← Stay True with Madison Prewett Troutt
Stay True with Madison Prewett Troutt
What The Bible Says About Food, Diet, & The Body with Dr. Josh Axe
01:12:21
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A
Stay True podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
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A
What is the biblical model for food?
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B
If a woman takes birth control long term, their chance of getting hypothyroidism goes up by 287%.
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A
What are some healthy holy habits that I can implement?
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B
About 100 years ago, people spent 70% of their day outdoors. Today it's 10%.
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A
Wow. What are the things we can do to increase fertility?
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B
That's what a lot of people do. What can I get away with versus what is the most outstanding thing I could possibly do to glorify God?
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A
What is your take on Ozempic? Is it harming our bodies?
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B
One of the greatest things we're doing today to destroy our health is we're too busy.
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A
Is coffee bad for you? As he takes a sip of his.
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B
Coffee, I'm drinking my matcha here. Matcha with honey.
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A
I was like, what's his coffee?
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B
Order my go to.
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A
What's up guys? Welcome back to another episode of Stay True Podcast. I'm your host, Madison Pruitt Trout, and I have a special guest on the podcast today that I'm very excited that I am a fan. I don't know if I've actually ever said that on the podcast before, but I am a huge fan and this person has already started changing my life. My husband is also really, really excited because I've been reading his books and it's been changing the way we eat and the way that we live. And so I'm so excited for you guys to get to learn from Dr. Josh Axe. Thank you so much for coming on the Stay True podcast.
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B
Hey, thanks for having me, Madison. Excited for you.
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A
Listen, I Am so excited to talk all the things. Like, I don't think there's enough time. I have. I started writing out questions and it was like so many questions. I was like, okay, I gotta rein it in a little bit. But you have your own podcast show, you are a best selling author, you are a clinical nutritionist, you are a doctor. You do so many amazing things. What first got you started in your journey with food, nutrition, health, wellness? I'd love for those listening just to hear a little bit about your story. And has it always been integrated also, like with faith?
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B
Yeah, you know, so, so growing up. Well, let me start here. So what really got me in the natural health space was my mom being diagnosed with cancer when I was in seventh going into eighth grade. Yeah, you know, I, my family was very into fitness. My dad was a sumo pro water skier. He lifted weights a lot. My mom was a gym teacher. She was a swim instructor. So our family is always really fit and active. But at 40 years old, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. And my family lived in what I'll call just the medical model. At the time, anytime we were sick, we got put on antibiotics, drugs, we just, we, we had no, we knew nothing about nutrition health. And so my mom went through the traditional medical model of having a chemo, going through chemotherapy, having mastectomy. And I still remember this day, Madison. I remember standing behind my mom. She was looking in the mirror after one of her chemo treatments and taking a comb through her hair and all of her hair coming out and her just sobbing. And I remember just breaking my heart at the time and just thinking, I remember I went to my bedroom afterwards and I just prayed to God, I said, God, you know, save my mom. And I also remember having this sort of deep conviction that I want to help people like my mom one day. And I also remember this. I think there has to be a better way. And so from there, praise God, my mom made it through all those treatments and was diagnosed as being cancer free. The crazy part about it was though, after all these treatments, she seemed like she was sicker than ever before. She got diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, had chronic constipation. She was just sick and tired all the time. And during this time, I just started continuing to want to learn more about health and nutrition. So I just read everything I could. I stopped drinking soda because that's about all I knew at the time. I was in junior high, but I started doing better.
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A
Junior high?
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B
Yeah. Yeah. I think from ninth grade on, I, I don't know That I ever maybe had a soda one time. I mean, so I never really, really drank anymore. And then eventually I went on and started studying natural medicine. Went and got a degree in chiropractic, also doctor of natural medicine and nutrition. And so when I was about to open up my clinic in Nashville, a few months before I get a call, my mom is just bawling on the phone. She said, I've been diagnosed with cancer a second time, this time on my lungs. She said, what do I do? And I've been really fortunate at the time to have some amazing mentors in the functional medicine space. Was learning a lot. And I said, mom, I'll be home. Flew back to Ohio where I grew up, and we sat down and we prayed together and we just both felt a conviction, my mom especially, that she should take, do something different this time, take care of it all naturally. So she started. Her diet was essentially juice, vegetables, raw vegetables, steamed vegetables, wild salmon, berries. I mean, that was pretty much the diet. We started doing a lot of different type of herbs like turmeric. Started praying for her daily, doing essential oil, just doing everything that she possibly could. And we went back to her oncologist four months later. And by the way, the doctors were saying we need to go in and do surgery immediately. And they gave her, I think they said, you have about a 40% chance or less to live. And we went all natural. And four months later, tumors had shrunk in half a year later, complete remission. Today my mom is in her mid-70s, has great health and totally cancer free. And so it was really that situation that sort of led me into the natural medicine field.
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A
Praise God. That's unbelievable. And did you grow up in a Christian family with faith?
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B
I did. I had amazing parents. And yeah, I went to a Christian school through 8th grade and then a public high school. But yeah, I was really fortunate to have parents that were faith filled, Jesus believing parents.
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A
Yeah, that's amazing. Okay, so I wanna dive into this idea of faith and health, what we eat, why it matters, what the Bible has to say about food. Because I look at our world, I look at even the Christians, I look at even the churches and, and you see this kind of like we're gonna follow the Bible and everything it says, except really this idea of what it says about food and the model for food. And I think that even for me, we were kind of joking about it right before this podcast. Like, I grew up in the South. I grew up on fried chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, all the things, you know, chips Sodas. I mean, you would've been repulsed at how I was eating even, like, five, six years ago. And I think for a lot of people, even in, like, the church space, it's like, you know, get some pizza, get some donuts when you come to the chur. And so why is it that even Christians, you know, aren't following the biblical model for food? And what is the biblical model for food?
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B
Well, I think some of this is more. It really starts with our theology. And I. And I think. Let me give you an example of this. I think that sometimes what's happened in More, even in the Protestant tradition is we've said, okay, well, Jesus says there's grace for everything and that now there's no law. And so we're not going to keep a Sabbath and take a day off, or we're not going to. We don't need to tithe a 10%. I'm not trying to get real theology. I'm just saying I think it's kind of like, well, we don't need to do these things. And, you know those old food laws about, hey, you shouldn't eat pork or shellfish or those sort of things, that's really not important either. And so we've kind of. You know, I think. I think that's the take a lot of people have. That's the idea that a lot of people have taken what I. The way that I interpret it. What Jesus was saying was, listen, be led by your heart even more. So, like, that's. That's the bottom standard. What? You shouldn't just be living by the bottom. We should go above and beyond giving and doing everything we can. I'm telling you what not to eat. I don't want you just to think about what not to eat. Think about what is the thing you could eat in this moment that would most glorify me. You know, I used to have a patient, Madison, and he was my best patient of all time. His name was Pastor John Miller. And he came to, like, I would teach weekly workshops on patients on how to prevent cancer, how to balance your hormones, how to promote longevity. And so I would do these workshops, and I probably taught, I don't know, a hundred a year. I taught a lot, okay, but at least one a week. And he would come to, like, all of them. And I said, john, like, what? You've never, like, you're my best patient. You've never missed a thing. I'm like, why is that? And he was in his 70s. He's like, because I want to be preaching the gospel when I'm in my 90s. And I think that sort of mentality of not saying, what can I get away with? Because that's what a lot of people do. What can I get away with versus what is the most outstanding thing I could possibly do to glorify God in every area of my life? So I think a lot of it starts with that type of mindset. And so, you know, and the thing I think that's the most helpful, too, is going back and seeing what does the Bible actually say about diet and nutrition? What did Jesus eat? You know, what did Abraham eat? What did Queen Esther eat? What did these people eat? And that's something that I spent a lot of time doing the past few years is going and saying, what did Solomon eat? What did people in the Bible actually eat? And what does the Bible actually say about health and nutrition? And over and over again, we see scriptures like 1 Corinthians 10:31, whether you eat, drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.
