Creating Confidence with Heather Monahan - #303: The 6 Foods You NEED For A Healthy Gut & Brain Connection, With Dr. Amy Shah

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

In This Episode You Will Learn About:  How to create a stronger and healthier brain & gut connection   Discovering your power through intentional eating and movement   The ways that food can impact your physical AND mental health  Why you’re ALWAYS so hungry! Underrated tools for improving your sleep and overall health  Resources: Website: amymdwellness.com  Read I’m So Effing Hungry  Email: [e-mail]  LinkedIn: @Amy Shah  Instagram: @fastingmd Facebook: @Dr. Confidential with AMYMD Twitter: @amyshahmd Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator This episode is sponsored by/brought to you by BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com/creatingconfidence today to get 10% off your first month. Get One Month FREE! on Thinkific Plus by going to my special URL: thinkific.com/confidence Use promo code CONFIDENCE for 15% off site wide at Just Thrive with this link: https://justthrivehealth.com/discount/Confidence  Show Notes:  Did you know your gut acts like a second brain? The concept of listening to your gut feeling is TRUE and the key to stepping into your most powerful self! Dr. Amy Shah is here to share how we can retrain our brains to crave the foods and experiences that are actually GOOD for us! Life is not about restricting certain foods, rather finding one thing from each of the six different food groups so we can feel balance in every aspect of life. About The Guest: Dr. Amy Shah is a double board certified medical doctor and nutrition expert with training from Cornell, Columbia, and Harvard Universities! She has dedicated her practice to helping her patients feel better and live healthier lives through her holistic approach to wellness. Dr. Shah has been featured on national television and featured in magazine articles around the country for her incredible dedication to helping others take control of their health!  If You Liked This Episode You Might Also Like These Episodes: THIS Is How You Set Yourself Up For Success in 2023, With Heather!  How to Tackle Your Challenges With Success with Guest Eric Wood Former NFL Center Buffalo Bills, Bills Radio Analyst & Author of Tackle What’s Next  The Best Two Reframes To Get You Out Of Your Rut Today! With Heather! 

You really want to have a good gut-brain connection, you're going to start to have to add foods, actually, that you haven't been eating before to the mix. Once you start eating better, your grades get better, your motivation to work out gets better, your mood gets more even. You know, if we just realize a power of just moving, even if it's just walking,

you would, I always say exercise is your best probiotic, actually. Like all these people who want the probiotic exercise, exercise does it for you. I'm on this journey with me. Each week when you join me, we are going to chase down our goals. Overcome adversity and set you up for a better tomorrow. Hi and welcome back. I'm so excited for you to meet our guest this week.

Amy Shaw, MD, is a double board certified medical doctor and nutrition expert with training from Cornell, Columbia, and Harvard universities, drawing from her background in internal medicine and allergy immunology, as well as her own wellness journey, she has dedicated her practice to helping her patients feel better and live healthier through her integrative and holistic approach to wellness. She was named one of Mind, Body Green's top 100 women in wellness to watch in 2015 and appears regularly on national television shows and podcasts in national magazines. She lives in Arizona with her family.

Amy, it's so nice to have you here. Thank you so much for having me. This is such an interesting topic. I mean, you have so much knowledge, so much information to share with us. But I like starting the people's origin story. And I want to talk a little bit about where you're from, the changes that you've seen with health from your homeland. When I was a little girl, I think I was about seven years old, we had just come from India to New York. And we're living as new immigrants in New York. And I remember witnessing the terrible news. My dad and all his brothers, my grandparents, grandmother, they got the news that they had type 2 diabetes. And at the time, we really thought of it like a death sentence because my grandfather had just passed away from it. My uncles had just passed away from it. It was like one of those things that you're like, oh my God, this is it. You know, we worked this hard and we basically are going to die early. So my dad was only in his 30s. And it's like he knew he wasn't supposed to eat sugar, but it's so hard to control those cravings. And how. food affects the body was really, really interesting to me. So then I went to nutrition school and then medical school. And then I just wanted to help families like my family because I just felt like, this is a huge problem and this is not just us. And that's really the reason I'm so effing hungry because I figured out there's this new way of thinking that we are missing the bodon. So I thought

I would share that. So tell us a little bit of why are we so effing hungry, right? How did this all get so screwed up? I know. It's really crazy. I mean, the shortest way to say this is that we're so effing hungry because our gut bacteria are so effing hungry. And they're sad and they're tired and they're overworked and they're sending those signals directly to our brain.

