The Killer Food Culture That’s Controlling Your Health | The Model Health Show

You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson.

For more, visit themodelhealthshow .com.

If we were to simplify the ingredients to good health, the recipe would be relatively simple.

Eat good food, move our bodies, get plenty of sleep, rest and recovery, and also spend some time outdoors, get adequate sunlight, spend some time with other human beings, maybe some furry friends that's pretty much the recipe to a decent level of health.

Now of course we can get into the Gordon Ramsay Michelin star chef versions of the recipe and add in all these dynamic factors but the basic recipe is relatively simple.

So my question is if the recipe is so simple.

Why is it so difficult for us in our modern society to maintain a high level of functional health and fitness?

Well, on this very special episode, we're going to be talking about how our culture is actually unconsciously controlling our behaviors when it comes to all of those health inputs.

I'm also going to open up and share with you the way that I grew grew up personally, and how it influenced my family's health, my perspective of health, and led me into some dark places and eventually some big revelations when it comes to health and fitness.

Also, we're going to be talking about some interesting things regarding longevity, including a surprising culture of centenarians, people living to 100 and beyond, who actually love to eat bologna.

We're also going to talk about why processed foods are misunderstood.

It's going to be interesting.

We're going to cover why the FDA banning red dye number three is a false flag.

We're going to talk about how food scientists manipulate our senses and how to protect ourselves from this.

This and so much more.

I'm so grateful to be able to share this conversation with you today.

I was interviewed on one of the top new shows in the country, the Extend podcast with Dr. Darshan Shah.

Now, Dr. Darshan Shah was recently named the Longevity Doctor of the Year by the renowned Longevity Doctors Association.

So his level of influence and acclaim and prestige and insight is truly remarkable.

And so being invited on to the show really does mean a lot.

And he shared with me in many of our conversations, and including him being here on the Model Health Show, that him starting the extended podcast the catalyst for that the launching pad for that was spending time with me here at the model health show studio and also little did i know years ago when darshan who's a traditionally trained physician and many many years of clinical practice was looking to diversify the inputs and tools for his patients he found the model health show.

And just to know that that level of impact is out there and making these connections and impacting the influencers of influencers.

I mean, what's better than that?

That really does my heart so much good.

So very excited to share this conversation with you today.

It's so rich, so many powerful insights.

And before we get to that conversation, again, being awarded the the longevity doctor of the year by the longevity doctors association his insights and what he's been sharing with me regarding understanding the difference between our chronological age right how old are we on the calendar versus our biological age can be markedly different all right there are people who are literally decades younger than their chronological age as far as what's going on with their biology.

And the opposite is also true.

There are people who are decades older biologically than they are chronologically.

And so where do we find ourselves on this spectrum?

And right now, if you're curious about this, this is something I recently done.

There are many different modalities to kind of track down what's going on with our biology, but most of the data is found within our blood.

And leading scientists have uncovered covered that specific biomarkers can give us the most accurate assessment of our biological age possible.

Now, I was able to test and find out the data from over 100 biomarkers, including what's going on with my sex hormones, inflammatory biomarkers, immune system markers, thyroid function, nutrient markers, and so much more.

And it gave me a very accurate assessment of my biological age versus my chronological age.

And I'm happy to say I'm getting close to being about a decade younger biologically than I am chronologically, which I could tell you, I pretty much feel that way as well.

But it's great to get that assessment and that affirmation and also to find out the things that I can have improvement with, which I was surprised there was one specific nutritive marker that could have some nice space for improvement for me.

And it it influenced so many other aspects of my health.

So it influenced what's going on with my immune system, what's going on with my hormone function.

And so it's something I've been more adamant about doing.

And again, I just even feel even better from that.

And so if you want to get an assessment done just like this, it's never been easier.

And for me, many companies have been reaching out to me over the years about doing these types of assessments and working with them.

And I just honestly didn't yet feel comfortable or really truly trusting the ability of the data to paint an accurate picture but now finally thanks to the incredible team at levels I'm truly happy with the user friendly data all of the incredible biomarkers and putting it all together for us and really educating us on what it really means how we can make improvements and so much more I've I've actually been utilizing the data from continuous glucose monitors from Levels for many years.

The team there is phenomenal.

Spearheaded by Dr. Casey Means, who I love so much and who's been a guest here on the Model Health Show.

And now when you purchase an annual levels membership, not only are you going to receive two additional months for free, you're also going to receive a 28 marker cardiometabolic blood tests every year included as part of your membership.

But here's the thing.

You can also upgrade your membership and purchase the expanded panel, which will give you an even deeper detailed view with 100 plus biomarkers for deeper insights into your hormones, nutrients, stress, aging, and more.

Again, the Levels team is absolutely incredible.

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That's L -E -V -E -L -S dot L -I -N -K forward slash model.

Once again, with your Levels membership, you'll become an expert of your own health with lab testing and unlimited access to the Levels app for AI powered food logging, habit tracking, and personalized insights that turn your results into daily actions.

Just go to levels .link forward slash model to take advantage right now.

And now let's get to the Apple podcast review of the week.

Another five -star review titled Change My Life by Tosh.

Sean, I can't thank you enough for your insights in these podcasts.

I've always been a nutrition and fitness fanatic since high school.

And now as a 23 year old registered nurse devastated and stuck in the middle of the faulty health care system, seeing the huge lack of food and nutrition and the dependence of drugs, I am on the road to changing my career to focus on my passion for the human body and the power of food.

Thanks to your inspiration in your podcast and your book, Eat Smarter, I wouldn't have the courage to follow my dreams. Keep doing what you're doing.

Yes, sir. I appreciate that so very much. Thank you so much. for sharing your voice over on Apple Podcasts.

Listen, if you're listening to The Model Health Show and you've yet to leave a review, please pop over to Apple Podcasts, leave a review for the show, share your voice, share your heart, rate the show, give me some stars.

It really does mean a lot.

And without further ado, let's get to this very special episode where I'm having the tables turned and I'm being interviewed by the number one longevity doctor, in the world, Dr. Darshan Shah on his new hit show, The Extend Podcast. Enjoy.

This is, as I was telling you earlier, this is a real honor for me because going on your podcast is a really, and talking to you about podcasting has really inspired me to do this.

So I really want to thank you for that.

I love that. And that's what I was sharing with you earlier as well.

You're one of those people, speed of implementation.

You put the information into to somebody like yours hands and you make things happen and you impact a lot of people.

And so I'm honored, truly honored.

Wow. This is, this is such a great moment for me.

And, um, really like one of those moments that I'll be writing about this in my journal tomorrow morning.

Awesome. I really appreciate you being here.

And, um, you know, I know you're an expert in many different topics around health, but, um, we had a really great dinner a few weeks ago where you you and your wife came over and we made one of the dishes that you have a recipe in your book about, which I was totally surprised, you know, at the very end.

And, you know, we had the pumpkin muffins.

And I, you know, of course I took a bite and I was like, this tastes so familiar.

And then you were like, Sean, you know what that is, right?

It's from your book.

I was like, man, this is, you made such a magical moment, you know, right then, you know, it was so thoughtful.

and also the people that you brought together, you know, friends and, you know, people actually really close with as well, that I had no idea they were coming, you know.

So Casey Means was there with her fiancé.

I don't know if she's gotten married at this point, which he was awesome, by the way.

They're married, yep.

And Kelly Starrett was there with Juliet, and I love them so much. We've done a lot of stuff over the years.

And, you know, just being able to spend time with you and your wife, and your wife is fantastic.

Yes, she is. And you guys' story and how you got together and all that stuff.

It was just really amazing.

It was amazing. And it's like food for the soul, really.

Yeah. You know, so.

And we need that, right?

And, you know, that dinner that we had together, you know, it was the first time we've ever broken bread together, right?

And it just kind of emphasizes the power of community and building community and friendships over meals.

Yeah. I think that's the key there, is intentionality.

Because I would submit to you that 50, 60 years ago, you didn't have to be intentional about it, because it was just part of the culture, right?

You came home, you had dinner with your family, you know, your TV, you had to turn the channels, the remote controls probably weren't even, you know, made, right?

You had to click the channel thing.

The antenna. Right, the antenna, right, exactly.

You remember that. I don't, kids growing up now, I have no idea what that is.

They can put their phone right in front of them and watch a YouTube episode as they're eating.

And I think, you know, as I was growing up, there was no other option but eating at home with your family.

It was rare that we went out to fast food or out to a restaurant for dinner.

