On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Dave Asprey ON: Simple Steps to Reduce Your Biological Age by 12% & Ways to Manage Your Emotional Stress to Change Your Life

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

What if there is a way to help reduce aging? What if it is something you can do on your own and make it a daily habit? There is a way and today’s guest will offer insights about aging and managing e...motional stress. Today, we welcome back Dave Asprey, the founder of Upgrade Labs and known as the 'Father of Biohacking'. He Is a four-time New York Times bestselling science author, host of the Webby award-winning podcast The Human Upgrade.   Dave shares the science behind the concept of biological age and how to calculate it, shedding light on the surprising power of laziness and how working hard without the right tools might not yield the results you desire. Dave also exposes the secrets to optimizing your metabolism, upgrading your body with cutting-edge technology at places like Upgrade Labs, and boosting your mineral intake for better overall health. We also get to learn the connection between a malnourished body and emotional stress and why staying healthy often takes a backseat in our busy lives. Learn the art of maximizing the benefits of meditation and how to reset your body, paving the way for holistic healing. Plus, get the lowdown on protein needs, the truth about chicken products, the merits of a plant-based diet, and various types of milk and their unique benefits. In this interview, you’ll learn: How to exercise effectively  How to eat right to avoid inflammation How physical health affects emotional health How to reset your body for better performance The foods that are causing inflammation How much protein the body needs How to stay healthy How to age without feeling old This episode is packed with valuable insights on how to prioritize your health and well-being, so you can truly live your best, youthful life.  With Love and Gratitude, Jay Shetty What We Discuss: 01:03 Introduction  03:34 Figure Out How Old You REALLY Are  04:33 Laziness Can HELP You?!  07:21 How To Hack Your Body  08:47 Exercise Less & Be Healthier  11:24 How The Metabolism REALLY Works  14:10 Your Health Is Missing THIS  16:58 Vitamins & Minerals You Need  19:42 Figure Out What You’re Missing  23:06 Secrets To Becoming Fitter  26:01 The Reset Process 28:06 Why Forgiveness Is So Important  31:14 You NEED To Let Go- Or Else  34:40 How Much Protein Do You Need?  37:40 The Truth About Veganism  40:10 Which Protein Source Is Best? 42:16 The Role Of Genetics In Diet  44:30 What Kind Of Milk Should You Drink?  50:11 The Truth About Oils  53:50 Should You Eat Palm Oil?  55:36 How To STOP Aging  58:02 Conclusion Episode Resources: Dave Asprey | Website Dave Asprey | Instagram Dave Asprey | TikTok Dave Asprey | LinkedIn Dave Asprey | Facebook Dave Asprey | Books Upgrade Labs  Want to be a Jay Shetty Certified Life Coach? Get the Digital Guide and Workbook from Jay Shetty https://jayshettypurpose.com/fb-getting-started-as-a-life-coach-podcast/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 On his new podcast, Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with his friends and fellow celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like actor Mark Ruffalo. You know, I found myself moving up state in the middle of this fracking fight, you know, and I'm trying to raise kids there and, you know, my neighbors like willing to poison my water. Listen to Six D six degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Starting point is 00:00:27 or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, Jennifer Lopez here with the new season of My Overcomfer Podcast. What's over-comfort all about? It's about inspiring confidence in all of us and choosing calling over-comfort. Every Tuesday I'll be having real and honest conversations. You'll hear it from me first before any cheeseman hits your social media feed.
Starting point is 00:00:47 Join me as I create a space where opening up is not only okay, it's encouraged. Listen to Overcomfer Podcast with Jennifer Lopez on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I couldn't be more excited to share something truly special with all you tea lovers out there. And even if you don't love tea, if you love refreshing, rejuvenating, refueling sodas that are good for you, listen to this. Rade and I poured our hearts into creating Juni sparkling tea with adaptogens for you, because we believe in nurturing your body and with every sip, you'll experience calmness of mind,
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Starting point is 00:01:58 function. Even better, Juni has zero sugar and only five calories per can. We believe in nurturing and energising your body while enjoying a truly delicious and refreshing drink. So visit drinkjuni.com today to elevate your wellness journey and use code on purpose to receive 15% off your first order. That's drinkjuni.com and make sure you use the code on purpose. If you can be triggered it means you're walking around with a loaded gun. 70% of the emotional stress that we feel on a daily basis comes from our body being malnourished. Dave Aspie, New York Times best-selling author. He's the founder and CEO of Bullo-proof
Starting point is 00:02:43 Coffee. We've all been shamed for being lazy talking about laziness. The only thing worse is talking about death. We are living in a world today where you can measure as 20 years younger than your calendar age. You don't have to get old. Before we jump into this episode, I'd like to invite you to join this community to hear more interviews that will help you become happier, healthier and more healed. All I want you to join this community to hear more interviews that will help you become happier, healthier, and more healed. All I want you to do is click on the subscribe button, I love your support, it's incredible to see all your comments and we're just getting started.
Starting point is 00:03:14 I can't wait to go on this journey with you, thank you so much for subscribing, it means the world to me. The best selling author in post. The number one health and wellness podcast. The number one purpose with Jay Shetty. Hey everyone, welcome back to on purpose. The number one health podcast in the world, thanks to each and every one of you that come back every week to listen, learn and grow.
Starting point is 00:03:35 Now you know that I'm curious about biohacking, about becoming better, about improving my energy, my focus, my strength. And there's a guest that we've had on twice before, who I'm so excited to have back on, because he is the father of biohacking. Someone who has brought this movement to the fore helped create so many products, insights, books that have guided us through this. I'm talking about the one and only Dave Asprey, entrepreneur, four time New York Times best-selling author, and host of the top 100 podcasts, the Human Upgrade
Starting point is 00:04:06 formerly Bulletproof Radio, which is more than 200 million downloads. Dave is the co-founder of Bulletproof Coffee and a leading voice in the movement to take control of our own biology. News outlets like the Today Show, CNN, Wyatt, Good Morning America, Fast Company and many more, call him the father of biohacking. And over the last two decades, Davis worked with world-renowned doctors, researchers,
Starting point is 00:04:32 scientists, and global mavericks to uncover the latest, most innovative methods. And what I love about what Dave does is he makes what could cost a lot of money, extremely accessible, relevant, and practical. And he's doing that in this new book called Smarter, Not Harder. The Biohack is Guide to Getting the Body and Mind You Want. Go and grab a copy of this right now. We're going to put a link in the
Starting point is 00:04:54 captions. You can order it while you're listening to us. Welcome back to the show, Dave Aspery. Dave, third time. Jay, it's always such a pleasure to get time in person with you. I know, me too. I really love seeing you. And I said it to you today. I see you like, you know, whenever we're connecting, maybe it's our conference or obviously on the podcast, you look better and younger and fitter and healthier every time over the last few years. And I think that's testament to everything you say working and everything you're saying, you're practicing it. And honestly, I saw you today and I was just like, who's this big bright light in my house?
Starting point is 00:05:25 Like, you know, it's really special to, obviously practice what you preach, but to actually see the benefits, you must feel great too. I mean, I feel amazing. I wrote a big book on longevity that I published a few years ago. And I went really deep. For 20 years, I've been running a non-profit
Starting point is 00:05:42 and just working in that field, but I went really deep and I started doing this stuff more aggressively. And I am now, let's see, 11 years younger than my calendar age. And last week, I just got some gene therapy that'll take another nine years off my measured age. So I should test to be about 30 years old, even though the calendar believes something different. What is that measuring? So I've heard people talk about measuring their age before. How is that calculating? Obviously, we know how your calendar age marks, but how are they calculating a biological
Starting point is 00:06:12 age? What does that look like? What are the processes? You draw a little bit of blood, and then they look at something called DNA methylation, about 800,000 different data points. You can say, well, normal people have this much methylation in this pattern, but people who are younger look this way. So if you take two people's blood, you should be able to tell their age.
Starting point is 00:06:32 But if they take my blood, they get a much younger age. So this is now the gold standard for measuring how old you are. There's other more affordable tests like ViUM has an age that's based on a lot of things that are happening in your gut bacteria and in your body. And then there's old fashioned blood telomere tests that don't work very well. So yeah, don't trust those ones. You may feel like you're 10 years old, but that's not accurate. Well, I want to dive into this new book.
