The Dylan Gemelli Podcast

BONUS Special Edition:
A Discussion with Dr. Eric Berg — A Meeting of the Minds! Behind the Scenes on EVERYTHING HEALTH: Seed Oils, Diet Problems, Disease Prevention & More
Date: November 17, 2025
Host: Dylan Gemelli
Guest: Dr. Eric Berg

Episode Overview

In this special, unscripted bonus episode, Dylan Gemelli and Dr. Eric Berg come together for a raw and wide-ranging discussion on pressing health topics. The conversation moves through seed oils and industry corruption, dietary myths, food addiction, metabolic flexibility, mitochondria, toxins, the lost art of botanicals, trace minerals, and hormone health. Both share their personal journeys, clinical insights, and practical tips, offering listeners actionable wisdom and calling out industry misinformation.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Seed Oils, Industry Corruption, and Misinformation

[01:05–06:40]

• Industry Influence and Dietitians: Dr. Berg exposes the financial ties between major nutrition organizations and big pharma, food, and chemical companies, claiming, “They have stocks, hundreds of thousands of dollars in stocks. I’m like, what, are you kidding me? This is like so evil. And we’re supposed to trust you?” (Dr. Berg, 02:00).
• Seed Oil Myth-Busting: Both argue against the “in moderation” slogan, highlighting that influencers are often covertly paid substantial amounts to promote seed oils and downplay their dangers.

  “They carefully craft the message … ‘there’s no bad food, just everything in moderation.’ As long as you count your calories. … No, yes there is.” (Dr. Berg, 05:15)

• Conflict of Interest: Dylan is overwhelmed by how many so-called health professionals attempt to join his podcast to promote dubious views. He refuses to give them a platform that could legitimize misinformation.

2. Navigating Food Myths, Fats, and Fear-Based Nutrition

[10:31–17:45]

• Mainstream Misinformation: Dr. Berg suggests, "The very simple way to figure out what's true is just to see what the mainstream viewpoint is and go in the opposite." (Dr. Berg, 11:26)
• Red Meat & Organ Meats: They challenge the anti-fat, anti-meat stance, noting their benefits for heart and overall health when sourced well. Dr. Berg cautions that current dietary fears often lack basis and stem from outdated dogma.
• Fermented Foods & Gut Health: They discuss the power of foods like sauerkraut and the misunderstood "vitamin U" (S-methylmethionine), advocating for a diet that heals the gut and revitalizes dormant internal microbes.

  “These fermented foods … change the environment, the soil, the terrain of your gut. So your own microbes that have been in dormancy, their dormant spores wake up.” (Dr. Berg, 16:02)

3. Personal Transformations and the Power of Proper Nutrition

[17:47–26:37]

• Overcoming Fat Fears: Dylan describes his drastic shift from a fat-phobic diet to embracing healthy fats and seeing his HDL cholesterol double, energy, mood, and cognitive function dramatically improve.

  “I started with like 93/7 meat and eased my way into … 80/20 … my HDL is right at 79-80, so it’s almost doubled in I’d say seven, eight months...” (Dylan, 17:57)

• Dr. Berg's Journey: Dr. Berg shares his trajectory from junk food addict to vegan, through extreme cleansing fads, before discovering the sustaining power of protein and healthy fats.
• Intermittent Fasting & Meal Timing: Both now gravitate toward fewer, larger meals, with an emphasis on fasting in the morning and listening to true physiological hunger.

4. Eating Patterns, Exercise, & Metabolic Needs

[26:37–39:45]

• Routine Sharing: Both provide detailed daily eating and workout routines, focusing on animal proteins, fermented foods, and whole fats, supplemented with strategic nutrient-rich vegetables.
• Workout Regimens: Dylan details a heavy cardio and lifting schedule, while Dr. Berg, living on a farm, emphasizes the superior nutrition from pasture-raised, home-raised animals.
• Personalization: They stress individual variability—diet and exercise should be tailored, not one-size-fits-all.

5. Metabolic Flexibility, Mitochondrial Health, & Biohacking

[35:53–48:02]

• Carbohydrates & Metabolism: Dr. Berg recommends metabolomic and VO2 max testing for tailored carb intake, emphasizing that most people are metabolically inflexible.
• Intermittent Hypoxic Training: Dr. Berg introduces Dylan to next-level recovery and fitness tech: alternating high-oxygen and oxygen-deprived training.

