Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - MAX LUGAVERE: Dropping Everything to Combat Dementia & Being Fed Dangerous Food Misinformation

Episode Date: July 2, 2024

Max Lugavere (Genius Foods, Little Empty Boxes) joins us this week to share his unique story of leaving his career in entertainment behind to help his Mother after she was diagnosed with dementia and the passion it ignited for his exploration into modern day diet and its connection to longevity. Both of which Max dives deep into with projects like his book Genius Foods and his documentary Little Empty Boxes… 👉 Little Empty Boxes: https://littleemptyboxes.com/ 👉 Genius Foods: https://www.maxlugavere.com/book Thank you to our sponsors: ❤️ Betterhelp: https://betterhelp.com/inside __________________________________________________ 💖 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/insideofyou 👕 Inside Of You Merch: https://store.insideofyoupodcast.com/ __________________________________________________ Watch or listen to more episodes! 📺 https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/show __________________________________________________ Follow us online! 📸 Instagram: https://instagram.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🤣 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@insideofyou_podcast 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/insideofyoupodcast/ 🐦 Twitter: https://twitter.com/insideofyoupod 🌐 Website: https://www.insideofyoupodcast.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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With a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms and a weighting depth of 900 millimeters, the Defender 110 pushes what's possible. Learn more at landrover.ca. You're listening to Inside of You're listening to Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum. Ryan, good to have you with me as always. Hello.

I like the mustache. Thank you. I can't grow one. You look like Keith Hernandez in the 80s. It's the most, it's the thickest part of the facial hair that I grow. I can't grow one. I look just greasy. You say greasy or greasy?

I could see you with like a handlebar mustache, though. I could see that. Yeah, I don't think I'd be attractive. I've seen pictures of you in college too. Wasn't a little goatee hanging? Yeah, it wasn't good. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that out.

It was great. Thanks for listening to the podcast, guys. If you're here for Max Lugaver, and if I miss pronounce his name, Max, text me and smack me across the face. But I appreciate you stopping by and listening to our little podcast. And I ask you if you do enjoy it to try a few other episodes, see how you like it. I think you'll enjoy it. What are our handles, Ryan? At inside of you pod on Twitter.

Yes. Inside of you podcast on Instagram and Facebook. That's correct. And if you want to go to my Instagram at the Michael Rosenbaum, you go to the link tree and you get cameos, you can see with cons. Tom Wellie and I are going to and doing Smallville Nights. We're doing a Smallville con in October in New Jersey. We're going to Phoenix.

I'm going to Mad Monster in July. Also, the inside of you online store has Lexmascript signed, Shipkeys, Tumblr's, awesome stuff. The band, Sunspin, you could get merch and follow us. at Sunspin Band. I'd appreciate it. And we do a lot of live virtual shows. So you can just check on sunspin.com or on Linktree. And my new product, Rosie's puppy fresh breath for your dogs,

just a cap full in your dog's water, odorless, tasteless. And it works. I just bought it. I bought my own product because I couldn't do the distributor. It probably would have been more. So I bought my own product, Ryan, Rosie's puppy fresh breath on Amazon. I did. I swear to got.

Gave it to them dogs this morning. And then I kissed them. Yes. A lot of good stuff going on. I hope you guys are taking care of yourself. I've been going to therapy. It's been working. Ryan, going to therapy, keeping up with your mental health. I am. Yeah. It's important. My mom's finally in therapy. A therapist said she thinks she's really depressed. And so my mom was a little taken aback. And I'm like, it runs in the family. Go see someone. Talk to someone. You'll feel better. So she's doing that. And yeah, I was just in my grandmother's 96. birthday i was in florida and um it was just beautiful to be around her and sit on the beach with her alone and just talk and you know the memory's not there but it's still such a joy just to be in her presence it's like you know i'm 51 years old she's been in my life my entire life my entire life i've had my grandmother and i'm very lucky so uh i love you blanche blanco i named my dog after you I know that seems weird, but you're an amazing woman, and I really appreciate you.

Also, please join patreon.com slash inside of you to support the podcast. Could not do this without you. If you're liking the podcast, you want to get back, please go to patreon.com slash inside of you. And why don't we just do this? Why don't we get inside? This is a really interesting interview. Max Lugavere, he did this documentary, documented his month. going through dementia and it's it's heartbreaking but it's inspirational and it's it's uh

it's just you learn a lot i learned a lot and um he was very brave for doing this and the story is pretty remarkable i think you're going to really enjoy this thanks for coming on max let's get inside of max lugaver it's my point of you you're listening to inside of you with michael Rosenbaum Inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum Was not recorded in front of a live studio audience The reason I had you on the podcast Because our mutual friend Kristen Ritter

Was just talk so highly of you And she was like, you have to have Max on the podcast And I said, who's Max? But I don't know a lot of people Like people will say names and they're like How do you not know this person? And then I look, of course, you have over a million followers. So you have more followers than I do.

So more people know you than they know me. I wouldn't say that. I just, I feel like I hit a very specific niche, you know. Was it inadvertent? Yeah, I mean, I never would have anticipated that I'd be doing what it is that I'm doing, particularly at the scale that I'm doing it. But I'm very grateful because, you know, it, I feel like all of my, my passions, my interests, my skills are aligned.

And at the end of the day, I'm, I feel strongly that I'm impacting people, that I'm, that I'm reducing to some degree suffering in the world, which is, you know, like, what's better than that? But you never anticipated, like, if you rewind to a younger max, the younger days, was it like, you know, it's like, oh, I want to do something, work with health and, and nutrition and do all these things and write a book, genius foods, New Times bestseller. have a podcast and the genius life, right? And do a documentary, a little empty boxes. And I mean, did you ever think like when you're in high school or even, did you go to college? I went to college. Yeah, I went to University of Miami.

University of Miami. I mean, what were you thinking you were going to do? Yeah. I mean, for me, it was, I always felt like a, like a square peg trying to fit myself into a round hole, particularly in the context of like, you know, academia, traditional Western schooling. My grades were never that great in high school and in college. And I've always had a lot of different interests. It was really difficult for me actually to boil the essence of who I felt I was down to one particular thing and then focus on that thing in academia. And I think

I've always also had to some degree subclinical ADD. Like I've always really thrived on novelty and like getting me to sit still. You're talking to Mr. ADHD. Yeah. You could ask anybody who whoever has known me, every therapist I've talked to, it's, yeah, it's, yeah. And it was hard for me to sort of just focus and figure out what. I mean, acting was sort of like, you know, you got all those things where it was like, you get attention. And I didn't get that as a kid. So this is great. And, you know, I felt like, oh, wow, people were paying attention to you. They think you're good at something. I, that's, I kind of stumbled on that. And I just kept going with it. And I didn't even really know how much I enjoyed it, but I knew that I guess I was getting good at it and people

like me doing that. So, but anyway, I can totally relate. Yeah, I mean, I didn't get, you know, growing up, I was an introvert. I gravitated more to computers and the internet, like the nascent internet at the time. The nascent? Nacent, like the, the, the burgeoning internet. Is that what the word means? Yeah, I went to Western Kentucky University. Nacent wasn't a word we used. No, definitely an SAT word. But, and I did do fairly well on my SATs, if I recall, correct. I'm guessing like a 1380. It was around there. That's pretty good.

I didn't get that. But my grades were not good. My GPA was never great. And so I started college with the intention of going into medicine. But I actually, and you'll appreciate this, I sat in on a, at University of Miami, an introductory to film filmmaking course. Nice. Yeah.

And I just was seduced by Hollywood and storytelling. And I ended up switching out of the pre-med track to a double major in film and psychology. Wow. Yeah. And so now full circle, you know, 20-something years later, I'm releasing my first film, this documentary, a little empty boxes. But, yeah, I've always had this passion for health and nutrition and wellness. And it was primarily something that I was interested in for vanity reasons because, you know. Me too.

Yeah. And when my mom became sick, so the documentary is about the journey of, you know, my mom. Kathy. Kathy, who was at a very young age diagnosed with a rare form of dementia called Louie Body Dementia, which is actually what Robin Williams had. And it's a really difficult disease. And when my mom, at the onset of her symptoms, when my mom was first diagnosed, that's when my interest in science and biology and health came full circle. But instead of being about me, it was about the person who I loved most in the world. How could this have happened to somebody at such a young age,

somebody who was, by and large, a person who anybody would have described as a health conscious person. And nonetheless, she, you know, at the age of 58, was succumbing to this awful condition. And, you know, I figure that there had to have been something in her diet, lifestyle environment that triggered it. And I'll never know for sure what triggered it, of course. But that's really what ignited this investigation that will continue to the rest of my life. So you, if your mom wasn't diagnosed with this dementia, yeah. And she was healthy and lived on and had no problems. What road do you think you would have taken?

Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, I got really lucky. So out of college, I got this incredible job working for Al Gore. Wow. Yeah. Was he a nice guy? He was a nice guy. Yeah.

Yeah. And I don't know if you remember this, but there was a TV network in the U.S. called Current TV. Yep. Okay. So I was one of the main faces of current TV. I was one of the main on-air journalists. presenters for that network. Yeah. I got that job just like upon graduation. So a dream gig. And,

and that kind of launched this career where I got, you know, I moved out to L.A. I was, you know, on TV from one day to the next. You're making money. Not really. I was, they paid me like a $30,000 a year salary. But it was incredible. I would have done it for free. Yeah, you loved it. I loved it. Yeah. And so I was somebody who was like just out of college. I would roll. out of bed like in a t-shirt onto set and I got to talk about really cool shit every single day to a dream job dream job so I was like a journalist but I was a journalist you know with like bedhead and a t-shirt and you know and I was like not making a lot of money I had this like really prestigious stuff I wasn't famous I mean I was famous to like the niche dozen or so people that

watched current TV right you know but like um but yeah it was uh it was really a job that I felt was ultimately about making the world a better place and and I love that I got to I got to use my creative muscles I got to learn about storytelling about journalism um you know for this job which was to me so like highbrow uh but yeah and then that that ended and I went through a bit of a lull where I actually didn't know what I was going to do next I felt kind of like um you know because I suddenly found myself in Hollywood without a job and there's nothing more depressing than that. Yeah. And where do you go from, from like that current TV gig, right? Where you're like at the end of the day, every day you're creating content that's like really

that you feel is very important. And then suddenly you're, you know, I found myself going up for like hosting jobs to like host these like music shows, which of course I was never going to get because the same jobs that I was going up for. Nick Cannon and all these other guys were going up for as well. Right. And, and so it left me in a place where I was, you know, at times, regretting my decision to not go into medicine, you know, because I was like, I had deferred adulthood, essentially, because I had this amazing job for six years, and then I was, like, unemployed. And so that was a really dark and depressing time professionally for me. And then in my personal life, it was like fuel on the fire when my mom got sick. What was the first sign that you

noticed something was wrong? Because people forget things. People, you know, I'll think I have Alzheimer's every day, you know, but also my grandfather. father died of it my grandmother died of it so that does sort of resonate but i i think um you know i i remember my grandfather there were certain things when i saw him uh the first time i when i noticed i went up to the mountains and he never got upset and he wrote he came out of his room and he's like where's the key where's where's the key to to the to the pool to the pool area because it was like a bungalow colony and everybody had a key and we're like this key needs to be on the on the hook it needs to be on the hook why is it and like all of us were like irv it's it's okay

we we have the key we have the key and he just and then he caught himself it was something so small and he just was confused and then he went back and that was the first time i noticed something was off and then he slowly started repeating himself and doing things but what were signs that you started to go fuck something's not right yeah i mean the thing the thing about dementia is that once you've seen one case of dementia you've seen one case of dementia they're all a little bit different and um my mom's condition in particular isn't what was never really typical in the sense that, you know, I would read all these anecdotes online of people with, you know, with loved ones with Alzheimer's disease, with other forms of dementia. And they were never,

it was never perfectly relatable. So I felt very isolated, actually. For my mom, she began complaining of brain fog, which at first I thought was just par for the course of getting older. I thought that was just like, you know, my mom's now. We all get it. We all get it, you know. And I had never, I had not had any, you know, my, my maternal grandmother. So my mom's mom was in her 90s at the time and cognitively healthy. So the idea that my mom could have had this quote unquote old person's disease when her mom was totally cognitively normal, it was just like, that wasn't even on my radar. Right. But she continued to complain about it when I would call her from L.A. and ultimately it wasn't until we had taken a family trip to Miami.

2011. Yeah, it was like around 2011 where my mom, we were all in my dad's living room. So my parents had been divorced, but they were still amicable. And we took this a family trip where me and my brothers and my mom went down to visit my dad. And we were all standing in my dad's. And we were in his living room, but open floor plan. My mom was in the kitchen. And she was like talking to the family. And she finally confessed that she had sought the help of a neurologist. And that was pretty odd, you know, to seek the help from a neurologist. just in and of itself. And she wasn't someone who complained or went and saw doctors all the time. No, no, no, no. So that was a little bit like, whoa. You took a step like that. Something's. Yeah.

Right. Yeah. Although, you know, I think like I grew up in a family of all boys. So it was me, my dad, my two younger brothers. And like there's a lot of, you know, when you grow up in a family of all boys, like, women, you know, women have other health needs, you know, as compared to men. So, you know, they're menopause, right? for example particularly at that age so there there is a big sort of it's a bit it can be a bit

mysterious you know like watching a parent but like your your mother for example when you're not of that gender like i don't know it's just my own ignorance you know it is it's an ignorance and it's sort of just like i i think i do that too with my mom i'm like oh you're fine stop you're always like this this is you're always worrying about this and that you forget everybody forgets everything you just kind of ignore it because you just don't think that that you think it's something else yeah it's yeah yeah and also and I think that that's reflected in medicine at large I mean one and two one and four women over the age of 40 are now on some kind of antidepressant drug you know and there's like been this long stereotype of the hysterical woman and you know

there's like these deeper issues in science and nutrition like you know usually all the studies are you know involve men as the primary subject like women are women tend to be ignored you know and certainly I was in the dark about about women's health. And that's actually one of the reasons why on my podcast, we do focus a lot on women's health issues because I think it's an important topic, but I digress. So anyway, my mom confessed at that point that she, you know, her brain fog was serious to the point that she had sought the help of a neurologist. And me and my brothers were, you know, we essentially thought my mom was trolling us. And so we started to ask her these pointed questions like, well, if you're having such

difficulty like we're testing her what you know what's what month is it and she couldn't recall the month she couldn't tell us what month it was wow which is you think she was like come on mom are you serious yeah yeah no we thought she was we thought she was she was messing with us yeah but then she broke down and she started to cry and that's when I knew that things were really serious and or at least more serious than I had thought previously and it took a couple of months but ultimately I ended up wrapping up my life in L.A. I moved back to New York, and I started going with her to doctor's appointments. And that's when I saw that things were really a lot more serious than I had previously thought.

When was your first? Because I think you go, tell me if I'm wrong, but I guess you go into sort of a denial or when there's an emergency, when something happens, you step up and you start. But at some point, there has to be something that clicks where you break down a little bit. It does hit you. It does affect you where you're not in fight or flight and you're not trying to, okay, I got to save her. I got to take her the appointments. I got to make her happy. Did you were you?

And I felt like with my grandfather through his five plus years of Alzheimer's that I was mourning him. It was almost every time I saw him. It was slowly, I was in my own way mourning him. So by the time he ended up passing away, I was not to say okay with it, but I, I was more accepting and I was like, why am I not hysterical? He's my best friend. He's like, he's like, my dad. What am I?

You know, and then, you know, my therapist was telling me it's like, you've been mourning. You've been in mourning through all these years. So, yeah, I know. That was a lot to throw out you. No, no. It's, uh, but when did you break down? I mean, was there a breakdown moment or? Yeah, there will.

I mean, one to, so I mean, this is again, what has inspired and continues to inspire so much of my work is that, you know, I grew up in New York City and in New York, we're very privileged. We have access to cathedrals to modern medical insight, right? I mean, my mom lived across the street from NYU Langone, which is like one of the top medical centers in New York. And going with her from doctor's appointment to doctor's appointment, I experienced what I've come to call diagnose and adios, essentially. I mean, today you get, if you get 15 minutes with a primary care physician, like you're lucky. Their light turns on. It's time for the next patient. Exactly. And I get it. I mean, doctors are human and they're under the constraints of the, you know, of, of the insurance system. And they've just, you know, like, it's a business for them as well, obviously. But from the standpoint of like patient care, that can be incredibly frustrating. And because my mom's symptoms were atypical, we ultimately had to book a trip to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. And so I just just imagine that, the desperation that you.