And it sounds so crazy. Sounds like sci-fi that these like little bugs are running the show, but they literally are. But the good news is that we can change this. So we can actually retrain our cravings. We can retrain our hunger. We can retrain the communication signals between the gut and the brain. So I thought that was a full new topic because there's so much science behind it now.

So for people like me who aren't educated in nutrition at all, I don't really understand or it's challenging to understand there's a connection between your brain and your gut. Can you explain a little bit about that? Okay. So when we're in the embryo, our cells are the gut, and the brain are attached. Okay. And then as we grow into babies, they become separated.

But they remain connected by a set of nerves. And the main one is the vagus nerve. And so that's why everyone says like your gut is your second brain because it's literally coming from the same place and they stay connected. And so if you understand that, then you can think, oh, no wonder I have this gut feeling about something sometimes before your mind even knows it. and that's why now we're finding out, wait a second, it's so important that it might be more important than the brain. I'll tell you the story of how I came to that conclusion. They took

patients who had schizophrenia, so schizophrenia is a really bad psychiatric disorder, you know, a terrible diagnosis. And they were able to find that their gut bacteria, the bacteria that live in their gut for the patients who had schizophrenia looked really different from the patients who did it. And in fact, the researchers could pick out just based on the gut bacteria, which patients had schizophrenia. That's crazy. Yeah. Then they did the second part of the study where they actually transplanted the gut bacteria from the schizophrenic patients to mice that didn't have any of their own gut bacteria. And then they took the patients who didn't have schizophrenia and also transplanted them and they mixed up the mice. And they were able to tell,

which mice got the schizophrenic gut bacteria because they started to develop schizophrenic traits without changing anything in their brain. They only transplanted the gut bacteria, but they were able to change the entire mental state of that animal. I mean, if that isn't crazy, because they were so sure of that, that they couldn't do it human to human because that would be unethical. Right. No, I don't think anyone would sign up for that program. Yeah. But they're are really cool studies showing you can transplant away depression, you know, dementia, autism. Like there's a whole world out there that is mental and physical health. Like that's the mind-body connection right there.

And it's all due to the bacteria in the gut? The way it works is that bacteria in the gut work like they're like army sergeants, right? They carry walkie-talkies and they talk to the rest of our immune system. to our hormones and they send signals also directly to the brain. And so they're kind of like dictating, protecting, and deciding all the time. And so what happens is when you feel hungry or you're craving something or you're sad or you're tired, you think it's because of your circumstances. Like you think it's, oh, I had a bad day.

No, it's because those bacterial surgeons like radioed to your brain. like it's time to be sad or hey you need to crave this or you need to do that that's how strong it is that's incredible to me i want to go back to something because this is definitely all new to me one of the things that you said a few minutes ago was you were talking about that gut instinct feeling that you get before your brain has even responded to something which i definitely have a very strong intuition yeah does your gut what's in your gut really can that influence if you have a strong intuition or if you have a gut instinct? Yeah, it can help it for sure. So for example, we have an imprint in our brain that happens with memories like a traumatic experience or a good

memory about something. And those feelings are kind of programmed into our brain. And it is from the brain to the gut. So that's why often you'll feel it in your gut first because your brain, as you know, we're clouded all the time with our to-do list and our, you know, thoughts of the moment. And sometimes it's so confusing about what to do in that situation. But that's when that gut feeling intuition comes into play because there's a memory there that you might not even realize. And yes, you can sharpen that memory, one, by unclouding your brain and also by unclouding your digestive system. So you're talking about diabetes. you're talking about the gut brain connection.

I have to bring up something that is happening. I live in Miami, which maybe this isn't happening everywhere, but it's happening to everybody I know. Every person I know is going on this weight loss drug, Ozempic right now. It's incredible. The weight loss I'm seeing, I mean, it's incredible. I've never seen anything like it.