Starting point is 00:06:55 There are so many chapters that really stood out to me as we're going. And I picked out some lines here that really kind of hit me. This one I thought was huge and I love how you start the book on laziness and you talk about tapping into the power of laziness and I was just thinking this is so true because whenever anyone's trying to shift their health, whether it's biohacking, whether it's mental health, whatever it may be, laziness seems to be
Starting point is 00:07:18 like this big elephant in the room, right? It's like that thing that slows you down, it makes you lax it, feels like it's negative, but you say you're not lazy, your body is, and you talk about tapping into the power of laziness. Tell me how you do that, and what does that mean? Because I think a lot of, you're gonna make a lot of people happy today.
Starting point is 00:07:37 I will, but even talking about laziness, it, the only thing worse is talking about death. I mean, people, they don't wanna do it. So when I would, you do an Instagram post about laziness, people would just not watch it because like, I don't want to face that. And we've all been shamed for being lazy. There's that coach.
Starting point is 00:07:54 It's like, don't be so lazy. Run around the field again in the teacher. You know, you're not performing or your parents. So we have all this shame about it. The reality though is that your body has an operating system. I call it the meat operating system. And a lot of spiritual work is actually accessing that.
Starting point is 00:08:10 And it has a very strong desire to not waste energy. And that is a sacred thing. Right? Imagine if we had two people, and one of them says, working hard gets results. And I said, all right guys, go dig a ditch. And one of them says, I got my shovel. And the other one says, I got a tractor. The guy with the tractor was done in 20 minutes. And the other guy works for three days. And we somehow believe without
Starting point is 00:08:33 thinking, the virtuous guy is the guy with the shovel because he worked hard. And we're unconsciously believing that working hard gets results. So we shame ourselves when we don't work hard. And sadly, when we work hard and we don't get results, we start feeling like victims, which is really toxic. We all know people work really hard and don't get results. Maybe it's because we have a belief system in there that doesn't work. And when we say, well, couldn't I do this in an easier way? We start feeling shame. Now it's not okay to do it the easy way because the virtue comes from the struggle,
Starting point is 00:09:08 but in the world that we live in, the virtue comes from getting it done. And understanding that you will always have a desire to be lazy and think about it. You wake up and you say, all right, I could go to the gym or there's a couch and there's donuts and Netflix. The couch is always going to look sexier,
Starting point is 00:09:29 and we start, well, I should want the gym. No, you shouldn't. Your body really does want the extra energy from the donuts and not using any energy in case there's a famine. So embracing that your motivation from your body is to save energy, and there's nothing wrong with that. So then how do you use that to motivate yourself?
Starting point is 00:09:47 That's how to hack laziness. Well, if you go to the gym, let's say you're gonna do cardiac, go to span class. If you did an hour a day, five days a week, that's aggressive. You're going to improve after two months, two percent improvement in your fitness. If you do the lazy way, the thing I write about
Starting point is 00:10:04 and smarter or not harder, you're gonna spend 15 minutes a week, you will not sweat. That's the amount of time you spend brushing your teeth, by the way. You'll improve by 12%. Six times more. So you wake up and you say, today I'm going to say 50 minutes of not working at the gym because I'm going to do it better. And all the sudden, it's really motivating because the body says, I get to save energy at the gym. And then the body aligns its motivation with what your mind wants. And then the resistance fades. And it's a really important thing. It's
Starting point is 00:10:33 something that I've never seen written about anywhere. So use the savings of time, the savings of energy to motivate yourself. But you know, who does know about this? Big food companies. They will send you a 25 cent coupon. I saved 25 cents because to our body, saving money feels like a lot more than it really is. Right? So it's about an unconscious view of reality. So since we know our body does that without our knowledge or permission, let's just use it to our advantage instead of against us. Yeah, absolutely. It's using a 15-minute workout per day.
Starting point is 00:11:09 No, no, no, no. No, using a 15-minute workout. Five minutes, three times a week. Five minutes, three times a week. How is that having a 12% change? Well, maybe working hard doesn't get results when it comes to exercise. And I want to be really clear, the ability to work hard is necessary for you to
Starting point is 00:11:26 get things done in the world. But working hard without the right tools is a fool's errand. And one of my companies, it's a franchise, we're about to be over about 30 location signs. So we're opening across the country. It's called upgrade labs. You can go to own and upgrade labs.com and open one in your neighborhood. And we have the technology to do this. It uses artificial intelligence and it causes you to move slower than you want. And then way harder than you really, really want to, but only for 20 seconds. And then here's the trick. As soon as you're done, you take some really deep breaths and it guides you with the AI to say, breathe deeper and it brings your heart rate down. So what your body really responds to is really strong stimulation
Starting point is 00:12:07 like a tiger was going to catch you. And then a feeling of safety and calm when you have enough minerals, you have enough nutrients. So it says, oh, I guess I should improve my performance. But if you go to the spin class, okay, the tiger chased you on the first sprint and then you keep running and then you sprint again and you keep running.
Starting point is 00:12:24 And the body believes I'm being hunted and it doesn't get away. And if you're combining that with a low calorie diet, oh, there's a famine. And I'm continuously hunted for an hour a day. No wonder it's not going to improve. It doesn't have any energy to improve. It's just stressed. So the precise dose of exercise, it matters so much.
Starting point is 00:12:44 And the liberating thing, you're gonna hate me for saying this. So you notice I'm in better shape than for 20 minutes a week as my entire workout regimen. And I'm like, I'm doing all right. Yeah, you're stacked, yeah. That's epic, man. And you said it beautifully on page 21. You said, your body does not care how much time
Starting point is 00:13:04 you do something hard. It cares how much time you do something hard. It cares about how quickly you do something hard, how hard it is, and how quickly it returns to baseline. There you go. Page 21. And that resonated with me a lot, and we'll talk about this later on. I don't want to get into it now, but you talk about this in the book as well, why the infrared swan and why cold plunges kind of, that explains exactly that process. Yes. Especially if you're doing both back and forth and you think they're getting in the cold
Starting point is 00:13:33 for you're like, oh, I'd have to sit in there for a long time. But it's actually how long is it uncomfortable for? Right. Where it's actually working. Because you're saying once you become normalized, once anything becomes normalized, whether it's spin class, whether it's sitting in the cold or whatever it may be, it's now not having that effect.
Starting point is 00:13:51 It doesn't work. In fact, if you got in a normal warm bathtub and slowly cooled the water, you would have no benefits from doing that. And instead, it's that you got in and it was a rapid drop in temperature and then you got out and the body warmed itself up again. And it's teaching the body that it is safe to warm itself up, and then it becomes better at creating heat. If your body's better at creating heat,
Starting point is 00:14:12 it means your metabolism works better. And so we've unpacked all of this using machine learning and artificial intelligence. And today, most people, they buy gem memberships, and they don't go. There's $400 million a year of ghost memberships and they don't go. There's $400 million a year of ghost memberships, where people pay and never show up. Because, well, if I have the membership, I might show up, but the lazy impulse of the
Starting point is 00:14:33 body wins because the gym doesn't have a good return on investment of your time. And I'm not saying you shouldn't work out. No, I know you. Yeah. And if you go to the gym, awesome. I enjoy that as well, but I'd frankly rather go to a yoga class in my spare time, and then you can get the muscles in about three to five times less time than going to the gym. You get the cardio, I don't know, 15 minutes versus five hours a week.
Starting point is 00:14:59 I don't know the ratio there, but it's crazy. It's much better cardio anyway. All of a sudden you're saying, wait, I got my strength, I got my cardio and that was what led me to create upgrade labs because people want to come in and do this and what do you do with the extra time? Well, how about we train your brain with neurofeedback? How about we train your stress response so you can be more resilient when things are weird at work or at home or things like that?
