B (4:36)

And I love that book and everyone should read that book. Thank you. So I'm curious because there are people who have been trying to get this information out for a long time now. I mean, you've worked with Food Babe. I've had her on the podcast. She's been around for 10 years. You know, I've talked about some of this stuff in my cookbooks over the last 10 years. Why is it that people are now receptive to it as opposed to five years ago, let's say?

A (4:58)

Totally. Yeah. I mean, yeah, this is all like very much stuff that has been talked about for a while. You think about like, Mark Hyman's been doing this for 20 years. Andrew Weil, like just Jeffrey Bland, I mean, the forefathers of all of this, really getting it. And it's honestly, it's basically like the holistic. It's a lot of the, like, holistic themes that were being talked about in the 70s, you know, and. And now we're just sort of understanding more of the science to back it all up. I think there's a moment right now where people. There's two things happening, I think. One, the health stats are getting so bad that it's almost like every. Everyone has a touch point with chronic disease now, either in ourselves or in our parents or children. And so it's sort of like, wait, I remember a time when I was younger when like, not everyone around me was sick. Like, I know kids who have chronic issues. I know so many girls our age who have chronic issues, whether it's infertility, depression, anxiety, acne, whatever, Ms. Fibromyalgia, migraines. There's so much happening even in our age group. And then of course, the older folks who are like, all seem to have these chronic issues, starting at like 50 and then leading to this sad decline. So one, it's just so pervasive. I also, you see cancer rates, like, yeah, like a lot of people now know a young person with early onset cancer. So it's kind of starting to click that like, this is not just normal aging. Right. And then two, I think Covid. I think that Covid broke something open where people started to really see, see that maybe we don't, maybe we shouldn't be like trusting the experts blindly. Maybe there is such deep, like corporate capture of industry and honestly, corruption of our medical data and information that like, we have to kind of question everything. And because of how strong the pharmaceutical push was during COVID and just shoved down everyone's throats with these mandates, which just really like destroyed so many people's lives and, and then a lot of the adverse effects of the vaccines and things like that was kind of silenced. You couldn't even talk about it. People were sort of like, whoa, there's something bigger going on here where like, we're getting sick and no one's talking about it and the industries that are supposed to be managing our health maybe can't be trusted as blindly as we think. And together, I think that's led to a moment where this is finally something that's like truly dominating the zeitgeist. Then throw in that there's an election happening and like this rfk, you know, figure comes into play and it's like it was kind of just, I think an interesting perfect storm of a year of let's start asking why. Why are kids sick? Why are life going down? Why is our food filled with toxins that the FDA doesn't even know about? This is insanity. You know, why has the vaccine schedule exploded to like over 70 since the 1986 childhood vaccine liability Act? What is going on? Just so it's coming from a lot of different directions, but I think it's a very exciting time.

B (7:46)

I do too. I know. I feel it so much. I feel like there's this energy in the air and the tides are shifting and like it's happening. It's finally happen happening.

A (7:56)

Yeah.

B (8:01)

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Okay, let's talk about the food industry specifically. And let's start with chemicals in and on our food. Because I think it's important to remember while you and I sort of like live and breathe all this information, a lot of people, this is the first time they're gonna be hearing about this. So let's just break it down for everybody. What types of chemicals are on our food and in our food that we should be looking out for that are harmful?

A (13:23)

Well, I think the first thing to know is that since just like World War II and really more since the 1970s and 80s when a lot of the tobacco companies were starting to actually acquire processed food companies as like favor for cigarettes went down, they realized like, oh, we need to create a new industry of addiction. And so they bought a lot of the food companies. And that's when processed foods started to become really addictive and, and ultra processed. That was the 70s and 80s. So kind of the first wave of ultra processed food was the 1940s, and then really the 1970s and 80s. And now we're in a situation where almost 70% of our calories come from ultra processed food. So this is food that is unrecognizable from nature, made in a factory, often has 20, 30, 40 ingredients. And it's something that our human bodies have never, throughout evolution, ever had to deal with. It's foreign and it's making us astronomically ill. So so many of our calories are ultra processed food, which is basically just taking like synthetic and or highly modified building blocks and putting together a Franken food that kind of looks like food, but it actually doesn't have really very many natural components at all. So that's number one, the majority of our calories are ultra processed food. The second piece is that there are somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 chemicals that can be added to our food. In the United States, which is vastly more than pretty much any other country in the world. In Europe, that number is like 400. And they're highly studied. So, you know, who knows kind of whether this is like nefarious or not. But I think ultimately from some of the recent articles you're reading about the fda, like, they honestly just don't have the bandwidth to even regulate all of these chemicals that companies are proposing to put in their food. So the, the leniency on what's allowed is just astronomical and so bad because fundamentally companies, private industries are the ones who are deciding what goes in our food. And ultimately they're beholden to, you know, their investors, their shareholders. They're not beholden to human health. And so there's just a misalignment of incentives. So right now, if you just go on the FDA website, there's 4,000 chemicals listed on their website that are allowed in food. Other estimates think it's more like up to 10,000. And a lot of these are known toxic chemicals like acetone and butane and formaldehyde. It's, it's crazy. So that's like what's going into our food, basically, because for some reason, whether it's preservatives, emulsifiers, colorings, flavorings, that's the cheapest way to make this, you know, franken food seem like real food. It's a lot cheaper than actually like taking a blueberry and having an extract from it and putting in a food. Just create a synthetic chemical, pour it in, and they're not being held accountable. So that's one. The second is that even on our real whole foods that come from the ground, they're just being sprayed with the pesticides, the synthetic pesticides. And right now in the US we're spraying 1 billion pounds of synthetic pesticides per year on our crops. 99% of American farmland is conventionally grown, so meaning it's sprayed with chemicals. And glyphosate, which is the most common pesticide used in the United States, which is Roundup, made by Monsanto, it by the World Health Organization is considered a probable carcinogen, a cancer causing substance. And it is in all of our food, basically. So you've got the raw materials, like the whole foods that are being covered in glyphosate. And then you've got the processing that happens at the factories to create Frankenfoods, which has food additives that can be toxic to make them taste like something that we would recognize. And so that's kind of the crux of the issue. And up until basically this year, you were kind of considered like a weird, crunchy mom or you know, or like someone fringe for talking about it. But thank God for Vani Hari and others rfk, who are actually bringing this to the forefront. It's really, really important because we eat two to three pounds of food per day and food is actually the molecular building block that makes up our bodies. Like what? I'm so awe inspired by food because, you know, people think that like our body is the body we have and we kind of have it throughout our whole lifetime. But in reality, like our body's turning over every single day. We actually like re3D print cells every single day throughout our lifetime. And like 600 billion cells die and are reborn every day. A huge amount of cells. And you're re3D printing that with food. And so we need obviously good quality building blocks to keep building a functional, healthy body because structure turns into function. But right now the building blocks we're putting in are just like this crap. And then it's on top of that there's toxic additives that hurt our cell biology. So that's where we're at.