You would feel like living in New York City where you have access to, I mean, at arm's reach, you know. So they weren't doing enough you felt. So you had to go to Cleveland. We didn't have a, we didn't even have a diagnosis. Like my mom's physicians thought that these were all just a manifestation of depression. So there's actually something called pseudo dementia where, you know, if you're, if you're, sometimes people who are clinically depressed will actually exhibit symptoms that might look like dementia. But once you tend to the depression, those symptoms clear up. So my mom's case, and this is why that. whole thing about one and four women over 40 being, you know, on an antidepressant drug is like

actually really shocking and really kind of upsetting. They thought that my mom's symptoms were ultimately just her being, you know, just a symptoms of depression. Right. And so, but we knew that there was something deeper at play. And so unsatisfied with that, that idea that it was just depression, we ended up booking a trip to the Cleveland Clinic, which is known for taking on these really complex medical cases. You know, you present, they build a team around the typically is what is, you know, what we understood at the time. And we ended up, you know, booking a trip out there. And it was there that for the first time she was diagnosed with a neurodegenerative condition. So she was prescribed in that trip for the first time

drugs for both Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. And so I didn't know anything about either condition. Googling those drugs later on that night in the holiday inn that we were staying at, for the first time in my life, I had had a panic attack. And, um, and that was, was the moment really for me that like everything it was sort of like the you know the record stopping at the rave like for me everything changed you know like my career things that i've been passionate about even relationships like everything kind of you know from one minute to the next was put on the back burner and i just became obsessed with trying to understand everything i possibly could about you know it's crazy i was watching the documentary and i and i love it i truly

loved it uh it was it's heartbreaking it's educational and it really you It's like almost sometimes the camera shots stay with your mom or you for extra beats. It's not quick cutting. It's like really getting inside of what's going on with your mom, with Kathy, with you. And it was sometimes difficult to watch. But it gave me an understanding of, you know, wow, this is, if anything, this is what people, it helps you understand. and what to expect and everything every case is different but it um i applaud you for that i thought it was really amazing and one of the parts of the documentary is you're talking with your publicist

early on and she's like well what are you going to do because your career is kind of starting to take off and you got a lot of things going on and you just made a decision to stop everything and take care of your mom right uh how difficult was that decision to make because at this point you could have uh is the right word delegated or whatever to like your brother or yeah someone else or and you're like i'm going to take the reins i'm going to i'm going to do this and i have to put everything on the side right now even though things are starting to happen for me i'm i've decided to do this yeah no i mean i'm glad that scene resonated because i mean that was an important part of the journey for me. I mean, I was in my late 20s. So, I mean, that's like a pivotal point in

your life, you know, particularly as you're trying to, you know, make sense of this career that essentially I was given, you know, post-college. And I had all these opportunities, but, you know, I wasn't fully satisfied with the opportunities that were coming my way. But nonetheless, I was in L.A. and I felt really proud that I had built this life for myself and all my best friends were in LA and I had a relationship in LA and um but ultimately I did have to put it all kind of on pause to go to go back to New York I couldn't just delegate to my brothers because you know I'm the first born in my family and so I had always had this incredibly close relationship with my mom and for anybody with siblings you know anybody will will recognize that

like within the family unit you everybody has kind of like a different role you know like I'm the creative person. I've always had a, you know, a passion for health. It's just something that I've always really loved. And, um, and I was an investigator of sorts having been a journalist, so I knew how to ask questions. Yeah. My little brothers, you know, they had more traditional jobs and they were, you know, working these nine to fives in New York. They're younger than me. So they were at, you know, they were really busy and, and, um, and also they didn't necessarily have the, the skill set or the wherewithal to, to deal with this. problem the way that it knelt the way that i knew that it needed to be dealt with um and you stayed

with her i moved back to new york and i stayed with her you stayed in her house yeah at the beginning yeah well i was also unemployed and so it was a way for me to both be as close as possible to my mom and for me to cut costs enough so that i could really focus on what was going on with her without the constraints of having to worry about like paying my rent or like any of that other stuff you know yeah because i mentioned like i it was this weird juxtaposition like i had had all this press, I was on TV, I was, I did this thing that, like, I had a ton of respect for within the industry and, and, you know, and outside of the industry, you know, I was like, riding high on this, like, really cool wave of having come off this, like, Al Gore project and whatever,

but as much buzz and notoriety as I had achieved through this job, I wasn't, it didn't leave me wealthy because I wasn't, I was like underpaid and I wasn't famous enough for it to have, you know, parlayed into some like next step, you know, in any, in any, um, in any, like logical way, you know, I had to like, I recognize I had to really like start to figure out like what it was that I wanted to do to do next. And that was a really frustrating time. Yeah. You know, because I was like given this like incredible Hollywood opportunity and it was certainly fun and I certainly enjoyed it. But there was like nothing else like it, you know, like there are. And also like ultimately YouTube kind of eclipsed what we were trying to do at current TV, which was ultimately

to empower citizen journalists and to help people tell important stories that weren't being told and um and youtube eclipsed what the network sought to do but yeah within like there was nothing else in hollywood to you know that that i felt like was going to like scratch that itch right was going to allow me to continue to tell important stories do it in a way that was cool and entertaining but also like mission driven and so i felt you know fairly hopeless and um And there was a bit of, I guess, resignation. I had to ultimately resign from that and just go all in on trying to understand what was going on with my mom. Inside of you is brought to you by Rocket Money.

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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Download the Rocket Money app and enter my show name inside of you with Michael Rosenbaum in the survey so they know that I sent you. Don't wait. Download the Rocket Money app today and tell them you heard about them from my show. yeah did you you know i think about this because in the documentary it's really about her and then there's there's moments where you see like how it affects you which is is so important but uh we don't get to see those moments that the camera's not on you or you're thinking in your bed or you're just overwhelmed that overwhelming feeling of taking care of someone and seeing them deteriorate and not being able to do anything about it and um did it get did you

catch yourself being were you ever short with her or ever just anxious or totally or just like almost like and you didn't mean so and then you feel guilty and you know it's just so frustrating did you pick up on that yeah yeah no i did pick up on that but but not but you were very you were stoic and you were so reserve it see i if you would have filmed me it'd been like come on yeah fuck i'm sorry you know i'm kind of like you know uh i have a different relationship with my mother though so it would have been it would have been it would have been a different relationship and i you know and she has my stepdad who lives there and it would have i would have gone they would have had to treat me because i i couldn't have handled it i don't think i really commend you for putting a pause on

taking care of your mother and because I honestly don't think I could do that. I mean, I would do everything I could to help her, but to move in with my mother to, I just don't think I have it in me. Yeah, no. It's, to be honest. No, I get it. I get it. Well, you know, I don't, looking back, like, it doesn't feel like I was doing anything particularly heroic. I just, you know, she was the most important person in my life and I loved her dearly. And, But there are moments in the film that are hard for me to watch because I do detect in my own voice an impatience and a frustration. And I think that's we decided to leave those scenes in, even though they're hard for me to watch. Yeah.

I wish I could go back in time and be like, Max, chill the fuck out. This is not, this isn't a test run. You know, she's not, she's not trolling you. This is not a joke. Right. But, but ultimately, I mean, that is the experience of the caregiver. You know, it can be incredibly frustrating. And you can, you know, you do end up feeling incredibly alienated because it's just, it's such a hard pill to swallow.

I mean, there's like an incredulousness to, you know, the person who you love most in the world. And particularly, you know, my mom was a, she was an entrepreneur. My mom ran a business with my dad and she raised two, you know, three boys and was always like a really, she was a new yorker, you know, she was a fast walking, fast talking. I loved her. I didn't know your mother, but in this hour and a half documentary, I just, I just, I love. her i loved her i just she was just i think what you see is what you get with her and she would tell you how she felt i'm scared i don't want you know when she says i don't want to die and i you know um why is this happening and it's it's heartbreaking and it's so real and so raw and it's just like i i don't

know it it did blow me away but what i want i do want to ask you is you know you went on to write in New York Times bestselling book, Genius Foods. And in the documentary, you start introducing your mother to certain foods that explain that like certain, I mean, while you're living with her, you're researching all this stuff, right? Like, maybe this will help. Maybe it's blueberries. Maybe it's this.

And the outcome over, you know, overall was not good. She ended up passing away. There was nothing you could do to save her. but do you think that the diet and the things that you were incorporating into her life did give her more years or more time? I do think so. I mean, that's an anecdote, you know, like, so take it, take it with a grain of salt. But one of the things that, there were a few things that I discovered really early on that

were the, you know, aside from just trying to memorialize and pay tribute to what it was that, you know, my mom was going through, somebody. who, you know, and utilizing my skills as a filmmaker, not a medical doctor, not an academic scientist, right, that really were the, stood as the call to action for me to get this, to do what I could to get this sort of, you know, these insights, this topic out to a larger audience. And one is that, you know, particularly at the time in which I decided to undertake this project, like most people were unaware that diet could affect the brain in any capacity. And there's still critics. Of course. That will sit here and say, oh, well, you know, you're not a scientist. You don't know, you know, and that's why you say take it with a grain of salt, but it's your belief. And you wrote a book, Dr. Oz, you know, Greasy deal.