Starting point is 00:15:22 Or how about we just make it so your body recovers better than it ever did. And what we're dealing with now is a world full of stress and never any recovery time. So let's use technology to handle the easy stuff like muscles and cardio. And then let's take the extra save time to make our brains better and to make our stress handling better. Absolutely has changed my life. Have you got one in LA upgrade labs? There's one at the Beverly Hilton, although the hotel is about to get renovated, and there's one in Santa Monica underneath Arnold Schwarzenegger's office. Oh, I want to go. Oh, absolutely.
Starting point is 00:15:52 You always want to go. I need to come in. I didn't realize that's awesome. Yeah, in fact, the first one opened eight years ago in Santa Monica. I've been working on this for a long time before we decided to let anyone open a business. Upgrade labs. And part of this is it's a global movement decided to let anyone open a business at upgrade labs. And part of this is, it's a global movement now, biohacking.
Starting point is 00:16:08 It's a thing you go to Latin America, you go to Japan, it doesn't matter, there's biohacking all over the world. And it's expensive to build a million dollar lab like I did at my house with all this advanced tech. So what if we just made it available for everyone? That's awesome, I can't wait to check it out. Alright, let's dive back in. There's a couple of things that you talk about.
Starting point is 00:16:26 So we talked about laziness. One of the things that you talk about in the book is removing friction. So you have these six steps to energy success and I'll let people get the book to dive into all of them. I don't want to go through everything. But you talk about removing friction. And I think when you dive into that, I was like, that's the right word. Like it's friction that we experience. What are some of the steps or some of the highlights that you see of like removing friction? What does that look like?
Starting point is 00:16:50 When you think about something that you wanna do, oftentimes it's the little things that feel really big because your body's creating resistance. It's like don't waste energy, there might be a famine, don't waste energy. So if you can't find your gym shoes, right? Because you're not organized, right? And there's a lot of things that we do that make it so that there's many steps
Starting point is 00:17:11 in each step as a decision. So you remove decisions to make it really easy. And a big source of friction is you wanted to do it. You went to the gem and you didn't get results. Well, one of the things that's holding you back is that either you're exposing yourself to toxins that lower your testosterone, things like extra plastic, BPA, or you're just lacking minerals. Right now, we have an epidemic of people who just don't have enough minerals. Our food used to be full of minerals because
Starting point is 00:17:38 our soil was full of minerals. We've been kind of strip farming the land. Even if you're eating plants that are supposed to be high in iron, they're probably not because the soil doesn't have iron anymore. And when you get enough minerals in the body, then you send a signal through your exercise that says, hey, improve, the body says, well, I wanted to improve, but I have this big sticking point. I don't have enough zinc and copper.
Starting point is 00:18:02 I can't improve. So then you just feel stress. So one of the things that's really helped me lean out is I focus very heavily on my mineral intake. The least sexy supplements on earth. And to make minerals go where they're supposed to go, we need something called vitamin Dake. And you can go to vitamin Dake DAK.com. And it's there. It's about 20 bucks a month for what it takes to do this. It's a combination of vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin K, and a special form of vitamin E. And those things, when you take those, in combination with a broad spectrum mineral supplement on the same site, your body suddenly has the power to build bones and to build muscle
Starting point is 00:18:42 and make energy, and your focus can improve. And then I put the trace minerals that are just broadly lacking for all of us in my new coffee brand called Danger Coffee. So the idea is it's easy, you're doing coffee every day probably anyway and you end up going, wow, something different, it feels different than this. And it's called Danger Coffee by the way, you're going to like this because who knows what you might do. You know, you might finally ask that girl out, you might by the way, you're gonna like this because who knows what you might do. You know, you might finally ask that girl out,
Starting point is 00:19:07 you might start a company, you might start a podcast. The idea is, you can handle it now because you've got the energy and minerals are the key. And why are the minerals, you talked about this, like we always talk about supplements, talk about vitamins, we don't hear about minerals as much, and you make that point in the book, are those the four minerals that you're saying,
Starting point is 00:19:24 the DAK and special form of E, like those are the... Those are vitamins. Yes, of course. They're the fat soluble vitamins. And each of those direct minerals to go to the right place in the body. And in the minerals, there's macro minerals,
Starting point is 00:19:36 things like magnesium and potassium. And there's trace minerals like zinc and copper and manganese. And then there's ultra trace minerals that are present in earth's crust, and you need a little bit of those. So in the coffee, there's 54 different kinds of minerals that super tiny traces.
Starting point is 00:19:53 And in the supplements you take, it's three pills to get enough minerals, just enough minerals in your day. That's why one pill thing that has vitamins and minerals, there's not enough of anything in that. And when you do that, those are the first two most important foundational and affordable supplements that you need to take before you do the B vitamins.
Starting point is 00:20:11 And I've formulated new tropics in advanced anti-aging longevity things, I love doing that, and I take those two. But the last thing I would ever stop taking would be vitamin Dake and minerals 101 because they're foundational to everything else your body does, whether it's meditating better, whether it's running faster, whether it's thinking better, or just staying calm in a stressful situation. Without minerals, your body cannot do what it's trying to do.
Starting point is 00:20:35 Yeah, no, I couldn't agree with you more. I've definitely, we've talked about this before. And I've definitely had periods in my life where I was so low on minerals, all vitamins, of course, which are then impacting the minerals, where I'm like, wait a minute, I'm sleeping right, I'm working out, I'm eating right, like what is going on? And so often, I think we make it a mental challenge, where we're like, oh, maybe I'm dealing with something. And actually what you realize is your body's just not
Starting point is 00:20:59 dealing with stress well. And now it makes it feel like everything's mental when it's actually biological and chemical. You said it so my body's not dealing with stress right now. I believe that half and maybe 70% of the emotional stress that we feel on a daily basis, it comes from our body being malnourished. Yes, I agree. And then it feels like... I was like, you have, so me too. And it feels like it's your mother-in-law or your boss or like like it's someone else's fault or maybe it's you and your mind is running in circles.
Starting point is 00:21:30 Well, when the body feels like, okay, there's not a famine. I've got everything I need. All the sudden things that felt like Everest, oh, that's just a foot, I could walk up that, no problem. And to create a feeling of peace in your tissues and then do the hard work on the mental and spiritual aspects of meditation.
Starting point is 00:21:46 It's a lot easier to work on those when your body's working. But if you're constantly feeling that what your body's telling you because it's hungry is you and it's a flaw or something to work on, you can spend your entire life trying to deal with your emotions, not knowing that it's what's on your plate that's causing them. Welcome to the Overcome for Podcast Podcast with Jenna Calopes. Yup, that's me. You may know my late mom, Jenny Rivera, my queen.
Starting point is 00:22:10 She's been my guiding light as I bring you a new season of Overcomfort Podcast. This season, I'll continue to discover and encourage you and me to get out of our comfort zones and choose our calling. Join me as I dive into conversations that will inspire you, challenge you, and bring you healing. We're on this journey together. I'm opening up about my life and telling my story in my own words. Yes, you'll hear it from me first
Starting point is 00:22:33 before the Cheezman lands on your social media food. If you thought you knew everything, guess again. So I took another test with ancestry and it told me a lot about who I am and it led me to my biological father. And everyone here, my friends laugh, but I'm Puerto Rican. Listen to the Overcome for Podcasts with Jenna Calopes as part of Michael Durant Podcast
Starting point is 00:22:58 Network available on the iHeartRadio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Craig Ferguson, the Grandmaster of the Architect of Wisdom, Maharishi of Murth goes in search of joy. Hi, here to help. You'll be speaking with actors, doctors, comedians, and scientists, artists and athletes and people of faith in search of
Starting point is 00:23:21 extreme happiness. United States of America, all cram champions of the world. At last, a podcast on a mission, a podcast that wonders what is joy. Is it love, religion, drugs, success, money, revenge? Is it a surge of chemicals or a deeper awakening? Can it be nurtured, cultivated and refined? Find out, as Craig Ferguson explores the countless ways people find joy. The celebrations that dances the science, poetry, laughter and music of joy.
Starting point is 00:23:53 Don't miss it! Joy with Craig Ferguson! Here it now on the IHART Radio App Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. On his new podcast, Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon. Join Kevin for inspiring conversations with celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like musical artist, Jewel. Kevin is the founder of the nonprofit organization, 6-Degrees.org. Now he's meeting with like-minded actors who share a passion for change, like Mark Ruffalo.