And now you have to be more intentional because the options are vast. And sometimes it's even cheaper and it's definitely less time consuming to not have that family interaction, right, to go out and just have a quick meal.

This is the problem.

This is the actual if we're gonna we could solve all of our health issues right here right now in this podcast We've been focused myself included working as a practitioner and same as you Yes, we're telling people to make these behavior changes, right?

But they're trying to make these changes in a culture that is largely unhealthy that is fighting against them, right?

That's the problem We're trying to encourage behavior change in a society that is set up to make you unhealthy healthy.

If we change the culture, we change the health.

And I think it would be valuable for us to understand, what is culture?

Culture, I think about my college economy class and this concept like the invisible hand.

But culture is really the invisible hand.

Culture is defined as the shared attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors of a group of people that is passed down from one generation to the next all right that's what culture is defined as and so the culture is like a container that is determining your choices and your awareness of things whether you know it or not you don't even understand you're existing in this thing you're born into it and so in a culture there's just certain things you do you wear certain things you speak a certain way you eat certain things right you communicate a certain way and part of what brought me to this is i've

I've had a unique experience of being intimately in different cultures you know being biracial myself right but also having the ability working at a university when I was in school and then becoming a strength conditioning coach of the university I work with people from all over the world and I was often invited to stuff you know I got to see these different intricacies and it's kind of adding to this patchwork quilt that I was able to develop and how do I communicate and help different people and universally we all want the same thing sure you know we We all want to be healthy.

We all want to feel significant and our family is taking care of all these things, but we don't think about how the culture is determining our choices.

And so with that being said, we have a culture now.

Again, we just look out here and it's a little bit different here on Sunset.

It's a little different, but you could pick so many streets here in America and you just look down the street and it is just littered with fast food options.

Ultra processed food at every turn.

you know and this is something that again i didn't grow up with all of this access to all this stuff and i remember it was a treat to go to mcdonald's yes exactly i had a birthday party at mcdonald's i think it was like my sixth birthday and i remember it so clearly you know it's like all the characters grimace yeah which is a terrible name i know he's kind of you know he's obese you know and he's in grimace means pain grimace had way too much mcdonald's then they got another one the Hamburglar, he's literally a felon, you know, and McDonald's, he's a clown.

Clowns are scary. Have you seen it?

You know? So I could go on and on, but, you know, it's just, this was a, this was a rare occasion.

It was a treat. Right.

And it kind of devolved in a way that that became the norm.

Right. So that was, and this is when I live with my grandmother.

And then when I, because, you know, my, my, my mother was struggling, you know, just to have a place to stay living in the inner city you know my grandmother this is my white grandmother and i lived with her from kindergarten through second grade this also st louis st louis yeah so this was like it was in maplewood so it was like a little bit nicer area you know and she made dinner every night pretty much you know she had a garden and my my grandfather was a hunter and he would forage for things like right it was a completely but i wasn't as time went on i was getting more and more distant because my

friends i want the capri suns i want them i want the lunchables right eventually they came out right i want the pop tarts i want the things that my friends are having and so over time i got in my grandmother and this is another tie -in for everybody if they've ever read the book the five love languages i love that book this is a it's so powerful it's such a powerful book but food ties into the five lovely languages so beautifully because oftentimes people there are certain people who express their love through food, right?

It's a, it's a, it's a love language, right?

It's a gift that they're giving.

It's an act of service, right?

And also the physical touch aspect of food.

Yes. Nothing touches you more intimately than food.

Like you're taking something from outside of your body and putting it into your body.

It's becoming a part of you.

Yes. How intimate is that?

I never thought of it that way, but you're right.

Yeah. Yeah, I can go on and on with the connections, but because she's showing her love through food and wanting me to be happy, she would allow me or relent to let me have the fish sticks and the macaroni and cheese, you know, because she wanted the kid to eat something.

And back then they didn't even realize the dangers of ultra -processed food.

Now we know, right?

That's exactly what I was gonna say because she wouldn't want to hurt me.

She just didn't know.

These were new revelations and advances in nutrition.

I just popped this in the microwave. Remember the TV dinners?

Of course. The Salisbury steak.

Right, exactly. Oh, my goodness.

With the little muffin or the brownie in there.

Of course, yeah. Or the little apple pie in there that got warmed up with it.

Oh, my goodness. Microwaves were very different back then, too.

Never, never warmed up evenly.

Never, you know. But, you know, she was again, she was just doing what was becoming more normal in the in the culture and eventually moving with my mother because my grandfather, unfortunately, again, he was getting pulled into this and seduced.

He had high cholesterol at the time.

This is in the 80s.

You know, his doctor recommended that he starts eating country crock.

Oh, my God. Right. So stop eating butter.

Stop eating eggs. eat margarine, right?

Watch your fat. He went from having high cholesterol to having a heart attack and having open heart surgery.

All right. And you know, the things that you shouldn't be eating the deer meat and all this stuff you need to be eating, you know, lean, whatever, you know?

And so, and again, not to villainize any of these things, but he started eating more ultra processed foods versus the stuff that he was being told.

And also again, today we know that having quote quote, high cholesterol is just the metric itself is it is such an oversimplification of something.

Right. And so, again, I wish I would have known then what I knew, but then I'd be like five, like, hey, listen, but, you know, I went back to live with my mother because my grandparents moved to quote the country.

So this was the St. Louis, but he grew up down in the boot hills, like southern Missouri sure and so going down there with like gravel road right now that's actually where I learned I learned how to ride a bike downhill on a gravel road all right that's how my grandfather was it's like literally sink or swim yeah so I fell off one time I learned quickly yeah but you know and and that's that part of that culture but going back to live with my mother in the inner city and you know going from like all white not all white but just no say say 95 percent to now 95 percent black and also now we're on government

assistance you know so we're getting food stamps now we have like a corner store and like we're just around surrounded by ultra processed food and fast food is everywhere now versus at my grandmother's there was a mcdonald's down the street couple blocks away and then there was like kmart or his venture and that was about it laundromat there was a liquor store and by the gas station but now there's, you know, there's 7 -Eleven, there's Domino's Pizza, there's Pizza Hut, there's White Castles, there's, I can go on and on, multiple McDonald's, you know, all these stuff pretty much in a walking distance.

And these are the things that my friends are having.

I'm on the free lunch program at school, which is prison food.

You know, I got this little red ticket and now, and this is a true story and this is bringing a point, a really important point for for everybody listening or watching.

And this is the fact that my diet now evolved or devolved to being about 80 % ultra -processed foods.

And I was not abnormal because according to JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, huge analysis was published in 2019, 2018.

They looked at the ultra -processed food consumption by US children and they tracked it from 1999 to 2018.

In 1999, the average child was already eating right around 64 % ultra -processed foods.

In 1999. 1999. Yes.

Wow. By 2018, that number had reached 67 .5%.

Almost 70 % of our children's diet is ultra -processed food in the United States.

And of course, you know, there's kids that are going to be on both ends.

I was definitely on the higher end of ultra -processed food consumption.

and so my body from that point everybody that I knew I Cannot think of one person in my family who didn't have one chronic condition sure my little brother chronic asthma He's hospitalized for at least every two months right myself same thing.

I'd spend these stints in the hospital I had all these inhalers.

I didn't have asthma previously Yeah, but now I have asthma my little sister She had the worst eczema that you could ever see she was suffering this little girl my mother mother, diabetes, obesity, you know, my stepfather, you know, um, heart disease, uh, hypertension, um, alcoholism, you know, the list goes on and on.

Everybody had something.

Right. And this was abnormal, but it became normal.

Right. Right. And that I'm saying all this to say that is the power of a culture.

Exactly. This is what I was around.

I didn't know that there was a difference between in the fish sticks and some wild caught salmon. This is just what I was exposed to.

I didn't know that, you know, that there was such thing as meditation and yoga, and I didn't know what real food was.

I thought real food was Doritos, right?

You know, I thought real food was, you know, um, or just, it was okay to drink these barrel juices, right?

That was like in zero percent juice in the juice.

Right. And they're red, they're cherry red, which now the to die has been banned recently.

So, and that's the power of culture.

So the point being, and we'll talk more about this today, is if we change the culture, we change the health outcomes automatically.

Yes. If I was inundated and surrounded by, and I've seen it because I've replicated it.

If you see my children, you see what happens when they grow up within a healthy culture.

Exactly. Exactly. No. And that's such a great point.