A lot of people agree with you. There's always online. You can go anywhere and say, oh, I should be eating this. Oh, I shouldn't be eating this. Oh, I should do this. I shouldn't. I don't know what the fuck to do anymore because there's so many opinions on it. Yeah.

So, yeah, no. I mean, so I'm now, you know, fully immersed in the, in the nutrition world. and there is a lot of controversy and polarity as there is with pretty much every topic today. So you have to be kind of, you know, you have to approach anything today knowing that, you know, there are always going to be counter voices and counter opinions to essentially whatever it is that you say, right? I mean, there are people that hate pizza. There are people that hate Disney World. You know what I'm saying?

So how dare them. How dare that. I fucking love Disney World. Yeah. And so, yeah, I wasn't like a huge Oppenheimer fan. But like, obviously, that was an incredible movie. right you know um so it's like i thought it was a really good movie i didn't think it was mind bending yeah i was like okay a lot of talking yeah a lot of i want to see more explosions it was like

watching a play yeah yeah yeah i agree we can get into that no but i mean no hey like you know obviously it's a it's a it's a it's a magnificent work and it's like objectively there are things that are incredible about the film but everybody's going to have an opinion today agreed and that's fine that's great but um part of what i what I think is my mission to do is to help people better be able to separate fact from fiction with regard to nutrition because we're being, we're fed a lot of different truths and mistruths and half truths about what it means to eat healthily today. And I think that my mom was in many ways victim to a lot of that misinformation, particularly because she didn't have access

to the internet. So everything that she believed to be true about healthy eating, a healthy lifestyle, she was she was she gleaned essentially from you know magazines and and mainstream media and things like that um so yeah i do you know i we do have agency when it comes to our brain health and diet is one part of the puzzle there's also you know myriad lifestyle factors exercise exercise sleep stress stress mitigation, all that stuff. Most people think of dementia as being a genetic condition or something that's like predetermined by your genes, and that's not true for the vast majority of cases. Only about 1 to 2% of Alzheimer's cases, for example, are attributable to a deterministic gene.

The vast majority are sporadic, meaning they're, you know, they're influenced to some degree by the environment. many people consider it an old person's condition a natural aspect of aging those are all myths yes and so you know I think one of the things that I achieved with my mom was by was getting her on an exercise program and we know that exercise I saw that in a documentary and it was it was wonderful and I could see how much she enjoyed it I mean it was really nice to see that yeah I mean exercise is medicine when it comes to the brain I mean it's that we almost have like a prescriptive level of evidence now. So if you care about your brain and you're not exercising, I mean, there's a,

there's a bit of cognitive dissonance there. And we know now that exercise is crucial. It promotes growth factors in the brain that support the survival of your neurons. It promotes the growth of new neurons, brain cells, lifts your mood. I mean, it's incredible for hormonal health, for, you know, promoting insulin sensitivity, keeping your blood sugar balanced and stable and reducing high blood pressure. So yeah, so I did get her on an exercise program. And I think that that might have to some degree slowed the progression of her of her illness we also you know we address diet in the film because diet is is important yeah what was it that you were giving her that one thing cough what was it kimchi kimchi kimchi yeah kimchi is amazing do you still have use kimchi

I use it all the time fermented foods all the time fermented foods are incredible for you kimchi is one example of a fermented food it's a Korean dish it's rich in probiotics there are some studies that show that fermented foods are great for reducing inflammation in the for supporting diversity of the gut microbiome, which we're starting to see plays a role in systemic health, brain health included. And it's good. It tastes great.

Yeah. I could see your mom liked it. Yeah. I love it. I mean, it's spicy. It's tasty. My mom. You ever have kimchi, Ryan?

Okay. He nodded. It's good stuff. Yeah. It's, I mean, it could be spicy. You know, it's not for everybody, but, you know, it's definitely good for you. Are blueberries really good for you? Blueberries, there is some evidence that blueberries are a brain food.

Yeah, the anthocyanin, so the blue pigments in blueberries we have seen actually accumulates in the memory center of the brain where they can help to reduce oxidative stress. Some studies show that people who regularly eat blueberries, like a serving or two a week, have brains that are about two to two and a half years younger. What about they say a cup of blueberries a day? Yeah, I don't think you need to eat a cup a day. blueberries are also expensive, you know, so they're cost prohibitive to many people, but they are very good for you. They're a low sugar fruit and those anthocyanids, those blue pigments. Pigments in general, so this is another, I think, one of the mechanisms underlying

that adage to eat the rainbow, plant pigments are really good for the brain. So carotenoids like lutein and ziazanthin, we know that these are really beneficial to eye health so they can help prevent age-related macular degeneration. But we are now starting to understand that the eyes are not just an extent. of the brain, your eyes are part of the brain, and these same compounds actually accumulate in the brain where they seem to promote cognitive health. So dark leafy greens, you know, a great example of a potent source of these carotenoid compounds. And you talk about all this in Genius Foods, your book. Yeah, I talk about all this in Genius Foods. It's like a nutritional

care manual to the brain. And the documentary is like the origin story. So I didn't know anything about anything. You know, filming that film that really documents, I think, in many ways. the, you know, initiating this investigation that culminates in, you know, a book that I wrote that came out in 2018 called Genius Foods, which is, has like everything you need to know about how to eat for optimal brain health. Right. I just get, I think people get overwhelmed when there's like, oh, there's this and there's this and you should eat this and this and you should take magnesium and you should take this and then it's just like, it's too much. Can't you just give me a regimen of something simpler? Like, what should I have every day in my diet? Like, is it okay

to eat eggs, I like eggs. Yeah, eggs are great. I love hard-boiled eggs and some fruit for lunch. Perfect. I love a steak and some, is rice good for you? Yeah. Well, rice is not the most nutrient-dense food. So there's no, you know, grains are optional. You know, there's no such thing as an essential carbohydrate. But if you're exercising regularly, like, you, you know, you obviously need to consume energy. Like, our brains and bodies need energy. And glucose is the preferred fuel source. of the brain. And rice can be beneficial as a means of, you know, supporting your exercise. For example, we know that carbohydrates, glucose, important for healthy thyroid function, for hormone production and things like that. So I wouldn't call rice an essential food, but steak is great. Steak is great. I'm actually, you know, I think one of the more controversial viewpoints that I have is that I'm a big advocate of omnivory. And I think that consuming grass fed red meat, I think red meat is a health food. Now, my friend Shira will get very upset because she's a vegan. And I know you say that

veganism, you know, you have your theories on that. And explain to me, like, how you feel about that. Yeah. So, you know, a well-planned plant-based diet is obviously going to be way better than the standard American diet, which is now comprised of upwards of 60% ultra-processed foods. So my high-level take home for anybody listening is you want to reduce your consumption of ultra-processed foods. Like, Or get rid of them. Yeah, get rid of them altogether. Or, you know, that might be improbable today in today's, you know, standard food environment, which now 73% of items at your average supermarket are ultra processed.

So, you know, and it's fine to indulge every now and then and have what I call fun foods, you know. I mean, like, you don't have to be perfect. No single food is going to sway your health in any direction, you know, away from. Unless you eat it every day. Unless you're eating it every single day. And by the way, when you go to the deli in a supermarket and you say, I'd like, like a half a pound of chicken breast. That's processed, right?

Well, there's a distinction that people need to know between processed foods and ultra processed foods. So, yeah, when you slice chicken, you're processing it to some degree. When you blend up blueberries in a smoothie, you're processing those blueberries. But it's not that we, that's not what we need to worry about. It's the foods that you couldn't possibly make in your own kitchen if you tried. Those are the ultra processed foods. Like baloney.

Yeah. Or a hot dog. Yeah, you want to avoid those. Right. Yeah, you want to avoid the ultra-processed foods to the best of your ability. But steak, you were talking about vegans. Yeah, you're talking about vegans and plant-based, right? Yeah, so, you know, I think that a strictly plant-based diet is essentially depriving the brain of nutrients that we know are important.

And, you know, we don't have all the data here, but we do know that the human brain evolved in many ways with access to the nutrients that are found in animal source foods. We know that red meat is a rich source. of, for example, a compound called creatine, which supports brain health and brain function. You can easily supplement with creatine, but I don't know how many, you know, vegans and vegetarians are actively doing that. And there's a whole swath of nutrients that might not necessarily be essential that are found in animal source foods, but that might be conditionally essential. For example, glycine is a conditionally essential amino acid that's found in collagenous tissue. And animal source foods are, by and large, the most

high-quality sources of protein available. And when you consume more protein, you're supporting your musculature, which becomes incredibly important as you get older. You know, fighting off frailty is a, I think, should be mission critical for aging well today, particularly in the Western world, consuming high quality, especially if you under-eat protein, as many older adults do, protein quality becomes crucially important. Now, if you're consuming enough protein, protein quality doesn't seem to matter so much, but that's going to entail utilizing protein supplements as a person on a plant-based diet.