So I'm sitting over here cheering people on, but I have a feeling, Amy, you might have a different take on that. There's good and bad, right? Like with anything, any medication, there's going to be bad. We might not know it. yet and we might be, you know, and obviously the sum of the bads are the cost and the fact that

you're taking it away from people who actually need it if you're just doing it for casual weight loss. But what I think is interesting is that the GLP1 that it activates, OZempic and all these medications, it activates a hormone called GLP1, which makes you feel fuller. You can do that yourself. It's a hormone that's released from your gut when you're ready to feel full. So there's like foods. You can eat high water foods, things that stretch that receptor, things that are gLP1 agonous. There's multiple foods that actually work like a baby Ozempic. So that's why I feel like, okay, if I'm just trying to do this for refining my weight, a lot of people are doing it for like, oh, I want to look good, you know, that kind of thing. Then maybe it's better to do this,

but really learn how to release your own hunger hormones to kind of calm things down so that when you get off of that, you're not lost and going right back to where you started. Yeah, no, I think that's a very good point. I find the whole thing so intriguing. And I love that idea that you're empowered to actually have your own ozempic within you if you just learn how to eat differently. Yeah, it's like exercise, right? Like you could take steroids.

Totally. There's side effects. There's costs. There's downsides. or you could learn how to harness your own growth hormone, your own steroid hormones to grow. Like, yes, it's going to be harder, but it's maybe better, right? Long term. And more sustainable.

I definitely, I would assume so because you're changing these patterns. Okay. So talk me a little bit about, I've been getting into probiotics lately. What is the role that probiotics play in the gut? Yeah, probiotics are actually gut bacteria. So when you eat yogurt, probiotic yogurt, you are actually sending gut bacteria into your gut to help out in that army situation. So it's great. People always ask me like, oh, wait, probiotics, which one?

Like, which friend? What I'm saying is, listen, probiotic foods have a matrix in them. So they get the bacteria down into the colon where they need to go. When you take it by pill form, it's just harder because your body recognizes it as foreign and starts to kill it because it's bacteria. So the best way to do it is in the matrix of the food, like kimchi, sourcrow, even raw apple cider vinegar, yogurt. Like there's not, I mean, they're pretty tasty foods. It's similar to taking vitamins, right? We still haven't figured out how to create probiotics in the best way that it's going to get to the body and do the things that

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So can you talk to us a little bit about what the differences are between eating a certain way and the impact that eating, you know, a very different way can have on our gut, our brain and everything? Yeah. So remember that I said we're hungry and tired and sad because our gut bacteria are hungry and tired and sad? we do not feed as a society, as a modern society, we've basically taken out the food for gut bacteria inadvertently.

Like we didn't know, you know, that these guys played such a huge role in our mental and physical health. So we basically took out all the fiber from foods because it's just easier. You know, it's easier to eat things when they're not all fiber, full of fiber. And then it's convenient. And then we've taken out the probiotics out of food because, hey, yogurt is not. that tasty if you don't add all the sugar and processing to it and then that kills all the gut bacteria. And we used to have to ferment things because we didn't have refrigerators and high heat

cooking and all that stuff to like preserve things. So there's really no need to add probiotics or ferment things anymore. And so a lot of the things that we eat that used to be fermented, they're just like heat processed and every bacteria is gone. So these bacteria are hungry. They're dying. They're sad. We have 40% less. types of bacteria in our guts now than we had just a few generations ago. Because as we start to kill our own gut bacteria, that's what we pass down to our kids, right? So generation after generation, it's getting less and less. And it's really sad.

If you think about it, your gut is supposed to be literally on both sides of it is the lumen. So our cells are on the side, cells are on the other side. in the middle is just a thick layer of bacteria on both sides. And they're protecting, they're sampling, they're extracting the vitamins. They're balancing the hormones. So for women, you know, perimenopause, they're balancing the estrogen and the testosterone. And as that lining gets thinner and thinner and we start to lose bacteria, those food products and those toxins start to touch our own, our cell wall. and sometimes they leak through.

