped. It's kind of sexy, Max.

It sounds sexual. It does, I'll admit that. Snipe your chicken, your roasted chicken at every meal. Make that the centerpiece. Make that the centerpiece. I mean, if you think about the last time you overindulged on carbs and fat, which.

They're so good.

Yeah, they are. Are good. But it's basically pure energy, you know, and your average person is walking around. I mean, a pound of fat carries about 3,000 calories worth of energy. So, I mean, when you look at statistics, you know, 1 in 2 adults by the year 20, 30 are on track to be obese. And I'm, you know, not shaming anybody here, but we're all carrying a little bit of extra weight. You know, statistically, for the most part, that's essentially energy. Focus on protein, and you're gonna be less inclined to eat, you know, all the other stuff. And protein, by the way, it's super important. Important for building and maintaining lean mass, which we know is important as we age. Because you lose lean mass, it's got a metabolic advantage. Actually. Protein is like, you know, there's a thermic effect. So actually, a third of the calories that you consume via protein, you just burn off via digestion alone.

How do we not, like. So I feel like we've known this about protein and that we still. It's training our minds, I guess. Just. You have to do, like, baby. I don't know, are you saying baby steps or just cut it all out? Like, do you think we should just go in and people should just clear it out? Because I know that I eat healthy, like I have for many, many, many years, and I don't. I don't crave processed foods and things. Like, every once in a while, maybe I'll have something. But I do believe I've been able to train my brain, my body, to. To. To crave what is healthy. And you've probably seen that through. Through Your book. I'm talking to Max Lugaver. If you're wondering what is going on here? Why, why are we talking about health or what is it going to help you when you're overall healthy, you make a lot of these changes that you have in your book. Max Lugaver, the genius life best selling author. Heal your mind, strengthen your body and become extraordinary. That's what I want. That's what we all want.

That's what we all want.

I want to be extraordinary everywhere. Max Lugovre. You could also find him on Instagram. I love your Instagram.

Thanks so much.

So it's also in our show notes. You can check it out. Max Lugova. Yeah, you do. Because it's like, oh yeah, like I guess this is how I should make my breakfast and make my everything. Like, I just. It's very smart how you do it.

Yeah. Simple things.

Innovative simple things. What are some other simple things we can do? Because I know when we move, like, I love that you have a hacks for like easy exercise in here. Like, I was like, oh, I can do it in like 10 minutes or less.

Us. Yeah, yeah. Ways of getting, of making your workouts more efficient with high intensity interval training. This is great. This is. I mean, I loved reading this study because I personally hate doing cardio. Not to shame people who love doing cardio. I know there are those people, but I am not. I've never enjoyed getting on a treadmill and doing those like long runs. So you know, to do something like high intensity intensity interval training. So taking something like sprints or getting on a bicycle and giving like an all out, you know, giving it your all for 10 to 20 to 30 seconds and then resting a little bit and then doing that again. Studies show that you can basically achieve the same boost in your cardiorespiratory fitness as 45 minutes of doing 10 minutes high intensity interval training compared to 45 minutes of steady state cardio, which is amazing. That's like five times the efficiency.

Exactly. It's like running stairs, like running sprints. You could do that anywhere.

Exactly.

That's why I love it. Okay, that's good. That's easy. We can all do that. If you guys have any questions at all about your health, about what to eat hacks you could do around your home, like, we got to get into like all the toxins in our homes. I really want to talk to you about how the light from our screens are fucking with our health. Yeah, what, what, what do we do?

Yeah, it's.

I know the glasses and turn it down. But, like, how bad is it?

Well, it's super important, so. I mean, light is an important time setter. Our bodies are. We're rhythmic beings. You know, there was that new. That new radical song. You've got the Music in you. I love that. That song. But. Yeah. So you want to basically make sure that you're getting bright light from the sun in the first half of the day.

I can't talk. Preferably before noon sometimes here.

It's weird.

Yeah.

Preferably be. When? Before noon.

Before noon. Getting that bright light.

So, like, you know, the people who also like sunning their perineums. Perineums.

Have you heard? Have you seen that?

Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah. Anyway, but before noon. I wonder if it's the same thing.

Before noon.

I could do both. I have not sunned it yet. Well, wait, wait, wait. Sorry.

What is this?

You heard about the people who were sunning their perineum? Not. How did we not.

It's a thing.

Thank you, Max.

Yeah, it's a thing. People are doing it.

Google it.

Can we. What?

