The Dr. Josh Axe Show - The Food Pyramid, Eating Organic & Self-Control When Dieting | Q&A with Dr. Josh Axe

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Renowned natural health expert Dr. Josh Axe answers YOUR questions and shares mind blowing tips for optimizing your mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. Dr. Josh Axe answers YOUR questions:  How to prioritize a busy schedule What does organic mean and why is it better? Tips for self-control and success on any diet Is tattoo removal safe? Dr. Axe’s thoughts on popular electrolyte drink mixes Is the food pyramid actually healthy? Don't miss this fascinating episode packed with transformative wisdom! You'll walk away with a revitalized mindset, practical action steps, and Dr. Axe's truth-bomb tips for living your absolute best life. Tune in now for the motivation and modern-day life strategies you need to finally break through!  Want more of The Dr. Josh Axe Show? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Leaders Instagram Twitter Facebook Email Newsletter ------  0:00 - New book launch 1:38 - How to manage a busy schedule 5:37 - Health update 7:48 - How to eliminate negative thinking 13:37 - Why did I write Think This, Not That 16:20 - My favorite mindshift from my new book 20:19 - How to make better friends 27:04 - Do I garden? 28:31 - What does organic mean?  30:39 - Tips for self-control when dieting 32:32 - Do natural remedies for thyroid issues actually work? 36:01 - Am I ticklish? 36:22 - Thoughts on electrolyte packets 38:27 - Is tattoo removal safe?  41:09 - Hormones and menopause 44:39 - Is the Food Pyramid terrible for us? 47:43 - Ask me your questions ------  Links:  Submit your question to be featured on the show → https://www.speakpipe.com/drjoshaxe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone, welcome to the Dr. Josh Axe show where each and every week I uncover the science and principles and how to grow in body, mind, and spirit, and take your health and life to the next level. Today, I will be doing a Q&A and answering your most common questions. But before I do that, I want to thank you for all the support with my new book launch. Think this, not that. It is now a New York Times bestseller. So many people have bought in this book and have been raving about how it's helped them. break through limiting beliefs, grow in their mindset,

and overall just live a better life. So, hey, I hope you check it out. And you can go on Amazon right now. It's a big discount on there. And when you check out the book on Amazon, read the reviews. Look at what people are saying about it. Again, the book is called Think This, Not That.

And by the way, thank you for so many of you who have bought in the book and for making it a New York Times bestseller. So, so grateful for you. Okay. I want to mention, if you have questions for me in the future, You can submit your questions on Instagram. I post question boxes regularly on my story, so you can follow me at Dr. Josh Axe. And you can also send me a voice message, and you'll actually be featured on the show.

And you can check out the link at the bottom of the screen in order to take part in the regular Q&As as well. So remember, go to Instagram. It's at Dr. Josh Axe. and you can post your questions there or submit via a voice message at the link box at the bottom of the screen. Or I'm going to dive in and start answering your questions here. First question is, how do you manage your schedule

with your wife, kids, a new baby, a new book, a podcast, all the things? So here is the way that I manage my schedule. And by the way, of course, it can be difficult sometimes, especially certain seasons in life, but generally this is how I do it. One, as I'm very certain of my priorities, my priorities are my faith, my family, my fitness, a small inner circle of friends, my business commitments, and so I have those things ranked out. And so, one, it's important to know what your priorities are. I think that's the first thing to know. In asking yourself the question,

if I say yes to this new thing that comes into my life, is it allowing me to become, is it helping me grow? Is it helping my family flourish? Is it helping those things, right? So just knowing those priorities. Then what I do is I do something called time boxing and I lay out the ideal, my ideal weekly plan of what it would look like.

So here's an example. If I know that my faith and my family and my health are at the top of my program, list, well, I need to schedule time in each week for those things. So what I do is I call it my weekly war plan as I write out, okay, well, if my faith is very important to me, when am I going to spend time working on my faith? Well, I have 30 minutes set aside in the morning where I work on, I do a quick gratitude walk. I read my Bible, I pray first 30 minutes in the morning. So I have that set up. Okay, what else do I have? Well, I have, you know, church on Sundays. So I have that set up. What else do I have? Well, I have, I'm part of a growth group, and so I might do that

every other week, you know, part of a church group. And then, you know, what else do I have? Well, I might also have time at night, or if I'm driving where I listen to the Bible on audio. So that's just an example. So, or I'm listening to a Christian audio book. So I have those, so I know and have it plugged in my schedule, certain times, everything from church to my habit of spiritual growth, that's plugged in. And that very similar thing with my family. So that's plugged. in my weekly schedule where I spend 30 minutes playing with R1 and my daughters in the morning. Chelsea and I have a weekly date night. I also, as soon as I get done with work, around 4.30, like say 5 o'clock from 5 to 6 before dinner. I'm playing with my daughter for one hour

uninterrupted. And so again, I have that scheduled and time block. Same thing with my health. Right after my spiritual triathlon in the morning, I then jump in and work out for an hour. And so I have that laid out. And while I'm working out, I listen to an audio book or a podcast. so I'm learning and growing at that time. And so that's really the way that I do that is I just have things very, very scheduled out. And then I make sure when I'm working, that I'm actually working on things

that move the needle the most. So I am doing things like preparing for a podcast and the recording a podcast. So I try and have three hours uninterrupted or two hours where it's like that's all I'm doing during that time. And I don't have interruptions. I'm not checking email.