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A
I love that so much. Yeah. I think that even for me, it wasn't something that I. It's like, okay, I know my body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. I know that, you know, I should honor God and glorify God. But it was almost like this mindset of, like, you know, yolo, you know, you only live once. And if I'm only gonna live once, like, I'm gonna eat the fries, I'm gonna drink the Coke, I'm gonna go to the movies and get, you know, the. Add extra butter, you know, and it's like, that was kind of the mindset that I had. And I think that's the reason that. I think there are multiple reasons. I think that's one of the reasons that a lot of people don't follow this, like, health, wellness, biblical model of what it looks like to eat whole foods and foods the way that God designed it. Like, you talk about, like, you guys talk about in the biblio diet. And so, like, what would you say to that person that has that mindset of, like, yolo, I'm going to eat what I want.
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B
Yeah. Yeah. I think it comes down to if you have that mindset in any area of life, you're not going to be successful if it's sort of this thing of, well, you know, I'm just going to fly by the seat of my pants in my marriage. I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants in the way I raise my kids, in the way that I do business in the way that I express my faith vs I think what we see in the Bible is there is a very, very specific mindset of whether I mentioned First Corinthians 10:31. But also when Paul is saying run to win the race, you know, run to win the race. And so I think. And here's the other thing. You know, when I was a kid, Chelsea and I were talking about this the other day. We were saying, okay, if you could have one fast food restaurant and it could be healthy, what would it be? You know, And I think I was like, one of us was Chick fil a of course. And then the other one of us was like, you know, I think I said Hardee's. Cause when I was a kid had this five for five. Now I'm a little bit older than you, but they used to have this thing called five for five. And you would get five roast beef sandwiches with cheddar. And when I was in high school, I'd eat all five. Oh, I mean it would just, you.
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A
Know, and I remember their breakfast.
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B
Oh, so good, so good. And so, you know, but the food I eat today tastes better than Taco Bell and McDonald's and Burger King. It's fresher, it's better. Ingredients shout out Here to. I was just on a text thread, my mother in law's from California and she was texting everybody in N out burger opens tomorrow. You know, and so everybody's excited about that. So, you know, but overall I would say that, you know, I still eat chicken parmesan, I still eat chocolate chip cookies, I still eat brownies. I just use better quality ingredients. I get, you know, the organic gluten free flour and I get organic chicken breast and I get, you know, the buffalo mozzarella. And I make it at home. I make more meals at home. I'm more intentional. And listen, it is more expensive. I think on average it's around 25 to 30% more expensive to buy organic, high quality ingredients. But so much of this comes down to priorities. And I've had people before saying, well, it's really kind of expensive. But then they're going to Starbucks and you know, and spending a lot there. But I think really being conscious of and knowing, okay, here's my food budget, here's what we're going to try and do. And listen, here's the amazing thing about Jesus. He's not calling us to be perfect. He was just calling us to do the best we can. Right? So I actually think people can hurt themselves when they get ultra strict and obsessive about trying to eat perfectly. I kind of think it's like, you know, when Chelsea and I, we went to Italy last year, I was like, I had pizza, I had pasta, I had, you know, gelato, and I was just fine, you know, and we do some of that stuff today, and we're just fine, too. So it's not being perfect. It's really focusing on, you know what the Bible. They're eating a lot of whole foods. It's a lot of wild red meat, like beef and lamb. It's a lot of wild caught fish. It's a lot of sourdough bread. In fact, I'd say there's probably five foods that the Bible references that today, even the medical association would say stay away from. But the Bible says it's healthy. And I know it's healthy today, too. It's red meat, dairy, bread, salt, and even honey because of the sugar content. So. But, yeah, I think people just should focus on eating more real foods.
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A
Yeah, that's so good. And I love what you touched on right at the beginning of what you're saying, of not asking, like, you know. Cause I talk about on this podcast all the time, even when it comes to sin. Of like, how close to the line can I get? Or, like, what can I get away with? You know? And I know this is food. And listen, we're not saying that, you know, if you go and have some bacon, that it's like you're committing a sin, but it is asking the question, like, what glorifies God? And how can I eat in such a way that it glorifies God? How can I treat my body in such a way that it glorifies God? But I also love that you were touching on that it is more expensive. Because I think another reason that people don't pursue, you know, a really healthy lifestyle is because of convenience and, you know, time and expense. And so what would you say? Like, I know you're talking about it, it's a little bit more expensive, but it's a lot about priorities. But what would you say to the person that's like, I don't have the time to cook a bunch of healthy food, and I don't have the money to go shop at Whole Foods or sprout and spend hundreds of dollars on groceries?
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B
Yeah, I'm good friends with Dallas Jenkins. He was on my podcast last month. And one of the things I love about the Chosen when I watch this is I love what a good job they do of. I think Showing what Jesus was like. Jesus is not rushing anywhere. He's never in a rush. He's taking his time. He's very thoughtful, he's very present in the moment. One of the greatest things we're doing today to destroy our health is we're too busy. Most people when I've come in as patients, from the moment they wake up at 6am to the moment they crash at 11pm whenever it is, they have something scheduled out and every single moment is just jam packed. And I don't think that's the way we're called to live. I don't think that's the right rhythm of the way we were created. And so I think that for someone to say, I'm too busy to eat healthy, you're not too busy. You just have different priorities, okay? You've decided to prioritize certain things over others. And I'm very, and I might seem like I'm being very, very direct with this. And I am because I think it's important for people to say, listen, if you want to be, if you want to prosper and flourish in any area of life, you've got to devote time to it. You've got to have thought behind it. Create a strategy. Like if I have a patient who wants to reverse hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's thyroiditis or infertility, whatever it is, what they come into me and I'm like, okay, there's not a single supplement that's going to fix you. There's not a single medication that's going to fix it. We have to change your lifestyle. Hey, let's eat more of these foods. Let's get some more berries in there. Let's get some more, you know, pomegranate. Let's do some, let's do some salmon. Okay, so here's your daily eating plan. Let's, let's have a strategy here. Hey, let's start moving a little bit more. I want you to start walking around your meals, going a 20 minute walk. You know, like, there's a level of like, we want to be strategic and thoughtful about that. And so my point there is, I think that when somebody says I don't have time and I don't have money, you absolutely do have time. You just haven't put it high enough in the priority list. Right. And the other thing would be, when it comes to money, that's also a priority. And listen, my point here though is God didn't call you to be perfect. Listen, I've shown people I Used to teach patients, I'd go to Costco or Sam's Club and I would teach them how to eat. Shop healthy on a budget and buy in bulk. And if you're really thoughtful and plan it out correctly, like one of one things I've done with, with some friends and family is we'll go and buy a cow. Like, like split a cow. I mean literally, that's on my next.
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A
List of wanting to do that.
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B
Yeah. And then, and then like places like Costco today, there's really good values on, you know, buying organic food in those sort of places. So, so I think it comes down to just being more thoughtful and strategic and listen, let's say for instance, you can buy, you know, better quality meat and some organic and just listen, organic's important, but just eating more fruits and vegetables, that's even more important. So if your budget you can devote towards more organic meat, some fruits and vegetables, and maybe your budget only allows you to do that with 60% of what you can eat. His grace is sufficient. 60%, that's amazing. You know, I mean, God wants to see us. Like I always try and think about my life like this in the way that God sees me. Like my daughter, I have a two year old and a five year old, two girls, and my greatest joy is seeing my daughters laughing, having fun, growing in their gifts. Like God has given them unique gifts. It's like my, my older daughter, my five year old, she's like, I can tell she's a good swimmer. My two year old's getting into like gymnastics stuff. And so I love seeing them thrive and grow in what they're doing. But I think about, if I get, you know, let's say they get into their 20s and I see my, you know, my daughters, they're burnt out, they're tired, they're overextending themselves, they're working 60 hours a week. That doesn't give me joy as a father. I think, oh no, that's not what I created you for. So I think the more we can step back and think about how much we love our kids or a family member and we want to see those people thrive. God looks at us the same way, even more so loves us even more. So I think we're spending too much time striving and trying to be producers rather than identity, you know, our identity as children of God. I think that really a lot of health problems stem more from childhood trauma, limiting beliefs about ourselves and those sort of things. I think that's why people overeat and have low self esteem and a number of things that kind of fuel a lot of these health issues. Yeah, so. So I probably go on a little bit of tangent there, but my point is I. I think a lot. I think that stuff's all important. So when it comes to time and when it comes to money, I think just doing your best and prioritizing the best you can and creating a plan is where people want to start.