  “You’re starving your cells of oxygen while you’re exercising. And then you’re flooding it, starving it and flooding it… you start getting bigger blood cells, more capillary growth…” (Dr. Berg, 39:08)

• Mitochondria, Disease, and Longevity: Both detail why mitochondrial and cellular health are foundational to disease prevention and healthy aging, demystifying complex pathways with practical advice.

6. Toxins, Food Industry Manipulation, and Addictive Ingredients

[51:14–58:23]

• Industrial Toxins: Dr. Berg urges focusing on building resilience with nutrient-dense foods to counteract unavoidable environmental toxins.
• Junk Food Engineering: The duo breaks down the intent behind ultra-processed foods—engineered starches, time-release flavors, and addictive textures designed for maximum consumer dependence.

  “It’s such a confusion to your brain… everything is manipulated for one thing. Addiction. That’s it.” (Dr. Berg, 57:23)

• Hidden Sugar & Starch: They warn about fillers like “modified food starch” that spike blood sugar more than sucrose and hide in labels.

7. Loss of Botanical Remedies & Decline of Traditional Medicine

[60:06–63:02]

• Medical History Deep Dive: Dr. Berg discusses his research into old dispensary texts, tracking a decline from 75% botanical remedies in 1926 to 0% by 2024 in medical manuals.

  “Now they’re… gone. So what happened to all these remedies? … The amount of this whole thing is just a skinny man.” (Dr. Berg, 61:38)

• Profit-driven Medicine: Both bemoan the shift from plant-based and natural treatments to purely synthetic drugs, echoing a call to reclaim lost wisdom.

8. Trace Minerals & Hormone Health

[63:02–74:13]

• Importance of Trace Minerals: Dr. Berg explains why trace minerals are key biochemical cofactors, severely depleted in modern agriculture and animal husbandry.

  “If you eat food in the middle part of United States… you’re not going to get any trace minerals because it’s not in the soil.” (Dr. Berg, 65:05)

• Testosterone & Outdated "Normal" Ranges: Both expose the fallacy of current testosterone reference ranges, connecting low levels to environmental toxins, poor diet, and the reduction of crucial nutrients like zinc.

  “The normal ranges for testosterone are based on the average population… You’re not basing it off what your grandfather had… Most people are not normal.” (Dr. Berg, 67:21)

• Hormone Optimizing Insights:

  • The host and guest underscore the vital, multi-systemic effects of testosterone in both men and women.
  • They advocate for comprehensive hormone panels and root-cause addressing, not symptom-masking therapies.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Industry Bias

  “The organization that is responsible for the health of our country also invests in big pharma and the junk food industry … Are you kidding me? This is so evil.”
  — Dr. Eric Berg [02:00]

• On ‘Moderation’ as a Trap

  “As long as you count your calories… No, yes there is [bad food]. That’s how they’re selling it.”
  — Dr. Eric Berg [05:15]

• On Fermented Foods and Gut Health

  “Fermented foods…change the environment, the soil, the terrain of your gut. So your own microbes that have been in dormancy, their dormant spores wake up.”
  — Dr. Eric Berg [16:02]

• On Food Industry Intent

  “Everything is manipulated for one thing. Addiction. That’s it.”
  — Dr. Eric Berg [57:23]

• On Hormone Testing

  “The normal ranges for testosterone are based on the average population. … Let’s take the average of sick people out there, and that’s normal. Can you believe that?”
  — Dr. Eric Berg [67:21]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |------------|-----------------------------------------------| | 01:05–06:40| Seed oils, industry bias, influencer scams | | 11:26–17:45| Food myths, fats, and the healing power of food| | 17:57–22:51| Dylan’s nutrition transformation story | | 25:44–29:03| Extreme diets, meal timing, and fasting | | 35:53–39:45| Metabolic testing, VO2 max, oxygen training | | 41:31–48:02| Demystifying mitochondria and cellular health | | 51:14–58:23| Toxins, industrial food engineering | | 60:06–63:02| Decline of botanical medicine | | 65:03–74:13| Trace minerals, hormone health, testosterone |

Tone and Spirit

The conversation is candid, passionate, occasionally irreverent, and fiercely independent. Dr. Berg’s expertise is balanced by Dylan’s lived experience and practical skepticism of mainstream narratives. Both advocate for critical thinking, self-experimentation, and uncovering the inconvenient truths about health, diet, and wellness.

To listeners:
Whether you’re new to these topics or seasoned in health research, this episode delivers both big-picture frameworks and granular actionable steps—empowering you to take ownership of your health despite the noise and misinformation in the modern wellness landscape.