You are now listening to The Model Health Show with Shawn Stevenson.
For more, visit themodelhealthshow.com.
Welcome to the Model Health Show.
This is fitness and nutrition expert Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today.
We live in an amazing time where we have access to choices.
We've got choices on top of choices on top of choices, even when it comes to our diet, not only in the selection of foods that we can choose from, but the diet frameworks themselves.
There's everything from a completely plant-based vegan protocol All the way to the other end of the spectrum.
We've got a carnivore protocol where there's no plants involved at all.
The plants are not invited.
And everything in between.
There are so many different ways that people can choose to eat today.
Paleo, Mediterranean, lacto-ovo-vegetarian.
The list goes on and on and on.
There's so many different frameworks.
There's color diets.
I only eat purple foods, all right?
It's for a specific chakra.
So many different diets that we could choose from, but what we're gonna cover today and I'm so grateful for this we have on one of the world's leading gastroenterologists and experts in the domain of human nutrition, and he's going to be sharing whatever diet we choose to follow.
He's going to be sharing the four things that we need to prioritize with any diet that we choose to have.
Within this incredible conversation, we're going to take some twists and turns.
We're going to go on a journey.
We're even going to take a little slight turn into dairy.
I'm not talking about I'm talking about the town.
Stephen King, welcome to Derry.
There's a little Easter egg in this episode.
And you're gonna hear about why he references a certain type of food product given to children and why it's akin to a Stephen King horror novel.
He's gonna be talking about the impact of microplastics as well in this whole conversation with our health.
And I'm gonna ask him about, is there any data related to our gut?
And make sure to stay tuned in to the very end, because he's gonna also crack open the conversation on the power of when we're eating as well.
Circadian nutrition.
Does the timing when we're eating our foods and different types of foods, does that matter?
Does that impact our health?
And so incredible revelations there as well.
So much incredible stuff for you to power you through your day, through your life.
Let's dive into our special topic and our amazing guest today.
Will Bolsiewicz MD, known as Dr B, is a New York Times bestselling author, award-winning gastroenterologist and leading expert on gut health and the microbiome.
Dr B has authored several published peer-reviewed studies in journals like gastroenterology and nature medicine, and he's consulted with the United States Congress, the USDA and professional sports as well, including the NFL alumni.
He now directs the Gut and Microbiome Center for Excellence and he's dedicated to helping you to up-level your nutrition and your body by being plant-powered plus.
Let's dive in this conversation with the amazing Dr. Will Olsiewicz.
Our mission today is to provide new insights, context, and a plan of action.
And so, regardless of what diet framework somebody's subscribing to, which there's so many diets for people to subscribe to today, what are the four things that we all should prioritize, regardless of the diet that we're choosing to do?
Okay, so flat out Sean, before we jump into that.
There are many patterns of like.
There's many different dietary patterns.
There's many different labels that have evidence to indicate that they can be healthy.
So, whatever you want to call it, whether it be Mediterranean pescatarian flexitarian vegetarian vegan, whatever it may be, whole food plant-based, whatever it doesn't really matter, because what really matters is quality.
So the entire idea of like getting locked in on some sort of label is a little bit of a charade, to be totally honest with you, because what really matters this, this idea of quality and the opportunity that we have to build an anti-inflammatory diet if we simply focus on these four nutrients that most of us are missing right.
So Yours will not be the same as mine, and I welcome and I embrace that and I celebrate it, because we can reach the same endpoint of being super healthy just by focusing on these four things.
I call them the four workhorses.
All right, and I have this like specific image in my mind.
Hope you don't mind where I'm thinking about, like me and you in St.
Louis, that's where you're from, right?
That's right, yeah.
So we got the arch, right?
Which is like basically like the gate to the West.
And it's 1870 and we're all geared up and we're gonna hop into a wagon your family and mine and we need the Clydesdales to pull us.
And when you're going across the plain and it's flat, one or two horses is enough.
But when you hit the mountain and you gotta climb and it's hard, right?
And that's what it's like for people when they're dealing with a sickness.
You want every single opportunity that can be working for you on your side.
You want all four workhorses pulling, powering you to that better health.
So the four workhorses these are the four things that I would advise everyone to focus on is number one fiber, number two polyphenols, number three, healthy fat and number four, fermented food.
I choose these four things Sean, because if we get more of something that we already have plenty of, you're not moving the needle.
You want to move the needle.
You need to identify not only the thing that is anti-inflammatory, but it also needs to be missing.
So for each of these four, i have identified that they are anti-inflammatory in a powerful way but, at the same time, most americans are not getting enough of these four things.
Amazing, let's dig in deeper.
Why, why is fiber one of these things?
That, regardless of the diet framework that we're looking at, why is fiber critical for us to prioritize?
So to me, there's an entire conversation that we've been having about protein.
And I don't have a problem with that.
I think protein is important.
And protein is the building block for muscle, right?
But I think it's time for us to also have a conversation about fiber.
It doesn't mean we need to exclude protein, but we should build and level up above, beyond this, where fiber to me is the longevity nutrient.
Like if you want to live a longer, healthier life, if you want to look younger, if you want to feel younger.
It seems like a lot of people do want that.
I mean, the longevity industry is massive.
We need to be focusing on this, addressing our fiber deficiency.
95% of America is deficient in fiber, Sean.
And what they're missing out on, the 95%, is that this is the essential food for their microbiome.
Fiber feeds those microbes.
The microbes in like, basically an expression of our lifelong partnership, our symbiotic relationship that we have between us as humans And this ecosystem, the microbiome that lives inside of us.
Fiber represents an expression of that, because we as humans lack the ability to process and break it down.
What we did as we evolved is we outsourced the digestion of fiber to the gut microbiome.
Because as we were basically like spreading out across the globe, we couldn't keep up.
We couldn't evolve fast enough.
We would arrive at a new place before.
Our body would have the ability to adapt and adjust to the new diet.
So, but your microbiome can adapt and adjust very quickly, within 24 hours, already changing.
So those microbes.
They unpack the fiber, break it down, it stops being fiber.
They unlock what are the most anti-inflammatory nutrients that i've ever come across, which are acetate, propionate and butyrate.
Those are the short chain fatty acids and they have healing effects.
So uh, the thesis, or like the core thesis of my book, which you know.
Before i jump into this, i just want to say for the listeners at home, Sean really reads these books and he read my book cover to cover.
And I have to tell you that I'm so grateful for you to do that.
Like, thank you.
It's my honor.
So cause it means a lot.
You know to have someone that I know how busy you are to take the time to read my book.
Not everyone does that.
So, anyway the- Well, I just gotta say before you go on, you're an incredible writer and communicator and storyteller.
And it might not necessarily be what we think of as a conventional story, but the way that you lay things out, it brings it to life.
So it makes it very easy.
It's not always like that.
Of course, I love to read.
I love the expansive knowledge that we can get, but when you put something together, it's exceptional.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
All right.
So anyway, the short chain fatty acids.