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A
Hey friends, it's Maddie. If you've read my new book, Dare to Be True, I would love to hear what you think. Your reviews mean so much to me. They help more people discover the message and the heart behind this book. So if this book has encouraged you, challenged you, or reminded you to live with bold faith and honesty, would you just take a minute to leave a review? It truly makes such a differ. And if you haven't gotten my new book yet, Dare to Be True, you can go and find it anywhere books are sold. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey and for daring to be true right alongside me. Stay True Merch Drop we got a new Stay True Merch collection you guys. And this is my favorite collection yet. I am wearing the jersey from the Stay True Merch collection and you guys, it is so amazing. It says Stay True on the front, stay Free on the back. It's got John 8:32 and it is the coolest jersey you've ever seen. But we have sweatshirts, we got T shirts. This is seriously my favorite collection yet. This is the perfect Christmas gift, birthday gift, New Year gift to yourself. You guys, you need to check out this new collection. I'm so excited about it. And you can go to Stay True podcast dot com. We'll also include the link to the exact merch landing page in the show notes. You guys got to go and check it out. Let me know what you think. If you rep it, tag us. We want to see it. Go and check it out you guys. Okay, real talk expensive creams won't fix depleted cells. If your body isn't actually getting the right electrolytes at the right time, you're still going to feel drained and stressed. That's why I'm obsessed with Peak's deep hydration protocol. It's a two step day to night system that actually hydrates, restores and energizes like full body glow from the inside out. In the morning, I start with the BT fountain. It's my hydration reset, think smooth skin, plumped cells, gentle energy that actually lasts, and minerals that get straight to my cells not a sports drink. Luxury hydration for real life. At night it's re fountain. This is my wind down ritual. Triple Biomaxed magnesium helps calm my nervous system, support deep sleep and recover overnight. So I wake up feeling clear, refreshed and ready for whatever the day throws at me. This combo is the best for 24 hour hydration. Smoother skin, better sleep, stronger recovery and total clarity. I've been doing it for a few weeks and honestly I feel it. My skin, my energy, my focus. It's different. Redefine your standard of health, secure 20% off your order and begin your intentional wellness journey today@peaklife.com staytrue that's P I Q U E life.com staytrue stay true podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states. I have so many questions because you said so many good things. I think just to get really practical for a second, I'd love for you to share a little bit of like, what does your day or your week look like, like from the standpoint of like time? I love that you're talking about like this idea of busyness getting in the way of our it doesn't only impact our health journey physically, but even our health spiritually. Like that is the biggest hindrance so often of us being able to stay connected to the vine, of being able to hear the voice of God. And so what does it look like for you to push back against busyness? You know, you are a very successful person. You have, you have a lot of businesses, you have a lot of people under you that come alongside of you and work with you. So how do you manage your time and then also what do you eat in a day and what do you eat in a week? If we just get super practical for a second, thinking through time and schedule and food and all the things.
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B
Yeah, I'll just, I'll share what my day today will be as an example. So I woke up this morning about 6:30am and I spend time in my Bible and so I do what I call spiritual triathlon every morning. I spend time first getting grateful, just saying God, I'm so thankful for my wife. I'm so thankful for my family. Jesus, I'm so thankful for what you've done. I need you today. And so I start every day like that, just with gratitude. And then I open my Bible. I might read for 15, 20 minutes and then sort of chew on what I read and said, God, help me apply this principle, this truth today in the way I live. And that's how I start off my day. And then my wife got up and gave her a hug and let my dogs out and then she went and got my 2 year old up. I went and got my 5 year old up, crawled in bed with her for a couple minutes and just hugged her and said, hey, you know, let's, you know, what are you excited about today? And she came downstairs and then I did breakfast. And so this morning I did a superfood smoothie. I did about 30 grams of plant protein, 20 grams of a plant bone broth protein with collagen. I did a cup of berries. I threw all kinds of stuff in there too. I could keep going, but I did that. And then I went and did a peloton ride and then I started business meetings and doing all that sort of stuff around 9:00am and, and then I'll see my daughters this evening and I'll, you know, five o', clock, I'll kind of shut it off, work off. And so I work pretty much 9 to 5 and pray for my daughters before bed. And yeah, that's kind of it. But yeah, my diet. So like today I'll eat. Chelsea made a lot like a chicken, a full rotisserie chicken last night. So it'll be chicken, carrots and potatoes. And then for dinner if we order something, we do a lot of like true food kitchen or flower child here in Nashville area. And so I'll probably get salmon with roasted vegetables. And they have a quinoa salad, I'll do that. And maybe a little dark chocolate. So that's my.
- [25:24]
A
I love that. That's. No, that's super helpful. Cause I think so many people are like, okay, but like what do I eat? And, and I love that even in the Biblio diet, like you guys write, there's like recipes in there and a shopping list in there. I literally took a picture of it and went to Sprouts. And I was like, okay, here's my shopping list. And it was super helpful because I was like, I think one of the reasons people feel very, I think, resistant to go all in as well with this whole health and wellness thing is like feeling overwhelmed. Like I don't know where to start. You know, there's so many opinions out there, there's so many supplements, there's so many ideas on what I should eat and what I shouldn't eat. And you were even talking about, you know, the difference between a biblio diet versus, like, other diets that people would recommend that would be anti dairy or anti. Or, you know, like, whatever it may be. And so I think people can feel very overwhelmed and overstimulated in this area because we just live in a time where social media is just crazy. And so there's just a lot of opinions, there's a lot of information.
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B
Oh, yeah.
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A
And it's like, where do I start? What do I do?
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B
Well, here's one important thing I want people to know. Everyone is incredibly unique. And so my dietary philosophy as a practitioner has been very different than most people's in that, you know, most practitioners are saying you should be on a keto or a carnivore or a vegan or a paleo or some other diet. I believe everybody should be eating a diet that's unique to them. I think a biblical diet and what the Bible lays out as a foundation is what everybody should be basically going for in the starting point. But, you know, like, I'll give an example of this. If I have a patient I've come in with cancer versus a patient that comes in with ibd, irritable bowel disease. Those diets are very different. The cancer patient, I typically have them doing a lot of juice, vegetables, some raw foods, those sort of things. Very like moderate meat to light meat. Somebody with ibd, I have them doing all cooked foods, soups. It's a very different diet. So I think it's important to know both. There's a foundational diet that we cover in the biblio diet that most people should eat. And it's a lot of, like we talked about foods that are in their whole food form and prepared properly, like bread. Like if Jesus was eating bread, it was sourdough bread. 90 plus percent of the time it was fermented. That unlocks the nutrients. You can absorb everything. They were using ancient grains. The dairy would have been raw and fermented in most cases. So eating those foods and it's a lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, things like sweet potatoes, wild organic meat. That's the diet. Okay? But even within that, there's a uniqueness there in all of God's children. And people need something that's typically customized for them. And then being able to listen to their body to say, hey, how do I react to dairy? I'll give an example. One of my best friends and my co Author of the Bibliodot, Jordan Rubin. Jordan had ulcerative colitis and crohn's disease. Lost 80 pounds, was in a wheelchair, almost died. His irritable bowel disease was so bad. And he met a doctor who told him, jordan, if you follow a diet based on the Bible, you'll be made well. And Jordan was like, really? So Jordan moved from Florida to San Diego, lived out of an rv, and drank. The number one thing he ate to cure this was he drank raw goat's milk kefir every day, almost only that, for 40 days, and cured his ulcerative colitis. Now, the reason I bring that up is for some people, dairy, that could be the most healing food in the world. If I eat much dairy, my nose runs, even if it's raw and organic. And I think for a lot of people, dairy is great, but for some people, they just don't do that well with it. And so there is an element of also listening to your body and having a level of customization. There's a. That works, you know, what works best.
