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Pregnancy Diet Expert: The Pregnancy Diet That Rewrites DNA! Why Pregnant Moms Are Being Lied To!

February 26, 202601:36:18
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With your diet during pregnancy, you're
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programming your baby's DNA. And this is
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going to have an impact on your baby's
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development and on their future risk of
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disease. And there's a lot of pregnant
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moms who are eating a diet that's not
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giving them the nutrients their baby
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needs. This is not the mom's fault. This
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is the fault of our food system. This is
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the fault of society. And nobody's
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telling moms about this. And I wanted to
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create this guide to help parents
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navigate that food system and see easy
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things they can do to help their baby's
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development. And I know this because as
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a biochemist when I became pregnant, I
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just went deep, deep, deep into the
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research. And there are some main things
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that I learned. For example, 90% of moms
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are not getting enough choline during
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pregnancy. And choline is super
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important. It forms your baby's brain in
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the womb. So this is the amount of eggs
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that I ate per week during the 9 months
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of pregnancy because this is the
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simplest way to give enough choline to
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our baby. And then your baby needs no
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fructose during pregnancy. So sugar from
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dessert, from chocolate, from muffins,
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from cupcakes, your baby needs none of
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this. Because if you have very high
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glucose levels during pregnancy,
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scientists have found that your baby's
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DNA will have epigenetic switches that
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are programming them towards having a
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higher vulnerability to develop
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diabetes, obesity, and psychiatric
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disorders. Next, this is basically the
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amount of protein that I needed to eat
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every single day in the third trimester
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of pregnancy.
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>> Yeah. because the studies show low
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protein diets lead to smaller babies and
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potentially this epigenetic programming
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of staying smaller throughout life. And
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it's findings like that that led me to
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create a plan and simple hacks for
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pregnant moms and we can talk about
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them.
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>> And then what does the research say
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about breastfeeding, exercise, caffeine,
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and also do you recommend that mothers
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take certain supplements?
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>> So this is what people need to know.
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>> Guys, I've got a quick favor to ask you.
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We're approaching a significant
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better. Thank you so much for being part
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of this journey. Means the world. And uh
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yeah, let's do this.
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Jesse Inospay, the glucose goddess,
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for people that don't know who you are,
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what have you spent the best part of the
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last decade committing your life to and
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why?
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My work started in the glucose space,
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meaning the blood sugar space. I was
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showing people how blood sugar impacts
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all of us on a daily basis. The spikes
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and dips after we eat, they lead to
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inflammation, faster aging, cravings,
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fatigue, and it's been the basis of my
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work because glucose matters for
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everybody and it is the core of a
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healthy body and mind. And so that's
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where I started because it's so
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important.
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>> We last spoke almost two years ago now.
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What have you learned in those last two
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years that has evolved your own thinking
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or has developed your own thinking in
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any way? If we reflect on the last
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conversations we had around glucose
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spikes and sugar and the health
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consequences and diets, is there
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anything you've learned in those two
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years that is interesting and new?
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>> Oh, absolutely. I think mostly the
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impact of glucose on mood and on
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relationships. For example, there's this
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fascinating study that took married
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couples and they gave the husband and
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the wives a little voodoo doll
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representing their spouse. And the
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researchers told uh the participants to
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put a little pin in the voodoo doll
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every time their spouse annoyed them. At
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the end of the two weeks, the
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researchers counted the number of pins
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in the voodoo dolls and they also
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measured the participants glucose
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levels. They found that the people who
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had the most glucose lows had put the
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most pins in the voodoo doll
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representing their spouse.
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>> Wow.
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>> So, it's just an association, but it's
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interesting. And scientists then found
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that when you have very unsteady glucose
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levels, it impacts this neurotransmitter
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in your brain called tyrrosine that
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manages your mood. So, it seems that
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with unsteady glucose levels, your mood
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is less stable, which could then
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correlate to you being more annoyed at
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your spouse. So, I think studies like
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this have really blown my mind.
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>> What's going on when we go through a
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glucose crash, per se?
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>> So, glucose is your body's energy. So,
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your brain is constantly monitoring how
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much glucose do we have in our
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bloodstream. And steady glucose is
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great. When your glucose levels crash,
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this indicates biologically that you're
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out of fuel. And this is a powerful
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signal to your body and your brain to
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say, "Alert, alert. We need food. We
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need more glucose." And so it creates
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all these downstream consequences on
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your mood. You become hangry. All you
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think about is food. You're in a bad
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mood. You're like, "I need to eat
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something." You look for a banana. You
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look for a cookie. It can also activate
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the craving center in your brain that
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says, "Steven, go find some chocolate."
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And science has shown this. Low glucose
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levels creates a cascade of consequences
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on how we feel and what we seek. Now,
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what's interesting is that back in the
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day when we had low glucose levels, I'm
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talking like hunter gatherer times, they
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wouldn't arrive so quickly because we
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didn't have these big spikes that then
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led to these big drastic drops. It was
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more we ate in a more balanced way with
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less sugar obviously. So, when our
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glucose became low, it was a bit more
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gradual. Today, because we have access
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to all this sugar, we can spike our
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glucose very quickly and as a result, it
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then crashes very quickly. So, the
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effects are pretty much immediate and
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they're very intense. All of a sudden,
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you go from feeling okay to your brain
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being in alert mode. We need to find
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more fuel. So, we've disregulated our
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glucose levels to the point where it's
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impacting us in a very unnatural way.
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>> Is that in part because we modify our
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food? Even fruit. When I looked back
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through the history of fruit, apples,
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bananas, etc. looked extremely different
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before they were modified to be juicier
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and sweeter, etc.
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>> Completely. It's like dogs. So all the
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the dog breeds today from Chihuahua to
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golden retrievers, they all come from
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wolves. Humans have been breeding wolves
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together to create these different
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species of dogs. They all have that
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ancestor of the grey wolf. So humans are
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very good at breeding natural things to
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serve their purposes. And when it comes
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to fruit, it's the same thing. So as you
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say, if you compare like an ancestral
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banana or an ancestral apple to a modern
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one, they look completely different. And
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you should pull up these photos. They're
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fascinating. Ancestral banana, tiny,
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full of fiber, full of seeds, not very
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sweet. And then modern banana, full of
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sugar, low in fiber, really easy to eat.
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So that's the first thing people need to
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know about fruit. Fruit is not natural.
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Fruit is the product of human
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engineering. However, a piece of whole
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fruit also contains fiber and water. So
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even though it's been bred to have a lot
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of sugar, the fiber in the water reduce
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how quickly the sugar arrives in our
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bloodstream, making it more or less okay
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for us. But the problem comes when we
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denature that piece of fruit. Meaning if
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we remove the fiber, for example, if we
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take an orange and make an orange juice,
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what are we actually talking about here?
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Actually, oranges are not even a natural
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fruit. They were invented thousands of
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years ago by breeding by crossing other
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species of fruit. To make an orange
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juice, you throw away part of the
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orange. You throw away the solid part,
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which is the fiber. So, you're left with
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the sugar of a very sugary fruit, water,
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and no fiber. As a result, you're
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getting a very unnatural amount of sugar
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in your bloodstream with no fiber to
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protect the spike. So, a big big glucose
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spike. And people often say, "Oh, well,
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you know, fruit has vitamins in it, so
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therefore orange juice must be better
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for you than Coca-Cola." That's actually
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a total myth. If you compare a glass of
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orange juice to a glass of Coca-Cola,
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it's the same amount of sugar, about 25
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grams. and the sugar in the can of Coke
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and the sugar in the glass of orange
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juice, they're exactly the same. They're
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glucose and fructose molecules, and your
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body absorbs them in the exact same way.
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Your body does not make a difference
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between sugar from an orange and sugar
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from a sugar beat that's now in a can of
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Coca-Cola. I I hope that orange juice
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disappears from school lunches, from
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hospital meals. The World Health
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Organization recommends 25 gram of sugar
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per day or less. So, with just one glass
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of orange juice in the morning that you
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squeeze at home that you think is good
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for you, you're already at the maximum
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limit of sugar recommendation. And most
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people drink this glass of orange juice
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thinking it's good for them. Most people
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with diabetes drink this glass of orange
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juice thinking it's helping them with
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their condition. And that's really where
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I want to act. I want to help people
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understand what they actually need to do
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to feel better so they don't fall victim
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to marketing.
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>> We talked there about glucose crashes
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and what that causes in terms of
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behavior. I was wondering if also causes
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other compulsive behaviors. Does it make
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me more likely to want to doom scroll on
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the internet if I have been eating lots
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of sugar?
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>> Well, that's a great question. Why does
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sugar feel good? Because it releases
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dopamine in our brain. Dopamine is the
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pleasure molecule. It makes us feel
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good. So if I were to drink this glass
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of orange juice, which you would have to
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pay me a lot of money for me to drink
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this, but my brain would let out so many
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dopamine molecules and I would feel this
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wave of pleasure. Now the problem is
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people confuse that with energy. It's
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not energy, it's dopamine. And dopamine
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is the same exact molecule that gets
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released when you're scrolling on
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Instagram. You look for the next post,
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you look for the next video. Every time
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you get something new and interesting,
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bam, a dopamine signal as well in your
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brain. So, if you're constantly
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triggering dopamine in your brain,
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you're going to constantly crash. You're
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going to have dopamine spikes, dopamine
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crashes, and become more and more
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addicted to it. So, I don't know about
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studies showing glucose spikes, and for
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example, doom scrolling. But if you look
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at just the biology of it, they're
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triggering the same center in your
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brain. So, for sure, I can imagine that
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if you are on a dopamine binging or
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dopamine addiction cycle, both an orange
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juice and a glucose spike and doom
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scrolling can go hand in hand. I was
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just looking at some research here and
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it says yes, you're significantly more
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likely to doom scroll during a glucose
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crash. And it explains that that's
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because of something called the energy
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crisis in the prefrontal cortex where
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your prefrontal cortex, the part of the
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brain responsible for willpower and
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decision-m and saying no to things like
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doom scrolling in the case where glucose
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drops. This area is first to dim the
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lights to save energy for vital
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functions. The result is you lose your
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executive function, making it nearly
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impossible to resist the hit of dopamine
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that social media provides. But it also
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says the second reason is this dopamine
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trap. And the third is generally your
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emotional regulation goes out of the
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window. I I think this in part because I
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notice in myself that when I am on a
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higher glucose diet, I'm more likely to
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get involved in like compulsive
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behaviors that I otherwise don't like.
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>> Yeah.
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>> Like doing scrolling on the internet.
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>> You have less willpower, less control.
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>> Yeah. I have less willower.
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>> You feel more addicted.
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>> Yeah. Like I have less control over my
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life.
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>> And the first thing that people notice
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is that when they are on a glucose
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roller coaster, they feel addicted to
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sugar. like it's no longer a choice to
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go after that cookie, it feels like a
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compulsive behavior like I need sugar
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right now because that glucose crash is
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triggering a biological mechanism that
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is nearly impossible to override. So
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when you tell somebody just eat less
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sugar, that's that's BS. You can't just
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eat less sugar. You have to go fix the
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underlying cause, which is usually the
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glucose crash. You can't override that
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feeling of craving that comes from deep
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inside your brain when you have a
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glucose crash. You need to fix the
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spike, reduce the spike, and then
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naturally the spike also reduces and you
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feel fewer cravings. There's this theory
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called the protein leverage hypothesis.
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And this this theory says that your body
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will keep you hungry and keep you
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seeking food until you've given it
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enough protein. So if in the morning you
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have uh I don't know some oats and toast
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and jam, very little protein, your
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body's going to be like, "Okay, we
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didn't get any protein. We need to get
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more protein." So you stay more and more
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hungry. At 10 a.m. you're hungry again.
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If you have a cookie, again, no protein.
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Your body will keep you hungry. If all
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of a sudden you have 40 grams of
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protein, then that craving dissipates
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and that feeling of seeking out food
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sort of calms down because your body got
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what he actually needed, which was
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protein.
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>> People send you lots of messages. You
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have a enormous online following. If I
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was to peer into those DMs you get, what
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would be the essence of what people are
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saying to you?
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>> They're asking me about specific foods.
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They're saying, "Are lentils okay? Can I
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eat three eggs a day? what kind of
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vinegar should I use? And often it's
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people trying to navigate the marketing
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messages they're seeing on the packaging
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of things. They'll be like, "This can of
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tea that says zero grams of sugar, is it
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good for me?" They're trying to decode
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what these food products actually
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contain and whether they're actually
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good for them.
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>> And is there any real standout marketing
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messages that are deceptive?
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>> Yeah.
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No added sugars. That is so deceptive
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because this glass of orange juice has
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no added sugars in it because the sugar
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was there at the beginning. It came from
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the orange from the original ingredient.
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So on a can of orange juice, you can say
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no added sugar even though it contains
00:13:05
25 grams of sugar, which is the maximum
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limit the recommends for your daily
00:13:10
sugar intake. So that's a really really
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bad one. Another one would be something
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that says gluten-free or vegan. It's not
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because it's gluten-free veating vegan
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that it's good for you, but we're being
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tricked. You know, food manufacturers do
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everything they can to make you buy
00:13:22
their products. I think I'm in the
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season of life where I'm thinking a lot
00:13:26
about fertility, both my fertility, my
00:13:28
fiance's fertility, and how my diet, the
00:13:31
things I eat has an impact on that. What
00:13:34
what what what is it we need to know
00:13:35
about you, if we're trying to conceive,
00:13:37
if we want to have we want to have a
00:13:38
family, um is it really the case that I
00:13:40
need to start thinking about my own
00:13:41
fertility in the leadup to putting that
00:13:45
sperm into that egg? Yes, both the males
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and the females need to be thinking
00:13:50
about fertility and nutrition plays a
00:13:53
big role and health plays a big role in
00:13:54
the quality of your sperm for example.
00:13:56
So a good idea would be to reduce before
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you want to have a kid if you're the man
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you know reduce alcohol, exercise more,
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eat better so that your sperm are high
00:14:04
quality. So the sperm turnover is about
00:14:06
three months. So if you do like a
00:14:07
threemon sort of intense uh my sperm are
00:14:11
getting in shape kind of situation, it's
00:14:14
a good idea for women. It's different.
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So, our eggs are present from before
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we're born, but the quality of our diet,
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of our nutrient reserves, is going to
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impact our ability to have kids also.
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And it's going to impact what our baby
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gets in the first trimester of
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pregnancy.
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>> You've just given birth.
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>> Eight months ago. Yeah. Feels like just
00:14:30
last week, but yeah, eight months ago.
00:14:32
>> And um I guess that's somewhat linked to
00:14:35
why you've written this new book, which
00:14:36
is titled Nine Months That Counts
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Forever: How Your Pregnancy Diet Shapes
00:14:41
Your Baby's Future. You could have
00:14:42
written about anything, Jesse, and
00:14:44
people would have bought the book um
00:14:46
because people are so fascinated by you
00:14:47
and the work that you do. Why of all the
00:14:50
subjects you could have written about
00:14:51
was this the subject that meant the most
00:14:53
to you to commit a long period of your
00:14:55
life to?
00:14:56
>> Because it is a subject where there's
00:14:59
such a big gap, Stephen, between what
00:15:01
science knows and what parents are told.
00:15:05
It felt like there was a just canyon
00:15:08
between information in the studies
00:15:10
that's been there for decades and what I
00:15:12
as a pregnant woman went through and
00:15:14
what advice I was given, what's
00:15:16
available out there to pregnant moms. So
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even though I was pregnant and I was
00:15:20
tired, I felt I need to write this book
00:15:22
because people need to know the power
00:15:24
that they have. So today, science knows
00:15:27
that you're not just an oven when you're
00:15:30
pregnant. Have you heard this thing
00:15:31
being a bun in the oven? It's an
00:15:33
American expression. Uh, I think I've
00:15:35
heard it once or twice. Yeah.