The core thesis of the book is that our gut microbiome and our immune system are so intertwined that we can't separate them.
So when the microbiome is unwell, the immune system will be unwell at the same time.
That means inflammation, right?
That means the immune system is actually causing trouble.
Whereas the opportunity for us to address the epidemic of inflammation across our country is to also acknowledge that we can take the unwell microbiome and make it well through the choices that we make.
And in doing that, you will not just be healing the microbes, you'll be healing the immune system at the same time, and that's anti-inflammatory.
So the way that these short chain fatty acids contribute to that, and there is nothing else that I would recommend more than these short chain fatty acids, because most of us are not getting enough of them.
The way they contribute to that is that they, number one, adjust the microbiome itself.
So they will suppress the inflammatory bacteria like E. coli.
They will lift up the beneficial bacteria.
You'll get more of the good guys and you have just shifted the balance where more good guys, less bad guys.
They are the stewards of our gut barrier.
So your gut microbiome is what actually handles, maintains your gut barrier.
The gut barrier is an interesting story Sean, because this is actually the most rapid cellular turnover in the entire body.
So every three to five days, we install an entire brand new gut barrier.
So like a person like yourself, your intestines might be 15 to 20 feet long.
And across that entire landscape you have a cellular surface, a single layer thick that is going to be reinstalled every three to five days.
As we sit here talking to one another, literally every second, 450000 new cells are being installed.
So the opportunity for healing is literally by the second.
And those short chain fatty acids are helping to recruit the healthy cells.
They are nourishing those cells.
It turns out the butyrate is actually the energy source for our gut lining.
And they are creating the tight junction proteins, which is basically the cement that holds the wall together.
And so when you create a strong gut barrier, you are going to protect the immune system.
And it turns out that 70% of your immune system is in the lining of your gut.
So the immune cells, it's like our little army that's there to defend us.
And their basic training is in your bone marrow.
And then they get deployed.
And it's like, they're gonna get sent out into the world and their job is basically to protect you.
And we deploy 70% of them to your gut lining because that's where the action is.
So they set up shop there.
And if we could keep them safe and comfortable, they would be totally fine.
But when the gut barrier is weak, We allow things to sneak across.
We call that increased intestinal permeability, but you could definitely call it leaky gut.
And I don't have a problem with that because that is exactly what's happening.
So when things come across and the immune cells, they recognize, yo, you're not supposed to be here.
So they go to war.
And unfortunately, when we have these chronic inflammatory health conditions, this can be happening 24 hours a day where, because the gut barrier is not strong, the immune system is chronically turned on right.
Constantly fighting in a forever war.
And I don't mean to overdo this whole like wartime analogy, but it is the right way to understand this issue.
And we must all acknowledge that there is no such thing as war that doesn't have consequences, doesn't cause damage, right of everything else.
So that damage that we're talking about, that is the inflammation that contributes to disease.
So what I'm saying is, by the way, thank you for allowing me to take this answer and run with it.
What I'm saying is that these short-chain fatty acids they repair the gut microbes, they repair the gut barrier.
By the way, they also repair the immune system and they help to promote these specialized cells called Treg cells, T regulatory cells that actually are the peacekeepers.
So if you want to be anti-inflammatory, I've just basically shown you the way to do it.
That's fiber.
Amazing, amazing.
Now, question for you.
Would you say that...
There's such a wide variety, thousands upon thousands of different type of fiber types.
Basically, or our sources, fiber sources.
Is it true that not every fiber source is gonna resonate with every body?
And I'm asking you because I know that there are some people listening who have found that and this is a prevailing narrative as well that fiber can be problematic.
Maybe it's just the category of fiber that someone's consuming and not all these different fiber types.
And so someone might say, for example, because when I think of fiber, I think of poo-poo.
And I know you do as well.
But somebody who doesn't eat any plant foods.
Carnivore type approach and they're having their poos.
And, with that being said, maybe they're like yeah fiber, muscle fiber, I'm getting in my muscle fiber.
And so can you speak to that a little bit?
Because for some people, removing fibers least short term have helped to resolve some of their symptoms of say, an autoimmune condition.
A hundred percent it's.
It's a complex topic right, there's a lot of nuance there.
And because we must also acknowledge that uh, all foods have many different nutrients.
It's not one thing.
So anytime we're sort of reducing it down to, oh well, all plant foods, it's fiber.
No, actually there's a lot more going on there.
And it could also be the way in which we're growing the food.
That has nothing to do with the food itself.
So, that being said, I think that the most important thing for your listeners to understand is the way in which we rely on these microbes to process and digest fiber, and what that means.
We don't have the ability to digest it.
Microbes do.
They are readily adaptable when they come into contact with fiber as it enters into the large intestine literally, teams of them will step up, using specialized enzymes that they have and we don't to break down the fiber.
But basically what i'm saying sean, is that we are a hundred percent dependent on our microbiome to digest fiber.
So if your microbiome is unwell and you start introducing fiber and you do too much, it can't handle it.
It gets overwhelmed, right?
So I like to think of it this way.
This is the way that I approach it is your gut is a muscle.
It can be trained.
It can be made stronger.
If it's hurt, we can restore functionality.
We can bring it back. but there is an amount of work that it's capable of today.
And if you do, if you handle things properly, it will be capable of more tomorrow, right?
So, in the same way that when we use our muscles and we're physically active, we grow stronger, but we have to match our capacity for exercise with what we're actually doing.
So when it comes to fiber, you need to make sure that you're not overdoing it.
If you go too hard and it's more than your gut microbes can handle, that's effectively the same as stepping into the gym.
And look dude, I would love.
I would love to step into the gym and bench, press 450 pounds and be literally the strongest dude in there.
I would love to do that.
I would hurt myself.
That thing would fall on my chest, right?
So can I do half of that?
Yes, many times.
And I feel great about that at 45 years old, right?
But I have to work to keep building towards that goal.
I don't know that I will ever get to 450.
I highly doubt that I will.
But the process of building though, the muscle, it does take time.
Same is true with our gut.
Basically, if you can match the fiber to what your gut actually needs, what your gut is capable of digesting, then that's exactly where you need to be for today.
And that will allow you to continue to grow stronger and do more in the future.
So a lot of these people, basically what I'm hearing is these are people that have gut issues.
I already know that.
I don't need to hear more, right?
And for me, as a gastroenterologist, I want them better, right?
But them better doesn't mean the avoidance of symptoms.
And that's an important point.
Because if I jack my knee I could make the decision to never walk for the rest of my life and I will not have symptoms.
But that doesn't actually return function to my knee.
So, and I would suffer if I were to make that choice.
No one would actually do that, right?
But this idea of shying away from something because you don't think it's possible.
I'm telling you, it is possible.
You just gotta reduce the amount, get it right, and then grow slowly.
So I always say low and slow.
I love that analogy because if you did injure your knee, there might be a small phase where you're not walking right.
And you're allowing whatever to heal up, but just getting back to work and restoring function.