- [29:04]
A
For you and how do you listen to your body? How do you know, like, what your body needs and what. Because I know, like, you can go and get blood testing, but what if you can't afford that or you're not in a place to be able to do that? What is the best way to. To know, like, what is good for my body? Because I know. I know for me, I'm like, okay, yeah, like, I've. I feel like I've just now started to get to a place where. Because I'm really pursuing, you know, healthy, like, whole foods and those kinds of things. Whenever I have something that isn't, I can tell, like, I. And I listen to that, but I feel like it took me a really long time to get there. And so what would you say? Like, what is the best advice on being able to listen to your body and know what it is that your body needs?
- [29:45]
B
Yeah. Well, let me hit on it in sort of two ways. One, if you're trying to figure it out on your own, versus what a good practitioner would do. Okay. If you're trying to figure it out on your own, the best way would be to look at what your symptoms are. Okay. Or diagno, like, what your symptoms are, and then also listening to your body. Okay. So what some people try and do is follow more of what we'd call, like, an elimination diet. So it's like, okay, I'm not gonna do dairy right now. I'm not gonna do Gluten. I'm just gonna try and do. I'm gonna start off with meat. How do I do there? Okay, I did pretty well. How do I do with these vegetables? I did pretty well. How do I do with these fruits? Okay. Okay, now I'm gonna add in dairy. My nose is running. I have some GI issues, gas, bloating, whatever it is, that food's not sitting well with me. I need to take that out for a little bit. Okay. Maybe I'll try and add it in later to see how I do. And so there's that way of doing it or your symptoms. Let's say somebody has diabetes. Okay. We know generally. And listen, almost anybody at this point in time could go on and do a Google search or an AI search or some sort of search and say, what are the best foods and what are the worst foods for type 2 diabetes? It's so easy to find today. Don't eat sugar. Don't eat refined carbs. Get more protein, get more fiber. Get more healthy fats. Eat some more cinnamon, you know, so people could learn a lot if they devote some time to reading up and educating themselves on their own. So there's that way. It's a little harder. It's a little. Takes a little bit more time than seeing a practitioner, but obviously that's free, and that's a great benefit. Now, you know, I just read through Proverbs, and, you know, I remembered that it's amazing how you know this. It's like every time you read the Bible, I'm like, I just read that. But that is so new to me. Or this. Or when I read another book of the Bible. Wow. I didn't notice it had such an emphasis on this. So there was. I thought in Proverbs, there was one time it said, you know, in the gosh, I'm gonna mess this up a little bit. But basically, there is wisdom among. Get among. You know, having a wise counsel. Basically, like, if you have an issue in life, the best thing you can do is go and seek out people, mentors, people that are wise and so. And having wise counsel, you know, it didn't say at one time in Proverbs. It says it four times. It's like Solomon's like, hammering at home. Listen, you got a problem?
- [32:04]
A
Yeah.
- [32:05]
B
Why are you trying to figure it out yourself? Yeah. Who is your wise counsel that's going to help you figure this out? And the same should be true with your marriage, with your finances, in your career. And my biggest life lesson is we become who we surround Ourselves with. Like, I'm obsessive about getting mentored. And also, iron sharpens iron. Like, I'm in a men's group right now, a Christian men's group, where we alternate a Christian book, a leadership book, a business book, and sometimes marriage books. And we're just, you know, and we meet together. And it's been one of the greatest things for my growth ever. But then also I have people you were mentioning, like John and Lisa Bevere. I mean, what amazing, you know, spiritual parents. I have some people that I'm seeking out in life that are pouring into me. And so I have wise counsel. Like, if Chelsea and I have a marriage issue, we're going to somebody who is, as you know, who is like Jesus, who's going to speak that speak truth into our life. The same should be true in your health. And so finding a good, ideally Christian, functional medicine doctor who can look at what you have going on and saying, listen, and here's the way that I do it. I do blood work, and sometimes it's not blood, it's saliva or urinalysis, but we do some sort of medical testing. I also practice an ancient form of medical diagnosis. It's called tongue diagnosis, where I'll have somebody stick out their tongue and I can tell a lot about what's going on in their health. Like, if somebody has ridges, like bite marks on the side of their tongue, that means their digestive system's weak. If their tongue is too pale, they're anemic. We need to build the blood. If it's a blue color, there's not enough oxygen. So we need to get more oxygen in their system. If it's too red, that's inflammation. There's a coating. Well, we call that candida today. But there's a dysbiosis in the gut. It's a microbiome, a gut issue. So we need to clear out the bad bacteria, replace the good. So.
- [33:42]
A
Wow.
- [33:43]
B
So I tend to do a combination of testing with tongue diagnosis and looking at someone's history. So if somebody has an issue like they're dealing with infertility, I know there's two root causes of this. It's either related to insulin hormonally or it's related to cortisol hormonally. So we need to fix one of those two hormones to support fertility based on their history. Right. So I tend to take all those together and lay out a very specific eating plan, supplement plan, holistic treatments to create a whole protocol for somebody to heal. And that's if Somebody has the financial means, they can do that. But I do believe this as well. If you don't have the finances to do something like that, ask God for healing and guidance. And even sometimes without a doctor, he'll provide a way, he'll teach you. And you know, I believe today that spiritual issues and mental issues are just as harmful as a terrible diet. Like, I think it's even more important that you're spiritually healthy for your physical health.
- [34:48]
A
So. Good. And the tie between, I feel like you talk about that a lot in the book of just this idea of having a strong mindset and that being like medicine, you know, like having a spiritual foundation and a strong mind and it's linking. And so what would you even say of that? Physical and spiritual link? And even food and our diets tie into our mental mindset and our emotional well being as well.
- [35:15]
B
Yeah. Well, one thing that most people don't realize, and we don't talk about it today that much in, in mainstream medicine, but every emotion you have that becomes out of balance creates toxicity in a different organ system. So if you have a spirit of fear, you're afraid of disappointing other people, you're a people pleaser. Like, you have that sort of like fear that is hard on the adrenal glands. We know that. Right. You got in a fight or flight response, your adrenals start spitting out a lot of cortisol. Okay. Or if a child like has a nightmare at night, they get real scared. They can wet the bed. Right. That affects the kidneys. So, so we know that fear, fear really affects the reproductive organs and the adrenal glands. If somebody worries a lot, they'll say, sometimes I've got an upset stomach. We know that worry affects the upper gi, Your stomach and your upper digestion. If somebody has had something in the past happen, could be grief. And they're still, they haven't been able to let go of it. Maybe they're living with shame and guilt from the past and they haven't let it go. That builds up on the colon and the lungs, your whole immune system. So your whole immune system's weakened. If you have had something unforgiveness, something in the past, and you haven't been able to let it go, we know this. If you get really anxious, your blood pressure starts to go up, that affects the heart and cardiovascular system. And then if you're holding on to anger, resentment, frustration, living with impatience, that builds up on the liver, gallbladder and lymphatic system, so it shuts down your Detoxification channel. So this is where the Bible is so powerful of like when you are dealing with unhealthy emotions, you want to be able to recognize. Here's what you typically want to do. When did this start for me? Because most of the time it started in childhood where a parent, a coach, a pastor, somebody said something and you maybe felt inadequate. And so you have this emotion that started to crop up and then now forevermore, you know, for 20 years later, 30 years later. Now anytime anyone says something that maybe resembles that, you have this emotion that's sort of driving you a fear or anxiousness or something like that. So going be able to do what the Bible says. Take every thought captive. When did this start? And saying, Jesus, would you heal from, heal me from this emotion, this memory and help me let it go and trust in you. And meditating on Bible verses. You know, one of the things I do for patients is I will look and see what is that predominant emotion that is causing trauma. And I have them go through an emotional, a childhood trauma protocol of writing it down and releasing it and giving it over to God. And then I write down typically 10 Bible verses for them to meditate on daily. So it's like don't be anxious about anything with everything. Through prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Jesus Christ. Right? So I think being able for, able to meditate on God's Word daily, that's so freeing, that's so powerful. But as I mentioned before, if you're dealing with fear, fear, fear, fear constantly. It's tied to infertility, it's tied to cancer. And so a lot of times people, they're not doing the spiritual practices of dealing, letting go of the fear and healing spiritually. But I really believe that with certain conditions, the main driver of the disease is this sort of emotional toxicity and not being able to fully recognize it and be able to give that over to Jesus to let him heal it stay true.