00:15:36
>> Okay. So, often if you're pregnant,
00:15:38
people will say, "Oh, you have a bun in
00:15:39
the oven. That's so cute." It's like an
00:15:41
expression. And I feel like this is
00:15:43
where all of our problems started
00:15:44
because it implies so many misleading
00:15:47
things. It implies that when you're
00:15:48
pregnant, you are an oven, meaning
00:15:51
you're just there to provide heat and
00:15:53
time. And people often say, "Just relax,
00:15:55
you know, let nature do its thing." So,
00:15:57
it implies that you're passive, that you
00:15:59
have no agency, no power. You're just a
00:16:01
vessel of heat and time. That's the
00:16:04
first problem. The second problem is
00:16:06
that it implies that just like a
00:16:09
chocolate cake that you put in the oven,
00:16:11
it implies that your baby, the moment
00:16:14
the sperm meets the egg, your baby is
00:16:16
set in stone. Like if you're making a
00:16:18
cake, when you make the brownie and you
00:16:20
put it in the oven, the oven is not
00:16:22
going to change the brownie into banana
00:16:24
bread. The oven is just cooking the
00:16:25
brownie. Well, actually, it's very
00:16:28
different with pregnancy. Your baby is
00:16:30
not set in stone at conception. What
00:16:33
happens during the nine months of
00:16:35
pregnancy is co-creating your baby's
00:16:37
plan. And depending on what you eat, a
00:16:40
different baby will come out. So, we've
00:16:43
been lying to pregnant moms, telling
00:16:45
them they have no agency, they have no
00:16:47
power, they should just relax and let
00:16:49
nature do its thing. So, that's why I
00:16:50
wrote this book because the science is
00:16:52
fascinating.
00:16:54
>> So, where where are pregnant women being
00:16:56
let down in this regard? Is it that
00:16:57
there's just not enough information out
00:16:59
there? Is there's there's not been
00:17:00
enough research out there? Is it bad
00:17:01
advice currently on the internet?
00:17:03
>> This is the fault of our food system.
00:17:05
This is the fault of society. This is
00:17:07
the fault of the food industry that we
00:17:08
were just talking about the marketing
00:17:09
messages. For everybody today in
00:17:12
developed countries, we are being fed
00:17:15
processed, unhealthy foods that are
00:17:17
hurting us. Whether we get diabetes or
00:17:19
heart disease, there's a link to food.
00:17:21
And today, even pregnant moms are being
00:17:22
let down by the food system and are
00:17:24
eating a diet without knowing it that's
00:17:26
not giving them the nutrients their baby
00:17:27
needs. So, the moment I became pregnant
00:17:31
the first time, I started researching. I
00:17:33
went to Google Scholar and I just opened
00:17:35
about a thousand tabs on my computer,
00:17:37
which is usually what I do when I'm
00:17:38
researching a new topic. And I looked at
00:17:40
the big review studies, the metaanalyses
00:17:42
of how nutrition during pregnancy
00:17:44
impacts our baby's development. I read
00:17:46
probably 2,000 scientific papers and I
00:17:49
just went deep, deep, deep into the
00:17:50
research. And out of it, I saw these
00:17:53
four big themes coming out of these four
00:17:56
nutrients that most moms are not getting
00:17:59
enough of in their diet or too much of
00:18:01
in their diet. And I wanted to create
00:18:03
this guide to help parents navigate that
00:18:05
food system and see easy things they can
00:18:07
do in the mom's diet to help their
00:18:10
baby's development. So while your baby's
00:18:13
DNA is set the moment the sperm meets
00:18:16
the egg with your diet during pregnancy,
00:18:19
you're programming that DNA. Have you
00:18:21
heard of epigenetics?
00:18:22
>> Yes.
00:18:23
>> Okay. So epigenetics are like these
00:18:25
little dimmer switches that sit on your
00:18:27
DNA and that say activate this gene or
00:18:30
silence this gene. And so during
00:18:33
pregnancy, you're putting these little
00:18:35
switches on your baby's DNA. And this is
00:18:36
going to have an impact on your baby's
00:18:38
development and on his future risk of
00:18:41
disease. I'll give you a very simple
00:18:43
example. If you have very high glucose
00:18:47
levels during pregnancy, scientists have
00:18:49
found that your baby's DNA will have
00:18:52
epigenetic switches that are programming
00:18:54
him towards having a higher
00:18:56
vulnerability to develop diabetes
00:18:58
himself in his lifetime. So if you have
00:19:01
high glucose levels, your baby will be
00:19:03
programmed to be more likely to then
00:19:05
have high glucose levels himself
00:19:07
throughout his life as a kid, a
00:19:09
teenager, and an adult. That's
00:19:10
epigenetic programming. And depending on
00:19:12
your diet as the mom, you can program
00:19:14
your kids differently. But nobody tells
00:19:16
moms about this. And that's what I'm
00:19:18
trying to change.
00:19:19
>> What do I need to know as someone that
00:19:21
knows very little about pregnancy to
00:19:22
really understand the like basics of
00:19:24
what's going on?
00:19:25
>> What time frame matters? What happens
00:19:27
when? So females have a uterus which is
00:19:31
an organ and the uterus is where the
00:19:33
baby develops and the uterus grows as
00:19:35
pregnancy progresses and then when you
00:19:37
give birth the baby comes out of the
00:19:39
uterus and the uterus stays in the mom.
00:19:40
So that's important
00:19:42
when conception happens. So you have the
00:19:44
sperm meets the egg that little packet
00:19:47
of cells will implant in one of the
00:19:49
walls of the uterus and start growing.
00:19:51
And pregnancy is divided into three
00:19:53
trimesters. It's about nine months. So
00:19:56
months 1 to 3 is the first trimester. 4
00:19:58
5 6 is the second trimester. 7 8 9 is
00:20:01
the third trimester. And what we're
00:20:03
going to talk about today is about
00:20:05
nutrition and how your baby's getting
00:20:07
the building blocks that he needs to
00:20:09
develop in your womb as the female.
00:20:12
Because your baby needs to grow from a
00:20:13
single cell to 40 trillion cells by the
00:20:16
time he's born, right? He grows from
00:20:18
like nothing to three or four kilos. And
00:20:21
that has to come from somewhere. It
00:20:22
doesn't just come out of thin air. All
00:20:23
those building blocks, all that matter
00:20:26
is coming from you, from what you're
00:20:28
eating. What you eat becomes your baby.
00:20:31
So your baby is what you eat.
00:20:33
>> In the first trimester, your baby's
00:20:35
getting food from the sort of milk that
00:20:37
your uterus creates. So it's uterine
00:20:40
secretions. And then from the second
00:20:42
trimester onwards, something incredible
00:20:44
happens. And
00:20:45
>> when's the second trimester? That's
00:20:46
>> it starts at four months.
00:20:48
>> Okay. And so for the second and third
00:20:50
trimesters, there's another organ that
00:20:52
you create inside your uterus. It's
00:20:54
called the placenta. And the placenta's
00:20:56
job is to bring your baby's bloodstream
00:20:59
and your bloodstream as the mom in
00:21:02
really close contact. And all of a
00:21:04
sudden, symbiosis is established. And
00:21:06
your bloodstream and your baby's
00:21:08
bloodstream are then going to exchange
00:21:09
nutrients and waste. So your baby's
00:21:12
going to get all his nutrition directly
00:21:14
from your bloodstream. And Stephen,
00:21:16
here's a main myth that people believe.
00:21:18
They believe that your baby will just
00:21:20
get what he needs from you during
00:21:22
pregnancy. That's something moms are
00:21:24
told. Don't worry, your baby will get
00:21:25
what he needs from you. This is a lie.
00:21:28
Depending on what you eat, your baby
00:21:30
will have different access to important
00:21:32
nutrients. So, your baby doesn't get
00:21:33
what he needs. He gets what's there and
00:21:36
what you give him. So, let's take a
00:21:38
simple example. One of the nutrients
00:21:41
that is really important is called
00:21:42
choline. Have you heard about choline
00:21:44
before? Is that in eggs?
00:21:45
>> Yes, exactly. It's in the egg yolk. So,
00:21:48
choline is super important. It forms
00:21:50
your baby's brain in the womb. So, your
00:21:53
baby your baby's brain has these cells
00:21:55
that are forming called neurons, which
00:21:57
are the ones that process information.
00:21:59
And choline is important to creating
00:22:00
those neurons. And choline creates the
00:22:03
parts of your baby's brain that have to
00:22:04
do with memory, learning, and attention.
00:22:07
So that egg that you're holding contains
00:22:09
about 125 milligs of choline and it's an
00:22:12
incredible incredible substance.
00:22:15
The thing is if you don't eat enough
00:22:17
choline your baby's brain is not going
00:22:19
to get enough choline and this can have
00:22:22
an impact on the development of your
00:22:24
child. So much so that the American
00:22:27
Association of Pediatrics says failure
00:22:29
to provide choline during this time can
00:22:31
result in lifelong brain deficits in the
00:22:34
baby.
00:22:36
Today, 90% of moms are not getting
00:22:38
enough choline during pregnancy. 90% of
00:22:41
moms are not getting enough choline
00:22:43
during pregnancy.
00:22:44
>> Why?
00:22:44
>> Because nobody is telling them about it.
00:22:46
And because today we don't eat very
00:22:49
nutritious nutritious foods anymore that
00:22:50
contain a lot of choline. They're
00:22:52
present in eggs. So four eggs a day
00:22:54
gives you all the choline that you need.
00:22:56
But choline is also present in organ
00:22:58
meats like liver. Nobody eats liver
00:22:59
anymore. Most of the foods that we eat
00:23:01
today, cupcakes, dried fruits, burgers,
00:23:06
chips, they don't contain a lot of
00:23:07
choline. We need to be eating eggs. This
00:23:09
is the simplest way to give enough
00:23:11
choline to our baby. And scientists do
00:23:13
these animal studies where they deprive
00:23:15
moms from choline. And they look at the
00:23:18
impact on the brain. And they see that
00:23:20
brain development in the baby stops
00:23:22
earlier than it should. And those babies
00:23:24
are born with fewer neurons. The amount
00:23:27
of choline in your diet during pregnancy
00:23:29
is going to be impacting your child's
00:23:31
brain development. And nobody's telling
00:23:33
moms about this. It's really messed up.
00:23:36
>> So, how many eggs a day do I need to eat
00:23:38
while I'm pregnant to get enough
00:23:39
choline?
00:23:40
>> Four is the golden number. So, here I
00:23:42
think we have 28 eggs. So, every day
00:23:46
during pregnancy, I ate four eggs. So,
00:23:49
this is the amount of eggs that I ate
00:23:51
per week during the nine months of
00:23:52
pregnancy. That's a lot of eggs. But as
00:23:55
I was doing this, I knew I was giving my
00:23:57
baby all the choline that he needed,
00:23:58
which is about 450 mg per day. And this
00:24:02
is not very expensive. 28 eggs is about
00:24:04
$7. So for $1 a day, you're getting all
00:24:08
the choline that your baby needs to form
00:24:10
his brain.
00:24:12
>> Mothers are often told to avoid liver.
00:24:14
>> Yeah.
00:24:14
>> While they're pregnant.
00:24:15
>> Yeah.
00:24:16
>> Why? Why is that? And you're saying that
00:24:17
that's not the correct advice.
00:24:19
>> So liver contains a lot of vitamin A,
00:24:21
quite high levels of vitamin A. And
00:24:24
there's some older studies that show
00:24:26
that liver and high vitamin A can cause
00:24:28
issues to the baby. That's why liver is
00:24:30
not usually recommended during
00:24:31
pregnancy. I would say check with your
00:24:33
doctor. Different countries have
00:24:34
different thresholds of how much liver
00:24:36
is allowed. And honestly, I don't like
00:24:39
liver. So I I prefer to have eggs, but
00:24:42
liver is super super high in choline.
00:24:44
It's quite impressive. You can also take
00:24:45
choline supplements, but eggs are the
00:24:47
cheapest, easiest source. And for
00:24:49
example in the supplement world, so
00:24:51
scientists have done this study at
00:24:52
Cornell. They gave one group of moms the
00:24:56
bare minimum amount of choline that is
00:24:59
recommended. So 450 milligrams in
00:25:01
supplements. And then they wondered,
00:25:02
well, if a baby's brain needs choline,
00:25:05
what happens if he has a lot of choline
00:25:07
available? Does his brain form even
00:25:09
better? So they gave the other group of
00:25:11
mom double the bare minimum recommended
00:25:14
amount. And then they brought the kids
00:25:16
in during their first year of age for
00:25:19
some tests. And the main test that was
00:25:21
used is you basically plop the baby on
00:25:24
his mom's lap in front of a computer
00:25:25
screen and you flash images on that
00:25:27
screen and you measure how quickly the
00:25:30
baby reacts the new images. So how
00:25:32
quickly he moves his eyes. And the
00:25:33
reason they do this is because this test
00:25:35
is correlated to adult IQ. Meaning the
00:25:40
faster a baby reacts to images in the
00:25:42
first year of age, the higher his adult
00:25:44
IQ. That's the association. And so they
00:25:46
were wondering, could we see a
00:25:48
difference in the baby's reaction time
00:25:51
depending on the mom's choline level in
00:25:53
the womb? And they found that the babies
00:25:55
who were born to the high choline moms
00:25:57
had 10% faster reaction time to this
00:26:00
test.
00:26:01
>> People talk a lot about breastfeeding as
00:26:02
well, whether it's good, bad,
00:26:03
indifferent, um whether you can
00:26:05
breastfeed too much, etc. And obviously
00:26:07
there's um there's lots of
00:26:08
practicalities that make breastfeeding
00:26:10
quite difficult for a lot of mothers
00:26:11
which we probably should acknowledge.
00:26:12
But otherwise what is um what does the
00:26:15
research say about breastfeeding?
00:26:17
>> So the difference main difference
00:26:18
between breast milk and formula is that
00:26:21
breast milk is alive. It's alive with
00:26:24
information. It's alive with little
00:26:26
molecules that are going to continue
00:26:28
that DNA programming. Formula is inert.
00:26:31
It It's not alive. It's not doing that
00:26:33
programming. So yes, breastfeeding has
00:26:36
advantages for the mom and for the baby,
00:26:38
but formula is nutritionally complete
00:26:41
and it's very useful for many moms who
00:26:43
are not able or want to breastfeed. And
00:26:45
if you're using formula, you actually
00:26:48
have to check because today not all
00:26:49
formulas have choline in them. So check
00:26:51
in the ingredients for choline. Also
00:26:53
check in the ingredients for omega-3s,
00:26:55
which is something that we'll cover in a
00:26:57
bit. Look for that choline omega-3s in
00:26:59
your formula to make sure that your baby
00:27:01
is getting what he needs in those
00:27:03
respects. I was reading about a study in
00:27:05
the pediatric research journal that says
00:27:07
a 2013 Dutch study of 120 children found
00:27:11
that less breastfeeding was linked to a
00:27:13
silencing of the gene for leptin,
00:27:16
>> the hormone that signals fullness.
00:27:18
>> So that's a good example of epigenetic
00:27:20
programming. So we have this gene that
00:27:22
codes for leptin, which is a protein.