Yeah, and to be honest with you, like to me, I reject the idea of tribalism.
I reject the idea of pissing on people just because they choose a different approach than what you choose.
I don't think that's right.
So a person who follows a carnivore diet, let me just say, like it's not what I would recommend, right.
But at the same time, I first of all respect that they're willing to make a change, because most people are not.
So there's something to be said for that.
And I also, I wish them well.
And I hope that it could be something that's a temporary thing, and then we bring you back and we rebuild that gut muscle.
Make it strong again.
You said something that's very important in this conversation, which is about not necessarily the source of the fiber, but the toxins or toxic environment that it might be grown in or bringing into your system that could be causing the issue.
There's been a huge debate for years now about grains, right?
And today we know that the vast majority of grains, in particular wheat, that people have been exposed to in our kind of modern culture have been inundated with a certain type of toxin.
Can you talk about this?
You got a chapter dedicated to, and is adequately titled, Toxic Environments.
So let's talk about that.
Let's talk about some of the big issues with our toxic environment, our food culture that can be contributing to gut issues.
Yeah.
I mean, there's a huge conversation here.
And let me be the first to say that I don't believe in trying to scare people.
My book is about what you can add, not what I'm trying to scare you away from or take away.
That being said, we got to keep it real.
We have to be willing to have an honest conversation.
If we can't have an honest conversation, then what do we got?
So this is the chapter where we get serious, we get honest with what's happening out there and the acknowledgement that the food supply, the food system that feeds us, that feeds our children it is completely different than what it was for our grandparents 100 years ago, right so?
And we can't take these things.
I'm not saying they're all automatically bad.
What i am saying is that we are normalizing things that were never normal in the first place and, as we suffer the consequences, we have to be prepared to try to understand when people are getting sick and they are.
We have to be prepared to start to look at the data, be curious, be critical And understand where our mistakes, because clearly we are making mistakes.
If we got people that are getting sicker and sicker, which they are.
Right.
So, um, with that in mind, I think there's like a few different places that we could go with this.
So let me start with just saying like, you walk into a supermarket and within that space, 75 of the calories that exist are ultra processed foods.
Right, 25% are not ultra processed.
So you have a three to one ratio of stuff that you and I couldn't even prepare in a kitchen.
Even if I gave you all of the necessary ingredients, you wouldn't be able to do it, right?
These ultra processed foods have been hacked basically to get at our brain.
All right.
So if you and I were and I don't mean to be too critical of food scientists I just disagree when the purpose is to sell product and there's no interest in like what are we doing to humanity here?
What are we doing to the people that consume, right?
So, but if you and I were food scientists and we owned a company together?
So Will Bulsiewicz is a model we'll call it.
How about that?
I've always wanted to, but they never called me.
But anyway, if we had this food company, there's a hack that we could play which would dramatically increase our sales.
What we would do is we would take basically refined carbohydrates.
So that's sugar and flour.
We would take salt and we would take fat, but like specific forms of fat, and we would like crank at least two out of three to proportions that do not exist in nature.
So like abnormally high refined carbohydrates, abnormally high salt or abnormally high fat, give me two out of three.
You have now met the criteria for what are hyperpalatable foods.
And the research of Professor Kevin Hall at the NIH has shown us that if you take literally the same diet, but one is ultra processed and the other is matched for every single major nutritional quality, but it is not ultra processed.
With that difference, the ultra processed diet will result in people consuming 500 calories more per day.
Times seven is 3500 kilocalories.
3,500 kilocalories is one pound of fat.
You just gained a pound of fat in one week.
All right.
So this is the first thing is we got hyperpalatable foods, and that's 75 of what's in our supermarket, for the most part.
Okay, number two, we have been flooded with food additives.
So the world that we currently exist in was basically structured after World War II.
Like there was a major sort of re, like regrouping, that occurred after world war II and in different places, including in our own country.
We had to figure certain stuff out.
One of the things they had to figure out was how do we regulate food?
And there was like the development of new food products.
And they said well, you know, there's these ingredients that like.
Clearly we don't need randomized control trials to show that salt is safe.
Right.
Or like black pepper or vinegar.
So we're just gonna call them generally recognized as safe.
And then we allow them into the food supply.
That created a loophole that has been exploited since that time, which was, I believe, like 1956 or something like this right.
It's become a black hole.
Right.
So this created this loophole where basically, we could start stuffing things through that haven't had human testing, even in the short term.
And one of my things is like, what happens when you raise our kids on these foods from birth, right?
All the way through their entire life.
What are the consequences of that?
We honestly have no clue.
We have no clue, right?
So, but these 10000 food additives, I'm not saying they're all bad, but they enter into our food supply and surely surely, some of them are bad.
But disentangling that, taking apart like that complex knot trying to figure out out of 10000 dude, I eat a certain way today.
I ate a different way for a long part of my life.
I've been exposed to tons of these.
How do you measure that?
How would you even know which one is the problem?
It's impossible.
So so this is part of the issue that we've that we've sort of run into and you know for what it's worth like, this is a.
This is like a major initiative for the maha movement, and i sit here and basically what i say is dude, i like people who make this political with, with trying to make our food clean.
You're completely insane.
This is not politics.
This is about your health, spot your the health of the people that you love.
This is about the health of your children, Right?
So I pray that they're successful, but there's a lot of work to do.
And I, I, I'm, I'm praying for more is where I'm at right now.
So um, and then I think the last thing, Sean.
I mean, there there's other stuff that perhaps you, you would like to talk about, but the last thing is that we uh our food system, even when it's whole food has changed.
And so it's not the same as growing it in a garden.
And it's not the fertile, lush soil of the farmer that your grandfather or grandmother knew.
It's not the same meat from the butcher that was grown at the local farm.
So on the plant side, on the growth of these plants, There are some concerns.
And what you were raising was spray with glyphosate, which is found in Roundup.
And that's an herbicide.
It kills plants.
The reason that it kills plants is because of something called the Shikamat pathway.
And it's thought that glyphosate is safe for human consumption because we have a workaround for the Shikamat pathway, which basically involves specific amino acids.
So we have the ability to produce those amino acids.
So like in theory, we as humans shouldn't have a problem.
But the issue is that they have started to look at, okay, but what happens when microbes, right?
Which are delicate, invisible inside of us, but really important to our health.
What happens when they get exposed?
And the problem is it doesn't take much.
You see, the destruction of the beneficial bacteria, and the ones that are the most resistant are the ones that are inflammatory.
So there are, I would encourage, because this is an area that gets fiercely debated, right?
And the truth is, as a medical doctor, I'm going to stand by what I see in the science.
People are going to hear different things, and i would encourage you to quite simply, as a as a listener of this show go to google and type in glyphosate gut microbiome hub med, and articles will show up, and that's all that you need to to basically like Put your own eyes on the science of what the scientists are writing in these peer reviewed publications.
It's right there.
You know, it's all available.
There are few things better than a home cooked meal.