That's the only thing that I'm, doing. And so really it's a combination of one, I know what my priorities are. Two, I follow a combination of time boxing and really just trying to do big things today. So I don't every 30 minutes switch my schedule. I think the first half of the day would be all things podcast. The second half of the day, all my meetings. Something like that. So I just really have those things blocked off in larger chunks. And here's the other big thing. I'm good at saying no. I say no to almost everything. If it's not part of my priorities, I just say no. And I think that's one of the biggest things that people don't do enough of,

is you need to know what's worth saying yes to only the great in saying no to even the good things in life. You only say yes to the great. You say no to everything else. I think that's the key to being productive with your time and in your life. Next question. How are you feeling these days? Are your energy levels back to pre-illness level, any lingering effects?

Well, thanks so much for asking and checking in it on me. As many of you know, a couple years ago, I had an injury during this very simple medical procedure that left me with a spinal infection, didn't walk for an entire year. In fact, this time last year, still wasn't quite walking yet. And so it's been almost a year since I started walking or about 11 months, and I am back, I'd say 80% back. So what I'm able to do now, I'm able to record anything I want, travel on an airplane, and hours and hours, I'm able to work out, lift weights.

I can't squat or deadlift yet. I can't run yet. I can swim fully. So I'd say 80%. When I'm back and able to run, I think that's for me the gauge. Right now, so that's a little bit too much pounding, a little bit too much right now, probably for my back, even though I haven't quite tested it yet.

And also, I can't squat. So once I could squat and run, then I'll feel like I'm back to 100%. but generally speaking, I mean, I'm back to even better than the doctor said I would be. And I've shared this on one or two other shows, but the doctor told me the best case scenario, I would have chronic pain every day and I would never get back to 100%. Well, I should be back to 100% by the end of this year, and I don't have chronic pain every day. I'm already better than he said I would be. And I think really the combination of my mindset visualization, working on neuroplasticity,

all the things I've done have tremendously helped, my nutritional, the diet I followed, which has been mostly meat, vegetables, and fruit, taking high doses of turmeric and Boswellia. I got stem cell therapy and PRP, another thing that really helped me recover more quickly. And then the principles I cover in my book, Think This, Not That, That Mindset Medicine. And so I actually think I'm going to be better off. Physically, I think I'll get back to where I was. I think mentally is spiritually. I will be much stronger having gone through that illness. But thanks for checking it. I would say my energy is 100% returned and my physical health is about 80% improved. But I should be back to 100% by the end of the year.

All right. Got a voice message here from Chelsea. We're going to listen to and then I'm going to answer her question. Hi, Dr. Axe. In regards to mental health, what would you say is the best method to cut a habit of believing lies and negative thinking? Thank you. All right. So great question.

So how do we work on mental health by really eliminating negative? negative thinking. So, you know, this is something so many people struggle with is negative self-talk. So, and you might be one of these people. I know that I've had this time in my life. I remember when I used to tell myself in high school, well, you know what, you're just not very smart. And or, hey, you're not quite good enough or whatever it might be. Okay. So the first thing you need to do is identify the negative self-talk or the negative thinking. What is the exact same thing that you're saying to yourself right now? And is that on repaid? Is there something Is there a narrative? Is there a voice in your head that's saying, again, you're not smart,

you're not worthy, you shouldn't even try, that'll probably fail, or hey, or it could be about God. It could be, well, you know what, God doesn't really care about you, or you're not that important, or that would be impossible for you. So you need to go and identify what is the thing that I believe, or this negative belief, what is it exactly, and is it something that I tell myself often? Okay, that's the first thing. second thing you want to do, and that's really active, and then you want to go back to, when did, when did that happen first? When was the first time you started thinking that? So for me, when I started thinking I wasn't smart, it was because I had a teacher who told me that I was

failing in class and I could never be a doctor, and then I was diagnosed with ADHD. So those were memories for me that was like, okay, that's really when that started for me. So you want to do that for yourself, is when did this first start? And then what you want to do, and that's activate the memory. Then you want to do A, and the next step is B. B is what's the exact belief? And then C is what are the consequences if you continue to believe that? If you continue to believe that you're not worthy of being loved, okay? Well, if you don't believe you're worthy of being loved, well, then you're not going to have great relationships.

But well, why is that? Well, if you don't believe you're worthy of being loved, you're going to have very low self-esteem. You know, somebody that has very low self-esteem, very self-doubt, they're self-deprecating. you know, it's just, it's not attractive. Somebody who is naturally self-confident yet humble, like they're humble knowing I can grow a lot, but you know what, I'm made of the image of God, and that's a pretty special thing.