Starting point is 00:24:33 You know, I found myself moving up state in the middle of this fracking fight, and I'm trying to raise kids there, and my neighbors, like willing to poison my water. These conversations between Kevin and activist Matthew McConaughey will have you ready to lean in, learn, and inspire to act. They're all on the wrong track, help get on the right track. If you're on the right track, let's help them double down on that and see the opportunities stay on the right track for success in the future. Listen to 6 degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Starting point is 00:25:03 you get your podcasts. Yes, yes, yes, yes, I want to fully double emphasize that. That is so true and so real. And I think so many of us are climbing up a steep hill trying to solve the wrong problem first. And this way round's going to make all of it much easier. I think you're spot on. I'm so glad so glad that we addressed that. I wanted to dive into this one. Like for everyone who's listening and watching, the book goes into depth, into exactly the minerals, exactly the vitamins you need.
Starting point is 00:25:29 Like I want you to know that the book's giving you a breakdown and so make sure you grab the book so that you actually get all that insights. I just want to give you the breadth of the insight that Dave has so that you're like, oh, wait a minute, I need to work on that. I need to work on that. Something you talk a lot about is picking a target area
Starting point is 00:25:44 and tracking it. And you talk a lot about is picking a target area and tracking it. And you talk about these core target areas, you talk about strength, cardiovascular, fitness, energy, metabolism, brain function, and stress resistance. And I found that that's probably our biggest mistake when it comes to our health is we either are measuring nothing or we're trying to measure everything. You nailed it. Right. Where should one start? How does one, I guess, intuitively or data wise know what they are missing right now?
Starting point is 00:26:14 Because I feel like most of us don't know. Most of us live quite unconsciously and we may be feeling a bit tired, we may be feeling a bit of body pain, but we're not really that aware of what the challenges and what we need. I have a lot of data on this because we ask people this when they come into every labs, and that was one of the things that inspired me to structure the book this way. And it's kind of funny, the only people on Earth who are going to say when they wake up in the morning, the first thing they want, I want to be healthy today. They're people who are like me. When I weighed 300 pounds, I had chronic fatigue syndrome
Starting point is 00:26:45 and arthritis and massive brain fog and I was a wreck. So being healthy was a top priority for me. And you might get there when you're 75, right, as well. I just wish I was healthy. But when we're reasonably healthy, health is number 17 on the honey do list. I want it. And what's really motivating us, oftentimes from our body, is we want to be powerful, we want to be energetic. We want love in our life. And those things, they trump health. So health never gets enough priority. And what does health even mean? Most people can't tell you. So I broke it down into those five or six categories. And okay, what are you gonna work on first? And every person is individual. So where are you today? And then what's your first goal?
Starting point is 00:27:30 And everyone says, well, I want all of those, but pick one. And in fact, I encourage you in the book to pick two. And really think about it. And when people come and we actually use a conjoined analysis survey, and like we go through data to help you figure out your goals. But in the book, I teach you how to do it.
Starting point is 00:27:47 So if your first goal is, you know what I noticed that I'm weak. I can't hold on to things like my grip strength is gone. I don't have the muscles I want. Okay. So you're going to focus on muscle first. Or like a lot of people, I'm stressed all the time and my brain doesn't work. I'm going to focus on my brain first. So then you go to the section of the book on brain and I list all of the time and my brain doesn't work. I'm gonna focus on my brain first. So then you go to the section of the book on brain
Starting point is 00:28:05 and I list all the technologies and techniques whether they're free or cost a couple hundred bucks or cost thousands of dollars, that work really well to bring your brain back online. And when you do that, your muscles will work a little bit better as a side effect, right? So maybe that was it. First I want my brain, then I want my muscles.
Starting point is 00:28:22 But someone else could be totally different in their desires. I wanna be able different in their desires. I want to be able to run a marathon. I just need the endurance to walk up the stairs because I can't take care of my kids. Stuff like that happens all the time. So you go through the book and say, okay, this is my goal.
Starting point is 00:28:35 And then there's a variety of technologies that will support that. And some of them I say technologies, they're just techniques. And if it's muscles, picking up rocks is the entire history of building muscles for humans. We concentrate the rocks into kettlebells now, but they're still rocks. And then for endurance, it's runaway from tigers. Like you could run away from a slow tiger or a fast tiger, and that's all of exercise.
Starting point is 00:28:56 Well, with machine learning and AI, we are doubling the amount of knowledge of biology that we have every 73 days. There's so much magic happening right now that you can use this new knowledge that your doctor is probably never going to know. And you can use that to say, oh, I can do this in a lot less time. So then you get your muscles back and your brain works better. You get your brain back and then you have the energy to do the muscle work or to do the endurance work. And then you say, I'm gonna work on these stress management techniques. And you have so much wisdom that you've offered people
Starting point is 00:29:30 on dealing with stress and the meditation side of things. And there's a couple chapters towards the end of the book, where I talk about spiritual hacking, which on its face is a bit offensive, I admit it, but you know, I know you're taking from a good place. It did. And the idea here is what would have happened in Tibet or in India or in a Paul or a place like that is, okay, we have a cave.
Starting point is 00:29:55 And you can go to the cave. And 20 years later, you were going to be enlightened. And you could call that fast path. But most of us have other things that we want to do. So how do we get the maximum amount of meditation benefit per minute? Like, hurry meditate faster? It's an oxymoron, except if you can say, well, I'm going to do breath work with my meditation and studies show that your brain gets into these states more quickly than maybe you
Starting point is 00:30:25 should consider finding the kind of breathwork that works for your body because for every 10 minutes of work you do you might get into the state faster. And for some people's it, well that's not okay. The Dalai Lama years ago offered a hundred thousand dollar reward to neuroscientists who could help him get into a special esoteric state. He says it takes me four hours of meditation to get there and I don't have four hours. If you can get me there in an hour, I'll pay you 100,000 dollars. Okay. This is possible today. I run a neuroscience clinic called 40 years of Zen. And in five days, people have the brain waves of someone who's spent 20 years in the cave. And I've spent six months of my life with
Starting point is 00:31:02 the electrodes glued to my head, meditating every day with a computer teaching me how to not do it wrong. And for me, that was faster, but I also did five years of art of living. I'm breathwork every single morning because I found it work better than just sitting and meditating, which I also did every morning. And I want people to understand, any of those approaches is better than not doing it. And you've got to find the one that works for you. And there's a list of exercises in here, including the reset process, which is one of the most important things I teach. Can you walk us through that?
Starting point is 00:31:35 The reset process is something that I pioneered with the neuroscience practice, because you can measure when it works. And what you do, and the whole whole recipes and the book for it. But what you're doing is you're finding something that is a trigger for you. And I want to be really straightforward. If you can be triggered, it means you're walking around with a loaded gun. You need to unload the gun. It's not everyone else's job to not make you shoot them.
Starting point is 00:31:59 It's your job to say I'm not carrying a weapon anymore. And so you find something that triggers you and you you sit, and you think about that feeling. And it's usually something will pop in your head. You were bullied. It's something a parent said, someone cut you off in traffic. It doesn't really matter. Something's gonna pop in your head.
Starting point is 00:32:16 You say, okay, I'm gonna run the reset process on that. So you sit the person who made you angry down across from you in your mind's eye. There's your name. Yeah, visually. And you're also in your mind's eye. You imagine some sort of infallible deities. Some people use God or Jesus or Buddha or any of the deities that you like, or it could
Starting point is 00:32:35 just be a light bulb that's always right. It doesn't matter, but this is your double checking thing. And then you sit there and you actually say, you did this and it made me feel this way. And then you tap into how bad you felt and you actually turn on the bad feeling. You know, what? You want me to actually, yes, I want you to feel it. And then once you're sure that you've really felt the bad feeling, you might have tears in your eyes. I mean, it might have been a big thing. Then, and this is the key that's missing from a lot, even of older literature. Before you work on letting it go, you have to find gratitude.