B (17:56)

Oh God. And then you talked about Monsanto. Let's talk about GMOs. What are GMOs for people who don't understand or who don't know.

A (18:03)

I should say Genetically modified plants are plants that seeds that have been developed that essentially have genetic modifications that make them impervious to being killed by certain pesticides. So you might have Roundup ready corn which is genetically modified to have the plant not be killed by this killing chemical. So the chemical kills the pests but not the plant. If you think about what is a pesticide, side is the suffix that means killing. It's a killing chemical. And to allow the plant to not be killed we have to genetically modify it. So if you're eating a genetically modified plant like often it's because they wanted to be able to spray it with poison and not kill it like we should. That should set off some red alarms.

B (18:44)

Right, right.

A (18:44)

And one fact that I found in my research was that 20% of all suicides globally are done by ingesting pesticides. So people say, oh you know, these aren't, these are safe for human consumption. It's totally fine. That settled science. This has been debunked. Their problem, all those words that people use to like silence conversation, gaslighting, total gaslighting, especially gaslighting of moms. But in reality, first of all a lot of these scientific papers were, are ghostwritten, bought off papers by industry. There was a huge lawsuit, one of the largest, like you know, Monsanto has gotten some of the largest fines ever from, from lawsuits about, about their products. Like it, it's not settled science. And, and part of the discovery for this Monsanto lawsuit was they had to release information that basically showed they ghost RIP papers about the safety of glyphosate. So yeah, we just need to remember that like first of all we don't want to be eating plants that have a killing chemical on them obviously. And two, we are completely connected with nature on every level. Again, we're constantly turning over our cells, we're getting new building blocks from our food, we're shedding you know, pounds and pounds of like skin cells per year and gut lining cells. So we're in constant turnover with the earth. So even if it was, even if they were safe for human consumption, which they're not, if we're destroying the biodiversity of the earth with these chemicals, we're a reflection of the earth, like that's what we've kind of forgotten. Like we're totally connected. So even if we were just damaging like the life giving capacity of Earth in an effort to just like wipe out all these pests, it still wouldn't be good for us on that I think more energetic and honestly like spiritual level. So we've got, we've gotta, I mean regenerative agriculture fortunately is, it's been going on forever. It's really indigenous agriculture but fortunately it's becoming more part of the like common like lexicon I think now and people Understand that, like, actually there's patterns to nature and there's ways that we can work with nature and agriculture to have it thrive rather than just to dominate and suppress things we don't like about it. So. Yeah, it's beautiful.

B (20:49)

Yeah, it really is.

A (20:50)

Okay.

B (20:50)

And then I want to talk about plastic, so because I think that's one area people still don't understand how harmful plastic can be. So what should people be doing? Getting rid of all of the plastic in their houses. Right. Unfortunately. But I mean, I know it's doing to our bodies.

A (21:08)

I think it's doing a lot more than we understand. And I think, I truly think that a hundred years we're going to look back and we were going to be so devastated and horrified by what we did to bodies on the earth with plastic. Just to share a little bit about, like, what we're starting to learn about plastic. So every human organ that has been studied in like autopsy type studies, every human organ has plastic in it. Every single one. And there was actually a study that looked at human placentas and they, they looked at a bunch of placentas after delivery and looked at them under the microscope. And a hundred percent of placentas in the study now have plastic in it. It is, yeah. Other research that showed that this was one study, but when they looked at brains of deceased people,.5%. So half of 1% of the brain by weight was microplastics. Wow. Isn't that hard to believe?

B (22:01)

Yeah. Honestly, it makes me say.