If somebody believes that, it's very attractive. So when somebody is very negative about themselves, don't believe they're great, that reflects on other people, and other people might not believe that that person is great because they don't even believe they're great themselves. So all that being said, if you don't believe you're worthy,

you're also going to get into bad relationships. That'll be a consequence because you won't believe you're worthy enough to be in relation with somebody that's great. So you won't even pursue those types of relationships. And also you won't add value to the person, which is an important part of a relationship, you adding value because,

or truly what makes you valuable because you don't believe you have anything really valuable to offer or what you'll do is you'll constantly be trying to serve them in every way possible and doing everything you can rather than actually doing what that person actually needs in their life in order to grow and be their best. So that's the consequence that will happen is if you don't believe you're worthy. You also won't go after your dreams.

You won't use your gifts because you don't believe you have anything to offer. So C is consequences. You need to write down based on that negative belief you've identified. What are the consequences if you continue to believe the lie? Now, the next is D. You need to dispute why that's not true. So this is called the ABCD, E method in psychology. D is dispute.

This is why that's not true. Okay, it's not true that I'm not worthy because going to the Bible, I'm made in the image of God. I know that I'm worthy because God gave his own son Christ to die for me. So the most worthy person ever died for me, which means I've got to be worthy. And, you know, Jeremiah 29-11, God has a plan and purpose for your life. So all those things. And so you need to write down those things. So dispute.

So that's why that's not true. Also, recognize what is something you're good at? Something that, you know, maybe you're a good writer. Maybe you're a good communicator. Maybe you're good at serving others. Maybe you're good with kids. Educating people, whatever it is. Right.

Sales. Write down. What is that thing you're good at? Okay, you do have something to offer so dispute. And E is you want to exchange. What's the new empowering belief you should believe? I should believe I'm worthy. Why should you believe you're worthy?

Write down all the. reasons why you are worthy, you know, why you're unique, why you have value, write those down, and then go in working and growing in those areas. So if you have a skill and talent will now work on investing in that talent and growing and getting better at it and continue to restrainthen that new belief. But really, it's this idea you've got to take the thought captive, take the lie captive, grab onto it, and then replace it with a new empowering belief. And the other thing is this. You need to get more positive people in your life. Look at your inner circle of people, get rid of the negative people, add in those people that are positive, start pursuing those

types of relationships, watch positive movies, watch positive TV shows, only follow people that are positive on social media in terms of things that help you grow. I'm not saying the world is perfect, but generally things that help you grow and help you build and grow in your self-image in your true identity. And if you can do that, that's going to help you overcome the negative thinking. All right. Next question. What was your biggest drive in writing your new book?

Well, I think there's a few things. One, the first part is that I've worked with tens of thousands of patients in my lifetime, helping them overcome everything from cancer to heart disease, to diabetes, to depression, to anxiety. I've also coached a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of doctors in growing their platforms and helping them influence other people and help heal people. And I noticed with them,

there was a lot of issues around their mindset and self-confidence. And even my own mom, when she battled cancer, I realized that this was a battle of the mind as much as it was a battle of the body. And so I thought about, I've been teaching most people my entire career how to use food as medicine.

And I realized that mindset medicine was even more powerful, even more powerful in my mom healing cancer and my patients reversing autoimmune disease and all the conditions than it was the actual food. And so I wanted to get in and write a book of the most powerful principles that have blessed my life that had caused me to heal, they've caused me to have success in my finances, in my relationships, in everything in life. And so I wanted to put that all in one book. And this is why this is by far the best book I've ever written. And the other thing is when I started writing the book, I went through this health crisis.

The entire book I wrote from bed, not being able to walk, not knowing if I'd ever walk again. When I thought, actually at one point I thought I could potentially die because the infection was so serious. So the book was written in that way. And I get into all that in the book. But really the book, the why behind the book is I wanted to write something that truly caused somebody to transform in their life, both their physical health, but also their mental health and spiritual health. And the book really does that. The people that have started reading this book, they've said, you know, this is literally transformed who I am as a person, writing the book transformed who I am as a person.

So that's a big why behind why I wrote the book, Think This, Not That. I also think that's why it's become so popular, why it was a New York Times bestseller, just as of a couple weeks ago. So anyways, I hope you enjoy the book. By the way, if you go and buy the book, Think This Not That. And then you go to Joshax.com, just my name, and you put in that you bought the book, you could put in your cover, on Amazon if you buy it. You'll get a free video series, a masterclass I teach on mindset and growth.