You've got to use protein supplements. Can you eat a steak a day if you wanted? I eat meat every single day. Every day. Yeah. And is a certain type? Is it grass fed? I try to go for grass fed, but if I... Where can you get grass fed meat? You go to like whole foods? Yeah, you can get it. I mean, yeah, but, you know, obviously we live in Los Angeles, so we're very privileged, right? I think that if you don't have access to grass fed, then just reach for leaner cuts. You know, leaner cuts, because what a cow eats influences primarily what a pro wants what a cow eats all right commercial just pisses me off i don't understand what is that what's that a car you haven't seen that commercial or those two guys two guys from the oklahoma city thunder and they're they're rapping there what a pro wants

don't don't get me started but so lean or meat like what kind of steak i mean tenderloin top sir loin not new york steak new york is a lean is a lean it's lean yeah yeah because what a cow eats influences primarily what's in its fat, right? So a cow that is grain finished, which is the standard, you know, conventionally produced beef in this country, is going to have a higher proportion of saturated fat. Within its saturated fat, it's going to have a lower proportion of stearic acid, which is actually neutral from a cardiovascular standpoint. It's going to have a lot more omega-6 fatty acids, linoleic acid, for example. And also, people don't realize this, but the fat of a grass-fed, of a grass-fed, grass-finished cow actually is a significant source of

phytochemicals. So these are plant chemicals that a cow ingests that accumulates in its fat tissue, which also has benefit, you know, like carotenoids, like these plant pigments that we know, again, are beneficial from the standpoint of brain health. You see higher levels in grass-fed, grass-finished cows and a lot lower concentration in grass-fed. Most cows are actually, they start their lives on grass and then they're grain-finished. to fatten them up. And that's where you start to see problems. And also we evolved on eating red meat that was a lot leaner. Like a conventionally, a cow is a man-made creation, and it's a lot fattier than wild game. And a conventionally produced cow is a lot fattier than its grass-fade

counterparts. So I do think that there's an argument to be made for leaner meat. And that's what the evidence also like backs up as well. Like lean red meat seems to be. What do you eat every day? like what is what does max have for breakfast do you fast not really um do you agree with that like i try not to eat till like two o'clock in the afternoon i i don't agree with that i used to this is an area where i've i've changed my thinking as new data has come out um i think it's actually important mark walberg's doing it yeah well it's a i mean he's pretty jacked he's he's jacked he's pretty jacked um but no i think i think breaking your morning your overnight fast with a good high quality source of protein soon after you wake up at a half an hour to an hour after you wake up so

hard boiled eggs yeah i think that's great i think that's every day if you just have a couple hard boiled eggs to get going yeah there's no downside to consuming dietary cholesterol from a cardiovascular standpoint most people dietary cholesterol is actually not that bioavailable unless you're a hyper absorber of cholesterol which is a minority of people but generally there's very little impact with regard to blood cholesterol as a result of consuming cholesterol from eggs. And eggs are a, you know, even whole eggs are low. They don't have a lot of saturated vet or anything like that. So they're great.

They're fantastic. And I think from a muscle maintenance standpoint, yeah, you do want to consume protein soon after waking up. We also, there's this growing field of science called circadian biology, which looks at how, you know, how certain processes in our body are sort of oriented to what time of day it is. And we're generally meant to eat during the day and not too late at night. So I'll eat, you know, my first meal half an hour to an hour after waking up. And then I'll try to not eat for two to three hours before bed.

And that's generally. Oh, wait. So you'll just eat in the morning and then you'll wait? Yeah, I try not to eat too close to, too close to bedtime. No, but you'll have lunch. Will you have lunch and then dinner? Of course, yeah. I'm eating, yeah.

Generally, like every three to four hours, I'm trying to ingest some high quality source of protein. because you generally you want to so getting into protein protein is really important it supports muscle protein synthesis we're getting like the nutrition weeds here but generally you want to consume about 1.6 times your weight in kilograms every single day in protein and so i weigh 180 175 180 yeah so doing the math you want to probably ingest around 130 grams of protein and what does a steak usually have a lean steak how many 40 45 grams if not more. That's a lot of protein eating in the day, though. But if you ate like three or four eggs, a steak, and a breast of chicken, you should be all right. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, 30 to 40 grams of protein every meal four times a day. That's generally optimal.

That's what the research says is like the RDA for protein is 0.8 grams per kilogram of body weight. And we know that that's sufficient to avert protein deficiency, but it's not optimal from the standpoint of metabolic health and muscle maintenance and supporting muscle growth, ultimately. which becomes increasingly difficult as you get older. So what the evidence suggests is you want to get about 1.6 grams per kilogram of your quote unquote ideal weight or put in terms of pounds about 0.72 times your, so take your weight. If you're overweight, you can use your ideal weight, which is a rough estimate of your lean mass. And you want to multiply that by 0.72. And that's generally how much protein in grams you want to get on a daily basis.

And you could divide that up between three or four meals. however many meals you know enjoy but you should eat two or three hours before bed and look the one snack that I cannot stop eating is popcorn I pop it myself olive oil no butter but that's I do it like four times a week that's okay popcorn's fine it's actually a very I thought corn is not good for you no it's fine it's a it's a first of all it's a whole grain so it's it actually is uh you know even the most orthodox in the nutrition world will say that popcorn is actually okay provided you're not adding a bunch of other

additives to it but it's a I think most importantly it's a very high volume food so you could eat a lot of it. It's fairly satiating and it doesn't have much of a caloric contribution. I mean you could eat like literally four cups of popcorn. It's like 110 calories or something like that. There's fiber in it. It's fine. I'm not going to say it's essential or that it's a health food but it's totally okay. Wow, He just said I could eat popcorn as much as I won't well and olive oil is great if you're putting

I do my friends say you know they say I forgot what it is but olive oil is it gets at the highest heat isn't it like the most what's the word smoke point yeah smoke point yeah is it's kind of dangerous when you're using it it's not dangerous so it doesn't it some of the benefits are negated when you heat it to high temperatures but extra virgin olive oil has very high oxidative stability. It's very chemically stable. If you go to the Mediterranean region of the world, I mean, they're cooking with it. They don't use any of these highly marketed cooking oils that you see on TV, right? They're using extra virgin olive oil. It's got a ton of antioxidants in it, polyphenol compounds that serve to protect the oil from that, you know, these oxidative processes

that are accelerated when exposed to heat. Most extra virgin olive oil is primarily mono unsaturated fat, which is very chemically stable, and about 14 to 15% saturated fat, which is the most chemically stable. So it's fine. It's fine to cook with. It's actually a big mess. You know a lot. Bombas makes the most comfortable socks, underwear, and T-shirts. Warning, bombus are so absurdly comfortable you may throw out all your other clothes. Sorry, do we legally have to say that? No, this is just how I talk, and I really love my bombas. They do feel that good. And they do good, too. One item purchased equals one item donated. To feel good and do good, go to bombus.com, and use code audio for 20% off your first purchase.

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and get enough points for a free donut, drink, or timbets. With 800 points after registration, activation and first purchase of a dollar or more see the tims out for details at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time i mean from 2011 when you started really researching this it's been over 10 years but it's not we're not talking but you have immersed yourself into this really at the starting point was when your mother was diagnosed with this dementia and then thus began all the research and it seems like every day you're like learning something. I mean, we all are.

Yeah. But do your viewpoints sometimes change where you thought, oh, wow, I thought that, but now I'm starting to think different, like fasting, for instance. Yeah. You were thinking, oh, fasting really helps. You know, it makes your body feel like it's starving itself and all that, all those things they say. And then, and now you don't agree with that.