A (22:03)

It makes me right. It's like we're convert. We're like converting to plastic. And this is just the beginning. I mean, plastic's only been around for 100 years commercially and we've already produced 6 billion tons of it. And it doesn't really degrade. Well. And so then more recent research. Oh my gosh, this one was, this one was absolutely wild. But they took plaques like, like heart blockage, you know, like plaques and arteries that you. They can form in your carotid artery, which is the blood vessel that goes from the heart to the brain to supply your brain. And there's this procedure called carotid endometriosis where you can actually go in and take the plaque out of the carotid. So they took the plaques out and they looked at them, and almost 70% of the plaques were basically filled with microplastics. So now our heart and cardiac plaques and vascular plaques, you know, that cause heart attacks and strokes now have plastic in them. And they found that for the people who had Plaques taken out. The ones who had plastic in their plaques, even after the plaques were taken out had about a four times higher risk of death over the next five years. So something about the fact that they had a higher plastic burden in their body led to higher. So even after the surgery. Now what I'm concerned about is that not only do our current medications for chronic disease not work very well, they just, they don't solve the issue. We are gonna be entering a new era of medicine where our current surgeries and pharmaceuticals are gonna be rendered impotent in the face of plastic related diseases. Cause the mechanism of action of the meds we have don't affect plastic. So if you have a heart blockage, that's not just plaque, but it's plaque and plastic. What's the plan?

B (23:37)

Wow.

A (23:38)

Right? We're gonna need a whole new field of plastic based medicine. And people are talking about like how do you detox it? This and that. But like can there's a detox plastic? I've talked to people who have ways of thinking about like with sauna and different liver binders and things like, but I'm not an expert in that. I really hope that we can. Yeah, but this is going to be, I think this is going to be a tidal wave over the next 10 years. We've also, I mean, getting back to metabolic health, which is fundamentally focused on like the mitochondria and how our cells make energy. We've found nanoplastics in the mitochondria, so not just in tissues but in cells. And not just in cells, but in specific organelles inside of cells. So I always think about metabolic health as like, it's how we create energy in the body, it's how we power our cells. And so fundamentally metabolic dysfunction, which is affecting 93% of American adults now, it's about less energy production in our body. So it's fundamentally about decreasing your life force. That's what this is. We're like dimming and plastic is contributing to that.

B (24:37)

Wow.

A (24:38)

And hormone disruption, which we didn't even talk about.

B (24:40)

Well, but let's talk about that. I want to talk about because young girls now you've said that they're going through puberty way earlier than they ever have before. And I mean I even just see this my group of friends because with kids. But mainstream media is ignoring that.

A (24:55)

Why?

B (24:55)

I mean, why is that?

A (24:57)

Well, what they're doing is they're saying about like the Washington Post or New York Times articles that have come out. That's like girls are going through puberty way early. And scientists have no idea why.

B (25:06)

It's like, what? Like, it's just.

A (25:08)

It's so weird, you know, I mean, it's not. We kind of all kind of get what's going on here, but there's corporate capture, just to spell it out, there's corporate capture of media. But fundamentally, I think it's. That is very multifactorial. Of course, there's a lot of things about our environment now that are estrogenic and that are gonna create a hormonal milieu, like earlier in a body that may trigger puberty. And so some of the things that are estrogenic is like, one is obesity is just estrogenic. So if we have more fat, we're gonna make more estrogen in the body, both in men and women. And so because fat has enzyme on it called aromatase, which converts testosterone to estrogen, and women have a ton of testosterone too. And so it's like fat around your midline, specifically, which is visceral fat, which is the more dangerous fat related to metabolic dysfunction. That fat is hormonally active. No one. No one people.

B (26:00)

I had no idea.

A (26:01)

So interesting. Like Ben Bickman, wonderful scientist, metabolic scientist, says, like, basically, fat around the midline of a man is like a giant ovary.

B (26:11)

Wow.

A (26:12)

Right? It's crazy.

B (26:13)

Alarming.

A (26:13)

It is. And so that one is the. Just the general obesity caused by lots of different factors. The food system, the toxins, lack of sleep, lack of movement, all these things. Then you've got the chemicals, many of which are actually estrogenic. So the chemical itself, like a microplastic, a phthalate or something like that, like a breakdown product of plastic or other chemicals, even some pesticides like atrazine, can actually bind to or modulate our hormone receptors. So normally, like estrogen should bind to a hormone receptor on a cell and then cause an intracellular cascade that may do something like initiate puberty. But imagine if there's all these other things that can bind that receptor, like a plastic or a pesticide or things like that. So it's just an overwhelm. And the body has the ability to manage some level of toxic exposures. But when it's every day from the air, food, water, soil, furniture, toys, everything, it's just our current healthcare crisis across children, adults and the elderly is representative of ourselves being crushed by the cumulative burden of all the different elements of modernity that our cells can no longer cope with.

B (27:20)

So you mentioned the air. Yeah. What are your thoughts?