- [38:30]
A
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- [38:50]
B
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- [39:20]
A
That's so good. Because there is a. There is a. I mean truly to go there, like a demonic spirit behind it, there is the spirit of fear. It says in scripture that that is not a spirit that we have received from God, that he has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind that we are not, you know, slaves to fear any longer. But we have been adopted as sons and daughters. And so it talks about it again and again through scripture. And so if we know that that spirit's not from God, well, we know that that then means it's from our enemy. Like it's from the enemy. And so I love that you're saying, like, tackle this spiritually as well, because there is a spirit behind it. And so taking those thoughts captive, rebuking those spirits, but also meditating on truth, meditating on what is true and praiseworthy and peaceful is so crucial. You know, you've touched a lot on fertility. And I wanna go there for a second because I've seen a. In infertility, even in people, close circles, a lot of people that I love and care about have walked through this and you see a rise, all in our culture, all in our nation. Is this linked to our diet and what are the things we can do to increase fertility?
- [40:34]
B
There are several things. I might upset some people on this first one, and I hope that's okay. That's okay. Okay. One of the things that's causing infertility today is birth control.
- [40:44]
A
Amen.
- [40:45]
B
And not just in the sense of you're using birth control and increasing estrogen so your body thinks it's pregnant. Okay, so obviously that's happening. But birth control depletes your body of numerous nutrients you need for something called methylation and for mitochondrial function. And this creates cellular energy which then allows your ovaries, your uterus and your hormones to be dispersed at the proper levels for conception. And so birth control depletes your body of vitamin B1, B2, B3, B9, B6, B12, magnesium, zinc and selenium and good bacteria, all of those things. In fact, there was a study that came out. You know how many women. My single biggest surprise when I opened up my functional Medicine practice was how many women have hypothyroidism? There is a study that came out that said if a woman takes birth control long term, their chance of getting hypothyroidism goes up by 287%.
- [41:45]
A
Wow.
- [41:46]
B
Because you're, think about it, you're now, your body's totally bankrupt in all these nutrients that it needs for your thyroid and for your reproductive organs to function properly. So women have, I mean so many women now have major hormonal issues in their 20s and 30s. Major issues. And part of it is the number one is medication, birth control, and there are other nutrients, other. But for women, that's the number one. Okay, so we now need to go and fix that issue. And dietarily, I mentioned this earlier, there's two main issues related to infertility. One is related to conception and the other is caring. And the amount of miscarriages is very high, very high as well. And so conception is related to cortisol and caring is related more to insulin. And so when it comes to conception, it's really eating more nutrient dense foods and getting more B vitamins. So most women actually need to eat more meat, specifically red meat. We got to build the blood, we got to really support your body in that way. That's going to be really beneficial. So I would say get more meat and then we really want to balance out insulin. Eating berries and pomegranates and apples as the main sources of fruit, sweet potatoes as carbs, but not going high carb. Beyond that, you really want to get more healthy fats. Avocado, coconut, things like walnuts, chia and flaxseeds. Wild caught salmon fish is amazing. So you really want to focus on that. And then with that there's some great supplements like Vitex, known as chasberry. That's a great herb for balancing out progesterone and estrogen. That's a really good one. You know, one of the condition that's most associated with infertility is called pcos, Polycystic ovary syndrome. There's so many women struggling with this today. It's really an insulin issue more than anything. And so if women can really go focus on balancing insulin and it's by eat more protein, more fiber and as a carb, really focus on sweet potatoes. And then you want to do a lot of pumpkin pie, spice and cinnamon, like one to two teaspoons a day. That's amazing for balancing out blood sugar levels. If that's your diet, it's going to help a lot. And Then one other thing, as I mentioned, if you've taken birth control, you want to take a methylated B complex, you want to do really high doses of B vitamins and probiotics because you've been so depleted over the years from that medication, you need to go build that back up. And sometimes selenium as well is the other big one. So you really just got to, we got to really put those vitamins and minerals back in the body. But, you know, I mean, 90 plus percent of the time, if I have somebody come in and they're string with infertility, we're going to be able to fix that. We're going to be able to help that. And then, of course, the other biggest thing is, the biggest single thing is we read in the Bible, you know, Samuel's mom, you know, when she's praying and she's like, Lord, like, you know, and she's praying for like 10 years, right? She's praying for a long time. And we see this theme throughout the Bible of infertility, infertility, infertility, and God making barren women fertile, right. And them having kids. And so I think, you know, talking to God about it, you know, praying about that, and, you know, the Bible talks about, you know, we see the people that are closest to God, they're like wrestling with him. In fact, Israel means wrestling with God, right? So I think that there's an element there too. And I know women, a lot of women, and your followers are probably, you know, doing a lot of that already. But that's the most essential thing of all.
- [45:08]
A
I love that you touched on birth control, because I know for me, when I was in college, I had such bad periods that that was the first thing that was recommended to me was get on birth control. It'll help with your periods. And so I got on it for a couple years in college, and it really affected my mood. It really affected just like how I felt, my relationship with food, gaining weight, going underweight. I mean, it just had a really big effect on my body. And then I got off of it. And then when I came off of the Bachelor, I was affected just with like trauma that I had been through that. Then I lost so much weight, and then my. I got really inconsistent periods. They also recommended I get back on birth control. So I got back on it for a little bit and it just had such a bad effect on my body that then I cut it out. I mean, this has been like five or six years ago, but I know of a lot of people that it's been prescribed for them to get on birth control because of endometriosis or because of bad periods, acne.
- [46:07]
B
I mean there's all kinds of things.
- [46:09]
A
Oh yeah, that was another. I had really bad acne. So that was also a thing.
- [46:12]
B
Yeah.
- [46:12]
A
So what is the. I guess counter, like the, the. I don't know the word. But like the other option, if you don't get on birth control that is more holistic. If you're faced with a situation of like really, really bad and painful periods or a situation like endometriosis.
- [46:30]
B
Yeah. Well, number one for actual birth control. Birth control. There's a lot of great options there. You know, one thing my, my wife and I use she something called a lady comp. It was like a device and you can look at your mucus at and follow. I mean your body will tell you. If women are willing to take the time from that standpoint, from a nutrient standpoint, the biggest deficiencies causing major PMS like symptoms are magnesium, vitamin B6. Those are the two big ones, by the way. Those are also the two nutrients where if you get pregnant and you're deficient in those, you'll have much worse morning sickness. So if you are looking to get pregnant and you want to have a lot less morning sickness, you need to take just an isolated magnesium glycinate and vitamin B6.
- [47:17]
A
Wow. I'm writing that one down, ladies.