You'll get a workbook, bonus interviews, lots of content. It's $500 worth of content for free. If you go and buy the book here today, you'll get all that if you go to joshax.com. But anyways, I hope the book blesses your life as much as it did mine. And thanks for the great question. All right, next question here is,

which mind shift from your book transformed your life the most? I mean, every one of them transformed my life. One of the mind shifts, though, that I think was really important for me, and it might be less important for you, but for me this is very important, is to stop focusing on having the biggest focus of my life on accomplishing things, accomplishing tasks, hitting milestones, hitting goals.

you know, I'm being obsessed with, you know, accomplishing this and then this and then this, having, you know, this happens with so many people. It's like, well, I want to hit, you know, I want to build a business to this size. I want to help this many people. I got to do this with my family, all of these, the list of tasks and accomplishment. So I was letting that drive my life. And I was at my grandfather's funeral. He was an amazing man, World War II veteran. And I was at his funeral. and there, nobody listed off a single accomplishment he had. What happened at his funeral is I heard person after person say, Howard was my best friend. Howard saved my marriage.

Howard gave me money when I didn't have any. Howard just saved my life. Howard prayed for me and led me to God, like person after person after person. And I realized that success. for me is not defined by what I accomplished. It's defined by who I become. Where I also go and look at the Bible, the Bible doesn't say you need to accomplish what Moses accomplished or you need to accomplish what Christ accomplished on the cross. It doesn't say that. It says become like Christ. Have the mind of Christ model the saints, model these people in the Bible that were virtuous.

it doesn't accomplish or achieve what they've achieved. It's become like them, become like Christ. And so for me, I have this realization in my life of, I need to stop having just a to-do list, and I need to have a to-be list. Rather than every day saying, okay, I'm going to write this next chapter, and I'm going to go and run this errand and pick up Arwin at this, you know, after school, which all those things I need to do. But more importantly, it's, I need to be generous. I want to be known as being wise. I want to be radically loving. Okay, then how am I going to do that today to become this type of person?

Well, I'm going to go downstairs this morning and ask Chelsea how she's doing. Give her a big hug. How can I love and support you today? I'm going to buy her flowers and surprise her. I'm going to, you know, just do something for Arwin, get her her favorite treat, and then spend some extra time with her and pray over her at night. You know, when I go out to lunch with this person, I'm going to pay for it. And we're going to make sure that we're giving at least 10% of our income to God and giving

extra to charities. And that by there, there I'll be generous. So one of the biggest things that transform me in writing the book and even before that, the principle is, is have a becoming mindset, not an accomplishing mindset. And that transformed my life. You know, I think about somebody I admired a lot in the past, which was Lance Armstrong. and I realized that he had an achievement mindset. It was win at all costs.

Doesn't matter if you ruin relationships. Doesn't matter if my character is in shambles. I just need to accomplish. I just need to achieve. I just need to win. And I realized that he just lost everything. You know, what good is gaining the world if you lose your soul, right? It's that idea.

So for me, one of the big mind shifts I really dig into is here's how to adopt a becoming mindset to become the greatest version of yourself. and that that is one of the 12 main principles in the book that had a really big impact on my life. But all of them did. And everyone is that powerful or more powerful in the book. And think this, not that. You talk about being surrounded by a group of people

who make you better. I have a circle of friends who I don't think are very iron sharpens iron as you put it in the book. What is the best way to move on from that group without offending them or feeling like I'm abandoning them? Well, first I would say this, no, that your duty is not to your friends. Your duty is to become more Christ-like, okay? Your duty is to become the best that you can be in order to help your family is the next tier

become the best they can be. And so, you know, a psychologist asked this, and I thought this was fantastic, he said, this is Jordan Peterson. And he said, you know, if you, the people you're hanging out with now, is that someone, is that the ideal group of people you would want your kids to hang out with? Okay. So if I would think back to this for myself, I think about the group of guys I ran around with in college, an undergrad. And if I look back and I say, okay, this is the ideal group of men for my daughter Arwin to hang out with right now. No, it's not.

It's not. Okay. Versus if I think about right now, the group of men that I hang out with. People like Andrew East and Dan Sullivan and Colt Morton and Chris Motley and Isaac me and some of these guys I run around with now. What I feel really great about my daughter hanging out with these guys and having them mentor her in some way, 100% yes. Total world changers, amazing men. Like Isaac has five daughters on his own.

Brings them out on date nights regularly every single week. Like an amazing, you know, he used to be a pastor. now he has this incredible business, philanthropic efforts. Same thing with my friend Dan I just mentioned. Same thing with his daughter. So if you wouldn't have your kids hang out with them, why would you hang out with them? Because the way you spending time with them

is really affecting who you become and you're going to become more like them and then you're going to have kids. Does that make sense? Are you understanding the connection there? So my whole point there is that, you know, you need to think about more than yourself. You're being selfish.

If you're thinking about, oh, well, I don't want them to not like me. That's selfish. Or I don't want to offend them. So you're not actually thinking about your family and the most important people in your life and God. You're actually only thinking about yourself when you ask that question. I'm not trying to be hard on you here. I am trying to say, though, it's actually a selfish mentality. You know, when I think about the people that are the most virtuous, they're not worried about

do people like me. They're worried about, am I being obedient to God? They're saying to this, I'm saying to this, am I honoring God with my life? Am I doing what He's called me to do? In the book of Proverbs, go and read, I'm going to read Psalms 1 and 2. And if you even read the beginning of Psalms are in the book of Proverbs, it says, don't hang out with the wicked, don't hang out with the evil, don't hang out with those people that are, hang out with those people that are saints, that are world changers, that are positive, that are virtuous, that have high character. Those are the people you're called to spend your time with. So number one, that needs to be more important than you feeling like you're abandoning them.