A (27:25)

You know, the honest truth is, like, I Don't. I don't know. Obviously I don't know anything more than you know, because I think it's like. It's just. We just don't know. That's the problem. I think it's very strange that now anywhere you go in the United States, there's streaks of white sort of geometric patterns all over the sky. It's so strange. I mean, LA is literally. It's like, it's like a. It's like a hatched pattern on the sky every day when we go outside. What I do know is that there is a White House report that I've read and everyone should go and look at it, but it's literally from the office of the White House. It's a PDF that you can download. And they talk about this concept of stratospheric aerosolized injection. Sai. Have you heard about this? A little bit, yeah. It's very public knowledge. This is not conspiracy at all. Where you can aerosolize things like metals, heavy metals and stuff into the sky to reflect solar beams to help theoretically mitigate climate change. And there's other ways of doing it too, like these techniques called cloud brightening. And they've even those figures in that exact report, like mirrors that we can put up in, in essentially up in some level of our atmosphere and that can reflect like solar rays. The idea, you know, just good faith intentions here, like the idea is to like help mitigate climate change. I don't think it's the right solution because obviously we should like focus on regenerative agriculture which like captures tons of carbon before we do all this crazy stuff that interferes with nature. But we know that SAI is something that the government's pursuing and it's essentially aerosolizing things like heavy metals to reflect the sun. And so there's.

B (28:55)

So the theory is they're spraying all this in our skies, which is then coming down onto us and in our soil and everything else.

A (29:02)

Well, I don't fully if that's a program that has been enacted, but it's something that's an active area of research. So that's what I know. And so you know, of course you sit there in your yard looking up and you're like, what is happening? Because I don't think we would necessarily have the full story if it was more to like protect humanity. But people would not be in favor of it. Like, would they really? I don't know. So it really makes me. I mean, I think this gets down to the fundamental point is like we should be able to have transparency and ask questions about what's going on.

B (29:31)

Exactly. You could never four years ago have this conversation at all. But yeah, I agree with you. Well, and you know, it's the same thing with vaccines. You said earlier that you thought Covid has sort of turned the tides. And I agree with you. I think pre Covid, you could never talk to someone about a vaccine injury or even go down that road where now people are definitely more open to it. So I'm just curious from you, what do you see as far as corruption goes in that specific industry?

A (29:59)

Yeah, again, not really my academic, like area of expertise, but just as like a person who loves to ask questions. And you know, I think what really bothers me a couple things. One Is this the 1986 childhood vaccine liability act, which is the inflection point when we saw a huge explosion of the vaccine schedule. And this bill was purportedly to allow vaccine companies to basically have more freedom to develop potentially quote, unquote, life saving medications without having to just be constantly dealing with like litigation. So they created a fund that's a no fault payout fund for people who report vaccine injuries. So they separated liability from the people manufacturing to essentially like a no fault fund. So we created an industry that has full legal immunity for any harm and wrongdoing. And to me, as just a person, a future mother, I'm like, this feels insane to me. Why would an industry that first of all funds a huge portion of our media funds, has the highest lobbying spend of any industry and actually has medications that are mandated for kids to do basic activities like go to school or camp, has full legal immunity for wrongdoing or death. And if you just literally open the packaging inserts from the companies and look at like what are the risks or contraindications or side effects? Like, there are real. No matter what you think about vaccines, there are real side effects. Every medication has side effects. So and, but they don't have to really think about it or worry about it. And I'm just like, that's not a world I really want to like that. That sounds, that's scary to me for sure. Especially given our culture around silencing of conversations and ask questions around medication. So number one is I think that act is fundamentally really problematic for the America for American consumer safety. And that's why I think RFK is really interested in like reexamining that, because he's a lawyer. He's a lawyer who has spent his career fighting against corporate corruption, against essentially human interests. And so that's One. I mean, and then as you go down the road and the rabbit hole, like, I look at some of the. Just truly, what I think is just, like, batshit crazy, which is like, with certain vaccines, first of all, the fact that we lump all vaccines together as if they're all the same. Like, there's every. Everyone is kind of different. But like hep B, for instance, this is the one that was kind of like my gateway to being, like, asking a lot more questions was just as I think about having kids and thinking about, okay, first day of life, you have to decide what you're going to do. And looking into hep B. And I really love the book, the Vaccine Friendly Plan by Paul Thomas. And he talks about, like, yeah, basically, if pregnant women are tested for hep B. And hep B is a sexually transmitted disease that's spread by sex or intravenous drug use. And it is given, based on the CDC schedule to every newborn in America, unless you opt out in the hospital. In the hospital on the first day of life, when this baby is so tiny. That vaccine has formaldehyde and aluminum. It just does. You can look at the package. So there are babies who have virtually zero risk. And getting the vaccine does not help other children. It's not about, like, herd immunity who are getting a medication which will have some percentage of side effects and harm. So you're gonna take perfectly healthy babies and some percentage will have a problem and may have never needed it. Yeah, like, we're talking about human lives here. Like, to me, that is crazy. And I think it's fundamentally, like, we have silenced nuanced discussions about these things. I think because there's this fear based on the public health agencies that, like, Americans are too dumb to have a nuanced discussion about healthcare. So we just have to say we have to get you on the treadmill, get you on the schedule, day one in the hospital. And I mean, to me, that's just, like, dystopian. So then you go through, like, a gateway, like, thinking about the Hep B vaccine, and then you start to, like, learn more about some of the others and just kind of looking at, like, what, you know, happened with COVID and, like, the mandates and just so many lives destroyed by, you know, these mandates. And I just think we have to have a more nuanced conversation about this. And we've got to get the corporate capture, the corruption and conflicts of interest out of our science and media so that we can have, like, real discussions with full information about this. So that's what I'M hoping for. But again, it's not, it's not like my area of focus or academic. But as just a person.

B (34:09)

Exactly.

A (34:09)

And a physician and a future mother, I'm like, this is, this is, this is crazy.