- [47:20]
B
Yeah, so, so, so those, so those are important. Zinc is also very important. This is also a reason why a lot of women get acne too. And so doing about 30 milligrams of zinc a day. But yeah, B6, I mean, I would just say a methylated B complex. You're gonna get all the B vitamins there, probiotics and zinc. I think those overall will make the biggest difference. But really, diet will make the biggest difference. Again, just everyone write this down. Here's what you should be eating. Organic meat, a lot of red meat, chicken and turkey, wild caught fish. So a lot of wild organic meat, a lot of sweet potatoes, berries and pomegranates and apples and then some healthy fats like avocado, coconut, flaxseeds, that sort of thing. If you make that your diet for the most part. And a lot of herbs like cinnamon, turmeric, those sort of things. It'll be amazing. I mean your body will really come into balance and then spend time in prayer. One other important thing though, I will say the only time I have real trouble with supporting fertility, if so we gotta balance insulin, as I mentioned, that's really important. But if somebody has a lot of fear, a lot of anxiousness, and they're just, they're incredibly busy. Cortisol stays up, fight or flight. So if somebody's in quarter, is in fight or flight constantly, all the time, that'll keep insulin up, even though it might drop some. Cause the diet will typically drop it right down if cortisol's not too high. But if cortisol's high, insulin will stay up. So that. So that'll cause infertility or conception and cause issues with carrying a child if you're in a fight or flight state all the time. And that's where just reading your Bible, more meditating. The single worst thing you can do is scroll on your phone. Your body goes right into fight or flight. Yeah. And so just spending more time in the word, more time doing things to create that stillness and depth. In fact, in Chinese medicine, in order to nourish your adrenals and reproductive organs, the single greatest thing you can do, as they say, is go deep. You really want to go deep. And that's time and meditation, deep connection and relationships, having those deep, meaningful conversations, less busyness. Yeah, that's important for a lot of people.
- [49:31]
A
So true. It's like the things we know we need to do that we often don't make time for, like spending time in nature, working out, like taking care of your physical health, eating right, having a good diet, spending time in communion with people. And that's so important, and yet we know we need that. Yet so often our days look like running from thing to thing to thing, spending a lot of time on a computer, spending a lot of time on our phone. And, you know, eating quick things because it's quick and it's easy, you know, grabbing some fast food, grabbing some things here and there. And then it's like by the end of our day, we wonder why we feel so bled and why we feel so disconnected from God and from people. And so I love that you're talking about these, these crucial things to start implementing in your day to day. This episode is coming out in 2026. So, you know, it's a new year and a lot of people are asking, like, what are some healthy holy habits that I can implement into this year? So that this is my best year yet. So that this year is a year where I'm like, man, I really saw, you know, I saw growth in this area. I saw God move in this area of my life more than ever before. And so what are some, like, really practical, just healthy habits that People can start implementing. I know we've talked about a lot of things, but what are just like some practical. Okay, you can start this today, walking.
- [50:44]
B
You know, so I, I looked at this statistic from a couple hundred years ago. How much time we spent outside walking compared to today. About 100 years ago, people spent 70% of their day outdoors. Today it's 10%.
- [50:59]
A
Wow.
- [50:59]
B
So the amount we're lacking of vitamin D. And then also just think about the invention of the car. People used to have to walk everywhere all the time. So people would be walking 10,000 steps a day. Today it's 3,000 steps. So I mean a lot of times we're walking one third of what we used to in the biblio diet. We did this. I wanted to track, I read this. The historian went and looked at how much Jesus walked. There were days, some when he was the three year ministry. I want to say he averaged close to, they would said 10 miles a day. And on some days he walked 26 miles, a full marathon when he went to certain cities. So he walked a lot. And so there are studies showing if you just walk 20 minutes, just 20 minutes around a meal, breakfast, lunch or dinner, it does amazing things for your digestion, for metabolism. So I would say anytime you eat, if you could go for a 15 to 20 minute walk, it is incredible. So just get in the habit of walking. Like we'll do this as a family especially. I mean, as long as it's above 40 degrees and not raining out, we'll bundle the girls up, take our dogs, go for a walk. So I think just walking more, that's probably the single biggest habit people need to get better at. Number two. And this, this is one I see a lot of women do. There's a lot of women that either skip breakfast or eat a terrible carb driven breakfast. It's like bagel, cream cheese and Starbucks. You know frappuccino that has 70 grams of sugar. Yeah. So women listen. Men too, but get better at breakfast. It really is like, here's a few good options. Here's the easiest. You can make a smoothie and it will take minutes. You don't typically want to do a real cold smoothie. It's too cool on your digestive system. So women with hypothyroidism, chronic fatigue, infertility, you actually really want to warm your system up or keep it neutral. So what I have a lot of women do for breakfast is a sweet potato smoothie. Take a half a sweet potato, a scoop of vanilla, collagen or Vanilla, like a bone broth powder, a scoop of vanilla plant protein. So you're getting like 40 grams of protein and sweet potato. Add in one teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice, add in some water or coconut or almond milk. Do that for breakfast. And it's amazing hormonally. I mean, it's perfect for endometriosis, pcos, conception. I mean, really, really good for women. You know, in Japan, they consume a lot of sweet potatoes and it's a. There's compounds in yams and sweet potatoes that naturally support progesterone. So it's very good hormonally for women. So that would be a perfect breakfast. Or you could do some scrambled eggs in olive oil with sweet potato hash. You could do turkey sausage. But just doing the carbs and the cereal and those sort of things, it's just, it's just not ideal. It's not ideal for women. If you want to do something like oatmeal, you can. And then just do a side of like a lot of protein, like collagen and plant protein together. So those are some good breakfast options. For lunch, some sort of organic meat with either sweet potato or rice, or quinoa with some veggies. And then for dinner, veggies, healthy fat like avocado and meat. You want to go low carb right before bed or else your body tends to store it more as fat and that causes inflammation. But that sort of diet would really be. Well, so. So I was just. You asked me about habits. Walk more, eat a better breakfast and then say no more, say no more. Know what your priorities are and make sure that you have that time in your week. I mean, you know, in practice. One thing I see so often in women is I mentioned this. It's like they're just volunteering and doing everything all day. It's like they're a full time mom. Some of the women are working, some of them are full. You're a full time chauffeur with your kids. Every second of the day you're doing something and you just have to, have to have more margin than that. And so being able to say, I'm going to have two hours twice a week where I'm going to just go for a walk, I'm going to do lunch with a best friend, I'm going to sit down and read a novel, that's okay, it's okay, you know, and so I think people just need more rest and regeneration. When I look at some of the biggest symptoms, women struggle with low energy, thinning hair Hormone imbalance. These are in functional medicine, what we'd called mitochondrial issues. Your mitochondria are this area of your cell that are the engines or power plants of your cell that actually create energy that then fuel all your organs in your entire body. Imagine your batteries, they're batteries in your cell. Batteries in your body. Most women are operating. It's like if my grandparents growing up had this golf cart we'd drive and then when it got down to like 20, 30% would hardly move. You know, like, gosh, I don't know if we're going to make it back to the house now. That's how most women are going throughout the day. Their battery is so low. If your battery is low, you can't produce enough thyroid hormone. If your battery is low, your body is smart enough to know, I can't create another human being. I don't have the battery power, the energy in order to create a new human being. So if we can start going and building that up. But the number one way to do that is get good quality sleep and having just a few times throughout the week where you have an hour or two to sit, to rest, to read God's word, to connect with others, you gotta prioritize that. So I would say focus on prioritizing your time. Walking, doing a better breakfast are three of the biggest habits that would just make a big, big difference for women.
- [56:11]
A
So good that was just a breakthrough for somebody listening. Okay, I've been wanting to know the answer to this question. Is coffee bad for you? As he takes a sip of his coffee.
- [56:22]
B
I'm drinking my matcha here. Matcha with honey.
- [56:25]
A
I was like, what does coffee order?
- [56:26]
B
My go to? No, not, not for most women. Now let me say this. It's dependent upon the time of day you drink it. The half life of caffeine is, could be nearly 12 hours. And that means that if you are consuming it at 3 o', clock, it may not be fully out of your system till 3 o'. Clock. Or maybe it might even be 9 hours, but closer to midnight. Okay, Depending on how much you have. So I think doing coffee before noon is okay. Doing it after lunch for most people is not okay. It is starting to interfere with your melatonin. You might fall asleep. But the level, I wear an OURA ring. Are you familiar with that? As I love it as a tech device because I look at it and it tells me a few things that are really important. It tells me my HRV heart rate variability. It's one of the greatest factors for Longevity and to tell you if you're stressed or not. So that's amazing. The hrv, it tells you my cardiovascular age. That's great to know, how am I doing that way. And then it tells me my total sleep, my deep sleep and my REM sleep.