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It's a great opportunity to deliver some of the best nutrition as well.
All kind of managed and curated by us or our loved ones versus all the stuff out there on the streets.
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And now back to the show. one of the things that i really love about you is that we're not trying to get into a conspiracy you know some of these things have been brought into our culture with aspirational intentions right to feed americans to feed families and what happens is these things get exploited and also the science can be very short-sighted right oh it's We don't have this particular influence with human cells, but we're not considering, we're not just human cells, far from it.
And so this is where your work is really focused is like our health truly is resulting from the inside out and taking care of this microbiome.
And today, in our environment, we are just exposed to so much more stuff we need to be aware of, but not in fear, because a big part of your work and your book, of course is like add these things in, add these things in which we're gonna get to.
But I wanna ask you a little bit more about because I wanna know your opinion on it with some of the things that we're facing in our environment today.
So I wanna ask you because you wrote a little bit about this and more people are becoming aware I wanna know from your experience as somebody who has studied the gut, who's helped so many people over the years.
What about the association with microplastics and our health and in particular with our gut health?
Is this affecting our bacteria?
Okay, so that's an interesting question.
As we move into talking about this, I just want to first start high level and say that I have been advocating for them to have stricter regulation of these food additives for a very long time.
I've been advocating for microbiome testing to be a required part of their process, because if your food or your additive is going to induce dysbiosis in me or my children, i want to at least know before i choose.
Right, because that's going to affect our health.
So um, with the microplastics.
Okay, so just to define some terms, The term microplastic refers to small pieces, small particles of plastic that are up to five millimeters in size.
Now five millimeters in size, you and I would be able to see that.
Like we would be able to see that there's the sprinkle of stuff.
But there are these other ones that are invisible to the naked eye, called nanoplastics.
And part of the problem is that plastic, when it is biodegradable, it's actually quite challenging to break it down.
It takes a long time.
But in many cases, it's not biodegradable at all.
And so if you release that something that's not biodegradable out into nature, then what will happen is Is that it just will be sort of shattered into smaller and smaller fragments, but it will never disappear.
It'll never actually go away.
And so those small little fragments are again that are invisible to the naked eye, are called nanoplastics.
The impact on the microbiome.
I don't know Sean.
I haven't yet seen a study to say what is the impact on the microbiome, but the impact on human health, regardless of the microbiome, is highly disturbing to me.
And the reason why.
First of all sorry, but it's impossible to take these plastics which, of course, could have other things, could be affecting your hormone levels or other things like this.
It's impossible to make an argument.
Microscopic particles of plastic getting embedded into your tissues would be good for you.
Like it just doesn't exist, right?
So the simple question is like, how bad is it?
And there was a study done in the New England Journal of Medicine where they took a group of people that were undergoing a surgery on their neck a blood vessel in their neck called carotid endarterectomy.
All right, so we abbreviate it CEA, carotid endarterectomy.
So, in essence, what's happening here, this is your.
If you were to, for the listeners at home, or you can see me on YouTube if you were to put your hand on your neck and feel the pulse that's your carotid artery.
You got two of those, one on each side.
That's basically bringing oxygenated blood up to your brain and we can develop plaques there, just like we can around our heart, which could cause like in our heart causes a heart attack.
But in this case, it would cause a stroke.
So when there's a big enough burden, the surgeon will literally cut open the artery.
And peel peel out the junk right off the surface.
And so in this study, they took the plaque that was coating these arteries and they sent it to the laboratory to be examined under microscope.
And they identified that certain people had a disproportionate concentration of these nanoplastics in the artery, like in this plaque.
Some people had less or, I mean, I'll know about none, but some people had less.
The ones who had more in the following years after the surgery were more likely to have a heart attack, more likely to have a stroke and more likely to die.
So now these plastics are ubiquitous.
Ubiquitous means they're everywhere.
Right.
So, and it can sound very scary.
Let me just share some of the practical approaches that I've implemented in my own life.
Cause actually we don't need to like get totally overwhelmed by this.
We just need some small strategies.
So one of the things that I've done is I stopped spending money on soda and I started spending money on a nice reverse osmosis water filter.
So the RO reverse osmosis water filter, which doesn't have to be super expensive.
It will basically remove anything, including the nanoplastics, because even the smallest little things can't get through right.
Only the water passes through the filter.
So even minerals are too big to get through.
So that's one of the ways that we can clean our water supply.
So when we're consuming water at home in our family, it's always through this reverse osmosis water filter.
It's never from the tap.
And then the other thing I said, I replaced soda.
That was actually a quite intentional comment, because you go to a supermarket.
Okay, look like artificial sweeteners.
Again, there's a debate on this topic.
Some people have really big feelings about this topic.
Fine.
Like even if you think that there's no concern at all, which I don't agree there's microbiome studies that are concerning
But even if you think that there's no concern with artificial sweeteners at all, you still have let's just take like a Coke, for example a Cola generic brand.
You still have a carbonated beverage under pressure with citric acid.
Check the ingredients, check the label.
It's acidic.
You can taste it.
You can taste the acid, right?
So it's pressurized, it's acidic, and it's in a plastic bottle.
This is the perfect setup for nanoplastics to leach from the plastic bottle into the beverage.
And you wouldn't even know.
So even if you don't have concerns about artificial sweeteners, I really think you should have concerns about these other elements that go along.
We should never be like saying Diet Coke is off the hook and it's totally fine.
So what have I done to replace that?
So like our family, we have four kids, right?
Groceries have gotten expensive.
We shop at Costco and I'll get Perrier in the glass bottle.
And the cool thing about that is like a big bottle of Perrier, it might last me two days.
And that gives me the fizz that I really like, but really nothing else.
And it's in a glass bottle, so there's no plastic.
And what I'll do is I'll just pour that over ice.
And then, like I might put a squeeze of citrus, or I might put a splash of kombucha or a splash of juice over the top of it.
You don't need much.
You just like literally adding just a little hint of flavor and it's great.
That kombucha hitter or some kefir, like that does a, that really spices it up when it comes to like a sparkling drink.
That's a great tip.
Yeah.
And if you're buying kombucha, the rule is the same too, by the way.
So like when it comes to microplastics and nanoplastics, Where I get worried is heat.
Heat, so like don't throw food in a plastic container into your microwave, right?
Don't serve food in plastic if you can avoid it if it's warm.
I get worried about acid.
So that's why the acid in the soda, also acid in kombucha, also acid in tomato sauce.
And I get worried about pressure.
So the carbonated drinks exert a pressure along the walls of the beverage.
And that can also.
So those three things heat, acid and pressure can basically lead to shedding of these nanoplastics.
So every time I see something that's in that spectrum, I'm like, yo, give me the glass.
I'll pay extra.
I love it.
You know, sodas are one of those things that have that complex that makes them so addictive, you know.
And not to mention the additives, the colorings.
And we're just now again the data's coming out where it's becoming more socially aware.
But this has been around for quite some time, you know.