Yeah. No, I'm, I'm completely obsessed with all things like nutrition, health. I mean, it's what I'm reading about all day, every day. And I'm constantly updating my knowledge base. And yeah, I mean, I not only have been able to, you know, had the opportunity to write these books, which is just an incredible gift. But I've been able to, I actually got to write academic text. I got to contribute a textbook, a chapter in a textbook for clinicians on the clinical practice

of dementia prevention. So this is something that I'm, yeah, I've been deeply immersed with for some time. And yeah, there are, you know, I think it's really important as a, I mean, I'm a citizen scientist essentially but as as a scientist of any sort to to be able to you know update your knowledge base and change when new data presents itself and so the fasting thing i think is a is a great example of that um you know i've recently you know air quality is something that's that's become increasingly important to me whereas like three years ago i probably would have said that it's like not you know or not in the best state for air quality we're not yeah but um but yeah there's a

there are many different areas i used to not um for example i used to be be a lot more uh carb focused you know like i used to be you know what i think most people would describe as a low carb dieter but you know my diet these days i you know i'm integrating a lot more carbohydrates in my diet which are again supportive of vigorous exercise which i think is is crucial to aging healthily um where else have i changed my yeah there's been there's been a number of areas where i think we're always changing and that's what it is so if you said something five years ago you know science and everything else comes about and you start reading and you start learning that they've figured this out and things change the views change yeah um and i think that's why

that's why my audience trust me and you know when i'm wrong i admit it i haven't been wrong about too much i've just you know sort of evolved my my oh i've been wrong about a law yeah what is like one food that i need energy right now and i don't want to fucking have a lot of caffeine well they say a banana You don't even need a whole banana. You take a half of banana. Do you like bananas? I think bananas are good. Yeah, they're a good source of potassium and carbs, you know, but I'm not like, you know, I think there is some merit to, you know, if you're feeling like your energy is all over the place.

I think, you know, caffeine is an interesting one. I mean, the research on coffee, coffee does seem to be a health tonic, you know, in many ways. When you look at the observational evidence, people who drink more coffee seem to be protected to some degree against. Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, MS, cardiovascular disease, but not everybody, just because we see, you know, on average, that people's health improves when they drink coffee. That doesn't mean that everybody's health improves when they drink coffee, right? Some people, you know, coffee essentially, you're not adding, you're not gaining energy by drinking coffee, you're just reducing fatigue.

And you're essentially borrowing energy from later. Right. You're going to crash. Yeah. Yeah. How many cups of coffee do you have a day? I drink like one to two sometimes three but I try to curtail you know I try to have all my you know I try not to drink any caffeine after about noon yeah you know and so it is obviously the worst thing in the world for you yeah fruit toast in general sugars you should try to unless they're natural sugars you just stay away from those yeah everybody would be what if you have one Coke a day I still a lot of sugar it's like 35 grams of like an angel just be a root beer yeah I mean I mean I got to stay away from it. That's one thing. I don't drink a lot, but I probably have like five cans a week.

If it's like a, it's a one time a week thing, I think that's okay, you know, but not every day. Every day, like a legitimate soda with like 35 grams of sugar. I would say that that's, I mean, look, you could carve out a way to integrate that into your diet and not. But why do that? Right, because you're also, you're taking away more than you're basically, it's supplanting calories that you could be. be consuming from more nutritious foods. You know, like, I'd rather not ingest 35 calories of soda, which provides no nutritional benefit, it's probably going to negatively impact your energy that I, you know, could otherwise get from whole fruit, which is really satiating and is going to, like, quell my hunger in a much more, you know, significant way than soda, which, if anything, might actually

increase hunger. What about pizza? I mean, pizza can be good, but it's like one of these, the thing about pizza. is that it's one of these, in the research, it's called like a mixed dish. It's essentially just carbs and fat, which are basically just energy. It's not necessarily the carbs that are bad. It's not the fat that's bad, but it's like the combination of both and particularly pizzas tends to be hyper palatable. So it's like something that like, it's just, you know, people tend to overconsume these kinds of foods, whether we're talking pizza or lasagna or everything in moderation. Cookies. Yeah,

they're just very calorie dense foods. And whereas, you know, again, like five years ago, I would have been more about, we got to reduce our carbohydrate intake. Now, I think the, when we look at, when we zoom out and we look at real public, the real public health problems plaguing modern society, you know, one and two people by the year 2030 are going to be obese, not just overweight, but like obese. Yeah. The vast majority of people. What's the definition of obese? Well, obesity is measured via the BMI, which is not a super accurate diagnostic tool, but as a screening tool, it's fairly effective. The BN. is basically, it's just a formula that, you know, will use your height and your weight

to just come up with some number that doesn't differentiate between lean mass and fat mass. So if you're looking at somebody like The Rock, for example, like according to his BMI, he would be obese. Clearly, he's not obese. He's in fantastic shape, right? Somebody like even Mark Wahlberg, right? Like, according to his BMI, like, I don't know what his BMI is, but because he's carrying so much lean, healthy mass, he would probably be considered obese from that standpoint. But nobody uses the BMI as a diagnostic tool. It's more of a screening tool to look at population health. And it's a really quick and dirty way to do that, but it's effective.

Yeah. You know what I think kind of sucks is like, yeah, yeah, you're beautiful and you're muscular and you're huge and you've got this great physique. But you've got to do that for the rest of your life or it's going to become fat. You're going to be fat. You're going to get fat if you're all ripped up and muscular and you just all of a sudden say, I'm not going to work out anymore. Well, it's not a, yeah.

It's not that muscle turns to fat, but it's like to maintain that degree of musculature, you've got to eat more, obviously. And if, you know, when you're eating a lot and you're working out a lot, that, you know, all that energy is going to accrue muscle, right? Right. When you stop working out, I mean, and you continue eating as much as you were to maintain that degree of musculature, then you're going to start putting on fat. Right. What about lastly, there's a couple of things, but I want to get into more about this

documentary and all this stuff in the book. But, like, I love it. This is why it's therapy for me. People say take magnesium, zinc. Should I be taking magnesium and zinc in the morning, just a low dose? Magnesium is great. About 50% of the population doesn't consume adequate magnesium. And magnesium is involved in hundreds of processes in the body that range from energy synthesis.

So like you're saying, like, what can I eat for more energy? Well, magnesium is really important for the creation of ATP, which is the energetic currency of all cells. And most people underconsume magnesium. But magnesium is also really important for, as an anti-aging. mineral it's like a super important um and uh co-factor in enzymes that are actually called DNA repair enzymes and DNA repair is that one of the you know it's one of the causes of aging DNA damage right um zinc i don't think you necessarily need if you're eating red meat on a regular basis

right it's got it's got all that in that yeah what about vitamin d in general a lot of people are deficient in vitamin d um vitamin d is important vitamin d actually may be a risk factor for dementia it's also involved in autoimmunity um i don't want to pretend like i know everything but i do you know is something you're very knowledgeable and look again you've said this in the beginning these are your thoughts your science your your research yeah you know and this is this is what you believe yeah and a lot of it sounds pretty uh ripping and i think as long as you're making recommendations that are rooted in in evidence but at the end of the day ultimately aren't going to do harm, then I think it's like providing people an on-ramp to self-experiment.

Because at the end of the day, like, it's your own end of one experiment that's going to matter the most. Nutrition science is incredibly weak. And so anybody who's like, you know, going by what the data says strictly, I think that's, I think that's somewhat misguided. You know, I think you have to be willing to experiment for yourself. What about in terms of if you deal with a lot of achiness and pain, are there, are there nutrients or their foods that you'd recommend to add to your diet to sort of reduce inflammation

reduce pain levels arthritis anything like that yeah i mean i have chronic low back issues well i've had nine surgeries on my neck and back so now i'm always yeah i'm in chronic pain all the time so i'm like how do i just make my body feel a little more relaxed or you know reduce the pain i think eating a eating a diet that's primarily whole foods like an anti-inflammatory diet, you know, stacking the odds in your favor in other ways, exercising in a way that's best suited for your body, I think that's really important. And cutting out these ultra-processed foods, pro-inflammatory, you know, food additives and the like, I think that's really important. Is diet going to be a cure for, you know, your back issues? Hasn't been for mine. But I can't even

imagine how much worse my back pain would be were I, you know, a consumer of the standard American diet. Right. For example. You know. Now, this documentary, it's, it's in theaters. Yeah. So we're doing a limited theatrical run in the United States. And then on June 27th, we're releasing the documentary to the world on online, littleemptyboxes.com. Really? Yeah. Little emptyboxes.com. That's what you'll be able to watch it. Yeah. So you're doing it on your own platform. On my own platform. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we're doing it really like fully independently. You know, this is my first time making a documentary. And I wasn't going to wait to see if we were going to get, you know, picked up or funded or whatever by these streaming platforms. I just, it's something that I felt needed to be made. And so we, me and my team just decided to do it. And so we were able to secure national theatrical distribution through a bramorama. And but obviously, you know, like I want people around the world to be able to see this film.