B (34:14)

We need to be able to have the conversation. Yes. And explain to everyone. And you touched on this earlier too, but why these studies that they're putting out there are not what they seem.

A (34:25)

To be just generally inside the thing. Yeah.

B (34:27)

The vaccine companies, also the food industry, all of these studies, how they're swayed a little bit, you know, the, the corruption behind these studies that they're putting out there.

A (34:36)

Yeah. I mean, so, so unfortunately there's just a lot of money from industry going into our scientific research, which I just think people don't really understand.

B (34:46)

I don't either.

A (34:47)

See, a scientific study, you're kind of like, this is clean, this is science. You know, this is unbiased. But unfortunately, it's just not. There was a research probe that kind of came out that showed that at the nih, so a taxpayer funded industry or a taxpayer funded entity, there were 8,000 major conflicts of interest with NIH researchers between 2012 and 2024. So we have like, it's not like 1020, it's like 8000. And not minor major conflicts of interest. And so you've got. And what that means is that these researchers are also getting paid by industry. So we're paying for them, but so is industry. So who's the customer? And there have been studies that show when industry funds a paper, it very much skews the outcomes, whether or not it's like intentional or, you know, I always try to assume good intent. Like, is that scientists like being bribed? Probably not. But relationships, relationships are influential. You know, when you think about like even having a relationship with a company and, you know, they're executives and you think they're doing good stuff and you kind of buy into that. They're like helping feed the global population with their ultra processed food. And so you're, you know, and they're gonna do unbiased funding to your research and you're just gonna study how their proteins shake work. It's like all of a sudden you're like so deep in a relationship that like, maybe it impacts on some subconscious level like how you design the study or what outcomes you're looking for. So I think a lot of it's probably really insidious. But the fact is there's huge money, huge money going to fund scientists from industry. And we know that when industry funds papers, it does skew outcomes. I don't have the exact stat, it's in my book, but it was something like when sugar sweetened beverage studies about the health effects of sugar sweetened beverages like soda. When industry funds a paper, it's like 92% showed no harm from sugar sweetened beverages. But when it's an unbiased research group, like 86% showed harm.

B (36:46)

Yeah.

A (36:46)

So it's that type of thing. And we just, I think we have to get this, like unfettered, you know, money flow, these huge multinational corporations to our scientists who are doing, doing research. Like, I think that's, that's a big part of it. Get the conflicts of interest out and then produce clean, uncompromised research so we can make good health decisions.

B (37:03)

Exactly.

A (37:03)

It's like that simple.

B (37:04)

It's that simple.

A (37:05)

I know.

B (37:05)

That's the thing. It could be very simple.

A (37:07)

Yeah.

B (37:11)

I'm so excited to talk to you guys about Nutrafol. If you follow me on Instagram, you've definitely seen me talk about them there as well. And for very good reason. Reason. I've been taking Nutrafol for about a year now, and I have noticed such a difference in my hair journey. Initially, I started taking Nutrafol because I was trying to grow out some layers. Long story short, I had a lot of breakage a couple years ago and it was really driving me crazy. And initially length was not necessarily a goal of mine. But now that my hair has been growing a lot, I'm actually loving it and I'm just going to keep the party going. I don't know how long I'm gonna grow my hair, but I'm definitely enjoying it. I've talked to all of my friends about Nutrafol. I've turned on so many of my friends to it as well because Nutrafol is the number one dermatologist. Recommended hair growth supplement trusted by over 1 million people. See thicker, stronger, faster growing hair with less shedding in just three to six months with Nutrafol. Definitely check them out. If you have not start your hair growth journey with Nutrafol. And for a limited time, Nutrafol is offering my listeners $10 off your first month's subscription and free shipping. When you go to nutrafol.com and enter the promo code Honest. Find out why over 4, 500 healthcare professionals and stylists recommend Nutrafol for healthier hair. Nutrafol.com spelled n u t r a f o l dot com nutrition promo code honest. That's nutrafol.com promo code honest. I love the brand Symbiotica so much and I'm really excited to talk to you guys about them today. You guys know I'm a bit of a health nut and I only like taking top tier supplements. That's why I love Symbiotica. I actually just started taking Symbiotica's magnesium L Theranate. It helps me so much with my sleep, focus, memory and it comes in these little convenient liquid pouches which is perfect for when you're on the go or traveling. Their products make it so easy to stay healthy and feel good. Also, I know with liquid supplements sometimes the flavor can be a little wonky. But another reason I love Symbiotica is because they have so many delicious flavors. The magnesium has this vanilla cream flavor that is honestly, it's like dessert. It's so good. I love it. And like I said, what's so great about Symbiotica is the quality of their products. They're free from seed oils, preservatives, toxins or artificial additives which are usually found in supplements. So you're only getting the good stuff your body craves. And with their advanced lipos small absorption technology, nutrients are delivered safely and efficiently so your body gets what it needs right where it needs it. And just to make life easier, their convenient monthly subscription service helps you never run out of your health boosting essentials. I actually have a bunch of different subscriptions for them, so it's a nice way because it's one less thing that you have to worry about high quality holistic wellness right at your fingertips. Be present and feel your best. For life's most memorable moments. Go to symbiotica.comhonest for 20 off your order plus free shipping today. Again, that is symbiotica.comhonest For 20% off your order and free shipping. All right, guys, let's talk about ritual. You've heard me talk about them many a times before because I love them so very much. It seems like everything is connected to your gut microbiome. Well, the fact is we're learning so much about how the gut microbiome is key to our mental health, immunity and of course, digestion. If you're looking for digestive support, ritual has got your back. Or rather your Biome. With symbiotic plus a 3 in 1 supplement of clinically studied pre, pro and postbiotics to support a balanced gut microbiome with daily use. You guys know that I absolutely love probiotics and I love that this has pre, post and Probiotics. I've been taking Rituals Symbiotic plus for months now. I take it first thing when I wake up. And I just, I've been feeling really great. I don't have any bloat. And I just, I honestly think too that when your gut is really healthy, you can see it in your skin and your hair and your nails. Rituals Symbiotic plus is designed with a delayed release capsule to help reach the colon, not the stomach. An ideal place obviously for probiotics to survive and grow vegan friendly and formulated without GMOs, major allergens, animal products, shady fillers and artificial colors. So guys, get your gut going. Support a balanced gut microbiome with Rituals Symbiotic Plus. Get 25 off your first month@ritual.com Be honest. That's ritual.com Be honest for 25 off your first month. So let's talk about sleep because we know now how important sleep is to everyone's overall health. And so if someone is a bad sleeper, what can they be doing in their daily lives to get off of potentially sleeping pills or gummies or whatever it is that they need to help them sleep?