Yes, there was all the. They were holding. Maybe it was over Christmas. Maybe it was over the holiday break. And we didn't have a chance to discuss it. It was all over the news. Do you guys not know what I'm talking about? Not at all. They put their hand, they put their leg. It was these pictures of men and women, their butthole.

Like their butt in the air, in.

The sun for 10 minutes a day.

Well, here's the thing. The sun is a disinfectant. So, I mean, from, you know, our ancestors.

Who needs an enema?

Who knows, like, what kind of magic, you know, what kind of reprieve from infections and whatever they got from doing that. I have no idea.

But anyway, Vitamin D, though.

But.

Yeah, vitamin D. And that sonic. Jamie. What? You didn't see that? Yes, it was a viral. It was viral. How the fuck did it. My mother asked me about it. Everyone asked me about it. I'm like constantly looking at sex things. I don't know how you missed it. I so assumed. We discussed it.

What the fuck? I actually know one of the main advocates who kind of went viral. I can.

Did you try it?

I have not tried it, no. But it's war, you know, it's warm. You gotta imagine it would feel good, you know?

Yeah, that's it.

That's it.

That's the position. But I couldn't do it. Cause I'm wearing a skirt right now. I would have done it I would have sunned myself just now to show you how to do it.

I would do it. Why the hell not?

I think we should do it. Are you still in my neighborhood? We could like, meet up and sun our bombs.

Let's do it.

Yeah. After Erewhon, if you don't have a date.

Yeah, but the sun that I'm talking about is getting the sun on a different part of your body. Your eyes, as opposed to your butthole.

Okay, tell me you're walking through okay.

Yeah, but I mean, you know, maybe that's important.

Just train of thought. But tell me about the vitamin D in the morning because, like, how long do we need to. What do you mean? Our eye. We have to walk outside.

Yeah. So about a half an hour of 1000 lux of light. So I actually have an app on my phone, it's called Lux. And you can basically measure light intensity in your ambient surroundings. And even on an overcast day, the light from the sky is at least 1000 lux. And so what that does is basically activates proteins in your eye that then activates a region of the brain that's sort of like your body's master clock that primes you for daylight associated activity. So feeling focused and happy and energized are really going to be encouraged when you get this bright light in through your eyes. But if you consider the fact that 93% of our time today is spent indoors, it's a major reason why people. I think one of the many reasons why people are walking around almost zombified. You know, they don't feel super happy, they don't feel super energetic. You need light.

We need it even. It's for how many minutes a day?

I would say a half an hour in the morning. I mean, but generally, the more time that you could spend outside, the better. We know that. I mean, we're just. We're not. We're animals. We're not meant to be.

You know, we are locked in cages all the time. And we are in Los Angeles even, and we're in our cars, we're not outside enough.

I know.

God, you're so. You're so right. Max, we gotta do this. I don't understand. So even just 10 minutes, does it matter? Like, if we're looking up, looking down, like what?

Well, I would. I would speculate that 10 minutes would be better than. 10 minutes is better than nothing. And depending on how bright the light is, you know, if it's like 10 minutes in like broad daylight, then that would be. Then that would be Great.

So then how long do we need then?

I think 10 minutes to a half an hour. I think you should give yourself that. Go stand outside or buy an open window or in your car. Keep your sunglasses off during this period.

I was gonna ask you that because you said it's by our eyes.

Yeah. You want the light to enter your eyes. You have these proteins. They're called melanopsin proteins. I mean, I go into. Great.

I love this. In the book, you guys, Genius Life. We have a link to it on our show notes. Yeah, but I understand. It's like, do. They're just like, point. Oh, yeah. I've been feeling that lately. Then you go outside and you feel it. And it affects your sex drive.

Yeah. The other thing is that people who are older. There's a natural coloring occurs to the lens of the eye as we age. It's just an inevitable part of aging. But it's going to make us less light sensitive as we get older. So you might actually need more time in the sun in that morning. As compared to, like, a much younger person. And so this is one of the reasons why I think it's so common. To see older adults say, I just don't. I don't sleep as well as I used to. I mean, that is such a common complaint.

Exactly.

I think it has something to do with the fact that we're all plunged into this always indoor kind of lifestyle. And I think our older adults are suffering from it.

Well, okay, let's. I'm talking to Max Lugaver. His book is the genius life. Bob, 58 in Pennsylvania has a question about this. Bob, thanks for calling. You're on with Emily and Max Lugavere.

Morning. How you doing?

Great. How are you, Bob?