In regards to and again, I'm so grateful that you mentioned that too with, because it can be a stigma even the Maha movement, you know just like well damn whatever, you know, people are battling about that we should be coming together this should not be a political issue a hundred percent to make sure that our food supply is safe and healthy.
A hundred percent.
And and and this is where i, at least for me, completely independent of my political views right, i am cheering for their success and yet simultaneously, i will hear, i will keep them honest and accountable to my expectations.
So, and I think that's where everyone should be.
Yeah.
And one of those critiques is, you know, we've got this over here, this carcinogen over here.
Why are you so worried about red food dye?
Like that's such a big victory.
Well, the red food dye was kind of a joke to me too.
By the way, that was before Maha.
That was actually in January.
It was in process.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But it was a joke because you actually had an easy play for the food industry because you got rid of one version of red but there's other versions of red.
So they just substitute.
So that was my big aha moment for everybody is, okay, so red number three is banned.
What happened to red one and two and seven and 10?
And just specifically looking at the impact on the gut, because it's not just the red dye but orange one.
This was commonly used food dye and this was back around the 1950s, but it was banned in 1956 after it was found to cause serious gastrointestinal issues in children.
This story, this story's on the FDA's website, all right?
And so did they clean house and just like, we're not gonna allow it?
No, it's gross, like we could just come up with these other food dyes, some what we believe to be benign ingredients to make them, and we're just gonna keep doing more and more.
And here's the thing, they're banned only after the fact.
They don't have to prove that it's safe.
We have to prove that it's harmful.
That's the problem.
Well, and I mentioned in the book that since I believe it was like since 1982 there have been eight banned substances total.
So like basically, during my lifetime.
You know, we have 10,000 things and eight of them have been removed from the food supply.
It's crazy.
So, and you know, with that like, So to me safety, like if we were serious, if you actually were competent and serious about making sure that something was safe before you allowed it.
I'm not saying that you need a randomized, controlled trial the way you do with a drug.
That's a totally different question.
But what I am saying is like shouldn't we at a minimum require feeding studies, first in an animal and subsequently in humans, to see what happens?
Shouldn't we require that they actually check the microbiome to see what the impact on the microbiome is?
Because that's going to fall out of balance first before you suffer the bodily injury, right?
So like, shouldn't we require those things?
Should we require long term monitoring? beyond just, hey, it's in the food supply.
Let us know if you see anything, right?
Like, should we require a long-term monitoring?
Should we be like bringing them back up?
Like, yo, give us your safety data.
We wanna review that right now.
None of these things exist, Sean.
80%, 80% of the food additives in our supply have never had any feeding study, human or animal.
So if you're not putting it into a mouth, How are you approving that?
How do you know that's safe?
That's crazy.
Before we get into some of the good stuff, I wanna take one more. turn into dairy.
Welcome to dairy.
And I'm saying this specifically.
Because you have a little bit of a subset in the book, a little subsection where you talk about a horror worse than a Stephen King novel.
And you're addressing like, this is as soon as we get here.
As soon as we arrive here on planet earth and we're born, children are being exposed to some of this terrible nutrition with all of these different newly invented chemicals and additives.
And you talk about that in that little subsection, about infant formula?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So basically, if I could lay this out for the listeners at home, I have four kids.
We've spanned the full spectrum where we've had times where we're actually donating to a milk bank and we've had times where we're actually requesting from a milk bank.
But to me, with total clarity, Breast milk is the perfect nutrition for a developing baby.
And formula is us making an attempt to replace that.
But like we haven't leveled up our formula other than like the only thing that I've seen them do is sprinkle in monofibers, right?
So like the only thing I've seen them change is they've realized, hey, we should add fiber to that.
And that's about it.
And so, and when you go and you review these ingredients, I would encourage everyone like I.
Have no problem with vitamins and minerals.
You need to have vitamins and minerals in there.
But are we really offering our children the best start to life when, like the first five ingredients are either various forms of oils, some of which you've never even heard of before, Or there are protein extracts?
Which protein extracts is not protein in like a conventional native way.
It is the extraction of protein where it's being artificially removed, right?
Or it's these fiber extracts which I actually don't believe in fiber extracts in terms of health, because you can totally overstuff the microbiome if you give too much of just one thing.
So bottom line, from my perspective is we, we can, we should, we need to do better for our kids.
So when we have, my wife and I have bought formula, but we are not buying that formula, but we have to unfortunately, like import from overseas in order to get something that we feel is a higher quality.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Thank you for sharing that.
That's the biggest takeaway.
We can do better.
We can level up.
There are better alternatives today, but the accessibility isn't that great and we have the ability to provide because, you know, breastfeeding isn't always possible right right, and also that's part of the equation but also the education against breastfeeding that took place for quite some time, the indoctrination that it wasn't good enough, and we're still coming out of that and normalizing it.
And you know, being aware that there's multiple aspects, and you said this earlier about, you know, not trying to glorify going to war, but there's been multiple fronts on which battles have been taking place when it comes to human nutrition.
And so now that we are coming out of that and we have platforms like this and people who are like the top of the top in their field, like yourself, who is sharing this education?
This is one of the most beautiful things about this is that people get to learn from you, right?
Even 20 years ago, they didn't have access.
Like we had to go to some esteemed university and dig through the library or maybe get access to some esteemed professors.
And it was reserved for the few.
Now we can push play on our phone and get to learn from the best people in the world.
It's so powerful.
And, with that being said, you're also here to deliver the good news and give us, point us in the direction of what are those things, that the biggest body of data is, showing that we can start to add these things in and see some remarkable results.
So how do we get Planned Powered Plus?
What are some of the goodies that we need to be adding in?
Yeah, yeah.
Healing is possible. it comes in many forms, right?
It won't come just out of nowhere.
If you're searching for health, something has to change.
You have to be willing to change.
But I can put on the table the evidence-based tools that are available to you.
And one of the things that I wrote in the author's note Sean, is that one of the things that I struggle with as an author and a doctor is that I know that medicine is personalized right.
You have to develop a relationship with a person, understand them, and then you tailor specifically, based upon what you've learned about them, to what their needs are.
I can only write one book.
But what I wrote is that when you read this book, I really hope that you hear it in a way that's personalized to you.
So there are these aha moments where the thing that you're missing.
Let me help you to find it right.
And let me put the tools on the table.
They're all evidence-based.
Every single thing I am sharing all of the references to my book to make it as easy as possible.
I did the work.
All you gotta do is click and read and you can get access to everything.
Okay, so we've already talked about like this idea of forget labels, right?
This is why I called it plant powered.
Because, to me, any diet where you basically address these four deficiencies, four things that we are not getting in America fiber polyphenols, healthy fats and fermented food if you address those four things you, number one, have an anti-inflammatory diet and you, number two, you will feel the difference.
Right?
If the thing that your body is starving for and has been missing is properly addressed, you will feel the difference.
And if you don't feel the difference, then this was not the thing that you needed for healing.