You know, going back to these studies that have been done on culture and how they affect your health, you know, we hear about these blue zones all the time, right?

And people are trying to dissect what do these people eat?

And is there one ingredient like olive oil that makes all the difference, you know, or blueberries?

Really what it's all about is the people are in a culture where the food choices are not ultra processed food.

These are are foods that are real food, right?

And so basically, and then the other part of that, on top of that too, is they're cooking their food, they're respecting their food, they're eating together, and it all makes sense when you look at it that way.

There's not a one magic ingredient.

It's really the overall environment that you're surrounding yourself by, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. And that's another important point.

You know, if you look at the data, and be honest, I mean, it's very difficult because we have our biases, you know, so people collecting this data can have their slant towards, oh, it's because they're eating a lot of, you know, plants, right?

They're vegetarian, whatever the case might be.

The diets are very diverse.

Very diverse. In these hot spots of longevity.

And, you know, one of, I'm just going to give an example, but if you look at places in Italy that were analyzed, one of them is popular for creating bologna.

Like that's where it's the home of bologna.

Exactly. And so they're eating pork and they're eating, you know, all these different pastas and cheeses and all these things and wine.

But you won't see that in the research, you know, when it's packaged up.

No, they'll pick out, right.

But here's the thing.

Number one, all of these different places, they're eating mostly real food.

Right. Pretty much, almost 100%.

Even the bologna, I mean, it's coming from wild -fed pigs that are, you know, out there in nature.

They're not fed like these mass produced grains and raised in like little stalls where they're not allowed to move.

Right. So even that newly invented chemical additives and preservatives and food colorings and all these other things that help things to look a certain way here or, you know, extend the shelf life.

Yeah. And, you know, so that's that's the hallmark is they're eating real food, minimally processed.

If you think about, you know, humans have been processing food a long time.

And I'm grateful I've got many of my colleagues who have been sharing this as well, but this is something that I made a point to talk about years ago, because it's not about just like, just eat an apple, right?

Or just, you know, whatever it's, we can process foods in a healthful way, right?

Olive oil, you mentioned olive oil, is remarkably healthy.

There's tons of data on this.

I'll share, I'll share.

Just something teed up in my mind.

But some researchers at Auburn found that extra virgin, oleocanthal rich, extra virgin olive oil is one of the few things ever discovered that has a direct impact on the blood brain barrier.

Essentially, researchers found it has the potential to repair damage to the blood brain barrier and reduce neural inflammation.

Oh absolutely, right?

So it has this resonance with our brain and our nervous system like for real, you know?

And so we've got data on this associated with Alzheimer's and the list goes on and on.

It's a special thing, but it's processed.

You take in the oils, but it's cold processed.

Extra virgin means it's cold processed, stone pressed.

You know, you crush the olives, but you're not adding deodorizers and synthetic dyes and all this other stuff and hexane extraction.

It's minimally processed, bottled in dark glass if it's done right, right?

Because it's photosensitive.

There's some chlorophyll there as well, you know?

But you take that versus the stuff that's ultra -processed.

There's this debate going on with the vegetable oils.

I've got friends and colleagues who are like, vegetable oils, no, no, no, no. It's an ultra -processed food by the definition.

Are you advocating now with your nutrition degree that people eat ultra -processed foods or everything in moderation?

No, you don't want to do that.

And also, again, understanding how it's made and also understanding we got tons of studies on this.

It's not it's it's it's alarming to me when somebody's like, you know, the data shows that, you know, there's no problem.

Do you read? Because there's a bunch of studies that show otherwise.

And I actually cited a couple in my book related to heart disease, related to dementia, related to damaging your DNA.

Just the smell. And this was published in the journal Inhalation Toxicology.

And the researchers found that just inhaling the fumes of vegetable oil during cooking was enough to damage the worker's DNA.

All right. It's some gnarly stuff.

Again, it is massively ultra -processed and it's got all of these different synthetic, it's already oxidized.

It's... I love the analogy of being oxidation in a bottle, but of course, sure, there are some studies showing that it can improve health, different parts of health, but we gotta look at all the data, and so I don't wanna villainize anything.

I don't wanna villainize anything, but if we have a choice, we should probably lean towards the things that humans have been doing for thousands of years that are minimally processed, that we know to be safe over a period of time, that we don't have studies just showing as we consume more of this stuff, we're getting more and more obese, we're getting more and more dementia, we're getting more and more heart disease.

And we could point fingers, and this has happened over the years, it's the sugar, it's the vegetable oil, it's the this, it's the that, it's all of it.

It's all of it together, right?

Yeah. You know, the seed oil debate drives me crazy just like it does you, because if you have a choice of a seed oil versus avocado oil or olive oil on the shelf, why would you pick something that's massively processed?

Maybe it's like 50 cents less or a dollar less, right?

I find the price of it, I went to the supermarket to see like, is it a price thing?

It's really not a price thing because there's very expensive seed oils out there and there's lower cost avocado oils out there.

so my contention is like why are we arguing about something when we know it's already healthy we know it's good for us let's just pick the things that are good for us right that's the cool thing today you know we have we have choice right you know but some people listening I'm sure they've experienced the paradox of choice as well there's so so many options so many experts saying different things it could be confusing so my principle that I would love if you you would take on, everybody listening, is to ask yourself a simple question.

What if humans have been doing the longest?

What did my grandparents eat?

This is something that I got to eventually in my clinical practice working with people every day.

And there was a time, 15 years ago, where it was like, if I was into something, you were gonna be into it.

If I'm into raw foods, guess what?

I'm creating programs around my beliefs at the time.

Thankfully over the span of several years I had to get honest and say yes There are certain people just crushing it getting great results but there's always this percentage of people who are not and I had to get honest about that and to do a better job and Everything changed when I started paying attention to the individual person in their life looking at their sleep quality Asking them about their heritage like what what did your where's your family come from?

Right? So what what did you eat?

eat traditionally. You know, I have a patient, for example, that lived in, their grandparents came from Greece, right?

And they were dealing with an autoimmune condition.

So I started to bring up, so do you eat the, what about this?

And they're like, no, you know, my grandma, you know, she did, she used to make this stuff.

But, you know, I was like, how about we swap this thing out and we added more of that?

She was like, I love that.

I love that growing up.

I didn't know that I could have that, you know, just like little things.

And also there's this connective tissue there as well for people, but instead of getting into this diet dogma and using some glorified framework, I leaned into, let's personalize this and everything is available.

Let's do what's best for you right now where you are and giving you the awareness that it's probably going to change over time too, you know, and to give you mental tools and cues to be able to switch things up up when you need to right you know going back to the culture aspect of this a lot of people tell me you know a lot of my patients tell me like oh you know we're around ultra processed food all the time like you mentioned there's fast food restaurants everywhere but I feel that your culture is something that you can create around you right and so you mentioned your kids my kids as well.

They rarely eat any fast food.

They're eating mostly whole foods all the time because that's a culture of our family.

We don't have that stuff at home.

So it doesn't really matter what they see as we drive down the road.

They just know what is okay for our family and why.

I think it's key to explain why.

Our friends also have a similar mindset.

And so we kind of create this culture around us that ignores the external influences of marketing.

That's why, like, Red Diet, to me, like, yes, it was a massive thing.

It got outlawed or, you know, FDA took it off, made it a banned substance.

But it didn't really matter to us because nothing we ate had Red Diet in any way.

Exactly. Right? Yeah.

So. I don't eat Ring Pops anymore and, you know, these fake frostings or whatever.

Right. Maraschino cherries and things like that, the chocolate -covered cherries.

That was another one of my grandparents' favorite things was cherries, chocolate covered.

But, you know, this is the point.

And by the way, just a sidebar with that, with this band.

Yeah. All right. Let's talk about that.

I've been talking about this for years with the FDA and their policies because it's just so many holes.

And there's supposed to be this watchdog, but it's not really like that.

That's a perfect example of the food industry just having way too much influence on the FDA, right?

Oh, but listen, listen to this.

Yes. So this was back in 1997.

All right. So right around there, right around 1997, the FDA and I went and pulled it up.

This is the thing about it.

There's been so many times that I'll find something and I'll popularize it.

That's right on the FDA site and then it'll be gone.

All right. But right as of right now, they publish this.