- [57:34]
A
Oh yeah, it breaks it down.
- [57:36]
B
In order for your brain to heal, you need a lot of REM sleep. In order for all of your organs to be healing and regenerating, you need a lot of total sleep and a lot of deep sleep. That deep sleep is a really, really critical marker. If you're doing caffeine and it's still in your system while you're asleep, it makes it harder for your body to get your hr, your heart rate variability down in your heart rate and it makes it harder for your body to get into those deeper states of sleep and total sleep. So you might be falling asleep, but this is also why you're waking up in the morning and you're still tired or you feel like you're going to fall asleep at 2 o' clock in the afternoon and you're overwhelmed in the evening. That's why. So I would just say, yeah, we.
- [58:18]
A
Gotta don't drink it afternoon.
- [58:19]
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I think some. Now the other thing I would say is drink it black or put a little bit of almond milk in there or maybe you have raw cream or something. A little bit of that's fine. But it's the sugar that's the issue. So if you're going to Starbucks and again, just order. And some women, I think, I don't know if I'm surprised by this or not, but I'm a little bit. Women tend to be surprised when I tell them. I have people sometimes fill out diet diaries of what they've eaten the past three days, including their beverages they've consumed. Like be honest, totally honest. And I think when I share with them. Do you know how much sugar is in a Starbucks pumpkin piece, pumpkin spice latte or the, you know, what's the one, one of their frappuccinos. It's like peppermint, whatever. It's mind blowing. I mean it's more than drinking a soda. Sometimes more than two.
- [59:11]
A
That's crazy.
- [59:12]
B
It's crazy. And that doesn't even count. Some of the excess, you know, the, the, the bad fats that are in there. I mean it's, it's really bad.
- [59:19]
A
I'm a big anti Starbucks girly, so.
- [59:21]
B
Good for you.
- [59:22]
A
This isn't offending at all. It might be offending some people. But I'm like, yeah, praise Jesus. I'm like, honestly, I am big advocate for. We need to have local coffee shops in every airport. Like, really good local coffee shops in every airport. But I, I know I've, I've heard different takes on the coffee thing. Just, I was curious your thoughts on coffee.
- [59:43]
B
Well, let me say this. It also is condition dependent. If I have somebody with chronic fatigue syndrome, I don't want them drinking a lot of caffeine.
- [59:49]
A
Yeah.
- [59:50]
B
You know, like, because what it's, what caffeine actually does is it blocks these receptor sites in your body that basically telling you you're not tired when you are. So it doesn't let your body get into fully rest. Like, if you're really tired, you should let your body be really tired. Your body needs to recover. Your body's trying to tell you something. So really it's a form of medication. I mean, you're just trying to tell your body, no, that's not true. Now again, if you're doing 50 grams or less or doing tea and there's coffee and whatever, green tea, black tea, white tea, it's not enough caffeine to really cause many issues there. But if you're doing more than really more than one cup of coffee a day, it starts to add up.
- [60:26]
A
Listen, I read the Biblio diet and I immediately threw out my oat milk. And let me just tell you, I'm devastated, but I'm also, like, so excited because I didn't know how bad oat milk was for you.
- [60:37]
B
Yeah, I mean, I think it depends on your activity level, a number of things. If you're, if you're drinking it, going right to the gym, you'll probably get away with it. It's not as much of a problem. But I do think that for most people, it's probably. It's higher glycemically and has a bigger impact on your blood sugar than most people would realize.
- [60:52]
A
Man. Well, good to know, guys. So take notes. Okay, I, I have a couple other little questions that are kind of random, but I'm just really curious your thoughts. I've seen a ris us in our culture, in this younger generation, is this Ozempic? So what are your thoughts on? Is, is Ozempic harmful and how should we be viewing that as? I don't know, just from a health perspective, from a believer's perspective, like, what is your take on Ozempic? Is it harming our bodies?
- [61:28]
B
Well, it can. Yeah, it can harm your body. There's this old natural medicine quote. The dose determines the medicine or the poison. What's happening with Ozempic today is most of the time it's a very, very high dose of GLP1. And what it does is it causes something called gastroparesis. And gastroparesis means things are going to move through your digestive system more slowly. And so when that happens, you feel more full, you have less cravings and you eat less. That's what happens. Gastroparesis, though, has some other side effects. It can cause malnutrition, it can cause dysbiosis in the gut, so overgrowth of bad bacteria. There's all kinds of other side effects there. But the biggest side effect we're seeing, generally speaking, if you just take Ozempic, the high dose by itself, the regular dose by itself, is we're seeing muscle loss. When somebody typically would diet on just changing their, their, their, their diet and, and lose weight. On average, they'll lose about 25 of their muscle mass, 75 body fat. With Ozempic, you're losing closer to 40 to 50% muscle mass, which is aging you greatly. I mean, you do. The last thing you want to do is lose muscle mass because if you're losing muscle mass, that slows your metabolism. So then you gain more body fat. There's all kinds of other issues. I mean, loads, but, but, and you're more frail, you're more weak. I mean, this is a reason why women in particular have issues of osteoporosis when they, you know, are, are predisposed to that. So, so there are major side effects. In fact, there are terms online like ozempic face or ozempic butt. Ozemic butt, because your, your, your glutes are actually where your, is your largest muscle group. So you're going to lose a lot of muscle in your butt, in your legs, in these areas where you, you definitely don't want to lose muscle there. So yeah, so the current dose people are using and for somebody just to take GLP1 by itself and do nothing else, it is terrible. It's a toxic, it should be malpracticed by doctors. I took a Hippocratic oath when I became a doctor. First do no harm, it's doing harm. Now let's talk about the responsible way to use it. You do what we call is a microdose. It's about 1/10 of a total dose, which is going to create a little bit of a cessation of I'm a little less hungry. And then in combination with that, there's three big Things that will move the needle. There are things that will cause your body to produce more GLP1 on its own. Eating more protein, eating more fiber and weight training. I prefer people don't take GLP1 at all. More protein, more fiber, some weight training. Listen, you don't need to go in there and move big dumbbells, whatever two days a week, three days a week, go in and do one day of upper body, one day of lower body and you know, going for 45 minutes. Okay, but, but, but doing that and getting just more protein and fiber, which is basically more pro, you know, meat, more vegetables, more low glycemic fruits like berries, pomegranates and apples and you know, avocado, nut seeds, more fiber. So, so, so that, that'll. People will lose so much weight if they do that. And if you do a micro dose as GLP1 to give you a little boost, that's fine. But the high dose they're doing today is absolutely not healthy.
- [64:40]
A
Yeah, totally. And I, I also want to ask this question because I think there's a worldly view on this and a biblical view on this, but what is the biblical view of fasting and what are its benefits physically and spiritually?