00:27:24
And leptin is the one of the molecules
00:27:26
that makes you feel full. So you and I
00:27:28
both have this leptin gene, but
00:27:30
depending on our epigenetic programming
00:27:32
on that gene, you might be producing
00:27:34
more of it and I might be producing less
00:27:36
of it. So for the same meal, you might
00:27:38
feel more full and I might feel less
00:27:40
full after that same exact meal. And so
00:27:43
in this study, they saw that if you're
00:27:44
not breastfed very long, your leptin
00:27:47
gene is act deactivated. So you feel
00:27:49
less full after eating. Now, these are
00:27:51
small associations, but they show you
00:27:53
that there's a difference here and that
00:27:54
potentially breastfeeding could help
00:27:56
your baby be more satiated after eating.
00:27:59
>> What about sugar during pregnancy?
00:28:01
>> So, sugar is fascinating.
00:28:04
When you eat sugar, your baby is also
00:28:06
receiving that sugar because that
00:28:08
placenta lets the sugar through. And
00:28:10
your baby doesn't need any sugar during
00:28:12
pregnancy. He needs a little bit of
00:28:14
glucose, which is different. But sugar,
00:28:16
as in the very sweet molecule of
00:28:18
fructose that is in chocolate, that is
00:28:20
in these cupcakes, that is in dried
00:28:22
fruit, your baby needs none of it. And
00:28:25
the most interesting study on sugar in
00:28:27
pregnancy actually came from the UK. So
00:28:30
from 1940 to 1953, I don't know if you
00:28:33
know this, but in the UK, there was a
00:28:36
governmentmandated sugar ration, meaning
00:28:39
for 13 years, the government controlled
00:28:42
how much sugar people had access to. It
00:28:44
was during the war and they were trying
00:28:45
to manage resources. So everybody in the
00:28:48
UK got 10 sugar cubes per day. That's
00:28:50
it. And this is down from what people
00:28:53
usually ate before the sugar ration,
00:28:55
which was about 20 sugar cubes per day.
00:28:57
So everybody, including pregnant moms,
00:28:59
for 13 years had a capped amount of
00:29:02
sugar. At the end of the sugar ration,
00:29:04
after 13 years, bam, everybody went back
00:29:07
up to eating more sugar. And so
00:29:09
scientists in the early 2000s thought,
00:29:11
well, that's really interesting. This
00:29:13
means we have two groups of pregnant
00:29:15
moms during the sugar ration and right
00:29:18
after the sugar ration who had babies
00:29:20
develop in their womb either with 40
00:29:22
grams of sugar per day or around 80
00:29:24
grams of sugar per day. And the
00:29:26
scientists wondered, can this small
00:29:28
difference be making an impact on the
00:29:30
baby's long-term health? So, they called
00:29:33
up 60,000 people who were born either
00:29:36
just before the ration ended or just
00:29:38
after and they asked them about their
00:29:40
health. They were like, "Do you have
00:29:41
diabetes? Do you have heart disease? How
00:29:43
are you feeling? What's your weight? And
00:29:45
they saw that the babies who were born
00:29:47
and who were in the mother's womb during
00:29:49
the sugar ration had 15%
00:29:52
lower likelihood of having developed
00:29:54
type 2 diabetes in their lifetime. So
00:29:57
what does this mean? It means that the
00:29:59
amount of sugar during pregnancy can be
00:30:01
slightly increasing or decreasing your
00:30:04
baby's vulnerability to getting type 2
00:30:06
diabetes later in life. And today
00:30:09
scientists look at the epigenetics of
00:30:11
babies who are born to moms with very
00:30:13
high glucose levels and they see that
00:30:14
the genes that are related to diabetes
00:30:17
are activated. So we have a full picture
00:30:20
now of data. We have epigenetics. We
00:30:22
have this long-term interesting study
00:30:24
and we now see that the amount of sugar
00:30:26
that we eat during pregnancy is subtly
00:30:29
programming our baby. So Stephen, I
00:30:31
don't know if you know this, but when I
00:30:32
was 25, I was on the cusp of
00:30:34
pre-diabetes. I almost had pre-diabetes
00:30:36
when I was 25. I had very high glucose
00:30:38
levels. So, I had a vulnerability to
00:30:41
diabetes. And as I was reading the
00:30:43
studies, I was like, "Oh my god, maybe
00:30:46
this has something to do with what my
00:30:48
mother was eating when she was pregnant
00:30:49
with me." Because pregnancy is this
00:30:51
window of outsized influence in
00:30:54
somebody's health. So, I called up my
00:30:56
mom. I was like, "Mom, what did you eat
00:30:58
when you were pregnant?" She was like,
00:30:58
"Oh, it was the ' 90s. You know, I ate
00:31:01
very little protein, very low fat. And
00:31:03
in the morning, every morning, I had a
00:31:05
big glass of orange juice and I had
00:31:07
special case cereal with about a half a
00:31:09
cup of table sugar on top. I was like,
00:31:11
"Huh, that's pretty interesting." So, I
00:31:14
wonder, I will never know. I wonder if
00:31:16
maybe my vulnerability to diabetes had
00:31:19
some roots in the womb.
00:31:20
>> And the science suggests that it does
00:31:24
have a correlation.
00:31:25
>> Absolutely. So, the science suggests
00:31:27
that the amount of sugar that you're
00:31:29
eating during pregnancy is having an
00:31:30
impact on your baby's epigenetics. And
00:31:33
today, so as I was mentioning, the WHO
00:31:35
recommends 25 grams of sugar per day,
00:31:38
but most moms are eating 80 grams of
00:31:41
sugar per day. 80 grams, which is
00:31:44
usually more than what they eat when
00:31:46
they're not pregnant, because of this
00:31:48
collective myth that you should eat for
00:31:50
two, that pregnancy you're going to gain
00:31:52
weight anyway, so eat as much sugar as
00:31:54
you want. really we're failing moms
00:31:56
because we're not telling them about the
00:31:58
incredible opportunity they have by just
00:32:01
being a bit mindful of how much sugar
00:32:02
they eat of being able to help their
00:32:04
baby be less vulnerable to diabetes.
00:32:06
>> It's not just diabetes though, is it?
00:32:08
>> No.
00:32:08
>> I was just looking at some of the
00:32:10
studies. Um there's a study here in the
00:32:12
JAMAMA network. It says a Danish study
00:32:15
found that children born to mothers with
00:32:16
diabetes had a 15% higher risk of
00:32:19
psychiatric disorders with schizophrenia
00:32:22
risk being 55% higher. intellectual
00:32:25
disability 29% higher and um a
00:32:29
connection to autism and ADHD. A 2025
00:32:33
review of 200 studies which is 56
00:32:37
million mother baby pairs found a 25%
00:32:40
higher risk of autism when um mothers
00:32:42
had diabetes during pregnancy.
00:32:44
>> Yeah.
00:32:44
>> From the Lancet diabetes and
00:32:46
endocrinology report. And it's important
00:32:49
to note that these studies show
00:32:50
correlation not causation. And a 25%
00:32:53
increase in absolute terms only raises
00:32:54
the prevalence from one in 100 to around
00:32:58
1.25 in 100 children. So there's some
00:33:00
nuance to be had on that.
00:33:02
>> There is some nuance, but that
00:33:03
association holds very strongly. And as
00:33:04
you said, 56 million mom baby pairs. So
00:33:09
across the world, we see that when a mom
00:33:10
has diabetes during pregnancy, her baby
00:33:12
has a higher risk of psychiatric
00:33:14
disorders. And the main theory that
00:33:17
could explain this association has to do
00:33:19
with the baby's brain. So your baby is
00:33:23
forming his brain in the room. And
00:33:25
today, Stephen, you have about a hundred
00:33:27
billion neurons in your brain and they
00:33:29
are the exact same neurons that you had
00:33:31
the day you were born. Neurons never get
00:33:34
replaced. So what does this mean? It
00:33:36
means that your neurons that you have
00:33:38
for life are formed during pregnancy in
00:33:40
your mother's uterus. Now you have these
00:33:42
neurons in the baby's brain being formed
00:33:45
250,000 per minute. Pew, pew, pew, pew,
00:33:47
pew, neurons everywhere. And next to the
00:33:49
neurons, you have another type of cell.
00:33:51
This cell is called the micro ga. And it
00:33:53
kind of looks like a starfish, and it's
00:33:55
patrolling the baby's brain. And it's
00:33:58
job is to make sure that the neurons are
00:34:00
forming properly. So what micro ga do,
00:34:03
they're a cell from the immune system,
00:34:04
is they are on the lookout for any
00:34:06
neurons that are being damaged or not
00:34:09
formed properly. And as soon as they
00:34:10
find a neuron that is not ideal, they go
00:34:13
over to it and they eat it and they
00:34:14
destroy it. So they're pruning the brain
00:34:17
and they're looking out for damage and
00:34:18
making sure everything develops
00:34:19
normally. Now if the mother has high
00:34:24
inflammation levels during pregnancy and
00:34:26
this can be caused by a number of
00:34:27
things. It can be caused by high glucose
00:34:29
levels. It can be caused by infection.
00:34:32
It can be caused by chemicals. High
00:34:34
inflammation seems to be making these
00:34:36
micro ga overactive. Now all of a sudden
00:34:40
they become a bit deregulated and they
00:34:42
start eating and destroying neurons that
00:34:44
don't need to be destroyed. They start
00:34:47
destroying healthy neurons and as a
00:34:49
result the brain is forming in a
00:34:52
slightly suboptimal fashion. And
00:34:53
scientists believe this to be the
00:34:55
leading theory behind why we see the
00:34:57
association between gestational
00:34:59
diabetes, so diabetes of pregnancy and a
00:35:02
higher risk of psychiatric disorders.
00:35:04
They believe it has to do with the
00:35:05
inflammation levels going on in the
00:35:08
baby's brain during pregnancy. And so
00:35:10
what does this tell us? This tells us
00:35:12
that when we're pregnant, we're
00:35:14
influencing the amount of inflammation
00:35:15
in our baby's body. And this should be
00:35:18
something that we tell women about
00:35:20
because if they can have power over
00:35:22
their inflammation levels, for example,
00:35:24
by reducing their glucose spikes, they
00:35:26
could also give their baby a benefit to
00:35:30
its brain formation. Do you think it's
00:35:32
useful for women during pregnancy to
00:35:33
wear those continuous glucose monitors?
00:35:36
>> I did. I did the whole time. Is it
00:35:39
useful? Depends on what you want to do.
00:35:42
I think it's really interesting. It
00:35:44
helped me a lot. Maybe just for two
00:35:46
weeks could be cool. So, you can kind of
00:35:48
see what's going on and learn about your
00:35:50
glucose spikes. And I think one of the
00:35:52
issues we see during pregnancy is that
00:35:54
your glucose levels are usually tested
00:35:56
in the third trimester with the diabetes
00:35:58
test,
00:35:58
>> but by that time like you've already
00:36:00
been going going along for 6 months with
00:36:03
your glucose levels. I think we should
00:36:04
be testing glucose levels much much
00:36:06
earlier like in the first trimester
00:36:08
because your glucose levels in the first
00:36:09
trimester actually can predict very well
00:36:11
whether you're going to get gestational
00:36:13
diabetes or not. So, I think we should
00:36:15
maybe put a glucose monitor on all
00:36:16
pregnant moms in the first trimester or
00:36:19
even pre-reg to help them understand
00:36:21
their glucose spikes and show them about
00:36:24
these easy tools and habits and hacks
00:36:26
that you can put in place to reduce your
00:36:27
glucose spikes.
00:36:28
>> I was reading about a study from
00:36:29
Diabetes Care that said they put um
00:36:32
these continuous glucose monitors on 700
00:36:34
women and found that if they did it in
00:36:36
the first trimester, they could
00:36:38
accurately predict who would develop
00:36:39
gestational diabetes at 24 to 28 weeks.
00:36:43
>> Yeah. And so that's really interesting
00:36:44
because a lot of people used to think
00:36:47
that gestational diabetes, meaning
00:36:48
diabetes during pregnancy, is kind of
00:36:50
random. It was like, "Oh, you get it,
00:36:52
but we don't know why. It's random. Your
00:36:53
body's just doing this." And now we have
00:36:55
evidence that suggests that actually
00:36:57
it's correlated to your glucose levels
00:36:59
in the first trimester. Now, in the
00:37:01
first trimester, your glucose levels are
00:37:03
pretty much the same as when you're not
00:37:05
pregnant. As pregnancy progresses,
00:37:07
hormones come into play and things start
00:37:09
shifting. Glucose spikes get bigger and
00:37:12
longer. fasting glucose levels becomes
00:37:14
lower. But that first trimester, your
00:37:16
glucose spikes and your glucose levels
00:37:17
are similar to pre-preg. This means that
00:37:20
essentially your non-pregant glucose
00:37:22
levels can predict whether or not you're
00:37:24
going to get gestational diabetes. Which
00:37:26
means that gestational diabetes is not
00:37:28
random. It actually has roots in what
00:37:30
was happening before pregnancy. Meaning
00:37:33
that if you had high glucose levels
00:37:35
before pregnancy, you're more likely to
00:37:37
get gestational diabetes. Gestational
00:37:39
diabetes could actually just be a
00:37:42
symptom of having high glucose levels
00:37:44
before pregnancy but just not knowing
00:37:46
about it.
00:37:46
>> You know, when we say high glucose
00:37:48
levels, is that a very individual thing?
00:37:50
>> No,
00:37:50
>> it's not an individual thing.
00:37:52
>> No, we have very clear cut offs. So, for
00:37:54
example, if you're not pregnant like you
00:37:56
and I, 100 milligrams per deciliter is
00:37:59
the cut off between healthy and
00:38:01
pre-diabetes.
00:38:03
So, that's fasting glucose level, your
00:38:05
glucose level first thing in the
00:38:06
morning. If you're pregnant, that
00:38:08
changes. Anything above 92 milligrams
00:38:11
per deciliter is considered diabetes of
00:38:13
pregnancy. So high glucose levels, it's
00:38:16
it's very well segmented. We have these
00:38:19
very specific ranges that say normal,
00:38:22
too high, much too high.
00:38:24
>> But if me and you both have this um a
00:38:26
teaspoon of this honey that I have here
00:38:28
on the desk, our responses to this honey
00:38:30
are going to be completely different,
00:38:31
right?
00:38:32
>> Yeah. The glucose spike we experience is
00:38:34
going to be different for a bunch of
00:38:37
reasons. Our microbiome, our genetics,
00:38:39
how much muscle mass we have, how
00:38:41
hydrated, how stressed, how tired we we
00:38:43
are. So maybe you're going to get a
00:38:44
spike of like, I don't know, 30 30
00:38:47
milligrams and maybe I'll get a 45
00:38:49
milligram spike because I'm tired. Now,
00:38:52
what does that mean? It doesn't mean
00:38:54
that honey is necessarily better for you
00:38:56
than it is for me. It just means that my
00:38:58
body today is more or less good at
00:39:01
managing this influx of glucose
00:39:03
>> today.
00:39:03
>> Today. Yeah. Today. And it also means
00:39:05
something very important, which is that
00:39:07
if you and I both used a glucose hack.
00:39:10
So, for example, if you and I both had a
00:39:12
chicken breast before the honey, both
00:39:14
you and I would have a smaller glucose
00:39:16
spike from that same honey. So, glucose
00:39:19
hacks and ways to reduce your glucose
00:39:21
spikes work in everyone. The exact
00:39:24
absolute values after eating something,
00:39:26
these can vary. But one thing that is
00:39:30
true for everybody is that you're
00:39:32
fasting glucose. So glucose before you
00:39:34
eat anything. That is something we can
00:39:37
compare. So if you and I both at 7 a.m.