It's on their website that they intended to remove the red dye back in the 90s.

but they in their own words didn't have the resources to do it subsequently though they banned it in cosmetics yeah all right but they're not in food and so they literally said they were going to ban it in the 90s but did not do it because of lack of resources now they're incredibly wealthy most of the money of course is coming from the pharmaceutical industry about 75 percent of their scientific review budget is from the pharmaceutical industry but this is it was just a matter of importance and also again most people being unaware and so my question was all right we're okay so they're they're

making this big move now banning red dye number three i just invited people to think about did they just start with number three was there a red number two was there one what was there is there a four exactly all of these have been banned back in like the 60s yeah you know uh red dye number one was like causing liver cancer and you know the list goes on uh gastrointestinal lesions by a certain yellow dye.

Huge outbreak in digestive distress, like re hospitalizations by kids after a Halloween and these kids consuming orange dye, for example, and then it gets banned, right?

So it's been this pattern and the pattern what I wanna wake people up to is that it's usually replaced with something that is similarly toxic.

The food industry is like, okay, that didn't work.

Let's create something other synthetic and then wait around for years, often decades, for us to get caught, instead of what is real?

What is natural? What if humans have been doing the longest?

Yes, we can color things.

Other countries have done this successfully, but the stuff looks different, right?

The cereal, which again, that's arguable should we be eating that in the first place, but it looks different in Japan versus the United States or in Great Britain, whatever the case might be.

Every country has its issues.

But we're the king of these problems. We're the king of allowing all manner of this devastation.

And so, to just lean back into this and mentioning what you shared, and we actually, we went on a hike together with our two sons.

And just being able to understand that we get to create the culture.

And so we have a larger culture scape that we're all existing in.

We have a macro culture, but we can create a micro culture in our own household.

Right. I promise you, my son, and he will tell you this, my youngest son, he's not missing McDonald's.

Not at all. He isn't.

It's not a big deal to him.

Now, I'm also going to share this from the perspective of I understand we live in the world.

All right. And he goes to school.

He goes to birthday parties.

We're not the and of course, like I've been through these levels.

All right. So and we still have friends who do this.

They might bring their own kids slice a cake to the party.

You know, we're not those parents, you know what I mean?

So he's he's been exposed to things but here's the cool thing Because of the culture he knows what it feels like sure He knows what it feels like when he eats his stuff and he doesn't feel that great And so he's just like this just happened.

He just had a basketball game He's 13 and he just had a basketball game with his school Mom's got together bought a bunch of pizzas, you know, they I don't want to I might be it's cool Just you know, like, you know, he's that now I'm good he doesn't want it you know but he doesn't want it no and you know our sons are very similar my son will pass by mcdonald's on the way home he's starving i'm like you want to stop by mcdonald's and get something he's like no i don't want to go mcdonald's i just want to get home and eat at home or let's go to you know a restaurant where you can get something that is real

food and i'm not saying that to brag to the audience or anything like that it's just like you said It's a microculture that you create within your family and the priorities that you put as top of the list for your family, right?

And so if food is not one of the top things in the priority list for your family, I don't know what else would be there, right?

I mean, obviously, it's like food is part of your, you know, Maslow's hierarchy, right?

It's like shelter, food, safety.

We need to make this a priority for our family and make this something that we put some intentionality behind I think right we just don't know that it matters when it really boils down to it I know that I didn't yeah I did really well in school but this I was oblivious to this yeah I think we all were right biology class in college all right my son school now they have a class his his science class is called the science of you all right so they're relating it back to him oh this I'm just like this is what we're paying for all right one little one little up you know But things change over time.

And it's often difficult, of course, to have your kids in these environments.

But that's a whole – with the education system, that's a conversation for another day.

But when I was in my university biology class, it didn't relate to me.

So we're studying the cell, all the parts.

You learn more about the frog than you do you.

Yeah, why am I dissecting this worm?

What is this? And I get it.

There's some people that are fascinated by that, but it didn't relate to me.

I was not made aware, nor was my teacher even aware, that when we're looking at this cell membrane, that that membrane is made by your menu.

Right. Right. Absolutely.

That the mitochondria is made by the meals that you eat, that the nucleus is made by the nutrients that you eat.

That's so true. Right?

There's a disconnect.

The cells that we're studying isn't, I'm looking at at food.

It's food. We get to choose what we're making these things out of.

And there are certain things that will damage these cells, and there are certain things that will help them to thrive.

And so creating more connective tissue, helping people to realize how powerful food, like you're choosing what you're making your cells out of.

You get to choose, right?

Do you want shitty cells, or do you want really healthy, resilient, vibrant cells, right?

All the way to the mitochondria as well are you giving yourself the new nutrients needed for your mito to stimulate mitochondrial genesis like to create more mitochondria right are you getting enough magnesium in your diet for example are you getting in all these different things from real food predominantly to help your body do all the cool stuff that it can do to keep you healthy to feel good and again most of us it's a very superficial thing when i was in college and you know i had a college level nutritional nutritional science class, big auditorium class, just thinking back on what I thought food

was. And I left there with the same thought, which is food is about basically weight loss or weight gain.

Yeah. You know, very rudimentary, like make sure you tell people to get all their vitamins and minerals.

Yeah. What the hell does that even mean?

Right. And this was a time of the food pyramid, by the way.

Yeah, exactly. You know, but even, and this is an important point and two when we were taught about getting all your vitamins and minerals like for example uh you know make sure people are getting vitamin c yeah there's different forms of vitamin c different forms of vitamin d b12 magnesium the list goes on and on there's so many different form now people know there's different forms of magnesium but we were not taught any of this no right it's just like because of that framing it's just take a pill yeah take a multivitamin and you're good right take your centrum right that's synthetic whatever

you know and just right but it's looking at our health through this very microscopic lens when in reality food is what makes us who we are when you look in the mirror you're seeing the food that you've eaten yeah every cell in our body is made out of food at some point and is constantly in renewal and the substrates for those cells come from the the foods that we put into our mouths every single day and from the environment that we expose ourselves to and it's such an important point because you know we're not so separated from the foods biologically we are made out of them yeah and if you think about that very

point how distant are we now from where our food comes from absolutely very distant you know i would i mean what percentage of americans have grown any of their own food in their homes right right?

It's exceedingly rare, exceedingly rare.

And even farmers today, it's monocropping.

It just like, it's the whole game has changed.

You know, um, this reminds me of the red dye, uh, there, I remember growing up again, like having these little juices.

Yeah. I always a fan of different sodas and things like that, but I really loved the drink, like grape drink, apple drink.

Yes. right and I would get this uh this grape drink or fruit punch was my favorite from Prairie Farms right Prairie Farms is right there it said farmer owned this little banner on it it says zero percent juice on there it's like propylene glycol high fructose corn syrup water red dye number whatever you know blue dye and in reality again it created this perception of wholesomeness it's from Prairie farms right and it's farmer owned like this is this is wholesome it's they're delivering this it's on the store shelves sure but i don't know many farmers like in the not even traditional sense but just

in the sense of being a farmer right who's like whipping up propylene glycol and red dye 40 and making all that corn syrup and a vat like it's breaking bad you know like Right.

They're not cooking up.

That's not that's not a farmer.

You know, so even farming in the true sense of what that is, is exceedingly rare.

Right. You know, but it doesn't have to be that way.

And there are. This is the same thing in our in our country, the grassroots movements to change things that red dye getting banned.

That was through a grassroots movement of science backed entities who can just compiling all this data over time and forcing the FDA's hand.

Whereas in Europe in particular, companies have to prove, and this is not true across the board, but largely that the newly invented synthetic ingredient is safe before adding it.

Here it can be added and then it's on the public oftentimes in grassroots movements to say, this is harming us.

Let's do something about it because of the grass, right?

Generally recognized as safe, right?

This loophole, it's not even a loophole.

It's a gaping, it's a gorge.

I just saw a billboard for a movie, Gorge.

It's a gorge. It's a gorge in our system, right?

I mean, look, and there's enough stuff out there that a great change right now, Now, we don't need any more new chemicals in our food, right?

We don't need another red dye.

20 ,000 is good, you know?

That's enough. I mean, it's a good time in the current state of where our society is to just put a stop to all of this and say prove it's safe before you put it in our food, right?

And you brought up another great point.

It's the deceptive marketing practices of these food companies as well, which is so—it's just irritating and annoying now to even walk into a supermarket and see the stuff in green boxes and marked as healthy and good for you and it's a trickery and the falsification involved just in plain sight yeah this is mind -blowing right now the the cool thing is but it's also it's a paradox because this shouldn't be like this anyways but now we have real data on this and we're able to see where the bodies are buried essentially with these food companies and see their practices there's and actually i cited

one of the studies in the eSmarter Family Cookbook on marketers for cereal companies and using very specific tactics to manipulate children, right?