Starting point is 00:33:10 So you find one thing, it doesn't matter how big of a gratitude is. You just need a spark of gratitude and say, oh, here's one good thing that happened. And all of a sudden, that flips a switch in your brain. And then you can step into the f word called forgiveness and For Kim is like And the reason I called the f word is low people I'm not gonna forgive that person they wrong to me. You don't have to tell them you forgive them This is just you unloading the weapon. This is you no longer being triggered Right and then you look at it from the other person's point of view.
Starting point is 00:33:49 And you realize maybe their mom was mean to them. You know, maybe they didn't know. Maybe the guy who cut you off in traffic was on the way to the hospital to see his daughter being born. You just don't know, right? And you start looking at all of a sudden because you did gratitude first, you feel your heart open. And you go, oh my gosh. And because you did gratitude first, you feel your heart open.
Starting point is 00:34:05 And you go, oh my gosh. And when you're done, and sometimes it takes neuroscience or a facilitator or some coaching, but when you're done, you can look at someone who wronged you greatly. And all you feel is peace and love. And you can no longer be triggered.
Starting point is 00:34:21 This is very important because what we normally learn to do is to say, well, I know that every time this situation comes up, I'm going to feel triggered, I'm going to notice that I'm triggered, and then I'm going to take a deep breath and I'm going to choose to behave like an adult. How will you if you're doing that? We all need to do more of that. It's just biologically expensive because it takes a lot of effort and time and focus.
Starting point is 00:34:41 What if there was no trigger? So the reset process lets you turn this off at a very deep and profound level. And when you're done, you can look at your greatest enemy. And you can say, I love you. I forgive you. We are one. And you aren't done for the rest of your life with that trauma. And I have done this on every single trauma that's ever happened. I've had a very successful conscious on coupling in the last two years. I had an employee in bezel money. I've had people try to room my reputation, all of it, around the reset process on it and I'm absolutely at peace with it.
Starting point is 00:35:14 And to be able to get there running, I mean, you run at a very big level, so do I. And the amount of stuff that comes at us, no one's ever going to know, is an enormous thing when you're leading millions of people and making the world a better place. And to be able to do that without the constant stress and the constant tension and the constant questioning in your mind, that all comes from unresolved forgiveness. So the reset process in the book is how do you get there most quickly? And you may say, I don't want to do that. That sounds awful. Do some EMDR.
Starting point is 00:35:46 That's another way to get to a similar state. But this process is so powerful. And it leads you to amazing spiritual states where you no longer are carrying a grudge. Because, I mean, smarter and harder, the power of laziness, how expensive is it for you spiritually at a soul level to carry a grudge against someone who wronged you for the rest of your life? Life is too precious to waste it that way and this is the fastest way I've found for people to learn how to let go of something and I put it in a book
Starting point is 00:36:16 You say well, I thought that was about exercise of biohacking Look the the biggest thing you can do and the hardest thing you can do is To let go of something that your body is holding onto because it thinks it's keeping you safe. I thought I was just worthy of including in the book. That's what I mean by spiritual hacking. Find the technique that lets you fully let go of something so that you can be present with your family, with your friends, with your loved one, and then you can be present for your mission or maybe you can find your mission in your purpose.
Starting point is 00:36:43 Yeah, I think it's so well said, I'm so glad you included it because I think for the sake of simplicity, we talk about our body, our mind, our soul or spirit or whatever we call it, but the truth is that it's so interconnected in that as you're saying, if you can't let go of an emotional disconnect or a misalignment, chances are that's going to lead to your eating habits.
Starting point is 00:37:05 And then that eating habit is gonna link back to a lack of that spiritual cleansing or detoxing or whatever that may be. And so we're kind of just stuck in this vicious cycle. And I wanted to talk to you about that because using that spiritual hacking the other way and going, what are some of the blocks that are created physically because of the lack of letting go?
Starting point is 00:37:28 What are some of the habits that you've seen develop physically in our diet, in our physical practices because of a lack of that? I believe that every cell in your body has its own small consciousness. And even inside the cells, the mitochondria, each of them is an ancient bacteria.
Starting point is 00:37:46 An ancient bacteria have a consciousness. It's a pretty slow dumb consciousness. Actually, it's a very fast consciousness, but it doesn't have much awareness. But when you have billions, actually, for those things, almost trillions, inside the body, they function as a distributed consciousness for your meat, for your hardware. And they're just trying to keep the petri dish alive and they think you're a petri dish. And you realize that they're storing traumas. And when you do this really deep forgiveness work, you're causing the body to relax and you're causing the body to feel safe at a cellular level. And when a cell feels safe, it will expand and
Starting point is 00:38:23 grow and thrive and it'll maintain itself. And when a cell feels safe, it will expand and grow and thrive and it'll maintain itself. And when a cell feels like the environment around it is hostile, whether it's because of self-hate or whether it's because of a lack of nutrients or because you're over exercising or under exercising, then they don't feel safe and then they don't do their job right. So when your body is in that place, your energy field gets bigger and stronger. And we can even measure that at the neuroscience clinic. We measure brain voltage and people will increase their brain voltage. And when that happens, suddenly that injury that you've had that won't heal, it heals the cancer that you have can shrink just from doing meditation. Right? Because if
Starting point is 00:39:06 there's conscious or unconscious loathing around a part of your body, like, oh, you don't like your love handles. Right? They're probably not going to go away. In fact, they'll probably get bigger, right? Because they don't feel safe. So this deep loving of your body, of your tissues. And I was working with a teenager recently. And she said, you know, some of my friends don't like their bodies. And they think they're fat or they think they're thin or they don't like their nose or whatever. And she said, I thought about it a lot. And I realized, I really like my body because it can do all these amazing things And I was like that is the most enlightened cool thing I've ever heard from a teenager right because if you have that Self-love for your tissues even if they're not working right and I say this as a guy who was 300 pounds with like arthritis and a knee that I couldn't
Starting point is 00:39:59 Trust because it would just like it would just fold in the middle of walking out fall over like I was such a wreck and To be able to go through and forgive yourself, that's actually the hardest forgiveness. And you can run the reset process on a part of your body that you have any issue with. You can run the reset process on your entire body. And the feelings of not being enough, not being good enough, all of those things, you can just like go up.
Starting point is 00:40:21 So you're just at peace and things are as they are. And you don't have to have an emotional reaction to everything. And that allows you to have so much more energy for your spirit. When that spiritual lacking is draining all your energy, you don't have the energy to pick the right foods and to do the workout and to put into your creative processes or creative endeavors that you have going on. And I want to dive into a couple of things which I thought, really, I'm glad you talked about this in the book because I think the challenges as we know with health and wellness, there's always a new fad, a new trend,
Starting point is 00:40:54 a new kind of thing that comes up and everyone gets behind it. And then afterwards a few years later, we realized that there was more research to it. I think one of those big areas is around Let's let's let there's two areas in the book that you cover really well that I want to dive into one is around Where we get our protein we know proteins important. I mean remind us how much protein we need to get every day like good protein because you need between 0.8 and one gram of protein per pound of body weight So I weigh 200 pounds and I'm about 7 percent body fat and that means I need about 200 grams of protein per pound of body weight. So I weigh 200 pounds and I'm about 7% body fat.
Starting point is 00:41:25 And that means I need about 200 grams of protein a day. 7% body fat? Yeah, it's ridiculous. Yeah. As a guy who is the fat computer hacker from the first Jurassic Park, it's totally ridiculous. And in order to do that, if you're obese like I was, you might say, well, if I weigh 300 pounds, I had 100 pounds of fat, you really only need 200 grams of protein. You can subtract the extra fat from the number. But 200 grams of protein, it's a lot. And protein isn't all the same. And this is something that-
Starting point is 00:41:53 That's what, yeah. Yeah, the big food companies are trying to tell us, oh, you have cricket protein, or gluten is protein. There's a company making keto cookies that are all protein. They're just gluten and canola oil. That is not food. So a while ago, the story was, oh, all calories are all protein, they're just gluten and canola oil. That is not food. So a while ago, the story was, oh, all calories are the same. So you can drink this, you know, high fructose corn syrup. It's just calories. As long as you keep your calories low, you can drink a diet coke and a Snickers bar.