That's the truth.
So, but there are other options and that's the plus, right?
So the plus is that we can dig into the patterns of our day, right?
And acknowledge the way in which we live, what's culturally normal.
And like, you know, let's keep it real.
Like, life is fast, life is hard.
Most of us.
We go through our days Monday to Friday just trying to keep our head above the water right.
But if you could just build a little bit of time in the morning, just build a little bit of time in the evening, you could do a lot with that to really get your body into an alignment where your body will be able to know hey, this is what time of day it is.
This is what he or she is trying to do.
And the body and the microbes will be prepared to rise to the occasion to support you.
So Sean, what I'm talking about is the circadian rhythm.
And it turns out that roughly 50 of our genetic code is flipping switches during the course of a 24-hour cycle at specific times.
So about half of our genetic code.
But our microbes, it's even more.
More than 50 of the microbes within our microbiome.
They are rising and falling at specific time points to meet the moment, to support you, so that you can do what you need to do.
So during the day that means protein metabolism, because we're physically active, we're moving around, we're doing stuff right.
So basically, these microbes, they're down there, like okay, let's make sure that he's got what he needs right to do the right stuff today.
But then the lights go out and you basically like slide into bed and the microbes they flip.
It's not protein metabolism anymore now, their functional output, what they're doing for us, focusing on recovery right, healing.
So, and it turns out that our immune system is nocturnal.
And i can prove it to you because all of us have had the experience where, like in the evening, your nose starts getting congested right, closes off, you can't breathe through your nose.
Then you wake up in the morning and it just kind of dissolves and disappears.
That's inflammation.
Or you've had the experience where you just smashed a big workout.
You go to bed at night, you're feeling loose, but you're not sore.
You wake up in the morning and you are sore.
That's inflammation, but good inflammation.
Basically, the immune system is processing your exercise and making you stronger while you sleep.
So all of these are examples of like basically the body, the immune system doing specific things at specific times and your gut microbes doing specific things at specific times.
So time matters.
And if time matters, then the body needs to know what time it is.
And the main lever that we can pull to let the body know what time it is is morning sunlight with total clarity.
Because inside of us, We have two main hormones that basically keep the clock.
Cortisol in the morning and melatonin at night.
Melatonin is the sleep time hormone.
Cortisol is your get up and go hormone.
Now, by the way, cortisol, that's like our body's prednisone.
So when I mentioned a moment ago that your nose was congested, but you wake up in the morning and now your cortisol surges and all of a sudden you notice within the first hour your nose clears up, that soreness that you had from working out loosens up, feel better.
Cortisol defines our morning.
It's time stamps, the start of the 24-hour cycle, and if you step outside and you get morning sunlight, you will bump your cortisol by 50, and that is a good thing.
And what I'm saying is Is that for the listeners of your show, if you haven't been doing this so, like if you work from home, you might not go outside at all.
Right.
Or if you're busy, you might go outside, just walk to the car, get in the car, drive to work.
That's it.
What I'm saying is, if you can get something in the range of 15 to 30 minutes outside, you will feel the difference on literally day one.
More energy, more focus, more cognitive endurance.
You'll be able to take on more tasks during the course of the day.
And then whatever time you stepped outside, let's imagine it's seven in the morning.
Whatever time you stepped outside, add 14 hours to that.
Around nine o'clock that night, you're gonna start to feel tired, because the body knew when you woke up.
So now the body knows when you want to go to bed too.
The body is basically prepping for a 14-day day of activity.
And then eventually you're going to go to bed and get your eight or nine hours, or whatever it might be.
One of the fastest ways to impact your gut health is through the things that you drink.
That liquid medium is a fast delivery system to improve your energy, boost your metabolic health or, to straight up, mess you up.
When it comes to gut health, one of the most powerful things seen in clinical data to instantly uplevel the health of our gut are polyphenols.
And these are incredible compounds that have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that are out of this world.
And this is just one of the reasons why, in that liquid delivery form, teas like green tea and black tea are noted in thousands, literally thousands of peer reviewed studies to have a variety of health benefits.
Now, my favorite tea is absolutely abundant in polyphenols.
And it's been found to have remarkable impacts on our gut health.
A recent study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Communications uncovered that a unique compound called theobrownin, found in the traditional fermented tea called pu-erh, has remarkable effects on our microbiome.
The researchers found that thea browning positively alters our gut microbiota.
That directly reduces liver cholesterol and reduces lipogenesis, the creation of fat.
Another study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry found that pu-erh may be able to reverse gut dysbiosis by dramatically reducing ratios of potentially harmful bacteria and increasing ratios of beneficial bacteria.
So much of these benefits seen in these peer review studies are due to the incredible concentrations of polyphenols that are found in Pu-erh.
And the only Pu-erh that I drink is triple toxin screened for purity.
It uses a patented cold extraction technology and it's wild harvested, making it even more abundant in polyphenols.
The Pu-erh that I'm talking about and again, it's the only Pu-erh tea that I drink is from the incredible folks at Peak Life.
Go to peaklife.com forward slash model, and you're going to get up to 20% off.
Plus, they're going to hook you up with a free starter kit that includes an electric frother with some of my favorite bundles and my favorite teas over at Peak Life.
Again, go to peaklife.com forward slash model.
That's P-I-Q-U-E-L-I-F-E.com forward slash model. model to take advantage.
This Pu-erh tea is in a league of its own.
It's absolutely incredible.
You can enjoy it either hot or cold.
And there are multiple studies affirming its benefit on our overall metabolic health and supporting fat loss as well.
It's truly special.
Again, head over there, check them out.
Peaklife.com forward slash model.
Now back to the show.
So We know that light is a primary controller of these circadian rhythms.
What about when we're eating?
Is there anything you can share there?
You know, again, this is Plant Powered Plus.
So is there anything that we should know with circadian rhythms regarding our diet?
So, first of all, you can eat literally the exact same food at two different times of day and get like at least slightly, if not more than slightly, different results in terms of the way that your body responds to the food.
So insulin sensitivity is actually peak in the morning and it gets worse and worse as the day goes on.
So what that means is that basically, like your blood sugar spike from the exact same food will be worse later in the day than it would be early in the day.
That's actually a quite important thing because blood sugar spike.
One of the things that I discuss is how that actually disrupts the gut barrier.
So we don't really want like an excessive blood sugar spike.
So, and this is the argument in favor of like trying to shift meal times to earlier in the day.
So like, I don't know about you.
I'm actually not a breakfast guy.
And like this is me just being honest, that like I advise that breakfast is good, but in my own life I typically don't eat it because most days I'm like going.
But when I do eat breakfast, those days actually I'm less hungry.
And I think over the course of the whole day I actually am consuming less food because it's almost like my body got what it needed early in the day and it's totally at ease and comfortable.
And so I'm not like searching out for food.
So I have noticed the difference when I shift things earlier.
My biggest thing is to avoid late night meals.