And that's why we get food sensitivities, the gluten allergy, you know, dairy allergy of histamine intolerance. All of these things are happening because that gut lining became so thin and damaged. Maybe you took antibiotics. Maybe you just ate a modern diet. Maybe you live in a place that's super like, you know, use a ton of antibacterial cleansers and you're eating a lot of that stuff. So it's really fascinating.

I think we've gotten it all wrong. We're feeding them. So what I say is when you're trying to feed them, start to think about what they need to survive. So they need fiber to survive, like natural fiber, not necessarily fiber supplements. I'm talking about like food, broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, fruit, nuts. Like these things have fiber and they feed that gut bacteria. So when you think about all the diets that are really healthy, like Mediterranean diet, you know, all these hot, it's always like high fiber, high plant diets.

it's because of that fiber issue. And then probiotics is awesome because they're adding friends and helpers to that milieu. And you want that. So probiotic and prebiotic foods are like some of the best things you can be feeding your gut. The other thing I always tell people is like, remember, it's not about restraining and restricting all the time. And we live in diet culture. And it's all like, don't eat this.

Don't eat that. Don't, you know, like, but if you really want to have a good gut. brain connection, you're going to start to have to add foods, actually, that you haven't been eating before to the mix. So in the book, I actually talk about like the six types of food that you should be getting every single day, one of each. Some things fall in both categories. For example, there's two categories. One's fiber and one's polyphenols. So something like blueberries, something simple, right? Blueberries are brightly colored. So they have polyphenols and they have fiber. So you got two of your food groups right there.

And then we have like, if you did like berries, nuts and a probiotic yogurt or a cottage cheese, you would get like pretty much all six foods in one breakfast. And so it's not that hard, but it really does take some intention because we haven't thought about, oh, eating for those gut bacteria. Those gut bacteria, they make dopamine and serotonin. Like they make you happy or motivated. So if you want to be more motivated in life, you should be eating more foods that help the bacteria produce more dopamine. I mean, how can I be less motivated?

I would like to take some of that type aness away. All right. Which is interesting as you get into this right now because what I'm thinking of when you were talking about this is my son as an example, illustrating everything you just said and I didn't realize it. You just connected the dots for me. During COVID, obviously, you know, any child that was isolated, sitting at home, you know, things were not good. my son was not in a good way mentally was not doing well in school. I mean, everything was like going down the tubes. And I attributed it all to the isolation and sitting in front of a computer

because he's, you know, a boy that wants to be out playing sports all day long with his friends. Cut two, though, to your point, he was not eating healthy back then, just, you know, eating like a regular kid, chicken fingers, you know, whatever, like just random eating, not a healthy kind of goal or plan. Cut two, he ended up going away to academic camp. He learned, about healthy eating by a kid that he met. You know, they were looking at TikTok videos. They follow some workout people. Now they're obsessed with it.

He comes home. He starts creating everything that you're saying. Everything is flax. Everything is blueberries. Everything is spinach and everything. It's crazy how healthy this boy eats now. What I've seen from him over the last two years, not only has he changed physically,

but this is what I didn't realize. He's so much more calm now. His grades are through the roof. He's very even. heal more so than he was before COVID. And I never thought about maybe there was an impact with food there. I just was kind of attributing it to, oh, COVID's over. He's grateful and he's, you know, he's growing up. Absolutely. That's literally why I wrote this book, because I was like, wait a second, we don't ever think about food as affecting our mood. Food creates mood. So that's

exactly my son, by the way. How old is your son? 15. So is mine. And this, same thing just happened to him. I mean, a different story, but like, it's very similar. Like, we were on a walk one day during COVID. And I was looking, I'm like, what's on your neck? And he's like, oh, I don't know, nothing. And it was like, it's like these dark patches. Like, I was like, is it itchy or ret? And he's like, no. And I'm like, oh, that's really weird. So then when I went home, I said, raise your arms. I want to see your armpits because when kids start to develop high insulin levels like pre-diabetes. Okay.