And so one of the studies that they did was bringing in a bunch of kids and having them to have some cereal, right?

It's a new cereal that we're creating and rating their enjoyment on a five smiley face scale, right?

How many smiley faces do you give this?

Now they give the kids a cereal, same cereal, but as a mascot on the box, as a cartoon mascot.

The kids across the board rated the cereal higher that had the mascot higher on the Smiley Point scale because they related to the cartoon character.

Right. And companies, they've been known this.

They use this. They created so the eyes are looking a certain way.

right when you when you go down the aisle obviously the colors and these cereals let's be honest with the big eyes man toucan sam bro um but these toucan sand probably killed a lot of kids people you know over time you know i mean it's like that too garbage right holy the tiger you know the pop guys you know they're all just like there's a there's a public enemy number one there's a there's a movie on netflix uh it's done by i think jerry seinfeld created it and it was a story about pop -tart's origin and this bob this battle between like uh post and you know whatever the other company was and so they

had these different characters right so like the the the cereal characters and so here's the thing we have to again we're born into conditions where we don't realize it's happening i didn't know i just wanted the fruity pebbles because they tasted good and I had a great food experience with it.

And the crunch, and they have scientists that like actually are food scientists that put their geniuses, and for anyone out there that thinks that this is not an extremely intentional, lot of money put behind every marketing drawing, the colors, like you said, the kids in a room, the focus groups, the scientists that study study the texture of food, the addictability of food.

Like it is a massive billions of dollars being spent on this to get you addicted to it and get you to buy it.

One of the greatest inventions and also demise of us is a gas chromatograph.

So scientists were able to isolate flavors, right?

So what makes that cherry flavor?

What's the chemistry that makes that flavor?

And now they could add that cherry flavor to things that aren't cherry.

All right. And so this This really muddied up the waters of our food intelligence because there's something really special about us as humans out there's a lot of really special things of course, but I'm just thinking about my wife.

But there are a lot of things special about us but we have a very diverse and intelligent flavor palette.

All right, the nose that we have, we can't sniff out like, you know, we think like comparatively like that dog can smell like who's got the cocaine at the airport.

we can't do that but we can taste the most subtle things you know and this is if you've never thought about like do you think about people with the wine tasting for example i taste a hint of you know um oh absolutely cherry dirt and a rusty nickel like you know what i mean like you could find these really unique flavors but understanding that and understanding how these these food manufacturers manipulate our senses, and this is a very powerful evolutionary adaptation that we developed on our sense of taste and our sense of smell.

Because the taste of things were indicative of the nutrition in it.

So there's something called post -ingestive feedback.

And so for example, if we were to eat a real cherry, our body would take notes essentially in a way a memory of what nutrients came along with that flavor right so doing this all subconsciously like we have no idea in our brain but for thousands upon thousands of years this is just how it is and so if you think about what a craving is right why do we have it did our we're just messed up our design is just messed up why do we crave things this is an evolutionary adaptation it's an advantage right to know when we need something we have a craving craving for it, all right?

So we'll use that cherry example.

Okay, we've got some vitamin C, we got a food source of melatonin.

That's interesting, in this cherry.

We've got some anthocyanins, we've got whatever.

So you get all these different nutrients.

And when you start to get deficient on a certain thing, your body's like, those cherries had that vitamin C that you need.

You should go find some cherries, right?

Great plan, right, great way of living.

today. It's no longer the case, because our flavor palate has been hijacked, right?

And so we develop cravings and intentionally for all these abnormal things, that post ingested feedback has been massively disrupted.

And so if we are deficient on something, we don't even know what to do.

What it usually brings about, by the way, is hunger.

When you're deficient, whether it's magnesium, vitamin C, omega -3s, whatever, your body is screaming at you like, I'm deficient.

Yeah. Bring some food in here so I can get this stuff.

Right. I'm going to go grab some Doritos and a sandwich. Right.

Because we keep feeding this infinite hole and not getting the things that our body's actually calling out for.

So this is one of the big hallmarks with taking back control of our metabolic health and beating obesity is addressing this epidemic of hunger you know we've got to address our micronutrient needs micronutrient and macronutrient deficiencies leads to chronic overeating right right we need the things that our body's actually asking for so we can just get the baseline right got a quick break coming up we'll be right back Summer is here and it's time for some summer fun.

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I think you said something really key there, which is micronutrient and macronutrient deficiency leads to hunger.

So like you were saying, you know, another great example is pica, right?

That's when people eat dirt because their body knows it needs iron and they just, And they're eating dirt.

Yeah, chalk, right, exactly, because they're trying to find iron.

That's this built into our neural pathways as almost like a subconscious reaction about what we need, to your point about the cherries, right?

And so, I think when you're hungry, it might not be that you're low on energy.

It might be, a lot of times, that you're hungry for nutrition, like real nutrition, so nutrient -dense food.

and that's why when you're eating the ultra processed food which is minimally nutritious very low nutrient density you stay hungry and then you keep eating more and more of it which leads to obesity yeah right sounds like a great business model right exactly if you're trying to sell more food but I mean for people that are having trouble with and this is one of the first things I do for people that having trouble with weight loss is we look at their micronutrient levels and we find massive amounts of micronutrient deficiencies and a lot of of people that are like, how am I deficient?

I'm eating all the time.

Well, you're eating food that's not nutrient dense.

That's the issue. Yeah, it's such a key unlock, I think.

You know, a lot of people talk about calories in, calories out is what leads to weight loss or weight gain, but it's just such a simplistic view of what's really happening.

Yeah, I love the analogy, of course.

I've said this many times over the years that, you know, it's looking at the human body as a calculator right and it's just we're so much more dynamic and you know and even you know one of the things i did in my last book and in eat smarter was i took people through and then this is the first book to do to do this and i'm honored to say um where the hell calorie came from yeah right so going back to the origins which started in physics it said nothing to do with nutrition right and you know um looking at how calories were measured but how they're actually put on packages today is radically different

it's they're not using a bomb colorimeter and like incinerating the food and seeing how much eats the water and all it no they're not using it's called the at water system it's just a generous kind like grass yeah you know just like it's sort of this you know whatever but even in that in its intention your body's not a bomb colorimeter when you don't incinerate a food now right your body there's certain there's a lot of things in a food that aren't even digested right or they're net right now it's just like we are so much more complex and looking through that lens is it is really making people

it is this created so much confusion and so much unnecessary struggle and and i appreciate because i've been that i've been in this field for 22 years now where we're looking at calories right i've been through that same and i appreciate the people who found great success with that but you're probably going to find that most people are not successful following this calorie management idea because it's not looking at how the food impacts your overall metabolic health because your body how you are how your body associates with the calories from exact same food current can be dramatically different

from week to week right all right and there's certain certain foods that there's certain, there's certain conditions, right?

So if people have issues with their thyroid, for example, this can slow their metabolic rate dramatically.

And yet they're on it.

They're eating a thousand calories a day because they're told like, I just got to cut my calories.

And they're not, not only not losing weight, they could be even gaining weight.

How's that possible?

How is that possible?

Right. The body is smarter than your calculator.

later. All right. It, it matters.

It is a thing. It is something that we try to use to make sense of something we can't make sense of.

It is far too complex where we are today.

Just one of the things is the impact of our microbiome on how our body absorbs and metabolizes calories.

All right. We've got some really cool studies on this and labels of like, quote, fat bacteria and being able to absorb more from the food that you're eating.

But this is, we're going to bring us back to a very important point here the quality of the food itself right all right um there's a study that was done in food and nutrition research and they had test subjects to eat sandwiches one was considered to be a whole food sandwich which was whole grain bread and cheddar cheese all right versus an ultra processed sandwich which was white bread and cheese product right which is like Kraft Singles.

Right. OK. After compiling all the data and by the way, the sandwiches are the exact same amount of calories, fats, proteins, carbohydrates.

Same should impact them the same.

When people ate the ultra processed food sandwich, they had about a 50 percent reduction in their calorie burn after eating a sandwich. Their body just held on to more of the calories they just consumed for some strange reason the food itself is a factor it's not just the calories it's how your body associates with those calories yeah and i can go on and on with that but you know it's just we're oversimplifying the wrong stuff yes i agree you know the same goes for exercise not to get off food but the same goes for exercise i think you know i grew up in a time where if you want to lose weight

you just stay on that treadmill and keep burning calories on a little calorie meter a little digital readout of how many calories you burned.