I mean, dementia is a pressing global problem now. Yeah. Um, and so yeah, we're going to put it online for any, it really is dementia and Alzheimer's, it's, it's, it's just, it's so frustrating. It's like sometimes you look at, we've been dealing with the same issues for so long and it's like when, when are they going to come up with something? When are they going to stop this? It's such a, you know, and your, your mother was so young, she was, she was diagnosed when she was 58. Yeah. And I mean, that's seven years older than I am. That's not very, you know, no. And it's, it's, it's just. scary that you know i i've heard stories of 40 year olds you know with alzheimer's or dementia and uh i think this documentary is so important and it's and it's also beautiful i i really want everybody to watch it because you know it's it's something that so many people are experiencing and and seeing it through you not only your eyes but your mother's eyes and like seeing how it affects everything and every part of you and trying to come up with solutions to you know um fix this

problem. It's just, it's just such a, you know, I really commend you. I, I watched it in the middle of the day and you're like, hey, I'm going to send you this documentary. I'm like, ah, I got to watch a documentary now. Anytime I have to do any work, I'm like, fuck. And I did not stop watching it. I was so captivated. And, you know, even the imagery of like, you know, where she would take you when you were younger, when you were a baby, you know, certain locations. And I could see how it affected you. I could see just how important she was to you. And people have so many important people in their lives who are going through these things. And, you know, we have to let them know they're not alone and that we're all part of this. And also to see how it affects the people around

you and how important it is to find a cure. Yeah. Yeah. It's the first. I mean, first of all, I've been working on this film for a decade now. So I mean, that's just like, it's incredible. I could gone to medical school. But I decided to, you know, to be steadfast in in getting this, you know, this, this direly important information out there. Because today, about six million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer's disease. Obviously that affects a staggering, you know, number of people on the periphery, right? The caregivers, the family members. Parkinson's disease, about one, just over one million people in the U.S. have that. It's the fastest growing brain disease. And the documentary really it's it's a it's a love letter to i mean not just love itself and family and how

important that is but to the science of dementia prevention which i feel like now for the first time you know we we certainly don't know everything but we do have a semblance of a roadmap in terms of how we might live to reduce our risk and this is the first documentary to to capture that you know that that science and provide a an array of ideas the film doesn't provide easy answers it doesn't present a magical diet or one size fits all solution to this problem because that doesn't exist it would be inauthentic to suggest otherwise but we do present i think some really important ideas about you know where we've gone wrong with regard to our diets and our lifestyles that might light a candle for some people that are that are unaware yeah and you talk to doctors in it we

see a lot of these um these experts in the field talking about it and so you're getting so many different approaches to it like your personal story your mom your and your family and all also nutrients and exercise and all these things, all these aspects, and I think it's just really important. You also gave me this. What are peptides? What are collagen peptides and how important are they for us? Yeah, collagen is great. So I brought that for you. It's from a company that sponsors my podcast. So it's Bub's Naturals. And I just, you know, had some around the house. And I'm a family. I've never tried it. Oh, really? I've never tried. I don't know. I don't even know peptides are. Oh, well, collagen's great for skin. I know what collagen is. Yeah. Like, yeah. Yeah,

it's, um, I'm not the most knowledgeable. But you know about collagen. Yeah, it's, uh, it's not a, it's not a protein that we typically consume too much of today in the, as, as a part of the Western diet, we tend to consume mostly, like when we eat meat, like steak is skeletal muscle. Um, it doesn't tend to contain a lot of collagen because we tend not to like the texture of collagen tissues, you know. If you're making a whole rotissory chicken, for example, or you're slow cooking some of these more tough cuts of meat that are closer to the joint of an animal, then you end up consuming collagenous amino acids and the like. But in general, we tend to underconsume the amino acids that are found in collagen. And studies are now starting to show that it's

beneficial from the standpoint of wound healing, of skin health and appearance. Could it help of pain or joints? It might. Yeah. It actually might. There is, there is, data on that. And how much would I take out of that? Like a scoop? 10 to 20 grams. And you put it with water? Yeah. And you just mix it up. Yeah. You can put in coffee. You can mix it in water. Is it tasteless? Tasteless. Totally tasteless. Yeah. Um, and it's, it's, it's, I think it's great from a, yeah, from a, from a health longevity standpoint. I give it to my cat. Um, really? Yeah. Yeah. My cat's like eight years old. I want to be around forever. I know. Isn't that a shame that our animals die so young so quickly? I don't even want to think about it. It's, it's the work. It's the

worst. It is the absolute worst. But no, I think, I think collagen is great. It's rich in an amino acid in particular called glycine, which we tend to underconsume is really important for metabolic health. So there are studies that show that glycine supplementation before bed, about three grams of glycine can actually improve sleep. I can take this before bed? You can take it before bed, yeah. Wow. Improves sleep quality, insulin sensitivity, general metabolic health, possibly even longevity. Glacine is rate limiting in the synthesis of the production of glutathione, which is the body's most important master antioxidant. So I think it's a very underrated supplement. It's not a replacement for whole protein. So for example, the protein found in, you know, way protein or beef, eggs, fish,

things like that. Right. But I think as a supplement, as an, you know, addition to one's diet, I think it's great. And you've done 300 episodes of your health science podcast, The Genius Life. Yeah. you love it don't you i love it it's my pride and joy yeah do you talk you constantly talking to experts in different fields right yeah it's amazing i mean we there's we have like incredible you know we've had pulitzer prize winning journalists on amazing experts we also have people that are like more fun and interesting and have more out there ideas i think that's you know it's part of it's you know got to think outside the box sometimes you do particularly with a condition like you know

like dementia or yeah if they're not finding a cure let's see what else works exactly exactly there's got to be something on this earth that will help yeah you know beat this exactly like i've taken flack you know for having certain guests on the show that are thought to be more fringe in terms of their in terms of their viewpoints but i think it's my you know it's par for the course of of being an investigator and wanting to just talk to anybody who might have absolutely any type of insight like i just i love it and i and i do my best to push back when i don't agree with something but you know and it's not just about it's not one of these like dry boring health shows it's no no it seems like a lot of fun yeah and it seems like you're i feel like you're the uh you're one of us

you're just like you're you're getting all this information you're asking them all these questions to further your you know knowledge or exactly so it's it's great and they um this podcast. By the way, your Instagram is at Max Lugavir. Lugavir. Yeah. Lugavir. I said Lugavir. Yeah. Max Lugavir. L-U-G-A-V-E-R. E. Yes. At an E at the end. Or it would be lugiver. Right. Exactly. I could talk to you forever. Will you come back sometime? Dude, I'd love to. This is just like, I mean, I feel like I'm going to be more healthy because of you just by having this conversation and you know it's nice to you know because people say oh don't don't eat too much red meat or don't eat this and it's like you know your approach is sort of

a more fun approach and a realistic and also moderation and um i think it's great i think you know i'm going to try the peptides collagen peptides i'm going to try that how many times a day you take that take it once or twice a day yeah 10 to 10 to 20 grams a day if you miss a day it's no big deal. But yeah, I'm a fan. Tate my magnesium. Yeah, I'm had eggs, have meat. Salads. Yeah. Salads are good. Sounds great. Dark leafy greens. One of the most nutrient dense foods. Dark leafy greens. But when you go to the grocery store that doesn't say dark leafy greens, what you just get greens. What do you do? Anything dark. Yeah. Whatever you, I mean, people, you know, some people have a visceral spinach. Spinoch. Propulsion to kale. Yeah. Whatever you like. Whatever you like. It really doesn't

I'm at romaine lettuce, arugula, all great. They all have distinct and also overlapping benefits. But research out of Rush University shows that people who eat a bowl and a half of dark leafy greens every day have brains that perform up to 11 years younger. So I like to just eat like eat a salad a day. It doesn't have to be massive, you know, but like a, it's not a bowl net. It's about a cup and a third of dark leafy greens every day. Are black olives good for you?

They're great. I love black olives. What about green olives? They're great. they're all they're actually they all start out as green or i think like purple and then they go green and then black i could be wrong don't quote me on that what about legumes legumes legumes are great good source of fiber legumes legumes yeah legumes i think so the blue legumes who doesn't like lentles right but like are all nuts really good for you peanuts people have different um you know

some people don't tolerate obviously people have nut allergies and things i feel like i get a little bit congested when I have nuts. Is that possible? It is possible. It's possible. I'm not allergic, but I feel like, you know, and I love nuts. Yeah. You don't, I don't want to say that out loud.

I don't want to do it. I mean, yeah, not in West Hollywood. Yeah. But, uh, or anywhere. Or anywhere. But no, there, I think, I think nuts are great. Yeah. I mean, look, the evidence is favor of nuts.

Does that mean that everybody needs to eat more nuts? It's, that's a totally individual choice. I don't need that many. but not certainly have benefits. I try to eat like three, for example, Brazil nuts every day. Brazil nuts are the top source of selenium, which is really good for detoxification, thyroid function, brain health, lipids in the body, so like cholesterol.