A (42:25)

Yeah, sleep is so critical, as we know now we not only need to get enough sleep, which is really like everyone's a little different. Women need more, likely a little bit more. But the epidemiologic research shows that like for optimal metabolic health, somewhere in that seven to eight hour range is optimal. And actually it's sort of a U shaped curve. So too little or too much sleep actually has a negative impact on how.

B (42:43)

I know, which I did not know.

A (42:44)

That a bummer because I like love sleeping in. But it's like I kind of now cut myself off a little more. Like, okay, if I'm going to go above like nine, like I'll, I'll set an alarm because I can sleep like I can same. So that seven to eight. I know based on using Oura Ring and Fitbit over the years that if I just go through like a month long period where I'm not setting an alarm, which is like such a luxury, if that happens every once in a while, like in between big projects, I end up after like two weeks waking up after seven hours and 30 minutes of sleep every single day. So I'm like, I think that's, that's my need, you know, and everyone should kind of figure that out for themselves. But yeah, so we need to have good quantity of sleep, good quality of sleep and good consistency of sleep. All three of those have been independently shown to impact our health outcomes. So quantity is, of course, just how much the number is. Quality is like how much deep sleep, REM sleep, how much time sleep you actually are spending while you're in bed. Because a lot of people are awakening a lot throughout the night. If you have sleep apnea, you're waking a bunch. So we want it to be like really good quality sleep. And then consistency is whether we're going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time each day, which has always been the hardest one for me. For me.

B (43:46)

Circadian rhythm.

A (43:48)

Exactly. So things you can do. I would say, first of all, a good night's sleep starts in the morning. We need to be going outside and seeing sunlight first thing in the morning. It's really, really critical. And the reason for that is because our body actually knows when to be awake and when to sleep. But the way that it knows is by whether it's getting photons from the sun hitting our retina and turning on, activating this part of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which then tells the whole body it's morning. It's time to do all this morning stuff for this, for the day. Like, we're starting the day. And then when the photons go away, which is nighttime, right. Like after sunset, we need to be showing our eyes like it's dark. So the body knows. Let's start the nighttime program like melatonin secretion and winding down different metabolic processes. That sounds so obvious when I say it, but if you think about it, it's the opposite of how we're living. What we're doing is that we get up and we now that a lot of us are working from home, I think many people may never actually go outside unless they're walking to their car, which is like what, 15 seconds. And then walking from their car into a building another 15 seconds. And not actually spending like a full 15 minutes or a half hour outside, maybe until lunch if they eat outside. Like, that's the. So no photons. Like literally the. The energetic signal to tell your body it is daytime. We are not getting it. The average American spends 94% of their time indoors or in a car now. So we're not getting the light energy that tells our body it's daytime.

B (45:24)

Wow.

A (45:25)

Then on the flip side, it's nighttime, where we actually need the absence of that light energy to tell our body to secrete melatonin and to get towards sleep. And we're blasting our eyes with our screens. We have the lights on at Home, we have the big fluorescent overhead lights, we've got our phones, we've got our computers, we've got our TVs. So we are sending our bodies into mass circadian confusion. Wow. And that's fundamentally a key root cause of sleep disturbances. And it's so a lot of it. I mean, obviously sleep disturbances are nuanced, but the biggest one would be tell your body when it's daytime, tell your body when it's nighttime. Your body knows based on how you expose it to light. The end. It's not that complicated. So what I tell people is like, if the average person is spending maybe like an hour total throughout the day outside, try and up that to like five hours, six hours, and front load it, especially in the front of the day. And that means looking at all the activities that you do each day. You know, cooking, chopping vegetables, I don't know, picking your kids up from school, catching up with your partner, checking the mail, whatever. Think about the things you do, writing, emailing, and move a bunch of them outside. Okay, you can do that, right? Like, maybe it means instead of driving to school, you end up doing the E bike or the bike to school with your kids. Maybe it's, you check your mail outside. Like you always open your mail at a table outside. Maybe instead of chatting in the kitchen with your partner at the end of the day, you guys just always take a walk. Maybe it's that you get a. You, you sit outside and check your emails or do your work, whatever. Do a walking meeting instead of indoor meeting. So I know it sounds a little basic, but it's like we have to get creative to essentially overcome our cultural programming and norms in order to give ourselves the basic things they need to function properly so we can do things like sleep and have good metabolism. It's like we gotta get creative and we gotta look a little weird doing it probably. And like, ultimately it's fine. So I have an outdoor standing desk. I literally take a little treadmill walking pad outside every day and I set it up and I plug it in. It takes me like five minutes. But like, I will try to do a lot of my administrative tasks, like outdoors, basically.