Starting point is 00:42:15 They cancel each other's out. It doesn't work like that. Proteins the same way. So different proteins send different signals to the body. And there's something called amino acid availability score. And it turns out that animal proteins score much higher than plant-based proteins. And I say this as a former vegan, a former raw vegan, and you just cannot get enough protein from plants unless you're doing heavy industrial processing of the plants. And that comes at
Starting point is 00:42:44 a cost. But even then, the highest quality plant-based protein powders don't hold a candle to dairy protein, which is vegetarian, or egg protein, which is vegetarian, or sort of the king of proteins is beef or buffalo or bison. As a vegan, I had a problem with this because while I was a vegan, I was in Tibet at a monastery and Tibet and monks love to argue. They're trained since they're about eight years old. They have an eight year old sitting on the ground surrounded by older kids standing up, all arguing
Starting point is 00:43:16 at the same time, doing these like aggressive things. And it's to teach you to be calm in the face of arguments so that you can still be a piece. And it's beautiful to watch. So I knew this. And so I'm kind of teasing the head llama. I said, well, you tell me no killing, but you have a yakskin on your prayer pole. So I think you're a hypocrite. And you start laughing. And it looks to me, it goes, one death feeds everyone. And I'm like, mind blown.
Starting point is 00:43:39 Because I had been a vegan until I went to Tibet. And I was like, cannot be a vegan in Tibet because there's just very little food. And if there's some yak butter tea or there's a little bit of meat, you just eat it because there's just not enough food. So I really thought about it. And that led me to think about deaths per calorie. And as a guy has built a regenerative farm on Vancouver Island and raised all of my own animals for most of the last eight years.
Starting point is 00:44:07 I will tell you that a cow will feed you for an entire year, and if it's grass-fed, and from a local farmer, no other animal died unless the cow stepped on a frog. I mean, it is literally one death, and if the cow was treated with respect and ethically, then you're killing fewer animals than an industrial plant protein. Because when they do those, the tractor comes through and it chops up every creature that's there, including the bunnies and the mice and the butterflies and all the ugly ones like worms that no one likes that are important for life. So I feel really clean about it, but the most important thing that I can say
Starting point is 00:44:41 if you choose to eat animal protein, which I do, is that practice gratitude before you eat. I believe because of my shamanic training, because of all the spiritual work that I do, that humans, our energetic field as a species, made a sacred agreement with the animals that we've domesticated, and they come here to nourish us in exchange for our gratitude. So if you are going to eat meat, you practice gratitude because that's the deal we made. And if you disrespect the animal and you're eating industrial meat, and you're eating it with mindlessly, I don't think that's a good practice. But I do think it's ethical to eat meat because I'm killing fewer lives when I eat beef than when I eat plant-based protein.
Starting point is 00:45:25 And since that nourishes me better, which gives me stronger energy and stronger bones, and it gives me more energy to put back into the world, including building better soil via farming of animals, I feel like it's a good deal and it's within integrity for me. On his new podcast, Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon, join Kevin for inspiring conversations with celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like musical artist, Jewel. And what an equal opportunist misery is, it doesn't care if you're black or white or rich or poor or famous or homeless.
Starting point is 00:45:56 If you are raised in misery systems, it's perpetual. Kevin is the founder of the nonprofit organization, SixDegrees.org. Now he's meeting with like-minded actors who share a passion for change, like Mark Repelow. You know, I found myself moving upstate in the middle of this fracking fight, and I'm trying to raise kids there, and my neighbors, like willing to poison my water. These conversations between Kevin and activist Matthew McConaughey will have you ready to lean in, learn, and inspire to act. They're all in the wrong track, helping get on the right track.
Starting point is 00:46:26 If they're on the right track, let's help them double down on that and see the opportunities stay on the right track for success in the future. Listen to 6 degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins. Exactly. Oh, man, this is fun.
Starting point is 00:46:46 I'm AJ Jacobs, and I am an author and a journalist, and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is Puzzles. And that has given birth to my new podcast, The Puzzler Dressing. Dressing. Oh, French dressing. Exactly. Ha, ha, ha. Oh, French dressing. Exactly.
Starting point is 00:47:05 Ah, that's good. That's good. We are living in the golden age of puzzles. And now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears for 10 minutes or less. Every day on the puzzler, short and sweet. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is.
Starting point is 00:47:26 This is so weird, this is fun, let's try this one. Ha ha. Listen to the puzzler every day on the I Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's awful, and I should have seen it coming. But even in some animal protein, you are recommending, and we'll talk about the plant proteins as well, but some of the animal proteins you were saying are not as strong and reliable.
Starting point is 00:47:52 I believe you mentioned chicken, turkey, I think there are a couple of others in the book that I saw. Birds are not that kind of dinosaurs. So they're less like us. And the fat that's present in birds is similar to soybean oil. It's a lot of omega-6 that causes inflammation. And you would know this, if you're in India and you're not feeling well, your grandma's just gonna give you white rice and ghee,
Starting point is 00:48:14 which is clarified butter. In the US, you get saltines and margarine or something and it doesn't work very well. But the reason is that ghee, that saturated fat, is very nourishing for you. And that you actually need that. You don't get it from a chicken. And also, one chicken to get the amount of protein, I need a chicken a day.
Starting point is 00:48:32 I'm killing 365 chickens a year. This doesn't feel very good. In addition to that, real chickens, the kind that I grow on my farm, take nine months to mature. And their fat is rich and yellow and full of vitamins, even though it's not the best kind of fat. But the chickens they're eating at the store take six weeks to get that big because they've been modified and bred to have these incredibly large breasts and they're terribly mistreated. So unless the chicken is pasture raised and heritage breed,
Starting point is 00:49:00 at which point it's not affordable. They're terribly expensive to raise. Chickens exist to make eggs. Eggs, if you're not allergic, are really a good source of fat and protein. And when you eat eggs, you wanna cook the whites and leave the yolk runny. And then you get the most nutrients outweigh. And we talked about the plant protein from an ethical standpoint,
Starting point is 00:49:19 but even from a nutritional standpoint, I mean, so me and my wife are both plant-based, but plant protein is like not a big part of our diets at all. My wife's like not into eating any of the burgers or any of the meats. It's probably a good thing. The fact meat is not good. Yeah, explain why, because I think that's slightly
Starting point is 00:49:38 the challenge for a lot of people who try and make that switch and I feel everyone who turns to that then goes back because it's not satisfying to be... Are you plant-based to the exclusion of dairy? Yes, I am. You're okay, but we have been for years. Yeah, and it's working for you. And by the way, if you're from India, you probably have the genes that are going to support
Starting point is 00:49:55 that much better. Yeah, exactly. And so if you look at what your great-grandmother ate, that's going to be an indication of what you can handle. And if you look at you, your skin is really good. And that's unusual when most people go vegan because they eat a lot of industrial process seed oils. So, if you're eating a diet that agrees with your body, and I totally support doing that,
Starting point is 00:50:16 then what you want to do is you want to make sure that you're getting complete amino acids. And you can do it from rice and beans, but here's the issue. To get enough protein. It's definitely hard. I'm fully like, I'm thinking about it a lot. It's like 300 grams of carbs to get 20 grams of protein. So then your best bet for plant-based proteins to have the highest amino acid score, it's actually hemp protein with the fat removed because hemp oil isn't particularly good for you.
Starting point is 00:50:46 So then what you end up doing is saying, okay, I'm going to do that and I feel good. I've also helped a lot of vegans. In fact, this is a David Wolff's vegan conference. I explained the virtues of ghee, where no animals die to make ghee. And ghee helps to escort the nutrients from plants into the body so you make better use of the plants.
Starting point is 00:51:04 So sometimes adding a tablespoon of ghee a day He helps to escort the nutrients from plants into the body so you make better use of the plants. So sometimes adding a tablespoon of ghee a day gives you a healthier skin glow and it feels more nourishing. And people can choose to do that or not choose to do that. And people get mad because I teased me against it. Dude, I was a vegan. It's teasing, guys. It's not a disrespectful thing.