So if you eat a donut, then you'd go on the treadmill for an hour and try to burn 300 calories to make up for that donut.

And what happens? The body's so much more complex than that.

Sure, you burn 300 calories, but now you're hungry, you're inflamed, you're dehydrated, there's so much more going on.

Your insulin levels are bonkers.

Exactly, exactly. And so these are all the things that people need to think about.

um sure like you said if if you had a bomb calorimeter it would all work out but we are not bomb calorimeters we are a complex system of not just our biology but the biology of the microbiome that's inside of us as well right and the microbiome controls our hunger probably even more than our brain does because of the signals from our gut to our brain through our microbiome and this is all we need to consider all of this but in reality it's a lot simpler than having to worry about any of this stuff because in reality going back to the beginning of this conversation is just swearing off ultra processed

food right 95 of the time don't eat anything ultra processed sure once in a while you go to a birthday party you need to um fine but for the most part you shouldn't and create a culture around that for your family and the people you hang with yeah Yeah.

Just let's make it the exception and not the rule.

Right. Right. And so I'm a big fan.

Like we live in the world.

All right. We live here in the United States.

That's where this is getting recorded.

There is a lot of like food party stuff.

There's a lot of mouth pleasure out there.

No, I'm sorry. There's a lot of of of different things.

We got to edit that.

We got to take that out.

I like my book. It's because you came in, man.

I was like, I dropped it in there.

All right. So anyways, there are a lot of incredible things for us to enjoy, to experiment with.

But if we're coming into this with a foundation of real food, you know, number one, chances are this other stuff isn't going to be that attractive and you're going to notice when you have it.

Like, it's just not going to taste the same.

I remember after I'm from St. Louis.

All right. So one of the iconic places in St. Louis is Emo's pizza, thin crust, St. Louis style pizza.

All right. I grew up, I was probably like at least like 2 .5 % Emo's pizza.

All right. And I remember, you know, it was probably 10 years of working in health and eating real food.

And I, my, my oldest son, he wanted Emo's pizza for a birthday party with his friends.

It was like paintball and Emo's was like the things that he wanted.

And so I remember taking a piece of the pizza and I was like, this doesn't taste real.

You know, this tastes like pasty, you know, it's just like, it's not like I remembered, you know, and I just wasn't impressed.

It didn't want to, it didn't encourage me to have more, you know.

Happened to my pizza.

Right, right. Now we do have those moments as well, but the best thing that we can do, and this is going to circle us back for, you know, just to complete this is let's make it so that it's easy to eat good things with this being said coming from where i come from i love flavor right i i'm not one of these people that's like eat to live you gotta eat to live don't live to eat that's actually abandoning and again just as a scientist that's abandoning reason because what drives us to eat things is that they taste good Good.

It's built into us.

We're not wired to eat to live.

Right. Exactly. We're kind of wired up to gorge on things, you know, that tastes good.

And, but also again, living in a natural environment so that we can survive, you know, but we've evolved this very unique flavor palette and we're driven to eat things that taste good and that's okay.

Let's support that.

Let's not go so far that we're hyper stimulating and damaging ourselves with all this fake stuff.

Let's find on the joy in real food.

And so part of doing this is, again, creating that microculture in our own household.

It's easier to make healthier food decisions based on the data if we're eating with our friends and family on a consistent basis.

All right. So another study, and this was for me about access, because growing up after I left living, from living with my grandmother, living with my mom, my stepbrother, stepsister, stepfather, this is my little brother and sister, And my mom, I can count on my hands how many times we ate together.

And I'm not exaggerating.

I can count on my hands.

It's probably a holiday here or there.

But it's usually me and my brother and sister just getting food and eating somewhere.

Yeah. Right. Sometimes my mom would eat with us sometimes.

But most of the time, it's just like grab and go.

We scatter. And had my mom known the data, I'm sure she could have made an adjustment and just been more intentional about us eating together.

But she didn't know.

just like most parents do not know i know that i didn't know until i got this data and so this study analyzed the eating behaviors of minority children who were generally in the context of a low -income environment like i come from and the researchers because that was my thing like my mom wasn't around that much you know my stepfather wasn't around that much like they were working this sounds like this data is for people who have access no but what they found was that when these children ate four meals with a caregiver, you know, an adult, somebody who, you know, a parent, four meals a week could have been

any meal, breakfast, lunch, dinner, didn't matter.

Four meals a week, these kids ate dramatically less ultra -processed foods, namely chips and soda.

They ate five servings, five or more servings of fruits and vegetables five days a week.

Wow. All right. And obviously they had far better health outcomes.

Yeah. But But the researchers noted, this was the rub, when the television was never or rarely on during mealtimes.

Makes sense. All right.

There's something about that TV being on, you know.

And so this was super encouraging for me because no matter where we are, no matter where we come from, we can be intentional about eating together because it's going to support the health outcomes of everybody, especially our children.

Let me share something for adults.

Tech workers. So a study was done looking at workers at IBM and they found this is going to get to why this works.

They found that the the participants were able to consistently get home, quote, get home in time for dinner.

Their work morale stayed high.

Work stress stayed manageable.

Productivity stayed high.

But as soon as things started cut into their ability to eat dinner with their families, work morale starts to plummet.

Stress elevates and the productivity goes down.

This is Captain Obvious stuff, but we don't think about it when we're in it.

All right? Eating with their families helped them to metabolize stress.

It helped them to process the stress that they were carrying from the work that they're doing.

We need that outlet.

We need to, quote, unplug.

But what we usually do is we go from one plug to the next.

Sure. Right? We go from that plug in our stressful job or whatever the case might be, traffic.

Right now, people only knew what you had to do to get here today with the commute because of the fires.

but that and then going and just getting right on technology we're not getting a chance there's a difference between relaxation and restoration sure there's a difference right we're not giving a chance to actually switch over to that parasympathetic mm -hmm what's the nickname rest and digest right rest and digest nervous system we're chronically in fight -or -flight and we might have the feelings of being relaxed like we're laying watching TV eating snacks whatever and there's a place for that but if you want to be be restored sit down and eat with your family eat with people that you care about yeah

be around real people because our chemistry change right changes and this is getting to the point that IBM study was highlighting something which is a big part of this is being around people you care about our chemistry changes are of course thoughts create chemistry in our bodies but a lot of stuff is happening unconsciously we start producing more things like oxytocin sure and this is one of the hormones that it of course there's been a lot of revelations recently people call it the cuddle hormone or love hormone but this is one that is really risen to the top because it has a nullifying effect

on cortisol oh amazing right and i talked about this years ago my first book sleep smarter i talked about oxytocin and um so now we know that that's one of the things kind of counteracting helping you to metabolize stress such a calm down oxytocin um there are a ton of different neurotransmitters and hormones that are changing when we're around people that we care about, because what is activating really is the overall feeling of safety, right?

Feeling seen, feeling like we matter, feeling a part of something.

These are all deep psychological human needs, right?

So this is more of the kind of meta perspective of what's happening physically.

Physically, a change is happening with that switch over from the sympathetic to the parasympathetic, but I want to give a very practical psychological thing.

When we sit down and we eat with our children, and I want to give some tips too, if that's okay.

Please, I would love them.

When we sit down and eat with our children, which is, again, it's an endangered activity in our society today.

Our children today, more than ever, even when they're with their friends, they're not with their friends right that is true they're together but they're separate they're together but they're on their devices i've seen it i've seen these kids hanging out and they're all on their phones they might share a meme will laugh like look at this meme but they're disconnected all right this is their chance and they're missing and of course you see that obviously massive epidemics of mental health metabolic health the list goes on and on there's a reason part of sitting down and eating with your children

you get to see them they get to feel seen when the phone when the technology is not in the way someone is seeing them and letting them know that they matter you get a chance to listen to them to listen to the sound of their voice to hear what's going on in their life and we need this we need to feel like we matter we need to feel like our voice is important right and so we're helping to feed and putting in these psychological nutrients that help our kids to thrive right and the same thing for us too right you know but we're gonna miss out on that if we're not being intentional about it and so one

of the tips is and this is one of the most science -backed things you could do right now when you have that family dinner or dinner with a significant other friend leave the phone out of it don't even have it sitting on the table it should not be all possible right because one of the studies that that I shared in the book.

Even having it in the line of sight, led to disruptions.