This is very common in teens and young adults because they're eating so badly. This is like in the midst of eating really poorly. So he had some darkening of his armpits, some darkening in his like neck area, like a rash. And I told him, I said, I think this is because your diet has been so poor. And this is high, it's sign of high blood sugar, like high, like pre-diabetes. kids. And he said, oh, I don't know, you know, I don't, like, that's weird. Because he thought he ate just like a normal kid and COVID. And then he happened to join a sport where all the kids, again, like you said, all the kids started to look at TikTok and see all these bodybuilders. And he sees me and my husband are

both super into fitness. And all of a sudden, he was like night and day, wanted to change his diet, it wanted to change his lifestyle, wanting to work out more. And like you said, once you started eating better, your grades get better, your motivation to work out gets better, your mood gets more even. And I was like teaching him things from the book, like little tricks. And you should teach your son too. There's like little tricks in there that I think that can even help him even more. For example, going out in sunlight, I mean, your son probably does that because you said you live

in Miami. Same with my, we live in Scottsdale. So I was like, listen, going out in sunlight not only makes you happier, but it also releases all these hormones that help you grow, help you sleep better, and also help you choose better foods throughout the day. And so it's like that sunny walk is like underrated, you know. Starting the year with a wardrobe refresh, Quince has you covered with lux essentials that feel effortless and look polished. They're perfect for layering, mixing, and building a wardrobe that lasts. Their versatile styles make it easy to reach for them day after day. Quince has all the staples covered.

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I mean, what are your thoughts on infrared? Because that's like a whole other category that's emerging due to exactly what you're talking about. Yeah, it's exactly the same. It's very similar in the sense that it kind of just accentuates that feeling of the release of the hormones. And that's why you feel, you know, good or you have a rejuvenating effect after it. So I say to people like, especially in the mornings, if you can get a little bit of sun,

even if it's two minutes, it can be really nice for the entire day, your mood and your cravings. So what are the six types of foods that you want people to focus on eating to have a healthy gut? Okay. Are you ready? We're ready. Number one, we talked about fiber. That's like, you know, the fiber and the probiotic fiber. So that's like sourcrite kimchi, but also like the fruits and veggies. Okay. So fiber, that's one that we kind of hear about all the time.

time, but this is most important for your gut health. Polyphenols, like I mentioned to you, blueberries, green tea, this is where our coffee comes in, dark chocolate. Polyphenols are delicious. Like, they're supposed to be delicious. Nature makes them delicious because they want you to consume polyphenols. Number three, omega-3 fatty acids. We hear about omega-3s a lot for our brain, but now I'm telling you that that gut brain connection, the cravings, the mood all come from those omega-3. So you want to have something with omega-3s. If you're something, if you're someone who doesn't eat fish or is vegan, you can do like algae oil. That's a good source of omega three. Number four is amino acids. Can I ask on the omega three, can you take a pill

supplement for that or no? Yeah, if you're not taking enough by, like I said, food first, and then if you're not taking enough, then yes. Number four is high amino acid food. So that's your high protein foods. Like we always like, you know, brocultures, like eat more protein, You know, the reason why they say that is because they realize what the science is saying is that a lot of our brain uses protein as a signal for fullness. And so we'll keep eating. We'll keep feeling like eating if we're not eating enough protein. And, you know, obviously people go overboard with it, but eating high amino acid foods can be really, really helpful. And then this one you like is high dopamine foods.

When you eat certain foods, berry products, nuts, berries, cherries are one. You release, help your gut release dopamine, which makes you feel good and motivated. There's a type of fiber that you want to have every day. So it's a whole different category. Glucosinolates sounds really fancy, but it's your cruciferous vegetables, like your broccoli, your cauliflower, your brussels, your bokchoy, kale. There's like a whole bunch. So if you don't like one, you can have the other.

And they have compounds in them, these sulfur compounds in them that are so beneficial, not only for anti-cancer, but also for mood and for gut bacteria, the gut bacteria actually use that special sulfur compound to create signals to the body that you are full or that you're happy and satiated. So we really want you to have glucose scintillates every single day. And so like I said, if you had a breakfast and you had probiotic cottage and you had berries and you had nuts and then maybe you had something green, either a shake or smoother or just greens. You would be done for the day with your six foods. It's not that hard. Oh my gosh. I'm so excited to hear that. Thank you for making this actually attainable.