So, like when it gets dark, we need to be dialing back on the food and the alcohol, because these things ultimately, are going to affect us and they're gonna affect us well.
Like we should be in recovery mode and our body's still digesting and dealing with the food.
So bottom line, like meal timings, they do matter.
Got it, got it.
This has been awesome so far.
Can you give us some good food sources?
So you mentioned the importance of these polyphenols.
So can you just drop us a quick nugget on what polyphenols are?
And also what are some of your favorite sources for us to get like some heaping amounts of these polyphenols?
Okay, so like quercetin, resveratrol, curcumin, quercetin you find in garlic and onions, resveratrol you find in red wine, curcumin you find in turmeric.
You've heard of these.
I mean, I know you have.
I'm talking to your listeners right now.
So you've heard of these things.
Those are polyphenols.
And it turns out that those things are basically meaningless until they come into contact with your microbiome.
So we have much like fiber, the polyphenols require the gut microbes to activate them.
But once they do, once the gut microbes basically flip the switch and turn them on, two things happen.
Number one you get access to those bioactive polyphenols, which are the things that we celebrate.
You know again curcumin resveratrol quercetin, right.
These are really healthy. you get access to those.
They enter into your body, they have beneficial effects.
But the other thing that happens is your microbiome changes.
So your microbiome will actually shift and it'll move in a direction where it's actually more capable of producing short chain fatty acids than it was before.
So a quick example of this Sean, with 38 Terra, which is my supplement company, We wanted to prove like we're very confident in our product, but we also felt like we want to prove what happens when people use this product.
So we commissioned a study with basically the world leading laboratory that does microbiome simulation.
It's a real human microbiome, but it's done with a simulation.
So they're like recreating digestive enzymes and all these different things, right?
It's quite sophisticated.
The reason I brought this up is that one of the coolest findings from this study is that the basically the feeding because there was a feeding, the feeding that was occurring on a daily basis was the exact same amount of the product.
The product never changed.
But the amount of short chain fatty acids kept going up.
So basically what that tells you is that the microbiome is what was changing.
Because the microbiome was getting better at producing more short chain fatty acids from the exact same, you know, fiber and resistant starch.
So that's what we get from polyphenols.
Polyphenols do that for us.
It's really beautiful.
What are the foods?
Well, I already mentioned like, you know, garlic, onions, and turmeric.
But to me, it's the color foods.
It's color foods.
So anything that's colorful, whatever color that is, there's something there.
And all plant-based foods are gonna have these polyphenols.
Berries are like a really nice concentrated source.
So I don't know, you tell me, what's your, do you have a favorite berry?
It depends on the time of year.
Seasonal.
Yeah, definitely.
Right now I'm really vibing with, I'm really vibing with blackberries right now.
Cool.
Yeah.
Yeah, so I'm just like naturally a raspberry guy.
Like if you told me you could get organic raspberries for the rest of your life.
That would be like winning the lottery for me.
Raspberry beret.
Gosh, raspberry anything.
You can't go wrong, right?
Raspberry and dark chocolate, always a win.
That was a Prince song, by the way.
What's that?
Raspberry beret.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Oh, sorry.
Shout out to Prince.
Yeah.
That was great.
So yeah, so you can find a high concentration in those types of things.
So if you look at the colors of your food, we are naturally attracted to these colors.
This is deeply entrained in who we are as humans.
And when you hear this concept, eat the rainbow, you're basically eating for more polyphenols.
Love it.
I love it.
What about the healthy fats?
All right, healthy fats.
So I think that the idea of vilifying macronutrients I push back against that.
So we have made it sound like carbs are bad.
Okay, hold on.
I get it when we're talking about sugar and flour, right?
Those are refined carbs.
But fiber is a carb.
Not all carbs are bad.
Same is true of fat.
There's good fats and there's bad fats.
We all agree that trans fats are bad.
All right.
My position, and let me just sort of unpack this.
I hope you don't mind.
On saturated fat, isn't that what you're supposed to be on zero saturated fat?
That's not my argument.
My argument is that saturated fat needs to be in balance.
That's my argument.
And when we have a lot of saturated fat and no fiber, that's a setup for problems.
So that's my concern with that. cut but there are these other fats like there's the monounsaturated fats that you would find in an avocado or extra virgin olive oil right or there's the omega-3 fats which you can find in chia seeds flax seeds hemp seeds but you can also find in fish shellfish these are anti-inflammatory fats they're so good for you and there's there's um uh some studies that Looking at like, what's the impact of these things on your microbiome?
And it starts to give the appearance that they're prebiotic, which I didn't see that one coming right.
There was one study where they had people consuming extra virgin olive oil every single day.
And eight weeks later, their gut microbiome was healthier with more diversity.
That's the only thing they were doing.
It's incredible.
Or omega-3s.
Omega-3s are essential fats and they're anti-inflammatory.
We need them.
And we need to focus on them.
Most of us don't get enough of them.
So to me, the fats is like what I'm calling out here is like, you don't need to get rid of fat.
You just need to heat and you just need to choose good fat, high quality fat, focus on these.
Like I don't, the seed oil debate, you can debate, we could debate this topic.
I don't know.
I honestly don't even know how you feel about it.
But my whole thing is like this whole debate feels really silly, because isn't it obvious that extra virgin olive oil is better?
Why don't you just make that choice?
If we're just looking from the lens of ultra-processed versus minimally processed, just from that argument alone it's pretty clear.
Extra virgin olive oil.
So what about the ferments?
Because growing up I knew of two yogurt and then the sauerkraut that my mom ate, that I wanted no parts of.
What else do we have in the context of fermented foods?
You know you're raising a good point though, because basically, we have abandoned fermented foods, because we've developed other ways to preserve our food right.
So canning, refrigeration, but also preservatives.
I mean, how can we call it normal that a food could sit on your shelf at your supermarket for who even knows how long and be just as crisp, just as fresh as the day it was made, right?
Why?
Because it's actually the microbes Sean, that change, transform our food and prepare it to turn it back into soil.
They degrade it, right?
It's the microbes.
So if you wanna keep the microbes out of the equation, you gotta kill them.
That's what's happening.
But fermented foods are a different take on that, because we're preserving by building a healthy ecosystem.
So people hear ferments and they hear the word probiotic and I see something a little bit different.
I see this entire ecosystem of microbes living in balance, that they're healthy and that's how you created those foods.
And when we consume them.
There are now multiple studies to suggest that you consume that healthy ecosystem and you have inside of you your own ecosystem and they can integrate themselves and become a part of what you got.
And this can be the way that you add diversity to your gut microbiome, Stanford study, right?
So the Sonnenbergs and Christopher Gardner, have you had him on your show?
Christopher Gardner?
Oh, we gotta get him in here.
At Stanford they did this research study where they basically had people increase their fermented food for eight weeks.
And at the end of those eight weeks, they had increased gut diversity.
They had lower measures of inflammation by about 25%.
Okay.
So I mean, in some ways that is like just another example validating my thesis that the gut and the immune system, they're together.