Starting point is 00:51:21 It's in my case, it actually harmed me. And some things like spinach, kale, even raspberries, and almonds are very high in oxalic acid, which I write about in the book. And it causes crystals to form. 70% of kidney stones are from plant-based compounds, not from eating meat in beer, 30% are from meat in beer. And so you can overdo either direction, right? So I want people to say, choose the right plants when you're plant-based. And I would consider if I was plant-based, adding hemp-based protein powder,
Starting point is 00:51:55 even though it is a processed food, it's going to be a processed food that has the best amino acid score that you can get. Absolutely, thank you so much, very useful. For everyone who's listening. And I wanted to dive into drinking the wrong kind of milk because I think milk's been this, you know, there's obviously there's been the almond milks and the oat milks and then there's been debate on either side. Walk us through milk because I think like
Starting point is 00:52:17 that's again, I'd love to hear your side of it because again, it's one of the, I find all of this so confusing because you hear something new come out. Everyone gets behind it. It works for people. Maybe it doesn't work. Stopping dairy milk from my diet helped me with my gut, but I also don't drink a lot of oatmeal or almond. That's not really, that's not really part of my diet. I don't, I don't have cereal and stuff like that.
Starting point is 00:52:40 So I'm not drinking that, but then there's a lot of debate on that side of it as well. There is a lot of debate on that side of it as well. There is a lot of debate. Yeah. Dairy milk has been a part of human food for at least 5,000 years. And it's a convenient way to not kill an animal and to have it continuously produce fat and protein, which are the hard things for humans to get enough of because carbs are relatively abundant in nature. So what do you do?
Starting point is 00:53:05 Well normally you would just drink milk, but the milk we would drink was from a breed of cows that makes a two milk and they ate grass. And that works well with our biology. The kind of milk that you get now is from cows that are bred to eat grain and corn and soy. And that milk has the wrong kind of fat and it has a kind of protein called A1 protein that's very inflammatory. So a lot of people who can't drink milk,
Starting point is 00:53:28 which include me, because it messes up my gut, royally, it just makes me stupid, actually, my brain swells up from it. I get a lot of mucus, I just get more throat infections. Me too, it's very similar. So sometimes you can handle a two milk, but raw a two milk is how we used to drink it. And in many states, it's still illegal. And why the government thinks it has a right Sometimes you can handle a two milk, but raw a two milk is how we used to drink it.
Starting point is 00:53:45 And in many states, it's still illegal. And why the government thinks it has a right to tell you what you're allowed to eat? I don't know. They don't have that right. So it doesn't matter if they make it illegal. They didn't have the right to make it illegal. So therefore, it's not illegal in the world that I live in. Then again, if you're selling it, they might still try to arrest you.
Starting point is 00:54:00 Then you got to go to court. But here's the deal. Raw milk for many people is very, very healing. And for some people, way protein, especially if you're vegetarian but not vegan, it's a source, just get grass-fed way protein because the animals are treated better and because it's a higher quality nutritional product.
Starting point is 00:54:17 But let's assume you're not gonna drink cow's milk because for a lot of people it just doesn't work, including me, I don't touch it. Butter and ghee usually are acceptable, especially ghee won't trigger allergies and mucus like that for almost anyone. Well, what about the fake milks? Right? So these are all industrial products unless you make it yourself. And what they figured out with almond milk was, oh, we can take leftover parts of almonds and the ones that are broken and unsightly. And we can use those to make milk.
Starting point is 00:54:46 And it's just a few almonds and some canola oil and some high fructose corn syrup, some flavorings, and we blend it up, and we sell it for like $8 as a health food product. It's not a health food product. So almond milk is high in phytic acid that sucks minerals out of your bones, you have to take more minerals.
Starting point is 00:55:01 And it's also high in oxalates, which are the things that are causing kidney stones, and things that are causing gout and joint pain when you wake up. Even if you have really bad skin and you're eating a ton of these high oxalate foods like almond milk and kale smoothies and all, this can be why because it's making tiny razor sharp calcium oxalate crystals in your skin that are coming out. So I don't recommend almond milk. Also, if you're a vegan for animals, the number of bees, about a third of all bees die pollinating almonds every year. Like it is not a particularly clean product. So then we say, well, oat milk. Okay, that is the biggest scam on the planet right now. It raises your blood sugar as much as drinking a coke. It is not a health food
Starting point is 00:55:43 It raises your blood sugar as much as drinking a coke. It is not a health food and it usually has glyphosate and it's high in phytoch acid that sucks minerals out of your body. And I know you might not like hearing this, but do the math. There's a tablespoon of oats blended into a bunch of water and you spent six bucks on that. Like, are you dumb? It's not a good move. So what should you drink? There's two kinds of milk that are okay. One of them is macadamia milk,
Starting point is 00:56:11 which is really expensive and you have to make it yourself because macadamias have the right kinds of oil in them. But the other one that's abundant and healthy is coconut milk. So if you're going to do it, use coconut milk. That's the worst tasting one. I know, right? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:56:24 It is the worst tasting one. I know, right? Yeah. It is the worst tasting one. Yeah. Here's the problem, though. If you say, OK, I don't like the taste of coconut milk, and I'm with you on that. So I'm going to. I don't drink any mugs, but yes. Yeah, that's really the key.
Starting point is 00:56:35 You don't need to drink a plant milk. It's a made up product that you don't have a need for. But if you say I'm going to do one of these other things, you're spending a lot of money. You're getting anti-nutrients. You're getting mostly water, and you're usually getting a toxic burden. So, like, why am I doing this again? The thing that milk has that's most important is it has protein, and the second most important
Starting point is 00:56:57 is it has good fats. When you have a replacement milk, even coconut milk, there is no protein. So the coconut yogurt you like, it doesn't work because it doesn't have protein. So you have to take that and add way protein or add scoops of maybe hemp protein if you're doing plant-based. But you've got to add a whole bunch of protein to it because normal yogurt has that. Most people tolerate grass-fed yogurt pretty well. I still don't.
Starting point is 00:57:21 I can't touch cow's milk unless it's ghee for the most part, or I could do some butter. But if I was to have two tablespoons of regular milk, it messes me up. My gut's wrong. It's just not right. So that's an immune response. So I just want to tell you, you're not getting protein in your plant milks, and you're getting stuff
Starting point is 00:57:38 you don't want in your plant milks. So just don't do it. You've mentioned canola oil a few times as well, and I feel like oils have been obviously in the biohacking world. It's been known for a while, but I think it's finally coming into the forefront of checking the back of something and going, oh my gosh, wow, this has canola oil, palm oil, the millions of different oils.
Starting point is 00:57:59 Walk us through that because I think that's kind of still for the majority of people like an under stud area. Like it's, it's just not aware. Unaware is probably the right word. Like, yeah, we're unaware. We've been taught first calories, it wouldn't matter. And it turns out, well, calories do entirely different things.
Starting point is 00:58:16 So we've tossed that out for most people, I've understood that's different. And then we say, okay, well, it's how much fat are you eating? But who would imagine that different fats do different things in the body? Right. Oh my gosh, do you mean the kind of fat matters? Oh, in different proteins. So even saying fat, carbs, and protein, it doesn't mean anything unless you know what it is.