00:39:39
before we eat anything and we had our
00:39:41
fasting glucose levels checked, we could
00:39:43
compare. We could say, "Oh, Jesse is
00:39:45
very close to pre-diabetes and Steven is
00:39:47
not very close to pre-diabetes." Those
00:39:49
are very easy numbers to compare. the
00:39:51
spikes after eating. These can vary.
00:39:53
>> So, if I put on a little bit more
00:39:54
muscle, that means that I'll tolerate
00:39:57
glucose better.
00:39:58
>> Yeah. Because your muscles are an
00:40:00
amazing sink where your body is soaking
00:40:02
up glucose from your bloodstream. And
00:40:04
that's why we see that even during
00:40:05
pregnancy, having high muscle mass is
00:40:08
protective against diabetes. So, women
00:40:10
with higher muscle mass in pregnancy are
00:40:12
less likely to have gestational
00:40:14
diabetes. Let me give you an example.
00:40:16
So, we we eat this honey. What happens?
00:40:19
The honey goes from our mouth to our
00:40:21
stomach to our intestine and then it
00:40:23
goes through our intestinal wall into
00:40:24
our bloodstream. So all these glucose
00:40:26
molecules are arriving into our
00:40:28
bloodstream. Now there's two options.
00:40:30
Either we stay here and we don't move.
00:40:32
In that case, glucose is going to rise
00:40:33
in our bloodstream, big glucose spike,
00:40:35
and then crash. Or we say, "Okay, let's
00:40:37
go outside and go for a walk right after
00:40:39
we eat this honey." We're walking. Our
00:40:41
muscles are contracting. Our leg muscles
00:40:43
are contracting. Our arm muscles are
00:40:45
contracting. And these muscles as
00:40:47
they're contracting, they're looking for
00:40:48
energy. And the first place they look is
00:40:50
in the bloodstream. They look for
00:40:52
glucose in the bloodstream. Which is why
00:40:54
if you move after you eat glucose, you
00:40:57
will get a smaller glucose spike because
00:40:59
some of that glucose is being used by
00:41:01
your muscles for energy.
00:41:03
>> I've heard you tell people that they
00:41:04
should uh do some stuff with their
00:41:06
calves.
00:41:07
>> Calf raises. Yeah. Okay. So, put your
00:41:09
feet on the ground, Stephen. Yeah.
00:41:10
>> And just do some calf push-ups. Calf
00:41:12
raises. So you go up onto the ends of
00:41:14
your feet and back down.
00:41:16
>> Okay. So you got it. I'm going up. I'm
00:41:17
lifting my heels.
00:41:18
>> Exactly. Lift your heels up and down. So
00:41:20
as you do this, there's a muscle in your
00:41:22
calf called the soles muscle. Can you
00:41:24
feel it contract? It's your calf muscle.
00:41:25
>> Yeah.
00:41:26
>> Okay. So this muscle is very good at
00:41:29
soaking up glucose from your
00:41:30
bloodstream. So easy hack you can do
00:41:33
after you eat something sweet is you
00:41:35
just do some calf raises at your desk
00:41:36
like this. Nobody can notice. Five
00:41:38
minutes and that's going to help reduce
00:41:40
the glucose spike of what you just ate.
00:41:42
I mean five five minutes.
00:41:43
>> Yeah, I mean you can do five minutes. In
00:41:45
the studies they do sometimes hours of
00:41:46
this but even just one minute is better
00:41:49
than nothing to reduce your glucose
00:41:50
spike.
00:41:53
>> I mean this is probably why a lot of
00:41:54
cultures go for a walk after dinner.
00:41:56
Right.
00:41:56
>> Completely. And a lot of the glucose
00:41:58
hacks that I've talked about, they
00:42:01
actually mirror a lot of traditions. So
00:42:03
for example, the glucose hack of having
00:42:05
your vegetables at the beginning of your
00:42:08
meal. This is incredibly powerful,
00:42:10
pregnancy or not pregnancy, because
00:42:11
vegetables contain fiber. And when you
00:42:14
have them at the beginning of your meal,
00:42:16
they create this protective mesh in your
00:42:19
intestine that slows down the glucose
00:42:22
molecules from carbs and makes the
00:42:24
glucose molecules arrive more slowly
00:42:27
into your bloodstream, meaning smaller
00:42:29
spike. Now, eating veggies at the
00:42:31
beginning of a meal, that's something
00:42:32
that we call kurite in France, which
00:42:34
means raw veggies at the beginning of
00:42:36
your meal.
00:42:37
What other simple exercises do you
00:42:39
recommend if I've just eaten something
00:42:41
that's high in glucose that I can do
00:42:44
quickly to help bring down my glucose
00:42:46
spike? Right? That's ultimately what
00:42:47
it's going to do. Bring down the spike.
00:42:49
>> The best thing to do is to move your
00:42:51
body. So get up, find a spot in your
00:42:54
apartment that needs to be tidied. Find
00:42:56
a place you got to vacuum. Find some
00:42:57
find some laundry to do and do that
00:42:59
within 90 minutes after eating. Your
00:43:01
muscles are your best ally in reducing
00:43:04
your glucose spikes after you've eaten.
00:43:06
So, what's going on there? I I start
00:43:08
eating a cake. I finish eating the cake.
00:43:11
How long have I got to get that cake
00:43:13
into my muscles?
00:43:15
>> That's a great way to put it. You have
00:43:17
about 90 minutes. So, an hour and a
00:43:19
half.
00:43:19
>> Okay.
00:43:20
>> That's when the spike is usually going
00:43:21
to be at at its maximum.
00:43:23
>> So, if I start squatting,
00:43:24
>> yeah, squats are a great great tool.
00:43:26
>> I want to go for a big muscle, right?
00:43:28
>> Yeah, absolutely. So there's some
00:43:29
studies showing that if you do I think
00:43:30
it's five squats or 10 squats every 5
00:43:34
minutes that is a very very powerful way
00:43:36
to get your glucose spike down. Now you
00:43:38
don't always have the space to do some
00:43:42
squats but if you're alone and at home
00:43:43
go for it. That's one of the best ones.
00:43:45
>> So what's going on in my body there is
00:43:46
my I start squatting I'm working my
00:43:48
glutes.
00:43:49
>> Yeah. So your glutes are looking for
00:43:50
energy and the first place they look is
00:43:52
in your blood. They're looking for
00:43:53
glucose
00:43:54
>> because glucose is the energy that your
00:43:56
muscles are using. Okay. Well, do you
00:43:59
use standing desks? I've really got into
00:44:00
it.
00:44:01
>> Yeah, I do. I have a desk at home that
00:44:03
moves up and down.
00:44:04
>> Same.
00:44:04
>> Yeah. But sometimes if I'm tired, I just
00:44:06
are more tired with the standing desk.
00:44:07
So, I have to have a bit of energy left
00:44:09
over. Do you always use a standing desk?
00:44:10
>> I mean, I kind of oscillate between
00:44:12
standing and sitting. But I think
00:44:14
especially in like the morning, I find
00:44:15
it to be really, really good.
00:44:17
>> You just gave me an idea for a glucose
00:44:19
test. I should do the same muffin and
00:44:22
afterwards standing desk for 30 minutes
00:44:24
or sitting at the desk for 30 minutes.
00:44:26
That's a great test.
00:44:28
>> Well, we need to put some uh Stella
00:44:30
glucose monitors on before. But yes, we
00:44:31
can do it. We should do it. So, I will
00:44:33
eat a muffin first thing in the morning,
00:44:35
then stand for 30 minutes, and the next
00:44:37
day I will eat a muffin first thing in
00:44:38
the morning, and then sit for 30
00:44:40
minutes, and I'll send you the spike,
00:44:41
and we can see we can see how much
00:44:43
glucose is being burned when we're
00:44:45
standing at our desk.
00:44:47
>> Okay. Well, we're gonna put that the
00:44:48
results in the episode. Okay, great.
00:44:50
Now, so what you see on the screen, if
00:44:53
you're watching, is the results of Jesse
00:44:56
standing after having a muffin,
00:45:00
and then these results, which you see on
00:45:03
the screen, are Jesse sitting after
00:45:05
having a muffin.
00:45:06
>> And either we'll see that the spikes are
00:45:08
very similar,
00:45:10
>> which means that standing doesn't use
00:45:12
much more muscle energy than sitting, or
00:45:15
we will see that standing is using up
00:45:17
some of the glucose from my bloodstream.
00:45:19
and therefore the spike is smaller after
00:45:21
the muffin.
00:45:22
>> On that point of exercise, mothers are
00:45:25
given conflicting advice about what to
00:45:26
do when they're pregnant. Um,
00:45:30
some people say exercise is not good.
00:45:31
Some people say it's great. What's your
00:45:34
position from all the research you've
00:45:35
done as to whether mothers should be
00:45:36
doing exercise during pregnancy?
00:45:38
>> Exercise is incredibly good for your
00:45:40
baby's development. And there's one
00:45:42
study done in animals because we can't
00:45:44
do many studies in in humans when it
00:45:47
comes to pregnancy for obvious ethical
00:45:49
reasons, but there's this incredible
00:45:51
study which I think is my favorite study
00:45:52
in the book. So scientists took two
00:45:55
groups of pregnant rats and they gave
00:45:57
them the exact same housing conditions,
00:46:00
diet, lighting, everything. The only
00:46:03
difference is that one group also had
00:46:06
these tiny little treadmills that they
00:46:09
had to walk on for 30 minutes a day
00:46:12
every day during pregnancy. So, same
00:46:14
exact conditions. The only difference is
00:46:15
one group of pregnant rats is moving 30
00:46:17
minutes a day on these tiny treadmills.
00:46:19
Then they wait for the babies to be born
00:46:21
and they put the babies in these mazes
00:46:24
to kind of measure how quickly they're
00:46:26
solving the maze. And they also measure
00:46:28
the baby's anxiety levels. They found
00:46:30
that the babies that were born to the
00:46:32
moms who were exercising solved the maze
00:46:36
twice as fast and had fewer anxiety
00:46:40
symptoms.
00:46:42
So they found this strong association
00:46:44
between a mom exercising during
00:46:46
pregnancy and the outcomes of the baby's
00:46:49
brain.
00:46:50
>> H
00:46:51
>> and the main theory is that when we
00:46:54
exercise, there's this molecule produced
00:46:56
in our brain called BDNF. And it's got a
00:46:59
complicated name, but what it does is
00:47:00
that it helps neuroplasticity. It helps
00:47:02
your neurons create new connections. And
00:47:04
we know that in humans when we exercise,
00:47:07
that's one of the reasons exercise is
00:47:08
good for the brain because it increases
00:47:09
BDNF. And in these pregnant rats, they
00:47:12
found not only were the mom's BDNFs
00:47:15
higher, but the baby's BDNF levels
00:47:19
inside of the wombs was also higher. and
00:47:23
they believe that is why they saw this
00:47:25
impact on the baby's brain development
00:47:28
after birth. So what happens in the womb
00:47:30
is really setting up a strong foundation
00:47:33
for your baby's brain. It's laying out
00:47:35
the basic architecture, which is why
00:47:37
it's so important to do these simple
00:47:40
hacks to give your baby's brain the
00:47:43
optimal nutrients that it needs to form
00:47:45
properly.
00:47:46
>> What is um there's a little metaphor
00:47:48
over there, those two plant pots. What
00:47:50
is the metaphor?
00:47:51
Okay, so
00:47:56
both of these plants come from identical
00:47:58
seeds. The only difference is what they
00:48:02
were planted in. So, one of these plants
00:48:05
was planted in basically little rocks
00:48:07
and gravel with a tiny bit of soil in
00:48:09
it. The other seed was planted in rich
00:48:14
fertilized soil. What is this showing
00:48:17
us? We intuitively understand that when
00:48:19
we're planting a seed, the soil we
00:48:21
choose is important, right? We
00:48:22
understand that the same seed is not
00:48:24
going to lead to the same tree depending
00:48:26
on where we plant it. And I think for
00:48:28
pregnancy, we've lost this intuition
00:48:30
because your baby is a seed. You as the
00:48:35
mother's body, you are the soil and the
00:48:38
soil is going to co-create your baby's
00:48:40
plan. So, when you're pregnant, you have
00:48:43
this little baby with his DNA plan, but
00:48:45
depending on depending on the nutrients
00:48:47
you provide, he's going to grow into a
00:48:49
different tree. He's either going to
00:48:51
grow in a super optimal tree that has
00:48:54
all the nutrients he needed, or he's
00:48:56
going to have to adapt to what's
00:48:57
available and grow into a slightly
00:48:59
different tree. Now, the main difference
00:49:01
is that humans are not plants. So,
00:49:03
humans are very resilient. your baby
00:49:05
will probably be okay. Even if like 90%
00:49:09
of us you don't have enough choline,
00:49:11
even if like 75% of us you don't have
00:49:13
enough omega-3s, even if like 70% of us
00:49:16
you don't have enough protein, and even
00:49:18
if like most of us you're eating more
00:49:20
than the recommended amount of sugar,
00:49:22
your baby will probably be fine, but he
00:49:25
will be adapting to a slightly
00:49:27
sub-optimal nutrient environment. So
00:49:30
that's what this metaphor is all about.
00:49:32
You're co-creating the plan of your baby
00:49:34
with your diet during pregnancy and it's
00:49:36
shaping him and he's adapting and
00:49:38
calibrating to what you're giving him.
00:49:42
>> Steve, what you doing?
00:49:44
>> Uh, just making myself a delicious
00:49:46
coffee
00:49:46
>> from the freezer.
00:49:48
>> From the freezer? Have you not heard
00:49:49
about CompTI?
00:49:50
>> No.
00:49:50
>> Oh my gosh, this is going to change your
00:49:52
life. A couple of months ago, the
00:49:54
founder of this business called Matt
00:49:56
sent a big shipment of this coffee to
00:49:59
our office in London. This coffee is
00:50:00
like nothing you've ever seen before.
00:50:02
What most people don't know is that the
00:50:03
processing of coffee takes out a lot of
00:50:05
the taste. So what they do is they flash
00:50:07
freeze it at the optimal moment when
00:50:10
it's most tasty and they send you in the
00:50:12
post the coffee in these little frozen
00:50:15
ice cubes. Now Matt sent a big shipment
00:50:17
to my office. I moved it to the kitchen.
00:50:18
I said to the team, "Knock yourselves
00:50:19
out. Give this a try." And then I saw so
00:50:21
many messages in our Slack channel of
00:50:23
people going, "Oh my god, what the hell
00:50:25
is that? It's so delicious. All I have
00:50:28
to do is pop it out in the morning using
00:50:29
the little button on the back of this
00:50:30
thing. I pour my hot water in and I mix
00:50:34
it and that is done. You can get $30 off
00:50:38
your first order of cometier coffee if
00:50:41
you go to cometier.com/stephven
00:50:43
and it won't be available for long. So
00:50:45
get that discount while you can. I I'm
00:50:48
not going to be a pregnant mother in my
00:50:49
life, but I am going to have a fiance
00:50:51
hopefully at some point who is a
00:50:53
pregnant mother. So, I would really like
00:50:56
to know how I can help as a partner, but
00:50:59
also I'm sure she's going to listen to
00:51:01
this. So, what she can do to make sure
00:51:03
that the soil in which my baby grows is
00:51:06
optimal. We've talked about a few of the
00:51:07
things so far like choline and we've al
00:51:10
also talked about sugar and glucose
00:51:11
levels throughout pregnancy to avoid
00:51:13
gestational diabetes. We've talked about
00:51:16
exercise as well. What about alcohol?