B (47:27)

I love that.

A (47:27)

It's so fun and I look like a crazy, you know, hey, whatever, it doesn't matter. So there's that. And then I think the other things for sleep that I think are high yield, obviously not blasting your eyes with like blue light from our screens in the few hours before bed, dimming the lights. Like, basically once it's dinner time in Our house, we dim all the lights and we do have a few like red light bulbs that we can turn over from our phone. And it's great. We get used to it. The bedroom, we only have like red light. So it's just. That's 10 minutes or we're not getting blasted. Put dimmers on your light switches if you can. And obviously the relaxation techniques, like, we've, we're. We're so. We're so caught up in the dopamine nation, as Dr. Ann Lemke talks about. Like, like we're so dopamine fueled in our culture through the sugar and the social media and the constant pings and everything that I think it's very hard for our brains to settle at night. So I think it's actually just like a bigger question and conversation around, like, how do we on a much bigger level, like, unhook from the dopamine, like just drug drip that we're on in a modern American culture and like finding a way to unplug from that. And I think it can seem like insidious for some people because like, oh, I just read the news cause I wanna be informed. It's like, are you reading the news cause you wanna be informed or are you reading the news? Cause like the entire news platforms are actually intended to addict you, to check it all the time. There's two different things. So like just kind of really examining like what's our relationship with all the stuff that's keeping us activated, fearful and like, and like seeking versus just like being able to rest and truly profoundly relax and feel comfortable, like putting it all aside and going to sleep. I think that's part of it. Especially for I think women who are like, have a million things they're thinking about all the time. And like, how do we actually like self soothe in a really big way, you know?

B (49:15)

Yeah, those are great.

A (49:16)

And then of course, magnesium, L Theanine, all these, like, I take magnesium L Threonate every night, which crosses the blood brain barrier. I take about 300 milligrams. And that's very common. I think I have it in my bag right now, but. And then L. Theanine is one I take as well, which is relaxing. And I think those are like, those are sort of like a nighttime ritual for me, taking those. And then if I. If I actually really am wired and can't sleep, like for me, like chamomile, valerian root, gaba. Those are kind of more my bigger guns if I like need to like, really get a good night's sleep.

B (49:46)

Okay, that's good to know.

A (49:47)

Yeah.

B (49:48)

Okay. And then I'm really curious what your morning routine is like now that we're talking about this.

A (49:53)

Yeah. So for me, I mean, I really try and get outside, like first thing. So I like get up and as I'm brushing my teeth, I like open the front door, I walk into the front yard, I look at the sun, I like try and express some gratitude.

B (50:03)

Are you grounding too?

A (50:04)

Oh, yeah. Feet in the ground, feet on the grass. Like just taking that moment in the beginning of the day to be like, I'm so grateful to be here. I'm so grateful that there's a sun in the sky. And like just kind of like try to start the day with sunshine and gratitude. And often that's literally while I'm brushing my teeth because that's like three minutes. So I'm, you know, just go out and do it. And my morning routine these days, often I'll make my little morning drink, which for me right now it changes around. But I'm off caffeine right now. Cause I feel like it's not great for the hormones. And I was like feeling a lot of midday crash. So I've moved, moved to matcha.

B (50:36)

Okay.

A (50:36)

Which I love. And I'm doing. I have a milk frother and I do matcha. Like a two grass fed organic milk. A scoop of creatine, a scoop of collagen, a little bit of allulose. And I froth that all up and then I pour it in a cup and then we take a walk around the block.

B (50:51)

Amazing.

A (50:52)

So like a few steps, a nice drink that I look forward to and some sunshine and then try to meditate at least for like 10 minutes. There's a Joe Dispenza meditation that I love so much called Joke. Tuning into New Potentials and then kind of get started and I can kind of feel like anything could happen. Yeah.

B (51:08)

One day my mornings will be like that.

A (51:10)

I mean, they're not like this every morning. I'm pretty. I'm pretty. Like this is making it sound like more I'm more on it that I love. It changes day to day and I don't have kids yet.

B (51:19)

Just wait, it will change. Yeah, that's what I mean. When my kids are in my house, I'm like, that will be my everyday morning. I can do it on the weekends and stuff. But yeah, my mornings are hectic.

A (51:28)

I bet.

B (51:29)

Okay. What else can we be doing in our daily lives if this is the first time people are hearing this information and they want to. They want to change everything. So what can they be doing as far as the food goes? Other ways just to implement healthy routines, to. To feel better and live better.