You're not abandoning them. Okay. What I would say is, the next thing is, write down, now I did this before I married Chelsea, is I wrote down a list of what are the ideal qualities in my wife, in my spouse? I wrote those things down. You know, that she was, that she turned lemons into lemonade and that she was, you know, mentally stimulating and spiritually on fire for God and that she was very kind and she had a level of wisdom and all these things. She liked health and working out and fitness. She loved the waters.

I had all these things written down. And then I wrote down, here's the non-negotiables, okay, of what I want and then what I don't want. So I wrote down what I didn't want her to be. I didn't want her to be really dramatic. Okay, so that's not what I wanted in a spouse. I didn't want somebody that was petty or resentful or those sort of things. So I wrote those down. And I found my wife, just perfect match, amazing. But do the same thing with your friend group. Write down, what are those qualities in your friends? So for me, it's things like, like when I think about the men of group, I just talked about it. It's number one, they're amazing dads and amazing husbands. Okay, they're not perfect, but they're good. Okay, that's one. Two, they really want to grow. They're hungry and

they're humble. They want to grow and get better and better, better. They're committed to growth. Three, they have high character already. They have great integrity. I can really trust them. I could trust them with my own kids. You know, one is they're also very motivated. They're entrepreneurial. They want to go out and change the world. They're very purpose driven. And so write down those key qualities in those people group that you want and those things that you absolutely don't want. You don't want people that are entitled, ungrateful, that sort of thing. And then pursue those relationships. And then, you know, if you don't want people to feel like they're abandoned, just, you know, maybe you don't spend, you go from zero, 100% of your time to zero percent with them.

Maybe it's you cut it down by 75%. And maybe you only hang out with them once a month. And then you have good excuses of why you're not hanging out with them. And they say, hey, why can't hang out anymore? Because I'm actually putting my family first. or I'm putting God first. And that might offend them, and that's okay. Can I tell you when I decided, I've done this twice in my life, I talked about my friends in undergrad.

And then I went my junior year and I realized, you know what? This is not a good group for me to be running around with. And I did exactly what I'm sharing with you. And I started going to a church group and hanging out with guys there. And they started saying to me and I started hanging out with them just less. And they started saying things like, we want the fun, Judge back. Why aren't you hanging out with this anymore? I just said, you know what?

I'm a different person now. I'm really focused on my relationship with God and becoming the type of person I want to be. And so I'm just spending more time in reading and in growth. It's nothing against you guys. But hey, I'm really working on growing myself and spending time doing that. Some were offended. And that is what it is. And so my best advice is do what I just shared with you.

And just know ahead of time they might be offended. And that's okay. It's just part of a breakup. You know, sometimes you need to break up. not just with, you know, if you're dating, but also with a friend group. Sometimes you need to break up, and that's not always easy. All right, next question here. Dr. Ax, do you garden?

I would say this. I do a small amount of gardening. Chelsea and I rock our herb garden. And so when it comes to basil, cilantro, parsley, garlic, I grew amazing eggplant, some other things. Like we have our very small herb garden with a few vegetables. We did a great job of because we had really good soil when we were national. Now, by the way, I'm in Puerto Rico right now as I'm filming this. We're moving back full time to Nashville in August.

So we'll get our garden going again there. So I have not, to be honest, I have not garden much the past couple of years outside of doing an herb garden where we do. Again, basil, cilantro, some of those herbs we use a lot. And we use a lot of basil because when we make fresh sourdough pizza at home, we do a lot of basil with that. We like doing parsley, cilantro, green onion. We do chives, so green onion. We love doing those in our eggs in the morning. So we do a great herb garden.

So yes, I do some gardening. It's more on a small scale, like an herb garden. We got a bed with really high quality soil and do that a lot. But when we get back to Nashville, we're actually going to be building out a greenhouse, which I'll do videos of the future if you're subscribed, building out a really cool greenhouse, doing an orchard of trees. we're actually doing gardening and farming at a whole other level at our home.

So be on the lookout for that. Next question, what does organic mean and why is it better? Well, organic tends to actually be a certification. So certified organic means that no chemicals, which are herbicides such as pesticides are used on the products, and there's a certain standard

of not using genetically modified ingredients. And typically, I believe there's three to, seven years where the land where the farming is done cannot have had any sort of chemicals used on it. So that's what certified organic is. So statistically it's better because the foods are more nutrient dense and they have less toxins. Okay. So that's why they're better.