00:51:18
>> Not a good idea because as I explained,
00:51:20
your bloodstream and your baby's
00:51:22
bloodstream are basically connected. So
00:51:24
when you drink alcohol during pregnancy,
00:51:26
your blood alcohol level rises and then
00:51:29
your baby's blood alcohol level in your
00:51:34
uterus also rises. There's no filter
00:51:37
protecting your baby from alcohol. So
00:51:38
when you have a glass of wine, your
00:51:40
baby's also having a glass of wine in
00:51:42
the womb. And we know that alcohol is
00:51:44
not good for our brains. And this also
00:51:47
goes for babies. So, you wouldn't put
00:51:50
red wine in your baby's bottle after
00:51:53
birth and give him red wine to drink,
00:51:55
but that's kind of what's going on when
00:51:56
you're drinking alcohol when you're
00:51:58
pregnant. And there's been a lot of a
00:52:01
lot of stuff online about, oh, alcohol
00:52:03
during pregnancy is fine in small
00:52:05
quantities. I think when you understand
00:52:06
how alcohol is toxic to the brain
00:52:09
biologically, it makes no sense to
00:52:11
pregnant moms that a little bit of
00:52:12
alcohol is okay. It's best if you can to
00:52:15
avoid alcohol entirely.
00:52:16
>> So, complete abstinence. Yeah,
00:52:18
>> there was actually a study that came out
00:52:19
in February last year, which is quite
00:52:21
recent, from the University of
00:52:23
Melbourne, where they used
00:52:24
highresolution 3D imaging to reveal that
00:52:27
even low doses of alcohol cause facial
00:52:29
morphing, consistent changes in the
00:52:32
shape of the eyes and nose at 12 months,
00:52:34
persisting up to age 8, and weaker
00:52:36
connections in the in the right um
00:52:39
anterior singulate part of the brain,
00:52:41
the region critical for emotional
00:52:43
regulation and impulse control, even if
00:52:45
the mother drank only occasionally.
00:52:48
which is
00:52:50
very um surprising
00:52:54
because I think for a long time we've
00:52:55
always thought that heavy consumption of
00:52:58
alcohol was a problem
00:52:59
>> and we know that. Yeah.
00:53:00
>> But even low doses are suboptimal.
00:53:02
>> It's kind of it kind of goes for all
00:53:04
adults, right? We thought for a long
00:53:05
time that one glass of wine per day was
00:53:07
good for the heart. Now we understand
00:53:09
that the ideal amount of alcohol is
00:53:12
zero. Like there's no benefit to
00:53:14
alcohol. Now, is that to say that one
00:53:16
glass of wine during pregnancy is going
00:53:18
to, you know, indelibly impact your
00:53:21
baby's brain? Probably not. But if you
00:53:23
can avoid it, this is the best time to
00:53:25
avoid it entirely.
00:53:27
>> What about when you're breastfeeding?
00:53:28
>> Oo. Well, you have much more leeway then
00:53:30
because the amount of alcohol in your
00:53:32
breast milk mirrors the amount of
00:53:34
alcohol in your bloodstream. So, for
00:53:36
example, if you have a glass of wine,
00:53:38
two and a half to three hours later, you
00:53:40
have pretty much no more alcohol in your
00:53:42
bloodstream, which means your breast
00:53:44
milk is also pretty much devoid of
00:53:46
alcohol. So, if you time it right,
00:53:48
you're going to be able to have a glass
00:53:50
of wine without it actually going into
00:53:52
your breast milk. But, it's all about
00:53:53
timing.
00:53:54
>> Caffeine,
00:53:55
>> the recommendation is to stay under two
00:53:57
cups of coffee per day during pregnancy.
00:53:59
Um, it's not a neurotoxin like alcohol,
00:54:02
right? But caffeine does go to your
00:54:05
baby's bloodstream. And some studies
00:54:06
show that babies are more active in the
00:54:08
womb after the mother drinks caffeine
00:54:10
and it has no benefit. So listen, you do
00:54:13
what you can. I reduced a little bit my
00:54:15
caffeine intake. Instead of having like
00:54:17
two fat whites, I had maybe half a flat
00:54:20
white or a decaf fat white when I could.
00:54:22
But some days I just really wanted a
00:54:23
coffee, so I had a coffee.
00:54:25
>> Have they ever done any studies on
00:54:26
caffeine and pregnancy? Well, we can't
00:54:30
do any studies on caffeine in pregnancy
00:54:31
in humans. It's unethical to test
00:54:33
anything in pregnant moms. We have
00:54:35
associations and the associations don't
00:54:37
show much difference. Like we don't have
00:54:39
studies that show caffeine intake in
00:54:41
moms leads to this kind of bad outcome
00:54:43
in the kids. It seems pretty neutral at
00:54:45
low doses. If you have really high doses
00:54:47
of caffeine, there is an impact on the
00:54:49
baby's well associative impact on the
00:54:52
baby's temperament. But for one or two
00:54:54
cups a day, there's no impact that we
00:54:56
find.
00:54:56
>> And they've done animal studies. Yeah,
00:54:57
they've done animal studies. Low doses
00:54:59
also fine. Very high doses, we start to
00:55:01
see changes in the baby's behavior.
00:55:03
>> You talk about this in the book. In
00:55:04
certain animal studies, they show um
00:55:06
during pregnancy leads to smaller
00:55:07
offspring, altered heart development,
00:55:08
and delayed brain growth. Um but you
00:55:11
explain that we don't have direct
00:55:12
clinical trial data on the long-term
00:55:14
impact of caffeine during human
00:55:16
pregnancy.
00:55:16
>> And also those studies are very high
00:55:17
doses of caffeine.
00:55:19
>> Okay. Yeah. And the World Health
00:55:20
Organization recommends that women who
00:55:21
consume more than 300 milligrams of
00:55:23
coffee a day, which is roughly three
00:55:24
cups, reduce their daily intake during
00:55:26
pregnancy.
00:55:27
>> Yeah. So, probably one cup a day is not
00:55:29
harming your baby.
00:55:31
>> Fermented foods in the gut. What about
00:55:33
that? Yeah.
00:55:33
>> What should I be thinking about there?
00:55:34
>> Well, this is very early research, but
00:55:36
showing that potentially if a mother has
00:55:38
fermented food during pregnancy, it's
00:55:41
also seeding her baby's gut microbiome.
00:55:43
But this is very, very early stuff. But
00:55:45
if you can include some kefir or some
00:55:48
sauerkraut during pregnancy, it's
00:55:50
helpful.
00:55:51
>> What What about bread? Do you think much
00:55:53
about bread?
00:55:53
>> Do I think much about bread? I mean, I'm
00:55:55
French, so I think about bread all the
00:55:57
time.
00:55:58
>> In terms of um your recommendations on
00:56:01
the type of bread one should be eating.
00:56:03
>> Well, bread is interesting because bread
00:56:04
is a carb that contains mostly glucose.
00:56:07
And we know that in the third trimester
00:56:09
of pregnancy, your baby actually needs
00:56:11
more glucose cuz he's developing and he
00:56:13
also needs energy. Your baby needs about
00:56:15
70 gram of glucose per day at the very
00:56:19
end of pregnancy. So, as a pregnant mom,
00:56:22
you should be eating 70 grams of glucose
00:56:24
more than you usually do at the end of
00:56:26
pregnancy. For the first and second
00:56:28
trimesters, you don't need to be eating
00:56:29
much more glucose. So, you could have
00:56:31
that via bread. You could have that via
00:56:33
rice, for example. So 70 gram of glucose
00:56:36
is about three slices of bread or a cup
00:56:39
and a half of rice. In terms of the type
00:56:41
of bread you should be eating, it's
00:56:42
always better for your glucose levels to
00:56:44
have bread that is full of seeds. But to
00:56:47
be honest, there's not a huge difference
00:56:49
between like sprouted grain bread versus
00:56:52
white bread. It's all just glucose
00:56:54
>> because there there is a I guess there's
00:56:55
a a risk that mothers might get a little
00:56:58
bit scared of having sugary foods during
00:57:01
pregnancy. And then you've just said the
00:57:03
baby does need glucose.
00:57:04
>> Yeah. So there's a difference. So
00:57:06
glucose is present in carbs and
00:57:09
starches, meaning bread, pasta, rice,
00:57:12
potatoes, oats. So starches contain
00:57:14
glucose, but starches are different to
00:57:17
sugars. So on this plate, we only have
00:57:21
sugars. These are the sweet foods that
00:57:23
contain glucose, but also another
00:57:25
molecule that makes them sweet called
00:57:27
fructose. Your baby needs no fructose
00:57:31
during pregnancy ever. So your baby does
00:57:33
not need any sugar from dessert, from
00:57:36
chocolate, from muffins, from cupcakes.
00:57:38
Your baby needs none of this. But your
00:57:40
baby does need glucose, which is
00:57:42
healthier to get from starches like
00:57:44
bread, pasta, rice, potatoes.
00:57:46
>> What about the ketogenic diet while
00:57:48
you're pregnant?
00:57:50
>> I don't think there's enough evidence to
00:57:51
tell us whether it's okay or not. It's
00:57:53
very early. It's quite rare. Um, and it
00:57:57
seems that since your baby does need
00:57:59
glucose during pregnancy, it's just
00:58:01
easier to eat glucose and to eat
00:58:03
starches when you're pregnant. And whole
00:58:05
fruit is also a good way of getting the
00:58:07
glucose that you need because thanks to
00:58:09
the fiber in the water, the amount of
00:58:11
fructose in the fruit is not leading to
00:58:14
such a big fructose spike.
00:58:16
>> There's a study on the G1D Foundation
00:58:18
that basically says for 99% of
00:58:20
pregnancies, a strict ketogenic diet is
00:58:21
considered dangerous. doctors in instead
00:58:23
recommend a low glycemic index diet.
00:58:26
>> And low glycemic diets mean a diet with
00:58:29
smaller glucose spikes. And this is
00:58:31
really helpful for people with
00:58:33
gestational diabetes. It helps them
00:58:34
manage their spikes and reduce the need
00:58:36
for medication. But also for any
00:58:38
pregnant mom, it's important to think
00:58:40
about your glucose spikes because when
00:58:41
you have a glucose spike, your baby has
00:58:43
a glucose spike. And glucose spikes are
00:58:45
not good news. It's better to give your
00:58:47
baby slow rolling hills of glucose and
00:58:50
not these big spikes that can lead to
00:58:52
more inflammation. And as we talked
00:58:53
about, more inflammation can impact the
00:58:55
baby's brain development.
00:58:58
>> Do you recommend that mothers take
00:58:59
certain supplements? Did you take
00:59:01
supplements throughout your pregnancy?
00:59:02
>> Yeah, I took omega-3s. And the reason is
00:59:06
I took omega-3 supplements is because
00:59:08
omega-3s also form the baby's brain and
00:59:10
they come from algae in the ocean and
00:59:13
fish. Now, omega-3s and in particular
00:59:16
one omega-3 called DHA, it helps your
00:59:19
baby's neurons connect with each other.
00:59:22
And this is really important. And in
00:59:24
animal studies, when scientists restrict
00:59:27
how much DHA a mother has access to,
00:59:29
they see measurable impact on the baby's
00:59:32
brain. They see brains that are less
00:59:33
efficient. They see babies who find the
00:59:35
exit of mazes with much more time.
00:59:38
There's an impact on the brain
00:59:39
development. Now, the easiest way to get
00:59:42
enough DHA is to eat fish or to eat
00:59:44
sardines that we have here. So, the
00:59:46
recommendation is fatty fish twice a
00:59:50
week. I would say fatty fish three times
00:59:53
a week if you can. And this is also it's
00:59:55
amazing because it's very cheap. So,
00:59:57
these three cans of sardines are your
00:59:59
three servings of fish per week. This
01:00:01
gets gives you all the omega-3s your
01:00:03
baby needs. And this cost about in total
01:00:05
like $67. So, for $67 per week and for
01:00:10
another $7 of eggs per week, you're
01:00:13
getting all the choline and all the
01:00:15
omega-3s your baby needs. Yeah. You're
01:00:16
opening it. Are you going to eat it?
01:00:23
>> Okay. No. You want to know how I have
01:00:24
them?
01:00:25
>> How?
01:00:25
>> Okay. Are you going to eat it?
01:00:26
>> Yeah.
01:00:27
>> Go for it. So, I open the can. I put it
01:00:29
in a bowl. I put mustard in it. I put
01:00:32
sea salt, a little bit of feta,
01:00:35
>> some herbs, and I make this sort of nice
01:00:37
little paste, and then I toast a piece
01:00:40
of bread, and I put it on top of the
01:00:42
bread, and I have like a nice little
01:00:43
sardine mash on my bread.
01:00:45
>> It is quite nice.
01:00:46
>> Yeah. And it's really good for you. Lots
01:00:48
of omega-3s. And so, for omega-3s, I
01:00:50
also supplemented with additional
01:00:52
omega-3s because I think the
01:00:54
recommendation of fatty fish two, three
01:00:56
times a day is lacking. Most moms don't
01:00:59
have enough omega-3s in their body to
01:01:01
give their baby everything that he
01:01:03
needs. So, I did this three times a week
01:01:05
plus two grams of DHA supplement per
01:01:08
day.
01:01:10
>> What else was in your supplement stack?
01:01:12
>> Then, uh, in the third trimester, I took
01:01:14
iron because my iron levels were very
01:01:16
low. This often happens during
01:01:18
pregnancy, even though I was eating a
01:01:19
lot of meat because your baby is pulling
01:01:20
a lot of iron from you. And then I had a
01:01:23
sort of normal prenatal supplement, but
01:01:25
I made sure it had choline in it. And I
01:01:27
made sure it had a type of folic acid
01:01:30
called metylated folate which is better
01:01:32
absorbed. And folate is very important
01:01:34
to prevent miscarriage. You talked about
01:01:36
your first pregnancy and you said we'll
01:01:38
talk about that later.
01:01:39
>> Mhm.
01:01:41
>> You went through miscarriage.
01:01:43
>> Yes. Correct. So I got pregnant the
01:01:46
first time and I thought everything
01:01:48
would be totally fine but I found out at
01:01:51
the 3mon scan that the embryo had
01:01:54
stopped developing. I had what's called
01:01:56
a silent miscarriage. So, usually when
01:01:59
you miscarry,
01:02:01
you start to lose blood, you have
01:02:02
cramps, you know something's wrong. I
01:02:05
had a silent miscarriage, which is more
01:02:07
rare, meaning the embryo stopped
01:02:09
developing. The embryo was dead. My body
01:02:11
did not expulse it. So, I found out that
01:02:15
I had lost the pregnancy at the scan at
01:02:18
the doctor's office. And I found out
01:02:20
that I had been walking around for a
01:02:22
month with an embryo that had stopped
01:02:25
developing and I had no idea. I thought
01:02:27
I was still pregnant.
01:02:29
What What is What is that like for
01:02:32
someone like me that has never
01:02:33
experienced um such news? What are the
01:02:37
range of emotions and thoughts um that
01:02:40
occur when you get news like that?
01:02:44
>> Listen, for me it was so devastating. It
01:02:48
was so so difficult. I didn't I didn't
01:02:50
want to believe it. I was screaming. I
01:02:52
remember like falling to the floor in my
01:02:54
living room and saying to whatever god
01:02:56
or the universe like that I wanted my
01:02:58
baby back. I was I was not okay. It was
01:03:01
very very difficult. Um I felt a lot of
01:03:03
anger. I felt a lot of despair. I felt a
01:03:07
sense of injustice like why me? I felt
01:03:10
like I had done everything right. Like I
01:03:13
was eating the choline. I was taking the
01:03:14
right supplements. you know, I was not
01:03:16
like smoking crack and I still had a
01:03:19
miscarriage and I I didn't know this
01:03:22
happened. I I didn't have it in my
01:03:24
consciousness that it could happen to
01:03:25
me. So, I felt from very very high. It
01:03:28
was it was probably one of the most
01:03:29
difficult experiences in my life.