People literally they're strapped to these brain monitors, all this stuff, their brains were distracted just when their phone was near them.

Because that phone, our brains, it's always looking to automate, your brain knows there's a lifetime of goodies in that phone, right?

And so you might be trying to listen to your friend, but there's part of your brain is like, yo, there's some stuff on Instagram right now, like I could.

so getting the phone out of your line of sight putting it away i'm not even in your pocket i would say yeah because then you're anticipating a buzz right you're anticipating a buzz you're anticipating it for to ring they said it's too easy right on your person was it in a book bag whatever the case might be right a lot of times and i'm just being a thousand i'm i'm the guy who doesn't bring their phone into the restaurant right if we're you know even if we sit down to watch a movie together i leave my phone in the kitchen you know on the kitchen counter our table make your dinner table a phone

-free zone yeah make it a phone -free zone and some families have because of the extent of the addiction you know some families have like a little lockbox or it's their phone in before dinner or whatever it doesn't have to go that far but make it a phone -free zone but here's the rub because we're addicted we have to replace it with something of equal or greater value.

You can't just be like, get off your phone, John, you know, Sarah, get off your phone.

Come eat dinner. We're going to have a nice family dinner.

I was listening to this really handsome guy on Darshan show.

He said, I'm sorry, just kidding.

Just kidding. But to replace it with something of greater or equal value.

So what does that look like?

Being intentional about creating creating something that is memorable and enjoyable for our kids.

Now, this is where it gets, this is where the work comes in.

All right. We have a culture that's like something for nothing.

All right. Easy. We want it easy.

But in reality, every, you get to choose your heart because if you're not doing this, you're going to see the fallout in your family and in your health.

If you do this, it might be challenging initially, but you're going to see everybody thriving and so part of this i'm just going to give an example of a family that i worked with and they have multiple kids all right so uh two kids and the two kids have drastically different personalities all right they always do because of course of course and so one of the kids is very like detail -oriented, you know, likes to know what time everything's happening.

You can cater to that, but you have to pay attention to your child.

You know, let them know what's going on.

Maybe, you know, this is another tip, actually, I'm going to embed it in here.

According to the data, the minimum effective dose was three days a week.

Pick which days those are.

Yeah, make it always those three days.

Monday, Wednesday, brunch on Sunday.

Whatever the key whatever looks like for you and your family but schedule it this is another science back tip because it creates a tangibility sure we got all this other stuff on the calendars i saw one of your employees out here yeah her calendar looked bonkers i mean i saw that it made me a little uncomfortable all right it's a lot of stuff on the calendar but where's her time for her where's her time for her family right she's got to make sure that that's on the calendar too schedule it make it real it creates some tangibility to it also three meals a week is is the minimum effective dose.

And so circling back to invite that child in who knows they like to be on their technology, they're a big fan of desserts.

So just know like, okay, so tonight we're gonna have the pumpkin muffins.

The pumpkin muffins from the eSmarter family cookbook is gonna be a dessert.

Or you can ask them, like get them involved, was another thing that was very helpful with them is to get them involved By giving them choices and this is pretty true for all of us But like do you want the frozen yogurt cherry pops, or do you want the pumpkin muffins tonight, right?

Oh, I'll pumpkin muffins, right and so just getting them involved and what is to come Another thing was in this for the other kid loved Games.

Mm -hmm Right a love like activities and so you can embed that in to you know, show some attention to the other kid, right?

And so knowing that after dinner, they're going to get to play a game or I had no idea, but there are some families that actually have games during dinner.

So they're like maybe playing a board game or some kind of charades or whatever the case might be.

Heads up, you know, there's so many different things, but like bringing in things that are memorable.

so now i'm going to use myself an example for whatever and this was not i'm not going to say it's not intentional but it just it just kind of happened you know we were having family dinners but for somehow some way we ended up like it would like evolve into like dance battle or rap battle all right and so it evolved to the place where my youngest son had ipad and somebody would like make a beat on the ipad right a little like whatever a little rickety beat and then it got to a place i i went on amazon and bought a microphone and just like we literally passed around a microphone it just became

part of family dinners and what you what you focus on expands what you focus on expands the week that this cookbook came out i went on good morning America and it was cool it was fun but one of the most memorable experiences of my life I went on a show called Sway in the Morning and Sway um was really iconic for being an MTV VJ back in the day but he's a big part of hip -hop culture you know just within that month you know like I don't know LL Cool J was there Missy Elliott all these iconic people in music and I went there there to of course you know which is amazing maybe sure they might be listening

right now but uh Tracy you know one of his co -hosts and this way of course listen to my show you know I'm saying like listen follow me and you never know who's listening sure so I came there to talk about empowerment and to just you know right and it was amazing like it was it was electric in the room you know just sharing some information about health and taking some questions and things like that and i thought the interview was over so when artists come on this show they freestyle they do a freestyle rap ah i'm not an artist yeah i'm an author right all right i'm a scientist but little did i

know when i was walking in when my when sway introduced himself to my to my two sons my youngest son is now he's 13 and my oldest son is is 24 but at the time they were like two two years younger a year younger whatever it's in new york you brought me new york yes you brought your kids with you and everything that's great so when my oldest son dapped up sway like met him shook his hand yeah hug he whispered in sway's ear my dad can freestyle oh no way i had no idea your son said that to sway all right so i'm sitting there thinking the interview is over like that was awesome like i'm ready to go

let's go get some food and then his producer dj puts on on this song and like sways to start getting hype i'm like okay wow this is interesting i wonder what's going on here i'm just i'm oblivious and then he was like i heard there was a you know healthy you know hyena in the house whatever um and i'm just like what is happening you can see my face on the youtube video i'm like what is going on i was like okay let's go all right so you know i just started freestyling off of what was in the room you know so cool and it was amazing I've never seen them flip out so much with any of the artists that come

on there because it's not expected.

Yes, you're an author, right?

What we focus on expands.

A part of my family culture reached its way out to impact the lives of thousands of people that were listening live, maybe tens of thousands, whatever the case might be.

And it was like an extension.

And the message in that is, wherever you go, you take your culture with you.

All right, that microculture you create is influential to the larger culture, potentially, if you choose to demonstrate it, right?

And so I did this freestyle.

I was like, I even put my sons into the song, into the bars.

You know, I brought the cookbook into the bars.

And, you know, it was amazing, man.

And that experience is something I will never forget.

And it was like, again, something that feeds into itself.

And so what you will find, my message is, what you will find is that when you invest in creating that microculture, you're going to see it flower and present itself in the most amazing ways you don't expect.

I'm not saying you're going to have to freestyle at a parent -teacher conference or anything like that.

I'm not saying that.

But something magical is going to happen.

Some things magical will happen when you choose to create that healthy microculture, no matter what's going on out there in the world.

You get to decide the culture you create in your own household.

hold. Make it easy to be healthy.

Make it easy for your kids to make good choices.

It's going to take some work.

You're going to have to pay attention to your kids.

And I'm saying this with love.

And I'm saying this because I've made mistakes too.

I'm not, I'm nowhere near perfect.

With that being said, our kids need us.

Yeah. Pay attention to them, see them.

A lot of times we don't want to make that choice.

I'm speaking to thousands.

Sometimes I'm just like, just need to get get your ass in here and eat you know what i'm saying exactly this isn't a democracy right versus having the energy because i'm taking care of myself to be more judicious to be more patient and kind and perceptive and pay attention this is all starts to feed back into itself it's going to take some work because i don't know if anybody's ever seen the show yellowstone but i'm sure there can be a bath in the family right who doesn't she's always causing problems at dinner you might have a family member like that but love on them you know them better than anybody

you know you're significant better uh significant other better than anybody a lot of times because we're tired we're just like i don't want to deal with this right i don't want to have to play the game with you right but this they have their personality we know what they like We know what motivates them what D motivates them the same with our kids, right?

So do the work invest in yourself Number one, which is I know it's crazy.

It's hard. It's hard to do and this is up.

I'm involved in this to Invest in yourself, but invest in your family pay attention to them Invite them in make them a part of it, right?

All right, the more inputs that you can get give them choices, you know, but But follow these tips.

Number one, three meals a week.

Put on the calendar.

That's a minimum effective dose.

Do this for yourself and your family.

Number two, make it a phone -free zone.

All right? Your family deserves this.

You deserve it. Number three, it has to be replaced with something of greater equal value.

It's going to take you to listen to your kids, figure out what that is, and implement those things.