Now organic is the most important when it comes to meat and dairy products because cows consume a tremendous amount of genetically modified. corn, they're given antibiotics, they're given growth hormones, loads of chemicals. So by the way, if you can't afford to go fully organic, at least buy your meat organic. Okay, meat, and if you do any type of dairy, because that's where you're going to get the largest doses. And then after that, you want to do things that are part of the dirty dozen. And dirty dozen foods are things that don't have an outer flesh you're going to peel off. Think about strawberries, think about lettuce. those sort of foods versus what's really not that important to do organic or as important

are bananas. Think about you gotta peel off the skin or pineapple, you've got to cut off the skin. Or again, grapefruit, you gotta peel off the skin. So those foods really are not that important to do organic versus meat and dairy tier one the most important. And after that, things that typically grow close to the ground that are highly sprayed like strawberries, lettuces, many of those types of of foods and foods that grow underground are typically a little less important as well like carrots or you know underground beach those sort of foods but but certified organic the reason why it's better less toxins and typically slightly more nutrient dense next question do you have any tips for self-control when dieting here's what i would say fill yourself with good stuff so you don't have

room for the bad. This is true with almost anything in life. How do you spend less time on social media? Well, spend more time reading, spend more time walking outside, spend more time connecting with your family, and it will naturally crowd out the amount of time you're spending scrolling on social media. Okay. So that's the first piece of advice. So here's how you do this. One, drink a lot more water and focus on hydration. That'll help you, you know, with some of the craving. So drink more water and hydration. Eat a lot more protein. Okay. Get 30 to 50 grams of protein per meal. Get more fiber. Okay. That's the other thing. And then also get outside, do a lot of walking. Just walk on a regular basis in nature. All those things will help. Okay. But again, if you think about

this, if you're drinking a lot of water around before and after your meals with, with, maybe some electrolytes, some hydration. You're getting like a big piece of meat during a meal and then double serving of vegetables for fiber. Well, now you don't have room to be loading yourself up with all of these other foods. So then it's like, hey, give yourself a little piece of dark chocolate. You know, have a little dessert or something, and that's fine.

Or maybe a half of sweet potato or some sort of carb, a little bit of bread, sourdough ideally, or some sort of sprouted bread. Have a little bit of that. but fill yourself up with water, protein, and fiber, and that will help with that self-control as much or more than anything. The other thing is hang out with discipline people. You know, that also helps.

And so working on self-discipline will also help. But I think those are some things that absolutely will help. All right. Next question, this is a voice message from Angela. Hello, my name is Angela. I am wondering if you have ever seen or know of anyone that has. has ever gotten themselves off of a thyroid medicine and a infusion treatment for Crohn's. Have they ever completely go off of that and just fully rely on diet and supplement?

Yes. And so, Angela, yes, I have. I've had, not just one, I've had many, many people, hundreds of people get off their thyroid medications and reverse hypothyroidism. I've had people who have reversed Hashimoto's thyroiditis, and I've had plenty of people get off their medications for inflammatory bowel diseases like Crohn's and ulcerve colitis. So yes, those are absolutely reversible. Yes, I know people have gotten completely off those medications. Here's one person, my own brother, had Hashimoto's thyroiditis completely reversed it.

My sister had Graves disease completely reversed it. My mom had hypothyroid completely reversed it. And so there's three of my family members have had all three different types of thyroid issues completely reversed it, plus the thousands of patients I've worked with. I've seen all of them reverse it. In order to reverse hypothyroid, what you want to do is you want to follow a diet that I would say is mostly meat, vegetables, and rice and sweet potatoes.

Meat, vegetables, rice, sweet potatoes, beans and berries. Those are going to be those ideal foods. Using a lot of like cinnamon and ginger as well, those warming herbs and spices, doing a lot of soups. So less salads, less raw, foods, more warming soup, steam vegetables, you dip in things like hummus or cashew cheese, that's going to be a really good type of diet for you. In addition, here's some supplements that will help. Number one, take ashriganda. Aschaganda as a supplement will help strengthen the thyroid.

I would do one's recommended daily dose twice daily. The next one is a straggilus, probably a thousand milligrams daily. The next would be a methylated B vitamin supplement. Okay. So, methalylus, B vitamins. Ancient nutrition has a good one. It's a methylated B complex. So that's a good one. So methylated B vitamins. After that, I would take a thyroid glandular supplement or an organ supplement. They have thyroid, if you take thyroid gland supplements, those will have peptides and hormones that will actually act on and support the thyroid in healing. Also doing medicinal mushrooms, specifically cortiseps are very good for that sort of thing. So there's really kind of stronger adaptogens.

Probiotics would be the other one. But that's what I would take. I think if you do those, along with follow the diet I talked about and reduce stress, start walking a lot, do a lot of walking, a little bit of weight training a couple days a week. I think you should, now, by the way, I can't tell you, get off your medication. I'm not acting as your doctor right now. But I have seen it and worked with people who have, and I would work with your physician on if you can lower your dose or not of those things.

But if you follow what I just shared with you there, your body is going to be completely different. Your cells and tissues are always regenerating. If you follow what I just shared with you, I truly believe you're going to see radical improvement in your thyroid health. Next question. Are you ticklish anywhere? Yes, I'm very ticklish.