There's one study that found that just eating three Brazil nuts led to an acute drop in like LDL cholesterol, I want to say, which is, because selenium is really important for thyroid function. It's really important. Brazilian nuts. Brazil nuts. Brazil nuts, it's called. By the way, is there anything...

Unsung hero of the nut world. Yeah, is there anything, any food or anything lastly that guys can do for just an erection? You would know. Yeah. Watermelon rind. What is watermelon rind? Throw it in a blender. I don't know.

It's just a top source of el citroline, which boosts nitric oxide, which is really important for healthy erections. For boners. Yeah. But interestingly, Viagra, there's studies that show that there's one. one study that shows that found that taking Viagra as a pre-workout actually boosted muscle protein synthesis on par with about one to 200 milligrams of testosterone. Would that be Viagra? When you say Viagra, it could be Cialis or Viagra or whatever. It's all

the same. Yeah. And by the way, a lot of people are doing this. So you could take Cialis and it's fine. You can take Cialis pre-workout. Yeah, because it doesn't create sexual arousal. It just sends the blood. You don't want to have weightlifting. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And by the way, there's interesting evidence that shows that, that suggests that people who, who regularly take these drugs have a reduced risk for Alzheimer's disease. So there might be something to the fact that these drugs, they boost blood flow, possibly to the brain. You know, so they're not just, and they were actually originally, these drugs were actually the class of drugs under which, you know, Viagra, Seales Falls was, they were originally discovered as a, or being studied as a

blood pressure management medication. But now we're seeing that they might have all these benefits with regard to like promoting muscle growth and reducing, you know, the risk for Alzheimer's disease and the like. So I'm not suggesting that people run out and go and do this, but, you know, people like at the gym, I know are definitely taking this stuff like pre-work out. Wow. Yeah. Alcohol with Alzheimer's, alcohol with dementia. Uh, you know, probably not a great thing. Yeah, it's not a great thing. Um, the dose makes the poison, but if you can not drink, that's ideal. But if you do choose to imbibe every now and then. I think you just want to make sure that it's not impacting your sleep negatively. So sober up before you go to bed and just make sure that you're you're hydrating.

How many hours a night? She's you sleep. I mean, it varies person to person. Seven, eight. Yeah, seven to, I mean, I get nine sometimes, seven to nine. Younger people require more typically. Right. More hours and older adults. But, um, but yeah, seven to nine generally is. What about a nap in the middle of the day? I'm not a fan of nap. So you're asking the wrong person. You don't nap? Why is that? I just feel like crap after like I've, I'm not. It gives me another boost. Does it? Yeah.

If I actually take a little nap, you're with him? I'm not able to go to sleep. Like I close my eyes, hoping, praying for a bit of like a one, at least one cycle of sleep. It's just resting. It's resting your body. That's fine. Yeah. I mean, I do that sometimes.

But it's, I don't really, it's not rejuvenative for me. Like I wake up and I just, you know, end up feeling frustrated that I wasn't able to get any additional sleep. What's your other besides your documentary, little empty boxes, which again, on the website, what is it? empty box little emptyboxes.com little emptyboxes.com and it will be available june 27th june 27th you guys check this out um what other documentaries on diet or whatever would you would you also recommend that you like oh god what's the top two or three i mean i mean there there are none really because i think most documentaries particularly on and no shit against netflix i mean i'm a paying netflix subscriber but most are not good.

Most, I find, to have some sort of bias, typically a plant-based bias. You know, like we all ought to go vegan. By the end, you're always being, you know, they always tend to pile on like this, like, propaganda, you know, for other causes outside of human health, which I think is inappropriate, you know, when somebody sets out to watch a nutrition documentary. So there aren't many that I like. And that's part of the reason why I set out to, you know, create one of my own. But, you know, yeah, I mean, I guess the last good documentary wasn't on diet.

It wasn't really on diet. I mean, the last documentary that I really like, I think was like Jonah Hill's documentary with his therapist. Yeah, that was pretty good. It was pretty good. I liked it. He had Parkinson's disease, which, you know, I can relate to because of what my mom. Who had his therapist, Jonah Hill's therapist at Parkinson's disease. Oh, I didn't remember that.

Yeah. And he talks about how it was at the end? I think so. You start talking about that? Yeah. Yeah, it's been a while. But I remember I liked it. I remember it was touching.

It was cool. It was brave. Yeah. There aren't that many, I mean, yeah, off the top of my head, I, you know. All right, good. I don't have to educate myself anymore. I educated myself here. And Genius Foods, your book.

Yeah, pick up Genius Foods, if you want. I've also written a Cokebook called Genius Kitchen, which is out. And then my podcast. the genius life you're writing books about nutrition and health and i have a book coming out in october you can pre-order it's uh called the talented farter it's on pre-order it's sounds and it's hilarious and it's for kids and adults and you can pre-order that now amazing it is it's really amazing no the illustrations the story it's such a cool cute uh it's it's it's great i'm really proud of it too that's awesome yeah well congratulations it's a joy meeting you um

Don't give me your cell phone number because I'm going to sometimes text you and say, could I eat this? Could I do that? Dude, I'm down. We should totally hang. We should totally hang. We should totally hang. We're essentially neighbors.

I love this. This has been so educational. I love the documentary. I can't wait for you to see it. And the book and all the stuff you got going on. You got books. You got the podcast at Max Lugavir on the Instagram. So thanks for being here. Thank you, Michael. By the way, this was the longest podcast I've had. to date, probably. Seriously? Wendy's most important deal of the day has a fresh lineup. Pick any two breakfast items for $4. New four-piece French toast sticks, bacon or sausage wrap, biscuit or English muffin sandwiches, small hot coffee, and more. Limited time only at participating Wendy's Taxes Extra.

Ever wonder how dark the world can really get? Well, we dive into the twisted, the terrifying, and the true stories behind some of the world's most chilling crimes. Hi, I'm Ben. And I'm Nicole. Together we host Wicked and Grimm, a true crime podcast that unpacks real-life horrors one case at a time. With deep research, dark storytelling, and the occasional drink to take the edge off. We're here to explore the Wicked and Reveal the Grim.

We are Wicked and Grim. Follow and listen on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you, Max, for being on the podcast. That was really insightful. And now the inside of you with Microsum Light is on. I turned it on for the outro. Yeah, thanks, Ryan. Well, no, we got, you know, we got it both ways.

We got, we got options. No, we have it both ways. We have it both ways. Thank you for listening today and being part of our, what would you say, our community. Mm-hmm. And also, please join Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, Patreon.com slash inside of you. And join Patreon today. It's a wonderful community.

There's a lot of perks. And you're supporting this show, which we need all the help we can get. Without our patrons, we couldn't be here. All right. Well, another fine day, another fun day interviewing people. That was really a learning experience, that one. It was. And I watched the documentary, and I definitely cried at times. But I thought, you know, this guy sort of stopped his life to take care of his mother and try and find a way to cure her. And it shows you that you have to be hopeful.

and you have to know that there's a light at the end of the tunnel no matter what or what's the purpose you have to know that you know people are constantly trying to find cures for these uh ailments these diseases and if you just stop saying oh there's no hope forget it then then you know i think that if you look at through time that's what's happened they've found cures later on and throughout years and years of scientific research and whatnot, things happen. And one day there will be a cure for Alzheimer's and all these other horrible things. And so thanks, Max. Right now, we're going to go to the top tier.

We're going to give shoutouts to the top tiers, top tier patrons. Thank you again for joining. And here we go. Couldn't do without you, Nancy D. Leah and Kristen, Little Lisa, Ukeko, Jill E, Brian H, Nico P, Robert B, Jason W, Sophie, M, Raj, C, Jennifer, N, Stacey L. Jamal F. Janelle B. Mike E. Elton Supremo, 99 more. Santiago M. The L.

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And from the Hollywood Hills in Hollywood, California, I am Michael Rosenbaum. I am Ryan Teas. Yes, Ryan Tears. A little wave to the camera. Thank you for continuing to join us every week. We'll see you next week. We'll have another great interview for you. Can't wait. And that's it.

Be good to yourself. We'll see you next week. Hi, I'm Joe Sal C. Hi, host of the Stacking Benjamin's podcast. Today, we're going to talk about what if you came across $50,000. What would you do? Put it into a tax advantage retirement account. The mortgage. That's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this addition that we're adding. $50,000. I'll buy a new podcast. You'll buy new friends. And we're done. Thanks for playing everybody. We're out of here. stacking Benjamins follow and listen on your favorite platform