Whether it is some kind of artsy thing that happens at dinner, after dinner.

You know, singing. We do high -low what -the -hecks.

What's the best part of your day, the lowest part of your day, and something funny or crazy that happened to you.

We call it high -low what -the -hecks.

We do it at every single dinner.

Brings out some stories about school.

They get to hear what we did during the day.

I hear what they did during the day.

And they had no idea what my highs or lows were during the day before this.

And so it's been a game changer for us.

And then we play like the humming game.

Guess what song I'm humming?

So exactly like what you're saying, like, you know, have some structure and intentionality around that dinner moment.

Because this usually for most families is the only moment you'll have that day with the family, right?

It's times are limited, man.

Exactly. You know, like your kids grow up before you know it truly.

Like these are the times this is when we can really get that time together as well, you know, so take advantage.

Yeah. So you said that was three.

I'm sorry to interrupt you for what's for?

Four. Four. Four would be.

How did you know this, man?

You beat me to it, which is like intentionally integrating something that is a unifier.

Oh, OK. Got it. Got it.

Yeah. So a gratitude practice, for example, is one of the things that we do.

We've been doing for years.

We'll we'll share three things that we're grateful for from that day.

Right. And I like yours as well.

Right. We did back in the day.

We did something along the lines of, you know, what what did i fail at today you know we did that one for a while you know and what these things do it humanizes us as parents right which is again i had this stoic and i you know i my boys still kind of feel that way about me but it's they're they're more they feel closer to me right and they also the thing that i've noticed and i've never shared this before but when i'm not at my my best, they're right there to lift me up.

Absolutely. They pick it up because of me.

And it's because I'm not acting like dad has got it all together, which I might look that way.

My wife has said that to me many times.

She's like, but you look so good.

I'm like, I'm not good.

I'm not good. And it can be difficult, especially for men, but just vocalizing and sharing.

And that practice has humanized me.

And so my kids can relate to me.

They can have an idea of like what might be to come and lessons but also they get to express themselves what happens is it's an opener it's something to get them talking to get out of there like especially my son is 13 you know his little teenager bag you know and just to get him talking and um to again to feel to feel heard to be seen and it opens up things it's a unifier the dinner table itself is a a unifier.

It is a unifier, right?

So those are four tips.

That's so powerful, man.

I mean, you know, to bring that intentionality and that much structure around dinner time specifically for families is huge.

And I think it's a game changer that most people have forgotten.

Maybe not forgotten, but they've de -emphasized it in their life.

And so if that's the one message you take away from today's podcast is focus on that dinner again.

And, you know, I read your book.

You know, I love about this book is that it's not just a cookbook.

Like you learn about nutrition, but the science of family, about structure around dinner, all these things you learn so much. And you, I can tell you put your heart and soul into this book for sure.

You really have. And it's a beautiful book.

And so glad you brought it to me when I was on your podcast, you gave it to me.

You know, I read it and you made the recipe.

Who knew that it would turn into a magical moment like that.

Like that was like, it really blew me away.

You know, I was not not expecting that to happen you know with you making um that the dessert from the book like it just it made me it just it's not that my heart was like small like the grinches but it just made me my heart get bigger sure sure absolutely like one of the things you know we did at that dinner that we had shared together and also I do with all my friends and I've done this for years is even if you're out with some friends bring some intentionality to it and just you know we did it around the table where we ask one question everyone gets to speak and you listen to that one one person.

It's called a Jeffersonian dinner because, you know, Thomas Jefferson, he couldn't hear out of one ear.

So he would make everyone speak one at a time and having, he asked everyone a question and you go around the table and you answer that one question.

It really brings what used to be just a random friend dinner into an intentional moment of connection by just doing something simple like that.

And if you, if you're listening to this podcast, you haven't tried this with your friends or your family give it a shot i mean it really is a powerful thing that um bringing the community and connection back to our lives is uh is insanely powerful and beneficial yeah absolutely absolutely and i appreciate that man it does just that experience with i'll never forget i'll never forget that and you know like you said um this was you know a lot of people say this you know being a labor of love but this was this was my family you know i really opened opened myself up and, and experimented with these

things for many years and working with families, working with individuals over the years.

And, you know, for me, this is the best resource that you can have. And I see it now, of course, with social media, you see it in people's kitchens all over the world.

And which is really, it's amazing.

Like that's, I, I couldn't have dreamed of anything better, but I'm a big foodie.

So obviously we, we leaned into the culture that we, you know, know, grew up here in the United States with.

I love breakfast food.

McDonald's breakfast was my thing.

So I created like an upgraded breakfast sandwich with all real food ingredients, the sweet potato protein pancakes and, you know, the, the salmon burgers.

Everybody's invited by the way.

It's inclusive. Yeah.

Whatever diet framework you prescribe to, whether it's, you know, from vegan to carnivore.

Um, but we're just using, because you know, like the veggie burgers out there, they're terrible.

Okay. Ultra processed.

So it's like, there's a veggie, you know?

Um, And then there's the classic grass -fed beef burger or pescaterian.

The salmon burger might be my favorite.

Now, let me take that back.

It depends on the day.

But right now, I'm loving the salmon burger.

But also, as you mentioned, there are over 250 peer -reviewed studies embedded in the content of the book told in this great story form.

Like one chapter, I put a bunch of superhero Easter eggs.

Oh, yeah. I love that.

Which was really fun because it's a big part of my family culture as well.

So, you know, you could just go through and say, it's fun.

It's fun to read, but it's also giving you all the tools that you need to revolutionize your kitchen culture.

Because that's a part of it, too.

You have to create a vibe for yourself if you're going to be in the kitchen, giving yourself permission for that.

Yeah, we didn't get a chance to talk about that a lot, about actually cooking the food and how much connection that brings back into your life to the food that you're putting in your body.

and then once you start doing that you don't put chemicals in your body anymore you understand how much the choices affect your biology when you're making the food right so sorry to interrupt you but i thought that was an important point that you made in the book too yeah thank you and you know but again leaning into the fact that we do have this culture today we're remote we're an emoji culture yeah and so i leaned into that and so as i'm talking about these it's just about about 40 specific foods that have a ton of data on the efficacy for human health, creating different benefits, whether it's

cognitive benefits, gut health, or heart health, whatever the case might be, supportive of metabolic health, quote, fat burning.

And there aren't really fat burning foods per se, but like, oh, wow, this study showed that this particular food does this with your metabolism.

So I use emojis to denote those, right?

So you don't even have to read the studies, just know like, okay, this one has the brain emoji, the muscle emoji, heart emoji, and then you'll see those emojis in the recipe section as well.

So you can eat for a purpose.

If you're really focused on improving your sleep, right, you can eat some of these recipes that are giving your body these, I call them good sleep nutrients that have the most data affirming how these are involved.

And this is one of those things, again, you could have the most fancy pants, mattress, psychiatrists do all the room hacking, biohacking.

If you're deficient in the nutrients that create your sleep -related hormones and neurotransmitters, you're still going to struggle.

So these are like basic things that can be addressed in one cookbook.

So yeah, it was a lot to put together.

And like you said, I'm so grateful it came out so beautiful and my family's involved in it.

Yeah, there's some pictures of your family in the book all throughout and it's fantastic.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, man, thank you so much for joining me today, Sean.

I mean, this has been such a great conversation and I love how deep we get, man.

I love it. Me too. This is fun.

It's so much fun. Thank you so much for tuning into the show today.

I hope that you got a lot of value out of this.

Again, this was truly a powerful conversation.

We covered a lot of ground, but it's so great to be able to talk to brilliant minds and just great people like Dr. Darshan Shah.

y 'all and if you want more from the extend podcast definitely pop over and check out his new show and also listen listen linda we've got some of the most incredible shows in store for you some amazing master classes i've been working on and also some of the most mind -blowing phenomenal Phenomenal guests.

All right. So much in store.

So make sure to be ready.

Make sure to stay tuned.

Much, much more to come.

So take care. Have an amazing day.

And I'll talk with you soon.

And for more after the show, make sure to head over to TheModelHealthShow .com.

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[Redefining Health: How Cultural Architecture Shapes Our Biology and Longevity]-[The Killer Food Culture That’s Controlling Your Health]

📋 Summary

The Invisible Hand of Culture

The Myth of Calorie Counting

Protecting Our Biology from Manipulative Science

Creating a Micro-Culture of Health

The Power of Intentionality

🎯Key Sentences

📝Key Phrases

📖 Transcript