My wife is not. This is something. My wife is not ticklish at all. all, I am very ticklish. And so it's my rib cages. It's my side. Probably almost nowhere else, but right there, I am very ticklish. An interesting question, but yes, very ticklish.

All right, next question. What are your thoughts on electrolyte packets, like LMNT, and then also ancient nutrition, also has an electrolyte powder? I like electrolytes a lot. I think most people are dehydrated. In fact, the most recent study I read is the 75% of people are chronically done. dehydrated. That causes symptoms of headaches, muscle cramps, menstrual cramps, fatigue and low energy levels. So there's a lot of issues there, hypothyroid. And so, yeah, I would recommend,

you don't need to do more than one serving a day, but one serving a day of electrolytes with water and doing extra water as well. So right now, you see, this is, if you're watching on YouTube, this is what I got right here, my Stanley Cup. This is full of one scoop of ancient nutrition. hydration, it's an electrolyte powder. I think it's a multi-collegin, electrolyte, so I've got collagen and electrolytes in here that I am sipping on all day long. Now, I'll drink about three of these,

plus my other drinks throughout the day, but yes, I'm doing exactly what I'm telling you to do right now. Electrolites and water, I'm a big fan. Now, here's the thing. A lot of these companies are not using a form of natural salt like a sea salt. The thing I love about the ancient nutrition what I'm doing here is it's a thing.

a red cave salt. I'm also a huge fan of Celtic sea salt. And so I think if you can do more of a form of a natural sea salt and only natural ingredients, the problem with LMNT and some other brands, I don't think they're 100% natural organic ingredients versus I know what I'm drinking right now is 100% natural ingredients. And so that's the thing. But yes, I'm a huge, huge fan of doing electrolytes with a lot of water to increase your hydration during the day. The other thing I love about this one is this one from ancient nutrition, hydration is lots of magnesium. So I'm also getting all the benefits of healthy bowel movements, cellular health, and mitochondrial health with doing that as well.

So I really believe in cellular hydration, big time. All right. Next question here from Brandy. It's about tattoo removal. Hey, Dr. Axe. My question is about tattoo removal. So I have a full sleeve on my arm. I had it done about five or six years ago when I was a little bit more young and impulsive.

now that I'm older, I do have some concerns about having that much ink in my skin, among other risks associated with having tattoos. So I am interested in having it removed, but I'm worried that the removal process might overwhelm my lymphatic system among others. So in your opinion, I wanted to know whether it's actually more safe to keep the tattoo or whether I'd be okay to move forward with the removal process, if that's a safe option as well. Hey, I'd be so curious to hear your thoughts, and thanks so much for the great work that you do. Thanks so much, Brandy. Here's what I would recommend. I do think getting it removed is a better option. I do think having the ink on the skin long term is an ideal. Now, do I think it's a major issue? I really don't. I think that there are other things that are probably more toxic to the body, but generally, I don't think it's ideal. So I would get it removed. And what you can do is go through a lymphatic drainage protocol in order to support their body. In fact, there are functional medicine practitioners that will have lymphatic drainage machines where they will go and work on. So if you have a sleeve,

they could go and actually work on draining the lymphatics regularly. So getting regular massage, working on massage in the area. And there are certain supplements. Really, it's supporting the liver and lymphatic channels. Acupuncture, right after you get it done, seeing an acupuncture once a week for about two months, will help your body drain and get rid of a lot of those toxins. other things that really support the lymphatic system would be things that support bile being released by your gallbladder is one thing. I would recommend probiotics. As one thing, I'd recommend

doing a liver detox supplement, something that has milk thistle, dandelion burdock, those sort of things are also going to help with a lot of lymphatic drainage. There are essential oils that help with lymphatic drainage, citrus oils like grapefruit oil, that's going to also, so you could rub a certain essential oil blend on the area. I'd wait a week or till till after it's removed, but doing that to support lymphatic drainage. And there are just supplements specifically created to support lymphatic drainage. Increasing your water intake and hydration will also support the lymphatics. And so I think that that's what I would recommend is, you know, just doing, you know, for about three months post,

really following a protocol to improve your lymphatic flow and detoxification, and I think you'll be just fine. All right, next voice message here from Kathleen. Hi, Dr. Axe. My name is Kathleen, and I wanted to know if you would talk a little bit more about hormones and menopause. There are lots of things that I'm experiencing as I get older, and I've also talked to some of my friends, and they're having some of the same problems. muscle aches, joint aches, just things like that. So if there's anything that you can do to help us do like the work naturally, I would love to hear about it.