Starting point is 00:58:33 So we zoom in on fat. Well, it turns out omega-6 fats, which is canola, corn, soybean, safflower, or even grape seed oil. Those are fats that when they enter the body, they slow your metabolism and they cause inflammation because they're unstable fats. They're called polyunsaturated fats. And when you eat saturated fats, things like coconut oil or butter or ghee or most animal fats from like sheep or something or from cows, but not from chickens, then you end up saying,
Starting point is 00:59:04 oh, the saturated fats, they can't oxidize because they're stable. So you eat those and they stimulate your metabolism and they allow your body to make testosterone and to make other hormones that your body needs and to make stable cell membranes. So we understand the biochemistry of this, but the food companies are saying, well, it's cheaper to do canola oil, so let's fry our french fries in those. Canola oil and its cousins there, they're a major cause of diabetes and cancer,
Starting point is 00:59:32 which are skyrocketing, because they're unstable, especially in their heat a lot. And they're pretty much in every packaged good. They are, but change is coming. So before about the 1970s, all french fries are made with beef tello, because it's a very stable oil. That's fat from cows. It McDonald's, that's what they use. And then they switched to the
Starting point is 00:59:49 Ceto oils and then all the diseases went through the roof. So we have a problem. Food needs to be affordable for everyone. One of the companies that I've invested in and that I'm backing that I'm most excited about is called zero acre farms. And I don't work for them. I did put a small amount of money in them, but it's because of the mission. They found a way to use fermentation to make an oil
Starting point is 01:00:11 that is mono-unsaturated like olive oil that is stable for frying at 25% the cost of canola oil for a restaurant. And they're scaling up to get to that price point, but what it's called zero acre, because it'll remove millions of acres of corn and soy from being grown to squeeze oil out of them. And they can take sugar cane, just the entire sugar cane, not sugar, and they can ferment it and make a healthy edible oil for humans. And this is going to change the world's metabolism. It's a
Starting point is 01:00:40 huge thing. So in the meantime, you can go to a place that has ducked fat fries or towel fries, which you wouldn't eat, or you don't eat fries. Don't eat fried food at restaurants is a great rule to live longer and don't eat the salad dressing either. Tell them I want real olive oil that's not cut with canola oil, and I want vinegar or lemon juice. And you do that, just those two things.
Starting point is 01:00:59 Nothing fried and do that. And all of a sudden, you find you lose weight, your brain is focused, your body makes more hormones. It's that big of a deal. I'm so glad you raised that because that's the, it's such a tiny, simple change, but it could save you from so many different things. Like, I switched, probably, it might have been a year now, but I traveled a lot this year on tour and that was hard because my diet on tour was not as easy to maintain
Starting point is 01:01:23 because I was in different cities every day. And I didn't have a chef who was traveling with me or anything like that. And when I'm back here, I've been eating like a whole foods diet, only eating plants, not eating anything out of packages. But you know, not eating pretty much no packaged food whatsoever, maybe now and again. And like that in and of itself has transferred. I used to love a bag of chips. Right. Even if they were like the healthiest chips that I could possibly find. I love a bag of chips.
Starting point is 01:01:50 I love a, you know, I love a little bit of crackers, biscuits, whatever, any of this kind of stuff, knickknacks, and just taking out packaged foods is at a massive impact on how I feel. It's kind of life changing to do that. And I was, I missed an oil that should get a shout out. It's palm oil. Yeah, so palm oil is saturated and I would much rather eat something cooked in palm oil than canola oil The issue with palm oil is mostly environmental so there's deforestation and orangutans and things like that But if you are at the store and you want to buy some chips or crisps or what?
Starting point is 01:02:23 Yeah, yeah, Chris is what I would have called it. I've adapted baguages. We'd call it a baguages, baguages, and London. So you want to eat those. Look for something that's cooked in coconut oil or palm oil. And when you do that, you're going to be much healthier. And they're going to taste better. And they're going to be more satisfying.
Starting point is 01:02:40 Because when you eat those bad oils, the omega-6 oils, they make you hungry really quickly because your body says, I got to deal with all this information. Have some sugar. because when you eat those bad oils, the omega-6 oils, they make you hungry really quickly, because your body says, I gotta deal with all this information, have some sugar. So all of a sudden, you ate a chip that felt good, and I don't generally eat stuff like that, maybe at a barbecue or something, I'll bring a bag of those,
Starting point is 01:02:56 because I've got other methods to do this. Yeah, I'm not perfect. Yeah. And Dave, I want to thank you for doing all this research, because as I've got older, and I'm'm 36 now and as I get older every single year My health goes up and up and up on the priority list and I think for me It's been so challenging because I grew up I would say with no health education Right. I'm benefited by having a wife who's very disciplined and focused and understands more
Starting point is 01:03:21 I'm grateful to have my podcast where I this to be down with incredible people like you and I get introduced to books like yours that I have over the years on longevity and now smarter, not harder. And to me, I'm just like, I wanna get this right to make getting older easier, right? Like to make getting older like... You're goals suck.
Starting point is 01:03:44 Oh, sorry, that's a bad goal. I wanna make, I wanna make getting older easier. No, you don't. I wanna stop getting old. And I wanna stay how I am now or better every single year. I wanna be better, I wanna be better. There you go. Let's do that.
Starting point is 01:03:58 It's not a different vision. Yeah, it feels different. Right, we have it so built in that we're going to get old. Yeah. We are living in a world today where you can measure as 20 years younger than your calendar age. I want that. I want that.
Starting point is 01:04:11 You don't have to get old, right? You might age, but the getting old thing, that's what we did in the seven years. Yeah, it made me happy. I've been playing a lot of pickleball and that's been my form of exercise that I love and I enjoy and it's starting to stop. It's fast, it's competitive, I love every part of it. And I just got beat by a 70 year old, a couple of weeks ago and I loved it because I just
Starting point is 01:04:34 was like, I want to be like you and I'm so like you. It's so inspiring. It's so inspiring. It gives destroyed me. It's so inspiring. It gives destroyed me. One person can do that. And that brings up something that's actually really important.
Starting point is 01:04:43 It's learning from our elders. The reason I can do all this biohacking is I was so desperate for my health in my 20s. I started running an anti-aging longevity nonprofit group near Stanford University. So I was learning how to maintain my health from people in their 80s who could run circles around me. Like that's possible. I saw it and I saw it in the 90s. And if they could do it back then, we can do so much better now. You don't have to be a cool man, man. That's good, I like it.
Starting point is 01:05:10 You're welcome. You're allowed to. I like that. That's awesome. I learned from my elders, you learned from the guy in the pickleball court, you can be that guy when you're 70. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:05:18 And what's really going to happen when you're 70 is you can be that guy, but look and feel like you do now. Yeah. And we're building this world for all of us. And it's really important, because the birth rate in all of the developed nations is so low right now, we're not replacing our population,
Starting point is 01:05:30 which means it's our job to be strong and young forever. Well said. Well said, the book is called Smata not Hara by Dave Asprey, the biohack is guide to getting the body in mind you want, I highly, highly recommend that you grab a copy of this book. I, we have just skim grab a copy of this book. We have just skimmed over some of the things that I found interesting, some of the things
Starting point is 01:05:48 that I felt were front to mind for me. I know a lot of you have been asking questions about these things. I see tons of videos on TikTok sharing all sorts of advice. I felt it was great to dive into it with Dave. Please go and grab a copy, go and read it with your friends, figure out that one thing that you're going to focus on. Remember, you don't need to try and do all of this. Pick that one area that you wanna solve, master it, move on to the next.
Starting point is 01:06:09 I promise you that as much as it sounds hard and complicated and difficult, once you start seeing a win in one area, it's gonna have that domino effect. So go and grab it. Dave, thank you so much for always coming on and being such a... You're such a... You are an elder, truly, but you don't look like one, you know, you know, you know, you don't feel like one, which is amazing. And I'm very grateful that I get to have these conversations with you because I always come away more inspired and uplifted and my goals get bigger and bolder and better. So I'm glad that you're not letting me settle.
Starting point is 01:06:39 So thank you for not letting me settle. I appreciate it. You're so welcome. I appreciate it. I appreciate your work so much. You are inspiring millions of people to be better. And I see it every day online. And you're doing such amazing work. So true appreciation. Well, thank you. Thank you, dude.
Starting point is 01:06:55 If you love this episode, you'll love my interview with Dr. Gabel Matey on understanding your trauma and how to heal emotional wounds to start moving on from the past. Everything in nature grows only where it's vulnerable. So a tree doesn't grow where it's hard and thick does it. It goes where it's soft and green and vulnerable. There's a lot of talk about mindfulness these days, which is fantastic.
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Starting point is 01:08:21 Conversations with his friends and fellow celebrities who are working to make a difference in the world, like actor Mark Ruffalo. You know, I found myself moving up state in the middle of this fracking fight, you know, and I'm trying to raise kids there, and you know, my neighbors like willing to poison my water. Listen to six degrees with Kevin Bacon on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,
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