A (51:42)

Yeah. And not to plug my own book, but no, read good energy. I like this. I do feel like it's got a lot of this sort of like if you're really, really wanting to, like, make the big changes, it's kind of got it all in there. But for me, honestly, one of the highest leverage things I think people can do to get started is. And it's gonna sound a little, A little like maybe basic or weird, but it's like, start shopping at the farmer's market if you can, for as much of the year as you can. I know you can't do it necessarily in the winter, this and that, but the reason for this is cause it's like a triple, quadruple whammy. Because one, you're outdoors and you're walking while you're shopping, so you're getting sunlight and movement. Two, you're connecting with the people who grow your food or at least work on the farms that grow the food. And therefore you are starting to build a connection to your food, which I don't have peer review data to back this up, but I think it's profoundly important for our health. Our food is what becomes us. It's what becomes ourselves. And we are so disconnected from where it comes from, how it's made. And I think that's hurting us because. Because food becomes ourselves. If we're disconnected from it, we are disconnected from ourselves. And I think that it just. I feel that. And it will be impossible to ever study that, but I think it's true. Talk to farmers, understand what they're doing to manage their fields. What you also get is when you start talking to farmers and understanding what they put on their food for pests, whether they're using synthetic pesticides or other practices, you can avoid a huge amount of the toxic burden by just knowing that it doesn't have synthetic pesticides. Also, like a little hack is that a lot of farmers aren't organic certified because it's very expensive and bureaucratic to do so. But they're not using any synthetic pesticides. So their food will be cheaper but still not have pesticides. So talk to them. Buy the stuff that's on sale in bulk and then freeze it. Like it does not need to be more expensive. At the farmer's market, you're also going to get the food loose and not in plastic, so you're minimizing a ton of plastic exposure. And of course you're buying real food, so you're getting rid of all those chemicals that would be an ultra processed food. So for me, I'm just like going once a week to the farmer's market. Even if it takes you a little bit extra time, which I don't think it really does, maybe you have to drive a little farther. It is worth it. And lastly, when we're eating, we're essentially transferring information, molecular information and building blocks from outside our body into our body. And to be healthy, we need the right stuff and we need a lot of it. Our food that we're eating from stores is depleted in nutrients, it's depleted in information because it's been traveling for so long. So the average use of food in the United States travels 1500 miles from soil to plate. Okay. And during. And, and it's many days or weeks between when it was picked, I. E. When it died and when it goes to your plate. Every day that a food is dead out of the soil, it doesn't have the metabolic energy to basically keep itself together. It's decomposing in a sense. And so the nutrients are actually getting depleted. So one of the other benefits of buying locally from a farmer is that you're getting peak nutrients, which means peak information for your cells. So a point that I just so hope to get across to people is like, you could look at two apples, like one from the supermarket that's got wax on it, has been out of the soil for four weeks and one that was picked yesterday. And even though they both look like apples, they're totally different molecular information for your body. And we gotta start seeing with those glasses and realizing that like, in a sense that organic regenerative apple may actually be cheaper in the long run because it's like way more molecular information. So once you reframe a little bit, I think it just pushes you to kind of like make the little extra effort because it does matter. So more local, clean food, not in plastic, less ultra processed food. I think when people start to do that, I'm really seeing the awe and the amazing like gift from God that is real whole beautiful food. A lot falls into place and then our sleep gets easier and we feel more energy to work out and walk. That's the other one. I would also say, like lowest hanging fruit. Start walking more.

B (55:44)

Okay.

A (55:44)

Like there's been fascinating data on walking. It's like if walking were a pillow, it'd be the most effective pill in human history. Like, I Love, I love that, that kind of statement because it's true. The average older American is walking 3,400 steps per day, which is basically like less than two miles. And amazing research in top journals like, like New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of American Medical Medical association has showed that just getting above 7,000 steps per day compared to like the average of 3,400 will slash our risk for premature mortality by 50%. Alzheimer's by 50%, obesity by 50%, cancer by like 30, 50%. It just, it cuts every disease. It's associated with a reduction in so many diseases. So just I think actually doing the wearables for at least a short period of time to know what your baseline is and what a day looks looks like, that's 7, 10, 12,000 steps. And then just really make that a non negotiable. When our bodies are in motion throughout the day, whether it's walking or some other type of just low grade physical activity, we're keeping our metabolic engines humming all day. That's a different physiologic reality than if we're like sitting all day and working out for 30 minutes or an hour. Our bodies are meant to be in motion from a cellular biology perspective for a lot of the day. And so we need to find a way in our modern seated world to reincorporate that. And the outcomes are like incredible. And it's free and it doesn't feel like exercise. So a lot of walking.

B (57:16)

Okay. Those are really good tips. I go to the farmer's market every Saturday when I'm in town. I look forward to it. I love it. So I've never actually heard someone give that tip. And that's honestly the best tip to do. You have said that you feel this on a spiritual level and that resonates with me so much. I really feel that. And good always outweighs evil. And so you are a large part of that. And so I just really appreciate you being here spreading all this information. You are helping so many people. And so I'm just, I'm so honored that you're here. Tell everyone where they can find you and also where they can get your book. Because you guys, you do want to read this book.

A (57:51)

Trust me, the best place to see all my stuff is Caseymeans.com and I a big focus of actually what I'm doing now is writing my newsletter that comes out every Tuesday. And I basically just like wax hoetic about whatever thing I'm thinking about that week. And so it's very meaty and I would just encourage people to sign up for that on my website. And then my book is just everywhere. Books are sold. Amazon, small bookstores, Barnes and Noble. It's now at Target, which is awesome. So. Yeah. So all over the place. Yeah.

B (58:17)

And that's called good energy. Yes. Casey, thank you so, so much for being here.

A (58:21)

Thanks, dude. Yeah.