01:03:31
>> Is this more common?
01:03:32
>> One in five pregnancies and in
01:03:34
miscarriage.
01:03:35
>> That's really high. Like way higher than
01:03:37
I thought it was.
01:03:38
>> Yeah.
01:03:40
>> And is it usually in the
01:03:41
>> in the first trimester? if I was still,
01:03:43
>> but it can happen later also.
01:03:47
>> Yeah. And I felt so isolated and I
01:03:50
didn't feel like people around me knew
01:03:52
how to how to handle it cuz it's kind of
01:03:55
taboo. And then when I miscarried, I
01:03:58
started talking to people about it. And
01:04:00
I found out that so many people around
01:04:01
me had gone through it but had never
01:04:03
told me about it.
01:04:04
>> When was your first pregnancy?
01:04:07
So, I got pregnant in February 2024.
01:04:13
So, the miscarriage was in spring 2024.
01:04:18
And then I got pregnant again
01:04:21
in August 2025.
01:04:24
No, 2024. And my son was born in May
01:04:27
2025.
01:04:29
So, I got pregnant quite quickly
01:04:30
afterwards. Um, but it was difficult
01:04:32
because I was still carrying the grief
01:04:34
of the miscarriage. So, I had a very
01:04:37
anxious pregnancy. I was very anxious
01:04:39
the whole time that something bad would
01:04:40
happen again, that I would miscarry
01:04:42
again and not know about it. It was very
01:04:43
difficult.
01:04:49
>> It's a trial of the heart, man.
01:04:54
>> It's Yeah, the numbers way higher than I
01:04:56
expected. Just just much higher than I
01:04:58
expected. And it's it's scary scary to
01:05:00
think about.
01:05:01
>> Yeah. Yeah.
01:05:01
>> And that's why people usually wait until
01:05:03
the third month mark to tell their
01:05:05
friends and family that they're
01:05:06
pregnant.
01:05:07
>> And for some reason, I had no conception
01:05:09
of that. So the moment I got that first
01:05:11
pregnancy test, I told everybody.
01:05:13
>> Mhm.
01:05:13
>> So it made it quite complicated to have
01:05:17
to announce the miscarriage to like 50
01:05:20
people.
01:05:21
>> Um but at the same time, I felt less
01:05:23
alone than I would have felt if nobody
01:05:25
knew I was pregnant in the first place.
01:05:26
>> Mhm.
01:05:27
>> But yeah, it was very very challenging.
01:05:29
And it's more common than we think and
01:05:31
it happens to more people than we know
01:05:33
about.
01:05:34
>> Is there anything you wish you knew
01:05:36
earlier in life about I mean we've
01:05:38
talked about many of the things
01:05:39
specifically around diet and you know
01:05:41
and pregnancy but is there anything else
01:05:42
you wish someone had said to you as a
01:05:44
woman earlier
01:05:46
um that you didn't hear?
01:05:49
>> Yeah. I think I wish I wish my mom had
01:05:51
told me about her miscarriages. She had
01:05:53
not.
01:05:53
>> Oh, really?
01:05:54
>> Until I miscarried. Yep. I wish my
01:05:56
grandmother had told me. I had I did not
01:05:58
know. I wish people had told me more
01:06:00
about their experiences because that way
01:06:02
I would have understood that it happens
01:06:04
to a lot of people. Maybe I would have
01:06:05
been more prepared and maybe it would
01:06:06
have made the experience a little bit
01:06:09
less painful.
01:06:10
>> Mhm.
01:06:10
>> Instead of feeling so so isolated or at
01:06:14
least I would have maybe been a bit more
01:06:16
cautious
01:06:18
>> cuz you said one of the feelings and
01:06:20
emotions you had was why did this happen
01:06:21
to me?
01:06:22
>> Yes. I was like why me? Why me? And then
01:06:24
I realized it happens to many people and
01:06:27
it's not necessarily a reason. It's
01:06:28
nothing you've done. It can be just a
01:06:30
chromosomeal abnormality and the embryo
01:06:32
just can't develop anymore. It can be
01:06:34
something we don't understand yet.
01:06:36
>> It's hard, isn't it? Getting pregnant.
01:06:38
>> Yeah,
01:06:38
>> it's hard. I think I don't know what
01:06:41
lawyer I was living under, but I just
01:06:42
assumed that getting pregnant was have
01:06:44
sex unprotected.
01:06:46
>> I know. Because your whole life you're
01:06:47
told do all these things to not get
01:06:49
pregnant because it might happen without
01:06:50
you expecting it. And then when you try
01:06:52
to get pregnant, you realize, oh, it's
01:06:54
not at all as easy as I thought it was.
01:06:57
>> It's it's it's a lot. And I was lucky I
01:06:59
got pregnant after, you know, two three
01:07:01
cycles both times. So that's very very
01:07:03
quick. But some of my friends, it's
01:07:05
taken them years to conceive.
01:07:07
>> How has becoming a mother changed you?
01:07:10
>> Um, it's made me happier. I feel like my
01:07:14
baseline happiness is higher. I don't
01:07:17
have I used to have this like 10% kind
01:07:20
of melancholy or or spleen or sort of
01:07:24
like oh maybe my life could be better if
01:07:26
I did X or Y or like questioning you
01:07:27
know do I need more how do I how do I
01:07:29
find happiness and that's gone like with
01:07:31
my son that has that has been filled and
01:07:34
I didn't expect it to be filled so
01:07:36
that's been amazing and it's made me
01:07:39
very efficient because now when I have
01:07:41
42 minutes I use this 42 minutes like I
01:07:45
cannot imagine Imagine how much time I
01:07:46
used to have. Like, what did I used to
01:07:48
do? And I thought I was busy. Now I'm
01:07:50
really busy. It's so funny to look back
01:07:53
at my life before and what I used to
01:07:54
think and realize that I was completely
01:07:56
wrong. I was so wrong. I thought I was
01:07:58
busy and I thought I was tired.
01:08:02
I wasn't. Now I am.
01:08:07
>> You feel very busy, right?
01:08:08
>> I feel so busy.
01:08:09
>> And you feel tired.
01:08:10
>> I do. I do sometimes ask myself, you
01:08:12
know, because again, I'm in that season
01:08:13
of life. I do like where am I going to
01:08:14
get the where's the time going to come
01:08:16
from cuz like
01:08:17
>> you just prioritize so many things you
01:08:20
just delegate or you don't do anymore
01:08:22
>> and you find the time cuz your baby is
01:08:24
the most important thing
01:08:26
>> and I I think I've become better at my
01:08:28
work because I'm more efficient and I
01:08:30
thought I was pretty efficient before
01:08:31
but now I'm like super human. On that
01:08:35
point of parenting and pregnancy and
01:08:37
everything we've been talking about, you
01:08:39
said that you spoke to your mother about
01:08:41
the diet she had and her lifestyle when
01:08:44
she was growing you inside her. Uh, if
01:08:48
your parents did have a suboptimal
01:08:51
lifestyle in diet,
01:08:54
>> this is a bit of a strange question to
01:08:56
ask, but is there something that I can
01:08:58
do now as an adult to reverse that?
01:09:00
>> Totally. Well, first of all, my mom was
01:09:03
eating a lot of sugar, but it wasn't her
01:09:04
fault. Like, culture around her was
01:09:06
telling her fat is bad. Eat low-fat
01:09:08
foods. Like, she was just a product of
01:09:09
her time, like we all are. So, our diet
01:09:11
today is just a function of what food
01:09:14
marketing is going on. So, again, it's
01:09:15
not our fault. We're just kind of
01:09:17
swimming in this sea of the food
01:09:19
industry and marketing and we do the
01:09:20
best we can.
01:09:22
Pregnancy is important. It has an
01:09:24
outsized effect on our vulnerability to
01:09:27
disease, but it's not everything. So, I
01:09:30
told you at 25 I was on the cusp of
01:09:32
pre-diabetes. Well, I implemented the
01:09:34
glucose hacks. I found all the science
01:09:36
and I never got pre-diabetes. So, you're
01:09:39
probably going to be fine. It's more of
01:09:40
the difference between like, so I have
01:09:42
two friends. I have Gabriel and Nicholas
01:09:45
and they both work out the same and eat
01:09:47
the same. One of them builds muscle
01:09:49
really easily and has a lot of muscle
01:09:50
mass. The other one doesn't. They're not
01:09:52
equal. However, it doesn't mean that
01:09:55
they both can't build muscle. It might
01:09:56
just be a little bit more difficult for
01:09:58
one than for the other. Same thing with
01:09:59
diabetes. One person may get diabetes
01:10:02
with the same diet as another person who
01:10:03
doesn't get it. Well, when you apply
01:10:06
things, when you change your diet, you
01:10:08
can change the course of your life. You
01:10:10
can change what diseases you you face.
01:10:12
But you might be more or less
01:10:13
vulnerable. So, we always have agency.
01:10:16
We always have power, no matter our age,
01:10:18
no matter where we are in life, to take
01:10:20
back control.
01:10:22
>> Cravings.
01:10:23
>> Mhm.
01:10:23
>> Cravings are where it all begins. You
01:10:26
know, you can know everything.
01:10:27
>> Wait, say more about that. What do you
01:10:28
mean?
01:10:29
>> Like you can know, you can have all the
01:10:30
information. I'm sure that there's
01:10:31
people that listen to this podcast,
01:10:33
including me, who know a lot about this
01:10:36
stuff, but it doesn't necessarily mean
01:10:38
that you have the control to take
01:10:41
action. Because when your brain starts
01:10:42
saying, "Go on, eat that thing. Go on.
01:10:44
It'll be so tasty." And you know what?
01:10:46
You can do your calf raises after it.
01:10:48
It'll be fine. Like that voice in your
01:10:49
head that talks you into things that you
01:10:51
don't really want to do, and then 10
01:10:52
minutes later, you feel really guilty
01:10:53
that you did it. M
01:10:55
>> I'm just wondering if you think much
01:10:56
about the psychology of being in the
01:10:59
things I can do upstream to either fend
01:11:01
off the cravings or to have better
01:11:03
agency and control over the cravings.
01:11:04
>> So let's talk about that voice because
01:11:06
that voice comes in two flavors.
01:11:09
For some the voice is m that cookie
01:11:12
looks really really good. Chocolate chip
01:11:14
with sea salt that looks tasty. I'm
01:11:15
going to probably buy it after the end
01:11:17
of this meeting. That is the voice of
01:11:19
pleasure and enjoyment. There's another
01:11:21
voice that might be in your brain which
01:11:23
is like, "Oh my god, I need sugar right
01:11:24
now. What's in the kitchen? I'm going to
01:11:26
open the cupboards. Whatever there is.
01:11:27
Oh, this weird old cookie. I need to
01:11:28
have it right now. I need sugar
01:11:30
otherwise I'm not going to feel good."
01:11:32
Those are two very different voices.
01:11:33
That second voice is a voice of control
01:11:35
and of almost being like a victim to
01:11:37
sugar addiction. I want to help people
01:11:39
go from the sugar addiction voice to the
01:11:42
enjoyment voice because I think it's
01:11:43
fine to have cravings of or to want to
01:11:46
eat something delicious. I just want to
01:11:48
make sure people are not controlled by
01:11:50
that voice. Do you see what I mean? I
01:11:51
want it to be something you enjoy, not
01:11:53
something you are victim to. So, how do
01:11:56
we separate these two things out?
01:11:58
>> We need to balance our glucose levels so
01:12:00
that that voice comes from a place of
01:12:02
happiness and not a place of a glucose
01:12:03
crash that is making you feel controlled
01:12:06
by a biological impulse that is stronger
01:12:07
than you. So, protein in the morning, a
01:12:10
savory breakfast, super super important.
01:12:12
Then, a veggie starter before your lunch
01:12:14
and your dinner when you can. avoiding
01:12:17
sugar on an empty stomach to not kick
01:12:19
off a roller coaster of blood sugar ups
01:12:21
and downs that's going to make you crave
01:12:23
more and more of this of this sweet
01:12:25
stuff. But the voice that you just
01:12:26
mentioned, which is like, "Oh, that
01:12:28
looks really good. I'm going to do some
01:12:29
calf raises afterwards." I think that's
01:12:31
fine. To me, that doesn't sound like
01:12:32
you're being controlled by it. It sounds
01:12:34
like you kind of want to eat delicious
01:12:35
stuff,
01:12:36
>> but I regret it 10 minutes after. And I
01:12:37
go, "Why?" Because I think,
01:12:40
>> you know, especially if it's at like 10
01:12:43
p.m.
01:12:44
>> Yeah. Because then it messes up your
01:12:45
sleep. It messes up my next day.
01:12:47
>> Yeah.
01:12:47
>> I know. Why the hell did I do that? I
01:12:49
knew I shouldn't eat it. Yeah.
01:12:50
>> But the craving was too strong.
01:12:52
>> And listen, sometimes that's the
01:12:53
situation we're in. I do that too
01:12:54
sometimes. Like sometimes it is 11:00
01:12:56
p.m. I'm exhausted. I know my son's
01:12:57
probably going to wake up at 4:00 a.m.,
01:13:00
>> but I want that cookie. And I just I
01:13:01
just have it. Maybe I have some vinegar
01:13:03
or some antispect before, but it's okay
01:13:05
to give into these things. I don't think
01:13:06
we have to feel guilty about them. Like,
01:13:08
that's just life. Sometimes we can't do
01:13:09
the glucose hacks and sometimes we're
01:13:11
tired and the cookie looks good, so eat
01:13:12
the cookie. But it annoys me because I
01:13:14
then feel the next day and I go,
01:13:16
"Well, you know,
01:13:17
>> was it worth it?" Absolutely not.
01:13:19
Objectively, absolutely not.
01:13:20
>> Yeah. So, maybe if you had had that
01:13:22
cookie after some almonds or if after
01:13:25
the cookie you could do some laundry or
01:13:27
move around a little bit to reduce the
01:13:28
spike, maybe you could help with your
01:13:30
deep sleep during that night,
01:13:32
>> but sometimes you can't.
01:13:33
>> I think as well the subject of sleep and
01:13:35
glucose is one we we don't talk about
01:13:37
enough because some people really
01:13:38
struggle with their sleep. Yeah.
01:13:44
>> I'm flying, I'm waking up early at 4
01:13:46
a.m., fly, fly, go to, wherever,
01:13:49
>> my ability to control
01:13:52
>> cravings is significantly reduced. And
01:13:55
weirdly, I noticed that when I wake up
01:13:57
at say I I had, I don't know, I had
01:14:00
dinner at 9:00 p.m. the night before, if
01:14:01
I'm woken up at like 3:00 or 4:00 a.m.,
01:14:04
I wake up really hungry.
01:14:07
>> Interesting. Have you worn a glucose
01:14:09
monitor to see if you're not crashing in
01:14:10
the middle of the night?
01:14:11
>> No. But I've I've always been so curious
01:14:13
as to why that is. Because I know that
01:14:15
if id slept for 4 hours more, I would
01:14:17
have been like today where the first
01:14:18
thing I've eaten today and it's what 2
01:14:20
p.m. is that sardine
01:14:22
>> because I just wasn't hungry this
01:14:23
morning.
01:14:24
>> But if I'd woken up early, I mean, I've
01:14:27
looked a little bit into
01:14:28
>> I have a question. Do you think it's the
01:14:30
time you wake up that is causing you to
01:14:32
be more or less hungry? Or it's the
01:14:33
dinner you had the night before that is
01:14:35
causing a crash that is causing you to
01:14:36
wake up?