Good. Well, my morning. Everybody's evening, correct.

I don't know.

Anyways, for us night people in that there. What? Well, I guess you kind of. Kind of just did cover part of it. Or, you know, all of it. But being. When you. When he was saying older. What's. What's the age cut off? I'm 50, 58 and out there. So should I be looking to get more sun as a. As my age or more.

Yeah.

Yes, Bob. I'm gonna. I'm gonna say. Yeah. I mean, it's not just light. So light definitely plays a role in your health. But then also your ability to synthesize vitamin D. Tends to falter as you get older. So it becomes even more important, I think, as we age. To spend time getting good quality light in through our eyes. In the first half of the day, making sure that we're exposing our skin to sun. Not burning, mind you, but just getting enough exposure to the sun on our skin so that we'll have healthy levels of vitamin D, which I define in the book as being between 40 and to 60 nanograms per milliliter. You can get that tested via your doctor. It's a very simple and cheap blood test. But, yes, I think as we get older, we need a little bit more tlc.

We really do. God, such a great. Thanks, Bob. Thanks for calling. We're going to take a quick break and we come back even more with Max Lugavere.

Max. Okay, so all these things, obviously, if we make our rooms healthier, we correct the light we get. We go outside, we have more vitamin D also, we sleep better. We're gonna have more. We're gonna wanna have more sex. We're gonna feel whenever we're healthier and we do all that. There's a lot here to do. I wanna also cover here is sleep, because sleep is an epidemic right now, or lack of sleep, that everyone's, like, confused and how do I do it? And everyone's like, their phones are in the room. Like, you have some great tips in here. Can you share?

Yeah, absolutely.

How do we do?

Yeah. So, I mean, when it comes to sleep, you really wanna be mindful. First of all, good sleep begins the morning of. So that all those tips that I was giving about getting good high quality in the first half of the day, that's going to help you actually sleep better at night. No joke. Exercise, we know being active, you know, helps encourage sleep. I would not exercise too close to bed, but an early evening workout has been shown to boost sleep quality when it comes to actually getting to, you know, winding down. I think we want to be really kind of cognizant of the light that we allow to enter our eyes in the latter half of the day. So whereas in the first half, you really want that bright light into your eyes, you really want to avoid bright light in the evening. Because what that does is it tricks your brain into thinking that it's daytime. And that's not when we sleep, we don't sleep during the day. In terms of making your bedroom optimal, optimizing your bedroom for sleep quality, you want to make sure that it's cool. You keep it at a temperature of around 65 degrees, give or take. I mean, that could be pretty cool for some people. I mean, you get under the covers, warm yourself up, but that ambient cooler temperature has been shown to actually encourage higher quality sleep because our body temperature actually drops while we sleep. So that kind of supports that. But then also, there was a really interesting study that found that when people. People slept in an environment that was cooled to 65, 66 degrees, that they saw a proliferation of a kind of fat called brown fat. Now, brown fat is actually very good fat.

Oh, God. So hard to remember that. Okay, brown fat is good.

Brown fat is good. It's not the kind of fat that we gather on our hips and on our waistlines. It's very sparsely located in the body. Sparsely. Sparsely. It's basically metabolically active fat. So it actually burns other fat. It burns the kind of fat that we don't like, and it burns sugar and calories. By sleeping in a cool room, it's actually really good for metabolic health and it's good for sleep quality as well. You wanna make sure that the room is dark. We're now seeing studies showing that even low light, like candlelight, almost can affect next day cognitive function. So blackout curtains are great. And if you can't put up blackout curtains for whatever reason, a good eye mask works as well.

Okay, great.

I also am a big fan of. I mean, I'm not a big supplementer, but magnesium can help people sleep. There have been studies that have shown that. I believe it was about 4 to 500 milligrams of magnesium daily.

Can help dimming the screens, too. Or just leave them outside the bedroom. First off, rooms, you guys, your bedroom is for sleeping and for sex.

Sleeping and for sex.

That's it.

Yeah.

But if you're watching TV before you go to bed, I thought it was interesting you had some tips, like turn down the screen, like the brightness.

Yeah, yeah. Because the light emitted from our devices can easily reach that 1000 lux. It can easily reach a light intensity that's capable of resetting our internal clocks.

None of us never think we're like, I just can't sleep. Well, you were watching TV right before you got in bed. Like, we don't. I think people might know, but they're not really sure the way to hack around that. So I love that. Another thing is we just had a caller who doesn't want to be in the air, and they just called in, which I love this because they asked about sunscreen. And I know you really get into sunscreen in your book too. In depth. The right kind of sunscreen to use.