All right. I know you've got so many great tips in the book. What is a quick sleep technique? Oh, yes. I just wrote about that on Instagram actually, so I'm fresh. Basically what happens is in the military, they realize that a lot of people, just like us, right? I don't know how you are. You're talking about all the stress in your life. But when I am stressed, I can't sleep. Like that's what, of course. You know, you can sleep when you're stressed and that throws everything off a hundred times worse. Right. Because you wake up and you're like, oh my God, I feel tired now and now I'm extra stress. So what they realized in the military is like, obviously these people were making mistakes and they were, they were like, we need to divide a way for them to fall asleep,

even in the middle of stress, even in the middle of battle. Like sometimes they would have to sleep in in the field, like standing up. There was a doctor who created a technique that actually worked so well that 97% of the military that did this trick was able to fall asleep within two minutes. So I was like, okay, this is crazy. I got to try this. So it takes some practice. It's not going to work on your first time because, as you know, our front forebrains are

so active all the time. That's the hardest part. So basically you lie down. I added some techniques of my own there that I know from the hunger and cravings things like keeping your room like pitch black and cold. Those are techniques that help you like for example in obese women. They found that women who slept the light on in on their bodies, even if their eyes were closed. They were not able to lose weight as fast as the women who slept in pitch black even though they were eating the same kind of healthy diet. So yeah, pitch black, cold room. lie down and start to relax your muscles from the top of your head, through your face, especially stopping at that jaw that we like to like keep it like really tight and locked. Go down into the chin and the neck and obviously the shoulders and the neck. That's kind of where I hold a lot of tension.

So really focus on relaxing all of these muscles all the way down to your feet. And then all you want to concentrate on is releasing that muscle. You really want to make sure that you're not. thinking about, oh, what am I having tomorrow? You know, what did I forget to do today? You want to be concentrating at the task at hand. And then you're going to clear your mind because you've already tried to clear your mind by relaxing your muscles.

You're going to further clear your mind and start to take deep breaths. You can imagine yourself on a hammock or floating on water, but you're going to take deep breaths, like an inhale and a really long exhale. You're going to do four rounds of deep breathing. And then basically I talk about. like this type of breathing where you like press your tongue on the top of your roof of your mouth and you kind of relax your whole mouth and you're doing this deep breathing. And you then repeat the relaxation, the clearing of the mind, the deep breathing to do two rounds and you're asleep.

That is incredible and I am trying it. I'm so on it. I'm someone who desperately needs to be able to fall asleep faster. So thank you so much for sharing that with us. What does the timing of your workout affect your hunger and your sleep? Okay. Yeah, this is a good one. So I think you love to work out, right? Like, I love to work out. Yeah. So, okay, when you work out in the morning, you get the all-day benefit. Your cravings and hunger are well-controlled.

You know that, I know that. If anyone who works out regularly knows that if you get it done in the morning or even if it's a tiny little mini-workout, it helps you throughout the day. So that's the morning workout. Then the pre-meal workout, so two to three hours before you work out and you eat then. And that's a really good way to help with that stomach fat. It helps you. It's known to be a really good way for weight loss.

That's eating two to three hours before the workout helps with weight loss. Working out two to three hours before your meal. Okay. Pre-meal workout. And then working out right before your meal is very good for your cravings and your appetite for that next meal that you're going to have. And so you can, all of them are good. They have different effects.