01:14:37
>> Like what's the chicken, what's the egg?
01:14:39
Because it sounds to me like maybe at
01:14:41
3:00 a.m. if you're having a glucose
01:14:42
crash because you had a big carb heavy
01:14:44
dinner. Then it's your body waking you
01:14:46
up and making you feel very hungry. For
01:14:49
me, it's kind of similar like in the
01:14:50
morning if I feel extremely hungry, it's
01:14:52
usually because I went to bed and I had
01:14:54
just had a bunch of carbs before bed.
01:14:56
Well, thanks to the ability to do very
01:14:58
quick research, I now know the answer,
01:15:00
or at least a solid hypothesis, and the
01:15:03
leading answer as to why when you're
01:15:04
sleep deprived, you end up eating worse
01:15:06
is because of the hormone imbalance of
01:15:07
leptin and grein.
01:15:09
>> Sleep deprivation directly alters the
01:15:10
hunger hormones produced in your gut and
01:15:12
fat cells.
01:15:13
>> If grein increases, known as hung,
01:15:15
ghrein signals the brain that it's time
01:15:17
to eat. Studies from Stanford University
01:15:19
showing for only 5 hours increases grein
01:15:21
by approximately 15%. Leptin decreases.
01:15:25
Um the satiety hormone tells your brain
01:15:27
you are full. The same sleep loss
01:15:29
decreases leptin by approximately 15%.
01:15:31
And therefore the result is that your
01:15:33
brain receives a loud I am starving
01:15:35
signal and a very weak I'm full signal
01:15:38
simultaneously.
01:15:39
>> And leptin is the hormone we talked
01:15:40
about at the beginning which when you're
01:15:42
breastfed as a baby, you're
01:15:43
epigenetically making more leptin. And
01:15:46
this setting can stay with you for life.
01:15:47
So, it's possible that also there's some
01:15:49
stuff going on in early life that makes
01:15:51
you more or less hungry.
01:15:54
>> To speak to my mom,
01:15:57
>> you know, every once in a while you come
01:15:58
across a product that has such a huge
01:16:00
impact on your life that you'd probably
01:16:02
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01:16:07
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01:16:10
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01:16:12
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01:16:15
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01:16:18
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01:16:19
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01:16:20
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01:16:22
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01:16:27
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01:16:31
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01:16:34
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01:16:36
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01:16:56
For the first 10 years that I was a
01:16:58
founder, I didn't prioritize getting a
01:16:59
good night's sleep at all. But over
01:17:01
time, I started to realize that it was
01:17:02
the key metric that influenced
01:17:04
everything in my life. My mood, my
01:17:05
focus, my ability to show up and to
01:17:06
think clearly and to lead well. So now
01:17:08
with my lifestyle being pretty crazy,
01:17:10
traveling across time zones, working
01:17:11
late, training late, I still fight to
01:17:13
protect my sleep, which sometimes means
01:17:14
starting the day a little bit later. It
01:17:16
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Sometimes it pushes me to go even
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Make sure you keep what I'm about to say
01:17:59
to yourself. I'm inviting 10,000 of you
01:18:01
to come even deeper into the diary of a
01:18:03
CEO. Welcome to my inner circle. This is
01:18:06
a brand new private community that I'm
01:18:08
launching to the world. We have so many
01:18:10
incredible things that happen that you
01:18:12
are never shown. We have the briefs that
01:18:14
are on my iPad when I'm recording the
01:18:16
conversation. We have clips we've never
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released. We have behindthe-scenes
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conversations with the guests and also
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You can tell us what you want this show
01:18:30
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we're only inviting the first 10,000
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if you want to join our private closed
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community, head to the link in the
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description below or go to
01:18:43
daccircle.com.
01:18:47
I will speak to you then.
01:18:54
What is the the most important thing we
01:18:57
haven't talked about as it relates to
01:18:58
nine months that count forever, your new
01:19:00
book, that we should have talked about?
01:19:02
>> I think protein.
01:19:03
>> Protein.
01:19:04
>> Yeah. By the time your baby's born, he
01:19:08
is about 50% protein if you exclude
01:19:10
water. So protein is not just for your
01:19:12
muscles. Protein forms your immune
01:19:15
system, your skin, your organs, many
01:19:17
many tissues, many many signaling
01:19:19
molecules in your body. So when you're
01:19:20
pregnant, you need to eat more protein
01:19:22
to give more protein to your baby. And
01:19:24
animal studies show something
01:19:26
fascinating, Stephen. They show that
01:19:27
when a mom is slightly protein
01:19:30
restricted, meaning she's eating a bit
01:19:32
less protein than she needs to, there's
01:19:35
a little epigenetic switch happening in
01:19:37
the baby that says, "Dear baby, keep
01:19:40
your muscles small because there's not a
01:19:42
lot of protein in the world you're about
01:19:43
to be born into." So what we're eating
01:19:46
during pregnancy is in essence sending a
01:19:49
little postcard to our baby in our
01:19:51
uterus telling him what kind of
01:19:53
nutrients will be available in the world
01:19:55
that he's about to be born into. And so
01:19:58
these animal studies suggest that if you
01:20:00
have a low protein diet, your baby will
01:20:02
be programmed to stay smaller and have
01:20:04
smaller muscle mass throughout his life.
01:20:07
And the thing is, Stephen, you need a
01:20:09
lot of protein when you're pregnant
01:20:10
because your baby is very protein
01:20:12
hungry. So here I have four chicken
01:20:14
breasts, which is basically the amount
01:20:16
of protein that I needed to eat every
01:20:18
single day.
01:20:19
>> Day
01:20:19
>> in the third trimester of pregnancy.
01:20:21
>> Yeah. Day.
01:20:22
>> Yeah. Per day.
01:20:23
>> Per day. It's a lot.
01:20:25
>> So I would have four eggs in the
01:20:27
morning. That's about 30 grams of
01:20:29
protein. And then I would have to have
01:20:31
three good servings of protein
01:20:33
represented by the three chicken breasts
01:20:35
here. So I would have fish at lunch,
01:20:38
probably a meat or a chicken at dinner,
01:20:40
and then a high protein snack. For
01:20:41
example, Greek yogurt. I would add some
01:20:43
whey protein powder in there to make
01:20:45
sure I was having enough protein. So,
01:20:46
you need about 1.6 gram of protein per
01:20:50
kilo of body weight per day in the third
01:20:52
trimester of pregnancy. And this is
01:20:54
where most of us fall short because
01:20:56
nobody's telling moms they need to eat
01:20:57
more protein. So, the result is that
01:20:59
moms lose their muscle mass because the
01:21:01
muscles are being broken down to give
01:21:03
protein to the baby. But there's a limit
01:21:05
to it. like you can't your muscle mass
01:21:08
cannot compensate for a low protein
01:21:10
diet. And this is why we see across all
01:21:14
women, all studies, low protein diets
01:21:17
lead to smaller babies and potentially
01:21:19
this epigenetic programming of staying
01:21:21
smaller throughout life. So protein is
01:21:24
key.
01:21:24
>> On that subject of muscle loss, have you
01:21:27
thought much about the impact of GLP1s,
01:21:30
these sort of fat loss drugs during
01:21:32
pregnancy?
01:21:33
>> Oh wow. I don't think they're
01:21:35
recommended during pregnancy. I hope not
01:21:36
because they prevent you from feeling
01:21:39
your hunger hormones. They prevent you
01:21:41
from feeling hungry. So, pregnancy would
01:21:44
be a very dangerous time to take these
01:21:46
because during pregnancy, you need to
01:21:48
eat a little bit more in terms of
01:21:50
quantity and calories, but also you need
01:21:52
to eat differently. So, you need to
01:21:53
learn about the protein, the choline,
01:21:55
the omega-3s, and I think it'll be quite
01:21:57
dangerous to take a GLP1 during
01:21:58
pregnancy.
01:22:00
Do you do you know that the vinegar
01:22:01
thing you talked about to me before
01:22:03
where you said you have vinegar before
01:22:05
eating something that's high in glucose?
01:22:07
>> Yeah.
01:22:08
>> Do you recommend that for mothers as
01:22:09
well?
01:22:10
>> You can, but if you're going to do that,
01:22:12
you need to make sure the vinegar is
01:22:13
pasteurized because you want to make
01:22:15
sure that during pregnancy people are
01:22:16
like only eat pasteurized foods because
01:22:19
you want to prevent any food
01:22:20
contamination. So make sure you look on
01:22:22
the back of the vinegar bottle and make
01:22:24
sure it's pasteurized. Apple cider
01:22:26
vinegar is usually not pasteurized. So,
01:22:28
do I recommend it?
01:22:32
I think it's okay to do. Like, vinegar
01:22:33
is fine during pregnancy, especially if
01:22:35
you really want like a cookie or a
01:22:36
muffin. It could be helpful to reduce
01:22:38
the glucose spike. But truly, pregnancy
01:22:40
is kind of the moment where you need to
01:22:42
be eating as little sugar as possible
01:22:44
because it's impacting your baby's
01:22:46
development. So, ideally,
01:22:49
you don't have to use the vinegar hack.
01:22:52
You know, I've often seen people talk
01:22:53
about like an obesity gene and stuff and
01:22:55
ask if obesity is genetic.
01:22:58
>> I guess one of the things I've kind of
01:23:00
deduced from today is that the genetic
01:23:02
component might be that during pregnancy
01:23:05
our mother um had a certain lifestyle or
01:23:08
diet and that increased our
01:23:12
predisposition
01:23:14
to having a different reaction to
01:23:17
certain foods
01:23:17
>> completely and the studies show that. So
01:23:19
in animal studies, when a mom has a lot
01:23:21
of sugar during pregnancy, there's
01:23:23
little epigenetic switches in the baby's
01:23:24
DNA that encourage fat storage.
01:23:26
>> Oh, okay.
01:23:27
>> So why is that? Because if you eat
01:23:29
sugar, your baby's getting sugar in his
01:23:32
bloodstream. And how does the baby
01:23:34
protect himself from high sugar levels?
01:23:36
By turning the sugar into fat. So by
01:23:39
eating a high sugar diet, you're sending
01:23:41
a little postcard to your baby being
01:23:42
like, "Hey baby, you're going to be born
01:23:43
into a world with a lot of sugar. So
01:23:45
become really good at turning that sugar
01:23:47
into fat to protect yourself. And this
01:23:49
is why we see across studies on tens of
01:23:52
thousands of moms that the higher a
01:23:55
mom's glucose levels during pregnancy,
01:23:57
the more fat mass a baby is born with.
01:24:01
>> Higher glucose during pregnancy, baby
01:24:03
had to turn that glucose into fat to
01:24:05
protect himself. So he's born with more
01:24:07
fat mass. And it doesn't just stop after
01:24:08
birth. Studies show that this continues.
01:24:11
Babies born to high glucose mothers are
01:24:14
more likely to have obesity as children,
01:24:16
as teenagers, and as adults. So, the
01:24:19
cycle continues. The programming of
01:24:21
storing a lot of fat continues even
01:24:23
though they're no longer connected to
01:24:24
their mom's bloodstream.
01:24:27
>> In the process of producing this book,
01:24:29
did did you think much about the
01:24:30
evolutionary sort of backstory of where
01:24:32
we came from and how our ancestors used
01:24:34
to eat? Did you
01:24:36
>> consider, I don't know, the orangutang
01:24:37
where we share most of our DNA? I think
01:24:39
it's like 98% of our DNA
01:24:41
>> because if you look at sort of what we
01:24:42
used to eat, meaning nutrient-rich organ
01:24:45
meats and not just like a chicken
01:24:48
breast, which is just muscle, which is
01:24:49
actually very poor nutrients. If you
01:24:51
think about how we didn't used to eat
01:24:53
processed foods, we had a diet that was
01:24:55
much more conducive to baby having more
01:24:58
of what he needed in the womb. Today,
01:25:00
our food system is failing us. We're all
01:25:02
deprived of proper nutrition with what
01:25:04
we're eating with all these
01:25:06
ultrarocessed foods, and that includes
01:25:07
pregnant moms. So, I tried to write a
01:25:09
book that was going to help people
01:25:12
navigate this very toxic food landscape
01:25:14
to see these four simple things they
01:25:17
could do to try to optimize a little bit
01:25:19
what the baby was getting. But it's a
01:25:20
lot to think about. And also being
01:25:22
pregnant comes with, I think, innate
01:25:24
pressure. Like I felt pressure during
01:25:26
pregnancy. I'm like, man, I'm making
01:25:27
another human. Like, this is a lot. And
01:25:30
then you're bombarded by messages online
01:25:31
and Instagram what to do, what not to
01:25:33
do. And it feels like whatever you do,
01:25:34
you feel guilty.
01:25:36
>> Mhm. So, I'm hoping this book gives
01:25:38
clear science, scientific evidence to
01:25:40
help people navigate that pressure. But
01:25:42
listen, I just want babies to be
01:25:43
healthy. Like, I want my baby to be
01:25:45
healthy. I want everybody's baby to be
01:25:46
healthy. I want moms to feel as little
01:25:49
stress as possible. And that's just the
01:25:51
truth. So, I'm hoping that this book
01:25:53
brings a little bit of reassurance and
01:25:56
light in this complicated world we live
01:26:00
in.
01:26:01
Stress is something we haven't talked
01:26:03
about, but I guess that also is an
01:26:05
important factor in this the story of
01:26:06
raising a healthy child.
01:26:09
>> I was extremely stressed my entire
01:26:11
pregnancy because of my miscarriage.
01:26:13
Like I probably the nine months of my
01:26:15
pregnancy with my son were the nine most
01:26:17
anxious months of my life. And that's
01:26:19
probably not very good for my baby. But
01:26:21
hey, you do what you can, you know? I I
01:26:23
tried everything to reduce my stress
01:26:25
levels. I just couldn't. I was so
01:26:26
nervous about losing the pregnancy.
01:26:28
>> You tried everything?
01:26:29
>> Yeah, I mean everything. I didn't take
01:26:31
anxiety medication, but I was, you know,
01:26:32
doing yoga and breath work and working
01:26:34
out and talking to my therapist and blah
01:26:36
blah blah, but I was still anxious
01:26:38
because I really didn't want to lose the
01:26:40
pregnancy and I was scared I would.
01:26:44
Why are you smiling?
01:26:45
>> But you didn't. No, I didn't.
01:26:46
>> Yeah. And you have a happy, healthy
01:26:49
>> Yeah.
01:26:50
>> little baby.
01:26:51
>> Yeah.
01:26:52
>> You want to have more babies?
01:26:54
>> I would love to, but man, now it's like
01:26:56
logistics. It's like, okay, so I'm doing
01:26:59
this project and that project and this
01:27:00
work thing. So, where can I find nine
01:27:02
months plus 6 months where I can't
01:27:04
really work
01:27:06
>> in in this crazy schedule that I create
01:27:09
for myself. By the way, I'm I'm I just
01:27:11
love my work. So, I'm always planning
01:27:12
new things.
01:27:13
>> When you look at products in the
01:27:14
supermarket,
01:27:15
>> I think we all have a different thing we
01:27:17
go straight to on the label. Yeah.
01:27:19
>> You know, sometimes people go to
01:27:20
calories, sometimes they look at
01:27:21
protein, sometimes they're looking at is
01:27:22
it gluten-free, sometimes they look at
01:27:24
the carbohydrates or the sugars. What do
01:27:26
you look for?
01:27:27
>> Ingredients. I go straight to the
01:27:29
ingredients list. Yeah, because in the
01:27:31
ingredients list, things are ordered by
01:27:34
weight. So, the first ingredient is
01:27:36
going to be what there is the most of in
01:27:38
that food.