Yeah.

What do we do with that?

Well, I have a whole chapter in the Genius Life on environmental Toxins, and my goal is not to Fear Monger, but it is to kind of let people know that there are certain chemicals in the environment, industrial chemicals that are under tested and that they should just be a little bit more critical of or skeptical of. And these chemical based sunscreens are one of those. One category of chemicals where we slather them on us every summer and on our children. And some of them, like Oxybenzone, has been a proposed endocrine disruptor, meaning it can affect your system of hormones. And in an adult that's not good news, right? No, in a child it's even worse news because any alteration to your finely tuned system of hormones can potentially have lifelong effects. So the sunscreen that I recommend, recommend. First of all, I think the sun is important. So you definitely want to expose your skin to the sun without sunscreen. You might put sunscreen on your face because there is, you know, that whole photo aging thing. But generally if you are at risk of burning, so if you're going to go on vacation, whatever you don't want to burn, then the sunscreen that I recommend is a mineral based sunscreen like a zinc oxide or something like that, which forms a physical barrier between your skin and the sun. Not a chemical one.

God, we all do this so wrong.

Yeah, I mean, I grew up. Here's the thing. I grew up, you know, my mom and my, and you know, we were all afraid of getting, you know, too much sun because we're all pretty fair skinned. And the truth is when you're fair skinned, you need less time in the sun to create adequate levels of vitamin D. So, you know, when you go on vacation, you're inevitably gonna spend too much time in the sun. But these sunscreens that we slather ourselves on, I mean, the FDA recently did a, or there was, there was a study recently where they found that when we adhere to the instructions on these, you know, on the drugstore sunscreens that they get, they enter circulation and they, not only that, not only do they enter circulation, but they reach a level far higher than the FDA's, what's called a threshold for toxicological concern. So that doesn't sound good, right?

No.

And so, you know, I mean, I'm just not. I don't think that we should be taking those kinds of risks with our health.

I think. No, you can find, and you can find mineral based ones at the drugstore. Right. But just.

Yeah, they're now easy to find. They have like titanium based.

Exactly. Get those. Yeah, that's important. I've known, I'm glad you said that because I think that's helping a lot of people. We gotta get into plastics because I've been hearing this, you've talked about a lot in your book. How bad? We don't realize plastics. For a while I was getting a food delivery service and it came in a plastic container. And then I was microwaving it. And that's bad. How bad are plastics?

Plastics are not good. I mean, plastics are usually made first of all, I mean, it's not good for the environment. But aside from that, plastics are made with compounds like phthalates and bisphenol A and other bisphenols which have been known for a century at this point to possess profound estrogenic qualities.

A century?

Yeah. First century, yeah. No one cares the estrogenic properties of bpa.

Why does anyone care? Yeah, why the fucking. Okay, just angry.

It was in 1930, in the 30s, that in London, it was discovered that BPA had this. Had actually pharmaceutical potential as acting like this, what's called a xenoestrogen, like an estrogen mimic. And they were actually looking for a drug that could mimic the hormone estrogen to give to women to treat problems, you know, like, associated with, like, you know, symptoms of menopause and.

Yeah, we're just gonna poison you.

Yeah.

And put this plastic tampon inside of you as well and then take the birth control pill. That's gonna fuck up your life.

Well, here's what's so crazy, is that.

They do all that shit.

They then made a discovery. They found a new compound called des. And DES made it to. It got approved to be used as a drug. And they were injecting it into millions of women. They were using it in the production of livestock. And what they only what out later, you know, after it was already injected into millions of women, was that the girls being born to mothers who were injected with this DES compound were developing uterine malformations, vaginal cancers and things like that. And so DES was quickly banned. But BPA is chemically related to des. And the reason why it was allowed to enter the marketplace in the form of plastic, because it was. They were able to use BPA to create these hard plastics is because it was thought to be inert. Right. We create these plastic, you know, furniture, water bottles with it. But we now know that BPA is able to leech into the. That we store in these plastics, into beverages that come in our plastic water bottles, and that people who eat in restaurants where food is regularly stored in BPA containing containers have super. I mean 97% of all of us have measurable levels of BPA in us for that reason.

So what do we. So what are the. Easy. So you get like, a yogurt that comes in a plastic container. Everything comes in plastic in the store. So are you saying don't buy any of it?