Yeah, great question, Kathleen. So here's what I would recommend for menopause. One, we need to do as much as we can to really support that hormone balance in the body. And there's some supplements, there's some foods, there's some lifestyle recommendations. The first is this from a dietary standpoint. We want to make sure the carbs are balanced, but we're really focused on protein and healthy fat in your diet. So more protein and healthy fat. Also fiber because that's going to support the gut microbiome. So what I would recommend is a lot of organic meat, a lot of red

meat like grass-fed beef, a lot of fish like wildcat salmon, you know, doing some eggs, some chicken and turkey is fine too. But you want to make sure you're getting plenty of protein. From a fat standpoint, I would recommend avocado, coconut, and olives slash olive oil. So olive oil, coconut oil and avocados. Trying to get those three fats on a regular basis are really great for hormonal health, plus getting omega-3 fats via flax seeds and wild fish like wild-caught salmon. That's really going to help in terms of diet. Also, fruit-wise, getting some berries in, like goji berries, blueberries, raspberries,

is going to be very, very beneficial as well for you on that front. Pomegranate's also great. when it comes to hormone balance. Supplement-wise, black cohash is probably the most beneficial herb for improving menopausal symptoms. So I'd recommend black cohosh. Number one, next would be Ashwaganda as another one. Okay.

So those would be the top two I'd recommend there. From a vitamin and nutrient standpoint, it's really important that you take magnesium, okay, or a supplement that has a balance of multiple. I really like doing a magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin K combo as a supplement. And so doing a supplement that has magnesium and vitamin D in it, those are two things that most women going through menopause are deficient in. So again, magnesium and vitamin D are probably the most important nutrients as you go through that. And last thing is regular exercise, walking and weight training.

So walk every day, at least 10,000 steps are for 30 minutes. and then if it's a few days a week, whether it's two or three days a week, but whatever you can do, get in, it could be at home, it could be with a personal trainer, could be by yourself, but just get in and do some weight training two to three days a week in order to build that muscle mass that supports longevity. If you can do all of those things, that should help menopausal symptoms. Now, if you still have problems after doing all those things I just mentioned, now, by the way, I know those are going to improve what you have going on. But if you also need a little additional help, finding a functional medical medical,

some practitioner who can dial in things. Oftentimes they could do something like peptide therapy or make additional recommendations based on doing a micronutrient test, seeing what's off and make additional recommendations would be my next step of what I would recommend. Dr. Rice, what are your thoughts on the food pyramid? Well, it's not great. In fact, it's terrible. You know, when you look at the food pyramid, listen, so many of these things that the

government recommends are based on things that would benefit people. that are invested in the government and the CDC and FDA. I don't know if you've ever taken time and looked at this, sort of how incestuous it is, for you have a government official that also used to be part of the FDA or CDC, and now they're a government official, and they're also investing in certain companies

like pharmaceutical companies, or it just, so even when we look at the food pyramid, it's like, why did they say grains are the number one thing one thing we should be eating? Well, it's because as a country, this is what we're manufacturing the most of. And so we need to sell it to flourish economically. So the food pyramid, it's important to understand, was not created to get you to the highest level of health. That's not why the food pyramid was created. The food pyramid was created to what gets the United States to the highest

level of economic production. So when you look at what a food pyramid should really look like, It should be, the things that we could consume the most of should be meat, vegetables, and fruit. Okay, specifically meat and vegetables. Those should be the foods we eat the most of. The next tier would be, you know, healthy carbs like fruits, sprouted and fermented grains and beans, things like that. And then healthy fats like avocado, coconut, olives, sprouted nuts and seeds, you know. And then after that, things like local honey, you know, those natural sweeteners kind of at the top.

So not the bottom foundation of what we eat the most of. And so really, I don't even know if it should be a pyramid. And by the way, it should be very individualized. Everyone is different. There are some people I know who should be more on a high fat, high protein diet. I know other people who should do a moderate to low fat diet. And they should be getting more sprouted fermented grains like sour. bread or doing beans and sweet potatoes and rice,

like many people on more of an Okinawan diet, what you'd find in, the people that live the longest in Japan. And so the other thing that's important to remember, my problem with the food pyramid in general is, people are individuals and everyone, literally almost everyone should be following a different diet. Now the same principle applies to everybody that we should be all eating real food.

It's all we should eat is just things that are real food, unprocessed, just food. Okay, so that's one thing across the board. But if you want to know my personal food pyramid, it's really meat and vegetables are the primary. And of course, I'm talking about wild organic meat and organic vegetables. And then it's, you know, fruit, healthy fats, sprouted whole grains and beans.

That sort of thing is really the basis of the ideal diet. Hey, I want to say, thanks so much for tuning into the Dr. Axi and for all of your absolutely awesome and magnificent questions. Don't forget if you have questions, go to Instagram and make sure you're subscribed there on Instagram because on a regular basis I'm posting questions or an area where you can submit your questions, whether it be a written question or an audio voice question so you can be part of the show. And I also remember each and every week I'm continuing to dive deep into the science and the principles and how you can grow your physical health, your mindset, help you grow spiritually to take your life to the next level. Also, make sure to subscribe, like, and share this. Remember, when you are subscribed to this and you're sharing it, you're allowing the show to become more popular

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much for making this podcast grow. By the way, it's incredible to look at how fast this podcast is growing in popularity. We've gotten so much great feedback on both the health episodes and the growth-related episodes. So thank you so much for all of your support and making this podcast a top-level show.