So that pre-workout of like the meal, you're going to make better choices in that meal itself. It's incredible these small tweaks that you can make that can make such a big difference. Such a big difference. And I just think that, you know, if we just realize a power of just moving, even if it's just walking, you would, I always say exercise is your best probiotic, actually. Like all these people who want the probiotic answers, exercise. does it for you. Oh, thank God I love exercise. And I feel so bad for the people

that haven't found the thing they love yet. How does your circadian rhythm affect hunger? Okay, we all live on a light and dark 24-hour sunsicle. Basically, we are sunflowers. Every living thing being on this earth, including our gut bacteria, have a circadian rhythm, meaning your genes work on day and night. What that means is like when it's daytime,

your body automatically knows this is when you're thinking, this is when you're digesting. This is when you're active. So it turns on all of those activities. And then it automatically knows when it gets signals that it's dark and that you stopped eating, that it's night and you're sleeping. And so it starts to do the repair and renewal stuff. And so when you live in accordance to circadian rhythms, your mood is better,

your weight is better, your cravings are better. You're more satisfied. You live longer. But guess what? In 2023, you can live completely opposite to. circadian rhythms. You can eat a huge meal at midnight. You can stay up all night. You can exercise, not at all, and get zero sunlight during the day. You know, like, it's possible now with Uber Eats and computers and bright lights. Circadian rhythms is one of the most underused

tools for our mood and cravings and overall health. Like, if you knew the people knew the power, like 80% of our genes work on circadian rhythms, they would, pay more attention to getting sunlight, getting darkness at night. You know, it's so huge. It's that big of an impact? Yes. It's such a huge impact. Like, it's, we don't even talk about it, right?

It's like, almost like, okay, yeah, you hear maybe anecdotally you feel better in sunlight, but nobody's ever told me like, hey, you can change your entire mood, your cravings, your well-being if you actually eat and live in accordance to the sun. because really we're meant to be animals that are living accordance to the sun. Give us an example of a regular routine in your life. Like when you wake up, when you go to sleep. So this is what I recommend to people that overnight fasting, whether or not you like to do intermittent fasting, it's fine. But you should be fasting overnight, meaning your biggest meal should not be at midnight.

You know what I mean? Some people fast where they eat really late into the night and then they, try to skip meals all day long, you know, or eat really late in the day. What I say is if you're actually trying to sink to circadian rhythm, you should stop eating, you know, shortly after sundown. Maybe you're not having a huge, your biggest meal at the end of the day. And then you let your body digest and rest. You get the darkness.

You get the fasting. You get relaxation time. Then the next morning, you get sunlight. Maybe you move for even 10, 15 minutes. And then you start eating. Think about it in thousands of years ago. They didn't just roll out of bed and have a granola bar and coffee, right? Like it was like, you know, 30, at least 16 minutes before you have your first meal.

And that's what I say, that can give you a nice overnight fast, you know, 14 hours. Like if you just did 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. or 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. Basically do as much of your activity and your food during the daylight hours. Now it's easy to say for you and me because we live in a place with good amount of daylight. But it is tricky when you live in, say, you know, Greenland or somewhere where there's very little light. And in those places, I absolutely recommend people get a happy light, which is like, on Amazon, you can get these sun lamps and just sit in front of it. And you see your mood and your cravings. And really health skyrocket. So that's where infrared comes in. That's where

light therapy comes in. You can do a lot. Just like people do like the cold and the sauna and hot. This is like the light therapy can be that restorative. Well, tell us with I'm so effing hungry, your new book, which is out now, who did you write the book for? I've run it for families like mine. I mean, your son, my son, you know, these next generations, like, I want them to know more than what we knew and what our grandparents knew. And because it's only been 80 years since our food supply has changed and that we have access to night, you know, TVs and computers. And so we live in this altered world. And I just need, I want them to know that there's these tools out there. There's these things you can do to actually make yourself happier, more motivated, feel some more satisfied,

you know, and live longer. That's the reason I wrote it. Well, thank you so much for sharing your tips. Thank you so much for writing. I'm so effing hungry. So we can empower ourselves and these next generations. Where can everybody find you and where can everyone find the book? Yeah, thank you so much, by the way. So I'm so effing hungry is out and it is available everywhere. Books are sold, Amazon, Barnes & Noble's. If you want a list and you want a bonus chapter, they can go to amymdwellness.com for slash book. So amymdwellness.com for slash book and then you can just get your book and get all the bonuses all at once. Well, we will link all of those in our show notes below. Amy, thank you so much for being here today.

I appreciate you. Thanks so much for having me. All right, guys, stay tuned. Until next week, keep creating your confidence. Come on this journey with me.