- [64:56]
B
Yeah, well, I'm a big fan of fasting when it's done correctly, based on the person's bio, individuality, what their body needs in this moment. I would say generally speaking, what fasting does is it's more catabolic. So there's two things in your body you always want to be supporting. Being anabolic, which is growth, regeneration, like regenerative healing, creating new tissue, putting on muscle. That's all anabolic. You've heard of anabolic steroids? That's anabolic. And in Chinese medicine we'd call that like the Yang or it's more tied to testosterone. It's very, it's rebuilding. Catabolic is we're tearing down the bad so we can rebuild with the new. That's cleansing, that's detoxification, activates autophagy. Your body gets rid of something called senescent cells which aid you. It's like kind of like a imagine you've got waste and trash in a city like your body. It's getting rid of that. So that's catabolic. That's what fasting does. So fasting is cleansing and healing in that way. If somebody needs that, which if somebody's overweight, they tend to need that. If somebody has a lot of inflammation, tends to be really great for those people, I will say for fasting, if somebody is very weak and feeble, like if somebody has major chronic fatigue syndrome or they're dealing with Lyme disease and they're having major issues there, like, like they need to be really careful with fasting. And it may not be the right time. It may not be the right time for them. Of course, women that are pregnant definitely do not fast at that time. So there are certain times where you just really don't want to fast kids because they're still regenerating. It's so important for their growth and development. They need to be more careful with fasting. But somebody who really needs to detoxify and cleanse and reduce inflammation fasting is amazing, has anti cancer, I mean, major benefits for anti cancer, for longevity. So fasting can be fantastic. Spiritually, you know, we see more mental clarity. We see, you know, when you're eating less. What happens with some people is they have something called leaky gut and that's where your gut lining gets inflamed. And then you get these. Imagine your gut lining is like a fishing net and it keeps certain things, let certain things in, like water and maybe things that are really small and keeps bigger things out. Well, you can get these rips in your gut lining, which is called leaky gut, where then certain things get in your bloodstream that shouldn't get in there. Like undigested protein like gluten and casein, or heavy metals or parasites. Those get in the blood, those circulate, some of them can cross the blood brain barrier and it causes brain fog issues, memory issues, and then it causes an inflammatory and immune response that's actually the root cause of autoimmune disease. I bring all that up to say when you're not eating, that can't possibly happen. So your gut now can start repairing that gut lining. Nothing's in your bloodstream circulating very much. And so all of a sudden you can think more clearly. So there's an element of being able to cleanse, detoxify, think more clearly. Brain and neurological health that comes with fasting. So it's great. You know, I. There's a lot of different forms of fasting. We know Jesus did a 40 day fast. That's too much for most people. There's water fast, there's intermittent fasting, which is probably the most popular type of fasting today, where you just skip breakfast essentially and narrow down your eating window. There's benefits there for gut health, for inflammation, for weight loss, for balancing insulin. The type of fasting I think most people could benefit from is the way the early church fasted. The early church took one or two days a week. It was typically a Wednesday or a Friday. And they would skip breakfast and lunch and just eat dinner. And they did it one day a week. And I think for most people, rather than doing it every day, just taking one day and doing that is probably the best way to fast and just spending that extra time in your Bible and prayer and meditation. And I think if we're gonna model the early church like Acts 2 and what they were doing, they did a lot of taking one day a week and basically not eating breakfast and lunch.
- [68:58]
A
That's so powerful. Yeah. I feel like I get so many questions from people on fasting and wanting to know how to do it. And you guys talk a lot about it in the book. And so I definitely recommend to everyone listening to this to go and check out Biblio diet because it has been such a gift to me. It has changed the way I view food, the way my relationship is with food. I think for me personally, I. Food was always like a comfort or a convenient thing. Like I just did what was convenient or I would go to it for comfort or for, you know, pleasure. And you know, even when I think about the whole like following Jesus, it's like, deny your flesh, like crucify your flesh. And I think you can think about that even in terms with food. And it's like there are things that my flesh desires, my flesh desires Krispy Kreme donuts, you know, But I know that's probably not gonna be the most God glorifying thing that I can do in this moment is just to always. Every time that like, desire of my flesh comes up, I just feed it and I just feed it. And that's part of why I love fasting is it's this beautiful combination of starving your flesh and feeding your spirit. It's not just saying I'm gonna withhold myself from food, but it's like I'm going to fill myself with the word of God and with prayer and with taking time to. Instead of, you know, taking this time to cook and to eat, I'm gonna spend this time in the Bible like you were talking about. And so you guys talk a lot about fasting in the Biblio diet. And so I really recommend you guys go and check it out for some recipes for fasting. You guys talk about communion. You guys talk about just the power of the mind, taking thoughts captive. There's so many things in this book that have been so helpful. I've also been on the ancient nutrition collagen, bone broth protein powder. I've been putting it in my, my smoothies in the mornings and it's been so good. So I'm gonna link all of these things for you guys to go and to check it out. But this has been super, super helpful and I know a blessing to so many people. I'd love for you to, you know, maybe just like end with the last encouragement into a prayer for maybe the person that's like, you know, discouraged in their health and wellness journey, but also wants to be, you know, wants to take the next steps, you know, starting a new year of I, I want to be healthier, I want to honor God with my body and I want to have a healthy relationship with food.
- [71:09]
B
Yeah. One of the things I would say is God works out all things for our good. All things, everything. You know, I had a situation three years ago where I went and had a real simple medical procedure done as an all natural procedure and I ended up getting a spinal infection that I met with a doctor and he told me, you're likely going to be permanently disabled. I didn't walk for a year, literally couldn't get out of bed for, I mean, I could crawl for a little bit, but didn't walk for a year. And so that was really hard. And I was able to kind of, I think, feel what a lot of people feel today. And that is like I'd never felt hopeless before or a sense of despair. And I'd felt that. And the only thing that helped was just turning to Jesus and knowing he works miracles. And one other thing I tried to do as I went through that is really press in and just live out faith of knowing God. Thank you for doing this miracle in my body. Thank you that I know you care more about my health than I care about my health. So I think knowing who God is and knowing that he's the great physician, he's fighting for you, he's working out things for your good. I mean, the thing is, I'm always on the lookout of trying to be being spiritually aware and connected to Holy Spirit and saying, oh, this person here, oh, this is a divine connection. He is always working things out for my good, fighting for me, doing things. And so live with that level of spiritual awareness of knowing God is fighting for you right now. The other thing I would just say is, you know, I, in my years of practice, about 20 years now, I mean, I have had so many people who have reversed their cancer naturally, so many patients I'VE seen reverse every hormone condition you can imagine, Ms. Lyme disease, infertility, PCOS, endometriosis. And you know what? God is faithful. If we start living in alignment with how he created us and go to him and ask him for healing, we will be healed. I really believe that. And listen, one other thing I'll say too, just about health in general and about life in general, we see a lot of people that are influencers. We see a lot of, I mean, more than ever today, podcasters, a lot of people giving out advice and saying things. It's just so important today. And even hear certain things in certain churches that I don't know that align with scripture. It's like, what if I were just to go to the Bible right now and say, okay, I want to be healthy, what should I do? Well, think about what James says. He's like, you know, if you're sick, go to the elders of the church, have them lay their hands on you, have them anoint your head with oil and play for you with healing and you will be made well healed.
- [73:41]
A
Yeah.
- [73:41]
B
Have you done that yet? Do it right. And maybe it's the other side of the church and maybe it's just a few spiritual people, you know, that are virtuous, God loving people, right? So I would just say read the Bible, dive in there, see what God says about, about health as well. And, but again, I've seen God continually reverse the reverse or reverse the irreversible in so many people. And so I'll pray for that for people right now. But God, you were so good. You were the great physician. We put our hope and our faith in you. There's no one like you. You are incomparable. And we thank you. Lord, I thank you in advance for the miracles you're working in the lives of all of the people listening. We thank you for healing and reversing diabetes and pcos and cancer and autoimmune disease and thyroid issues and digestive issues and all the other things. Lord, we just thank you for your supernatural healing. I pray for divine wisdom. Holy Spirit, I pray you'll just fill and give wisdom to everyone listening, Lord, and what they should eat and what they should take and how they should live. Lord, I pray you would just convict us on what we should stop doing and what we should start doing. Lord, I pray more than anything that people would have the mind of Christ and that we would stop asking, what can I get away with? And we would think mostly, what can I eat? What can I do? How can I live to most advance your kingdom and glorify you. And Lord we just pray for healing miracles in the lives of all that are listening. We thank you Jesus. Amen.
- [75:12]
A
Amen. Oh that was powerful. That was so good. I am ready for my 2026 the best year yet and we are believing that for you guys holy and healthy habits it will be your best year yet. Thank you so much for coming on and like I said gonna include all the links links and his social media handles how you can follow Dr. Josh Axe and more of what he is doing. But as always guys be sure to stay you and stay true. We love you. Stay True Podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever think about switching insurance companies to see if you could save some cash? Progressive makes it easy to see if you could save when you bundle your home and auto policies. Try it@progressive.com, progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states.
- [76:05]
B
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