Healthier gut, healthier immune system.
Boom, right there.
You asked me, what are the foods?
So yeah, yogurt and kefir.
And you got lots of choices though, because you could do the sauerkraut, you could do the kimchi, but you could also do pickles like real pickles, right?
The ones from the refrigerated section, but even better, make them yourself.
Or like we make dilly beans.
So those are green beans that are fermented with dill, garlic, black peppercorns.
That's what I make.
Yeah, they're good.
Uh, miso wonderfully fermented food, uh, tempeh.
Okay.
Raw.
Probably a little bit too weird for a lot of people who are listening right now.
But actually you cut the tempeh and apply whatever marinade you like and you cook it and it's actually quite delicious.
So, and it's really high in protein, high in fiber and it's fermented.
Um, What else?
Obviously kombucha, water kefir, which is quite similar to kombucha, right?
So these are options.
There's a lot of foods that are fermented that we don't even realize or like may not realize.
Chocolate is fermented.
Coffee is fermented.
Apple cider vinegar is fermented.
Some teas, there's a puer tea.
So puer tea, P-U-E-R.
Puer tea is fermented tea and that's the highest polyphenol tea.
So all of these are out there.
And then there's one last thing that I have to throw in there.
So you are not as a listener, you are not required to consume bread.
But let's be honest bread, it tastes good.
So there's sourdough.
All right, sourdough is fermented bread.
And that fermentation process actually completely transforms the nutritional qualities of the bread.
So through fermentation, the glycemic index is lowered.
So, in other words, it's not gonna spike your blood sugar like it would have done if it was just the same flour.
It also has less gluten.
It also has less pesticides.
You are like basically dissolving the glyphosate if it is there, right?
I can't say it goes to zero, but you're helping to break it down.
And there are these yeasts and bacteria that allow us to do this.
And then like it's, you know, may sound a little sad, like you throw it in the oven and get roasted.
All right.
But there's new research Sean, that in the last, like since the last time I was on the show in the last three years, that is indicating to us that if you take live microbes and you heat kill them, they still can provide benefits.
We call those postbiotics.
But my favorite, there's some other names that they've come up with.
Ghost probiotics or my favorite, zombie probiotics.
So the point is, the bread has been transformed, but it also has these zombie probiotics and they may be providing benefit, even though you baked the bread.
Amazing.
Ghost protocol.
This is amazing.
And speaking of which, you know, there are many iterations of Mission Impossible and many iterations of our conversations together.
It's been years.
And this is, you're one of my favorite people, man.
You know that.
And you continue to up-level things and to up-level your communication.
And it's so special.
And so right now, as of this recording, Plant Powered Plus is about to hit the store shelves.
But for everybody listening right now, you can get access to some pre-order bonuses for just a couple of days, depending on when you're listening to this.
And so can you tell people where they can pick up a copy and pre-order the book, get the bonuses?
Yeah.
You can get a copy anywhere the books are sold.
That being said, I like really believe in trying to go to your local bookshop, because I'm all for like the convenience of the click and, you know, prime um, I'm not upset if you do that.
But the point though, from my perspective, is like that local mom and pop shop, those are your neighbors.
And five years from now, 10 years from now.
I really hope they're still open, because I like popping into those kinds of places.
And that only can happen if we buy from them.
So but grab your book wherever you feel most comfortable honestly, and then come to my website theguthealthmdcom, where number one, regardless of when you listen to this episode, I got resources for you.
I got supportive materials, I got the references, I got a lot of things that I wanna share because, from my perspective, the book was the beginning of a bigger conversation that I wanna keep having.
But there's also the pre-order incentives that are available, at least for the time being, where you can get access to a five-day anti-inflammatory reset course that I created myself and made it just for you completely free.
Otherwise, you're gonna have to pay for it.
So there's a five-day anti-inflammatory reset course and also you can get access to some of the materials from the book to get you started immediately.
Amazing.
Thank you so much, man.
I appreciate you.
Is there anything else that you wanna share about the book before I let you go?
Yeah, definitely the one thing that we didn't get a chance to talk about, but it means a lot to me and i know this is something that resonates with a guy like you.
Chapter eight of this book, from my perspective is, with total clarity, the best writing that i've ever done, like by far, and it um, i think it catches people off guard because they show up for nutrition and science and they end up drifting into a different place.
The chapter is about the ways in which our mind and our body are interacting with one another and how that impacts our health, and there's a conversation about trauma.
There's a conversation about our innate need for human connection and how important that is.
And there's a conversation about our spiritual purpose and how we were beautifully and wonderfully made and designed for that higher calling and desperately starving for it.
And I know these things.
What I want to just mention before we run we're not going to dig into the full details.
That would have to be another show, but maybe we'll do that sometime.
But what I just want to say before we run is that when I wrote my first book, Fiber Fueled, which came out in 2020, I was very comfortable.
It was very easy for me to come forward and say to you I lost 50 pounds and I improved my health by changing my diet.
But that wasn't actually the whole story.
I had demons that I was dealing with.
And I had things that I was ashamed of from my past.
And I had a relationship that was in repair that I was still dealing with.
And that was the relationship with my dad, which was complex.
And So uh, different aspects of our health, or different aspects of our, actually our our, our maturity, they come along at different times, right?
So I got nutrition came real fast for me, 2012 to 2015.
Boom.
I was flying.
But the ability to develop these, these personal relationships, the, and also my desire.
To open up myself to a relationship with a higher power.
It took me a while to get there.
There's stuff that we could discuss.
But again, the reason that I wrote about this and I had to say it and I don't care if it's a risk.
The reason I wrote about this is because this was the healing that I needed.
So healing comes in.
This is my closing message to your listeners.
Healing comes in many forms.
For some of you, it's the nutrients that's missing that you add in.
For some of you, it's the daily rhythms that are out of rhythm that we could restore.
But for many of us, it's also these things that we're not talking about enough.
The traumas, the relationships, the spiritual purpose.
And so I wanted to open up a conversation about that in the book.
And I believe that that, for many people, will be the most important form of healing that they will receive.
And if you do love the book, I would encourage you number one, share it with a friend.
Number two, take it to heart.
And if you, if you really feel inclined, consider the audio book that um, when I read that chapter, it was hard for me to get through and we did it in one take.
So, and I think it was a special moment amazing, amazing.
It's all connected, we're all connected, everybody listening.
Thank you so much for sharing your time with us today.
Thank you for sharing your genius with all of us today.
And again, pick up a copy of plant powered plus right now.
Depending on when you're listening to this, you can grab those pre-order bonuses.
Either way, hop over to the website, which is again the guthealthmdcom.
That's my home base.
Sign up for the email newsletter.
It's completely free resource, like a sub stack.
You might as well jump in there and then check out my other stuff.
Let's keep the conversation going.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
I appreciate you so much.
The one and only Dr. B, Dr. Will Bulsiewicz.
Thank you so much for tuning into this episode today.
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