01:27:39
>> Oh, I had no idea.
01:27:40
>> Yeah. So, they're ordered by weight. So,
01:27:42
if there is sugar or any other type of
01:27:45
sweet thing in the first five
01:27:46
ingredients, like dates, like fruit
01:27:50
juice, like molluses, like uh orange
01:27:54
syrup, whatever. I know that's a
01:27:56
dessert. And so I put it in my mind,
01:27:59
okay, this is a food for enjoyment for
01:28:01
dessert. So if you look at the sardines
01:28:03
ingredients, sardine, olive oil, salt,
01:28:05
natural flavor. So I would try to look
01:28:07
for one that doesn't have natural flavor
01:28:09
cuz I don't know what that means. I
01:28:10
don't think it's necessary. But as you
01:28:12
can see, there's no sugar in here. So
01:28:14
this is not dessert. This sardine can is
01:28:15
not dessert.
01:28:17
>> Good.
01:28:17
>> Isn't that helpful?
01:28:19
>> Cuz I often just look at the back of
01:28:20
labels and I just go straight for the
01:28:22
carbs and sugar level.
01:28:23
>> Really?
01:28:24
>> Yeah. Yeah. I don't know why I always
01:28:25
look at the the sugar level. I think
01:28:26
it's cuz I've done keto for a little
01:28:27
while. So,
01:28:28
>> kind of depends though because if you're
01:28:29
looking at like carbon sugars for a pack
01:28:31
of um table sugar versus
01:28:36
I don't know like a
01:28:37
>> protein shake.
01:28:38
>> Yeah, a protein shake.
01:28:39
>> I mean, it's it's a helpful place to
01:28:41
look. That's also where I look because
01:28:42
carbs carbs and sugars will tell you a
01:28:44
lot about what the food is going to do
01:28:46
to you. But also, it depends on the
01:28:47
ratio, right? If there's a lot of
01:28:48
protein also, then having carbs in there
01:28:51
is not going to create that big of a
01:28:52
glucose spike. If it's a product that
01:28:54
has just carbs, then yes,
01:28:55
>> a lot of people look at the calories.
01:28:56
>> Yeah. But calories are a very bad way of
01:29:00
assessing a food because two foods can
01:29:03
have the exact same number of calories
01:29:04
and be completely different in terms of
01:29:06
what they do to your body. So an avocado
01:29:08
and a donut, both 200 calories, vastly
01:29:13
different impact. It's like saying two
01:29:14
books are the same because they have the
01:29:15
same number of pages.
01:29:18
>> Calories and pages tell you nothing
01:29:20
about what's inside the food or inside
01:29:21
the book. We have to learn about
01:29:23
molecules. Which is why your reflex of
01:29:25
going to carbs and sugars is much
01:29:27
smarter because you're seeing what's
01:29:29
actually going to happen when you eat
01:29:30
the food. For example, avocado and
01:29:32
donut. The avocado mostly fat fiber
01:29:36
going to keep your glucose levels nice
01:29:37
and steady. Going to give your food
01:29:38
healthy fat, your body healthy fats.
01:29:40
Donut mostly sugars is going to create a
01:29:44
big glucose spike. Inflammation, aging,
01:29:47
crash, cravings, fatigue, it's going to
01:29:49
have a vastly different impact on your
01:29:50
body. So only looking at your diet
01:29:53
through the lens of calories is a very
01:29:55
bad idea because two diets can have the
01:29:58
exact same number of calories and you
01:30:00
can have a completely different
01:30:02
experience of life depending on what
01:30:04
you're actually eating.
01:30:06
>> And what's your um diet generally? Like
01:30:08
what time do you eat in the morning? Do
01:30:09
you do fasting or anything like that?
01:30:11
>> So no, I don't do fasting. So I'll have
01:30:14
breakfast in the morning always eggs.
01:30:16
Right now my my current kick is a bacon
01:30:18
and egg quadilla. super good. Um, with
01:30:21
coffee always with whole milk that I
01:30:23
love. Then for lunch, I'll have a veggie
01:30:26
starter if I'm having some carb heavy
01:30:28
lunch or I'll have like a collared green
01:30:32
chicken wrap with avocado and peppers.
01:30:34
>> Mhm.
01:30:35
>> After lunch, I always usually have
01:30:37
something sweet because I love sugar. I
01:30:39
love sugar. So, I'll have like some
01:30:40
chocolate or a nice cookie that I had
01:30:42
and then I'll try to move my body if I
01:30:43
can. This is the main thing that can get
01:30:45
a bit difficult. And then the evening is
01:30:46
when I have most carbs. I love having
01:30:50
rice or pasta at night. It just makes me
01:30:52
feel cozy.
01:30:53
>> What time?
01:30:54
>> As early as I can. I'm very unfrench in
01:30:56
that way. If I could have dinner at 5:00
01:30:58
p.m., I would. Um, but I would have no
01:31:00
more social life. So, maybe after my
01:31:03
baby's in bed, so like 7:30, 8.
01:31:06
>> And are you having vinegar before that
01:31:07
meal?
01:31:08
>> Um, it depends. If I don't have a veggie
01:31:10
starter, yeah, if I have a veggie
01:31:11
starter, I'll put some vinegar on the
01:31:13
veggie starter.
01:31:14
>> What else are you working on? What's
01:31:15
next for you, Jesse? One is mental
01:31:17
health because I have a deep passion for
01:31:20
mental health. It's the reason I got
01:31:21
into glucose in the first place. So, I
01:31:23
want to see if I can start putting
01:31:26
together some mental health packs based
01:31:29
on studies. This is something that's
01:31:30
been in the back of my mind for a long
01:31:31
time and I'm trying to find the time to
01:31:33
go there. And I'm working on new types
01:31:36
of content. I'm I'm just endlessly
01:31:39
inspired by what I'm able to to do and
01:31:42
how lucky I am to like dream up
01:31:44
something and be able to to put it
01:31:45
together. So, lots of surprises coming.
01:31:48
>> As you know, we have a closing treat on
01:31:51
this podcast where the last guest leaves
01:31:52
a question for the next.
01:31:53
>> I do know.
01:31:54
>> And the question left for you is, if you
01:31:57
could make the world a better place in
01:31:59
one way, what would you change? How
01:32:01
could you make the most impact?
01:32:03
>> I would maybe outlaw food marketing or
01:32:07
maybe outlaw
01:32:09
sugary breakfast foods. Something about
01:32:12
making very bad foods that are that look
01:32:16
healthy, making those illegal. It would
01:32:18
be illegal to put any health claims on a
01:32:22
product. For example, no added sugars or
01:32:24
vegan or gluten-free. I would outlaw all
01:32:26
of those to help people navigate a bit
01:32:27
better. Or if I could have like one
01:32:29
magic wand to do one thing, maybe I
01:32:31
would say no more fruit juice in
01:32:34
schools. Even that would be really cool.
01:32:36
>> Nine months that count forever. How your
01:32:38
pregnancy diet shapes your baby's
01:32:40
future. What is the um what is the
01:32:42
closing message, Jesse, for for pregnant
01:32:44
couples and um anybody who was who was
01:32:48
once conceived of themselves?
01:32:51
>> The closing message is pregnancy is
01:32:54
complicated. The food system we live in
01:32:56
is complicated and toxic. And this is a
01:32:58
very simple four-step trimester by
01:33:01
trimester plan that doesn't require a
01:33:03
lot of money that is going to help you
01:33:05
give your baby the best foundation
01:33:07
during development.
01:33:09
Do you think there's things from a
01:33:10
legislation perspective that can be
01:33:11
done? You know,
01:33:12
>> yeah, the most important is for the
01:33:13
system, the support system around the
01:33:15
moms to help make it really easy for
01:33:19
them to eat eggs and sardines and
01:33:22
vegetables and healthy fats. We have to
01:33:25
all support moms because they're
01:33:26
creating the next generation and they
01:33:28
they can't change the food industry.
01:33:30
Things have to shift around them to make
01:33:31
it easier. I think it's also about
01:33:33
education. For example, choline, you
01:33:34
know, I said 90% of moms are not getting
01:33:36
enough. And when people run surveys to
01:33:39
see whether doctors are talking to moms
01:33:42
about choline, only six% of doctors are
01:33:45
talking to moms about choline during
01:33:46
pregnancy. So there's also just a big
01:33:48
information gap somewhere. Things are
01:33:51
broken in lots of different areas. And
01:33:53
maybe it's like, oh, moms can't handle
01:33:55
it. Or maybe it's just that doctors are
01:33:57
focused on very short-term like
01:33:59
emergency things to manage. Maybe they
01:34:01
don't have time to talk about nutrition.
01:34:03
I don't know. But there's a real gap.
01:34:04
And I'm hoping this book will fill it.
01:34:08
I'm hoping like this is pie in the sky.
01:34:10
Like why don't we prescribe nine months
01:34:12
that count forever to every parent that
01:34:15
gets pregnant.
01:34:16
>> This will be a very good nutrition guide
01:34:18
for them and very simple.
01:34:20
>> I have many people in my life that are
01:34:21
currently pregnant, people that are
01:34:23
very, very close to me. And um it's
01:34:25
funny because you hear the conversations
01:34:26
they're having and it does kind of
01:34:28
sometimes feel like horoscopes and
01:34:29
guessing.
01:34:31
No offense to people that love
01:34:32
horoscopes, but it does feel a little
01:34:34
bit sort of pie in the sky. Yeah, I
01:34:38
know. like this is You don't
01:34:39
know your sign. I'm Virgo, I think.
01:34:40
>> Okay,
01:34:41
>> people. I knew he was a Virgo. I'm not
01:34:44
really on Sagittarius,
01:34:46
but it is it's it's it's confusing
01:34:48
because there's so much information out
01:34:49
there. So, it's wonderful to have a
01:34:51
manual like this that demystifies an
01:34:53
area where there's just so much
01:34:55
information coming at you and there's so
01:34:57
much conflicting information. And your
01:34:58
book is so importantly based on
01:35:02
scientific consensus and and facts and
01:35:04
studies versus just experience alone.
01:35:07
And I think that's why it's so
01:35:08
important. And whenever the time comes
01:35:11
that me and my fiance are fortunate
01:35:14
enough hopefully to have our own baby,
01:35:18
um we're both going to reread this book
01:35:20
because it's hard to find books on this
01:35:21
subject that are so succinct that break
01:35:23
it down stage by stage. And uh you as an
01:35:26
author, you have a wonderful way of
01:35:27
making things accessible. Even in this
01:35:30
conversation, you you I don't need to
01:35:31
ask you to define complicated words and
01:35:33
that's reflected in all the work that
01:35:35
you do in everything that you write. So,
01:35:36
highly recommend. Great book to buy for
01:35:38
someone as a gift if you just found out
01:35:40
that someone in your life is pregnant,
01:35:41
but also a great book to buy for you and
01:35:43
your partner if you're going through
01:35:44
your own pregnancy journey or thinking
01:35:45
about getting pregnant soon.
01:35:47
>> It's also a good book to buy for your
01:35:48
kids for all the grandparents to be out
01:35:51
there. It's a good book to buy for your
01:35:53
kids if they're going to have a baby
01:35:54
soon.
01:35:55
>> Amen, Jesse. Thank you.
01:35:57
>> Thank you so much for having me back,
01:35:58
Stephen. It's always a pleasure.
01:36:00
>> YouTube have this new crazy algorithm
01:36:02
where they know exactly what video you
01:36:04
would like to watch next based on AI and
01:36:06
all of your viewing behavior. And the
01:36:08
algorithm says that this video is the
01:36:11
perfect video for you. It's different
01:36:13
for everybody looking right now. Check
01:36:14
this video out and I bet you you might
01:36:16
love

Podspun Insights

In this enlightening episode, the conversation dives deep into the profound impact of maternal nutrition during pregnancy on a child's future health. The guest, a biochemist and author, shares her personal journey of researching dietary needs while pregnant, revealing shocking statistics like how 90% of mothers lack sufficient choline, a crucial nutrient for brain development. The discussion highlights the alarming consequences of high sugar intake during pregnancy, linking it to increased risks of diabetes and psychiatric disorders in children. With a mix of scientific insight and personal anecdotes, she emphasizes the importance of empowering mothers with knowledge about their diets, advocating for a shift in societal norms and food marketing that often misleads them. The episode is not just informative but also serves as a rallying cry for better education and support for expecting parents, making it a must-listen for anyone interested in health, nutrition, and parenting.

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 92
    Most shocking
  • 91
    Best writing
  • 90
    Most emotional
  • 90
    Most quotable

Episode Highlights

  • Glucose Levels and Mood
    Unsteady glucose levels can lead to mood swings and relationship issues.
    “When you have very unsteady glucose levels, your mood is less stable.”
    @ 04m 16s
    February 26, 2026
  • Choline: The Overlooked Nutrient
    90% of moms are not getting enough choline during pregnancy, impacting brain development.
    “Nobody tells moms about this.”
    @ 19m 16s
    February 26, 2026
  • The Power of Nutrition During Pregnancy
    What you eat during pregnancy can shape your baby's health and development.
    “Your baby is what you eat.”
    @ 20m 31s
    February 26, 2026
  • Sugar's Hidden Impact
    The amount of sugar consumed during pregnancy can influence your baby's long-term health.
    “The amount of sugar during pregnancy can subtly program your baby.”
    @ 30m 26s
    February 26, 2026
  • The Impact of Inflammation on Brain Development
    High inflammation during pregnancy can lead to the destruction of healthy neurons, affecting brain development.
    “High inflammation seems to be making these microglia overactive.”
    @ 34m 34s
    February 26, 2026
  • Exercise Benefits for Pregnant Mothers
    Exercising during pregnancy can significantly enhance the brain development of the baby.
    “Exercise is incredibly good for your baby's development.”
    @ 45m 40s
    February 26, 2026
  • The Dangers of Alcohol During Pregnancy
    Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can directly affect your baby's development. "When you drink alcohol during pregnancy, your baby's also having a glass of wine."
    “When you drink alcohol during pregnancy, your baby's also having a glass of wine.”
    @ 51m 42s
    February 26, 2026
  • Understanding Miscarriage
    Miscarriage is more common than many realize, affecting one in five pregnancies. "It’s more common than we think and it happens to more people than we know about."
    “It’s more common than we think and it happens to more people than we know about.”
    @ 01h 05m 31s
    February 26, 2026
  • Understanding Cravings
    Cravings can be a powerful force that influences our eating habits and choices.
    “Cravings are where it all begins.”
    @ 01h 10m 22s
    February 26, 2026
  • The Impact of Sleep on Hunger
    Sleep deprivation alters hunger hormones, making us more susceptible to cravings.
    “Sleep deprivation directly alters the hunger hormones produced in your gut.”
    @ 01h 15m 09s
    February 26, 2026
  • Navigating Pregnancy Nutrition
    The food system is failing us, especially for pregnant moms. A new book aims to help.
    “I tried to write a book that was going to help people navigate this very toxic food landscape.”
    @ 01h 25m 12s
    February 26, 2026
  • A Call for Change
    Outlawing misleading food marketing could help improve nutrition for moms and babies.
    “I would maybe outlaw food marketing or maybe outlaw sugary breakfast foods.”
    @ 01h 32m 03s
    February 26, 2026

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Glucose Impact03:06
  • Nutrition Matters20:05
  • Breastfeeding Benefits26:31
  • Soil Metaphor48:38
  • Common Misconceptions1:05:31
  • Superhuman Efficiency1:08:31
  • Toxic Food Landscape1:25:12
  • Nutrition Education1:33:33

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown