00:00:00
One of the problems with weight loss
00:00:02
goals is saying you need to cut calories
00:00:04
in order to get there. Now, I'm not
00:00:05
saying calories don't matter. They are
00:00:07
relevant, but not the most relevant. And
00:00:09
I'm going to talk about evidence to
00:00:10
support that.
00:00:11
>> If someone is listening at home now and
00:00:13
they have the goal of losing some
00:00:15
weight, they want to be in a better
00:00:16
physique, be more healthy. Is this
00:00:18
conversation going to help them
00:00:19
accomplish those goals?
00:00:21
>> I'll make sure that they get what they
00:00:22
need.
00:00:23
>> Dr. Benjamin Bickman is one of the
00:00:25
world's leading metabolic and fat cell
00:00:27
scientists. And now he's returned to
00:00:29
expose some of the myths surrounding
00:00:30
weight loss
00:00:31
>> and the surprising impact that one
00:00:33
particular hormone has on our weight,
00:00:35
brain, and mental health.
00:00:36
>> As a metabolic scientist, I wouldn't
00:00:38
want someone to think there is only one
00:00:39
way to lose weight. However, I think
00:00:42
this is the most practical and simplest
00:00:44
strategy, a ketogenic diet. A huge
00:00:47
reason is that when you cut carbs,
00:00:49
insulin comes down. And insulin as a
00:00:51
hormone is the one metabolic hormone to
00:00:54
rule them all. Insulin will tell every
00:00:56
single cell of the body what it needs to
00:00:58
do with energy. And insulin is so
00:01:00
determined to store energy that it is
00:01:02
directing calories to be stored in
00:01:04
tissues like fat or in the liver
00:01:06
>> to make you fat.
00:01:07
>> Yeah. But there's more. Ketones are the
00:01:09
brain's preferred fuel. It can control
00:01:10
anxiety, improve depression. It can help
00:01:12
with attention. In fact, the benefits of
00:01:14
ketones are so extensive that companies
00:01:17
are finding ways so you can drink
00:01:18
ketones.
00:01:19
>> And I have a bunch of different
00:01:20
exogenous ketone products here, a
00:01:21
variety of different brands and a bunch
00:01:23
of other things here on the table. So,
00:01:24
what the hell is this?
00:01:25
>> If someone is interested in a good,
00:01:26
smart way of losing weight, try that.
00:01:29
>> This is definitely a prop. It tastes
00:01:31
like bleach.
00:01:32
>> I'm so sorry. Oh my god.
00:01:34
>> So, for 2026 to be the year where I
00:01:36
finally get a grip of my health, and I
00:01:38
asked you to make the perfect plan, what
00:01:40
would you prescribe?
00:01:42
>> So, first of all,
00:01:45
I see messages all the time in the
00:01:47
comments section that some of you didn't
00:01:48
realize you didn't subscribe. So, if you
00:01:50
could do me a favor and double check if
00:01:52
you're a subscriber to this channel,
00:01:53
that would be tremendously appreciated.
00:01:54
It's the simple, it's the free thing
00:01:56
that anybody that watches this show
00:01:58
frequently can do to help us here to
00:01:59
keep everything going in this show in
00:02:01
the trajectory it's on. So, please do
00:02:03
double check if you've subscribed and uh
00:02:05
thank you so much because in a strange
00:02:06
way, you are you're part of our history
00:02:09
and you're on this journey with us and I
00:02:10
appreciate you for that. So, yeah, thank
00:02:12
you.
00:02:20
Dr. Benjamin Bickman,
00:02:22
at this time of year, the audience that
00:02:25
are listening right now are thinking a
00:02:26
lot about health and dietary changes
00:02:28
that they can make to make 2026 the best
00:02:31
year of their life to finally be able to
00:02:33
kick that habit. And one of the things
00:02:34
that's front of mind, I think, for all
00:02:35
of my listeners is their relationship
00:02:38
with sugar, with carbs,
00:02:41
>> right? And I guess the second order
00:02:43
things that some people might know
00:02:45
something about like insulin resistance
00:02:47
and all these kinds of subjects. At this
00:02:49
particular moment in the year, if you
00:02:51
had the ear of millions of people as
00:02:54
they're coming into 2026, what is the
00:02:57
most important thing that you would say
00:02:59
to them?
00:02:59
>> Yeah, that's a great question. What a
00:03:01
way to um to get things started. In
00:03:03
fact, I appreciate you even framing the
00:03:04
conversation as if I had the ear because
00:03:06
you've given me the ear of millions of
00:03:08
people. So, I'm going to take it
00:03:09
seriously. The way you frame the
00:03:11
question is really relevant because
00:03:13
within North America, you see a a
00:03:17
pattern, a rhythm to both weight gain
00:03:19
and even insulin resistance as it is
00:03:21
quantified throughout the year where in
00:03:23
the winter months people gain more
00:03:25
weight and are more insulin resistant.
00:03:27
Almost like the hibernating bear, which
00:03:30
becomes demonstrably more insulin
00:03:31
resistant as it gets into hibernation.
00:03:34
We non-hibernating mammals actually see
00:03:37
an echo of the same thing, albeit more
00:03:39
subtly. So, it matters now where
00:03:42
physiologically we're more inclined to
00:03:45
suffer from the consequences of bad
00:03:47
dietary decisions.
00:03:49
And of course, with all the holidays,
00:03:51
we're more likely to be making those bad
00:03:53
dietary decisions. So, my advice would
00:03:56
be to structure your indulgences as
00:04:00
smartly as you can. you know that you're
00:04:03
going to be faced with foods that are
00:04:06
delicious and dare I say addictive.
00:04:09
Don't rely on your own intuition uh to
00:04:13
guide you through eating that know that
00:04:16
your temptation to indulge is going to
00:04:18
be in some instances perhaps greater
00:04:20
than you can control. So, structure your
00:04:23
indulgences. Give yourself a distinct
00:04:25
period of time where you know you're
00:04:26
going to embib in these refined starches
00:04:28
and sugars. And then, if necessary,
00:04:30
recruit help. Have a family member, have
00:04:32
a loved one join you in your plan, and
00:04:35
you tell them, "I don't want to gain the
00:04:38
same weight I gained last year. I don't
00:04:40
want to amplify the consequences of
00:04:42
insulin resistance like I did last year.
00:04:44
Can you please be my my watchman and
00:04:47
help me keep track where today is my day
00:04:50
of indulgence or two days and then on
00:04:53
that Monday remind me please be my
00:04:55
helper um to get back on track. Among
00:04:58
the many problems with the modern diet
00:05:01
is the constant carbohydrate
00:05:03
consumption. It is the one macronutrient
00:05:05
that we have the hardest time
00:05:07
controlling and I would say it's the one
00:05:08
macronutrient that has the most
00:05:10
disastrous consequences in the form in
00:05:12
which we consume it. Now, of course,
00:05:15
carbohydrates is a broad class of food.
00:05:17
Some are just fine and some are not. Of
00:05:20
course, we more focus on the ones that
00:05:22
are not fine. So, my advice would be
00:05:24
structure your indulgences, be mindful
00:05:27
of what you're doing in that you are not
00:05:29
doing yourselves any favor. uh and then
00:05:31
recruit outside help because you will
00:05:32
not be able to rely on your own
00:05:34
intuition to pull you out of what might
00:05:36
become the sort of carbind induced coma.
00:05:40
>> Um I did ask thousands of the listeners
00:05:42
what dietary changes they had planned
00:05:44
for 2026 and what they cared about most.
00:05:47
Funnily keto came up number one then
00:05:49
cutting sugar then weight loss then
00:05:51
fasting more protein whole foods low
00:05:54
carb and calorie control. So this is
00:05:58
going to be a bit of a road map for me.
00:06:00
I'm thrilled to hear that order. Like
00:06:03
when you put out the histogram and
00:06:04
you're looking at the most common
00:06:05
responses, the fact that calorie number
00:06:08
was at the bottom actually kind of
00:06:09
thrills me because this reflects that
00:06:12
the tide is turning that over the past
00:06:15
decades, 60 plus years, the singular
00:06:18
piece of advice when it came to weight
00:06:20
loss and metabolic health was eat less,
00:06:22
exercise more, which is a purely
00:06:24
thermodynamic or a a calorie centric
00:06:28
paradigm. just stating nothing else
00:06:30
matters other than the energy you're
00:06:32
putting in and the energy you're putting
00:06:33
out. We can't possibly account for all
00:06:37
of the energy in the complexity of the
00:06:39
human body. You can have humans eat two
00:06:41
meals that are identical in calorie
00:06:44
number. So purely isocaloric
00:06:47
and there is something called the
00:06:48
thermic effect of food. So when we eat
00:06:50
right now you and I haven't eaten, we're
00:06:52
in a fasted state. Our metabolic rate is
00:06:54
say humming along here. If we were to go
00:06:56
get lunch and eat something in the hours
00:06:58
following just the very act of digesting
00:07:01
we have turned up the metabolic engine
00:07:03
and metabolic rate would go up a little
00:07:05
bit.
00:07:05
>> Metabolic rate meaning
00:07:06
>> meaning the total amount of energy the
00:07:08
body is is expending. In fact metabolism
00:07:11
to I'll come back to this thought in
00:07:13
just a second. As a metabolic scientist
00:07:15
people don't even understand the word
00:07:16
metabolism. Metabolism is
00:07:19
underwhelmingly perhaps nothing more but
00:07:22
nothing less than the sum of every
00:07:25
chemical reaction happening in our
00:07:26
bodies. It's just everything that is
00:07:30
keeping us alive, that is keeping our
00:07:32
neurons firing, my my my muscles moving
00:07:34
as I'm animating on the my hands.
00:07:37
Everything we're doing is metabolism.
00:07:40
And so after we eat, metabolism goes up
00:07:42
a little bit. Again, that's called the
00:07:43
thermic effect of food. And if you give
00:07:46
people two isocaloric meals, so exact
00:07:50
same number of calories. That's what
00:07:51
isocaloric means. same amount of protein
00:07:54
and yet the they differ in their
00:07:56
composition of macronutrients with fats
00:07:59
and and carbs. So the meal that is lower
00:08:03
carb and higher fat, those individuals
00:08:06
will have a much higher metabolic rate
00:08:08
for hours afterwards than the group that
00:08:11
is eating the high carb, low-fat version
00:08:13
of that same caloric meal. And that's
00:08:16
because insulin insulin as a hormone is
00:08:19
the one metabolic hormone to rule them
00:08:21
all. It will determine what the body
00:08:24
does with energy at every single cell.
00:08:26
This is a principle even many very
00:08:28
educated clinicians don't understand.
00:08:31
They think that insulin only controls
00:08:33
blood glucose. That's just the most
00:08:35
obvious thing that it does because we
00:08:37
can prick a finger and measure it or
00:08:38
slap something on our arm and measure
00:08:40
the glucose. Insulin will tell every
00:08:42
single cell of the body from brain cells
00:08:44
to bone cells, liver cells to lung
00:08:46
cells, and everyone in between what it
00:08:49
needs to do with energy. And insulin is
00:08:51
so determined to store energy that it
00:08:54
will slow the metabolic engine of the
00:08:56
body down in order to store more. And so
00:08:59
all of this is my long- winded way of of
00:09:02
saying how thrilled I am that this is an
00:09:04
audience that is shrugging off the old
00:09:07
ideas of a calorie ccentric model of
00:09:09
obesity. Because all of these people,
00:09:11
everyone's interested in losing weight
00:09:12
or maintaining weight, which I admire.
00:09:15
That's a good goal. The size of our fat
00:09:16
cells matters tremendously. So that's a
00:09:19
good goal to want to shrink our fat
00:09:20
cells and be healthier. The fact that
00:09:22
they didn't put controlling calories as
00:09:24
number one and indeed put it at the end
00:09:26
suggests that the word is getting around
00:09:29
that more I would say better more sound
00:09:31
metabolic science is starting to seep
00:09:34
through society where they're more
00:09:36
interested in controlling their
00:09:38
macronutrients.
00:09:40
In other words, their carbs and their
00:09:41
fats than they are controlling their
00:09:43
calories.
00:09:45
>> My brother called you, didn't he?
00:09:46
>> He did.
00:09:46
>> My older brother.
00:09:47
>> Yeah. What did he say?
00:09:49
>> Yeah, he's darling. Well, we we had some
00:09:50
wonderful conversations. Um, he was
00:09:53
interested as a dad, a middle-aged dad,
00:09:56
in in fact indeed checking a lot of the
00:09:58
boxes you just mentioned, which is I
00:09:59
want to be a healthy dad. I want to live
00:10:01
a long, healthy life. One of the
00:10:03
problems with weight loss goals is they
00:10:05
look at the goal. They look at the
00:10:06
weight where they want to get to.
00:10:08
They're looking down the down the road
00:10:09
and saying, "This is where I want to
00:10:10
get, and so I need to cut calories in
00:10:13
order to get there." So there are two
00:10:16
there are two variables that come into
00:10:18
play when it comes to losing weight. And
00:10:20
I've already said said this and I'll
00:10:21
state it again just to be clear. It's a
00:10:23
matter of shrinking fat cells. That's
00:10:25
what happens when someone's losing fat
00:10:27
mass. It's not that you're losing fat
00:10:29
cells. Indeed, you don't want to. That's
00:10:31
a topic for another time. But
00:10:32
liposuction is a perfect example where
00:10:35
you are losing fat mass and yet no
00:10:38
health marker gets better. None. Even
00:10:41
though you've lost, you could go in and
00:10:42
suck out fat cells and you'd say, "I
00:10:44
lost 20 pounds of pure fat. I'm now
00:10:46
going to go to my doctor and get my
00:10:48
blood test and I'm going to be so much
00:10:50
healthier." And yet nothing is
00:10:51
different. If they were diabetic,
00:10:53
they're just as diabetic. So if
00:10:55
someone's looking at their New Year's
00:10:56
goals, and when I spoke with your
00:10:58
brother, it was an echo of this
00:11:00
conversation in a way. I said, "All
00:11:02
right, you need to shrink your fat
00:11:03
cells." Most people only look at the
00:11:05
calorie control. The problem with
00:11:08
calorie control is that we've seen what
00:11:11
it looks like when you only focus on
00:11:13
calorie deprivation. And that is in in a
00:11:16
word hunger. And there was this within
00:11:19
the US there's been this game show over
00:11:20
the years called the greatest loser.
00:11:22
These people one lose a fantastic amount
00:11:25
of weight and yet you never see them
00:11:27
again because they gain it all back. So,
00:11:30
if your weight loss strategy is based on
00:11:33
cutting calories without addressing
00:11:35
insulin, which is the other of the two
00:11:36
variables, then you're going to be
00:11:38
hungry. Dr. David Lewig at Harvard, a
00:11:41
friend and colleague and collaborator,
00:11:43
he published a report looking at the
00:11:45
same kind of dynamic that I outlined a
00:11:47
moment ago, two isocaloric or equal
00:11:49
calorie meals. And he found that when
00:11:53
they ate the meal that spiked insulin,
00:11:56
the what he called I think he called it
00:11:58
total energy availability. So they
00:12:00
measured every calorie molecule in the
00:12:03
blood. So ketones, you know, BHB, they
00:12:05
measured uh lactate, they measured fats,
00:12:08
they measured glucose, and they found
00:12:10
that when with the insulin spiking meal,
00:12:13
the total energy availability went down.
00:12:15
>> What does that mean?
00:12:16
>> Yeah. So in other words, with the
00:12:17
increase in insulin, as I noted a moment
00:12:19
ago, insulin is so determined to store
00:12:21
energy that it is directing calories to
00:12:24
go from the blood to be stored in
00:12:26
tissues like fat or in the liver
00:12:28
>> to make you fat.
00:12:29
>> Yeah, indeed it would. But the problem
00:12:31
is the brain doesn't have that storage
00:12:34
capacity. You know, you could have big
00:12:35
fat cells with lots of energy. You could
00:12:37
have a liver with tons of fat and
00:12:39
glycogen, which is a stored form of
00:12:41
glucose, ready to go, but the brain
00:12:44
doesn't have a big storage reservoir,
00:12:47
and yet it has a high metabolic rate.
00:12:49
And so the brain is constantly relying
00:12:51
on the energy in the blood that it can
00:12:53
use, especially glucose and ketones, the
00:12:56
two primary fuels for the brain. And so
00:12:59
when you spike insulin, you lower your
00:13:01
glucose and you stop your liver from
00:13:04
making ketones. So the two main brain
00:13:07
fuels have gone down,
00:13:08
>> which is why you get brain fog.
00:13:10
>> It certainly lead to some mild cognitive
00:13:13
impairment, but it would also drive
00:13:14
hunger. And so another group found that
00:13:16
if you ate an isocoric breakfast, one
00:13:19
low carb, one high carb, the group that
00:13:22
was on the high carb breakfast was much
00:13:24
hungrier much sooner.
00:13:26
>> And so this
00:13:27
>> Okay. So let me just
00:13:28
>> Yeah. Yeah. The way I understand that is
00:13:31
>> because I've had a meal that's high in
00:13:34
sugar, let's say, or carbs.
00:13:35
>> Y
00:13:37
>> insulin has come out, it's grabbed all
00:13:39
of the energy from my blood.
00:13:41
>> Yep. That you just ate.
00:13:43
>> That I just ate. It's stored it all
00:13:44
away. And because my brain is getting
00:13:46
its energy from the blood as well, my
00:13:49
brain is being energy deprived in some
00:13:51
way. And so my brain is going
00:13:53
>> within an hour or two, you are hungry.
00:13:55
>> Yes. Even though your fat cells might be
00:13:57
bigger than they've ever been. So that's
00:13:58
the sort of disconnect that you end up
00:14:00
having when you're spiking insulin so
00:14:01
frequently, you may have hundreds of
00:14:04
thousands or even millions of calories
00:14:07
stored on your body in your fat cells
00:14:09
primarily. And yet the brain is saying,
00:14:12
"I'm hungry." We shouldn't be hungry. We
00:14:15
have so much energy that we can use, but
00:14:18
only if we can access it. And this is
00:14:20
where ketones come in. And I hate to
00:14:22
change the topic, but if if a person has
00:14:24
fat and they can burn that fat, then
00:14:26
they're making ketones. And ketones are
00:14:28
the brain's preferred fuel. Let's just
00:14:30
state that with an exclamation mark. And
00:14:33
so if the brain is getting ketones or
00:14:35
even if it has access to plenty of
00:14:37
glucose, it senses, hey, there's no
00:14:39
energy deprivation. We're fine. We don't
00:14:40
need to eat. And that's what these
00:14:43
studies find. And so back to the
00:14:44
conversation with your brother, rather
00:14:47
than focusing on calorie number, focus
00:14:50
on the other variable, which is insulin.
00:14:53
Because if you decide that you're going
00:14:55
to start your fat cell shrinking
00:14:57
journey, so with the first step, you
00:14:59
could say, well, my first step is going
00:15:00
to be cutting calories. But if you
00:15:02
haven't addressed your high insulin,
00:15:04
which you have to have if you've gained
00:15:06
weight, it is impossible.
00:15:08
In fact, this is worth a tangent for
00:15:10
just a moment because I can state this
00:15:13
so emphatically.
00:15:14
You could have all the hormones in the
00:15:16
human body and tens of thousands of
00:15:19
calories coming in every day. And if you
00:15:21
simply remove one single hormone, it is
00:15:24
impossible for that person to get fat.
00:15:27
Totally and completely impossible. Now,
00:15:30
I am a scientist enough that I like to
00:15:32
avoid hyperbolic language. I don't want
00:15:34
to state anything in the extreme. And
00:15:36
yet, in this case, I actually can. I can
00:15:38
revel in all of the um the power of this
00:15:41
declaration which is you simply wipe out
00:15:43
a person's insulin, it is completely
00:15:46
impossible for them to get fat. In fact,
00:15:48
this phenomenon is so real and so
00:15:51
learned if not already known that you
00:15:54
have people with type 1 diabetes.
00:15:56
Imagine the temptation. Let's say you're
00:15:58
a young woman who faces more pressure
00:16:00
than her than her young men
00:16:02
counterparts. She just gets diagnosed
00:16:04
with type 1 diabetes and she has become
00:16:06
used to eating whatever she wants and
00:16:10
being very very skinny. That is one of
00:16:11
the cardinal signs of type 1 diabetes.
00:16:13
The person is just losing weight. In
00:16:15
fact, the early the ancients thought
00:16:18
that as they were making so much urine
00:16:20
because another feature of type 1
00:16:22
diabetes in in an untreated state is
00:16:24
they urinate a lot. That's what the word
00:16:25
diabetes means. It means polyura or a
00:16:28
lot of urine for formation. They thought
00:16:30
that their flesh, their fat, their
00:16:32
substance was turning into liquid and
00:16:35
excreting from their bodies. And so the
00:16:37
person, this this imagine this young
00:16:39
woman, she's say 13 years old. She is
00:16:41
super super skinny, which she likes
00:16:44
because there's such a pressure to be
00:16:45
skinny and she can also at the same time
00:16:48
eat whatever she wants. And then but of
00:16:51
course she feels miserable and indeed it
00:16:53
will kill her. So, she gets diagnosed
00:16:56
with type 1 diabetes and she's put on
00:16:58
insulin therapy and two things happen.
00:17:00
She starts eating less and getting fat.
00:17:04
In fact, they gain people will gain so
00:17:06
much weight that if they're in the
00:17:08
hospital for a few days, they can't
00:17:10
leave the hospital with the same clothes
00:17:12
they came in. That's not to say they're
00:17:13
leaving and then and they're obese, but
00:17:15
they can have easily gained 10 pounds,
00:17:17
15 pounds of fat. So this phenomenon is
00:17:20
known and you have people with type 1
00:17:22
diabetes who abuse that fact and will
00:17:24
deliberately underdose their insulin. So
00:17:27
they can eat whatever they want. They
00:17:29
could go to a Thanksgiving or Christmas
00:17:31
dinner and indulge in all the sweets and
00:17:35
just simply underdose their insulin and
00:17:38
be as skinny as they want to be. Now
00:17:40
there's disastrous metabolic
00:17:41
consequences, but it's just a testament
00:17:43
to the power of insulin. So to finally
00:17:46
answer the question, my advice when I
00:17:48
was speaking with your brother and
00:17:49
anyone listening, don't have your first
00:17:52
step on your fat cell shrinking journey
00:17:54
be low calorie because you will find
00:17:57
that in short order, hunger will win.
00:17:59
And so you'll be right back where you
00:18:01
started. Let your first step be I'm
00:18:03
going to lower my insulin because as I
00:18:06
lower my insulin, I don't have to worry
00:18:08
about hunger first of all. Because if
00:18:10
you're just focusing on lowering
00:18:11
insulin, you can tell the person, and
00:18:13
indeed I am, eat as much protein and fat
00:18:16
as you want because they have little to
00:18:18
no effect on your insulin. So, anytime
00:18:20
you're hungry, eat something with
00:18:22
protein and fat. Um, and then
00:18:25
if you're not hungry, don't eat. But
00:18:28
anytime you're hungry, you don't have
00:18:29
to, it's not deprivation. It's not
00:18:30
hunger, but the low calorie approach is
00:18:32
hunger. You're going to be hungry. So
00:18:35
lower your insulin by controlling your
00:18:36
carbohydrates and and basically whole
00:18:39
fruits and vegetables. Enjoy them. And
00:18:41
this is part of the conversation I had
00:18:42
with your brother.
00:18:43
>> And he called you and told you that he
00:18:45
had had positive results following
00:18:47
watching this conversation and following
00:18:49
your advice.
00:18:49
>> Yeah. I think he said he'd effortlessly
00:18:51
lost 15 or so pounds uh just without
00:18:54
even really worrying about it because
00:18:56
you're not having that gnawing hunger.
00:18:58
>> Yeah. He um he didn't tell me he was
00:19:00
reaching out to you. So, I actually only
00:19:02
found out that he had spoken to you when
00:19:04
he like messaged me one day on WhatsApp
00:19:06
and was like,
00:19:07
>> "I've been chatting to Dr. Benjamin
00:19:09
Bitcoin." I was like, "How did you get
00:19:10
his email? Like, how did you get his
00:19:11
phone number?" So, he must have reached
00:19:12
out.
00:19:13
>> He knows people.
00:19:13
>> Okay. Right. Okay. He found a way.
00:19:15
>> Yeah. He knows people.
00:19:16
>> No, but he looks radically different. I
00:19:18
have to say he he's dropped a ton of
00:19:20
weight and um looks fantastic.
00:19:23
>> Well, he was already handsome, so I can
00:19:24
only imagine what he looks like now.
00:19:26
>> That's the genetic component. Um but but
00:19:29
when I look back at the conversation we
00:19:30
had
00:19:32
the top comment on our previous
00:19:33
conversation is someone saying I was
00:19:36
morbidly obese 68 days ago. I was 280
00:19:40
lbs and pre-diabetic. In these 68 days I
00:19:43
cut out sugar and flour entirely. And I
00:19:47
reduced my calories to about 1,800 a
00:19:50
day. And I'm pleased to know that my
00:19:52
high protein, highfat, low carb diet is
00:19:55
the right path and my blood sugar is now
00:19:58
normal.
00:19:59
>> Yeah. Remarkable. I I don't mean to ever
00:20:03
come across as saying that there's only
00:20:05
one way to lose weight and that anyone
00:20:07
listening who uh is interested in weight
00:20:10
loss would say, "Well, gosh, it looks
00:20:12
like I have to eat a lot of meat and
00:20:13
eggs." And yet, you don't. As much as I
00:20:16
am an a defender of that view, uh I
00:20:19
wouldn't want someone to think there is
00:20:20
only one way to lose weight because we
00:20:22
could both think of people who adopted a
00:20:25
purely plant-based diet and lost weight.
00:20:27
Now, I have some significant concerns
00:20:29
with that diet long term, but even
00:20:31
still, they could say, "Well, I'm eating
00:20:33
100% carbohydrates essentially, and I've
00:20:36
lost weight." I'm not saying calories
00:20:38
don't matter. They do. But it also makes
00:20:42
it a hard long-term strategy. And so if
00:20:44
someone can lower their insulin, I' I'd
00:20:47
alluded to a metabolic advantage and
00:20:48
I'll just revisit that briefly. I'd
00:20:50
mentioned already one of these things,
00:20:52
which is when when insulin is down, the
00:20:54
metabolic rate goes up. And my lab
00:20:57
published a report um finding that part
00:21:00
of that is through the production of
00:21:01
ketones. That when ketones move through
00:21:04
the bloodstream and come to our fat
00:21:06
cells, they will increase our metabolic
00:21:08
rate in our fat tissue by three times.
00:21:10
And we did this in humans. We studied
00:21:13
fat cells in a petri dish. We studied
00:21:15
fat tissue from animal models. And then
00:21:18
we studied fat tissue from humans where
00:21:20
we actually were pulling biopsies of
00:21:21
belly fat from people that were in
00:21:23
ketosis or not. And when they were in
00:21:25
ketosis, their metabolic rate in their
00:21:27
fat tissue was three times higher than
00:21:30
when they weren't than the group that
00:21:31
was not in ketosis. So this suggests
00:21:33
that there's an advantage here that
00:21:36
comes from lowering insulin. So as
00:21:38
insulin comes down, the person will find
00:21:40
that they're just burning weight more
00:21:41
easily. And then one other part of that
00:21:44
is when you're making ketones,
00:21:46
every ketone has a caloric value roughly
00:21:49
similar to that of glucose. And so what
00:21:52
happens now in ketosis or when ketones
00:21:55
are up, you start wasting those ketones
00:21:58
from your body that you're breathing
00:22:00
ketones out or you're urinating ketones
00:22:02
out. And those are calories that are
00:22:04
just coming from your body that would
00:22:06
have had to be burned through exercise
00:22:08
or stored in fat tissue. And yet in the
00:22:12
in a low insulin state, that is so
00:22:15
antithetical to fat storage that the
00:22:17
body just starts literally wasting
00:22:19
energy. So every breath they're taking
00:22:21
out when they're breathing out ketones,
00:22:23
those are calories just coming out of
00:22:24
their body.
00:22:24
>> So let's start then with ketones because
00:22:26
on the list of things that my audience
00:22:28
said they planned to change for the new
00:22:29
year, keto
00:22:31
>> Mhm.
00:22:32
>> and ketones was top of that list for
00:22:34
someone that's, you know, never heard
00:22:36
the term before.
00:22:37
>> Yeah.
00:22:37
>> Um, please give me context on on what
00:22:39
exactly it is, but also how it relates
00:22:42
to living a healthy, happy 2026.
00:22:44
>> Right. Right. Well, I am I'm a great
00:22:47
defender of ketones. I think that they
00:22:50
have been one of the more uh
00:22:51
misunderstood molecules in the body for
00:22:53
decades and it is thrilling for me to
00:22:54
see an explosion of research in this
00:22:57
realm looking at the effects of of
00:22:59
ketones in the body. So a ketone is a
00:23:02
molecule that the body will make. Um
00:23:04
many tissues can make it but if you're
00:23:06
measuring it in your blood it's coming
00:23:07
from the liver and ketones are a product
00:23:10
of fat burning. So when insulin is low,
00:23:14
which it must be for the body to make
00:23:16
ketones, that's why it's ketogenesis or
00:23:18
the genesis or the creation of ketones,
00:23:20
to be in a ketogenic state, you must
00:23:23
have low insulin. That's required. Um,
00:23:26
when insulin goes down, you have two
00:23:28
important things happening. First,
00:23:29
starting at the fat cell, then going to
00:23:31
the liver. When insulin is down, the fat
00:23:33
cell is breaking apart its
00:23:35
triglycerides, which is the molecule
00:23:37
that the fat cell stores as fat. So
00:23:40
that's called lipolysis. Lipolysis,
00:23:43
lipid breaking or fat breaking. So you
00:23:45
have in a low insulin state, the fat
00:23:47
cells breaking down as fats. Now those
00:23:49
fats are coming to the liver.
00:23:51
>> So in a low insulin state, you mean if I
00:23:53
was fasting
00:23:54
>> fasting or low carb?
00:23:55
>> Okay.
00:23:56
>> Yep.
00:23:56
>> So the minute I'm low carb or fasting,
00:23:58
then I start producing these things
00:24:00
called ketones.
00:24:00
>> Yeah. Within about 16 hours. So if you
00:24:02
and I went to lunch and we ate a typical
00:24:04
kind of high carb type lunch, a typical
00:24:08
lunch with all kinds of macronutrients
00:24:09
in it, our insulin would go up and then
00:24:12
if we stopped eating then about 16 or so
00:24:16
hours later, we would start making
00:24:18
ketones. That's a long enough period of
00:24:20
time for fat burning to kind of take
00:24:22
over. And so the fat cell is breaking
00:24:25
down its fat. That fat is going to the
00:24:27
liver right here. In fact, so here we
00:24:31
don't have a lot of subcutaneous fat on
00:24:33
this guy here, unfortunately. So on the
00:24:35
outside in the front of the body or
00:24:37
around the middle, we have this fat that
00:24:39
we can pinch and jiggle. That's the
00:24:40
subcutaneous fat. So it would be
00:24:42
surrounding in this model for those
00:24:44
watching, it'd be surrounding the organs
00:24:46
on the outside. That is fat that the
00:24:48
body burns very readily. That fat is
00:24:51
running to the liver in very short
00:24:53
order. So it goes to the liver and now
00:24:57
the liver has some options. The liver is
00:25:00
the I say that the liver is the soccer
00:25:02
mom of nutrient metabolism. It knows
00:25:04
what to do with everything. Whether it's
00:25:07
lactate or glucose or fats or ketones,
00:25:09
the liver can handle all of them. So,
00:25:11
the liver is getting a lot of fat from
00:25:13
fat cells. And it has some options. It
00:25:16
would say, "Well, I can store this fat
00:25:18
or I can burn it." And and how does the
00:25:21
liver decide? Insulin tells it what to
00:25:23
do. And if insulin is down, the liver
00:25:26
cannot store fat. it it has to burn it.
00:25:30
>> So if I'm fasting, if I've been fasting
00:25:33
say for two days for example or I've not
00:25:34
been eating carbs for two days,
00:25:36
>> the liver won't store.
00:25:39
>> It will not. In fact, the liver, it is
00:25:41
so antithetical to fat storage in the
00:25:44
liver that you have human studies where
00:25:46
people have significant fatty liver
00:25:48
disease confirmed through ultrasound
00:25:49
measurements and they can just go on a
00:25:52
ketogenic or a low carb diet for just a
00:25:54
week and if I recall the study
00:25:56
correctly, I think it reduced the liver
00:25:58
fat by like 60%. And compared and which
00:26:01
was significantly more than the high
00:26:03
carb version and so even it was the same
00:26:05
calories. Once again, just further
00:26:07
evidence that calorie number, as much as
00:26:09
I don't calories matter, but just
00:26:12
they're not number one. They they're
00:26:14
they're they they're relevant, but not
00:26:15
as not the most relevant. So, you the
00:26:17
the liver cannot hold on to its fat as
00:26:20
insulin comes down. It must burn it. And
00:26:23
the liver begins within each liver cell,
00:26:26
the liver is burning so much fat that
00:26:29
it's actually it's burning more than it
00:26:30
needs for its own energy. And it's
00:26:33
basically, if you'll allow me to speak a
00:26:35
little silly, the liver begins to say,
00:26:37
"I'm burning more energy than I need. I
00:26:39
wonder how the brain's doing." And the
00:26:42
brain won't burn fat. The brain will
00:26:44
burn ketones. And so the liver starts
00:26:46
creating ketones is as its it's its way
00:26:50
of sharing the energy with the brain. So
00:26:52
a ketone is, to put it very succinctly,
00:26:54
a product of the liver burning a lot of
00:26:57
fat. Anytime you're burning a lot of
00:26:59
fat, you're going to be making ketones.
00:27:02
People have heard of the keto diet. Um,
00:27:05
when you talk about the keto diet,
00:27:06
there's lots of rebuttals.
00:27:07
>> Some people say it's not sustainable.
00:27:09
You can't do it for a long period of
00:27:10
time.
00:27:12
>> How do you respond to arguments against
00:27:14
keto?
00:27:14
>> Yeah, that's that's a great question. I
00:27:16
appreciate the concerns. The the stated
00:27:19
concern that they would say it's not
00:27:21
feasible.
00:27:22
You can say that about any diet. You
00:27:24
really can. And I don't mean to um push
00:27:28
aside people's concerns, but you could
00:27:31
say the same thing about someone going
00:27:32
on a low-fat, lowc calorie diet. That's
00:27:35
not sustainable, and it never is. They
00:27:36
always get off it. And so, anytime a
00:27:39
person is making a dietary change to
00:27:42
improve their metabolic health, every
00:27:44
diet works until you stop doing it. Uh
00:27:47
that might be a maxim that people can
00:27:50
leave with. Um a ketogenic diet because
00:27:52
it's not based on hunger. I think has
00:27:55
the potential to work. But we know there
00:27:57
are people who've done it their whole
00:27:58
lives, right? There are people who from
00:28:00
childhood adopt a ketogenic diet in
00:28:02
order to control their seizures or their
00:28:04
their their epilepsy or people will do
00:28:06
it to control their migraines. Because
00:28:08
if there's one tissue in the body that
00:28:10
thrives in the midst of ketones, it's
00:28:12
the brain. you can almost throw a dart
00:28:15
at a board that lists all of these
00:28:17
chronic brain disorders, whether it's
00:28:19
schizophrenia, whether it's bipolar,
00:28:21
whether it's depression, whether it is
00:28:23
um dementia, like Alzheimer's disease.
00:28:26
Every one of those instances, there's
00:28:28
evidence to show even things like
00:28:30
multiple sclerosis. There's instance
00:28:32
evidence to show improvements in humans
00:28:34
with a ketogenic diet. the brain and to
00:28:37
say that in a different way the central
00:28:39
nervous system loves ketones.
00:28:43
>> I'm just um looking at some of the
00:28:45
people who watched our last conversation
00:28:47
and who have left comments on that
00:28:48
conversation and there's this one chap
00:28:50
here who I'll throw up on the screen
00:28:52
called Shanti. Um he says 35 days of
00:28:55
keto for the first time ever started on
00:28:57
the 2nd of January 2025. It's now the
00:29:00
8th of February and 8 kg or 17.5 lbs
00:29:04
gone. So easy and loving my food
00:29:07
choices. I'm having no more than 20 gram
00:29:09
of carbs per day. I am amazed.
00:29:14
Not felt this good since I was a
00:29:15
teenager. Another 15 kg to go and I know
00:29:19
I'll get there.
00:29:21
>> Wow.
00:29:21
>> That's roughly 37 pounds to go. So
00:29:23
>> that's remarkable.
00:29:24
>> It really really works.
00:29:25
>> Well, it does work. But but I don't mean
00:29:27
to ever, you know, neither you nor I are
00:29:30
going to tell anyone everyone listening
00:29:32
this is the only way to lose weight. But
00:29:35
I think it is the most practical and
00:29:37
simplest because the problem with so
00:29:40
many weight loss strategies is that it
00:29:42
puts you against your own hunger. And
00:29:44
hunger always wins. You have to have a
00:29:48
weight loss journey that doesn't have
00:29:50
hunger being a constant feature. Because
00:29:53
if you're imagining this long walk to
00:29:55
shrinking my fat cells to what this guy
00:29:56
wanted of almost 35 total pounds, I
00:29:58
think is what he's going for. If you're
00:30:00
carrying hunger, it's like it's like a
00:30:03
bag. It's like luggage that you're
00:30:05
dragging along on this journey. The
00:30:06
chains that you're dragging that are
00:30:08
going to make it almost impossible for
00:30:10
you to get there.
00:30:11
>> This sounds almost counterintuitive
00:30:12
because when people hear that you're not
00:30:14
going to have sugar, they assume that
00:30:16
you're therefore going to have loads of
00:30:17
cravings for it. Mhm.
00:30:19
>> But the remarkable thing I discovered
00:30:20
the first time I went on a low carb/
00:30:23
keto diet is I was walking through this
00:30:25
mall in Cape Town where where um I live
00:30:27
sometimes and I saw this concession
00:30:30
stand for like cinnamon rolls.
00:30:33
>> And I thought to myself like I've not
00:30:35
had sugar for, you know, I've not had a
00:30:36
high sugar diet now for a couple of
00:30:38
weeks. I'll just go look at it and see
00:30:39
how I feel. And I walked over and looked
00:30:41
down at it at a food I would absolutely
00:30:43
love and my mouth would water just
00:30:44
thinking about it. I looked down at it
00:30:46
and I had the emotional
00:30:49
urge to buy one was completely gone. And
00:30:53
it's hard to explain.
00:30:55
>> It's hard to explain.
00:30:56
>> Yeah. You you were able to just look at
00:30:57
it and shrug your shoulders.
00:30:59
>> I felt nothing.
00:30:59
>> Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:00
>> And I was and I was really I I found
00:31:02
that really fascinating that I had no
00:31:03
urge, no craving, no desire to buy the
00:31:05
cinnamon roll
00:31:06
>> and it had vanished.
00:31:07
>> Well, this is this is one of the things
00:31:08
where I think the future of as ketone
00:31:10
research in humans continues to evolve.
00:31:13
I there is already evidence showing
00:31:16
profound you can use a ketogenic diet to
00:31:18
help people with eating disorders. This
00:31:20
these are there are published case
00:31:21
studies on this and I think a part of it
00:31:24
is when the brain is so nourished and
00:31:26
consistently nourished
00:31:28
>> by ketones
00:31:28
>> by ketones the brain reaches this new
00:31:31
level of of indifference to what it
00:31:33
knows might be harmful and and that's in
00:31:36
the midst of that answer I have that's
00:31:37
kind of loaded where if you're on a
00:31:39
ketogenic diet the beauty is fuel is
00:31:42
stable ketones are stable even glucose
00:31:46
is stable you're avoiding the massive um
00:31:49
volatility of of glucose. And as much as
00:31:52
so much of of the glucose centric view
00:31:56
is only worried about the high glucose,
00:31:58
high glucose is harmful that it can
00:32:01
induce the glycation of molecules
00:32:02
throughout the body where the glucose is
00:32:04
literally binding things and and
00:32:06
disrupting their function, proteins,
00:32:08
fats. So glucose is harmful, but so too
00:32:11
is the volatility of the glucose where
00:32:13
it's really high, then it's really low,
00:32:14
and then it's really high again. That is
00:32:17
a roller coaster of energy for the brain
00:32:19
where it's you're force-feeding the
00:32:20
brain all this glucose and now you're
00:32:22
depriving it. It's like it's like a form
00:32:24
of abuse on the brain. But when it's a
00:32:26
ketogenic diet, it is stable, consistent
00:32:30
energy. And so it's not surprising to me
00:32:32
that people find they're able to resist
00:32:34
cravings better because the brain is
00:32:35
able to say to the rest of the body,
00:32:37
"No, we don't need that. We're doing
00:32:39
fine. We got energy."
00:32:41
>> What about the heart?
00:32:43
>> Oh my gosh, that's a brilliant question.
00:32:45
So, I would say the brain is number one
00:32:48
tissue that thrives on ketones and I'd
00:32:50
put actually put the heart as number
00:32:51
two. There is a lot of great research. I
00:32:54
would refer people to Gary Lope's work
00:32:56
and others that I just don't know
00:32:57
personally, but I know him. He's at the
00:32:59
University of um Alberta in Edmonton. um
00:33:02
and he has found and others so I'm going
00:33:05
to synthesize their work collectively
00:33:09
that when a person's experiencing heart
00:33:11
failure it's it's a combination of
00:33:13
variables where the heart may not be
00:33:14
able to contract well enough to eject
00:33:17
the blood it has to work a lot harder
00:33:19
for every pump in that case they they
00:33:23
have found that the the heart will shift
00:33:25
its fuel to start relying on ketones to
00:33:28
improve its function but there was a
00:33:30
paper just published this here looking
00:33:33
at a different form of beta
00:33:34
hydroxybutyrate which is the main
00:33:36
ketone. Whenever I've been saying
00:33:37
ketone, I've been thinking of the
00:33:39
molecule beta hydroxybutyrate. When the
00:33:41
liver makes BHB or beta hydroxybutyrate,
00:33:45
it actually comes in two forms that are
00:33:47
mirror opposites of each other in
00:33:49
structure. So the way they're built,
00:33:51
it's referred to as DBHB or LBH. So in
00:33:55
heart failure, the heart muscle itself
00:33:58
like the brain starts relying a lot on
00:34:00
DBHB as its fuel. Then you would say
00:34:03
that begs the question, well what about
00:34:04
the L? This paper that was just found
00:34:07
used a pig heart model which is actually
00:34:09
shockingly close to human anatomy. So
00:34:11
it's a pretty good um corlary here. They
00:34:14
found that with LBH infused into the
00:34:16
cardiovascular system of the pigs,
00:34:18
>> which is ketones,
00:34:19
>> which is a different form of the ketone
00:34:20
that the liver makes. Yeah. So the liver
00:34:22
is making two types of BHB, DBHB and
00:34:24
LBHB.
00:34:26
>> And when they profused the
00:34:27
cardiovascular system with LBH, they
00:34:30
found that the what's called ejection
00:34:32
fraction, so the amount of blood coming
00:34:35
out of the left ventricle, which is the
00:34:37
part of the heart that's beating blood
00:34:39
everywhere. So with LBH, they found that
00:34:42
the heart was able to eject 40% more
00:34:45
blood for every beat. But now you would
00:34:47
say, well, it's just because you're
00:34:49
making the heart work harder. No, it was
00:34:51
not at all an effect of the heart
00:34:53
itself. It was because all of the great
00:34:55
arteries like the aorta, right out of
00:34:58
the left ventricle will come the aorta,
00:35:00
which is the main avenue for moving
00:35:02
blood everywhere. The aorta expanded and
00:35:06
all of the great vessels enlarged so
00:35:08
much that the heart was now able to beat
00:35:10
out 40% more blood with every single
00:35:12
beat. So when it comes to someone with
00:35:14
heart failure, I think they are among
00:35:18
the most they should be among the most
00:35:20
interested in testing out the effects of
00:35:22
ketones. Uh even as a personal note, I
00:35:26
am I tend to be kind of high anxiety,
00:35:28
high performance sort of I'm always
00:35:31
thinking of something. No surprise that
00:35:33
I tend and I don't sleep particularly
00:35:35
great and so no surprise that I
00:35:37
sometimes have higher blood pressure. I
00:35:40
one time measured my blood pressure on a
00:35:42
random I went into my dentist and the
00:35:43
dentist has now started measuring blood
00:35:45
pressure. It was 139
00:35:48
over 90ome and I had never been that
00:35:50
high. I couldn't believe it. I'm such a
00:35:52
healthy bloke. How on earth is my blood
00:35:54
pressure this high? And I thought, well,
00:35:56
I'm kind of sleepd deprived. I've had
00:35:57
maybe a little too much caffeine that
00:35:59
morning or whatever. But it was a
00:36:01
concern. And over the next few days, my
00:36:03
blood pressure continued to be higher
00:36:05
than it had ever been. And of course,
00:36:07
I'm getting old enough that I think
00:36:08
these things start to matter. I took a
00:36:11
shot of as an experiment, seeing this
00:36:14
paper that was had just been published
00:36:15
in 2025. I took a few grams worth of
00:36:19
LBH. I drank it and within about an
00:36:22
hour, my blood pressure was like 110
00:36:25
over 70. So, it had this. Now, that's
00:36:28
anecdotal. It's an N of one. Maybe I
00:36:30
just calmed down enough, but I saw an
00:36:34
almost immediate reduction in my blood
00:36:36
pressure. And it could be because of
00:36:38
what they found, which is that all of
00:36:40
the vessels that the heart is beating
00:36:42
into, they expanded. And so every with
00:36:45
every beat of the heart, the heart was
00:36:47
able to eject more blood. And the and
00:36:49
the the wider a blood vessel gets, of
00:36:50
course, the lower the pressure is. And
00:36:53
so that's that could be the mechanism
00:36:54
that explains in my case why my blood
00:36:56
pressure got fixed so quickly. How did
00:36:58
you drink that?
00:37:00
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, there are a few
00:37:01
different ways. As much as we've been
00:37:03
focusing on uh endogenous ketones. So,
00:37:06
I'm pointing to my liver, but here's the
00:37:07
liver. So, when a person is in a
00:37:09
ketogenic state, they're making their
00:37:11
own ketones, we would use the word
00:37:13
endogenous ketogenesis or they're making
00:37:16
ketones in their own body. But it's no
00:37:19
surprise that the benefits of ketones
00:37:21
are getting so extensive that now there
00:37:24
are companies um that are enterprising
00:37:27
individuals that are finding ways to get
00:37:28
into ketosis without having the rigor of
00:37:31
a ketogenic diet. And so you can drink
00:37:33
ketones. And that comes in a few
00:37:35
different forms. Of course, the form I'm
00:37:37
talking about is just straight BHB in in
00:37:41
its two in its two versions. You can get
00:37:43
it in either version, DBHB or LBH.
00:37:48
So, that's just you consuming it in the
00:37:49
way your liver makes it.
00:37:51
>> If you looked in my kitchen cupboard
00:37:52
over there, you'd probably see, frankly,
00:37:54
about 100 different ketone products. Um,
00:37:56
obviously, some of them are the same,
00:37:57
but there's like 100 different units of
00:37:58
ketone products. And here is my ketone
00:38:02
reader, which is where I pick prick my
00:38:04
finger frequently.
00:38:05
>> In fact, you'll be delighted um once you
00:38:07
get one. Nowadays, they make them
00:38:09
attachable.
00:38:10
>> Really?
00:38:11
>> Yeah. So ketones are so easy to measure,
00:38:13
not unlike glucose, that just like
00:38:15
people have continuous glucose monitors
00:38:17
now in Europe, you can get continuous
00:38:19
ketone monitors
00:38:20
>> from where?
00:38:21
>> Next time you're in the UK, get them.
00:38:22
You can't get them here yet. They're not
00:38:24
FDA approved, but there was a company
00:38:25
out of Germany um that sent me one uh
00:38:28
called Sai Bio, Si Bio, and you can just
00:38:31
strap it on and look at your phone and
00:38:32
it's giving you continuous readings.
00:38:34
>> Damn.
00:38:35
>> Yeah, it's very very
00:38:36
>> That is incredible. I'm literally going
00:38:37
to buy that ASAP. Um, but before I get
00:38:41
that, I've been using this little ketone
00:38:43
reader here.
00:38:44
>> Yep.
00:38:44
>> Which I have no affiliation to at all.
00:38:46
Um, and pricking my finger every single
00:38:47
day to see my ketone levels when I'm in
00:38:49
a in a ketogenic state.
00:38:51
>> You talked about exogenous ketones
00:38:52
there. I have a bunch of different
00:38:54
exogenous ketone products here. I know
00:38:56
some people use ketone salts.
00:38:57
>> Yep.
00:38:58
>> I have two different ketone brands here.
00:39:02
>> Yes. Yeah. So, there are there are
00:39:04
different forms. You have two different
00:39:06
forms here. and you mentioned one that
00:39:07
that ought to be described because that
00:39:09
actually is the type of ketone I was
00:39:10
just talking about. So ketone IQ is a
00:39:12
ketone precursor where it's a molecule
00:39:15
called 13b butane dial that will come to
00:39:17
the liver then the liver will metabolize
00:39:19
it um to to a large degree into BHB the
00:39:23
main ketone that we're talking about and
00:39:25
that is the ketone that people want. Um
00:39:28
then the other one, this is an esther.
00:39:30
What's an esther bond is a molecule that
00:39:33
has a a a chemical bond that is broken
00:39:36
when you eat it uh through enzymes. So
00:39:39
you digest that where it's one part BHB,
00:39:42
the straight real ketone, and then it's
00:39:44
one part 13 butane dial, which is the
00:39:46
same precursor, the ketone precursor and
00:39:48
ketone IQ. And so those are two of the
00:39:51
three forms, well maybe four forms. And
00:39:54
then the other two are straight BHB
00:39:57
where it's either a BHB salt where the
00:39:59
BHB molecule is bound to a sodium or a
00:40:02
calcium or a potassium. And you can buy
00:40:05
those in the D or the L form or nowadays
00:40:09
it's the straight acid what's called a
00:40:12
BHB acid where it doesn't have any of
00:40:14
the electrolytes in it where it's you
00:40:15
can get that's what I was referring to a
00:40:17
moment ago when I lowered my blood
00:40:18
pressure. I took the straight a straight
00:40:21
shot of L BHB and you can get that in D
00:40:24
and L forms as well.
00:40:26
>> Okay. So, I've just taken a shot of
00:40:27
Keton IQ.
00:40:28
>> Yeah. So, that's one3 butane dial and
00:40:30
you taste it. Um, right. It has a
00:40:32
particular kind of kick because it's a
00:40:33
it's an alcohol molecule that you know,
00:40:35
you feel it like it it's sort of like
00:40:37
taking a little shot, but your liver
00:40:39
will take that in and then over the next
00:40:41
couple hours it will start converting it
00:40:43
to varying degrees into BHB. And what
00:40:46
I'm going to do is I'm going to quickly
00:40:49
do my blood ketone levels now and we
00:40:51
will see if in 10 minutes time, let's do
00:40:55
10 20 minutes time, there are ketones
00:40:57
flowing in my blood. So I've pricricked
00:40:59
my finger. I've put a little bit of
00:41:01
blood on this little ketone sensor here
00:41:03
and it says that my blood ketone levels
00:41:05
are currently 0.3.
00:41:07
>> Yep.
00:41:07
>> Yeah.
00:41:07
>> So can you describe for me now that I've
00:41:09
just have had a shot of Ketone IQ, which
00:41:10
by the way I am affiliated with. I have
00:41:12
um I'm an investor in the company. Um
00:41:15
but that's why I brought a variety of
00:41:16
different brands. Yeah.
00:41:17
>> Um can you tell me what's going on
00:41:19
inside my body now that I've just had
00:41:20
one shot of that?
00:41:21
>> Yes. Yes. So now your body is taking in
00:41:24
that main molecule of ketone IQ which is
00:41:26
called 13 butane dol and it's going to
00:41:29
get absorbed from your guts into your
00:41:31
blood and then from your guts it's going
00:41:33
to go to your liver and then the liver
00:41:35
will pull in that molecule and rearrange
00:41:38
it into BHB and then and then release
00:41:41
that into the into the blood
00:41:42
>> which is ketones
00:41:43
>> which is key it will turn it into BHB
00:41:45
the ketone. Yep. And now again there are
00:41:47
different forms that you can take
00:41:49
whether it's the straight 13b butane
00:41:50
dial or whether it's an esther
00:41:52
>> and what's happening from there. So it's
00:41:54
now in my blood. What's happening then?
00:41:56
>> Yeah. So now once the BHB is in the
00:41:58
blood it um anytime BHB is in the blood
00:42:01
it is both fuel and a signaling
00:42:04
molecule. And that last part is often
00:42:06
overlooked. We've been over the course
00:42:08
of this discussion talking a lot about
00:42:10
or I've been referring to the fact that
00:42:12
it's a fuel for any any cell with
00:42:15
mitochondria,
00:42:17
which is everything but red blood cells.
00:42:18
Red blood cells are the only cells with
00:42:20
no mitochondria. But every other cell of
00:42:23
the body will take in BHB, the main
00:42:25
ketone, and use it for fuel. Every
00:42:28
single cell of the body, and do so
00:42:30
gladly. the and it's important to
00:42:32
compare the BHB the ketone against
00:42:34
glucose in many of the biggest tissues
00:42:37
of the body like the muscle or the fat
00:42:38
or even the heart glucose can't just
00:42:41
come in it needs an escort if you will
00:42:44
or it needs permission and that's
00:42:45
insulin so there's this regulating step
00:42:48
there's this this checkpoint where
00:42:50
insulin can say all right you can come
00:42:52
in or not because I'm insulin resistant
00:42:54
or there's not enough insulin or
00:42:56
whatever ketones have no such regulation
00:42:59
they just come in if the cell has mito
00:43:00
mitochondria, the ketones going in. So
00:43:02
that's one effect where the ketone is
00:43:04
metabolized as a fuel giving the cell
00:43:06
literal energy. Number two is the fact
00:43:10
that the BHB can bind to the cell and
00:43:13
there are receptors on cells that will
00:43:16
sense the BHB then the BHB will tell it
00:43:18
to do something.
00:43:19
>> The ketone.
00:43:20
>> Yeah. Yeah. So it's it's which is really
00:43:22
really unique where you have something
00:43:23
that is both a calorie source an energy
00:43:25
source and it acts like a hormone where
00:43:28
it tells cells that's the signaling
00:43:30
effect where it tells cells to to do
00:43:33
something like a moment ago I'd
00:43:35
mentioned how LBH is capable of
00:43:38
expanding the great blood vessels in the
00:43:40
body well in that regard it's acting as
00:43:43
a signaling molecule and increasing the
00:43:46
production of nitric oxide which is a
00:43:48
great visodilator. All these guys that
00:43:50
are taking nitric oxide drugs like
00:43:52
Seialis for whether it's erectile
00:43:54
function or nowadays guys are taking it
00:43:56
to have better blood flow and perform in
00:43:58
the gym and have a better workout. Well,
00:44:01
LBHB might be kind of the way forward
00:44:03
where if you can signal something else
00:44:06
but get the same effect without the
00:44:08
consequences or the side effects that
00:44:10
you get from seialis then that might be
00:44:12
one of the strategies and use of LBH in
00:44:15
the future. So, that's been about 5 or
00:44:17
10 minutes and my blood ketone levels
00:44:18
are now at 0.5. Um, and they're
00:44:20
continuing to climb just from one shot
00:44:22
of Keton IQ. Some people ask me about
00:44:25
sex differences in the ketogenic diet or
00:44:28
a low carb diet generally.
00:44:29
>> Some people are concerned that low carb
00:44:32
diets or ketogenic diets are especially
00:44:35
useful for men but might have a
00:44:37
different set of complications for
00:44:39
women. And we did have a female expert
00:44:42
debate on the show where I asked about
00:44:44
the ketogenic diet for women and the
00:44:46
sort of consensus was that it should be
00:44:48
treated differently for women.
00:44:51
>> Yeah. Yeah. I app I remember I I tuned
00:44:54
into that and I respect it tremendously.
00:44:56
I I really appreciate the view that a
00:44:59
lot of these gals have advocated for
00:45:01
which is that women are not just small
00:45:03
men. The differences between male and
00:45:05
female of course are enormous. Um that
00:45:07
doesn't mean there are differences in
00:45:09
everything. So women are very unique
00:45:13
when it comes to hormones. They women
00:45:15
experience a rhythm of hormones that
00:45:16
there is no equivalent in men because of
00:45:19
the the reproductive burden if you will
00:45:22
or responsibility that a woman has where
00:45:25
she will see changes in hormones that
00:45:26
can reach thousands of times differences
00:45:28
like progesterone levels can change by a
00:45:30
thousand times over the course of the
00:45:32
ovarian cycle. Estrogen levels will
00:45:34
change by multiples. men just don't have
00:45:37
that kind of volatility. Those female
00:45:39
sex hormones do influence metabolism,
00:45:42
but then it matters tremendously which
00:45:44
um phase she is in of her ovarian cycle.
00:45:47
So if she is in the the first follicular
00:45:49
phase, which is a low progesterone,
00:45:52
higher estrogen state,
00:45:53
>> what's the first follicular phase?
00:45:55
>> Yeah. So in the in if you look at the
00:45:56
female fertility phase, um it is like a
00:45:59
200piece orchestra. It is so dynamic.
00:46:02
Whereas men's fertility is like a
00:46:03
barberhop quartet. It sounds nice, but
00:46:05
it's very simple. So, in the first phase
00:46:08
leading up, so she's just had her
00:46:10
menration end, now she's starting the
00:46:12
beginning of a new cycle. That first
00:46:14
phase is called the follicular phase,
00:46:16
which is when her ovaries are having
00:46:18
some follicles or a future a little egg
00:46:21
getting bigger. One will end up becoming
00:46:22
the dominant one, but that is creeping
00:46:25
in higher higher levels of estrogen. And
00:46:28
then she will ovulate with at with the
00:46:31
ovulation that what was a follicle in
00:46:33
her ovary now becomes what's called a
00:46:35
yellow body or a corpus ludium. And so
00:46:38
it's called the ludial phase and that is
00:46:40
defined by very high progesterone and
00:46:42
progesterone changes things. So where I
00:46:45
think the conversation in women is very
00:46:47
relevant and fascinating is that in the
00:46:49
first phase in her follicular phase she
00:46:52
is a fat burning machine. You can
00:46:54
measure she will get into ketosis faster
00:46:56
than her male counterpart and she's
00:46:58
burning more fat than her male
00:47:00
counterpart. In fact, this is one of the
00:47:01
few clinical values where there's a male
00:47:04
version and a female version. This isn't
00:47:06
very common. Many of the typical
00:47:09
metabolic type markers, whether it's
00:47:10
glucose or insulin, triglycerides, LDL,
00:47:13
cholesterol, they're the same across the
00:47:14
sexes with the exception of free fatty
00:47:17
acids. So earlier I had mentioned that
00:47:19
when insulin is low the li the fat cell
00:47:22
is breaking down fat. It's breaking down
00:47:25
that fat as free fatty acids. So the
00:47:27
free fatty acids in a woman are about 40
00:47:30
or 50% higher than in a man
00:47:32
>> during that first phase.
00:47:34
>> Yes. Especially during the first phase
00:47:35
and that's because she's burning more
00:47:37
fat and that helps her get into ketosis
00:47:39
faster. So if you this has been shown in
00:47:42
studies take a male and female have them
00:47:44
start a fast she will get into ketosis
00:47:46
faster than him.
00:47:48
Now during during
00:47:50
>> just during that phase or
00:47:51
>> especially during the phase yeah I I
00:47:53
don't know that they compared and
00:47:55
controlled for the ludial phase but it's
00:47:57
worth noting where I think um fasting
00:48:00
and ketogenic diets start to change.
00:48:04
So it'll keep going up. Yeah.
00:48:05
>> So just another reading point8.
00:48:08
>> Yep.
00:48:08
>> Is ketosis considered what.5?
00:48:11
>> Technically, but frankly I actually call
00:48:13
it ketosis at.3. the moment you can
00:48:16
detect it on one of those blood meters
00:48:17
that I'd say you're in ketosis and I
00:48:19
think 0.3 is the lower limit. So 0.5 is
00:48:21
a little bit of an arbitrary cut off but
00:48:23
that is the classic view. Um, so in in
00:48:27
that in that ludal phase with high
00:48:29
progesterone, progesterone is a hunger
00:48:30
hormone. And so if she's trying to do a
00:48:32
fasting protocol during and her cravings
00:48:35
are going to be higher and her uh she's
00:48:38
going to be hungrier. And so that's
00:48:39
where I think the conversation's very
00:48:41
important is that during her ludal phase
00:48:44
after she has ovulated,
00:48:47
it's going to be harder to stick to a
00:48:48
ketogenic diet. And that's where I think
00:48:50
it might be prudent for her to be a
00:48:52
little generous with herself. um where
00:48:55
uh it might get a little more difficult.
00:48:57
Now, however, some of the concern with
00:49:00
women and ketogenic diets is misplaced.
00:49:02
And I would be remiss if I didn't
00:49:04
mention a study that answered this
00:49:05
question very well in with regards to
00:49:07
cortisol. In fact, I'll state this now.
00:49:10
I already chatted with the team. I would
00:49:13
love to see you bring on a scientist in
00:49:15
the UK named Dr. Isabella Cooper. She
00:49:18
has published a series of studies in
00:49:20
women that are fascinating because of
00:49:23
the the intervention that she's done.
00:49:25
She's taken women who had been adhering
00:49:28
to a ketogenic diet as part of their
00:49:30
normal life. Then for 21 days they have
00:49:33
to adopt the typical high carb diet of
00:49:35
the standard UK guidelines similar to
00:49:36
the US about 55% carbohydrate decidedly
00:49:40
not ketogenic for 21 days. So more than
00:49:43
long enough to detect changes and then
00:49:46
they go back to their diet for 21 days
00:49:48
and they have blood tests again. And so
00:49:50
these are healthy women who go from a
00:49:52
ketogenic diet to a high carb diet back
00:49:55
to a ketogenic diet. And when they
00:49:57
looked at cortisol, when Isabella and
00:49:59
her group measured cortisol levels, no
00:50:01
statistically significant change at any
00:50:03
point. There was just noise and no
00:50:06
trend. Some gals had their cortisol go
00:50:09
down. Some had them go up. But as a
00:50:11
group there was it was just a big messy
00:50:14
flat line.
00:50:15
>> And what does that mean?
00:50:16
>> That takes a lot of wind out of the
00:50:17
sales of of people who say that a
00:50:21
ketogenic diet is a unique stress on
00:50:23
women because people want to invoke and
00:50:25
they'll say, "Well, cortisol goes
00:50:26
through the roof and that's sign of a
00:50:28
significant stress." And yet Isabella's
00:50:30
own data show that cortisol levels
00:50:33
aren't different. that there is no
00:50:35
unique cortisol related stress state of
00:50:38
a ketogenic diet. So I think it's
00:50:39
relevant because it just brings a little
00:50:41
nuance to the conversation. Not to say
00:50:43
men and women are not different. They
00:50:45
absolutely are. But I do believe the the
00:50:49
view that a ketogenic diet is uniquely
00:50:51
stressful in in women but not men, I
00:50:54
think is uh overblown. And and again,
00:50:57
I'm relying on Isabella's own data to
00:50:58
support that. So, coming into 2026 and I
00:51:02
want 2026 to be the year where I finally
00:51:05
get a grip of my health, where I finally
00:51:07
become the person that I know deep down
00:51:10
I could be and I desperately do want to
00:51:12
be. And I asked you, Dr. Ben,
00:51:15
>> to make me a plan,
00:51:17
>> the perfect plan, the perfect diet. I
00:51:20
know everyone's different, so we're
00:51:20
gonna have you gonna have to play with
00:51:22
me here a little bit, but
00:51:23
>> the perfect plan for 2026,
00:51:27
>> what would you prescribe as a diet,
00:51:30
lifestyle choices? Okay. And I'm going
00:51:32
to write it down.
00:51:33
>> Yeah. Yeah. So I would um at the risk of
00:51:36
sounding too self-absorbed
00:51:38
uh I this is I'll kind of describe my
00:51:41
own approach as a metabolic scientist
00:51:43
but please everyone listening appreciate
00:51:45
that I will I'm inserting my own
00:51:46
constraints because my approach is kind
00:51:49
of that of a guy who knows a lot but is
00:51:52
also constrained by my demands in life
00:51:54
but I think a lot of people fit into
00:51:56
that category. So Stephen if you want to
00:51:59
look like a freckled bald wrinkled man
00:52:01
this is what you can do. All right. So,
00:52:03
first of all, zero to little to no carbs
00:52:07
for um breakfast and lunch.
00:52:09
>> Okay. Little to no carbs for breakfast
00:52:11
and lunch. Carbs for breakfast and
00:52:13
lunch.
00:52:13
>> Yep. You wake up in the morning. Anyone
00:52:15
who's wearing a continuous glucose
00:52:17
monitor will find that their glucose
00:52:18
levels naturally rise in the morning and
00:52:21
that coincides with a mild state of
00:52:23
insulin resistance every morning because
00:52:24
of changes in cortisol and other
00:52:26
hormones. So my view is don't doubly
00:52:30
load to the glucose that's already
00:52:31
happening by eating in the morning with
00:52:33
starchy sugary stuff. So be very strict
00:52:36
with all of your meals up until dinner.
00:52:39
>> So just on point one so I'm clear.
00:52:40
You're saying no carbs but is there
00:52:42
anything that I should be having?
00:52:44
>> Yeah. So any if a person wants to as
00:52:46
much protein and fat as they'd like and
00:52:48
I would say especially for lunch, let
00:52:50
lunch be your biggest meal.
00:52:52
>> Okay. So let's go through those three
00:52:53
points. Yeah.
00:52:54
>> Um why as much protein as I can. Yeah.
00:52:57
Protein and fat.
00:52:58
>> Okay. Why?
00:52:59
>> Yeah. Because they won't have an insulin
00:53:01
effect. And that's the key. Like my
00:53:03
approach to staying lean at 50 years old
00:53:05
and having my wife like what she sees is
00:53:08
keeping my insulin low and and still not
00:53:11
being hungry all the time. And so
00:53:13
protein and fat are the two
00:53:14
macronutrients with carbohydrates being
00:53:16
the third. But protein and fat have
00:53:18
little to no effect on insulin. Fat has
00:53:20
none and protein may have a modest
00:53:22
effect depending on some other
00:53:24
variables. So you want to keep insulin
00:53:26
low.
00:53:26
>> So what would would that breakfast look
00:53:28
like?
00:53:28
>> So for me, I actually don't eat
00:53:29
breakfast. Uh and and again, this plays
00:53:32
into I'm extremely mindful of my family.
00:53:34
So that's going to come back again when
00:53:36
we get to dinner because we've left that
00:53:37
meal untouched for now.
00:53:39
>> In the morning, I make breakfast for my
00:53:41
kids every morning. Uh and it's
00:53:43
something I remember from my childhood
00:53:45
being raised by my dad and he every
00:53:47
morning it was just structured. And I
00:53:50
think all of my siblings and I have
00:53:51
thrived in life in part because of the
00:53:54
structure we had at the beginning of
00:53:55
every day where we would all eat
00:53:57
breakfast together. We would read
00:53:59
scriptures very briefly. We'd have a
00:54:00
family prayer very briefly and just
00:54:02
review the day. And I think that was my
00:54:04
dad's way of kind of surviving with so
00:54:05
many kids just to sort of check in with
00:54:08
everyone.
00:54:08
>> You had nine siblings.
00:54:09
>> Yeah. Yeah. There's nine of us. Yeah. Uh
00:54:11
and so we have uh I I'm very big on
00:54:14
that. So breakfast is dad's domain and
00:54:16
my wife cheers me on. Um, so I make
00:54:19
breakfast for the kids and I am sipping
00:54:21
on a cup of yerba mate the whole time.
00:54:24
>> Why?
00:54:24
>> Yeah, in part because I like the taste.
00:54:26
There's a good GLP1 effect. So, it helps
00:54:29
me feel a little more satiated. Um, and
00:54:32
it's just a habit. It's a little bit of
00:54:33
a perk, a little pickme up. I don't
00:54:35
drink coffee. I drink yerba mate
00:54:36
instead.
00:54:37
>> What is herb mate?
00:54:38
>> The brand that I get is called Una Mate.
00:54:40
And it's a it's a leaf. It's a South
00:54:43
American tea basically. And you can get
00:54:45
it in any number of ways. This is just a
00:54:47
really convenient and good way to get
00:54:48
it. So I'm sipping on a cup of it would
00:54:51
be someone drinking coffee or tea. I'm
00:54:53
taking yerba mate tea. Um so I don't eat
00:54:55
for breakfast. I find that I'm not
00:54:57
generally hungry for breakfast anyway.
00:55:00
And so I may as well keep my fasted
00:55:01
state going a little longer. So that's
00:55:03
what works for me. And then I would
00:55:04
encourage people to have a big hearty
00:55:06
lunch because if you have a big hearty
00:55:08
lunch, mostly protein and fat, it makes
00:55:10
it easier to taper off later in the day.
00:55:13
Especially in the evening if people are
00:55:15
noticing that they have significant
00:55:17
cravings especially for carbs because
00:55:19
that's the only thing anyone craves in
00:55:21
the evening have a bigger lunch. See if
00:55:23
that helps.
00:55:24
>> Okay.
00:55:24
>> And then sometime around either before
00:55:27
or after have a good resistance workout.
00:55:30
I have my resistance workout in the in
00:55:33
fact Stephen I even have to go a little
00:55:35
earlier. So, my first thing in the
00:55:36
morning is I go on a ruck at 5:00 a.m. I
00:55:39
have my weighted vest and these 15lb
00:55:42
kettle bells and I hike one mile up a
00:55:44
hill and one mile back every morning at
00:55:46
5:00 a.m. And then I get a little work
00:55:49
done and just some personal kind of
00:55:50
reflection and meditation time, if you
00:55:52
will. Then the family wakes up. I'm
00:55:54
making breakfast. The family chaos
00:55:55
begins. I'm sipping on my yerba mate.
00:55:58
Then I go to work. About 10:30 or 11 is
00:56:01
the good time for me. I go down to the
00:56:02
gym on campus and I do my very brief,
00:56:05
very effective, I would say, um,
00:56:07
resistance training and then I go into
00:56:09
the sauna for 12 to 15 minutes, but in
00:56:12
the morning I've done a little ice bath,
00:56:14
too. I didn't mention that. I have an
00:56:15
ice bath on my back patio, a Maroska
00:56:17
Forge, and I love it. It is spectacular.
00:56:20
Um, so then I do a sauna session after
00:56:22
my workout. Then I go eat my big lunch.
00:56:26
>> Why are you doing the ice bath in this
00:56:27
one? Yeah. So, I do I do an ice bath in
00:56:30
the morning because it helps me sleep
00:56:31
better in the evening. I'm a terrible
00:56:33
sleeper. And especially in the northern
00:56:35
hemisphere in the winter, the sun isn't
00:56:36
coming up till 9:00 or so, 9:00 a.m. And
00:56:40
by shocking my body, I get this jolt.
00:56:44
And I think it just helps get my clock
00:56:46
ticking. And so, by the time evening
00:56:48
rolls around, I'm tired and I'm ready
00:56:50
for bed.
00:56:51
>> Okay, I'm just doing my ketone test to
00:56:53
see where it is. We're probably about 30
00:56:55
minutes off me taking that ketone shot.
00:56:57
We'll continue with your day in just two
00:56:58
sec. And I'm now at 0.9.
00:57:02
>> It'll keep going. Yep. Yep. So, you were
00:57:04
08 0.9. Next one will be one, but it
00:57:07
looks like it's starting to curve a
00:57:08
little bit,
00:57:08
>> which isn't surprising. You went up
00:57:10
pretty quick and then it's going to
00:57:11
curve for a bit.
00:57:12
>> And what's going on in my body right now
00:57:14
that I have 0.9
00:57:16
>> K? Yes. So, that is a unit of
00:57:17
measurement called the mill moles. And
00:57:19
so, it's looking at the number of
00:57:21
molecules basically in a given amount of
00:57:23
of your blood. And so you took in that
00:57:25
ketone precursor, the liver converted
00:57:28
it. It's just continuing to convert it
00:57:29
into BHB.
00:57:30
>> BHB being ketones.
00:57:32
>> BHB being the main ketone. Yep.
00:57:34
>> Okay. Yep.
00:57:34
>> And that's making me
00:57:36
>> Well, it's going to make you sharp.
00:57:37
Okay.
00:57:37
>> So, your brain is now using those
00:57:39
ketones. Your heart would be using the
00:57:40
ketones. Um, and your reliance on
00:57:43
glucose as a fuel for your brain and
00:57:45
your heart would be going down.
00:57:47
>> Wouldn't my hunger be going down?
00:57:48
>> Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:57:49
>> So, I'm going to be less hungry. But
00:57:50
also the benefits of BHB in the brain
00:57:52
are are myriad where it's been shown to
00:57:55
be an anxolytic. So it can control
00:57:58
anxiety. Uh it can control it can
00:58:00
improve depression. It can help with
00:58:02
attention,
00:58:03
>> memory. I
00:58:04
>> memory. Oh, certainly with cognition.
00:58:05
Yes.
00:58:06
>> I've read I read about the studies on
00:58:07
dementia patients that
00:58:08
>> Yes. That is it is incredibly we're
00:58:10
entering a kind of dawning of an era of
00:58:12
ketone research where the number of NIH
00:58:16
and NSF funded ketone related projects
00:58:18
is
00:58:20
wonderful. It's thrilling to see where
00:58:22
it's going to be a wonderful decade of a
00:58:24
lot of great biomedical research on the
00:58:26
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00:58:37
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00:58:39
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00:59:30
>> So let's go back to the perfect day, the
00:59:32
perfect, the perfect lifestyle for 2026.
00:59:34
So then do my resistance training at
00:59:36
some point after I've had my breakfasts.
00:59:39
>> Well, yes. So whatever for me, I I do
00:59:42
body weight based exercises. So, I don't
00:59:43
like having a big belly of food. And so,
00:59:46
being in a fasted state, my view on
00:59:48
exercising, even that's a debate. Do you
00:59:50
exercise fasted or do you exercise with
00:59:52
fuel? Um, like you take a bunch of carbs
00:59:54
and stuff. My view is it's dependent on
00:59:56
what your goal is. As a middle-aged guy,
01:00:00
my goal is not performance. It's not
01:00:03
going out and sprinting and showing
01:00:05
power. It's to live a long healthy life.
01:00:07
And so, it's a more metabolic focus. If
01:00:10
your if your interest is metabolic, then
01:00:12
I think fasting fa exercising in a
01:00:14
fasted state is very smart. If your goal
01:00:18
of the exercise is performance, like
01:00:19
you're a collegiate athlete or you are,
01:00:22
you know, you're an elite rugby player
01:00:23
or something, okay, then don't exercise
01:00:26
fasted. Take some fuel before you go
01:00:28
work out. So for me, I've done my early
01:00:32
morning ruck, my personal kind of
01:00:34
reflection time, ice bath, yerba mate,
01:00:37
and then my midm morning workout.
01:00:39
>> Just on that point of exercising fasted,
01:00:42
>> why is that better if your goals are
01:00:45
longevity and health,
01:00:46
>> right? Because it's just going to help
01:00:48
you continue to burn fat and improve
01:00:51
maintain your insulin sensitivity.
01:00:53
>> Okay, fine. So, I have my midm morning
01:00:55
workout, then I have a nice big lunch,
01:00:57
then I have my afternoon productivity,
01:00:59
and then I get to dinner, and dinner is
01:01:02
the main social meal within my home. Um,
01:01:05
and so I have dinner with my family. And
01:01:07
that is carb lunch. Whatever the
01:01:09
family's eating, I'm eating. I have I
01:01:11
have daughters and as a college
01:01:13
professor I've seen enough young women
01:01:14
struggle with eating disorders that I
01:01:17
always worried would my incessant
01:01:20
talking about diet somehow stimulate
01:01:22
eating disorders and I've never wanted
01:01:24
to become obsessive about it and so I
01:01:27
have dinner with my family whatever it
01:01:29
is if it's pizza I'm having pizza if
01:01:31
it's pasta I'm having pasta um now my
01:01:33
wife happens to see things kind of the
01:01:35
way I do so it's usually meat and
01:01:38
vegetables in in some mix and and that's
01:01:42
my dinner and then ideally
01:01:44
I'm done.
01:01:46
>> What time are you having that dinner?
01:01:47
>> Yeah, that's about five or six.
01:01:50
>> And you you avoid eating late.
01:01:52
>> Oh yes. In fact, I would submit Stephen,
01:01:55
if we were to look at any one thing
01:01:57
someone could do, I would say anyone who
01:02:01
says, "Ben, what is the one thing?" If
01:02:03
I'm putting a question in your mouth,
01:02:04
I'd say stop snacking in the evening.
01:02:06
Anything you can do to not overeat and
01:02:09
go to bed hypoglycemic or elevated or
01:02:12
spike your blood glucose levels, do it.
01:02:14
>> Why?
01:02:14
>> That's when people at their weakest.
01:02:17
People, you and I could be hanging out
01:02:18
all day walking past a plate of cookies
01:02:21
and not be tempted at all until 7 or
01:02:23
8:00 p.m. It's just human nature. And
01:02:26
yet that is one of the worst times to
01:02:28
eat it because when you go to bed
01:02:29
hypoglycemic, it activates a part of the
01:02:32
nervous system, an aspect of the nervous
01:02:34
system called the sympathetic nervous
01:02:36
system. That's also known as the fight
01:02:38
orflight. So when someone we hear a car
01:02:42
crash right nearby or we hear a gunshot,
01:02:45
then our immediately our heart starts
01:02:47
beating faster and harder. Our body
01:02:49
temperature climbs and we're stimulated.
01:02:52
hypoglycemia will have that effect. And
01:02:55
that is terrible timing because when
01:02:57
you're going to bed, you're wanting to
01:02:58
rely on your what's called your
01:03:00
parasympathetic nervous system. The part
01:03:02
of your the aspect of your nervous
01:03:04
system that is calming, it's lowering
01:03:06
your heart rate. It's slowing your
01:03:08
heart. It's lowering your blood
01:03:09
pressure. It's helping you calm down to
01:03:11
sleep better. Hypoglycemia
01:03:14
throws that into opposites. So then
01:03:16
you're going to bed, you're lying there
01:03:18
wondering why your heart is beating so
01:03:20
hard, why you are so hot and
01:03:23
uncomfortable, and it's because you just
01:03:25
spiked your blood glucose with a bunch
01:03:27
of sugar.
01:03:28
>> Is there anything else?
01:03:30
Is there, you know, for people that are
01:03:32
focused on that 2026 goal of finally
01:03:34
becoming the person that they know they
01:03:35
can become, is there anything else you
01:03:37
would say to them? Is there any tools
01:03:39
they need to buy? Is there any other
01:03:41
tricks or tactics or hacks?
01:03:42
>> Yeah. Yeah, I do think that they could
01:03:44
if they were adopting this diet, it's
01:03:46
definitely going to put them into
01:03:48
ketosis. That can take a little time to
01:03:50
adjust. So, very relevant to our earlier
01:03:53
conversation. I do think exogenous
01:03:54
ketones can help a person transition
01:03:58
into relying on a ketogenic diet more
01:04:00
readily. And anytime a person's losing
01:04:04
weight, they run the risk of losing some
01:04:06
lean mass at the same time. And we, my
01:04:09
lab just published a paper about two
01:04:11
weeks ago at the time we're filming
01:04:13
this, finding that in humans in a weight
01:04:15
loss protocol, if they were drinking BHB
01:04:18
or exogenous ketones, they were able to
01:04:21
retain more muscle mass, more lean mass
01:04:23
in the midst of the weight loss. So,
01:04:25
there could be some strategies like
01:04:26
that. But I would also add that there
01:04:29
are some non um physical ones as well.
01:04:32
If someone's trying to say, I'm going to
01:04:34
be the best version of myself, then
01:04:36
start reading more, too. Read more
01:04:38
books. You'll be the best. You'll be an
01:04:41
even better version as you're losing
01:04:42
weight. Um, and your brain is firing on
01:04:44
more cylinders than ever before as it's
01:04:46
fueled with ketones. Challenge your
01:04:49
brain. You had mentioned dementia
01:04:51
earlier. Ketones are a therapy for
01:04:53
dementia, but so too is challenging your
01:04:55
brain in the form of um making it learn
01:04:58
new things. So, read a good book.
01:05:01
>> This woman contacted me on the on
01:05:02
November the 11th. When you do a
01:05:04
podcast, you get lots of feedback. you
01:05:05
get like tens of thousands of people
01:05:06
sometimes per episode
01:05:08
>> and I can imagine you looking through
01:05:09
everyone finding gems.
01:05:11
>> I actually funnily enough I do look at
01:05:13
the comment section because it's it's a
01:05:15
place where I really trust the feedback.
01:05:16
So people that comment on these videos
01:05:18
like I really do trust them because they
01:05:19
are typically listeners. They've kind of
01:05:21
been with me on this whole journey. So
01:05:22
when they have feedback when they have
01:05:24
you know good or bad feedback on the or
01:05:26
constructive feedback we pay attention.
01:05:28
>> Well Stephen I'm pleased that something
01:05:30
brought me back. So the comments can't
01:05:32
have been too negative. No, they were
01:05:33
really I mean they were unbelievably
01:05:35
positive. But I got this one from on
01:05:37
LinkedIn from a lady called I'll keep
01:05:40
her anonymous. Let's just call her Mrs.
01:05:42
L.
01:05:43
>> Okay.
01:05:43
>> And Mrs. L said, "Hi, Stephen. Thank you
01:05:46
for the great work you do and the
01:05:47
information, insights, inspiration you
01:05:49
provide. On keto, my husband lasted 8
01:05:53
hours on a keto diet and was
01:05:55
unconscious. It turned out he had a
01:05:58
neurodine cancer called insulum."
01:06:02
>> Oh. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No. a neuroendocrine
01:06:04
cancer called insulinoma.
01:06:05
>> I said that's exactly what I said.
01:06:06
>> Yeah. Yeah. Did I hear a niner in there?
01:06:08
Yeah. Something.
01:06:10
>> And if the paramedics hadn't intercepted
01:06:12
with glucose, going keto would have
01:06:15
killed him.
01:06:15
>> Yes.
01:06:15
>> He's amazing. We have three children and
01:06:17
he volunteers for 50
01:06:19
>> more every weekend. We don't want to
01:06:22
lose him.
01:06:23
>> Sorry to share this sad story, but it's
01:06:25
not the first time I've seen one of your
01:06:27
posts or one of your guests talk about
01:06:28
ketosis
01:06:30
and what's worked well. And in this
01:06:32
case, it was fatal for him. Yes. So, I
01:06:35
hope you don't mind, but I wanted to
01:06:36
share this with love, respect, and
01:06:38
kindness to hopefully give food for
01:06:39
thought, no pun intended, of how you
01:06:41
decide to use your platform and to
01:06:44
provide further context and nuance.
01:06:46
>> Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:46
>> What works for you and thousands of
01:06:48
others might not work for everyone. I
01:06:51
believe it's super important that we
01:06:52
share this information and inspiration
01:06:54
carefully and in a way that exemplifies
01:06:56
a growth mindset, not a fixed mindset.
01:06:59
for example, not fixed one diet or one
01:07:01
way of working for everybody. If you
01:07:03
read this above all else, please know
01:07:05
I'm sending this with the utmost respect
01:07:07
and kindness and hope. Best
01:07:09
>> love it. Yeah, what a thoughtful what a
01:07:11
thoughtful message.
01:07:12
>> Yeah, it is very thoughtful. I
01:07:13
appreciate I appreciate any kind
01:07:15
communication by the way because on
01:07:17
social media it is so easy just to
01:07:18
become the worst version of yourself
01:07:20
without fear of any consequence. So, she
01:07:22
happened to describe a person who would
01:07:24
probably be the the worst individual. So
01:07:27
an insulinoma, she describes a
01:07:30
neuroendocrine cancer. An insulinoma is
01:07:33
an insulin secretreting tumor. So
01:07:35
usually it's the pancreas, which for
01:07:37
those watching is here. Again, imagine
01:07:40
that a part of the pancreas is expanding
01:07:41
with a tumor, but it's filled with cells
01:07:44
that make insulin. So it's a bunch of
01:07:46
beta cells, which are the cells that
01:07:48
make insulin. And this is a guy who
01:07:50
can't stop making insulin.
01:07:53
Suffice to say, if you now cut your
01:07:56
carbohydrate consumption and you're
01:07:58
continuing to make tons of insulin,
01:08:00
which is not normal, so this is a very
01:08:03
much a disease state, and I appreciate
01:08:04
her stating it as such. It's a cancer,
01:08:06
it's a tumor of the pancreas. So, what
01:08:09
would have happened in him, he cuts the
01:08:11
gluc, he cuts his carbohydrates, but he
01:08:14
can't stop making insulin. So now it's
01:08:17
actually back to that diet that you and
01:08:19
I that I mentioned at the beginning of
01:08:21
our conversation where the people were
01:08:23
eating a high carb version or a low carb
01:08:25
version of a diet. When you spike
01:08:27
insulin, you lower both glucose and
01:08:30
ketones. And that's what happened to
01:08:32
him. He would have become hypoglycemic
01:08:35
and he would almost never make any
01:08:36
ketones because he always has high
01:08:38
insulin. M
01:08:40
>> and so he would have been depriving his
01:08:41
brain of its two fuels in uh lowering
01:08:44
the glucose by pushing it into muscle
01:08:47
and fat and blocking the liver from
01:08:49
making ketones. So he's the worst person
01:08:52
anyone with an insulinoma. Of course
01:08:54
neither you nor I are giving any medical
01:08:56
advice. Um but if a person has an
01:08:58
insulinoma that's like the worst person
01:09:02
to adopt a low carb diet. They have to
01:09:04
eat carbs because they're always making
01:09:06
insulin. They can't stop. What's
01:09:08
interesting is it it appears from what
01:09:09
she's written that her husband found out
01:09:12
that he had this
01:09:14
>> Oh, because of adopting the diet.
01:09:15
>> Yeah.
01:09:16
>> Oh my gosh, that's remarkable. Yeah. So,
01:09:18
a person could test this early though,
01:09:20
Stephen. So, just what you've been doing
01:09:22
now over the past period of time by
01:09:23
pricking your finger, if a person
01:09:25
worried that they had an insulinoma,
01:09:27
they could just on a random morning uh
01:09:30
or fast for fast for 12 hours or so and
01:09:34
measure your glucose. Um, if you have a
01:09:36
continuous glucose monitor, even easier.
01:09:38
Look at your glucose. Because in you and
01:09:40
I, if we fast for 24 hours, our glucose
01:09:43
levels stay normal. They just run along
01:09:46
like nothing's happened. In a person
01:09:47
with an insulinoma, they're getting
01:09:49
lower and lower and lower and lower all
01:09:52
constantly because they can't stop
01:09:54
making insulin and it's always driving
01:09:56
their blood glucose levels lower. So, a
01:09:59
person could determine that on their
01:10:01
own. This would have been a guy who
01:10:03
anytime he fasted at all, he would have
01:10:04
started to feel miserable
01:10:07
>> cuz she says in the message, "My husband
01:10:08
lasted eight hours on a keto diet and
01:10:10
was unconscious. It turned out," which
01:10:12
suggests that they found out
01:10:14
>> and we hope the husband's doing well.
01:10:16
>> Yes.
01:10:16
>> Boy, an insulin is a big deal. My hope
01:10:18
is that they would be able to identify
01:10:20
the location of the tumor. Um, and you
01:10:23
can What's cool about cancer is that
01:10:25
cancer is such a sugar eater. It eats so
01:10:27
much glucose that you can inject glucose
01:10:30
into someone that has a little bit of
01:10:32
radiation to it, not harmful, but then
01:10:35
you can do an X-ray and see where does
01:10:37
all the glucose go and it would be going
01:10:40
to this little lump on the on the on the
01:10:42
pancreas. And so hopefully they can cut
01:10:44
it out.
01:10:44
>> What does that say about cancer and
01:10:46
sugar?
01:10:47
>> Oh my. Yeah. So you I know you've had
01:10:48
the authority on this. So everything I'm
01:10:50
about to say is me quoting Dr. Thomas
01:10:52
Seaff Freed who is he needs all the
01:10:54
attention in the world as he has
01:10:56
resurrected
01:10:58
uh an almost 100-year-old view of cancer
01:11:01
being a disease of glucose and sugar
01:11:02
metabolism the Warberg effect it's
01:11:04
called but Dr. Thomas Seaff Freed has
01:11:06
been a champion of of bringing this view
01:11:09
into the modern era by finding that
01:11:12
cancer cells rely on glucose as their
01:11:14
fuel primarily. He also identifies
01:11:16
glutamine. But if you can deprive the
01:11:18
cancer cell of its fuel, normal
01:11:20
interventions even like chemotherapies
01:11:22
which have terrible rates of success,
01:11:24
they become suddenly much more
01:11:26
effective.
01:11:29
>> In fact, my part of my motivation in
01:11:31
adhering to a ketogenic diet is is
01:11:33
cancer related. when I my mom passed
01:11:36
away from cancer as a boy and it's been
01:11:37
one of those diseases that's always
01:11:39
scared me a little bit and I think all
01:11:41
right my statistical likelihood of
01:11:43
getting a cancer in life is going to be
01:11:45
higher than average because of a
01:11:46
first-degree relative dying from cancer
01:11:49
so one of the reasons and I've already
01:11:50
outlived my my my saintly mom now one of
01:11:54
the reasons I adhere to a ketogenic diet
01:11:55
is I want to do what I can to try to
01:11:57
kill any little budding cancer cells by
01:12:00
starving them of their glucose that they
01:12:02
want
01:12:02
>> remember when we had him on the show
01:12:03
remember the BBC obviously weren't very
01:12:04
happy that I had him on and said that it
01:12:06
was uh
01:12:07
>> no
01:12:08
>> it was misinformation.
01:12:09
>> Oh my gosh, isn't that unfortunate? So
01:12:12
he is the leading authority I would say
01:12:16
in the world on cancer metabolism and
01:12:20
it's such a shame that his finding and
01:12:23
let let me he might have explained this
01:12:24
already but I just want to explain to
01:12:26
everyone as a scientist how thrilled I
01:12:28
was to see what he'd done and how
01:12:30
disruptive it was to the convention. And
01:12:32
let's ad let's admit what we think we
01:12:34
know about cancer isn't working. Cancer
01:12:36
rates continue to climb. Cancer
01:12:38
mortality continues to climb. Clearly
01:12:40
the old views aren't working. He took
01:12:43
tumor cells and then so cancer cells and
01:12:46
then moved over the nucleus because the
01:12:49
traditional view is that it's a disease
01:12:51
of mutations and all of these genes are
01:12:53
in the nucleus the the kind of brain of
01:12:55
the cell. He took the nucleus from a
01:12:57
cancer cell, put it into a healthy cell,
01:13:00
and then you would think if it's a
01:13:01
disease of the nucleus and all of those
01:13:03
genes, mutations, this cell should have
01:13:05
cancer now. And yet, it didn't. It was a
01:13:07
totally normal cell. It didn't matter at
01:13:08
all that it now had the nucleus of a
01:13:10
cancer cell. However, when he took the
01:13:12
mitochondria
01:13:14
from the the energy factory of the cell
01:13:17
that's so disrupted in cancer, he took
01:13:19
the mitochondria from the cancer cell,
01:13:22
put that into a normal cell. Now, it was
01:13:24
a cancer cell.
01:13:26
But what a disruptive view. It proves
01:13:28
that it's a mitochondrial problem more
01:13:30
than a nucleus problem. And then it
01:13:32
suggests it it adds evidence to his view
01:13:35
and th others of us as well that cancer
01:13:38
is a metabolic problem.
01:13:39
>> So when when you know publications like
01:13:42
the BBC attack my guest for saying such
01:13:45
a thing or for you know for me having
01:13:47
them on the show and suggest that it's
01:13:48
like misinformation or dangerous
01:13:49
information.
01:13:50
>> How how how do you inter how do you
01:13:52
interpret that cuz
01:13:53
>> oh it's so discouraging. Um I I
01:13:56
interpret it as we've seen echoes and
01:13:59
shadows of this in the past five or six
01:14:01
years um with the pandemic and
01:14:03
everything related to it where science
01:14:06
can be very inconvenient um to
01:14:10
various entities and institutions. Um
01:14:13
and we see scientists who will
01:14:14
compromise themselves to try to receive
01:14:17
the funding and the adoration of those
01:14:20
institutions and entities.
01:14:23
But it is anti- it is it is an attack.
01:14:26
Science is a the pursuit of truth. I I I
01:14:29
was blessed to do my dissertation work,
01:14:31
my PhD studies with a wonderful man
01:14:33
named Lionus Dome. I will love him
01:14:36
forever. Um one of the things he taught
01:14:38
me, I'd come to him with discouraging
01:14:40
results. The hypothesis that I'd had
01:14:43
with regards to fat and insulin
01:14:46
resistance, it was not supporting. The
01:14:48
data were terrible in this particular
01:14:50
line of experiments. And he wasn't he
01:14:53
was unflapable. He wasn't upset. He
01:14:55
wasn't angry. He said, "Ben, don't be
01:14:57
upset. That's truth. We are seekers of
01:15:00
truth." That's what scientists are. What
01:15:02
a glorious thing to get paid to seek
01:15:06
truth. It doesn't pay that well, but it
01:15:09
it's a glorious job nonetheless.
01:15:12
That is what Dr. Thomas Seaf Freed is
01:15:14
doing. And when I think you have a big
01:15:16
entity like the BBC telling a scientist
01:15:19
who's simply stating his own findings
01:15:21
that have been peer- reviewviewed by
01:15:22
other experts in the field, it should be
01:15:24
beyond it should be he should have every
01:15:27
platform in the world to talk about
01:15:29
this. Every scientist ought to and it
01:15:31
ought to be scrutinized. Scientists
01:15:33
should never think they know the truth.
01:15:35
Even the declarations in the past few
01:15:36
years of believe the science. No, that
01:15:40
is anti-scientific.
01:15:42
Science is is con a scientist must be so
01:15:45
humble that he or she is constantly
01:15:47
prepared to dump their hypothesis if
01:15:49
they've been shown to be wrong.
01:15:51
>> And I guess it's important for those
01:15:52
ideas to be out there for you to even be
01:15:54
able to scrutinize them and challenge
01:15:56
them,
01:15:57
>> especially in something like cancer
01:15:58
where clearly what we're doing isn't
01:16:00
working. And so let's welcome new ideas.
01:16:03
And his evidence is incredibly
01:16:05
compelling. It's it's so discouraging to
01:16:07
hear, but but it is also Stephen perhaps
01:16:10
a manifestation of a broader opposition
01:16:13
to anything low carb. You just utter the
01:16:16
word ketone to a dogmatic and
01:16:18
conventionally trained dietician. Oh my
01:16:21
gosh, you are tempting their wrath. They
01:16:25
will it's it's like the more the more
01:16:28
educated a person gets, the more rigid
01:16:30
they become from time to time in their
01:16:32
ideas. You should never see that in a
01:16:35
scientist. A scientist by our by our
01:16:38
through our training, we should be
01:16:40
humble enough to admit that we don't
01:16:42
know everything.
01:16:44
>> I remember when um they contacted me,
01:16:45
the journalist at the BBC, and said,
01:16:47
"We're going to write the story about,
01:16:48
you know, the misinformation spread by
01:16:50
these guests." And I looked at what they
01:16:52
had said and this and they made this
01:16:54
little documentary did this article and
01:16:57
they had found that 0.0
01:17:01
Zero zero 1% of our total recorded hours
01:17:06
of conversation and transcripts contain
01:17:09
things that they thought were could be
01:17:11
disputed.
01:17:12
>> Oh my god.
01:17:12
>> And they felt with 0.00
01:17:15
one they would write this big breaking
01:17:17
news story in this article. And I
01:17:18
remember thinking oh like that was the
01:17:20
day that I that I felt I understood.
01:17:23
>> That was the day that I felt I
01:17:24
understood how the system works.
01:17:26
>> You could you peaked behind the curtain.
01:17:27
I got to see behind the curtain and I
01:17:29
was like, "Oh, I thought,
01:17:30
>> you know, I thought that um these like
01:17:33
cuz it's like a big brand and I've grown
01:17:34
up looking at it. I thought like they
01:17:35
are so concerned about rigor and the
01:17:39
most important thing and balance." And I
01:17:41
said to the I said to the journalist, I
01:17:42
said um of what you found 0.001
01:17:46
because they said you've got a right to
01:17:47
reply. So that was my reply.
01:17:49
>> They
01:17:49
>> and of course they wouldn't have
01:17:50
published that.
01:17:51
>> They took it out. They took my response
01:17:52
out because it was too d it was too like
01:17:55
you know. Yep. And then obviously the
01:17:56
other thing they pointed at another
01:17:58
guest that I'd had on and said, you
01:18:00
know, you also had this person on and I
01:18:03
so I went on I just typed his name in
01:18:04
and the word BBC and they'd had him on
01:18:06
too.
01:18:07
>> Oh my god.
01:18:07
>> And in fact, when he had came on this
01:18:09
particular doctor and he had said his
01:18:11
points of views, the journalist at the
01:18:12
BBC had just basically said nothing and
01:18:15
that was the end of the segment. When he
01:18:17
said it to me,
01:18:18
>> then all of a sudden it's a problem.
01:18:19
>> No, I read out the rebuttal from the
01:18:22
British Heart Foundation. I read out all
01:18:23
of the rebuttals to what he just said,
01:18:26
but of course the BBC published this
01:18:28
article saying that I'd had him on. They
01:18:29
had had him on too. They' never
01:18:30
rebuttled him. I did. And they and so
01:18:32
this was the moment that I thought
01:18:33
>> you're becoming disruptive. To be
01:18:35
honest, I suspect a part of it is you
01:18:38
are the embodiment of a new media. You
01:18:41
know, I I think even beyond the science.
01:18:44
So if this had been in the US, I would
01:18:46
have speculated that a part of the their
01:18:48
concern would have been that you are
01:18:49
sharing, you're platforming someone who
01:18:51
is bad for their bottom line because so
01:18:53
much of the income that nudes that media
01:18:57
outlets get in the US is from drug
01:18:59
company ads. In the UK, you don't have
01:19:01
that. Drug companies don't um aren't I
01:19:04
don't think they're allowed to air ads
01:19:06
on normal channels. In the UK, I think
01:19:10
is to a degree happening everywhere.
01:19:12
your platform is probably bigger than
01:19:14
many of theirs and they might feel
01:19:16
that's threatening.
01:19:17
>> It's interesting because I try and
01:19:19
remain as objective as I can. So in
01:19:20
those moments, one of my strategies is
01:19:22
to try and understand what the signal is
01:19:24
versus the noise
01:19:25
>> and to take all of this noise and figure
01:19:27
out exactly um what really really
01:19:29
matters as it relates to my genuine
01:19:31
mission, which is for the audience that
01:19:33
decide to tune in every single week and
01:19:35
day and month to get really great
01:19:37
information to improve their lives.
01:19:38
Yeah. and uh to to be able to strive at
01:19:42
the things that they care about striving
01:19:43
for, whether that's business or
01:19:45
entrepreneurship or whether it's their
01:19:46
health goals or fitness or finance or
01:19:48
whatever. And the thing I actually took
01:19:49
away from it is that there is a lot of
01:19:51
information um when you're pursuing
01:19:53
science.
01:19:54
>> And so the one of the best things we can
01:19:57
do because we know we're going to
01:19:58
continue to have lots of different
01:19:59
voices on the show is to continue to
01:20:01
provide more context on what's what's
01:20:03
being said. So, one of the things we've
01:20:04
we introduced this year, which I really
01:20:06
love, is on the screen during these
01:20:08
conversations as you're talking about
01:20:10
different complicated words or you're
01:20:12
talking about different studies or
01:20:14
whatever it might be, those studies will
01:20:16
be appearing on the screen for the
01:20:17
audience to see.
01:20:18
>> And I think I think this is a first in
01:20:20
podcasting. I don't think anyone else
01:20:22
any of the major podcasters have done
01:20:23
done this kind of thing. But that is
01:20:25
something I actually took away from it.
01:20:26
I thought, you know what, we can give
01:20:27
our audience even more context so that
01:20:28
they have a fuller picture.
01:20:30
>> That's brilliant. So, you know, every
01:20:32
cloud.
01:20:33
>> Yeah. Yeah. No, it's certainly an
01:20:34
opportunity to iterate and say, "All
01:20:36
right, how could we do it better?" Not
01:20:37
everyone's going to not everyone's going
01:20:39
to take that approach, though.
01:20:40
>> Always. And, you know, like it always
01:20:42
come the question I was asking myself is
01:20:43
like, "What are we here to do and what
01:20:45
is our mission? And what would further
01:20:46
the success of our mission?" And that's
01:20:48
one such thing. So, for people, I had a
01:20:49
lady contact me the other day. She said,
01:20:51
"I listen on Spotify. I didn't realize
01:20:53
that you were doing these like pop-up
01:20:54
things on screen." But, um,
01:20:57
>> but they're there. And also, I mean,
01:20:59
there definitely is a reason to watch.
01:21:01
>> Yeah. And in the description as well,
01:21:02
there'll be there'll be a link to
01:21:04
context as well that you can check out.
01:21:07
>> But getting back to it, um, so 2026,
01:21:10
you've given me the sort of daily
01:21:11
protocol to follow. Is there anything
01:21:13
else that we've missed cuz I really want
01:21:14
to make sure that people listening
01:21:16
achieve their 2026 health goals. I And
01:21:18
you know what those goals are because
01:21:19
people message you.
01:21:20
>> Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's
01:21:21
always it's almost always weight loss in
01:21:23
some way, shape, or form. No, I think
01:21:25
that protocol is smart. I mean we didn't
01:21:26
talk I mentioned a little bit about the
01:21:28
role of exogenous ketones um which I am
01:21:31
an advocate of uh and I would say if a
01:21:34
person is able to maybe just sort of
01:21:38
look at what other supplements they
01:21:40
might be interested in like omega-3 if
01:21:42
they are looking to gain muscle and
01:21:44
they're working out and doing some
01:21:45
resistance protocols definitely I would
01:21:48
say if you're not eating omega-3 rich
01:21:50
sources of foods like fish then get a
01:21:52
good omega-3 supplement. Omega-3 helps
01:21:55
with muscle building in a very
01:21:56
meaningful way. It's It's not just one
01:21:58
of those It's not just something you
01:22:00
take for heart health.
01:22:02
>> We were talking before we started
01:22:03
recording about vitamins.
01:22:05
>> Mhm. Yeah. Right. Yeah. So, I was joking
01:22:08
with you about how I was listening to
01:22:10
this conversation. So, everything I'm
01:22:12
about to explain, people know that I am
01:22:14
I'm not an expert. As much as I'm a
01:22:16
metabolism expert, that allows me to
01:22:18
talk about this somewhat intelligently.
01:22:20
So, let me lay the groundwork here. So,
01:22:22
I was listening to a discussion of a
01:22:24
rancher, a person who's growing
01:22:25
livestock. And of course, just to help
01:22:28
the business, you want these animals to
01:22:30
get as big and even fat as possible and
01:22:32
then get them off um to to you know,
01:22:35
just make your money. They found that
01:22:38
I'm going to I'm going to mess up these
01:22:39
numbers a little bit, but I'm going to
01:22:41
be closer than than someone might think.
01:22:43
>> I'll put them on the screen. So they
01:22:44
found that for roughly every six pounds
01:22:47
of feed they would give an animal. So
01:22:49
for every six pounds of food, you could
01:22:51
expect one pound of growth in just
01:22:53
normal a normal feed of normal just a
01:22:56
mix of the the soy, the corn, whatever
01:22:58
they're eating in in pigs or cattle. And
01:23:01
then if you start adding B vitamin
01:23:04
complexes, like a bunch of B vitamins,
01:23:07
and then the higher that gets, you can
01:23:09
go from 3 L pounds of feed is enough to
01:23:12
get one pound. All up to the point where
01:23:14
they could find that they could give the
01:23:15
animals for every two pounds of food
01:23:17
they would eat, they would gain one
01:23:19
pound. So they had effectively tripled
01:23:21
the efficiency with which the animals
01:23:24
were able to get fat off of a given
01:23:25
amount of food. So, one of my concerns
01:23:28
as a scientist is the degree to which
01:23:30
part of our obesity epidemic might be
01:23:33
the degree to which we are consuming too
01:23:36
much vitamins, especially B vitamins.
01:23:38
And the irony there is that people take
01:23:41
B vitamins because they want their
01:23:43
metabolism to be more efficient. You'll
01:23:45
hear that term. And yet, when it comes
01:23:47
to weight loss, you actually don't want
01:23:49
efficiency. You want inefficiency. Let
01:23:52
me invoke the analogy of an engine. So,
01:23:54
let's imagine that we're sitting in a
01:23:55
car and we are in drive. We're in gear.
01:23:59
We press the accelerator and we see the
01:24:01
RPMs going up. That means we're burning
01:24:03
fuel. The engine's revving. And because
01:24:05
we're in drive, we're moving. So, we're
01:24:08
actually driving. So, we're getting work
01:24:10
done. That's what we would say is
01:24:12
efficient. And an inefficient metabolism
01:24:15
is actually more conducive to weight
01:24:17
loss because now you're revving your
01:24:19
engine, but you're in neutral. And so,
01:24:21
you're not going anywhere. you don't
01:24:22
have to get any work done. So, this
01:24:24
would that's maybe a little step too far
01:24:27
with the metaphor, but B vitamins are
01:24:30
essentially making potentially the
01:24:32
mitochondria and the cell be so
01:24:34
efficient that it's storing more energy
01:24:38
better rather than burning it and
01:24:39
wasting it.
01:24:39
>> Storing more fat.
01:24:40
>> Storing more fat. You see echoes of you
01:24:42
see hints of this in human studies where
01:24:44
when they take high doses of niacin in
01:24:46
various clinical trials,
01:24:48
>> what's nice? It's one of the B vitamins
01:24:49
or many of the B vitamins, but do you
01:24:51
see substance in humans of of that
01:24:54
supports this view where high doses of
01:24:56
some of these vitamins do result in
01:24:58
weight gain? Now, they're not really
01:25:00
wellont controlled studies, but
01:25:02
nevertheless, combined with the animal
01:25:04
data, it does suggest that there's
01:25:06
something about maybe people taking too
01:25:08
many of these B vitamins and they're
01:25:10
getting fatter for every calorie
01:25:11
consumed because the body is just
01:25:13
storing it too easily.
01:25:14
>> And you're talking about taking too
01:25:16
much. You're not talking about
01:25:17
>> taking too much. I'm not talking about
01:25:18
like reaching the daily minimum, but
01:25:20
people are going like two or three or
01:25:21
four times beyond that nowadays because
01:25:24
everything is fortified. You'd mentioned
01:25:26
one of the people in the comments
01:25:27
mentioned that they cut out flour. Flour
01:25:30
is heavily heavily fortified with B
01:25:32
vitamins. And so every time we're eating
01:25:34
it, we're getting B vitamins from
01:25:36
everything. And usually it's coming with
01:25:38
processed carbohydrates. So one more
01:25:39
reason because you're not going to get
01:25:41
an overload of B vitamins from just
01:25:42
steak and eggs. It's going to be
01:25:44
something that's been packaged because
01:25:45
it's been fortified with these B
01:25:48
vitamins. So, one of that might be one
01:25:49
of the reasons why people are getting
01:25:51
fatter than ever.
01:25:52
>> I've got this uh pen in front of me. Do
01:25:54
you know what this is?
01:25:55
>> That's a GLP-1 medication.
01:25:57
>> A Zmpeek.
01:25:58
>> Ompic. Yeah.
01:25:59
>> I've got an Ampec pen right here. Now,
01:26:02
you've told me lots of different ways
01:26:03
that I can lose my body fat in 2026,
01:26:07
but couldn't I just jab myself with this
01:26:09
and my hunger will evaporate and I'll
01:26:11
lose fat. So that works until it
01:26:13
doesn't. By that I mean we have really
01:26:16
really good data now. So briefly on
01:26:18
GLP1, although I know your audience is
01:26:20
probably very familiar with this by now.
01:26:22
GLP-1 is primarily a satiety hormone.
01:26:25
It'll tell the brain that we're done
01:26:28
eating and it will slow down the
01:26:30
intestines significantly. So you'll eat
01:26:32
food. If you and I were to go eat lunch,
01:26:34
again, I've used that a couple times.
01:26:36
Our food would be in our stomach for
01:26:37
four to six hours maybe. If we injected
01:26:40
ourselves with a GLP-1 drug, which puts
01:26:42
an artificial amount of GLP-1 in our
01:26:45
body, boom, we sh it in. It's some we
01:26:48
grab a piece of fat and jab it in. Then
01:26:52
it would it slows down people's
01:26:54
intestines so much that they'll have
01:26:56
food sitting in there for 24 hours. So,
01:26:58
one of the things people talk about is
01:26:59
what's called ompic burps where they
01:27:01
just have this kind of belching bubbling
01:27:04
gas because the food is sitting in the
01:27:06
stomach for way longer than it's
01:27:08
supposed to. So, no surprise the people
01:27:11
are less interested in food. GLP-1 tells
01:27:14
the brain they don't need to eat as much
01:27:15
and slows down the intestines. Now,
01:27:17
however, I said it works until it
01:27:19
doesn't.
01:27:21
There the main thing it helps people do
01:27:24
is eat less carbohydrates. It controls
01:27:27
cravings particularly. But there was a
01:27:30
human paper that found when they
01:27:31
followed people for 2 years. It was a
01:27:34
beautiful figure. At about 6 months,
01:27:37
they found that sweet cravings dropped
01:27:39
significantly. A huge reduction in their
01:27:41
cravings for chocolate and sweets. At 12
01:27:44
months, it creeped up a little bit, but
01:27:46
it was still noticeably below where it
01:27:48
started. At 2 years, it was right back
01:27:50
to normal. So at two years on the drug,
01:27:53
the effects of having them not be
01:27:56
interested in that plate of cookies now
01:27:58
it's gone.
01:27:59
>> What's going on there?
01:28:00
>> So yeah, it's it's diminishing returns
01:28:02
as to invoke a principle of economics.
01:28:05
Doing the same thing again and again and
01:28:06
again starts to work less and less and
01:28:09
less. This we see this manifested in
01:28:11
innumerable different ways of
01:28:12
medications. So why do our clinicians
01:28:16
why does the doctor tell us to make sure
01:28:17
we take our full dose of antibiotic?
01:28:20
Because if we don't, we give it just
01:28:22
enough for the bacteria to become
01:28:24
resistant to it. And now next time we
01:28:26
would need two times the amount of B of
01:28:29
antibiotic we had. So it's it's natural
01:28:32
for the human body to become less
01:28:35
responsive to a stimulus. And that is so
01:28:37
much GLP-1 activation that it's no
01:28:40
surprise that the body starts to say,
01:28:42
"Hey, you're screaming at me too much
01:28:43
and I'm going to become deaf to your
01:28:45
signal."
01:28:47
So it starts to work less. And in the UK
01:28:50
and in the US about 70% of people get
01:28:53
off the drug of their own valition at
01:28:55
two years. They get tired of being on
01:28:57
the drug because it's basically like a
01:28:59
constant state of nausea. That's that's
01:29:01
kind of how you'd say it works that if
01:29:04
you're feeling always a little nauseous,
01:29:06
you just don't really want to snack on
01:29:07
something and people get tired of
01:29:09
feeling nauseous. But another two-year
01:29:12
study, two years appears to be kind of a
01:29:13
magic timeline, found that of of every
01:29:17
every pound they lost, 40% of it was
01:29:20
from lean ma from fat-ree mass.
01:29:23
>> What does that mean?
01:29:24
>> So that means 60% was coming from fat,
01:29:27
40% was coming from not fat, including
01:29:30
muscle and bone. It would be water as
01:29:32
well, but muscle and bone. And that
01:29:34
matters because imagine if we have an
01:29:36
older woman. Let's imagine a 60-year-old
01:29:38
woman who wants to lose weight and goes
01:29:40
on a drug.
01:29:42
If she's lost weight now and then two
01:29:44
years later wants to get off the drug
01:29:45
like 70% of people do, she will her fat
01:29:49
mass will come right back, but her lean
01:29:51
mass may never come back. That muscle
01:29:53
and bone may be gone for good.
01:29:56
>> Who is it for? Who who would you
01:29:58
recommend definitely does that does it
01:30:00
uses it? And for how long with what
01:30:03
other supplementation? Yeah, my my
01:30:05
recommendation of the drug is to not
01:30:09
currently it's being used for weight
01:30:11
loss where people just say here, jab
01:30:13
yourself with this and you're going to
01:30:14
lose weight. Um, and it works. They will
01:30:16
absolutely lose weight. But again, the
01:30:18
concern being that you're going to uh
01:30:21
lose a lot of lean mass at the same
01:30:22
time. So my best use of that drug would
01:30:25
be using it with two distinct purpose,
01:30:27
two two ways, but for one purpose, which
01:30:30
is this is a drug that's going to help
01:30:32
you learn to control carbohydrates
01:30:34
because that's the one macronutrient
01:30:35
that people are addicted to. They're
01:30:37
addicted to carbs. We eat too many
01:30:39
carbs. We're a carb crazed culture. So
01:30:41
my view is use these drugs to help
01:30:43
people cure their cravings for
01:30:45
carbohydrates.
01:30:46
>> But then when I stop taking it, isn't it
01:30:47
going to come back?
01:30:48
>> Well, so that's it then. So then you use
01:30:49
it in two different ways. One, you use a
01:30:51
much lower dose than is currently used.
01:30:52
what we could call a micro dose, if you
01:30:54
will. Um, so use a lower dose and you
01:30:57
cycle it on and off. So what I think
01:31:00
people should be doing, and I'm going to
01:31:02
talk about evidence to support this in
01:31:03
just a second, go 90 days on the drug at
01:31:06
a low dose while receiving coaching or
01:31:09
counseling on how to use a low carb diet
01:31:12
because they will find it easier than
01:31:14
ever to control their carb consumption.
01:31:16
Then at the end of 90 days, wean them
01:31:19
off the drug and say, "Let's see if
01:31:21
these habits have stuck." Very often
01:31:23
they have. I know many, many people, and
01:31:25
again, we're going to be publishing a
01:31:26
report on this. I'll touch on that in
01:31:28
just a second, who they've done 90-day
01:31:30
cycle of a lowdose GLP-1 coupled with
01:31:32
coaching on how to do a low carb diet,
01:31:35
and they find that their cravings are
01:31:37
gone and they don't need to be on the
01:31:39
drug anymore. Some people will find that
01:31:41
it lasts for a while, and the cravings
01:31:43
start to come back. All right. Well,
01:31:44
let's cycle you back on and try again.
01:31:47
Let's find out what didn't work this
01:31:48
time. So, we're about to publish a
01:31:50
report. Anyone who wants to see a little
01:31:52
more about this, I just encourage them
01:31:53
to go to my site, insulinq.com.
01:31:56
>> I'll link it below.
01:31:57
>> Great. Um, but we have done a a
01:31:59
collaborative work with a group in
01:32:00
Idaho, a clinic in Idaho, where they
01:32:03
have done just this. They have people
01:32:05
getting low carb counseling with a
01:32:07
cycled do low dose of GLP1 and the
01:32:09
results vastly outperform those who just
01:32:12
rely on the drug. Better fat loss and
01:32:15
better retention of muscle mass.
01:32:16
>> And when you say low carb counseling,
01:32:18
that's just
01:32:19
>> it's just people like me, you know, me
01:32:21
saying, "Stephen, I'd like to go on a
01:32:22
low carb diet." You saying, "Okay,
01:32:24
great. Let's talk about how you can do
01:32:25
it best." Kind of a little bit like what
01:32:27
we've been doing, but basically just
01:32:28
like a diet coach.
01:32:29
>> Okay.
01:32:30
>> But the results have been fantastic. Um,
01:32:33
literally outperforming just the drug
01:32:35
trials alone.
01:32:36
>> Over what period of time?
01:32:37
>> Yeah. So, it's now been we have people
01:32:38
who have been two to three years.
01:32:41
>> Yeah. We'll publish that soon. It's not
01:32:43
submitted yet.
01:32:45
>> All I had to do was brain dump. Imagine
01:32:47
if you had someone with you at all times
01:32:50
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01:32:52
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01:32:56
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01:32:58
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01:33:13
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01:33:18
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01:33:56
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01:34:45
I have a bunch of other things here on
01:34:46
the table that my team have got me and
01:34:49
they didn't tell me why they've got me
01:34:50
these which I think is useful because
01:34:52
this means that I can ask questions that
01:34:54
the viewer might have. What the hell is
01:34:55
this?
01:34:56
>> Yeah. Yeah. So alulose is
01:34:58
>> for anyone that can't see it's a white.
01:34:59
>> So if you you could lick it. Lick your
01:35:01
finger. You could put it in. It's going
01:35:02
to taste a little bit like a kind of
01:35:04
diluted sugar. It's just a sweetener.
01:35:07
>> Okay.
01:35:07
>> It's not quite as sweet as sugar. If it
01:35:09
is actually alulose maybe.
01:35:10
>> I'm so
01:35:11
>> Maybe it's not. Definitely.
01:35:13
>> Oh, I'm so sorry.
01:35:14
>> This is definitely a prop. It tastes
01:35:16
like bleach.
01:35:18
>> It's not bleach, is it?
01:35:19
>> No, it tastes awful, though. It tastes
01:35:20
like um
01:35:21
>> Oh my gosh. Sorry.
01:35:23
>> They labeled it alulose, but it tastes
01:35:25
like the thing that you use to clean
01:35:27
your clothes.
01:35:28
>> Baking powder.
01:35:28
>> Oh, it's baking powder.
01:35:29
>> Okay. So, at least it's not going to
01:35:30
kill you. Oh my gosh. If it were bleach,
01:35:32
you need to go rinse your mouth.
01:35:34
>> That was the end of the podcast.
01:35:34
>> Oh my god.
01:35:36
>> Yeah. Ben Dickman kills Steve Bartlett.
01:35:39
>> Okay. I didn't know that. I'm so sorry.
01:35:40
So,
01:35:41
>> Alulos. Alulose is a it's a sugar
01:35:43
replacement. It's what's called a rare
01:35:45
sugar. Um, by that I mean it exists in
01:35:48
nature. It is a sugar-like molecule. It
01:35:51
tastes sweet and yet it it is non-
01:35:54
metabolizable. It it doesn't get taken
01:35:56
into the body and it's not calories you
01:35:58
need to worry about. But what it does in
01:36:00
the context of this discussion is that
01:36:02
it will go further in the intestines and
01:36:04
elicit a significant increase in GLP-1
01:36:06
production. So, this would be one of the
01:36:08
ways that someone listening who may be
01:36:10
even on a GLP-1 drug and thinking, I
01:36:12
need an exit. I want to get off this
01:36:14
drug. I can't afford it or I feel
01:36:15
miserable. I'm tired of the nausea. Um,
01:36:18
using alulose either as a sweetener in a
01:36:20
coffee or a tea or your baking or
01:36:22
whatever is a way to increase your GLP1
01:36:25
naturally. So, is your mate that I'm I'm
01:36:27
drinking now that I start every morning
01:36:29
with that has been shown. We've
01:36:31
published a couple reports on that. That
01:36:32
works as well.
01:36:33
>> And what foods have also in them? Yeah,
01:36:36
alulose is not something that you're
01:36:38
going to get naturally. It has to be
01:36:40
>> added.
01:36:41
>> Yeah, it's added. But there are some
01:36:42
like there are some yogurts now that
01:36:44
have it. There are a few supplements
01:36:46
that will use it as its sweetener and I
01:36:48
encourage that development. It's a good
01:36:49
sweetener to use.
01:36:50
>> Okay. This other chemical that my team
01:36:52
have got here, which is again, it's a a
01:36:54
white powder.
01:36:55
>> I'm not going to try it this time just
01:36:57
in case it's something awful.
01:36:59
>> Um says has a label on it that says
01:37:01
collagen peptide. Yeah.
01:37:02
>> Why have they got this?
01:37:03
>> Yeah. So collagen peptides are another
01:37:05
way to increase GLP-1. So that would be
01:37:07
another signal here that if someone is
01:37:09
interested in a good smart way of losing
01:37:11
weight, I am a fan of collagen. There
01:37:13
was in fact just a paper just published
01:37:16
this week finding that a mix of collagen
01:37:18
and various amino acids um was very
01:37:21
effective at enhancing skin integrity
01:37:24
and the collagen in the skin. So I'm a
01:37:26
fan of collagen peptides. Are there any
01:37:28
supplements that we haven't mentioned
01:37:30
that you're a big fan of in terms of
01:37:32
weight loss?
01:37:33
>> Yeah, I'm I already mentioned a Go BHB,
01:37:36
so an exogenous ketone source. Uh I do
01:37:39
take collagen um as well. Um it's called
01:37:42
iron feather. I love it. Um but also
01:37:46
omega-3 in addition to other habits like
01:37:48
the the yerba mate, which I love and
01:37:50
other things like that. I don't call it
01:37:51
a supplement as much as just a habit.
01:37:53
>> What about creatine?
01:37:55
>> Oh, yes. Yes. I I'm I I can't believe I
01:37:58
didn't mention that. I'm very much an
01:37:59
advocate of creatine. In fact, we have a
01:38:01
study going on right now on it, which
01:38:03
I'll come back to in a second. Um yeah,
01:38:05
creatine has been um it's kind of the
01:38:08
new thing where its traditional use had
01:38:10
been in muscle and then now all of the
01:38:13
hot evidence is coming out in the brain.
01:38:16
So in the muscle evidence, there's two
01:38:18
things to note. In fact, the first one
01:38:20
is generic where creatine, not that
01:38:23
you're asking this, but people may
01:38:24
wonder how it works. Creatine will be
01:38:27
taken into a cell and it creates this
01:38:29
pool of potential energy called creatine
01:38:32
phosphate. Now, earlier I'd mentioned
01:38:34
ATP and I'm holding up three fingers
01:38:37
because of the three phosphates on that
01:38:39
ATP, the triphosphate molecule.
01:38:42
When we say contract a muscle or a nerve
01:38:46
is sending a signal, you're breaking ATP
01:38:49
apart. You're splitting off one of those
01:38:50
phosphates. Now, you're left with a
01:38:52
diphosphate, ADP. In order to recycle or
01:38:56
regenerate the ATP, you need another
01:38:58
phosphate molecule. And this is where
01:38:59
creatine comes in because creatine has a
01:39:02
phosphate now that it can come and give
01:39:04
to the ATP. rapidly recycling ATP
01:39:07
>> which means
01:39:08
>> so you're able to restore the energy in
01:39:09
the cell sooner
01:39:10
>> which means for me on a daily basis
01:39:12
>> on a daily basis would it' be two things
01:39:14
uh in the two tissues of interest one
01:39:16
you can get more work out of your muscle
01:39:17
in a given unit of time yeah
01:39:19
>> so if you wanted to have a very
01:39:20
effective 30-minute workout your rests
01:39:22
could be much shorter because of your
01:39:24
ability to regenerate ATP or recover but
01:39:27
then the newest area of research is
01:39:29
what's happening in the brain where
01:39:31
creatine has been shown to increase
01:39:33
brain energy and there are some
01:39:35
incredible human studies finding that
01:39:37
you take people with cognitive decline
01:39:39
or some form of early dementia. Give
01:39:42
them creatine supplementation and over
01:39:44
the next few weeks their cognition will
01:39:46
improve. So, as much as you have the gym
01:39:48
bros who are taking it for muscle, which
01:39:50
I'm sympathetic to, I want big healthy
01:39:52
muscles, too. Um, more than anything,
01:39:54
you and I, we're not getting paid
01:39:56
because of our muscles. We're getting
01:39:57
paid because of our brains. So, you and
01:39:59
I are taking creatine to have bigger,
01:40:01
better brains. But in order for the
01:40:04
creatine to saturate the brain, you need
01:40:06
more. And that's been some of the newest
01:40:08
focus where you can get away if you're
01:40:11
just taking it for muscle purposes, five
01:40:12
grams is enough of creatine monohydrate.
01:40:16
And if you want to get it to work for
01:40:17
the brain, you need 10 or 15 grams. So
01:40:20
quite a bit more.
01:40:21
>> I heard this from another guest I had on
01:40:22
the show and I was really shocked um
01:40:24
because I didn't think about creatine as
01:40:26
being something that could really
01:40:28
elevate my cognitive performance. And
01:40:30
from the studies that I've read in the
01:40:32
research ahead of this conversation, I
01:40:34
read that creatine helps your brain stay
01:40:36
sharp, especially when you're in a low
01:40:39
sleep
01:40:39
>> Yes.
01:40:40
>> mode or when you've been working very
01:40:41
very hard. So that's a study. There's a
01:40:44
human study that to sleepd deprived
01:40:46
people deliberately had them take
01:40:48
creatine versus the placebo and then do
01:40:49
a series of cognitive tests. No
01:40:51
surprise, the sleepd deprived people on
01:40:53
placebo did very poorly. They're so
01:40:55
tired. They're lethargic. the creatine
01:40:57
treatment group performed much better.
01:41:01
>> I heard this and I thought, "Wow, so
01:41:02
when I'm like jetlagged or underslept, I
01:41:04
should be taking my creatine."
01:41:06
>> Yeah. And so, as an underslept dad,
01:41:08
you'll get there soon enough. Um, I take
01:41:10
creatine every morning. It is literally
01:41:12
the first thing I I drink.
01:41:14
>> It's hard for um I've noticed just in my
01:41:16
friendship group when I've talked about
01:41:17
creatine, it's sometimes hard to
01:41:19
convince women to take creatine because
01:41:21
there's a sort of prevailing stereotype
01:41:22
that it makes you large.
01:41:24
>> Yeah. Yeah. I wish um cuz then I'd be
01:41:27
jacked. No, no, it doesn't. In fact, I
01:41:29
think you could make the case that a
01:41:31
woman relevant to the cognitive aspects
01:41:33
of it should be focused on it more than
01:41:36
men. So, there are few chronic diseases
01:41:39
that women suffer from more than men and
01:41:41
Alzheimer's disease is one of them. So,
01:41:43
this is a disease that will affect women
01:41:45
almost double or even triple the rate of
01:41:47
it affecting men. In so far as the
01:41:50
latest evidence shows that at higher
01:41:52
doses, creatine helps with cognition, I
01:41:55
think every woman, middle-aged and
01:41:58
beyond, should be taking creatine daily.
01:42:00
And indeed, on the higher end of that
01:42:02
dose, because that's the dose you need
01:42:04
to help your brain.
01:42:05
>> And I read from one particular study, I
01:42:07
think you talked about this on your
01:42:08
YouTube channel, that creatine increases
01:42:10
strength by up to 10% and power output
01:42:12
by up to 15% and reduces muscle damage
01:42:16
by 20 to 40% after intense exercise.
01:42:18
>> Yeah. So creatine both acts as an
01:42:20
energetic source and it changes gene uh
01:42:23
transcription. So there's evidence to
01:42:24
show that creatine in muscle stimulates
01:42:27
what's called myiogenic genes. Myiogenic
01:42:30
genes are those genes that promote
01:42:32
muscle protein synthesis and muscle
01:42:33
growth. So creatine both energizes the
01:42:37
muscle and promotes growth of the
01:42:39
muscle. Now a woman may say, "Well, I
01:42:41
don't want to get big." You can't get
01:42:42
big. The female a female body does not
01:42:45
have the right mix of sex hormones to
01:42:47
get big muscles. All that will happen is
01:42:50
she'll have wonderful healthy strong
01:42:52
muscles. She does. No woman ever needs
01:42:54
to be worried about getting too big in
01:42:55
muscles. It doesn't happen.
01:42:56
>> Why do vegetarians and vegans need to
01:42:58
pay more attention to creatine?
01:42:59
>> Right. That is Yeah. So creatine is one
01:43:01
of the many things, if you'll pardon me
01:43:03
for saying it, that a vegan would need
01:43:05
to pay attention to. Um so creatine is a
01:43:09
molecule that you can eat. So, if
01:43:11
someone's getting a lot of red meat, you
01:43:13
could make the case that they don't need
01:43:14
to supplement, that they're getting more
01:43:15
than enough. But if you're not eating
01:43:17
red meat, you may not be getting enough.
01:43:19
And I'd say you probably aren't. And
01:43:21
there's reason to get it
01:43:23
>> and
01:43:24
>> to supplement.
01:43:24
>> Does creatine have an impact on blood
01:43:26
sugar levels?
01:43:27
>> No.
01:43:27
>> Blood sugar spikes at all?
01:43:28
>> No.
01:43:30
>> I would say if someone ever notices, if
01:43:32
they're taking a scoop of creatine and
01:43:33
they see, then it's probably because you
01:43:35
have some maltodextrin in your creatine
01:43:37
powder. Do you know I I had my um blood
01:43:40
levels done a couple of weeks ago and
01:43:41
the doctor said to me that I should be
01:43:44
careful because they're seeing high
01:43:45
levels of creatine in my kidney.
01:43:47
>> Okay. Yes. So what they would have said
01:43:48
is they would have seen high levels of
01:43:50
creatinine.
01:43:51
>> That was it.
01:43:52
>> Yeah. But that's important for people to
01:43:53
know because that's one of the
01:43:55
long-standing attacks against creatine
01:43:58
has been a high level of creatinine.
01:44:01
>> That was it.
01:44:01
>> So creatinine is the metabolite of
01:44:03
creatine. So when creatine has lived its
01:44:06
life and served its purpose, it gets
01:44:08
converted into a molecule called
01:44:09
creatinine which is actively secreted
01:44:11
from the kidneys. Now it's a waste
01:44:13
product and the kidneys happily dump it
01:44:15
out. Now in an average person, if
01:44:18
someone has if you came in and you did a
01:44:20
urine test and we found your creatine
01:44:22
your creatinine levels were really
01:44:23
really high, we would worry, hey, is
01:44:26
this a sign of kidney damage? Are your
01:44:28
kidneys allowing too much to get
01:44:29
filtered? And and it might be a sign of
01:44:32
that. However, if a person's taking
01:44:35
creatine, it is absolutely guaranteed
01:44:37
that they're going to have more
01:44:39
creatinine coming out, and that's just
01:44:41
because they're metabolizing more of the
01:44:42
creatine. There's no reason to be
01:44:44
worried about it.
01:44:45
>> You talked about a 5-year study that
01:44:47
found zero kidney changes in athletes
01:44:50
taking up to 20 gram of
01:44:52
>> which is significant
01:44:53
>> creatine a day.
01:44:54
>> Yeah. There's no evidence. I'm unaware
01:44:56
of any study that has shown kidney
01:44:57
damage on creatine supplementation. It
01:44:59
is what we call in science an artifact
01:45:01
where you see a little hint of a problem
01:45:04
and assume it's it's actually causing a
01:45:07
problem when it's actually just a
01:45:08
manifestation of just what you're doing.
01:45:10
>> Ben, I'm going to ask you to close your
01:45:11
eyes.
01:45:11
>> I'm ready.
01:45:12
>> Okay. And I'm going to ask you to embody
01:45:16
what I'm about to say. Okay.
01:45:17
>> So, suddenly now you are a let's say
01:45:21
35year-old
01:45:23
man and your name is Dave and you have
01:45:28
one kid. You have a little bit of extra
01:45:31
fat around your midsection that you're
01:45:34
trying to lose. You've been listening to
01:45:36
this podcast for a while. You've heard
01:45:38
lots of things. You haven't managed to
01:45:39
make huge amount of progress. Sometimes
01:45:41
you try and then you bounce right back
01:45:43
>> and you're you're kind of at your wit's
01:45:45
end. You really really want 2026 to be
01:45:48
the year that you finally prove to
01:45:49
yourself, your family, for the sake of
01:45:51
your kids and inspiring them to live a
01:45:53
happy, healthier future. That you can
01:45:55
make a change and you can become the
01:45:58
strong, healthy, sexy
01:46:02
>> dad that your family wants you to be and
01:46:04
that you want to be. You want to finally
01:46:06
prove it to yourself after all these
01:46:08
years of struggling, trying, failing.
01:46:13
What is what is it that that guy or that
01:46:16
woman needs to hear to close out this
01:46:19
conversation today, Ben?
01:46:21
>> Yeah.
01:46:23
Um, I appreciate you mentioning the the
01:46:26
the kid. I think you need to have a
01:46:28
reason
01:46:30
because making change is hard. You have
01:46:32
to have a reason that is that is
01:46:34
motivating you to do it. That goes
01:46:35
beyond yourself. That's I should add
01:46:38
that that you'd mentioned a handful of
01:46:40
internal motivations. You want to feel
01:46:41
better. you want to look better. Those
01:46:43
are all valid, but sometimes it's not
01:46:45
enough. Have an external reason. And
01:46:48
when you're a parent, you have a reason.
01:46:49
You have a child. You're living for your
01:46:51
child. So, have a reason for doing what
01:46:54
you're doing that goes beyond your own
01:46:56
motivations and that touches someone
01:46:58
else's life. And then two,
01:47:01
you need to find a way to control your
01:47:03
cravings. I think the more I look at the
01:47:05
debates around obesity and weight loss,
01:47:09
um, which is so central to looking and
01:47:11
feeling better, the more I think you
01:47:13
have to learn to control what you're
01:47:15
addicted to. And so I would say start
01:47:20
with the simplest habit and and change
01:47:22
it. So, if this is if if Dave, the
01:47:25
35-year-old dad of one, if he finds that
01:47:28
he is starting to drink alcohol in the
01:47:32
evening and then he's doing other things
01:47:34
too that he doesn't like, stop doing
01:47:36
that. Um, and recruit outside help. So,
01:47:39
start with one habit you know you should
01:47:41
change and change it. And then that can
01:47:44
when it comes to changing diet, which is
01:47:45
among the hardest things to do for many
01:47:47
people,
01:47:49
I would say eat a big lunch.
01:47:51
Some people don't want to make small
01:47:53
changes because they don't feel
01:47:55
consequential enough. It doesn't feel
01:47:56
like it matters.
01:47:57
>> Yeah.
01:47:58
>> You know, and this is one of the things
01:47:58
again I've learned from interviewing so
01:48:00
many people is that
01:48:02
>> all of these habits are like at some
01:48:04
level interconnected.
01:48:06
>> And actually when you change one, you
01:48:08
influence another.
01:48:09
>> I totally agree.
01:48:10
>> And actually huge change in life starts
01:48:13
with small steps.
01:48:15
And so cutting out the alcohol for
01:48:18
example, that's going to have knock-on
01:48:20
effects in other areas of life, right?
01:48:22
Even like sleep or
01:48:23
>> he will sleep much better. Yes. So
01:48:25
multiple studies show that with cutting
01:48:27
people have a have a mistaken view of
01:48:29
alcohol when it comes to sleep where
01:48:31
they they fall asleep faster but then
01:48:34
they sleep worse throughout the rest of
01:48:35
the night. So there's
01:48:36
>> which then means what?
01:48:37
>> Yeah. So that men So then you wake up
01:48:39
the next morning and you're lethargic,
01:48:41
you're tired, your cortisol will be
01:48:42
higher, you will be more insulin
01:48:44
resistant. So, higher insulin levels
01:48:46
throughout the day,
01:48:47
>> which means you're going to have
01:48:48
cravings,
01:48:48
>> which means you'll have cravings. And
01:48:50
every calorie you consume, you're going
01:48:51
to be more likely to store it. So, then
01:48:53
your body is more efficient at getting
01:48:55
fat on any given amount of calories. So,
01:48:58
even even something as simple as
01:48:59
alcohol, which you and I haven't
01:49:00
discussed at all, and and maybe Dave
01:49:03
isn't an alcohol drinker, but many
01:49:05
people are, uh, that is it has this
01:49:08
patina of helping a person's sleep, and
01:49:10
yet it absolutely does not. And sleep is
01:49:12
a massively relevant variable when it
01:49:14
comes to uh metabolic health and weight
01:49:16
loss and just feeling well.
01:49:18
>> What about stress? That's a protagonist
01:49:20
in the story that we haven't talked
01:49:21
about, but I know it dovetales into
01:49:22
ketones and
01:49:23
>> Oh, it sure is. Weight loss.
01:49:24
>> So, in fact, it's a perfect segue
01:49:26
because sleep deprivation, I believe, is
01:49:28
the leading cause of stress. And stress
01:49:31
is one of the three cardinal causes of
01:49:32
what I call fast insulin resistance.
01:49:34
When the body becomes insulin resistant
01:49:36
in like hours, stress is one of them.
01:49:40
and poor sleep is the main cause. And so
01:49:42
in this case, a person could look, let's
01:49:45
say Dave is not sleeping well. There are
01:49:47
actually the problem with stress is that
01:49:49
it's hard to define that they're going
01:49:51
to bed and they're not feeling very
01:49:53
great and they're worried about stuff
01:49:54
and and if I were to tell him, Dave,
01:49:56
reduce your stress.
01:49:57
>> Well, now he's even more stressed
01:49:59
because he doesn't know how to do it.
01:50:00
This is where I think another
01:50:01
opportunity for some smart
01:50:03
supplementation can come in where there
01:50:05
are these adaptogen like molecules in
01:50:08
nature like ashwagandha. So I just tried
01:50:11
an ashwagandha source in the form of a
01:50:13
little gummy, a goalie gummy and it had
01:50:15
enough like a full kind of therapeutic
01:50:17
dose of ashwagandha and it's in the form
01:50:19
of a delicious little gummy you know so
01:50:21
you don't have to take this bitter
01:50:22
tasting powder from an ashwagandha root
01:50:25
you can take a gummy and then you sleep
01:50:27
a little better because it's been shown
01:50:29
in humans to improve sleep latency
01:50:31
improve improve sleep architecture and
01:50:32
it could be one of the mechanisms is
01:50:34
that it's just suppressing your cortisol
01:50:36
response. So if if Dave or anyone is
01:50:39
feeling that that would just be one more
01:50:42
strategy to address your metabolic
01:50:44
health that you would sort of t take the
01:50:48
small steps you can the little wins and
01:50:50
maybe he's saying all right I need to
01:50:51
sleep a little better. I'm going to cut
01:50:52
my alcohol. I'm going to take a little a
01:50:54
couple of these ashwagandha gummies
01:50:55
before I go to bed and not eat before I
01:50:58
go to bed so I don't go to bed
01:50:59
hypoglycemic. You'll start to sleep a
01:51:01
little better. You'll wake up the next
01:51:02
day ready to kind of win the day. Is
01:51:05
there a relationship with ketones and
01:51:06
stress?
01:51:07
>> Yeah, there is in that ketones help. So,
01:51:10
ketones are more and more called an
01:51:12
anxolytic. That's a technical term for
01:51:14
reducing anxiety. It has been shown to
01:51:17
be a direct effect. So, BHB, the main
01:51:18
ketone, acts as a signaling molecule and
01:51:21
will come to the brain and reduce the
01:51:24
stress hormone signaling.
01:51:25
>> What is the most important thing we
01:51:27
didn't talk about that we should have
01:51:28
talked about, Ben?
01:51:30
Um,
01:51:30
>> as it relates to that person who's
01:51:32
looking to make a change once and for
01:51:34
all,
01:51:36
>> one thing I would add, if if we go back
01:51:38
to the middle-aged guy who's just trying
01:51:40
to be the best version of himself, part
01:51:42
of it might be his testosterone levels
01:51:45
and and that is worth getting checked.
01:51:47
So, as much as we focus, you've had in
01:51:49
the past very good conversations about
01:51:51
women's health, including menopause, men
01:51:53
have their own version of it. um albeit
01:51:56
more modest, but we could more
01:51:58
technically call it andropause, the male
01:52:00
version of it. But there is a steady
01:52:02
reduction in testosterone levels. And if
01:52:05
he finds that he is tired and he's
01:52:07
gaining weight, get your testosterone
01:52:09
checked. If it's actually low, lose a
01:52:12
little weight and the testosterone will
01:52:13
boost. But if you need help, there are
01:52:15
supplements that can even help with
01:52:16
testosterone production that go that you
01:52:19
could use before full-on testosterone
01:52:22
replacement therapy. Um, but ice bath,
01:52:25
an ice bath, I know guys who've doubled
01:52:27
their testosterone levels by doing ice
01:52:29
immersion, cold plunge, and then a
01:52:31
workout after their cold plunge. That's
01:52:34
a wicked awesome combination.
01:52:37
>> So, there are a couple of tests that
01:52:38
we've mentioned today. So, I just want
01:52:39
to summarize some of those tests. Can
01:52:41
people check their insulin levels at
01:52:43
home?
01:52:44
>> No.
01:52:45
>> No.
01:52:46
>> Not not really. There are some tests
01:52:47
that have been marketed for at home use,
01:52:49
but they're quite cumbersome, and I
01:52:50
would say they're not really ready for
01:52:52
mainstream yet. Okay. So, they have to
01:52:54
go to a doctor and get their test. You
01:52:55
do.
01:52:55
>> And then the testosterone, you can't
01:52:57
check that at home either. No. I guess
01:52:58
you could could you get sent something
01:52:59
in the post?
01:53:00
>> You can. Yeah. So, there's companies in
01:53:02
the US, uh, Blok and Joy, for example,
01:53:04
there's other services you can use where
01:53:06
you go online, sign up, and they send
01:53:07
you either a phabotamist or a little
01:53:09
thing nowadays that you just snap onto
01:53:12
your arm, press a little button, and
01:53:13
it'll fill the tube with blood, and you
01:53:15
just ship it back.
01:53:16
>> Are there any tests that you recommend
01:53:18
my audience get done?
01:53:20
>> Yeah. Yeah. I would say I am an enormous
01:53:22
advocate of measuring insulin. If I
01:53:24
could change any policy within the
01:53:26
United States and and worldwide, it
01:53:29
would be that as much as every blood
01:53:31
test you and I will go into a blood test
01:53:32
every time they'll measure our glucose
01:53:34
and our lipids like cholesterol and
01:53:36
triglycerides, they'll never measure
01:53:38
insulin. If I could have one change in
01:53:41
the US and the UK and everywhere else,
01:53:42
I'd say add insulin to that panel
01:53:45
because once we get insulin, we can
01:53:46
measure the fasted level and a person
01:53:49
wants to see it at around 7 microunits
01:53:51
per mill or less. That's a really really
01:53:53
good sign. So you look at your insulin
01:53:55
alone, but then with insulin and
01:53:57
glucose, you can do something called the
01:53:59
hom
01:54:01
ha the hom score and that's a really
01:54:04
good score of where you fall on the
01:54:06
insulin resistance spectrum. And do you
01:54:09
recommend that people try and wear a
01:54:10
continuous glucose monitor, which is a
01:54:12
device that costs $ 20, $30, you can get
01:54:14
it on everywhere online that stays on
01:54:17
your arm for 14 days and it it monitors
01:54:19
your glucose levels, say your blood
01:54:20
sugar levels. Do you recommend people do
01:54:22
that?
01:54:22
>> I do. I I think that the CGM a CGM is
01:54:25
one of the best ways for a person to
01:54:27
make their own changes. So, if you put a
01:54:29
CGM on your body, you're able to look at
01:54:31
your phone and see what's happening in
01:54:33
your blood.
01:54:34
>> A CGM being a continuous glucose
01:54:35
monitor.
01:54:35
>> A continuous glucose monitor. you're
01:54:37
getting a continuous measurement of your
01:54:38
glucose levels. I have seen more people
01:54:41
make changes of their own valition when
01:54:43
they just are wearing a CGM and they
01:54:46
don't need someone to be nagging them.
01:54:48
You know, you're you have that internal
01:54:49
motivation because you see what's
01:54:51
happening in your own body.
01:54:52
>> For anyone that's never tried it, I
01:54:53
highly recommend it. You I'll link a CGM
01:54:55
below in the comment section. Um I don't
01:54:57
have an affiliation to any CGMs, but
01:54:59
when you eat something within minutes,
01:55:01
usually you can see on your phone your
01:55:04
blood sugar levels rising. And it's for
01:55:06
me it was a really important and
01:55:07
informative 14 days with the CGM on my
01:55:10
arm because it I got to try things that
01:55:12
I have every single day and understand
01:55:14
my blood sugar relationship with those
01:55:17
things. So I got to try tomato ketchup
01:55:19
and then I got to try a Coke Zero and
01:55:22
then I don't know cheese and bananas and
01:55:24
fruit and I got to see within minutes
01:55:27
how much blood glucose was in my blood
01:55:29
and and that informed going forward for
01:55:31
the next couple of years the decisions
01:55:33
that I made in my life.
01:55:34
>> Yeah. and people who the nice thing
01:55:36
about it is you can stack it with other
01:55:37
technologies like let's say you're
01:55:38
wearing a Whoop.
01:55:40
>> Yeah.
01:55:41
>> AD.
01:55:42
>> One of the cool things with the CGM is
01:55:43
the ability to stack it with other
01:55:45
wearables. Well, where let's say that a
01:55:47
person notices that they with wearing a
01:55:48
Whoop that their HRV is suggesting that
01:55:52
they're stressed. And then you look at
01:55:54
that at the same time as your CGM. You
01:55:56
may find that what's causing you to feel
01:55:59
stressed could be your hypoglycemic
01:56:01
spike. And you wouldn't have known that
01:56:02
if it weren't for the CGM. So, I think
01:56:04
there's a lot of utility in stacking
01:56:06
some of these wearables. Someday they're
01:56:08
all going to be in one. Yeah.
01:56:09
>> Um, and they'll crack the code of doing
01:56:11
that. But, I think it really does lend
01:56:13
insight. I made one of the biggest
01:56:15
changes to my sleep by wearing a CGM
01:56:18
where I would sleep terribly. I'd be
01:56:20
monitoring my stress and find that, wow,
01:56:23
every time I sleep really poorly, my
01:56:25
blood glucose, I'd spike my blood
01:56:27
glucose in the evening. I'm going to try
01:56:29
cutting that out. And sure enough, I it
01:56:31
was the single greatest change of my
01:56:33
sleep habits.
01:56:34
>> Ben, we have a closing tradition on this
01:56:35
podcast that the last guest leaves a
01:56:37
question for the next guest, not knowing
01:56:38
who they're leaving it for. The question
01:56:39
left for you is, if you could have
01:56:41
anything in the world for the rest of
01:56:42
your life, what would it be and why?
01:56:47
And you can't say your family.
01:56:50
>> Ah, okay. I was going to ask for that
01:56:52
clarification. Okay. If I could have any
01:56:55
one thing, an item that's not a person,
01:56:57
um I would choose to have my uh my
01:57:01
scriptures,
01:57:02
these holy scriptures, um that I I read
01:57:06
every day. I believe a lot of my
01:57:09
happiness in life has come from my uh my
01:57:12
religious conviction and my belief in a
01:57:14
higher power and my faith in God. As a
01:57:16
scientist, it seems like too many people
01:57:18
want to describe faith as a negative
01:57:21
thing. But everything we do is based on
01:57:23
faith. Every action we take is a is a
01:57:25
faith in a hope that the consequence
01:57:27
will be one we want. And so for me, it
01:57:30
would be my scriptures. Just my way of
01:57:33
meditating and pondering my position in
01:57:35
the greater universe and my connection
01:57:38
with what I believe to be a God, a
01:57:40
loving heavenly father who cares about
01:57:43
me and that I can go to when I feel like
01:57:45
I need help. that goes beyond what I can
01:57:46
do with my own hands.
01:57:47
>> What do you think this is all about?
01:57:49
This life, what do you think the point
01:57:50
of this all of this is?
01:57:51
>> Oh, that's a big question. Um, I believe
01:57:54
it is to show our heavenly father that
01:57:57
we are capable of more that I have very
01:58:00
much a very clear um worldview that we
01:58:03
have a loving heavenly father that we
01:58:05
existed in a premortal state and that
01:58:08
our bodies this mortal experience is an
01:58:11
experience for us. We've been given this
01:58:13
much power. These bodies give us some
01:58:16
power. We have power over life. We have
01:58:18
power over death and all the temptations
01:58:20
that can come from addictions and habits
01:58:22
that are unique to this mortal
01:58:24
tabernacle. I think we've been given a
01:58:26
period of time to show that we can wield
01:58:31
power and control ourselves.
01:58:34
just assuming my my my religious view is
01:58:37
very much that just like my as a as a
01:58:39
father my great hope is that my children
01:58:41
will grow up to be wonderful mothers and
01:58:44
fathers that I want them to be able to
01:58:46
pattern their lives after what they see
01:58:47
in my wife and me. I believe that we
01:58:50
have a heavenly father and a heavenly
01:58:52
mother actually that the we have these
01:58:54
divine parents who want nothing more
01:58:55
than for their children to grow up and
01:58:57
be like them. And I think this is just
01:58:59
like my children will have to leave the
01:59:01
home. If I coddled them and protected
01:59:03
them and only let them stay in my home,
01:59:05
they'd never learn anything. They'd
01:59:06
never grow up because mom and dad are
01:59:08
doing everything. This I think mortal
01:59:10
life is our divine parents opportunity
01:59:13
to show to to help us grow up and then
01:59:16
the time will come for us to pass on and
01:59:18
we will come back to them. Hopefully
01:59:21
showing that we are ready to continue to
01:59:23
learn and progress and be more like
01:59:24
them.
01:59:25
>> To what end? For what reason?
01:59:27
>> To mimic what our heavenly parents have
01:59:30
been able to do where they they have
01:59:31
been able to create a world and populate
01:59:33
it with their spirit children. I want to
01:59:36
do that too. I you and I before we
01:59:38
started recording I joked about how much
01:59:39
I miss babies. I desperately and I do.
01:59:42
It is an ache in my soul that my
01:59:45
children are not little cuddly babies
01:59:48
anymore. Now they're darling children
01:59:50
nevertheless. But I miss babies. And to
01:59:53
me, heaven is my wife and I whom I love
01:59:58
having a family that never ends. and and
02:00:01
that we're able to
02:00:03
give life to this countless number of
02:00:05
future children. Um that someday we'll
02:00:08
be born on a world just like us. That's
02:00:10
a pretty cosmic grand view. But to me,
02:00:13
the purpose of life is to show Heavenly
02:00:16
Father that we are worthy of more and
02:00:20
not just end into a nihilistic blackness
02:00:23
when we die.
02:00:26
>> Thank you. We're done.
02:00:27
>> My pleasure.
02:00:32
If there's anything we need, it is
02:00:34
connection. Especially in the world
02:00:35
we're living in today. And that is
02:00:37
exactly why we created these
02:00:39
conversation cards. Because on this
02:00:40
show, when I sit here with my guest and
02:00:42
have those deep, intimate conversations,
02:00:45
this remarkable thing happens time and
02:00:47
time again. We feel deeply connected to
02:00:50
each other. At the end of every episode,
02:00:51
the guest I'm interviewing leaves a
02:00:53
question for the next guest, and we've
02:00:55
turned them into these conversation
02:00:57
cards. And we've added these twist cards
02:00:59
to make your conversations even more
02:01:00
interesting. And there are so many more
02:01:03
twists along the way with the
02:01:04
conversation cards. This is the brand
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new edition. And for the first time
02:01:07
ever, I've added to the pack this gold
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cards in the first run of conversation
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cards. So get yours now before the
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limited edition gold cards are all gone.
02:01:21
Head to the link in the description
02:01:22
below.
02:01:25
Heat. Heat. N.
02:01:35
I see.