I mean, I think you really ought to minimize your consumption. Nobody's gonna be perfect. And when I'm thirsty and I'm traveling at the airport and I don't have a choice, I'm gonna buy plastic cont. A water bottle. The point is just reducing your consumption of plastic and also doing things that are gonna encourage the detoxification of these compounds. And when I say detox, I'm not selling any detox supplement or tea or anything like that. Your body is a masterful detoxifier. All you gotta do is give it the right ingredients. So eating a balanced diet, eating a healthy diet, which I describe in my book the Genius of Life. And also doing things that help detoxify you. Like sweating regularly.

I love that. I wanna get an infrared sauna.

Super great.

The best.

Yeah. You literally, like, release these compounds in your life.

I have a steam shower. Is that. Do you think that's as good?

I think.

Well, would that do the trick?

I don't like steam rooms because I can't tell if I'm sweating or if it's just the water from the steam room. Right.

But eventually, if you're there long enough, you know that you're sweating. I know it's not the same.

Yeah.

But it's pretty awesome.

Yeah. So plausibly it would be.

But it was interesting to read that it does help with, like, depression. I mean, I know that it helps. Cause I didn't infrared sauna once for a week. I did every day for a week. And it was like, I felt like it cured my. I had, like, back pain. And I feel that I felt much clearer and I felt much more focused. I feel like it did all the things that you talk about in your book. I feel like your book, the Genius really did reinforce some things that I kind of been dabbling in.

Yeah.

Quitting plastic and sweating more.

That's great. Yeah. I mean, sweating. Sweating is a major detox, like, route of excretion for certain heavy metals. For these compounds, you want to make sure that you're peeing regularly, that you're.

Staying hydrated, drinking enough water. Hydrator.

Yeah. And sex is good because sex, you get all sweaty too, if you have enough sex. But when we're not eating, because A lot of people call in Max and the show and they're like, I don't want sex. Or I have a low sex drive. My partner doesn't want it. And then I have to say, well, how's their diet? Do they eat? Do they exercise? Oh, no. I remember one woman called in a few weeks ago about like, her husband couldn't get an erection. He was still pretty young. So I was like, well, what? What's going on? And she's like, well, he just eats fast food and he drinks a lot and he smokes a lot. Of course that's gonna have an impact on your, your, your, your desire, your libido, your ability to maintain a healthy erection. Like all these things, things are proven. So if you're calling me with stuff, like, I'm gonna ask you, like, how is your diet? Like, what are you doing to help that?

Yeah, diet's important. When you're healthy, you're horny and diet poisoning.

Are you horny all the time?

Am I horny all the time? Man.

I just see that.

I set myself up for that.

I don't mean to say because he is a genius and smart, but I just see him surrounded by women. Well, Erewhon's a fun place.

Yeah.

Everyone's date night that I heard. Or not date night. What was it, six?

Oh, Jesus. Monday night at Erewhon. I need to up my Erewhon game then.

I don't know, dude, your game is so, so strong. Yeah, you've got game. I'm just teasing you. But I do think it's fun because you know shit there too. You're walking around, but then I've seen you there. I'm like, oh, does he look is. Well, I guess you can't really buy something bad at Erewhon. Like, well, Max approve of what I'm buying in my cart. Do you check out people's carts? If you're dating someone, do you go in their house and look at what's in the refrigerator?

I'm always curious. Yeah. When I go to friends houses, I like to see like, what supplements are like. Yeah. And when I'm dating girls, yeah, I'm always curious. Yeah. For me to date, for me to date. I mean, for me to care about somebody, it's just inevitable that I'm going to like, I'm not put. I'm not like, I don't project. I'm not pushy. But you know, I like to like, kind of have a positive influence, you know?

Yeah. I feel like you do.

Yeah.

And everyone Yeah.

I feel like all the people that I've dated, I've left them like a little bit better. I don't know. I mean, I like to hope that. I don't know.

I feel that too.

It's like they might say otherwise.

I'm like, I leave the camp, they say like when you're camping, like leave the kids campground nicer than when you found it. I feel like I do that with all my exes. I'm like, they went into therapy, they stopped drinking, they knew where the clitoris was. I feel like they're all a little bit better off.

That's amazing.

Yeah. I feel that your girlfriend's darn using ex girlfriend's like, no more plastic. They dim the lights. More vitamin D. I don't know. Right. I mean, that's what we do. I feel like I've guided many a man down healthier paths.

Yeah. I've dated girls that were like kind of like low meat eaters, you know, And I think that like eating meat is.

Talk about that too. I've been in and out of meats, doing meat, not doing meat.

It's so confusing, right?

I'm so confused.

So confusing.

Yeah. I don't know what to do. I'm like, now I'm like someone cooking for me. It's like it's more vegan.

Yeah.

I thought that was.

I firmly plant my flag in the omnivore camp and I say that eating high quality, it has to be high quality though. High quality. Yeah. Because I don't want to support factory farms. Right. But like eating like grass fed red meat I think is so good for you. If you're a premenopausal woman especially it's that it's no more bioavailable source of iron. You know, an iron deficiency anemia is something that's super common I think in women, especially when they're, when they're low meat eaters. So. Yeah. I've actually, I've dated girls who like work kind of on the, you know, veering vegan, vegetarian because it's trendy and it's also becoming kind of politicized, you know, because of it's the perception that we have that somehow eating animal products is bad for the environment. It's not inherently bad for the environment. It's just that the way the factory farm system is currently set up, but that includes animal, you know, I mean we're veering off topic, but it includes animal production. Yeah. And so I've actually gotten them to eat like a little bit More meat, some fatty fish. And they all, you know, they've felt better. And that's like totally an anecdote, you know it's not.

No, it's good, right? And everyone's got to figure out what's right for them. But yeah, I feel that. Matt, there's a lot of good. Max, there's a lot of good information in here. You got to check out his book, the Genius Life. Max Lugaver. Get his book. We'll put the link in the link@sexwithemily.com Max, I gotta ask you the five quickie questions we ask all of our guests.

Oh, man, I can't wait.

What's your biggest turn on?

Oh, my God. Kindness. That's what came to mind. I love a girl who's kind. Like when I'm on a date and I'm with a girl and if they're rude to the waiter, I just know that that's not like biggest turn off. Biggest turn off. Oh, man.

I would say not being open minded.

What makes good sex?

Well, I learned this from you. Communication is lubrication.

Something you would tell your younger self about sex and relationships.

Oh, man.

Just have as much as you can.

Number one sex tip.

Number one sex tip or relationship tip? Yeah, number one sex tip.

Just, I don't know, eat healthy. But like, maybe eat, you know, lay off the cruciferous vegetable vegetables if, you know, you've got like, sex, you know, image.

Look at this. No broccoli.

Ugh. Who just like, who wants to be bloated digestively?

Nobody wants to be bloated. Jamie was gonna, we found this out because Jamie was gonna make her boyfriend some kind of vegetable and it was gonna be broccoli. And people just, the phones lit up, they're like, don't do broccoli tonight. Don't do it, Max. You're fabulous. Max Lugaver. Thanks for being here. He's at Max Lugavir on Instagram, the channel Genius Life. All right, guys, thanks for listening and thanks to my awesome team. Ken, Kristen, Elisa, Brian, our interns, producer, Jamie and Michael. Was it good for you? Email me feedbackexwithemily.com.

There's one overlooked mineral behind better sleep, sharper focus, stronger muscles, and a healthier heart. And at least half of us are getting enough. Most people don't realize they're running low on one of the most vital minerals for human health. Magnesium. And here's the thing. No single form of magnesium can deliver all of its benefits. That's exactly why Qualia Magnesium plus was created with 10 highly bioavailable forms of magnesium plus over 70 essential minerals, it provides total magnesium support helping you sleep better, think clearer, move stronger and feel your best every day. And honestly, when you're less stressed and more energized, your intimacy and desire naturally benefit too. Sure, magnesium can help you sleep, but Qualia Magnesium plus goes beyond that. It's a whole body nourishment for how you think, move, connect and feel. More than just a sleep supplement, it's a foundation for daily well being which absolutely supports a healthier sex life. Getting enough magnesium from food alone is harder than ever due to depleted soils and chronic stress and our body's reduced ability to absorb it as we age well. Qualia's Magnesium plus formula is non gmo, vegan, gluten free and designed so all the ingredients work together for cosmic comprehensive magnesium support. And personally, I've been taking Qualia Magnesium plus in the evenings and I really notice calmer nights and clear mornings and just feeling more grounded in my body, which always makes intimacy feel more accessible and enjoyable. It's become such an easy part of my nightly routine. Experience the most trusted magnesium for your purity, potency and performance. Go to qualia life.com sex with Emily for 50 off and here's a bonus use the code Sex with Emily for an additional 15% off out your order. That's Q U A L I A life.comsexwithemily thanks for Qualia for sponsoring this episode.